78 AUSTRALASIA. 



Amongst the Indonesians are still found savage peoples, such as the Battas of 

 Sumatra, the Bornean Dyaks, the " Alfurus," that is -'Free" or "Wild," of 

 Celebes, and most anthropologists are inclined to regard them as a primitive 

 population of light colour who occupied the archipelago before the arrival of the 

 Malays. To them is in a special manner applied the term " Indonesian," as if they 

 were the representatives of the original masters of this oceanic region. 



But in the north-eastern islands near New Guinea and the Philippines, there 

 occurs yet another ethnical element quite distinct both from the Papuans and 

 Malays, characterised by black or blackish skin and crisp hair. These natives, 

 who resemble the Andamanese and the Negritos of the Philippines, would appear 

 to be the true autochthones, still older than the fair Indonesians of Sumatra, Borneo 

 and Celebes. In the western islands they have been exterminated, in the eastern 

 driven to the uplands of the interior, just as the Indonesians themselves have been 

 encroached upon in the large Sundanese islands. 



This remarkable phenomenon of distinct human as well as animal species 

 dwelling in contiguous islands, under the same or analogous physical conditions, 

 finds its explanation in the history of the planet itself. Such contrasts are the 

 outcome of different" epochs, which are here placed, as it were, in juxtaposition. 

 But during the course of ages all these heterogeneous elements must have long 

 been subjected to like influences, for all, or nearly all, the current Malay, Papuan, 

 Indonesian, and Negrito languages seem to constitute a single linguistic family, 

 and this family itself has been affiliated by Hodgson and Caldwell to the Dra vidian 

 of Southern India. 



As commonly understood, the term " Malay " is practically synonynaous with 

 '* Mohammedan." The Indonesian, whether black, bronze, or fair, who accepts 

 the Moslem faith and acquires a knowledge of the Arabic letters, becomes ipso 

 facto a " Malay." Still, the great bulk of the population belongs probably to the 

 same stock. "Without prejudging the question of the origin of the Malay race 

 now dominant in the archipelago, it may be asked where was its home in the 

 times anterior to the historic period ? Did the Malays reach this region through 

 the peninsula named from them, or had they any other centre of dispersion, as 

 for instance, the plateaux in the interior of Sumatra ? According to Van der 

 Tunk, their very name, interpreted by him in the sense of " wanderers," " vaga- 

 bonds," would indicate their foreign origin. In all the lands occupied by them 

 the banks of the rivers ai-e " right" and " left " not according to the course of 

 the stream seawards, but in the reverse way, as if the colonists had in all cases 

 penetrated from the sea against the current into the interior. Marked resem- 

 blances have also been observed between the Malay houses and their praus, so 

 much so that in many places their villages present the appearance of stranded 

 fleets. 



The insular as well as the continental Malays, although short, or at most 

 of average heigljt, are of robust constitution, with a ruddy brown, at times oUve, 

 complexion, and in the women, who are less exposed to the sun, approaching 

 nearer to a decided yellow. The hair of the head — for all are nearly beardless — is 



