238 INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERS. 



there is very often a ferocious look, which is not in 

 accordance with the character of the individual. 

 The hair is various, and often matted and twisted 

 with filth and grease into different fashions ; when 

 clean, however, it is frequently as fine and glossy as 

 that of the European, with a tendency to form broad 

 open curls in the same way. Its colour is in 

 some of the children of a sunburnt brown ; but I 

 never saw other than black hair among the adults. 

 The hair of the body does not differ from that of 

 an European. In their skins they vary from a 

 dark chocolate brown to an almost perfect black. 

 Their hands and feet are usually small and well- 

 shaped. The shoulders and chests of the men are 

 generally broad and sufficiently muscular. The 

 children are almost invariably pot-bellied, a ten- 

 dency to which structure may sometimes be observed 

 in the adults. The tout ensemble of the face, figure, 

 and expression of an Australian is so peculiar that 

 a person familiar with it would have, I believe, 

 no difficulty in picking "one out from among the 

 inhabitants even of the immediately adjacent islands. 



INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



Malay o- Polynesian race. — As I only introduce 

 remarks on this race for the sake of contrasting 

 them with the others, and consider their charac- 

 teristics to be comparatively well known, I shall be 

 much more brief in my observations on them than 

 their relative value and importance would demand. 



