milar languages
are found in the northern Solomon Islands. For some years I had been
studying the decorative art of British New Guinea, and from physical
and artistic and other cultural reasons had come to the conclusion
that the Melanesians of British New Guinea should be broken up into
two elements: one consisting of the Motu and allied Melanesians,
and the other of the inhabitants of the Massim district--an area
extending slightly beyond that of Mr. Ray's Melano-Papuans ("The
Decorative Art of British New Guinea," _Cunningham Memoirs_, X.,
_Roy. Irish Acad._, 1894, pp. 253-269). I reinforced my position
six years later ("Studies in the Anthropo-geography of British New
Guinea," _Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc._, 1900, pp. 265, 414). Dr. Seligmann,
in his valuable paper "A Classification of the Natives of British
New Guinea" (_Journ. Roy. Anth. Inst._, XXXIX., 1909, pp. 246, 315)
corroborated these views and designated the two groups of "Melanesians"
as the Eastern and Western Papuo-Melanesians. The following year he
published the great book to which Mr. Williamson so frequently refers,
and in which this classification is maintained, and these two groups
together with the Papuans, are termed Papuasians.

The Motu stock of the Western Papuo-Melanesians have extended
their dispersal as far as the Mekeo district, where they came
into contact with other peoples. It has been shown that the true
Papuans are a narrow-headed people, but there are some puzzling
exceptions, the explanation of which is not yet ascertained. The
Papuo-Melanesians contain a somewhat broad-headed element, and
there is a slightly broad-headed population in the central range
of the south-east peninsula, the extent of which has not yet been
determined. The questions naturally arise: (1) Is the true Papuan a
variable stock including both long- broad-headed elements? or (2)
Does the broad-headed element belong to an immigrant people? or,
again (3) Is there an hitherto unidentified indigenous broad-headed
race? I doubt if the time is ripe for a definite answer to any of
these questions. Furthermore, we have yet to assign to their original
sources the differences in culture which characterise various groups
of people in New Guinea. Something has been done in this direction,
but much more has yet to be learnt.

So far I have not referred to a Negrito element in the Ethnology of
New Guinea. From time to time we have heard rumours of pygmy people,
and German travel