bringing her back to her friends before sunset, she becomes his wife; but if he
fail, he is required to abandon all further claim to the damsel. A strange custom!
But there is this much at least to be said for it, that it allows the maiden more
liberty of choice than she always enjoys in civilised society!
Whether the Ahetas (or Negritos) sprang from a mixture of Malay and Papuan
blood, or are of purely Papuan origin, our ethnologists do not seem to have
determined. But in their present development they are certainly superior to the
Papuan races.[36]