Southward of the Mariana-islands, and eastward of the Malaccas, we find the country of the Papous, and New Guinea, which seem to be the most southern regions. Argensola tells us, that the Papous are as black as the Caffres, that their hair is frizly, and their countenance meagre and disagreeable. In this country, nevertheless, there are people as fair as the Germans; but their eyes are exceedingly weak and delicate. According to Le Maire, they are not only very black, but also savage and brutal; they wear rings in their ears and nostrils, and sometimes also in the partition of the nose; they likewise wear bracelets of mother-of-pearl above the elbows and on the wrists, and cover their heads with a cap made of the bark of a tree painted with several colours. They are well proportioned, have a sufficiency of beard; their teeth are black, as is also the hair, which, though frizly, is not so woolly as that of the negroes. They run very fast, and their weapons consist of clubs, spears, and sabres, made of hard wood, the use of iron being unknown to them. They also employ their teeth as weapons, and bite like dogs; beetle and pimento mixed with chalk make part of their food. The women are of

hideous aspect; their breasts hang down to the navel; their bellies are extremely prominent; their arms and limbs are small; and in their visages they resemble so many apes.
     Dampier says, that the natives of the island of Sabala, in New Guinea, are a class of tawny Indians, with long black hair, and whose manners are not much different from those of Mindanao, and the other oriental islands; but besides them, it is also peopled by negroes, with short woolly hair. Speaking of another island, which he calls Garret-Denys, he says, that the natives are black, vigorous, and well shaped; that their heads are large and round; that their hair, which they cut in different fashions, and tinge with different colours, as red, white, and yellow, is short and frizly; that their faces are large and round, and their noses thick and flat; that nevertheless their physiognomy would not be absolutely disagreeable, did they not thrust a kind of peg, about one inch thick and four inches long, across the nostrils, so that both ends may touch the cheek-bones; and that they pierce their ears with similar pegs.
     According to the same author, the natives of the coast of New Holland, which is in the

latitude of 16, and to the south of the island of Timor, are of all mankind perhaps the most miserable, and the most upon a level with the brutes. They are tall, erect, and thin; their limbs are long and slender; their heads are large; their foreheads round, and their eye-brows thick. Their eye-lids are always half shut; a habit they contract in their infancy to save their eyes from the gnats, and as they never open their eyes, they cannot see at a distance without raising their head, as if looking at something over their heads. Their noses and lips are thick, and their mouths large. They pull out, it would seem, the two front teeth of the upper jaw; for in neither sex, nor at any age, are they ever found to possess these teeth. They have no beard; their visage is long, nor does it contain one pleasing feature. Their hair is short, black, and frizly, like that of the negroes; and their skin is as black as those of Guinea. Their whole cloathing consists of a bit of the bark of a tree fastened round the middle. They have no houses, and they sleep on the bare ground, without any covering. They associate, men, women, and children, promiscuously, in troops, to the number of 20 or 30. Their only food is a small fish, which

they catch by forming reservoirs in little arms of the sea, and to every kind of grain or bread they are utter strangers.
     The natives of another part of New Holland, in the 22d or 23d degree of south latitude, seem to be of the same race as those we have now described; they are ugly to an extreme; their eyes have the same defect as those of the others; their skin is black, their hair frizly, and their bodies tall and slender.
     From these descriptions it appears, that the islands and coasts of the Indian ocean are peopled by men widely different from each other. The natives of Malacca, of Sumatra, and of the Nicobar islands, appear to drive their origin from those of the peninsula of Indus, and those of Java from the Chinese, the white men excepted, who go by the name of Chacrelas, and who must have sprung from the Europeans. The natives of the Malacca islands seem also in general to have originated from the Indians in the peninsula; but those of the island of Timor, which is near to New Holland, are almost similar to the people of that country. Those of Formosa, and the Mariana islands, resemble each other in size,

vigour, and features, and seem to form a race distinct from that of every other people around them. The Papus, and other nations in the neighbourhood of New Guinea, are real blacks, and resemble those of Africa, though at a prodigious distance from that continent, and separated from it by a space of 2,200 leagues of sea. The natives of New Holland resemble the Hottentots. But before we draw any conclusions from all these relations and differences, it is necessary to pursue our enquiries with respect to the different nations of Asia and Africa.
     The Moguls, and other nations of the peninsula of India, are not unlike the Europeans in shape and in features; but they differ more or less from them in colour. The Moguls are olive, though in the Indian language the word Mogul signifies White. The women are extremely delicate, and they bathe themselves very often: they are of an olive colour as well as the men; and, what is opposite to the women in Europe, their legs and thighs are long, and their bodies are short. Tavernier says, that after passing Lahor, and the kingdom of Cashmire, the women have naturally no hair on any part of the body, and the men have

