It Stood
Alone, And Was Quite Open On Every Side, So That Little Privacy
Could Be Had, But As I Only Intended To Stay A Short Time I Made
It Do.
Avery, few days dispelled all hopes I might have
entertained of making good collections in this place.
Nothing was
to be found in every direction but interminable tracts of reedy
grass, eight or ten feet high, traversed by narrow baths, often
almost impassable. Here and there were clumps of fruit trees,
patches of low wood, and abundance of plantations and rice
grounds, all of which are, in tropical regions, a very desert for
the entomologist. The virgin forest that I was in search of,
existed only on the summits and on the steep rocky sides of the
mountains a long way off, and in inaccessible situations. In the
suburbs of the village I found a fair number of bees and wasps,
and some small but interesting beetles. Two or three new birds
were obtained by my hunters, and by incessant inquiries and
promises Í succeeded in getting the natives to bring me some land
shells, among which was a very fine and handsome one, Helix
pyrostoma. I was, however, completely wasting my time here
compared with what I might be doing in a good locality, and after
a week returned to Ternate, quite disappointed with my first
attempts at collecting in Gilolo.
In the country round about Sahoe, and in the interior, there is a
large population of indigenes, numbers of whom came daily into
the village, bringing their produce for sale, while others were
engaged as labourers by the Chinese and Ternate traders. A
careful examination convinced me that these people are radically
distinct from all the Malay races. Their stature and their
features, as well as their disposition and habits, are almost the
same as those of the Papuans; their hair is semi-Papuan-neither
straight, smooth, and glossy, like all true Malays', nor so
frizzly and woolly as the perfect Papuan type, but always crisp,
waved, and rough, such as often occurs among the true Papuans,
but never among the Malays. Their colour alone is often exactly
that of the Malay, or even lighter. Of course there has been
intermixture, and there occur occasionally individuals which it
is difficult to classify; but in most cases the large, somewhat
aquiline nose, with elongated apex, the tall stature, the waved
hair, the bearded face, and hairy body, as well as the less
reserved manner and louder voice, unmistakeably proclaim the
Papuan type. Here then I had discovered the exact boundary lice
between the Malay and Papuan races, and at a spot where no other
writer had expected it. I was very much pleased at this
determination, as it gave me a clue to one of the most difficult
problems in Ethnology, and enabled me in many other places to
separate the two races, and to unravel their intermixtures.
On my return from Waigiou in 1860, I stayed some days on the
southern extremity of Gilolo; but, beyond seeing something more
of its structure and general character, obtained very little
additional information.
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