V.] THE OCEANIC NEGROES: PAPU ASIANS. 145 



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 Papuan's pride and glory. ...The moral charac- 

 teristics 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 action. His emotions and 

 passions express themselves in shouts and laughter, in yells and 

 frantic leapings....The Papuan has a greater feeling for art than 

 the Malay. He decorates his canoe, his house, and almost every 

 domestic utensil with elaborate carving, a habit which is rarely 

 found among tribes of the Malay race. In the affections and 

 moral sentiments, on the other hand, the Papuans seem very 

 deficient. In the treatment of their children they are often 

 violent and cruel, whereas the Malays are almost invariably kind 

 and gentle 1 ." 



The ethnological parting-line between the Malayan and 

 Papuasian races, as first laid down by Wallace, 



Ethnical and 



nearly coincides with his division between the Biological 



Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan floras and faunas, 



the chief differences being the positions of Sumbawa and Celebes. 



Both of these islands are excluded from the Papuasian realm, 



but included in the Austro-Malayan zoological and botanical 



regions. 



AUSTRALIANS AND TASMANIANS. 



Both Australians and Tasmanians are, or were, absolutely 

 conterminous with their respective insular domains, where they 

 had, till the British occupation, remained practically secluded 

 from the outer world throughout the whole course 



f -, . ..A Region of 



of their natural development since the first peopling i ong isolation 



of the land in the Stone Ages. Similar conditions 



have prevailed in a large way elsewhere only in 



America. Hence it is that the inhabitants of these isolated 



ethnical zones alone present a certain degree of uniformity in 



their physical and mental characters. The modifications are 



1 The Malay Archipelago, Chap. XL. 

 K. 10 



