The Malay Archipelago

b >> by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago

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The Mammalia of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, yet
discovered, are only seventeen in number. Two of these are bats,
one is a pig of a peculiar species (Sus papuensis), and the rest
are all marsupials. The bats are, no doubt, much more numerous,
but there is every reason to believe that whatever new land
Mammalia man be discovered will belong to the marsupial order.
One of these is a true kangaroo, very similar to some of middle-
sized kangaroos of Australia, and it is remarkable as being the
first animal of the kind ever seen by Europeans. It inhabits
Mysol and the Aru Islands (an allied species being found in New
Guinea), and was seen and described by Le Brun in 1714, from
living specimens at Batavia. A much more extraordinary creature
is the tree-kangaroo, two species of which are known from New
Guinea. These animals do not differ very strikingly in form from
the terrestrial kangaroos, and appear to be but imperfectly
adapted to an arboreal life, as they move rather slowly, and do
not seem to have a very secure footing on the limb of a tree. The
leaping power of the muscular tail is lost, and powerful claws
have been acquired to assist in climbing, but in other respects
the animal seems better adapted to walls on terra firma. This
imperfect adaptation may be due to the fact of there being no
carnivore in New Guinea, and no enemies of any kind from which
these animals have to escape by rapid climbing. Four species of
Cuscus, and the small flying opossum, also inhabit New Guinea;
and there are five other smaller marsupials, one of which is the
size of a rat, and takes its place by entering houses and
devouring provisions.

The birds of New Guinea offer the greatest possible contrast to
the Mammalia, since they are more numerous, more beautiful, and
afford more new, curious, and elegant forms than those of any
other island on the globe. Besides the Birds of Paradise, which
we have already sufficiently considered, it possesses a number of
other curious birds, which in the eyes of the ornithologist
almost serves to distinguish it as one of the primary divisions
of the earth. Among its thirty species of parrots are the Great
Pluck Cockatoo, and the little rigid-tailed Nasiterna, the giant
and the dwarf of the whole tribe. The bare-headed Dasyptilus is
one of the most singular parrots known; while the beautiful
little long-tailed Charmosyna, and the great variety of
gorgeously-coloured lories, have no parallels elsewhere. Of
pigeons it possesses about forty distinct species, among which
are the magnificent crowned pigeons, now so well known in our
aviaries, and pre-eminent both for size and beauty; the curious
Trugon terrestris, which approaches the still more strange
Didunculus of Samoa; and a new genus (Henicophaps), discovered by
myself, which possesses a very long and powerful bill, quite
unlike that of any other pigeon. Among its sixteen kingfishers,
it possesses the carious hook-billed Macrorhina, and a red and
blue Tanysiptera, the most beautiful of that beautiful genus.
Among its perching birds are the fine genus of crow-like
starlings, with brilliant plumage (Manucodia); the carious pale-
coloured crow (Gymnocorvus senex); the abnormal red and black
flycatcher (Peltops blainvillii); the curious little boat-billed
flycatchers (Machaerirhynchus); and the elegant blue flycatcher-
wrens (Todopsis).

The naturalist will obtain a clearer idea of the variety and
interest of the productions of this country, by the statement,
that its land birds belong to 108 genera, of which 20 are
exclusively characteristic of it; while 35 belong to that limited
area which includes the Moluccas and North Australia, and whose
species of these genera have been entirely derived from New
Guinea. About one-half of the New Guinea genera are found also in
Australia, about one-third in India and the Indo-Malay islands.

