Through another source I learned that the mountaineers were Papuans, and the original inhabitants of the islands, who pay tribute to the Sultan, and have acknowledged his authority, ever since they were converted to Islamism.

The island of Sulu is generally believed to have been originally inhabited by Papuans, some of whom, as I have already stated, are still supposed to inhabit the mountainous part.

Nothing appears more likely than that the Negritos of the Philippines are the nearest relatives to the Melanesians, the Australians, the Papuans; and yet it has been proved that all these are separated one from another by well-marked characters.

On most points affinity with Negritos or Papuans is not to be recognized.

In pushing eastward they skirted Papua, but were unable to stay, because the Papuans, whom the Polynesians had long ago driven out of the Asiatic archipelago, were stronger than the emigrants.

They next tried Fiji, and tarried there longest, leaving those powerful imprints on the Papuans in appearance and language that make Fiji the anomaly of Melanesia.

But the Fiji-Papuans at last drove them out, and they left with blood in their eyes.

There were wild rumours afloat of the fortunes that could be made in rubber and vanilla out in the Papuan "Back Beyond."

According to Gill (230), the Papuans of Southwestern New Guinea "glory in their nudeness and consider clothing fit only for women."

The germs of Greek venal coyness for filthy lucre may be found as low down as among the Papuan women who, as Bastian notes (Ploss, I., 460) exact payment in shell-money for their caresses.

The distance from Africa to Australia is, however, great, and there are innumerable details of structure, color, custom, myth, implements, language, etc., which have led the latest authorities to conclude that the Australian race was formed gradually by a mixture of Papuans, Malayans, and Dravidians of Central India.

Among the Papuans of New Guinea tattooing the chest of females denotes that they are married.

See, e.g., the hideous pictures of Australian women enclosed in G.W. Earl's The Papuans.

Earl, G.W.: The Papuans.

Papuans: Nudity.

Mr. Clutton Brock has pronounced them to be the most artistic of all the Papuans.

Then followed Prince Ongtong and his choir, superbly gowned in their flowing sarongs, wearing their long Papuan pampooties and followed in turn by a group of instrumentalists playing on conchs, nose-flutes and a species of mouth-organ closely resembling the jew's-harp, but much larger and more penetrating in its quality.

NEGRITOES, Spanish name for certain distinctive tribes of a diminutive race resembling negroes, occupying the central portions of some of the Philippine Islands, also known as Aëtas or Itas; sometimes loosely used to designate Papuans and all the Melanesian peoples of Polynesia.

Much of the interior is still to explore, and is inhabited by Papuans, Negritoes, and other Melanesian tribes, many of which are still in the cannibal stage, although others are peaceful and industrious.

Among these undoubted Australians were, as already mentioned, two or three Papuans.

Those most addicted to it were the Papuans above-mentioned, but many of the Australians joined them, and were equally clamorous for tobacco.

We had not before seen so fine a sample of Papuans; several were elderly men of fine figure and commanding appearance.

PECULIARITIES OF THE PAPUANS.

The average stature of these Papuans is less than our own, being only about five feet four inches; this did not appear to be the case when seen alongside, but on board the ship, and especially when clothed, the difference became very apparent.

These natives closely resembled the other Papuans seen to the eastward, but were smaller in stature, and wore the hair frizzled up into a mop projecting backwards, nor had I before seen in one canoe so many handsome faces.