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THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT 
 
 OP THE 
 
 CRYSTAL PALACE DESCRIBED. 
 
 ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 By Dr. R. G. LATHAM, M.D. 
 
 ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 By EDWARD EORBES, E.R.S., 
 
 Professor in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY; 
 
 AND 
 
 BRADBURY & EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON. 
 1854. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Natural History, which forms the subject of this Hand- 
 hook, is of a somewhat more comprehensive kind than the 
 current meaning of the words would suggest. 
 
 It comprises not only Botany and Zoology proper, but also 
 Ethnology, or, the Science of Human Races. 
 
 Ethnology, from the greater novelty of the subject and its 
 comparative importance, occupies the first and larger part of 
 this little volume. The second part is, however, absolutely 
 necessary to the full illustration of the first; and in order that 
 each may reflect due light upon the other, the reader will do 
 well, after going through the notice of each Ethnological group, 
 to refer to the corresponding description in the Botanical and 
 Zoological portion. 
 
 In the heading of each group is indicated the page for 
 reference. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Ethnology. page 
 
 GROUP I. TIBETANS . ..7 
 
 II. EAST INDIANS ......... 8 
 
 III. SUMATRANS AND JAVANESE.11 
 
 IV. DYAKS OF BORNEO . . . . . . . . 19 
 
 V. ISLANDERS OF THE LOUISADE ARCHIPELAGO . . .25 
 
 VI. DANAKIL AND NEGRO OF THE EASTERN COAST OF AFRICA . 89 
 
 VII. NEGROES 41 
 
 VIII. SOUTHERN AFRICA.—NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE CAPE.—PORT 
 
 NATAL.—ZULUS AND BUSHMEN . . . . . 51 
 
 IX. BOTOCUDOS AND PAMPA GIRL.60 
 
 X. INDIANS OF THE AMAZONS.61 
 
 XI. INDIANS FROM BRITISH GUIANA . . . . .75 
 
 XII. NORTH AMERICAN DANCING.75 
 
 XIII. GREENLANDERS . . . . . . . . . 77 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY.79 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Zoology and Botany. 
 
 EASTERN OR OLD WORLD . . . . . . . . .81 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA.82 
 
 INDIA.82 
 
 NORTH AFRICA.83 
 
 NORTH-EASTERN AND EASTERN AFRICA.83 
 
 WESTERN AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . 84 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA..86 
 
 WESTERN OR NEW WORLD . . . . . . . . 88 
 
 ANTARCTIC AMERICA.88 
 
 SOUTHERNMOST REGIONS . . . . , . . . 88 
 
 TROPICAL SOUTH AMERICA.88 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA . . . . . . . . 89 
 
 TEMPERATE NORTH AMERICA.89 
 
 BARREN GROUNDS . 90 
 
 ARCTIC REGIONS ......... 90 
 
 AUSTRALIA AND INDIAN ISLANDS . . . . . . . . 91 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 Ethnology is compounded of two Greek words, tie latter of 
 which scarcely requires explanation, because it already forms part 
 of a numerous class of compounds with which the learned reader 
 is well acquainted. The general reader, too, is perhaps equally 
 familiar with them. We have them in such words as Geo -logy, 
 Astro -logy, Physio -logy, and a long list besides. The Greek form 
 of these would be Geo -logia, Astro-logia, <fec. The basis of the 
 term is the substantive logos, meaning a word. In its modified 
 form, however, and in its application as the element of a com¬ 
 pound word, it means the principles, or science, of the department 
 (whatever it may be) that is denoted by the root winch precedes 
 it. In the word before us it means the principles of that depart¬ 
 ment of human knowledge which is denoted by the form Ethno. 
 
 Ethnology means the science, not exactly of the different 
 nations of the world, but of the different va/rieties of the human 
 species. 
 
 It is not thought necessary to enlarge upon this further, since, 
 it is hoped, that the groups to which the visitor is directed will 
 sufficiently tell their own tale. The extent to which they differ 
 from each other is manifest. Still more do they differ from such 
 groups of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, and other Europeans 
 as may collect around them. 
 
 As a general rule the varieties that are especially illustrated are 
 foreign to Europe; it being supposed that the character of most 
 
6 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 European populations is sufficiently understand. Hence, the 
 Ethnology is that of Asia, Africa, and the New World. Of these, 
 the most remarkable varieties are found under the extremes of 
 heat and cold ; under the tropics, and within the arctic circle. 
 The intermediate and more temperate parts of the different con¬ 
 tinents, though by no means deficient in interesting and important 
 varieties, supply fewer. 
 
