104 THE PIGMIES, 



In support of this description, Crawfubd borrows of Baffles 

 the sketch of a young Papuan of New Gkiinea. ( x ) The child in 

 question was, it is true, only ten years old, and the youth of the 

 subject is open to critical observation, but we must bear in mind 

 that, with these populations, physical development is more early 

 than amongst Europeans. This readily explains how Earl, so good 

 a -judge in matters of this kind, could affirm the resemblance 

 of this portrait to that of an adult. He relates that, in one of his 

 journeys, he had for companion a negro of G-iloTo who exhibited 

 all the features of the Papuan of Raffles and Crawford. He 

 thus testifies to the accuracy of the English writers, as well as to 

 the extension of the type to the Indian Archipelagos. 



Eroru what we have just seen, this type is not distinguished for 

 beauty of feature, and, when observed in its original country, 

 the general proportions of the body are in exact keeping with the 

 face. According to Earl again, these Papuans, when transported 

 as slaves in the Malay islands and placed in conditions of comfort 

 unusual to them, improve rapidly. Their slender limbs become 

 more regular, rounder, and, so to speak, smoother ; the vivacity 

 and gracefulness of their movements make up for the unpleasing 

 stamp which the face retains. 



The deplorable confusion, which I pointed out just now, is the 

 reason why the differential traits between the Papuan-Negritos 

 and the real Papuans, have not been studied with regard to the 

 social state, customs, religion and industry of these people. Wal- 

 lace and Earl go so far as to say that, tall or short, the Papuans 

 have but one way of living. This assertion has always seemed to 

 me rather difficult to accept, and the accounts which begin to reach 

 us justify more and more my doubts on the subject. However, in 

 the present state of knowledge, it would be no easy matter to deter- 

 mine with certainty the exact limit between the two races, all the 

 more so that they must often have mingled and produced half-bred 

 tribes ( 2 ). I will, therefore, content myself with referring the 



( i ) History ofJara—hj Raffles and Crawfurd. Plate I. 



(2) The tribes visited by Mr. Comrie, in the neighbourhood of the Astrolabe 

 Buy, appear to be in the same case. Out of 14 skulls, one only was sub-brachy- 

 cephalic ; the others were dolicocephalic. Bub the average stature of twenty men 

 was lm 563 and even down to ]m 321. These dwarfs could be neither Papuans 

 nor half-bred Polynesians. The Negrito blood alone could have lowered the 



