I Had Often Before Made The Same Mistake In
Paying A Malay For Some Trifle.
In no case, however, was his
pleasure visible on his countenance - a dull and stupid hesitation
only showing his surprise, which would be exhibited exactly in
the same way whether he was over or under paid.
These little
moral traits are of the greatest interest when taken in connexion
with physical features. They do not admit of the same ready
explanation by external causes which is so frequently applied to
the latter. Writers on the races of mankind have too often to
trust to the information of travellers who pass rapidly from
country to country, and thus have few opportunities of becoming
acquainted with peculiarities of national character, or even of
ascertaining what is really the average physical conformation of
the people. Such are exceedingly apt to be deceived in places
where two races have long, intermingled, by looking on
intermediate forms and mixed habits as evidences of a natural
transition from one race to the other, instead of an artificial
mixture of two distinct peoples; and they will be the more
readily led into this error if, as in the present case, writers
on the subject should have been in the habit of classing these
races as mere varieties of one stock, as closely related in
physical conformation as from their geographical proximity one
might suppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet seen, the
Malay and Papuan appear to be as widely separated as any two
human races that exist, being distinguished by physical, mental,
and moral characteristics, all of the most marked and striking
kind.
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