 Of the populations within the arctic circle, it is only those of 
 America that are illustrated (viz., in the Greenland group). The 
 character, however, of the tribes thus far north, is pretty similar in 
 all three continents—in Asia and Europe for the new, in America 
 for the old, world. 
 
 The science of ethnology is, to a great extent, a new one, and 
 this has been our excuse for enlarging upon the meaning, and 
 entering into the origin of the word. Even ethnological museums 
 are rare. The plan, however, of the groups under notice, is 
 different from that of ordinary museums, and, at the same time, 
 one which is, now, for the first time attempted. The trees, plants, 
 animals, and human occupants of the different portions of the 
 earth’s surface are grouped together—so that the allied sciences of 
 botany, zoology, and ethnology illustrate each other. Hence, the 
 arrangement is geographical. 
 
 The arrangement is so far geographical that, to a certain extent, 
 the visitor is enabled to place himself in respect to the objects 
 before him in the same relation as he would be to a map of the 
 world. Here, the North lies in front of him, the East to his 
 right, the West to his left. In like manner, the groups on his 
 right belong to Europe, Asia, and Africa ; those on his left to 
 America. In other words—the Old World is on one side, the 
 New on the other. The relations of North and South, however, 
 are given with less nicety. As a general rule, however, the 
 Southern parts of the two worlds (the old and new), are the 
 parts nearest the entrance—and the Northern parts lie beyond 
 them. 
 
 In the Indian Islands the plan of giving the exact botany of 
 the country under notice has been departed from—owing to the 
 difficulties of detail in the case of an inter-tropical vegetation, of 
 which but few specimens are found in European collections. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 GROUP I. 
 
 TIBETAN’S. (FOB ZOOLOGY, &C. See p. 82.) 
 
 The figures here are Tibetans. Tbe variety to which both 
 belong is usually called the Mongolian; by which it is meant 
 that the most remarkable examples of it are to be found in 
 the Chinese province of Mongolia—to the west of the Great 
 Wall. Here it is where the cheek-bones attain a greater 
 breadth than is the case with even the figures before us, where 
 the nose is more flattened, and where the distance between the 
 eyes is greater. Here it is where one of the great conquerors 
 of the world arose, Jinjiz-Khan, in the thirteenth century ; under 
 whom, and under whose successors, nearly half the world trembled 
 at the terrible name of Mongol . However, at present, their 
 character is a very different one. The Mongolians of the nine¬ 
 teenth century are quiet, peaceable men, subject to China and 
 Russia—chiefly, however, to China. 
 
 Thus much has been said concerning the Mongolians, in order 
 to explain the meaning of the term. It has two powers. It is 
 used in a general and in a limited sense. When limited , it means 
 the inhabitant of Mongolia ; when general , it denotes any one of 
 the numerous allied populations—allied in respect to their physical 
 organisation. 
 
 Of all the Mongol populations, the Chinese are the most 
 civilised ; unless we make an exception in favour of the equally 
 Mongolian Japanese. 
 
 ’The Tibetans are subject to the Chinese, similar to a great 
 extent in form, similar to a great extent in creed, but dissimilar in 
 habits. 
 
 The Tibetans are a pastoral , the Chinese an eminently agri¬ 
 cultural population. 
 
 As the southern frontier of the Tibetan family comes in contact 
 with the northern provinces of India—as some portion of the 
 Tibetan area is absolutely under either the British or some other 
 Indian government—we may expect to find the Mongolians on 
 both sides of the Himalayan Mountains—in India, as well as in 
 Chinese Tartary. 
 
 This prepares us for— 
 
8 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 GROUP II. 
 
 east Indians. (See p. 82.) 
 
 The Tibetan (the figure on the left) we have seen before. He 
 differs from those of Group I. only in belonging to the southern 
 side of the Himalayas ;—to the parts drained by the Sutlej ; to the 
 water-system of the Indus. 
 
 In India Proper the languages fall into two divisions : those 
 akin to the Tamul, spoken in the Dekhan, or Southern India, and 
 those akin to the Hindui, spoken along the northern bank of the 
 Ganges ; in Oude, &c. 
 
