[The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russell Wallace]@TWC D-Link bookThe Malay Archipelago CHAPTER XL 20/29
The Negritos are, no doubt, quite a distinct race from the Malay; but yet, as some of them inhabit a portion of the continent, and others the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, they must be considered to have had, in all probability, an Asiatic rather than a Polynesian origin. Now, turning to the eastern parts of the Archipelago, I find, by comparing my own observations with those of the most trustworthy travellers and missionaries, that a race identical in all its chief features with the Papuan, is found in all the islands as far east as the Fijis; beyond this the brown Polynesian race, or some intermediate type, is spread everywhere over the Pacific.
The descriptions of these latter often agree exactly with the characters of the brown indigenes of Gilolo and Ceram. It is to be especially remarked that the brown and the black Polynesian races closely resemble each other.
Their features are almost identical, so that portraits of a New Zealander or Otaheitan will often serve accurately to represent a Papuan or Timorese, the darker colour and more frizzly hair of the latter being the only differences.
They are both tall races.
They agree in their love of art and the style of their decorations.
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