CHAP. XXIX.] PAPUAN CHARACTER. 193 



The striking contrast of character between tliese people 

 and the Malays is exemplified in many little traits. One 

 day when I was rambling in the forest, an old man stopped 

 to look at me catching an insect. He stood very quiet 

 till 1 had pinned and put it away in my collecting box, 

 when he could contain himself no longer, but bent almost 

 double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter. Every 

 one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A Malay 

 would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment 

 what I was doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, 

 never heartily, and still less at or in the presence of a 

 stranger, to whom, however, his disdainful glances or 

 whispered remarks are less agreeable than the most 

 boisterous open expression of merriment. The women 

 here were not so much frightened at strangers, or made 

 to keep themselves so much secluded as among the 

 Malay races ; the children were more merry and had 

 the " nigger grin," while the noisy confusion of tongues 

 among the men, and their excitement on very ordinary 

 occasions, are altogether removed from the general taci- 

 turnity and reserve of the Malay. 



The language of the Ke people consists of words of one, 

 two, or three syllables in about equal proportions, and has 

 many aspirated and a few guttural sounds. The different 

 villages have slight differences of dialect, but they are 

 mutually intelligible, and, except in words that have 



VOL, II.. 



