136 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



OTHER MALAYANS. 



About two years previous to my visit to Zanzibar, '* a canoe from 

 the Maldive Islands, drifted near enough to the African coast to be 

 picked up and brought in by a dow. There were several persons in 

 it;" and Mr. Waters was first led to make inquiries respecting them, 

 from their peculiar personal appearance; and he termed them "Malay- 

 looking people." Various interesting subjects being connected with 

 the question of the physical race of the Maldive islanders, I regret 

 that I have nothing further to add to the published accounts : which 

 are far from satisfactory. 



Mr. Williams, of the American Mission in China, found on visit- 

 ing Ceylon, " a Malay expression of countenance among the Cinga- 

 lese : a class of the population, who, by their own account, are * dimi- 

 nishing in numbers, in consequence of the Tamul people of the 

 neighbouring continent coming among them.' The canoes in Ceylon 

 have outrio^orers ;" a custom which seems derived from the East Indies. 



Do ' 



And it may also be observed, that judging by the descriptions of the 

 Cingalese, the ambiguity in respect to race, lies, as with the Maldive 

 islanders, between the Malay and the White. 



Among all the people of Hindostan who have passed under my 

 own notice, one individual only, offered some traces of Malay mix- 

 ture ; a Lascar sailor serving on board the Calcutta steamboat. To 

 return to Ceylon, I would here notice one source of confusion, in the 

 recent introduction of " a regiment of real Malays." 



In Upper Egypt, Southern Arabia, and Western Hindostan, a large 

 proportion of the population have the Malay complexion ; moreover, 

 the Bedouins of the vicinity of Mocha, are often beardless and have a 

 good-natured expression of countenance ; but I was unable in any of 

 these countries, to detect the physical Malay. It is true, certain indi- 

 viduals, by a change of costume, might perhaps have escaped my 

 notice in the midst of a Malay population ; but hardly, I think, the re- 

 verse. From Mocha there is direct communication with the East 

 Indies, affording conveyance to pilgrims ; and indeed, I witnessed the 

 arrival of an Arab ship from Batavia : but in general the ' Malays' 

 spoken of at Mocha, are White Muslims from the Malabar coast. 



