CTIAP. xxiy I 



PAPUAN CffJRJCTEK 



4-25 



Malay ishnds. In shape it resembles a very lai-ge ant, 

 more than an inch long, and of a purple black colour, 

 Like an aut also it is v,inghs% imd is gener:dly found 

 A.scending trees, passing around the trunks in a spiral 

 direction when approached, to avoid capture, so that it 

 requires a sudden run and active fingers to secure a 

 spechneu. This species emits the usual fetid odour of tlie 

 ground beetles. My collections during our four days* stay 

 at were as follow Birds, 13 species; insects, 194 

 species ; and ^ kinds of land-shelLs. 



There are two kinds of people inhabiting these islands 

 — ^the indigenes^ who have the Papuan characters atron<,dy 

 marked, and who are pagans ; and a mijced race, who are 

 nominally Mahometaii:^, and wear cotton clothing, while 

 the former use only a waist cloth of cotton or bark. These 

 Mahometans are said to have been driven out of Banda by 

 the early Euro|>ean settlers. They were probably a brown 

 race, more allied to the ^Malays, and their nrbced descend- 

 ants here exhibit great varLitions of colour, hair, and 

 features, graduating between the JIalay and Papuan types. 

 It is interesting to obsei've the influence of the early 

 Portuguese trade with these countries in the words of 

 their langnage, which still remain in use even among these 

 remote and savage islanders. Len<;o '* for handkerchief, 

 and •* luca" for knife, are here used to the exclusion of the 

 proper Jilalay terras. The Portuguese and Spaniards were 

 truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They elTectcd 

 more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than 

 any other nations of modern times, resembling the llomaus 

 in their power of impressing their ow^n language, religion, 

 cmd manners on rude and barbarous tiibes. 



The striking contrast of character between those people 

 and the Malay's is exemplified in many little traits. One 

 day when I was rambling in the forest, an old man stopped 

 to look at mo catching an insect He stood very quiet 

 till 1 had piimed and put it away in my collecting box, 

 when he could contain lumself no longer, but bent almost 

 double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter. Every 

 one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A ilalay 

 would have stared, and asked with a t-one of bewilderment 

 what I was doing, for it is but little in liis nature to laugh, 



