The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-22
MYSTERIES OF THE PACIFIC.
Science Turns to Many Lines of In.
quiry.

lSSS ulluS VI A>ON AOe'AoAAN' VI AoAA~NN'
What is the nearest living rela-
tive to the extinct dodo of Samoa?
What is the import of the same
species of fresh water fish in two
rivers situated on opposite sides of
the Pacific?
Did a land mass fly out of what
is now the Pacific ocean before this
planet was cooled and form the
moon?"
These are just a few of the many
lines of inquiry which science will
turn to in the Pacific ocean after the
peace conference has adjusted the
many colonial questions affecting
New Guinea, the Carolines, the Mar
shall Islands and the numerous other
holdings in this least known region
in the world, according to bulletin
from the National Geographic soci-
ETY..
The writer of the communication
upon which the bulletin is based,
Leopold G. Blackman, continues:
"Much valuable material also will
be collected to assist in better un-
derstanding of the growth of our own
civilization from elementary savage
ry, for it is reasonable to suppose
that the primitive wants of man in
different ages and regions have called
forth similar expedients to satisfy
them.
''Other important objects of in
vestigation for the ethnologist will
touch the various racial types into
which the Pacific islanders are divid-
ed. Of these, three are generally
recognized, of whom the Papuans and
Polynesians appear to show the
widest divergences, with the Micro
nesians occupying the intermediate
ground and possessing aftinities of
race, language and custom within the
other two. The presence of two dis
tinct races of man in the Pacific sug-
gests two periods and sources of i'm
migration and adds difficulty to an
already perplexing question, for the
demarkation between the divisions of
the races is by no means we'll de-
fined, but is complicated by the ad-
mixture of many other races of both
Oriental and occidental origin.
'The Papuans may be generally
said to inhabit New Guinea, the Solo
mons, New Caledonia and Fiji. Their
most obvious characteristics may be
briefly summed up by stating that
they are irreligious, democratic,
quarrelsome, cannibalistic and hos
tile to strangers. They possess no
hereditary chiefs, paint or scar the
body rather than wear clothes, cook
in earthern pots, chew betel and their
speech is broken up into number
of apparently irreconcilable dialects.
The Papuans are the least attractive
of any Pacific islanders, and the is
land groups which they occupy are
among the least known of the Pacific
and have been for many generations
Stunned by mariners and associated
with everything that is of evil repute
in the record of the ocean.
"The Polynesians in many attrib-
utes are greatly at variance with the
Papuan islanders. They possess, gen.
orally speaking, an elaborate relig-
ious system, and established order
of hereditary chiefs and we'll defined
social castles. They are friendly to
strangers, fond of dress, expert man
ufacturers of KAPPA cloth and intrepid
seamen and navigators. They tattoo
instead of scar the body, seldom
practice cannibalism, cook in earth
0Tu OfGuS luSl6du VI diIuCl pOIo,
drink ava and possess common
language understandable throughout
New Zealand, Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti
and the Paumotu Islands.
"Of all the Pacific races the great
est interest attaches to the Polyne-
sian islanders, but it is unfortunate
ly these people whose primitive GUS
toms and racial types have been most
broken up by modern intercourse.
"The Halayo-Polynesian language
possesses the distinction over the
widest area of any language of the
world, for it embraces two great
oceans and extends from the island
continent of Madagascar to the iso-
lated islet of Rapanui."