PAPUANS, AUSTRALIANS, AND MALYU-POLYNESIANS 
684 
of the Pacific, that the hair receives the greatest attention. These 
open oat the ringlets by mean of a bambu comb, shaped like an eel- 
spear, with numerous prongs spreading out laterally, which operation 
produces an enormous bushy head of hair which has procured them 
the name of “ Mop-headed Papuans.” Among the natives of the 
Feejee islands, (the eastermost limit of the Oriental negro race) 
the operation of dressing the hair occupies the greater part of a day. 
The hair of the beards and whiskers, which generally grows very 
thick and bushy, is arranged in little tufts similar to those of the 
head, and the same peculiarity is found to exist in the hair with 
which the breasts and shoulders of the men are ofter covered, but 
the tufts are here farther apart than on the head and chm. 
This wooly or twisted hair is peculiar to tire full blooded 
Papuans. A comparatively slight mixture with the brown-complex- 
ioned or Malayu-Polynesian race appears to destroy the peculia¬ 
rity. The hair of people of the mixed race covers the surface of 
the head, or at least has done so in all cases that have come under 
my observation, and is sometimes only slightly curled. It is therefore 
very easy to distingnish the pure Papuans, and throughout this 
essay those only will be called by that name who possess this their 
leading characteristic. 
[The term Papuan is derived from a Malayan word Papua or 
Pua-Pua”, crisp-haired. The term “ Tanna Papua” or “ land 
of the crisp-haired” is applied by them not only to New Guinea, 
but to all the adjacent islands which are occupied exclusively by 
this race. It is so peculiarly applicable, and comprehensive, and 
so entitled to respect as having been conferred by a people who 
must have known them for ages before we even lieaid of tlieii 
existence, that I trust the ethnologists of Europe will excuse me for 
retaining it in preference to the newly invented term “ Melanesian” 
or “ inhabitants of the black islands”, which, although applicable 
enough to the Papuans, is equally applicable to the greater portion 
of the Australian tribes.] 
The features of the Papuans have a decidedly negro character ; 
broad, flat, noses; thick lips; receding foreheads and chins; and that 
turbid, colour of whut should bo the white of the eye which gives to 
the contenance a peculiar sinister expression. Their complexion is 
universally a deep chocolate colour^ sometimes closely approaching 
to black, but certainly a few shades lighter them the deep black that 
it often met with among the negro tribes of Africa. 
With regard to stature, a great difference is found to exist be¬ 
tween various tribes, even in New Guinea, and which has led 
to much confusion in the descriptions given by travellers, who have, 
perhaps, each only seen a single tribe. On the south-west coast of 
New Guinea, 'within a space of one hundred miles, are to be found 
tribes whose stature is almost gigantic, and others whose propor¬ 
tions are so diminutive as almost to entitle them to the appellation 
of pigmies, while the manners and customs of each so exactly cor- 