hardly any beard. According to Thevenot, the Mogul women are very fruitful, though exceedingly chaste, and suffer so little from the pains of child-birth, that they are often abroad the day following. He adds, that in the kingdom of Decan they are allowed to marry, the male by his tenth, and the female by her eighth year; and at that age they not unoften have children; but the women who become mothers so soon usually cease bearing before they arrive at 30, and by that period they appear wrinkled, and marked with all the deformities of age. It is not an uncommon practice among them to have their skins pricked in the shape of flowers, and by painting them with the juices of plants, they perfectly resemble them.
     The natives of Bengal are more yellow than the Moguls. In disposition also they differ totally; their women, instead of being chaste, of all the Indian women are the most lascivious. In this country they carry on a great traffic of slaves, male and female. They also make numbers of eunuchs. They are comely and well-shaped, are fond of commerce, and have much mildness in their manners.
     The natives of the coast of Coromandel are more black than the people of Bengal; they

are also less civilized, and in general go nearly naked. Those of the coast of Malabar are still more black; their hair is black also, straight, and long, and are of the same size with the Europeans. Even in their towns men, women, and children, bathe promiscuously in public basins. Their women wear rings in their noses; they are married at the age of eight, and though black, or at least of a very deep brown, they yet are comely and well proportioned.
     The customs of the different Indian nations are all very singular, if not whimsical. The Banians eat nothing which has had life in it; they are even afraid to kill the smallest reptile, however offensive to them; they throw rice and beans into their rivers as food for the fishes, and grains of different kinds upon the earth for the birds and insects. When they meet a hunter, or a fisher, they earnestly beg of him to desist; if deaf to their entreaties, they offer him money for his gun, or his nets, and when no persuasion nor offer will avail, they trouble the water to frighten away the fishes, and cry with all their strength to put the birds and other game to flight.
     The Naires of Calicut form a class of

nobles, whose sole profession is that of arms. These men are handsome, and of a comely aspect, though of an olive colour, and though they lengthen their ears to such a pitch as to make them fall over their shoulders, and sometimes lower, they are tall, hardy, courageous, and highly expert in military exercise. These Naires are allowed no more than one wife, but the women may have as many husbands as they please. Father Tachard says, that they sometimes have not fewer than ten, whom they consider as so many slaves, subjected by their beauty. This privilege is annexed to nobility, from which the women of condition derive to themselves every possible advantage. Those of inferior rank are allowed but one husband, but they comfort themselves under this restraint by the caresses of strangers, with whom they carry on their illicit amours, in defiance of their husbands, who dare not even speak to them upon the subject. The mothers prostitute their daughters in their early infancy. The nobles, or Naires, seem to be of a race different from the lower order, for the latter, men as well as women, are more ugly, yellow, unshapely, and more diminutive. Among the Naires there are some whose legs are as thick

as the body of another man. This deformity they have from their birth, and not from any particular malady; and nevertheless they are exceedingly active. This race of men with thick legs have not increased much either among the Naires or any other classes of Indians; they are, however, in other places, and especially in Ceylon, where they are said to be the race of St. Thomas.
     The natives of Ceylon are not unlike those of the coast of Malabar. They are less black, but their ears are as large, and descend as low. They are of a mild aspect, and naturally nimble, alert, and lively. Their hair which is very black, the men wear short; the common people go almost naked; and the women, according to a custom pretty general in India, have their bosoms uncovered. In Ceylon there is a species of savages, who are called Bedas; they occupy a small district on the north part of the island, and seem to be of a peculiar race. The spot they inhabit is entirely covered with wood, amidst which they conceal themselves so closely that it is with great difficulty they are discovered. Their complexion is fair, and sometimes red, like that of the Europeans. Their language has not the smallest affinity

to that of any of the other Indians. They have no villages nor houses, nor hold any intercourse with the rest of mankind. Their weapons are bows and arrows, with which they kill a great number of boars, stages, and other animals; they never dress their meat, but sweeten it with honey, which they possess in great abundance. We are strangers to the origin of this tribe, which is far from being numerous, and of which every family lives separate. It appears that the Bedas of Ceylon, as well as the Chacrelas of Java, who are both fair and few in number, are of European extraction. It is possible that some European men and women might have formerly been deserted in these islands, or thrown upon them by shipwreck, and that for fear of being maltreated by the natives, they and their descendants have remained in the woods, and in the mountainous parts of the country, where, habituated to a savage life, they might at length consider it as preferable.
     It is supposed that the natives of the Maldivia islands are descended from those of Ceylon, yet they bear no resemblance, the latter being black and badly formed; the former shapely, and, their olive colour excepted, little different