 There are also in India Proper two types of physical form ; in 
 one the colour is dark, or even black, the skin coarse, the face 
 flattened, the lips thick ; in the other the colour is brunette, the 
 nose aquiline, the eyebrows arched, regular, and delicate, the lips 
 of moderate thickness, . the face oval, the features intelligent. 
 Each is represented in the present group, though neither in the 
 extreme form. 
 
 As a general, but by no means as an invariable, rule, the 
 darker complexions preponderate over the lighter ones as we go 
 southwards, except in the mountains, where the skin becomes 
 fairer. 
 
 It is not considered necessary to enlarge upon what is called the 
 system of caste in India. It means that the son follows the 
 business of the father, so that the descendants of (say) a black¬ 
 smith will be blacksmiths, and so on. It also means that between 
 individuals of different castes there are certain prejudices ; certain 
 points whereon there is a reluctance to intermix. Hence, indi¬ 
 viduals of a higher, refuse to intermarry with those of a lower 
 caste. They refuse also to take their meals with them. 
 
 How, as a general, but by no means as an invariable, rule, the 
 higher the caste the greater the predominance of the second type 
 of form, i. e ., the finer the features, the clearer the complexion. 
 
 India and China, we must remember, are countries that have 
 long been civilised—civilised after their own peculiar fashion. 
 More than this, they are countries from which a civilisation has 
 been diffused over districts more or less barbarous. On the other 
 hand, the Mahometan creed has diffused, and is diffusing itself, 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 9 
 
 over India, at the expense of the original (so-called) Braminical and 
 Buddhist religions. 
 
 The extent to which Indian civilisation has (after first spreading 
 itself abroad) been modified by a subsequent diffusion of Maho¬ 
 metanism, will be seen when we move from India to the Islands of 
 the Indian Archipelago—Sumatra, Java, Borneo, &c. 
 
 Here the division of the human species to which the populations 
 belong is the Malay — just as that to which the Chinese and 
 Tibetans were referred was the Mongolian. 
 
 Just, too, as the word Mongolian had a wider and a narrower 
 signification, so has the term Malay. A true and proper Malay 
 is a Mahometan, from either certain parts of Sumatra, or certain 
 parts of the Malayan Peninsula—from Sincapore, from Malacca, 
 from Penang, from Bencoolen, <fcc. On the other hand, a member 
 of the Malay family, in the wider sense of the word, may be a 
 Pagan in religion, an Indian in doctrine, or a native of Java or 
 Borneo, in respect to his locality. 
 
 The Malays, in the wider sense of the word, whatever may be 
 the minor differences between them, have the same general physiog¬ 
 nomy ; being short rather than tall, darker than the generality of 
 Mongolians, though lighter than the southern Indians, and broad¬ 
 faced, though less so than the more extreme Mongolians. When 
 in contact with the sea, they exhibit decided maritime habits. 
 Many other of their customs in detail deserve notice. 
 
 Bodily disfigurations under the idea of ornament .— The Malay 
 dress is becoming ; but the habit of permanently disfiguring 
 parts of the body under the idea of ornament, is of sufficient 
 prominence to take place amongst the characteristics of the 
 branch. 
 
 a. Tattooing .— This is sometimes limited, sometimes general : 
 sometimes over the whole body, sometimes confined to the arms 
 only. In Africa the patterns vary with the tribe. In certain 
 Malay districts, an approach to the distinction may be found ; 
 for instance, we hear in Borneo of some tribes that always tattoo, 
 of others that partially tattoo, of others that do not tattoo at all. 
 Nay more ; the habit of tattooing seems in some cases to go along 
 with certain other habits—by no means naturally connected with 
 it. Thus certain of the Borneo non-tattooed tribes never use the 
 Sumpitan, or blow-pipe ; whilst others are tattooed, and use it. 
 
 So at least Sir J. Brooke was informed ; although I think the 
 careful peruser of his journal will find that the coincidence is not 
 always complete. 
 
10 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 h. D epilation .—Depilation is effected either by quick-lime or 
 tweezers. Generally, I believe, the parts of the body which are 
 meant to be kept smooth are rubbed with quick-lime ; and the 
 isolated hairs that afterwards appear, are plucked out carefully by 
 tweezers in detail. 
 
 c. Filing the teeth , dyeing the teeth. This is a Malay habit, and 
 there are not less than three varieties of this operation. 
 
