colony which,'to^uropeans, have been lost for ages; and their long intercourse
with the Greenland tribes has led them to adopt the superstitions of that people
and more or. less their language, and mode of life.
IS. TH E MALAY FAMILY.
The head of the Malay is large, and the nose short, depressed, and flattened
towards the nostrils: the eyes are small, black, oblique and expressive; the face
is broad, copipressed, and very prominent, and the mouth and lips are large.
Their limbs are thick and they are below the middle stature. The color of the
Malay is a decided brown, often with a bronze tint. Their hair. is long, black
and lank; but.they have little heard, and this they for the most part eradicate.
The skull of the Malay presents the following characters: the forehead is
low;, moderately prominent and arched: the occiput is much compressed, and
often projecting at its upper and lateral parts: the orbits are oblique, oblong and
remarkably quadrangular, the upper and lower margins being almost straight and
parallel: the nasal hones are broad, and flattened, or even concave: the-cheek
hones are high and expanded: the jaws are greatly projected; and the upper jaw,
together with the teeth, is much inclined outwards, and often nearly horizontal.
The teeth are by nature remarkably fine, hut are almost uniformly filed away in
front to enable them to imbibe the color of the betel nut, which renders them
black and unsightly.
The facial angle is less than in the Mongol and Chinese; for: the average,
derived from a measurement of thirteen perfect skulls in my possession, gives
about seventy-three degrees.
Among a considerable number of Malays whom I have seen in this country
as mariners, there has been a remarkable uniformity of appearance ; as much so,
indeed, as if they had belonged to the same social family. Even their complexion
seems little altered by the diversified latitudes they inhabit; and Mr. Crawford
has remarked that they are a very distinct people, strikingly alike among them--
selves, hut unlike all other nations.*
The Malays are a strictly maritime nation, making considerable voyages in
their light vessels, and for the most part establishing themselves on the rivers and
along the sea coasts of the islands they invade. They possess an active and
* Indian Archipel. v. I, p. 25.—M. Lesson (Voy. du Coquille, Zool. p. 43,) supposes the Malays
to be a mixed race of indo-Caucasians and Mongols.
enterprising spirit, but in their temper are ferocious and vindictive. Caprice and
treachery are among their characteristic vices; and their habitual piracies on the
vessels of all nations, are often conducted under the mask of peace and friendship.
The Malays are said, by the annals of their nation, not to be natives of
Malacca, as their name imports, and as strangers have generally supposed, but to
have originated in the district of Menangkabao, in the island of Sumatra. They
date their first migrations from the parent hive in the year 1160, first fixing
themselves in the peninsula of Malacca, where they built the city of Singapore;
and it was from this colony, and not from the parent stock, that the Malayan name
and nation were so widely disseminated over the Archipelago.* The Malays
are now proverbially scattered throughout the Indian islands, and have especially
established themselves in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Amboyna, Formosa, Celebes, the
Philippines, the Moluccas, and parts of Ceylon and Madagascar.
The Malay inhabitants of Sumatra correspond, in their exterior, to the
characters already given of this race, excepting that their complexion is yellower,
and they are said» to flatten the heads and noses of their children.! In the interior
of tjie island live the Battas, a' people of still fairer complexion, hut the most
habitual and remorseless cannibals on the face of the earth. According to Sir
Stamford Raffles “they have a regular government and deliberative assemblies; they
possess a peculiar language and written character, can generally write, and have a
talent for eloquence: they acknowledge a God, are fair and honorable in their
dealings, crimes amongst them are few, and their country is highly cultivated;
and yet these people, so far advanced in civilisation, are cannibals upon principle
and system.” Nay more, they not only eat their victims, hut eat them alive; in
other words they do not previously put them to death; and these victims are
their own people, and not unfrequently their own relations. Su.h is tie penalty
for adultery, midnight robbery, for intermarrying in the same tribe, and for
treacherous attacks on a house, village or person. Prisoners taken in war are
eaten at once; and the slain are devoured in like manner.!
The inhabitants of J ava are of a yellowish complexion, and remarkably well
formed. Their wrists and ankles are very small, although they are otherwise of
a robust make, and resemble the Chinese, between whom and the other Malays
they are a connecting link. The Javanese are more tractable and less sanguinary
* Crawford, Indian Archipel. II, p. 376. t Marsden’s Sumatra, p. S8.
t Life and Public Services of Sir S. Raffles, p. 425. Quoted in the Library of Entertaining
Knowledge, article New Zealanders, p. 107.