THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
147 
it has for many years been customary for the Dutch to bring 
them to this, and their other settlements in Asia and Africa, 
for the purpose of carrying on various branches of trade and 
manufactures, and also to employ them as soldiers and servants. 
The religion, laws, manners, and customs of the Malays, as 
well as their dress, colour and persons, differ very much from 
those of all the other inhabitants of Asia. The Malays of the 
various islands and settlements also differ among themselves, 
according to the habits and appearance of the nations among 
whom they are dispersed. Yet still they are all easily dis- 
tinguished to be of the Malay race. For, although they inter- 
marry with the Moors and other casts, particularly in Ceylon, 
and by this means acquire a much darker colour than is na- 
tural to a Malay; still their characteristic features are so 
strikingly predominant, that they cannot be mistaken. Those 
who are born and brought up in the European colonies, na- 
turally contract more of the habits of civilized society ; they 
never indeed get entirely rid of their natural ferocity, but they 
become much, less cruel and vindictive, than that part of their 
race who reside in the peninsula of Malacca and their other 
native possessions. 
The men are of a middling stature, remarkably well pro- 
portioned, and of a strong and muscular make. Their legs 
and arms are particularly well-shaped, and very slender at the 
wrists and ancles ; an ill made leg is scarcely ever to be seen 
among them. They are of a light brown or yellow colour, which 
approaches nearer to a copper hue in their old age, or when 