 1. Sometimes the enamel, and no more, is filed off. This 
 enables the tooth to receive and retain its appropriate dye. 
 
 2. Sometimes the teeth are merely pointed. 
 
 3. Sometimes they are filed down to the. gums. 
 
 Dyeing may follow filing, or not, as the case may be. 
 
 In Sumatra, where a jetty blackness is aimed at, the empyreu- 
 matic oil of the cocoa-nut is used. Even, however, if no dyeing 
 follow, the teeth will become black from the simple filing, if the 
 chewing of the betel-nut be habitual. 
 
 d. Distension of the ears .—Many of the tribes that file their 
 teeth, also distend their ears. Both are Malay habits. In some 
 parts of Sumatra, when the child is young, the ear is bored, and 
 rings are put in. In other parts, however, the rings are weighted, 
 so as to pull down the lobe ; or ornaments, gradually increased 
 in diameter, are inserted ; so that the perforation becomes 
 enlarged. 
 
 Simple perforation may extend to a mere multiplication of the 
 holes of the ear. In Borneo, the Sakarran tribes wear more ear¬ 
 rings than one, and are distinguished accordingly ; “ when you 
 meet a man with many rings distrust him ” being one of their 
 cautions. Mr. Brooke met a Sakarran with twelve rings in 
 his ear. 
 
 e. Growth of the nails .—In parts of Borneo, the right thumb¬ 
 nail is encouraged to grow to a great length. So it is in parts 
 of the Philippines. 
 
 Funning-a-muck .—A Malay is capable of so far working himself 
 into fury, of so far yielding to some spontaneous impulse, or of so 
 far exciting himself by stimulants, as to become totally regardless 
 of what danger he exposes himself to. Hence, he rushes forth as 
 an infuriated animal, and attacks all who fall in his way, until 
 having expended his morbid fury he falls down exhausted. This 
 is called running-a-muck. 
 
 Gambling .—This habit, or rather passion, is shared by the 
 Malays, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Indo-Chinese ; quail¬ 
 fighting and cock-fighting being the forms in which it shows itself. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 11 
 
 A Malay will lose all his property on a favourite bird ; and, having 
 lost that, stake his family ; and after the loss of wife and children, 
 his own personal liberty : being prepared to serve as a slave in 
 case of losing. 
 
 Narcotic stimulants and masticatories. —Chewing the betel-nut is 
 almost universal in some of the Malay countries ; the use of opiates 
 and tobacco being also common. 
 
 The nut of the Arcca catechu , is wrapped in the leaf of the piper 
 betel, the first being astringent, the second pungent. The addition 
 of lime completes the preparation. This stimulates the salivary 
 glands, tinges the saliva red, and discolours the teeth. 
 
 Of the chief islands occupied by the Malay family, the first 
 two under notice are 
 
 Sumatra— and 
 
 Java. —These being taken together, give us 
 GROUP III. (p. 91.) 
 
 A. SUMATRANS. B. JAVANESE (OPIUM SMOKERS). 
 
 A. The populations of Sumatra exhibit different degrees of 
 civilisation to an extent found in few areas of equal size : the 
 difference in their religious creeds being proportionately broad. 
 There are the extreme forms of rude paganism ; there are traces of 
 the Indian forms of religion ; and there is Mahometanism. The 
 least clothed of the figures before us is a Lubu, one of the wildest, 
 rudest, and weakest of all the populations. The position of the 
 Lubus in Sumatra is that of the Bushmen of South Africa, for 
 they are a fragmentary population, driven into the more inacces¬ 
 sible districts by tribes stronger than themselves ; without arts, 
 and -without settled habitations. 
 
 i The next are Battas, whose civilisation is some degrees above 
 that of the Lubus. A great part of their present area belonged to 
 this last named population, who are, probably, Battas in the very 
 lowest stage of development. These require further notice. They 
 belong to the northern half of Sumatra, though without reaching 
 the northern extremity of the island. 
 
 At the very northern end we have the kingdom of Atshin, 
 Achin, or Acheen, where the religion is Mahometan, and where 
 the alphabet is the Arabic ; Atshin being the part of Sumatra 
 where the influence of the Arabian trade, Arabian religion, and 
 ' Arabian language, have been the greatest. 
 
