Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE NATIVES. The origin of the Fijians is lost in obscurity; everything however tends to show that though they approximate in many remarkable respects to the Papuan tribes, they are but a modified type of their fairer neighbours, the Samoans and Tongans, who exhibit many of the characteristics of the Malays, and are anthropologically classed as Polynesian Malays. The stature of the pure Fijian is large, above middle height, and muscularly developed. His skin is dark, rough, and harsh, his hair black and copiously bushy, as is also his beard, the former being frizzled, and having an apparent consistency of half wool, half hair, resembling that of the Catbozos of South America. The Fijian is changeable in disposition, and regards lying as an accomplishment and a virtue rather than a fault. The early visitors to this lovely group seem never tired of dilating on the fact that here only man is vile; and innumerable instances are given of the cowardice, treachery, and ferocity of the inhabitants, as well as of their habits of pilfering and covetousness, which were also formerly notorious. Thus we find concentred in the aborigine of the past an uninvitingpicture of humanity such as is seldom to be met with elsewhere. Happily matters in this respect, of late years have much mended, and contact with civilisation as well as missionary influence have done wonders for native character in Fiji. Their versatility is well evidenced in the quickness of their movements and the ever watchful restlessness of their countenances. Their anger manifests itself by a sullenness of disposition rather than in words, and a chief when offended puts a stick in the ground, that he may not perchance forget the reason of his displeasure. When the stick is pulled up by the offended d...