A very curious fact, not hitherto sufficiently noticed, is the
appearance of a pure Malay element in the birds of New Guinea. We
find two species of Eupetes, a curious Malayan genus allied to
the forked-tail water-chats; two of Alcippe, an Indian and Malay
wren-like form; an Arachnothera, quite resembling the spider-
catching honeysuckers of Malacca; two species of Gracula, the
Mynahs of India; and a curious little black Prionochilus, a saw-
billed fruit pecker, undoubtedly allied to the Malayan form,
although perhaps a distinct genus. Now not one of these birds, or
anything allied to them, occurs in the Moluccas, or (with one
exception) in Celebes or Australia; and as they are most of them
birds of short flight, it is very difficult to conceive how or
when they could have crossed the space of more than a thousand
miles, which now separates them from their nearest allies. Such
facts point to changes of land and sea on a large scale, and at a
rate which, measured by the time required for a change of
species, must be termed rapid. By speculating on such changes, we
may easily see how partial waves of immigration may have entered
New Guinea, and how all trace of their passage may have been
obliterated by the subsequent disappearance of the intervening
land.

There is nothing that the study of geology teaches us that is
more certain or more impressive than the extreme instability of
the earth's surface. Everywhere beneath our feet we find proofs
that what is land has been sea, and that where oceans now spread
out has once been land; and that this change from sea to land,
and from land to sea, has taken place, not once or twice only,
but again and again, during countless ages of past time. Now the
study of the distribution of animal life upon the present surface
of the earth, causes us to look upon this constant interchange of
land and sea--this making and unmaking of continents, this
elevation and disappearance of islands--as a potent reality,
which has always and everywhere been in progress, and has been
the main agent in determining the manner in which living things
are now grouped and scattered over the earth's surface. And when
we continually come upon such little anomalies of distribution as
that just now described, we find the only rational explanation of
them, in those repeated elevations and depressions which have
left their record in mysterious, but still intelligible
characters on the face of organic nature.

The insects of New Guinea are less known than the birds, but they
seem almost equally remarkable for fine forms and brilliant
colours. The magnificent green and yellow Ornithopterae are
abundant, and have most probably spread westward from this point
as far as India. Among the smaller butterflies are several
peculiar genera of Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae, remarkable for
their large size, singular markings, or brilliant coloration. The
largest and most beautiful of the clear-winged moths (Cocytia
d'urvillei) is found here, as well as the large and handsome
green moth (Nyctalemon orontes). The beetles furnish us with many
species of large size, and of the most brilliant metallic lustre,
among which the Tmesisternus mirabilis, a longicorn beetle of a
golden green colour; the excessively brilliant rose-chafers,
Lomaptera wallacei and Anacamptorhina fulgida; one of the
handsomest of the Buprestidae, Calodema wallacei; and several
fine blue weevils of the genus Eupholus, are perhaps the most
conspicuous. Almost all the other orders furnish us with large or
extraordinary forms. The curious horned flies have already been
mentioned; and among the Orthoptera the great shielded
grasshoppers are the most remarkable. The species here figured
(Megalodon ensifer) has the thorax covered by a large triangular
horny shield, two and a half inches long, with serrated edges, a
somewhat wavy, hollow surface, and a faun median line, so as very
closely to resemble a leaf. The glossy wing-coverts (when fully
expanded, more than nine inches across) are of a fine green
colour and so beautifully veined as to imitate closely some of
the large shining tropical leaves. The body is short, and
terminated in the female by a long curved sword-like ovipositor
(not seen in the cut), and the legs are all long and strongly-
spined. These insects are sluggish in their motions, depending
for safety on their resemblance to foliage, their horny shield
and wing-coverts, and their spiny legs.

The large islands to the east of New Guinea are very little
known, but the occurrence of crimson lories, which are quite
absent from Australia, and of cockatoos allied to those of New
Guinea and the Moluccas, shows that they belong to the Papuan
group; and we are thus able to define the Malay Archipelago as
extending eastward to the Solomon's Islands. New Caledonia and
the New Hebrides, on the other hand, seem more nearly allied to
Australia; and the rest of the islands of the Pacific, though
very poor in all forms of life, possess a few peculiarities which
compel us to class them as a separate group. Although as a matter
of convenience I have always separated the Moluccas as a distinct
zoological group from New Guinea, I have at the same time pointed
out that its fauna was chiefly derived from that island, just as
that of Timor was chiefly derived from Australia. If we were
dividing the Australian region for zoological purposes alone, we
should form three great groups: one comprising Australia, Timor,
and Tasmania; another New Guinea, with the islands from Bouru to
the Solomon's group; and the third comprising the greater part of
the Pacific Islands.

