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 have found shelter among the mountain fastnesses, maintaining an unequal struggle with the brown races by whom they are surrounded ; and in some of the Spice Islands, the group nearest to New Guinea, their extirpa tion is matter of history. In Ceram and Gillolo a few scattered remnants of the race still exist ; but they hold little or no intercourse 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 might be their fate if they fall into the their enemies. The characteristics 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 hooted brethren. It is an error to suppose that these Negro races disappear before civilisation. Their chief destroyers have been the will and war like hunting tribes of the brown race ; and, except ing the case of the Moluccas, wherever European civilisation has been introduced, the Papuans are more numerous than elsewhere. The large island of Mysol or Msesual, which lies nearly midway between the nortli-western extreme of New Guinea and Ceram, is said to have been occupied exclus ively 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 the Papuan element, however, prevails. The islands of Goram, Ceram Laut, Bo, Poppo, Geby, Patani, Hoek, and the south-eastern extremity of Gillolo, are also occupied by people of the mixed race, who are remarkable for their maritime activity, and for their friendly disposition towards European 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. M. Mallat (Les Philippines, ' i. p. 97, Paris 1846) gave the amount of the ` Negrito ' population in 1842 as 25,000. 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 still contains a largo population of Papuans ; while Zebu, Samar, and Leyte are altogether free from them, and no record exists of their having ever been found there. But Mindanao and Mindoro contain several tribes of Negritos, and they form the chief population of the less accessible parts in the mountain ranges of Luzon, the largest island of the Philippine group. The accounts of the Negrito race given by the early Spanish navigators per fectly apply to their present condition. They are described as being smaller, more slightly built, and less dark in colour, than the Negroes of Africa, and as having features less marked with the Negro characteristics, but as having woolly hair.
New Guinea, etc.—The whole of the great island of New Guinea, the Ke and Aru Islands, with Mysol, Salwatti, and Wagiou, are inhabited almost exclusively by the typical Papuan, and the same Papuan race extends over the islands cast of New Guinea as far as the Fiji Islands. The people on the coast of New Guinea are in some places mixed with the browner races of the Moluccas. In the typical Papuan, the colour of the body somewhat varies : generally it is a deep sooty - brown or black, somewhat approaching, but never quite equalling, the -jet-black of some Negro races, but it is occasionally a dusky brown. The hair is harsh, dry, and frizzly, growing in little tufts or curls, which in youth are very short and compact, but afterwards grow out to a considerable length, forming the compact frizzled mop which is the Papuan's pride and glory. The face has a beard of the same frizzly hair ; and the arms, legs, and breast are also more or less clothed with hair of a similar kind. In stature, the Papuan is superior to the Malay, and the equal or superior of the average European. The legs are long and thin, and the hands and A feet larger than those of the Malay. The face is somewhat elonpted ; the forehead flattish, tin brows very prominent ; the nose is largo, rather arched and high, the base thick, the nostril, broad, with the aperture bidden, owing to the tip of the nose being elongated ; the mouth is large, the lips thick and protuberant. He in impulsive and demonstrative in speech and action ; Inn eine tions and passions express themselves in shout,' and laughter, in yells and frantic leaping,. Women and children take their share in every discussion. Tho Papuan has much vital energy (?) In the Moluccas, Papuan slaves are often promoted to places of considerable trust. Ho decorates his canoe, his house, his domestic utensils, with elabo rate carving. They are often violent and cruel
towards their children. If the tide of European civilisation turn towards New Guinea, the Papuan, like the true Polynesian of the farthest isles of tho Pacific, will no doubt become extinct. A warlike and energetic people, who will not submit to national dependence or to domestic servitude, must disappear before the white man. The Papuan race . is found in all the islands as far east as the Fiji. Mysol and Wagiou are Papuan, mixed, partly.
The Negroes of New Guinea are in various states of civilisation. Some of the rudest dwell in miserable huts, and seek a bare subsistence by the chase or the spontaneous productions of the forest. There are, however, other Negro tribes living on the coasts who have made some advance in civilisation. These dwell by whole tribes in huge barn-like houses raised on posts, like those of the wild inhabitants of Borneo, but ruder. Their beard is crisp. The forehead is high and narrow; large, dark-brown, or black ; nose flat and road ; mouth large, lips thick, and teeth good ; few have regular features, and most are apathetic. The ordinary men wear a waist-cloth made of the bark of a tree, called Mar, which is wrapped round the waist and passed between the legs. Women wear a short sarong to the knee, generally of blue cloth. Men and women tattoo their bodies on occasions, by pricking the skin with a fish bone and rubbing in lamp-black. The Papuans of Dori worship, or rather consult, an idol called Karwar, a figure rudely carved in wood and holding a shield. Every house is provided with the idol, which is usually about 18 inches high, is exceed ingly disproportioned, the head being unusually large, the nose long and sharp at the point, and the mouth wide and well provided with teeth. The natives have also a number of ' fetishes,' generally carved figures of reptiles, which are suspended from the roofs of the houses ; and the posts are also ornamented with similar figures cut into the wood. The Dori people are a seafaring people, and are expert swimmers and divers. Their prahus have outriggers, and aro excavated from the trunk of a single tree. Their food consists of millet, obi, maize, a little rice. fish and hogs' flesh, and fruits. Sago is imported in small quantities. Theft is considered a grave offence ; they are chaste, and marry one wife. The dresses of the chiefs among the natives of Dori consist of tho saluer, or short drnwers of the Malaya, and the kabays, or loose coat of calico, with a handkerchief tied round the head. The common men, and the chiefs themselves, when not in the presence of strangers, wear only a chawat, or waist-cloth of the bark of the fig, or of the paper mulberry tree, beaten out like the bark cloth of the Polynesians. The Papuans inhabit the shore, the Arfak dwell in the moun tains and interior. Both these main classes are divided into different tribes, who are generally in a state of hostility with each other. The Papuans of Dori resemble those of Mysol, which is called Long Island in the English charts, and lies about 10 miles to the east of Dori. In general they are short in stature, the most 51, very few 5i feet high, but muscular and well made. Their colour is dark-brown, inclining to black in some. Two albino children were seen there (of the same mother), with white skin rather passing to yellow, with some brown spots on the back, and with white crisped hair and blue or green eyes. The Papuans of Dori are generally affected with skin diseases ; in some the skin looks as if it were covered with scales (ichthyosis). The hair is black and crisped. It has a reddish tint at the outer ends. They usually wear the hair the full length to which it will grow, which makes their head, from a distance, appear twice its actual size. In general they bestow little care upon it, so that it has a disorderly appearance, and gives them a wild aspect. There are some, however, whose hair, whether through art or naturally, is smooth and even, as if it had been clipped. The men wear a comb in their hair, consisting of a piece of bamboo having three or four long points on the under side, like a fork, running into a point above, and generally carved. This comb, which is stuck in obliquely at the side, has a small strip of coloured cotton fastened at the top, which hangs out like a streamer. The women do not wear this ornament. The beard is strongly crisped, but short ; the hairs of the beard are sometimes pulled out. Most Papuans have a high but small forehead, large dark-brown or black eyes, flat broad noses, large mouths, with thick lips and good teeth ; many, however, have thin crooked noses and thin lips, which give them a European physiognomy. • They pierce the ears, and wear some ornaments in them, or their tobacco, which they roll in pandan leaves, and of which they are great consumers.