It Varies In Tint, However, More Than That Of The
Malay, And Is Sometimes A Dusky-Brown.
The hair is very peculiar,
being 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 Papuans' pride and glory.
The face is adorned with a
beard of the same frizzly nature as the hair of the head. The
arms, legs, and breast are also more or less clothed with hair of
a similar nature.
In stature the Papuan decidedly surpasses the Malay, and is
perhaps equal, or even superior, to the average of Europeans. The
legs are long and thin, and the hands and feet larger than in the
Malays. The face is somewhat elongated, the forehead flatfish,
the brows very prominent; the nose is large, rather arched and
high, the base thick, the nostrils broad, with the aperture
hidden, owing to the tip of the nose being elongated; the mouth
is large, the lips thick and protuberant. The face has thus an
altogether more European aspect than in the Malay, owing to the
large nose; and the peculiar form of this organ, with the more
prominent brows and the character of the hair on the head, face,
and body, enable us at a glance to distinguish the two races. I
have observed that most of these characteristic features are as
distinctly visible in children of ten or twelve years old as in
adults, and the peculiar form of the nose is always shown in the
figures which they carve for ornaments to their houses, or as
charms to wear round their necks.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 396 of 412
Words from 106814 to 107098
of 111511
