CHAP. XXX.] PSYCHOLOGY OF RACES. 207 



such ail extravagant quantity of tobacco that tlie seller 

 saw I was a green customer. He covikl not, however, 

 conceal his delight, but as he smelt the fragrant weed, and 

 exhibited the large handful to his companions, he grinned 

 and twisted and ga^'e silent chuckles in a most expressive 

 pantomime. I had often before made the same mistake in 

 paying a Malay for some trifle. In no case, however, was 

 his pleasure visible on his countenance — a dull and stupid 

 hesitation only showing his surprise, which would be 

 exhibited exactly in the same way whether he was over 

 or under paid. These little moral traits tire of the greatest 

 interest when taken in connexion with physical features. 

 They do not admit of the same ready explanation by 

 external causes which is so frequently applied to the 

 latter. Writers on the races of mankind have too often 

 to trust to the information of travellers who pass rapidly 

 liom country to country, and thus have few opportunities 

 of becoming acquainted with peculiarities of national cha- 

 racter, or even of ascertaining what is really the average 

 jiliysical conformation of the people. Such are exceed- 

 ingly apt to be deceived in places where two races have 

 long ftitermingled, by looking on intermediate forms and 

 mixed habits as evidences of a natural transition from one 

 race to the other, instead of an artificial mixture of two 

 distinct peoples ; and they will be the more readily led 

 into this error if, as in the present case, writers on the 