The relation of the New Guinea fauna to that of Australia is very
close. It is best marked in the Mammalia by the abundance of
marsupials, and the almost complete absence of all other
terrestrial forms. In birds it is less striking, although still
very clear, for all the remarkable old-world forms which are
absent from the one are equally so from the other, such as
Pheasants, Grouse, Vultures, and Woodpeckers; while Cockatoos,
Broad-tailed Parrots, Podargi, and the great families of the
Honeysuckers and Brush-turkeys, with many others, comprising no
less than twenty-four genera of land-birds, are common to both
countries, and are entirely confined to them.

When we consider the wonderful dissimilarity of the two regions
in all those physical conditions which were once supposed to
determine the forms of life-Australia, with its open plains,
stony deserts, dried up rivers, and changeable temperate climate;
New Guinea, with its luxuriant forests, uniformly hot, moist, and
evergreen--this great similarity in their productions is almost
astounding, and unmistakeably points to a common origin. The
resemblance is not nearly so strongly marked in insects, the
reason obviously being, that this class of animals are much more
immediately dependent on vegetation and climate than are the more
highly organized birds and Mammalia. Insects also have far more
effective means of distribution, and have spread widely into
every district favourable to their development and increase. The
giant Ornithopterae have thus spread from New Guinea over the
whole Archipelago, and as far as the base of the Himalayas; while
the elegant long-horned Anthribidae have spread in the opposite
direction from Malacca to New Guinea, but owing to unfavourable
conditions have not been able to establish themselves in
Australia. That country, on the other hand, has developed a
variety of flower-haunting Chafers and Buprestidae, and numbers
of large and curious terrestrial Weevils, scarcely any of which
are adapted to the damp gloomy forests of New Guinea, where
entirely different forms are to be found. There are, however,
some groups of insects, constituting what appear to be the
remains of the ancient population of the equatorial parts of the
Australian region, which are still almost entirely confined to
it. Such are the interesting sub-family of Longicorn coleoptera--
Tmesisternitae; one of the best-marked genera of Buprestidae--
Cyphogastra; and the beautiful weevils forming the genus
Eupholus. Among butterflies we have the genera Mynes, Hypocista,
and Elodina, and the curious eye-spotted Drusilla, of which last
a single species is found in Java, but in no other of the western
islands.

The facilities for the distribution of plants are still greater
than they are for insects, and it is the opinion of eminent
botanists, that no such clearly-defined regions pan be marked out
in botany as in zoology. The causes which tend to diffusion are
here most powerful, and have led to such intermingling of the
floras of adjacent regions that none but broad and general
divisions can now be detected. These remarks have an important
bearing on the problem of dividing the surface of the earth into
great regions, distinguished by the radical difference of their
natural productions. Such difference we now know to be the direct
result of long-continued separation by more or less impassable
barriers; and as wide oceans and great contrast: of temperature
are the most complete barriers to the dispersal of all
terrestrial forms of life, the primary divisions of the earth
should in the main serve for all terrestrial organisms. However
various may be the effects of climate, however unequal the means
of distribution; these will never altogether obliterate the
radical effects of long-continued isolation; and it is my firm
conviction, that when the botany and the entomology of New Guinea
and the surrounding islands become as well known as are their
mammals and birds, these departments of nature will also plainly
indicate the radical distinctions of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-
Malayan regions of the great Malay Archipelago.

CHAPTER XL.

THE RACES OF MAN IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

PROPOSE to conclude this account of my Eastern travels, with a
short statement of my views as to the races of man which inhabit
the various parts of the Archipelago, their chief physical and
mental characteristics, their affinities with each other and with
surrounding tribes, their migrations, and their probable origin.