 South of Atshin is the Batta country. Here there is only an 
 
12 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 imperfect Mahometanism, with no nse of the Arabic alphabet, 
 and but little tincture of Arab cultivation. 
 
 The rivers in the Batta country are inconsiderable, so are the 
 forests ; for the country is an elevated platform—dry, exposed, and 
 parched. The luxuriant vegetation of so many regions in this 
 part of the world, finds no place here ; and instead of it, we have 
 sand, hardened clay, bare rocks swept by strong currents of wind 
 and exposed to an equatorial sun. 
 
 The Battas are cannibals ; they are also a lettered population. 
 It is believed that this combination of rudeness and civilisation 
 occurs nowhere else, a combination which, however, is beyond 
 doubt. 
 
 In the Batta alphabet we have books, almanacks, &c. 
 
 On the Batta cannibalism, hear so competent an authority as 
 Marsden. “They,” the Battas, “do not eat human flesh as the 
 means of satisfying the cravings of nature, for there can be no 
 want of sustenance to the inhabitants of such a country and 
 climate, who reject no animal food of any kind ; nor is it sought 
 after as a gluttonous delicacy. 
 
 “ The Battas eat it as a species of ceremony, as a mode of showing 
 their detestation of certain crimes by an ignominious punishment, 
 and as a savage display of revenge and insult to their unfortunate 
 enemies. The objects of this barbarous repast are prisoners taken 
 in war, especially if badly wounded, the bodies of the slain, and 
 offenders condemned for certain capital crimes, especially for 
 adultery. Prisoners unwounded (but they are not much disposed 
 to give quarter) may be ransomed or sold as slaves, where the 
 quarrel is not too inveterate ; and the convicts, there is reason to 
 believe, rarely suffer when their friends are in circumstances to 
 redeem them by the customary equivalent of twenty binchangs, or 
 eighty dollars. These are tried by the people of the tribe where 
 the offence was committed, but cannot be executed until their own 
 particular raja has been made acquainted with the sentence, who, 
 when he acknowledges the justice of the intended punishment, 
 sends a cloth to cover the head of the delinquent, together with a 
 large dish of salt and lemons. The unhappy victim is then delivered 
 into the hands of the injured party (if it be a private wrong, or, 
 in the case of a prisoner to the warriors) by whom he is tied to a 
 stake ; lances are thrown at him from a certain distance by this 
 person, his relatives, and friends ; and when mortally wounded, 
 they run up to him, as if in a transport of passion, cut pieces from 
 the body with their knives, dip them in the dish of salt, lemon- 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 13 
 
 juice, and red pepper, slightly broil them over a fire prepared for 
 the purpose, and swallow the morsels with a degree of savage 
 enthusiasm. Sometimes (I presume according to the degree of 
 their animosity and resentment) the whole is devoured by the 
 bystanders ; and instances have been known where, with barbarity 
 still more aggravated, they tear the flesh from the carcase with their 
 teeth. To such a depth of depravity may man be plunged, when 
 neither religion nor philosophy enlighten his steps ! All that can 
 be said in extenuation of the horror of this diabolical ceremony is, 
 that no view appears to be entertained of torturing the sufferers, 
 of increasing or lengthening out the pangs of death ; the whole 
 fury is directed against the corpse, warm, indeed, with the remains 
 of life, but past the sensation of pain. A difference of opinion has 
 existed with respect to the practice of eating the bodies of their 
 enemies actually slain in war ; but subsequent enquiry has satisfied 
 me of its being done, especially in the case of distinguished persons, 
 or those who have been accessories to the quarrel. It should be 
 observed that their campaigns (which may be aptly compared to 
 the predatory excursions of our Borderers) often terminate with 
 the loss of not more than half-a-dozen men on both sides. The 
 skulls of the victims are hung up as trophies in the open buildings 
 in front of their houses, and are occasionally ransomed by their 
 surviving relations for a sum of money.”— Mcwrsden’s Sumatra , 
 pp. 391-2. 
 
 The Battas have, probably, been more civilised than they are 
 now—India being the source of their civilisation. This is shown 
 in the following imperfect sketch of their creed—which is Indian, 
 corrupted and degenerate. 
 
