A PAPUAN ALBINO. 
125 
garment (at least it had once been white), and 
was a marked contrast to the others, not only 
from her fair skin, but from her unusual height, 
and especially from her coiffure, which was quite 
remarkable. The hair was very fair, golden- 
tinged, and had the appearance of being care- 
fully dressed, though it was nature which laid 
those rows of soft curls so neatly on her head. 
Her skin was as ugly as her hair was pretty, 
being of a reddish-yellow hue, as if raw from the 
sun ; and her teeth, quite blackened, and filed 
almost to the gums, gave her anything but a 
prepossessing look. 
I was glad when H. called to me that the boat 
could not longer wait, for the light would soon 
be gone. Turning, as I hastened away, to see 
the brilliant sunset, I was arrested, thinking for 
a moment that I looked on a black statue. Be- 
tween me and the light, the better to see us, a 
lad had climbed on to a high ledge, close against 
the luxurious overhanging foliage — all lit up 
from the dying glow— of the precipitous rock, 
and, wearing only a red loin-cloth on his shining 
dusky skin, stretched forward in eagerness, quite 
unconscious of his graceful poise. He formed a 
picture of savage beauty which flashed indelibly 
into my memory. 
