A LOST EMPIRE.

rACIFIC MYSTERY SOLVED,

PROFESSOR MACMILLAN BROWN'S THEORY.

RACIAL MIXTURES

A VENICE OF THE PAST

(STECIA- TO "TBE FRKSS.") WELLINGTON, September 9. .' Professor Macmillan Brown, who has been spending the last three months in Micronesia, tlie extensive ocean area in which are dotted tho Marianne, Marshall, Caroline, and Gilbert Islands, returned to Wellington this morning by tlie Willochra from Sydney, having completed his programme of the last eight or nine years for investigating tho problems of- the Pacific. The Professor on this occasion devoted special attcntic.tß--" these islands, ,-i.s they contained the secret ot one of the most difficult ethnological problems of tho Pacific. In investigating this problem Professor Brown visited the megolithic- ruins at Ponape, and advances'* in that connection the first reasonable and feasible theory in explanation of their existence.

'Because of the special attractions in .•thnology, 1 concentrated on this visit to tho Caroline Islands." said the Pro-jo-i-or when interviewed this morning.

•The languages there are so different trom the other Polynesian, languages, and the people themselves are so different, that there is at owe revealed a f-trango commixture of blood. In every littlo village 1 could trace the mixture of tho three great divisions of mankind—the Negroid, Mongolian, and the Caucasian divisions. For example, in tho little island of Uleai in the centre of tho Caroline Group there were 600 people gathered to receive the Governor. Thero 1 could see faces agreeing with the most exacting European ideals of beauty—Grecian nose, Apollo brow, shapely thin lips, oval face, fine eyes, and wavy hair, side by hide with heads .showing fuzzy hair, broad nostrils, tliick lips, and outstanding lower jaw, along with the smaller stature of tho Negrito. Hero and there could also be i*een tho Japanese eye witii the fold i\ hii;h is so characteristic of all Mongol peoples. This type also lias long black lank hair " THE GREAT ADMIXTURE. "Tho admixture of these threo types is quite manifest in the stature, the hair, and the features of the people all through Micronesia, that island-spotted area of 2000 miles.by 1500 miles which lies between Japan iii the north and New Guinea in the south," said the Professor, "and 1 have como to the conclusion, not merely from my own ob. servations, but from other considerations, that the observations of others that these islands have been subsiding during all human time,are correct, the only exceptions being the islands of Ponape, 'Ruk, and Yap, which are volcanic islands. From the immense ruins of the niegolithic city on tho .south-east side of Ponape, 1 havo concluded that a large part of this taxbfcidenco occurred during the last 5000 or GOOO years." This ancient city could have been no other than the capital of an insular empire at least ten times as large as the islands that exist round about to-day, with high islands stretching west and east and north and south. It was much easier in old times for immigrants to reach these islands than it is now. The primeval population was Negrito, because they havo constituted the primeval population of the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago, Now Guinea, Melanesia, and Australia. Over them in comparatively recent times, and perhaps several thousand years ago, hod como a Caucasian or European. population, and more recently still: there had been an infusion of Mongol blood, which had not gone as far as Melanesia or New Guinea.

PROOFS OF COMMINGLING. The proofs of tho commingling of the three races are found in the language and appearance of the different islandors. In every collection of natives there could be seen the emaller, or pigmy, round-headed man (the Negroid), and tho tall, medium-headed man (tho Caucasian). In the west, in Yap and Pellew, the Professor believed from the language and appearance of tho people that the Mongolian infusion came from Malay, but to tho east and north, in the Caroline, Marianne and Marshall Islands, the Mongoloid infusion came from Japan. The Japanese eye could be seen in almost every island of these three groups, and the Japanese stature as well, though this may have lielonged to the. aboriginal native. vocabularies and grammars of the islanders will also afford further proof of the origin of the people, but the Professor has not as yet finished his analysis of these, nor had he his Japanese dictionary with birri to verify the Japanese element in the language. It is asserted by Christian, in his book on the Caroline. Islands, that there is a large proportion of' Japanese words in the vocabulary of the people of Kusai, in the easterly part of the Caroline Lslands. This statement will be carefully investigated by the Professor. Tho region,' he believed, had in historic times been the refuge and resort of all the peoples round about. This hypothesis was the only one that seemed to fully explain the facts in the languago and physique of the people of this region. ~ •

THAT RUINED CITY. A further proof of the Caucasian element that has influenced the islands is found by tho Professor in the ruins of the great megolithic city on the southeast coast of Ponape. A fascinating description of this, ancient ruin is given by him. "It-is an ancient Venice," he said. "There you have the"' water streets aud the main canals. I canoed along theso for four or five hours, and on either side of mo were immense breastworks of stones, some of them twenty-four feet long and rising ten feet aoove the reef on which the city is built. These breastworks are miles iv length, and make artificial islands which aro filled in with coral debris. On these islands are immenso buildings, some with walls still 30 feet high.' From the huge stones scattered about I conjectured that these walls must havo been almost'twice as high.at ono time, for they were from ten to fifteen feet thick.

"This city on the sea shows that the rulers of this Empire had come over the ocean. Other ruined cities of Kusai still further show that these oceanic conquerors came from the oast." In the front of one great temple at Ponape there were great stones with holes in the top, on which it was traditionally said the priests offered sacrifices to the gods.

Another proof that these conquerors :*ame from Polynesia lies in the fact that though property is transmitted in Ponape by mother right, yet the five :hiefs of the island receive their Positions by father right. Now in. Polynesia ''father right" rules, while in Melanesia and New Guinea "mother right" obtains.

THEORIES OF ORIGIN. From these facts the Professor deduces that Polynesia was the chief source of tho tall Caucasian element in this region. Tho age of these ruins is placed by Professor Brown at 3000 years at least." He bases this conclusion upon a certain Japanese element in the architecture of tho ruins, and the absence of all bronze or other metal remains in the excavations that were made in the tombs. What were found were usually beads and stone emblems. The Professor concluded therefore that if Japanese architects were engaged on the Luildings, then they, were completed before the Japanese bronze era. which was just about 3000 years ago. This theory, advanced by Professor Mac-

millan Brown, is the'first attempt to make an historical explanation of the origin of these ruins. In the latter part of last century Kubany, a German officer on the Heisine, who examined the ruins carefully, advanced the suggestion that they were built by black races. He based this on the finding of four skulls, which, being long, he claimed to be Negroid. As a matter ot fact two were medium-sized and could belong to a section of the short people in Micronesia. Five or six years ago a German expedition, under Dr. Hembruck, made investigations, but beyond correcting the measurements of Kubany, advanced no theories of origin and made no attempt to solve the mystery at all.