2. It is well known that the Andaman Isles, in the Bay
of Bengal, are inhabited by a wild tribe of woolly-haired
blacks, who resemble in their physical characters the
Negroes of Guinea and the Papuas.of New Guinea They
appear to be the aborigines of these- islands. There are
also tribes of a similar character in the mountainous and
forest country in the interior of the Malayan Peninsula,
named Samang. It is therefore an established fact that a
black and woolly-haired race is among the aboriginal inhabitants
of Asia, and of countries not far from the borders'
of India.
The mountains of. Malacca form a chain of - hills running
southward almost in a continuous line, though in a different
direction, from the great Himalaya. They may be considered
as a termination or extension of that great system of
mountains. The idea has occurred to writers on physical
geography in different countries, that this woolly-haired tribe
may be the relics of a people once-more extensively, spread
over that high region, and that a Negro race may have been-
among the aboriginal inhabitants of thegreat Himalaya itself.
It was indeed supposed by some learned men in France not
long since, that historical documents in the Chinese language
preserved a full account and -description of Negro
races formerly spread over the Kuenlun, thtTmountain-
chain which, considerably to the northward of the Himalaya,
from the neighbourhood of the Upper Iloangho, in the northeastern
part of China, runs westward and forms the north-,
ern frontier of Little Tibet. Under this impression, which
appears to have originated in a mistake of M. Abel-Remusat,
the Geographical Society of Paris when proposing some
years since a prize for an essay on the origin of the black
Australian tribes, recommended that the discussion should
countenance is full and mild, and the topof the head painted to represent the
hair in several small curls of a black colour.” In another paper by Lieutenant
Mahony, on the remains of sculpture in Ceylon, an image of Buddha, at Calanee
near Colombo, is compared with one at Boodh Gya, in the province of Bahar*
in Hindustan. It is observed “ that both these statues agree in having crisped
hair and long pendent ear-rings.”—See Asiatic Researches, vol. 6, in 8vo, pp
436-448.
embrace the history ofrthê Negro races of Kuenlun .# This
. pröpoèal "occasioned ‘# ö m e surprise among the geographers
both of Paris and o f Berlin, but the affair was explained by
M. Klaproth, who discovered fhat the error originated with
the Japanese' edifer of a C h i n e s e compilation written in 1607
by Wang.khf, who‘described theTseng-sza or Black People
of Kuenliini“ This^name seems here to be the Chinese design
atioHf-of Pulos Condor, in the Indo-Chinese Sea, and the
supposed" N&grhes alluded to were the Papua or other dark-
coloured races of that island.f
■ :fódN^.'Rittei»'was.4^ f p ^ ® n that the existence of. a
Negfó' face;dn th©- HirnffhEya derived confirmation,; or act
least some degree- of probability from -the account-’given by
Mr. Traill-of the wandering Rawats or R a ^ who live in
» * « D^gramme.dea^Pvix de la §$eLét^,d£ Géo^aphie, AnMë 18^0, Pari§,?.p.
g. Rapport è, ifal i p iéMde GÉbgr^phie sjir.le ^es
lSS&^jtr. 107, pp. 17|-’186f.’ fHhttèr, Erdkund^Tk-^s. l u i 6 ; :Th. 4Ï6.
+ m ! Klaprpéi\aysV I unuTtupfrul owing^assage3n a^ um elê Cosinography
' Haï k o lif^ t^ i- lóÜ ^ pubïMId 'ü? ' - Ï 7 ^ ^ É<Éulrn'fdrf d%^ènfun
muflt.f&Wfilcónfounded with’ttte mouutain Kèèmltiii, tóttri&Whibh tlfe‘ Hoang-
bo4.turns, Tkern are two piou-atains .Jhu^ na^nefl situated tft ■ the fbqthward of
the seagsf P a r a c e lsj-ST h e^ J e^ i.^ edition |>j
kMprotb] ffiin the King’s
dë'sèribiDg^fïie “‘Blacks >of Kuenlun.-” ! 'T Tiie:h(assage VohSistfe ’Óf two Uiffifëht
notices/,one feeing a text from the original Cfeifese and tbö'öther a öomment
upon, iUn- Japanese,. Appended^mtóm^t^ iSf.,a .figure resembling .the. ^
Negroes seen occasionaily at Nangasaki,onb^do|^Dutch/shipWn^daced by '
way o f ill^ItritK)^ and replacing a f i^ ^ ^ r o ^ om Chinese emlfony which, as
Klaproth has copied it, lias noffing h>t tM** Negro cha'fAèferi The text* and
comment are really curious-asql^strativej ef (thmserfc of information;on ethnographical
Mbjqqts which, we are tq.expfect frpm the boasted accuracy of Clflnesf
documents.
Text o f 'ihe ' San tfhSaï fftou Hoei. *
« The abode óf the Tseng-sza, of Kuenlun, %!inetjie South-west Sea.! A’bird
is there found named Pheng, ^feiefe when flying obscures the sun. He is able
to sw a llqw c am ek The quills of his feathers sepq fqt water casks. ,Tflq
bodies of tfiv native people are as it wefe covered with a black varnish. They
are sold for slaves.”
Supplement o f the Japanese Editor.
6,In our days we see arriving'on ‘board the Dutch ships, folks whose body is
as it were covered with a black varnish. They are called Kouro-bo. Their
bodies are so light and nimble that they climb with ease to the tops of the
masts of ships.*’—Journal Asiatique, September, 1833.