all the
Oceanic population occupy islands. This explains the term _Oceanic_.

Their _distribution_ is as remarkable as their _extension_. The
Amphinesian[64] stream of population, originating in the peninsula of
Malacca, is continued through Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Philippines,
Lord North's Island, Sonsoral, the Pelew group, the Caroline and
Marianne Isles, the Ralik and Radack chains, the Kingsmill group and the
Gilbert and Scarborough Islands, to the Navigators', Society, Friendly,
Marquesas, Sandwich, and New Zealand groups; having become _Micronesian_
rather than _Protonesian_, after passing the Philippines, and _Proper
Polynesian_ rather than _Micronesian_, after passing the Scarborough and
Gilbert Archipelagoes. In this course it passes _round_ New Guinea and
Australia; in each of which islands the population is Kelaenonesian.

The Malay of the Malacca peninsula is no longer either monosyllabic or
uninflectional, although in immediate contact with the southern
dialects of the Siamese. Hence, the transition is abrupt; although by no
means conclusive as to any broad and trenchant line of ethnological
demarcation.

The differences of physical form are less than those of language. No one
has denied that the Malay configuration is a modification of the
Mongolian--_at least in some of its varieties_.

I say _at least in some of its varieties_, because within the narrow
range of the Malaccan peninsula and the island of Borneo we find no less
than three different types. In _Polynesia_ one of these, and in
_Kelaenonesia_ another becomes exaggerated--so much so, as to suggest the
idea of a different origin for the populations.

_a._ The _Malays_ are referable to the first type. Mahometans in
religion, they partake of the civilization of the Arab and Indian, and
differ but slightly from the Indo-Chinese nations; the complexion being
dark and the hair straight. The Mahometan Malays, however, are no true
aborigines. They are not only a new people on the peninsula, but they
consider themselves as such; and those occupants which they recognize as
older than themselves, they call _Orang Binua_, or _men of the soil_. Of
these some have a darker complexion and crisper hair than the intruding
population: and when we reach a particular section called--

_b._ The _Semang_, we find them described as having curly, crisp,
matted, and even woolly hair, thick lips, and a black skin. These, like
most of the other _Orang Binua_,