Semangs are found in all the rivers of Perak, and are classed as the Semang Paya, who frequent the low and marshy alluvium between the sea and the hill, the Semang I3ukit, who wander in the forests of the hills, and the Saki, who are confined to the mountains of the interior. There are said to be numbers of Semangs in the interior of Patani, Triuganu, Kedah, and Perak, wherever the country is covered with forest, and there are few or no 3falays. Semang tribes of Kedah and Perak have a language mainly dissyllabic like other Asianesian ones. The people of Kedah more often approxi mate to the eastern Negro type than in Southern Malaya, and Mr. Logan was particularly struck with the repeated occurrence of the deep nasal depression of the Semangs, the Australians, and Papuans. Small heads, with all the features as it were contracted or compressed, were common.
The Papuan race are to be found in the islands of Maris, Sumba or Ilandana, Adenara, Solor, Lombata, Rutar, Ombay, Wetter, Hate, Servatty, Babbar, Timor, Timor Laut, Larat, Tenember, part of Bourou, part of Ternate, the Ki Islands, Ceram, Ceram Laut, Banda, Amboyna, Batchian, Oby, Gilolo, 3forty, Aru, Vorkai, New Guinea, 3fyfore, Johi, Mysol, Salwatty, Aims, Bo, Geby, Hock, Lucian, Mindanao, Min doro, Moluccas, Mysol, Negros, New Guinea, Patani, Poppo, Sumba Islands, New Caledonia, New Ireland, Otaheite, Polynesia, and Fiji. Tana Papua, or land of the Papua, is a term applied by the Malays not only to New Guinea, but to all the adjacent islands which are occupied by the frizzly-haired race.
The Malayan term for crisped or woolly hair is ranibut pua-pna. Hence the term pua-pua, or papua (crisped), has come to be applied to the entire race, and expresses their most striking peculiarity.
The features of the Papuans have a decided Negro character: broad nose, thick and prominent lips, receding forehead and chin, and that turbid colour of what should be the white of the eye, which is apt to give the countenance a sinister expression. Their natural complexion is almost universally a chocolate colour, sometimes closely approaching to black, but certainly some shades lighter than the deep black which is often met with among the Negro tribes of Africa. The Papuans, when placed in circumstances favourable for the development of their powers, arc physic ally superior to other races of South-Eastern Asia. Some of the New Guinea tribes would bear a com parison, in point of stature and proportions, with the races of Europe, were it not for a deficiency about the lower extremities. Even the more diminutive mountain tribes are remarkable for energy and agility, qualities which had led to their being in great demand as slaves among their more civilised neighbours. With regard to mental capacity, also, they are certainly not inferior to the brown races ; but their impatience of control while in an independent state, utterly precludes that organization which would enable them to stand their ground against encroachment, and they invariably fall under the influence of the Malayans whenever the two races are brought into contact.
Within the geographical limits of the Indian Archipelago, the Papuans only appear, as inhabit ants of the sea-coast, in New Guinea and the islands immediately adjacent. In other parts of this region they are found only among the moun tain fastnesses, maintaining an unequal struggle with the brown races by whom they are sur rounded. In some of the Spice Islands, the group nearest to New Guinea, their extirpation is matter of history, as observed by Mr. Crawfurd (His tory of the Indian Archipelago, i. p. 18). In Ceram and Gilolo a few scattered remnants of the race still exist ; but they hold little or no inter course with their more civilised neighbours, flying into the thickets, which afford them shelter and concealment, on the first appearance of a stranger, experience having taught them that death or captivity will be their fate if they fall into the hands of their natural enemies. The character istics of the mountain Papuans must therefore be sought in those islands where their numerical strength permits them to lead a life more fitted for human beings than that of their hunted brethren. It is an error to suppose that these poor creatures disappear before civilisation. Their chief destroyers are the wild and warlike hunting tribes of the brown race; and, excepting the case of the Moluccas, wherever European civilisation has been introduced, the Papuans are more numer ous than elsewhere. In the Philippines, for example, according to an intelligent modern traveller, their number in the year 1842 amounted to 25,000 souls (M. Mallat, Les Philippines, etc., i. p. 97, Paris 1846). The large island of 3lysol, or Mnsual, which lies nearly midway between the north-western extreme of New Guinea and Ceram, is said to have been occupied exclusively by Papuans when this region was first visited by Europeans, and they still form the bulk of the inland population, but the villages of the coast are occupied by a mixed race, in which, how ever, the Papuan element prevails. The islands of Ceram, Ceram Laut, Bo, Poppo, Geby, Patani, Hock, and the south-eastern extremity of Gilolo, arc also occupied by people of the mixed race, who are remarkable for their maritime activity, and for their friendly disposition towards Europea strangers. The woolly-haired tribes are more numerous in the Philippines than in any other group of the Indian Archipelago, with the excep tion of New Guinea. The island on which they were first seen was named by Magellan, Isla dos Negros, to distinguish it from the adjacent island Zebu, where his ships remained for some months. Negros Island still contains a large population of Papuans, while Zebu is altogether free from them, and no record exists of their having over been found there. Samar and Leyte are similarly situated with Zebu.