The Natural History of the Varieties of ManLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Science
The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology
_Direction._--Continuation from Api to--
ERROMANGO.
_Erromango Native as described by Hales._--"He was about five feet
high, slender and long limbed. He had close woolly hair, and retreating
arched forehead, short and scanty eyebrows, and small snub-nose, thick
lips (especially the upper), a retreating chin, and that projection of
the jaws and lower part of the face, which is one of the distinctive
characteristics of the Negro race. His limbs and body were covered with
fine short hairs, made conspicuous by their light colour. On his left
side were many small round cicatrices burnt into the skin, which he
said was a mode of marking common amongst his people. Placed in a crowd
of African blacks, there was nothing about him by which he could have
been distinguished from the rest."--Vol. 6. p. 44.
TANNA.
A grammar of the Tanna language, the only one of the Papua division
that has ever been sufficiently known to Europeans, was seen by Dr.
Prichard--
"I have seen a grammar of the language of Tanna in manuscript, written
by the Rev. T. Heath, a missionary, who resided in that island. It is
much to be regretted that this work has not been published. From this
grammar it appears that the language of Tanna is entirely distinct in
character from the Polynesian. It abounds with inflections and has four
numbers, viz. singular, dual, trinal, there being a particular form in
the verb when three persons are spoken of, which is distinct from the
plural."
ANNATOM.
The direction of the Kelænonesian Islands now changes from south-east
to south-west.
THE LOYALTY ISLES.
NEW CALEDONIA.
With a general character like that of the islanders already mentioned,
Cook states that they are better-looking than the Tanna people, and
that they bury their dead like the Australians. La Billardière adds,
that they are like the Van Diemen's Land natives.
The whole of the Papua area will not have been exhausted until we
return to the parts described by Mr. Jukes, on the south-eastern side
of New Guinea. These lead, in the way of geographical continuity, to--
LOUISIADE.
Of this Island I have seen no definite account. Such notices, however,
as I have met with, make the population what we should expect it to
be--Papua-Kelænonesian.
THE FIJI (FEEJEE) ISLANDS.(?)
_Situation._--Eastward of the New Hebrides, the most eastern
part of Kelænonesia. Westward of the Tonga Isles, the most
western part of Polynesia.
The physical conformation of the Fiji natives is Negrito as well as
Polynesian.
The language of the Fiji natives is more Polynesian than Negrito.
The social institutions, manners, and customs of the Fiji natives are
partly Polynesian, partly Negrito, and partly neither one nor the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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