Australian Papuans is a term employed by Peschel (p. 338) to designate the inhabitants of New Guinea, the Pelew Islands, Tombara (New Ireland), Birara, the Solomon group, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, with the adjacent Loyalty Islands, and, lastly, those of the Fiji Archipelago. The distinctive characters of the race are preserved in greatest purity in New Guinea, although even there, especially in the western half, intermixtures with the Asiatic Malays have recently taken place. Iu the other islands mentioned, the Polynesians have intruded themselves among the older populations, and have materially influenced the language and manners, but their influence upon the physical characters has been much less, so that the inhabitants of the Pelew and Fiji groups, as well as of New Caledonia, may be unhesitatingly reckoned among the Papuan race. In the Carolines and Mariannes or Laclrones, Polynesian and Papuan blood is intermingled, but the former predominates, so that, as hybrids, these so-called Micronesians are more correctly placed in the Polynesian group of Mongoloid races.
Fiji.—The Papuan race improves as it recedes from the continent of Asia and advances into the Pacific. The people of Fiji are the aristocracy of their race, are polite and polished in conversation, and have a strong feeling of national pride. But the Papuans of New Guinea, New Caledonia, and the Fiji Islands were addicted to cannibalism.
The Papuan of Fiji have a tufted matting of the hair like the Koin Koin or Hottentots and the San or Bushman of S. Africa, and the narrow shape of the skull common to both. Also among the Papuan women dwelling on the shores of the Utenata river in New Guinea, there is the same tendency to fatty cushions as the women of the Hottentot and Bushman. The Papuans of New Guinea and the smaller islands are praised for their chastity and morality, for their respect to parents, and their brotherly affection.—Craw furd's Malay Grammar and Dictionary, and in Jo. Ind. Arch. ; Logan in Journ. Ind. Arch., 1848-1850; Newbold in Journ. B. As. Soc. and in Madras Lit. Soc.; Earl's Papuans ; Spreewenberg in Journ. Ind. Arch. ; Wallace's Archipelago ; Peschel.