from the Europeans. Besides they are a people composed of all nations. Those of the northern parts are more civilized than those of the southern. The women, notwithstanding their olive colour are handsome; and some of them are as fair as those of Europe. Their hair is universally black: this they consider as a beauty; and they studiously render it of that colour, by keeping the heads of their boys and girls constantly shaved every eight days till the age of eight or nine years. Another beauty is to have the hair very long, and very thick; and for this purpose they anoint their head and body with a perfumed oil. These islanders love exercise, and are industrious artists; they are superstitious and greatly addicted to women; and though the women are particularly cautious of exposing their bosoms, they are yet exceedingly debauched, and lavish of their favours.
     The natives of Cambia are of an ash-colour; and those bordering on the sea the most swarthy. In their accounts of Guzarat, the Dutch tell us, that the natives are all of yellow shades; that they are of the same size as the Europeans; that the women who are rarely exposed to the sun, are fairer than the men; and that some of them are little more swarthy than the Portuguese.

Mandelslo says, that the people of Guzarat are all of a colour more or less tawny or olive, according to the climate in which they are situated; that the men are strong and shapely, have large faces and black eyes; that the women are small but well proportioned, that they wear their hair long, also pegs in their nostrils, and large pendants in their ears. Few of them are deformed; some have a more clear complexion than others, yet they have all black straight hair. The ancient inhabitants of Guzarat are easily distinguished from the others by their colour, which is much more black, and by their being more stupid and barbarous.
     Goa is the chief Portuguese settlement in the Indies, and though it may have lost much of its former splendor, it is still, however, a rich and a commercial city. Here, at one time, more slaves were sold than in any other part of the world; and where the most beautiful women and girls, from all parts of Asia, became the property of the highest bidder. These slaves were of all colours, and were skilled in music, as well as in the arts of sewing and embroidery. The Indians were chiefly captivated with the Caffre girls from Mozambique,

who are all black. “It is remarkable, says Pyrard, that the sweat of the Indian men or women has no disagreeable smell; whereas of the negroes of Africa, the stench, when they are in any degree over-heated, is insupportable. He adds, that the Indian women are fond of the European men, and that they prefer them to the white men of the Indies.”
     The Persians are neighbours to the Moguls, and bear a considerable likeness to them; those especially who occupy the southern parts of Persia. The natives of Ormus, and of the provinces of Bascia and Balascia, are very brown and tawny; those of Chesmur, and the other provinces, in which the heat is less intense than in Ormus, are more fair; and those of the northern provinces are tolerably white. The women who inhabit the islands of the Persian gulf, are, according to the Dutch travellers, brown or yellow, and not in the least agreeable. They have several modes and customs similar to those of the Indian women, as having a hole formed through the cartilage of the nose, for the admission of a ring, and through the skin of the nose, immediately below the eyes, for that of a gold wire. Indeed this custom of piercing the nose, in order

to embellish it with rings and other trinkets, has extended much farther than the gulf of Persia. Many of the women in Arabia have an incision made through their nostrils for the same purpose; and with this people it is an act of gallantry for the husband to salute his wife through those rings, which are sometimes so large as to encompass the whole mouth.
     Xenophon, in speaking of the Persians, says, that they were generally fat and gross; Marcellinus, on the contrary, says, that in his time they were meagre and thin. Olearius adds, that they are to this day what the last mentioned author describes, that they are full of strength and vigour, and that their complexion is olive-coloured, their hair black, and their noses aquiline.
     That the Persian blood is naturally gross, says Chardin, is evident from the Guebres, who are a remnant of the ancient Persians, and who are ugly, ill shaped, and coarse skinned. It is evident also from the inhabitants of the provinces nearest to India, who, as they never form any alliances but among each other, are little less deformed than the Guebres. Throughout the rest of the kingdom the Persian blood has become highly refined, by intermixtures

with the Georgians and Circassians, two nations the most remarkable for the beauty of the inhabitants of any in the world. Thus in Persia there is hardly a man of distinction whose mother came not from Georgia or Circassia; and even the king himself is commonly, by the mother's side, sprung from a native of one or other of these countries. As it is many years since this mixture first took place, the Persian women, though still inferior in beauty to the Georgian, have become very handsome. The men are commonly tall, erect, fresh-coloured, and vigorous; their air is graceful, and their appearance engaging. The mildness of their climate, and the sobriety in which they are brought up, contribute much to their personal beauty. This they in no degree inherit from their fathers, for without the above mixture the men of rank in Persia would be extremely ugly and deformed, being descendants of the Tartars. The Persians, on the contrary, are polished and ingenious; their imagination is lively, quick, and fertile; though fond of arts and sciences, they are yet ambitious of warlike honours; they are proud and very fond of praise; have much familiarity in their tempers; they are amorous and voluptuous,