Two very strongly contrasted races inhabit the Archipelago--the
Malays, occupying almost exclusively the larger western half of
it, and the Papuans, whose headquarters are New Guinea and
several of the adjacent islands. Between these in locality, are
found tribes who are also intermediate in their chief
characteristics, and it is sometimes a nice point to determine
whether they belong to one or the other race, or have been formed
by a mixture of the two.

The Malay is undoubtedly the most important of these two races,
as it is the one which is the most civilized, which has come most
into contact with Europeans, and which alone has any place in
history. What may be called the true Malay races, as
distinguished from others who have merely a Malay element in
their language, present a considerable uniformity of physical and
mental characteristics, while there are very great differences of
civilization and of language. They consist of four great, and a
few minor semi-civilized tribes, and a number of others who may
be termed savages. The Malays proper inhabit the Malay peninsula,
and almost all the coast regions of Borneo and Sumatra. They all
speak the Malay language, or dialects of it; they write in the
Arabic character, and are Mahometans in religion. The Javanese
inhabit Java, part of Sumatra, Madura, Bali, and Bart of Lombock.
They speak the Javanese and Kawi languages, which they write in a
native character. They are now Mahometans in Java, but Brahmins
in Bali and Lombock. The Bugis are the inhabitants of the greater
parts of Celebes, and there seems to be an allied people in
Sumbawa. They speak the Bugis and Macassar languages, with
dialects, and have two different native characters in which they
write these. They are all Mahometans. The fourth great race is
that of the Tagalas in the Philippine Islands, about whom, as I
did not visit those Islands, I shall say little. Many of them are
now Christians, and speak Spanish as well as their native tongue,
the Tagala. The Moluccan-Malays, who inhabit chiefly Ternate,
Tidore, Batchian, and Amboyna, may be held to form a fifth
division of semi-civilized Malays. They are all Mahometans, but
they speak a variety of curious languages, which seem compounded
of Bugis and Javanese, with the languages of the savage tribes of
the Moluccas.

The savage Malays are the Dyaks of Borneo; the Battaks and other
wild tribes of Sumatra; the Jakuns of the Malay Peninsula; the
aborigines of Northern Celebes, of the Sula island, and of part
of Bouru.

The colour of all these varied tribes is a light reddish brown,
with more or less of an olive tinge, not varying in any important
degree over an extent of country as large as all Southern Europe.
The hair is equally constant, being invariably black and
straight, and of a rather coarse texture, so that any lighter
tint, or any wave or curl in it, is an almost certain proof of
the admixture of some foreign blood. The face is nearly destitute
of beard, and the breast and limbs are free from hair. The
stature is tolerably equal, and is always considerably below that
of the average European; the body is robust, the breast well
developed, the feet small, thick, and short, the hands small and
rather delicate. The face is a little broad, and inclined to be
flat; the forehead is rather rounded, the brows low, the eyes
black and very slightly oblique; the nose is rather small, not
prominent, but straight and well-shaped, the apex a little
rounded, the nostrils broad and slightly exposed; the cheek-bones
are rather prominent, the mouth large, the lips broad and well
cut, but not protruding, the chin round and well-formed.

In this description there seems little to object to on the score
of beauty, and yet on the whole the Malays are certainly not
handsome. In youth, however, they are often very good-looking,
and many of the boys and girls up to twelve or fifteen years of
age are very pleasing, and some have countenances which are in
their way almost perfect. I am inclined to think they lose much
of their good looks by bad habits and irregular living. At a very
early age. they chew betel and tobacco almost incessantly; they
suffer much want and exposure in their fishing and other
excursions; their lives are often passed in alternate starvation
and feasting, idleness and excessive labour,--and this naturally
produces premature old age and harshness of features.

In character the Malay is impassive. He exhibits a reserve,
diffidence, and even bashfulness, which is in some degree
attractive, and leads the observer to thinly that the ferocious
and bloodthirsty character imputed to the race must be grossly
exaggerated. He is not demonstrative. His feelings of surprise,
admiration, or fear, are never openly manifested, and are
probably not strongly felt. He is slow and deliberate in speech,
and circuitous in introducing the subject he has come expressly
to discuss. These are the main features of his moral nature, and
exhibit themselves in every action of his life.

