CHAP. XL.] IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 445 



to those nations who have been converted to the Maho- 

 metan or Brahminical religions. 



I will now give an equally brief sketch of the other 

 great race of the Malay Archipelago, the Papuan. 



The typical Papuan race is in many respects the very 

 opposite of the Malay, and it has hitherto been very im- 

 perfectly described. The colour of the body is a deep 

 sooty-brown or blacky sometimes approaching, but never 

 quite equalling, the jet-black of some negro races. It 

 varies in tint, however, more than that of the Malay, and 

 is sometimes a dusky-brown. The hair is very peculiar, 

 being harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts or 

 curls, which in youth are very short and compact, but 

 afterwards grow out to a considerable length, forming the 

 compact frizzled mop which is the Papuans' pride and 

 glory. The face is adorned with a beard of the same 

 frizzly nature as the hair of the head. The arms, legs, and 

 breast are also more or less clothed with hair of a similar 

 nature. 



In stature the Papuan decidedly surpasses the Malay, 

 and is perhaps equal, or even superior, to the average of 

 Europeans. The legs are long and thin, and the hands and 

 feet larger than in the Malays. The face is somewhat 

 elongated, the forehead flatfish, the brows very prominent ; 

 the nose is large, rather arched and high, the base thick, 

 the nostrils broad, with the aperture hidden, owing to the 



