natives
are cannibals.

The natives of Australia are a race that seems to be separate and
distinct in itself. Wherever they are found their speech and customs are
so nearly alike that little or no doubt of their common origin exists.
They are so small in stature that by some scholars they are classed with
pygmy peoples. They are repulsive in appearance in their native state,
but when the children are trained by English families they become
attractive. They are regarded as a very low type of intellect; yet at
the missionary schools the children seem to learn about as quickly as do
European children. The children learn to figure readily, but the older
natives have no names for numbers greater than three or four.

In New Guinea and the adjacent islands is found a race of black peoples
usually called Negritos, or Negroids. They are black and, like the
African negroes, have black, kinky hair. They are far superior to the
native Australians. Many of the tribes are good farmers, and cultivate
crops of sago, maize, and tobacco. On the coasts there are good
boat-builders and sailors. The greater part of the Melanesian tribes is
hostile and blood-thirsty; head-hunting is a common practice. In many
tribes the people live in communal houses like those of the Pueblo
Indians of America.

A large part of the population of Oceania is of Malay origin. As a rule
the Malaysians are intelligent and take readily to western civilization.
They are confined chiefly to the larger islands south and west of the
Asian continent. In such parts of Malaysia as have become European
possessions, they are farm laborers, and in this employment they have no
superiors.

[Illustration: A Malay boy]

Of all the native peoples of Oceania, the Polynesians are perhaps the
most interesting. In physical appearance they are tall, well-formed,
dark of complexion, and black-haired. In the northern island
groups--Tonga, Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, and others--which are colonized by
European and American peoples, the natives have gradually acquired
western civilization. The number of natives has decreased, however, and
only about one-third of the population of fifty years ago remains
to-day.

The animal and vegetable life is peculiar. That of Australia resembles
the life forms of a geological age long since past; that of the islands
near tropical Asia is Asian in character. Now there are many large
islands at a considerable distance from the continent in which many