The Savages Board Us. 421 



they would express their satisfaction by grins and shouts, by 

 rolling on deck, or by a headlong leap overboard. Schoolboys 

 on an unexpected holiday, Irishmen at a fair, or midshipmen 

 on shore, would give but a faint idea of the exuberant animal 

 enjoyment of these people. 



Under similar circumstances Malays could not behave as 

 these Papuans did. If they came onboard a vessel (after ask- 

 ing permission), not a word would be at first spoken except a 

 few compliments, and only after some time, and very cautious- 

 ly, would any approach be made to business. One would 

 speak at a time, with a low voice and great deliberation, and 

 the mode of making a bargain would be by quietly refusing 

 all your offers, or even going away without saying another 

 word about the matter, unless you advanced your price to 

 what they were willing to accept. Our crew, many of whom 

 had not made the voyage before, seemed quite scandalized at 

 such unprecedented bad manners, and only very gradually 

 made any approach to fraternization with the black fellows. 

 They reminded me of a party of demure and well-behaved 

 children suddenly broken in upon by a lot of wild, romping, 

 riotous boys, whose conduct seems most extraordinary and 

 very naughty ! 



These moral features are more striking and more conclu- 

 sive of absolute diversity than even the physical contrast pre- 

 sented by the two races, though that is sufiiciently remarkable. 

 The sooty blackness of the skin, the mop-like head of frizzly 

 hair, and, most important of all, the marked form of counte- 

 nance, of quite a different type from that of the Malay, are 

 what we can not believe to result from mere climatal or oth- 

 er modifying influences on one and the same race. The Ma- 

 lay face is of the Mongolian tyj)e, broad and somewhat flat. 

 The brows are depressed, the mouth wide, but not projecting, 

 and the nose small and well-formed, but for the great dilata- 

 tion of the nostrils. The face is smooth, and rarely develops 

 the trace of a beard ; the hair black, coarse, and perfectly 

 straight. The Papuan, on the other hand, has a face which 

 we may say is compressed and projecting. The brows are pro- 

 tuberant and overhanging, the mouth large and prominent, 

 while the nose is very large, the apex elongated downward, 

 the ridge thick, and the nostrils large. It is an obtrusive and 