 “ The inhabitants of this country have many fabulous stories, 
 which shall be briefly mentioned. They acknowledge three deities 
 as rulers of the world, who are respectively named, Batara-guru, 
 Sori-pada , and Mangallah-bulang. The first, say they, bears 
 rule in heaven, is the father of all mankind, and partly, under the 
 following circumstances, creator of the earth; which from the 
 beginning of time had been supported on the head of Naga- 
 padoha ; but growing weary at length, he shook his head, which 
 occasioned the earth to sink, and nothing remained in the world 
 excepting water. They do not pretend to a knowledge of the 
 creation of this original earth and water; but say that at the 
 period when the latter covered every thing, the chief deity, Batara- 
 guru,, had a daughter named Puti-orla-bulan , who requested 
 permission to descend to these lower regions, and accordingly came 
 
14 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 down on a white owl, accompanied by a dog ; but not being able, 
 by reason of the waters, to continue there, her father let fall from 
 heaven a lofty mountain, named Bakarra, now situated in the 
 Batta country, as a dwelling for his child ; and from this mountain 
 all other land gradually proceeded. The earth was once more 
 supported on the three horns of Naga-padoha ; and that he might 
 never again suffer it to fall off, Batara-guhu sent his son, named, 
 Layang-layang-mandi (literally ‘ the dipping swallow ’), to bind 
 him hand and foot. But to his occasionally shaking his head they 
 ascribe the effect of earthquakes. Puti-orla-bulan had afterwards, 
 during her residence on earth, three sons and three daughters, 
 from whom sprang the whole human race. 
 
 “ The second of their deities has the rule of the air, betwixt 
 earth and heaven ; and the third that of the earth ; but these two 
 are considered as subordinate to the first. Besides these, they 
 have as many inferior deities as there are sensible objects on earth, 
 or circumstances in human society ; of which some preside over 
 the sea, others over rivers, over woods, over war, and the like. 
 They believe, likewise, in four evil spirits, dwelling in four separate 
 mountains ; and whatever ill befalls them they attribute to the 
 agency of one of these demons. On such occasions they apply to 
 one of their cunning men, who has recourse to his art; and by 
 cutting a lemon ascertains which of these has been the author of 
 the mischief, and by what means the evil spirit may be propitiated; 
 which always proves to be the sacrificing a buffalo, hog, goat, or 
 whatever animal the wizard happens on that day to be most inclined 
 to eat. When the address is made to any of the superior and 
 beneficent deities for assistance, and the priest directs an offering 
 of a horse, cow, dog, hog, or fowl, care must be taken that the 
 animal to be sacrificed is entirely white. 
 
 “ They have also a vague and confused idea of the immortality 
 of the human soul, and of a future state of happiness or misery. 
 They say that the soul of a dying person makes its escape through 
 the nostrils, and is borne away by the wind ; to heaven, if of a 
 person who has led a good life ; but if of an evil-doer, to a great 
 cauldron, where it shall be exposed to fire until such time as 
 Batara-guru shall judge it to have suffered punishment proportioned 
 to its sins ; and feeling compassion shall take it to himself in 
 heaven : that finally the time shall come when the chains and 
 bands of Naga-padoha shall be worn away, and he shall once more 
 allow the earth to sink ; that the sun will be then no more than a 
 cubit’s distance from it, and that the souls of those who, having 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 15 
 
 lived well, shall remain alive at the last day, shall in like manner 
 go to heaven, and those of the wicked be consigned to the before- 
 mentioned cauldron, intensely heated by the near approach of the 
 sun’s rays, to be there tormented by a minister of Batara-guru , 
 named Suraya-guru, until, having expiated their offences, they 
 shall be thought worthy of reception into the heavenly regions.” 
 
 The remaining male figures represent two warriors from Pulo 
 Nias, a small island on the Western coast of Sumatra ; the cap and 
 coat of one being made of the fibres from the leaf-stalk of the 
 gumuti palm. 
 
