Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. II.pdf/12

 the languages spoken in the islands of the South Pacific, and I may add, that a more extended comparison of the vocabularies of Formosa and the Pacific Islands only tends to prove the common origin of the whole of the races who people them. The relationship of these islanders to the hill-tribes of Eastern Asia would seem to point to that part of the world as the early home of the fair, straight-haired races who inhabit the islands from Formosa to New Zealand, and from Madagascar to Easter Islands. This theory would account for the total extinction of the negro race in the islands nearest the coast of China, as well as for the circumstance that they are still found in abundance in the remoter islands, such as New Guinea, where the negroes have been enabled to hold their own against such small numbers of pale invaders as would have been able to reach their shores. In the intermediate islands the blacks have been driven to the mountains and forests, and in the north they have disappeared entirely, and given place to the fairer and stronger race. The illustrations Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are female, while Nos. 6 and 7 are male heads of Pepohoan.

NUMERALS OF FORMOSA, MAGINDANO, AND ISLANDS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN.

1 In this example, lusa signifies " two," while in Malay the same word means " the second day." Throughout the above examples the numeral "five" is, with two exceptions, represented by lima. Tbe late Mr. Crawfurd has, in one of It is Essays, drawn attention to the faet that lima, in some African dialects, signifies "hand."

a Gaussin, " Du Dialecte de Tahiti," &c. 3 "South Sea Vocabularies," D'Urville.


 * Kennedy's "Ethnological and Linguistic Essays," page 74. 5 Ibid, page 76.