Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of them are now Christians, and speak Spanish as well as their native tongue, the Tagala.
The Moluccan-Malays, who inhabit chiefly Ternate, Tidore, Batchian, and Amboyna, may
be held to form a fifth division of semi-civilized Malays. They are all Mahometans, but they
speak a variety of curious languages, which seem compounded of Bugis and Javanese, with
the languages of the savage tribes of the Moluccas.
The savage Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo; the Battaks and other wild tribes of Su-
matra; the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula; the aborigines of Northern Celebes, of the Sula
island, and of part of Bouru.
The colour of all these varied tribes is a light reddish brown, with more or less of an olive
tinge, not varying in any important degree over an extent of country as large as all Southern
Europe. The hair is equally constant, being invariably black and straight, and of a rather
coarse texture, so that any lighter tint, or any wave or curl in it, is an almost certain proof of
the admixture of some foreign blood. The face is nearly destitute of beard, and the breast
and limbs are free from hair. The stature is tolerably equal, and is always considerably be-
low that of the average European; the body is robust, the breast well developed, the feet
small, thick, and short, the hands small and rather delicate. The face is a little broad, and in-
clined to be flat; the forehead is rather rounded, the brows low, the eyes black and very
slightly oblique; the nose is rather small, not prominent, but straight and well-shaped, the
apex a little rounded, the nostrils broad and slightly exposed; the cheek-bones are rather
prominent, the mouth large, the lips broad and well cut, but not protruding, the chin round
and well-formed.
In this description there seems little to object to on the score of beauty, and yet on the
whole the Malays are certainly not handsome. In youth, however, they are often very good-
looking, and many of the boys and girls up to twelve or fifteen years of age are very pleas-
ing, and some have countenances which are in their way almost perfect. I am inclined to
think they lose much of their good looks by bad habits and irregular living. At a very early
age they chew betel and tobacco almost incessantly; they suffer much want and exposure in
their fishing and other excursions; their lives are often passed in alternate starvation and
feasting, idleness and excessive labour,—and this naturally produces premature old age and
harshness of features.
In character the Malay is impassive. He exhibits a reserve, diffidence, and even bashful-
ness, which is in some degree attractive, and leads the observer to think that the ferocious
and bloodthirsty character imputed to the race must be grossly exaggerated. He is not
demonstrative. His feelings of surprise, admiration, or fear, are never openly manifested,
and are probably not strongly felt. He is slow and deliberate in speech, and circuitous in in-