luxuriant, and prodigal, and are alike unacquainted with economy and commerce.
     Though in general tolerably sober, they are immoderate devourers of fruit; and nothing is more common than to see one man eat twelve pounds of melons. Some will eat three or four times that quantity, and by over-indulging their appetite for fruit, numbers lose their lives.
     Fine women of every colour are common in Persia, as they are brought thither by merchants, selected on account of their beauty. The white women come from Poland, from Muscovy, from Circassia, from Georgia, and from the frontiers of Great Tartary, the tawny ones from the territories of the Great Mogul, the kingdom of Golconda and Visapore; and the black ones from the coast of the Red Sea.
     Among the inferior classes of women a strange superstition prevails. Such as are barren imagine that they have only to pass under the suspended body of a gibbeted criminal to become fruitful; the influence of a male corpse, and that even from a distance, will communicate to them fecundity. When this expedient fails, they go into the canals which flow from the public baths, when they know a number

of men are bathing. Should the latter supposed specific prove alike ineffectual as the former, their last resource is to swallow that part of the prepuce which is cut off in the operation of circumcision; and this they deem a sovereign remedy against sterility.
     The inhabitants of Persia, of Turkey, of Arabia, of Egypt, and of all Barbary, may be considered as one and the same people, who, in the time of Mahomet and his successors, invaded immense territories, extended their dominions, and became exceedingly intermixed with the original natives of all those countries. The Persians, the Turks, and the Moors, are to a certain degree civilized; but the Arabs, have for the most part remained in a state of lawless independence. They live like the Tartars, without law, without government, and almost without society: theft, robbery, and violence, are authorized by their chiefs; they glory in their vices, and pay no respect to virtue; and all human institutions they despise, excepting such as are founded upon fanaticism and superstition.
     They are inured to labour, and to which they habituate their horses, allowing them refreshment but once in twenty-four hours.

Their horses are necessarily meagre, but are excellent coursers, and seem indefatigable.
     In general the Arabs live miserably: they have neither bread nor wine, nor do they take the trouble to cultivate the earth. Instead of bread, they use wild grain, mixed and kneaded with the milk of their camels, sheep, and goats. These they conduct in flocks from place to place, till they find a spot of sufficient herbage for them. On this spot they erect their tents, and live with their wives and children till the herbage is consumed, when they decamp and proceed in search of more.
     However hard may be their mode of living, and simple their food, yet the Arabs are robust and stout; they are of a tolerable size and rather handsome. As the generality of them go naked, or with the slight covering of a wretched shirt, their skins are much scorched by the heat of the sun. Those of the coasts of Arabia-Felix, and of the island of Scolora, are more diminutive; their complexion is either ash-coloured or tawny; and in form they resemble the Abyssinians.
     The Arabs paint their arms, lips, and different parts of their body, of a deep blue, which they penetrate into the flesh by means of a kind

of needle contrived on purpose, and it can never be effaced. This custom is also common among the negroes who traffic with the Mahometans. Some of the young girls among the Arabs paint various devices on their bodies, of a blue colour, which is done by vitriol on the point of a lancet, and this they consider as an embellishment to their beauty.
     La Boulaye says, that the Arabian women of the Desert paint their hands, lips, and chin, of a blue colour; that in their noses they mostly have gold or silver rings, of three inches in diameter; that though born fair, they yet lose all their complexion by being constantly exposed to the sun; that the young girls are very agreeable, and immoderately fond of singing; that their songs are not melancholy and plaintive like those of the Turks and Persians, but more strange, they raise their voices as much as possible, and articulate with prodigious velocity.
     “The Arabian princesses and ladies,” says another traveller, “are very beautiful, and being always sheltered from the sun, are very fair. The women of the inferior classes are not only naturally tawny, but are rendered much more so by the sun, and are of a disagreeable

figure. They prick their lips with needles, and cover them with gunpowder, mixed with ox-gall, by which the lips are rendered blue and livid ever after. In like manner they prick the cheeks, and each side of the mouth and chin. They draw a line of black along the eye-lids, as also on the outward corner of each eye, that it may appear more expanded, for large and prominent eyes are considered the principal beauty of the Eastern women. To express the beauty of women, the Arabs say, ‘She has the eyes of the antelope.’ To this animal they always compare their mistresses; and black eyes, or the eyes of the antelope, never fail to be the burden of their love songs. Than the antelope nothing can be more beautiful; and it particularly discovers a certain innocent fear, which bears a strong resemblance to the natural modesty and timidity of a young woman. The ladies, and women newly married, blacken the eye-brows, and make them unite on the middle of their forehead; they also prick their arms and hands, and form upon them figures of animals, flowers, &c. They also paint their nails of a reddish colour. The men paint the tails of their horses with this colour.