584 The Eaces of Man 



CHAPTER XL. 



THE EACES OP MAN IN THE MALAY AECHIPELAGO. 



I PEOPOSE to conclude this account of my Eastern travels, 

 with a short statement of my views as to the races of man 

 which inhabit the various parts of the Archipelago, their 

 chief physical and mental characteristics, their aiRnities with 

 each other and with surrounding tribes, their migrations, and 

 their probable origin. 



Two very strongly contrasted races inhabit the Archipel- 

 ago — the Malays, occupying almost exclusively the larger 

 western half of it, and the Papuans, whose head-quarters are 

 New Guinea and several of the adjacent islands. Between 

 these in locality, are found tribes who are also intermediate 

 in their chief characteristics, and it is sometimes a nice point 

 to determine whether they belong to one or the other race, 

 or have been formed by a mixture of the two. 



The Malay is undoubtedly the most important of these 

 two races, as it is the one which is the most civilized, which 

 has come most into contact with Europeans, and which alone 

 has any place in history. What may be called the true Ma- 

 lay races, as distinguished from others who have merely a 

 Malay element in their language, present a considerable uni- 

 formity of physical and mental characteristics, while there 

 are very great differences of civilization and of language. 

 They consist of four great, and a few minor semi-civilized 

 tribes, and a number of others who may be termed savages. 

 The Malays proper inhabit the Malay peninsula, and almost 

 all the coast regions of Borneo and Sumatra. They all speak 

 the Malay language, or dialects of it ; they write in the Ara- 

 bic character, and are Mohammedans in religion. The Java- 

 nese inhabit Java, part of Sumatra, Madura, Bali, and part of 

 Lombock. They speak the Javanese and Kawi languages, 

 which they write in a native character. They are now Mo- 

 hammedans in Java, but Brahmins in Bali and Lombock. The 