Children and women are timid, and scream and run at the
unexpected sight of a European. In the company of men they are
silent, and are generally quiet and obedient. When alone the
Malay is taciturn; he neither talks nor sings to himself. When
several are paddling in a canoe, they occasionally chant a
monotonous and plaintive song. He is cautious of giving offence
to his equals. He does not quarrel easily about money matters;
dislikes asking too frequently even for payment of his just
debts, and will often give them up altogether rather than quarrel
with his debtor. Practical joking is utterly repugnant to his
disposition; for he is particularly sensitive to breaches of
etiquette, or any interference with the personal liberty of
himself or another. As an example, I may mention that I have
often found it very difficult to get one Malay servant to waken
another. He will call as loud as he can, but will hardly touch,
much less shake his comrade. I have frequently had to waken a
hard sleeper myself when on a land or sea journey.

The higher classes of Malays are exceedingly polite, and have all
the quiet ease and dignity of the best-bred Europeans. Yet this
is compatible with a reckless cruelty and contempt of human life,
which is the dark side of their character. It is not to be
wondered at, therefore, that different persons give totally
opposite accounts of them--one praising them for their soberness,
civility, and good-nature; another abusing them for their deceit,
treachery, and cruelty. The old traveller Nicolo Conti, writing
in 1430, says: "The inhabitants of Java and Sumatra exceed every
other people in cruelty. They regard killing a man as a mere
jest; nor is any punishment allotted for such a deed. If any one
purchase a new sword, and wish to try it, he will thrust it into
the breast of the first person he meets. The passers-by examine
the wound, and praise the skill of the person who inflicted it,
if he thrust in the weapon direct." Yet Drake says of the south
of Java: "The people (as are their kings) are a very loving,
true, and just-dealing people;" and Mr. Crawfurd says that the
Javanese, whom he knew thoroughly, are "a peaceable, docile,
sober, simple, and industrious people." Barbosa, on the other
hand, who saw them at Malacca about 1660, says: "They are a
people of great ingenuity, very subtle in all their dealings;
very malicious, great deceivers, seldom speaking the truth;
prepared to do all manner of wickedness, and ready to sacrifice
their lives."

The intellect of the Malay race seems rather deficient. They are
incapable of anything beyond the simplest combinations of ideas,
and have little taste or energy for the acquirement of knowledge.
Their civilization, such as it is, does not seem to be
indigenous, as it is entirely confined to those nations who have
been converted to the Mahometan or Brahminical religions.

I will now give an equally brief sketch of the other great race
of the Malay Archipelago, the Papuan.

The typical Papuan race is in many respects the very opposite of
the Malay, and it has hitherto been very imperfectly described.
The colour of the body is a deep sooty-brown or black, sometimes
approaching, but never quite equalling, the jet-black of some
negro races. 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.

The moral characteristics of the Papuan appear to me to separate
him as distinctly from the Malay as do his form and features. He
is impulsive and demonstrative in speech and action. His emotions
and passions express themselves in shouts and laughter, in yells
and frantic leapings. Women and children take their share in
every discussion, and seem little alarmed at the sight of
strangers and Europeans.

Of the intellect of this race it is very difficult to judge, but
I am inclined to rate it somewhat higher than that of the Malays,
notwithstanding the fact that the Papuans have never yet made any
advance towards civilization. It must be remembered, however,
that for centuries the Malays have been influenced by Hindoo,
Chinese, and Arabic immigration, whereas the Papuan race has only
been subjected to the very partial and local influence of Malay
traders. The Papuan has much more vital energy, which would
certainly greatly assist his intellectual development. Papuan
slaves show no inferiority of intellect. compared with Malays,
but rather the contrary; and in the Moluccas they are often
promoted to places of considerable trust. The Papuan has a
greater feeling for art than the Malay. He decorates his canoe,
his house, and almost every domestic utensil with elaborate
carving, a habit which is rarely found among tribes of the Malay
race.

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