Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I will now give an equally brief sketch of the other great race of the Malay Archipelago,
the Papuan.
The typical Papuan race is in many respects the very opposite of the Malay, and it has
hitherto been very imperfectly described. The colour of the body is a deep sooty-brown or
black, sometimes approaching, but never quite equalling, the jet-black of some negro races.
It varies in tint, however, more than that of the Malay, and is sometimes a dusky-brown. The
hair is very peculiar, being harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts or curls, which in
youth are very short and compact, but afterwards grow out to a considerable length, forming
the compact frizzled mop which is the Papuans' pride and glory. The face is adorned with a
beard of the same frizzly nature as the hair of the head. The arms, legs, and breast are also
more or less clothed with hair of a similar nature.
In stature the Papuan decidedly surpasses the Malay, and is perhaps equal, or even superi-
or, to the average of Europeans. The legs are long and thin, and the hands and feet larger
than in the Malays. The face is somewhat elongated, the forehead flattish, the brows very
prominent; the nose is large, rather arched and high, the base thick, the nostrils broad, with
the aperture hidden, owing to the tip of the nose being elongated; the mouth is large, the lips
thick and protuberant. The face has thus an altogether more European aspect than in the
Malay, owing to the large nose; and the peculiar form of this organ, with the more promin-
ent brows and the character of the hair on the head, face, and body, enable us at a glance to
distinguish the two races. I have observed that most of these characteristic features are as
distinctly visible in children of ten or twelve years old as in adults, and the peculiar form of
the nose is always shown in the figures which they carve for ornaments to their houses, or as
charms to wear round their necks.
The moral characteristics of the Papuan appear to me to separate him as distinctly from
the Malay as do his form and features. He is impulsive and demonstrative in speech and ac-
tion. His emotions and passions express themselves in shouts and laughter, in yells and
frantic leapings. Women and children take their share in every discussion, and seem little
alarmed at the sight of strangers and Europeans.
