NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 
401 
whether we consider their physical conformation, their 
moral characteristics, or their intellectual capacities, the 
Malay and Papuan races offer remarkable differences and 
striking contrasts. The Malay is of short stature, brown¬ 
skinned, straight-haired, beardless, and smooth-bodied. 
The Papuan is taller, is black-skinned, frizzly-haired, 
bearded, and hairy-bodied. The former is broad-faced, 
has a small nose and flat eyebrows ; the latter is long- * 
faced, has a large and prominent nose and projecting 
eyebrows. The Malay is bashful, cold, undemonstrative, 
and quiet; the Papuan is bold, impetuous, excitable, and 
noisy. The former is grave, and seldom laughs; the 
latter is joyous and laughter-loving; the one conceals 
his emotions, the other displays them.” 
The native of New Guinea usually goes naked save 
for a breech-cloth of bark for the men and a fringed girdle 
or short petticoat of this or woven grass for the 
women. In some places on the northern coast both men 
and women go entirely naked. He pays great attention 
to his hair, which, though sometimes kept short, is 
generally worn in the enormous mop already described, 
or partly shaved in front and drawn backwards, or grown 
into tassels arranged stiffly around the head, or in a 
variety of bizarre fashions too numerous to mention, of 
which not the least singular is the training of the hair 
through one or more short cylinders of bamboo and 
letting it expand into a large ball above, so that the 
head looks as if planted wifh small cabbages. While 
those of Malay race seem to have little desire for 
personal adornment, the Papuan evinces a great taste for 
it, especially on festal occasions. The hair is decorated 
with the brilliant flowers of the Hibiscus, or with plumes 
of the bird-of-paradise. Through the septum of the nose 
is thrust the nose-bar, which is sometimes of shell or 
