OHAP. XXTV.] 



BrSTINCT RACES, 



331 



there are only a few small villages on vai*ions parts of th« 

 coast ; yet I found here four distinct races, which would 

 wofully iiiislead an ethnological traveller uuiihle to obtain 

 iuforiTKition as to their origin. First tlicre ai-e the Batchian 

 Malays, prohalily the earliest colonists, difibring very little 

 from those of Ternate. Their language, however, seems to 

 have more of the Papxian element, with a mixture of pure 

 Malay, showing that the settlement is one of stragglers 

 of varioius races, although now sufficiently homogeneous. 

 Then there are the "Orang Sirani/' as at Temate and 

 Amboyna. Many of these have the Portuguese physiog- 

 nomy strikingly preserv<id, hut combined with a skin gene- 

 rally darker than the ilalays. Some national custonis. are 

 retained^ and the Malay, which is their only language, 

 contains a large number of Portuguese words and idioms. 

 The third race consists of the Galela men from the north 

 of Gilolo, a singular p4^ople, whom I have already described ; 

 and tlie fourth is a colony from Toradr*^, in the eastern 

 peninsula of Celebes, These people were brought here at 

 their own request a few years ago, to avoid extermination 

 by another tribe. They have a very light complexion, open 

 Tartar physiognomy, low stature, and a language of the 

 Bugis tfpQ. They are an industrious agricultural people, 

 and supply the town with vegetables. They make a good 

 deal of bark cloth, similar to the tapa of the Polynesians, 

 by cutting down the proper trees and taking off lari^ 

 cylindei'3 of bark, wliich is beaten with inallets till it 

 separatee from the -wood. It is then soaked, and so con- 

 tinnoualy and regularly beaten out that it becomes as tliin 

 and as tough as parchment In this form it is much used 

 for wrappers for clothes ; and they also make jackets of it, 

 sewn neatly together and stained with the juice of another 

 kind of bark, which gives it a dark red colour and rondel's 

 it nearly waterproof. 



Here" are four very distinct kinds of people who may^all 

 be seen any day in and about the town of liatchian. Now 

 if we su3>pose a traveller ignorant of Malay, picking up a 

 word or two here and there of the Batchian language," 

 and noting down the " physical and moral prcnharities, 

 manners, and customs of the Batchian people " — (for there 

 are travellera who do all this in four-aud-twenty hours)— 



