The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XL.] RACES OF MAX IX THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 449are incai")able of anytliing beyond the simplest combinations ofideas, and have little taste or energy for the acquirement ofknowledge. Their civilization, such as it is, does not seem to beindigenous, as it is entirely confined to those nations who havebeen converted to the Mahometan or Brahminical religions.I will now give an equally brief sketch of the other great raceof the Malay Archipelago, the Pajjuan.The typical Papuan race is in many respects the very oppositeof the Malay, and it has hitherto been very imperfectly described.The colour of tlie body is a deep sooty-brown or black,sometimes approaching, but never quite equalling, the jet-blackof some negro races. It varies in tint, however, more than thatof the Malay, and is sometimes a dusky brown. The hair is verypeculiar, being harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts orcurls, winch in youth are very short and compact, ])ut afterwardsgrow out to a considerable length, forming the compactfrizzled mop which is the Papuans' pride and glory. The faceis adorned with a beard of the same frizzly nature as the hair ofthe head. The arms, legs, and breast are also more or less clothedwith hair of a similar nature.In stature the PajDuan decidedly surpasses the Malay, and isperhaps ec^ual, or even superior, to the average of EuropeansThe legs are long and thin, and thehands and feet larger than in theMalays. The face is somewliat elongated,the forehead flattish, the browsvery prominent ; the nose is large,rather arched and high, the basethick, the nostrils broad, with theaperture hidden, owing to the tip ofthe nose being elongated ; the mouthis large, the lips thick and pi-otuberant.The face has thus an altogethermore European aspect than in tlieMalay, owing to the large nose ; andthe peculiar form of this organ, withthe more prominent brows and thecharacter of the hair on the head,face, and body, enable us at a glanceto distinguish the two races. I haveobserved that most of these characteristicfeatures are as distinctly Adsiblein children of ten or twelve years oldas in adults, and the i^eculiar formof the nose is always shown in thefigures which they cavxe for ornamentsto their houses, or as charmsPAPUAN CHARM.to wear round their necks.The moral characteristics of the Papuan appear to me toseparate him as distinctly from the Malay as do his form anda G