On the other hand, all the islands from Celebes and Lombok eastward exhibit almost as close a resemblance to Australia and New Guinea as the western islands do to Asia. Australia in its natural productions differs from Asia more than any of the four ancient quarters of the world differ from each other, and all its striking peculiarities are found also in those islands which form the Austro-Malayan division of the Archipelago. The contrast between the Asiatic or Indo-Malayan forms and those of the Austro - Malayan is abruptly exhibited in passing from the island of Bola to that of Lombok, though the strait is only 15 miles wide; and in travelling.from Java or Borneo to Celebes or the Moluccas the difference is still more striking, leaving the only inference that the whole of the islands eastwards beyond Java and Borneo do essentially form a part of a former Australian or Pacific continent, although it may never have actually been joined to it, and it may have been broken up before the western islands were separated from Asia, and probably before the extreme south-eastern part of Asia was raised above the waters of the ocean.
The numbers of Negroes in Africa are vaguely estimated at 20 millions, including the Hottentot and Kafir offshoots from the great family. The race on the American continent are now fewer than the whites. But they are prolific ; and Professor Gilliam estimates that by the year 1984 the black population of the Southern States will be 192 millions, while the white will be only 96 millions. Their numbers on the Asiatic continent, on the shores of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and in the Malay Peninsula, may not exceed half a million ; but from the Andaman Islands east wards to the races in the Pacific, of the people generally classed as Negroes there are at least 12 varieties, differing from each other in physical ap pearance, some being pigmies under five feet, and others large and powerful men of near six feet. some of these will now be noticed.
The Illineopi Negroes of the Andamans are in the very lowest and most abject state of human society, without fixed dwellings, unclad, and un acquainted with the meanest of the useful arts of life. In disposition they are unsocial and mis chievous. They seem to have been isolated for an unknown period ; and when the British last settled on their islands, in 1858, they were found in the lowest condition to which human beings can fall. They are not cannibals, as was long supposed, but live on pork, fish, grains, roots, cocoanut, and other fruits, and broil the flesh of their animals before eating it. They may be called hunters and fishermen, hunting game in their own wilds and jungles, using the bow and arrow, with which they are expert, and employ the bark of a tree for fish ing-lines. They have no clothing, but go entirely naked, and seem unconscious of that feeling of shame which guides the other races in the world to cover their persons. They construct huts, hut of the rudest character. They were intensely averse to the intrusion of strangers. They are small in stature, seldom rising in height over five feet. The head is small, and depressions exist in the temporal region. The teeth are nearly white, but often so irregular as to seenvin double rows. They are muscular. Their bodies are scarified all over with broken glass, which giveS the skin a bead-like appearance, the lines runnifig longitu dinally down the arms and bust. When pleased with anything to which their attention is drawn, they gently bite with their teeth the lower edge of the palm of the right hand, and'then smartly strike the left shoulder. They also contract the lips as in kissing, and 'Lake a hissing noise like that of grooms in cleaning horses. When they speak to
one another their pronunciation is so indistinct as 1 to resemble a chatter, but they are sharp in catch ing words and sounds. In dancing, they hop on ' one foot, beating it down smartly in regular time, keeping both hands raised above the head. They change feet, keeping cadence with the song, work the head, bow the body, and thus spring and jump till the dance is closed.
Semang, Lila. — Further eastward, in the northern portiou of the Malay Peninsula, within the Kedah, Perak, Pahang, and Tringanu territories, is a Negro race known to the Malays under the names of Semang and Hula. Their complexion is black or sooty, the hair woolly, the features ap proaching to the African, and the stature dwarfish. An adult Semang male, of the mean height of this people, was found to be only four feet nine inches high. Some of the Semang or Bila have fixed habitations, and practise a rude agriculture, but the majority lead an erratic life, gathering the rude products of the forest to exchange with the Malays for the necessaries of life, or substituting those of the chase.
The average height of the adults of a party of Semang Bukit on the Ijan, a feeder of the Krian, was four feet eight inches, the highest four feet ten inches. Head small, ridged, that is, rising above the forehead in an obtuse wedge shape, the back rounded and markedly narrower than the zygomatic or middle zone ; the face generally nar rower and smaller than the Malay ; eyebrows very prominent, standing out from the forehead and projecting over the ocular furrow which extends across the face, the root of the nose sinking into it and forming a deep angle with the base of the superciliary ridge. The nose short and somewhat sharp at the point, and often turned up, but the alm spreading ; eyes fine, middle-sized, and straight ; iris large, piercing ; conjunctiva mem brane yellow ; the upper eyelashes, owing to the deep ocular depression or prominent ridges, are compressed or folded, the roots of the hair being hidden. The cheek-bones generally broad, but in some cases not remarkably prominent, save with reference to the narrow forehead. Mouth large or wide, but lips not thick or projecting ; the lower part of the face oval or round, but not square. The deep depression at the eyes, and sinking in at the root of the nose, give a very remarkable character to the head, compared with the Malay. The projecting brow is in a vertical line with the nose, mouth, and chin, and the upper jaw is not projecting or prognathous. The person is slender, the belly protuberant, owing to their animal life in the jungle and precarious food. This induces them to cram themselves whenever they can, and the skin cf the abdomen thus be comes flaccid and expansible like that of an ape. The skin generally is fine and soft, although often disfigured by scurf, and the colour is a dark brown, but in some cases lighter and approaching to the Malay. The more exposed hordes are black. The Semang of Tringanu are not of such a jet black glossy colour as the Kedah tribe. The hair is spiral, not woolly, aid grows thickly on the head in tufts. They have thick moustaches, the growth being much stronger than in the Malay race. The head is neither Mongolian nor Negro of the Guinea type ; it is Papua-Tamulian. The expression of the face is mild, simple, and stupi The voice is soft, low, nasal, and hollow or cere bral. A lino of tattooing extends from the fore head to the cheek-bones. The right ear is pierced, the orifice being large. The hair is cropped, save a ring or fringe round the forehead.