250 Celebes. 



fact from any other people in the Archipelago. They are of 

 a light-brown or yellow tint, often approaching the fairness of 

 a European ; of a rather short stature, stout and well-made ; 

 of an open and pleasing countenance, more or less disfigured 

 as age increases by projecting cheek-bones ; and with the 

 usual long, straight, jet-black hair of the Malayan races. In 

 some of the inland villages, where they may be supposed to be 

 of the purest race, both men and women are remarkably hand- 

 some ; while nearer the coast, where the purity of their blood 

 has been destroyed by the intermixture of other races, they 

 approach to the ordinary types of the Avild inhabitants of the 

 surrounding countries. 



In mental and moral characteristics they are also highly 

 peculiar. They are remarkably quiet and gentle in disposi- 

 tion, submissive to the authority of those they consider their 

 superiors, and easily induced to learn and adoj^t the habits of 

 civilized people. They are clever mechanics, and seem capa- 

 ble of acquiring a considerable amount of intellectual edu- 

 cation. 



Up to a very recent period these people were thorough 

 savages, and there are persons now living in Menado who re- 

 member a state of things identical with that described by the 

 writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The in- 

 habitants of the several villages were distinct tribes, each un- 

 der its own chief, speaking languages unintelligible to each 

 other, and almost always at war. They built their houses 

 elevated upon lofty posts to defend themselves from the at- 

 tacks of their enemies. They were head-hunters, like the 

 Dyaks of Borneo, and were said to be sometimes cannibals. 

 When a chief died, his tomb was adorned with two fresh hu- 

 man heads; and if those of enemies could not be obtained, 

 slaves were killed for the occasion. Human skulls were the 

 great ornaments of the chiefs' houses. Strips of bark were 

 their only dress. The country was a pathless wilderness, with 

 small cultivated patches of rice and vegetables, or clumps of 

 fruit-trees, diversifying the otherwise unbroken forest. Their 

 religion was that naturally engendered in the undeveloped 

 liuman mind by the contemplation of grand natural phenomena 

 and the luxuriance of tropical nature. The burning mountain, 

 the torrent and lake, were the abode of their deities, and cer- 