 “The Nias people are remarkable for their docility and expertness 
 in handy-craft work, and become excellent house-carpenters and 
 joiners ; and, as an instance of their skill in the arts, they practise 
 that of letting blood by cupping, in a mode nearly similar to ours. 
 They are industrious and frugal, temperate and regular in 
 their habits, but, at the same time, avaricious, sullen, obstinate, 
 vindictive, and sanguinary. Although much employed as domestic 
 slaves (particularly by the Dutch) they are always esteemed 
 dangerous in that capacity; a defect in their character which 
 philosophers will not hesitate to excuse in an independent people torn 
 by violence from their country and connexions. They frequently 
 kill themselves when disgusted with their situation, or unhappy 
 in their families, and often their wives at the same time, who 
 appeared, from the circumstances under which they were found, 
 to have been consenting to the desperate act. They were both 
 dressed in their bed apparel (the remainder being previously des¬ 
 troyed), and the female, in more than one instance, that came 
 under notice, had struggled so little, as not to discompose her hair, 
 or remove her head from the pillow. It is said that in their own 
 country they expose their children, by suspending them in a bag 
 from a tree, when they despair of being able to bring them up. 
 The mode seems to be adopted with the view of preserving them 
 from animals of prey, and giving them a chance of being saved 
 by persons in more easy circumstances.”— Marsden’s Sumatra, 
 p. 476. 
 
 B. The three opium-smokers are Javanese of the lower orders. 
 
 Java differs from Sumatra in its higher standard of civilisation, 
 and in the greater extent to which it has been acted upon by 
 Indian influences. At one time, these were generally diffused over 
 the island ; not, perhaps, to the utter and absolute extinction of 
 the original Paganism, but, still, largely and generally. At pre¬ 
 sent, however, the prevailing influences are Arab, i.e., Mahometan ; 
 
16 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 and Mahometanism lias superseded Hinduism in all parts of the 
 island, except one interesting locality—the range of the Tenggher 
 Mountains. 
 
 “ To the eastward of Surabaya, and on the range of hills con¬ 
 nected with Gunung Dasar, and lying partly in the district of 
 Passman, and partly in that of ProboUngo, known by the name of 
 the Tengager mountain, we find the remnant of a people still 
 following the Hindu worship, who merit attention, not only on 
 account of their being the sole depositaries of the rites and doctrines 
 of that religion existing at this day on Java, but as exhibiting an 
 interesting singularity and simplicity of character. 
 
 u These people occupy about forty villages, scattered along this 
 range of hills, in the neighbourhood of what is termed the Sandy 
 Sea. The site of their villages, as well as the construction of their 
 houses, is peculiar, and differ entirely from what is elsewhere 
 observed on Java. They are not shaded by trees but built on 
 spacious open terraces, rising one above the other, each house 
 occupying a terrace, and being in length from thirty to seventy, 
 and even eighty feet. The door is invariably in one corner, at 
 the end of the building opposite to that in which the fire-place is 
 built. The building appears to be constructed with the ordinary 
 roof, having along the front an enclosed veranda or gallery, about 
 eight feet broad. The fire-place is built of brick, and is so highly 
 venerated that it is considered a sacrilege for any stranger to touch 
 it. Across the upper part of the building rafters are run, so as to 
 form a kind of attic story, in which are deposited the most 
 valuable property and implements of husbandry. 
 
 (i The head of the village takes the title of Peting ’ gi, as in the 
 low-lands, and is generally assisted by a Kdbdyan, both elected by 
 the people from their own village. There are four priests who are 
 here termed Dukuns (a term elsewhere only applied to doctors and 
 midwives), having charge of the state records and the sacred books. 
 
 <£ These Diikuns, who are in general intelligent men, can give 
 no account of the era when they were first established on these 
 hills ; they can produce no traditional history of their origin, 
 whence they came, or who entrusted them with the sacred books, 
 to the faith contained in which they still adhere. These, they 
 concur in stating, were handed down to them by their fathers, to 
 whose hereditary office of preserving them they have succeeded. 
 The sole duty required of them is again to hand them down in 
 safety to their children, and to perform the puja (praisegiving), 
 according to the directions they contain. These records consist of 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 17 
 
 three compositions, written on the lontar- leaf, detailing the origin 
 of the world, disclosing the attributes of the Deity, and prescribing 
 the forms of worship to be observed on different occasions. When 
 a woman is delivered of her first child, the Dtikun takes a leaf of 
 the alang grass, and scraping the skin of the hands of the mother 
 and her infant, as well as the ground, pronounces a short 
 benediction. 
 
 “ When a marriage is agreed upon, the bride and bridegroom 
 being brought before the Dtikun within the house, in the first 
 place bow with respect towards the south, then to the fire-place, 
 then to the earth, and lastly, on looking up, to the upper story of 
 the house where the implements of husbandry are placed. The 
 parties then, submissively bowing to the Dukun, he repeats a 
 prayer, while the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom. At the 
 conclusion of this ceremony, the friends and family of the parties 
 make presents to each of krises, buffaloes, implements of husbandry, 
 &c. ; in return for which the bride and bridegroom respectfully 
 present them with betel-leaf. 
 
