The Malays in general are not, perhaps, a handsome race, their flat noses disfigure them in the eyes of the recently-arrived European or American, and it takes time to get accustomed to them.
Still, their rich brown skin often covers a symmetrical, lithe and agile figure, the small hands and feet denoting their Turanian origin.
The youth of both sexes up to the age of puberty are not seldom of striking beauty, and their appearance is not belied by their behaviour. They are trained in good manners from their earliest youth, both by precept and example.
Palgrave says of them: “Nowhere are family bonds closer drawn, family affections more enduring, than amongst the Malay races.... His family is a pleasing sight, much subordination and little restraint, unison in gradation, liberty not license. Orderly children, respected parents, women subject, but not suppressed, men ruling, but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience in affection, these form a lovable picture, nor by any means a rare one in the villages of the Eastern Isles.”
It may here be interesting to note the very contradictory opinions that have been expressed upon this subject.
John Foreman.
‘The Philippine Islands,’ p. 194.
“Home discipline and training of manners are quite ignored, even in the well-to-do families. Children are left without control, and allowed to do just as they please, hence they become ill-behaved and boorish.”
W. G. Palgrave.
‘Malay Life in the Philippines,’ p. 146.