38 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



remarkable and different from what one expected, 

 though it was obvious enough at the first glance that 

 these were people totaUy different from the Malayan 

 races both in appearance and demeanour ; yet there 

 was none of that exuberance of spirits, child-like curiosity 

 and exhibition of merriment and delight in their novel 

 surroundings described by Wallace * and Guillemard f 

 and which I had myself seen on the coast of German 

 New Guinea. A few of them shook hands, or rather 

 held hands, with us and talked loudly and volubly, 

 while the rest stared dumbly at us and then wandered 

 aimlessly about the ship seeking a chance to steal any 

 loose piece of metal. They showed no fear nor did 

 they betray any excitement nor any very keen curiosity 

 about the marvellous things that they were seeing 

 for the first time. They weie quite unmoved by the 

 spectacle of the windlass lifting up the anchor, and a 

 casual glance down the skylight of the engine room 

 was enough for most of them. They appeared to take 

 everything for granted without question, and a stolid 

 stare was their only recognition of the wonderful works 

 of the white man's civilisation. In one respect it is 

 true they were not quite so apathetic and that was in 

 their appetite for tobacco, which they begged from 

 everyone on board, brown and white alike. When they 

 had obtained a supply, they sat in groups about the 

 deck and smoked as unconcernedly as though a passage 

 in a steamship were an affair of every-day occurrence 

 in their lives. 



/ 



* Malay Archipelago, Chapter XXIX. 



t F. H. H. Guillemard, The Cruise of the " Marchesa," Chapter XXI. 



