190 



THEIR APPEARANCE. 



varied muchj some had a savag-e, even ferocious 

 aspect. The nose was narrower and more promi- 

 nent^ the mouth smaller, the lips thinner, the eyes 

 more distant, the eyebrows less overhang-ing, the 

 forehead higher, but not broader, than in the 

 Australian, with whom I naturally compared them 

 as the only dark savage race which I had seen much 

 of. They used the betel, or something like it, judg- 

 ing from the effect in discolouring the teeth and 

 giving a bloody appearance to the saliva ; each man 



carried his chewing 

 materials in a small 

 basket, the lime, in 

 fine powder, being 

 contained in a neat 

 calabash T\dth a stop- 

 per, and a carved 

 piece of tortoise- 

 shell like a paper- 

 cutter was used to 

 convey it to the 

 mouth. 



None had the artificial prominent scars on the 

 body peculiar to the Austrahans, or wanted any of 



flattened, thereby giving great prominence and width to the 

 hinder part of the skull. Altogether this man appeared so 

 different from the rest, that for some time he was supposed to 

 belong to a different class of people, but I afterwards often 

 observed the same configuration of head combined with dark 

 coloured skin and diminutive stature. 



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