The Papuans, especially on the Australian continent, are generally classed with the African negroes in such comparisons. We admit that a horde of Australian blacks, degraded by hunger and fatigue, emaciated and dirty, may, as they roam through the shadeless woods, the steppes and thick scrub of their native country, present a strange and brute-like appearance. And if the foreign intruder takes a coarse pleasure in giving drink to these savages, their immodest gestures may afford a revolting impression of their bestial nature. Yet the habits even of these dark-skinned savages are altogether different under more favourable conditions. Although of small stature, they are not badly proportioned, and their manners and bearing are capable of improvement, so that they can act as native police, messengers, etc. This was the case also with the natives of Queensland, Australia, whom I saw in the Zoological Gardens, Berlin, throwing the boomerang. Even in these tamed savages, however, we must note the projecting orbits, the deep depression between the forehead and nose, and the flatness of the latter organ. There are aged, wrinkled bushmen, negroes, Papuans, Malays, Japanese, and Mongols of inland Asia whose countenances are altogether pithecoid. And such a cast of face may even be found in Europe. Some years ago, Mr. Bond, a land-surveyor in British India, asserted that he had found the missing link between man and apes in the mountainous district of the Western Ghauts. And indeed, the race he describes seems to have a strong resemblance to apes. “The forehead is low and retreating. The lower part of the face projects like the muzzle of an ape; the legs are short and bent outwards. The trunk and arms are comparatively long. The hands and fingers are contracted so that the latter cannot be freely extended; a thick skin covers the hollow of the hand and the fingers, especially their tips; the nails are small and imperfect; the feet are broad, and covered both on their backs and soles with a thick skin. This tribe seems to worship nature. They have no fixed dwellings; they live chiefly on roots and honey, and exchange the latter, together with wax and other productions of their forests, for tobacco, clothes, and rice.”[20] Nothing more, so far as I am aware, has been published concerning this race. The description given above leaves much to be desired. The assertion respecting the contracted fingers is obscure, and such a condition is directly opposed to any resemblance with the flexible hand of apes. [Illustration: Fig. 25. Aidanill, hairless Australian. Fig. 26. The same in profile. ]