ditions by favouring mixed marriages, [79]
but Nature overcomes man's law, and climatic influence forces its
conditions on the half-breed. Indeed, were it not for new supplies of
extraneous blood infusion, European characteristics would, in time,
become indiscernible among the masses. Even on Europeans themselves,
in defiance of their own volition, the new physical conditions and
the influence of climate on their mental and physical organisms
are perceptible after two or three decades of years' residence in
the mid-tropics.

All the natives of the domesticated type have distinct Malay, or
Malay-Japanese, or Mongol features--prominent cheek-bones, large
and lively eyes, and flat noses with dilated nostrils. They are,
on the average, of rather low stature, very rarely bearded, and of a
copper colour more or less dark. Most of the women have no distinct
line of hair on the forehead. Some there are with a frontal hairy
down extending to within an inch of the eyes, possibly a reversion
to a progenitor (the _Macacus radiata_) in whom the forehead had
not become quite naked, leaving the limit between the scalp and the
forehead undefined. The hair of both males and females stands out from
the skin like bristles, and is very coarse. The coarseness of the
female's hair is, however, more than compensated by its luxuriance;
for, provided she be in a normal state of health, up to the prime of
life the hair commonly reaches down to the waist, and occasionally
to the ankles. The women are naturally proud of this mark of beauty,
which they preserved by frequent washings with _gogo_ (q.v.) and the
use of cocoanut oil (q.v.). Hare-lip is common. Children, from their
birth, have a spot at the base of the vertebrae, thereby supporting the
theory of Professor Huxley's _Anthropidae_ sub-order--or man (_vide_
Professor Huxley's "An Introduction to the Classification of Animals,"
p. 99. Published 1869).

Marriages between natives are usually arranged by the parents of
the respective families. The nubile age of females is from about
11 years. The parents of the young man visit those of the maiden, to
approach the subject delicately in an oratorical style of allegory. The
response is in like manner shrouded with mystery, and the veil is only
thrown off the negotiations when it becomes evident that both parties
agree. Among the poorer classes, if the young man has no goods to
offer, it is frequently stipulated that he shall serve on probati