Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
From all these accounts we may infer, that the inhabitants of Java
greatly resemble the Tartars and Chinese; while those of Malacca,
Sumatra, and of the neighbouring little islands differ from them
equally in the features of the face, and in the form of the body.
This may have very naturally happened; for the peninsula of Malacca,
the islands of Sumatra and Java, as well as all the other islands
of the Indian Archipelago, must have been peopled by the nations of
the neighbouring continents, and even by the Europeans, who have had
settlements there for these three hundred years. This must have
occasioned a very great variety in the inhabitants both in the features
and colour, and in the form of the body and proportion of the limbs.
In the island of Java, for example, there is a people called the
_Chacrelas_, who are altogether different, not only from the natives
of the island, but even from all the other Indians. The Chacrelas
are white and fair, and their eyes are so weak that, incapable of
supporting the light of the sun, they go about with them lowered and
almost closed till night, when their vision becomes more strong.
According to Pyrard, all the inhabitants of the Malacca islands are
similar to those of Sumatra and Java in manners, mode of living,
habits, language, and colour. According to Maldeslo, the men are rather
black than tawny, and the women are more fair. They have all, he says,
black hair, large eyes, eye-brows and eye-lids, and bodies vigorous
and robust. They are also nimble and active; and though their hair
very soon becomes grey, they yet live to a great age. Each island, he
further remarks, has its particular language; nor can it be doubted but
that they have been peopled by different nations. The inhabitants of
Borneo and of Baly, he adds, are rather black than tawny; but according
to other travellers, they are only brown like the other Indians.
Carreri says, that the inhabitants of Ternate are of the same colour
as those of Malacca, which is a little darker than those of Philippine
islands; that their countenances are comely; that the men are more
shapely than the women, and that both bestow particular care upon their
hair.
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