 “At the marriage-feast which ensues, the Dukun repeats two 
 puja. The marriage is not, however, consummated till the fifth 
 day after the above ceremony. This interval between the solem¬ 
 nities and consummation of marriage is termed by them tindang 
 mantu ; and is in some cases still observed by the Javans in other 
 parts of the island, under the name, tinduh mantu. 
 
 “At the interment of an inhabitant of Teng’ger , the corpse is 
 lowered into the grave with the head placed towards the south 
 (contrary to the direction observed by the Mahometans), and is 
 guarded from the immediate contact of the earth by a covering 
 of bambus and planks. When the grave is closed, two posts are 
 planted over the body : one erected perpendicularly on the breast, 
 the other on the lower part of the belly ; and between them is 
 placed a hollowed bambu in an inverted position, into which, 
 during successive days, they daily pour a vessel of pure water, 
 laying beside the bambu two dishes, also daily replenished with 
 eatables. At the expiration of the seventh day, the feast of the 
 dead is announced, and the relations and friends of the deceased 
 assemble to be present at the ceremony, and to partake of enter¬ 
 tainments conducted in the following manner : 
 
 “ A figure of about half a cubit high, representing the human 
 form, made of leaves and ornamented with variegated flowers, is 
 prepared and placed in a conspicuous situation, supported round 
 the body by the clothes of the deceased. The Dukun then places 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 in front of tlie garland an incense-pot with burning ashes, together 
 with a vessel containing water, and repeats the two puja to fire 
 and water. 
 
 “ The clothes of the deceased are then divided among the 
 relatives and friends ; the garland is burned ; another puja is 
 repeated ; while the remains of the sacred water are sprinkled over 
 the feast. The parties now sit down to the enjoyment of it, 
 invoking a blessing from the Almighty on themselves, their houses, 
 and their lands. No more solemnities are observed till the 
 expiration of a thousand days ; when, if the memory of the 
 deceased is beloved and cherished, the ceremony and feast are 
 repeated ; if otherwise, no further notice is taken of him : and 
 having thus obtained what the Romans call his justa, he is allowed 
 to be forgotten. 
 
 “ Being questioned regarding the tenets of their religion, they 
 replied that they believed in a Dewa, who was all-powerful ; 
 that the name by which the Dewa was designated was Bumi Truka 
 Sang’yang Dewata Bdtur , and that the particulars of their worship 
 were contained in a book called Pdnglawu, which they presented 
 to me. 
 
 “ On being questioned regarding the ddat against adultery, 
 theft, and other crimes, their reply was unanimous and ready— 
 that crimes of this kind were unknown to them, and that 
 consequently no punishment was fixed, either by law or custom ; 
 that if a man did wrong, the head of the village chid him for it, 
 the reproach of which was always sufficient punishment for a man 
 of Teng’ger. This account of their moral character is fully 
 confirmed by the Regents of the districts, under whose authority 
 they are placed, and also by the residents. They, in fact, seem 
 to be almost without crime, and are universally peaceable, orderly, 
 honest, industrious, and happy. They are unacquainted with the 
 vice of gambling and the use of opium. 
 
 “ The aggregate population is about twelve hundred souls ; and 
 they occupy, without exception, the most beautifully rich and 
 romantic spots on Java ; a region in which the thermometer is 
 frequently as low as forty-two. The summits and slopes of the 
 hills are covered with Alpine firs, and plants common to an 
 European climate flourish in luxuriance. 
 
 “ Their language does not differ much from the Javan of the 
 present day, though more gutturally pronounced. Upon a 
 comparison of about a hundred words with the Javan vernacular, 
 two only were found to differ. They do not marry or intermix 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 19 
 
 with the people of the lowlands, priding themselves on their 
 independence and purity in this respect.”— Raffles’s History of 
 Java. 
 
 GROUP IY. 
 
 DYAKS OF BORNEO, A. MALES ; B. FEMALES. 
 
 The native, and aboriginal tribes of Borneo, have no general 
 name by which they designate themselves, neither have they a 
 general name for their island ; and this is a fact which occurs 
 pretty generally throughout the Indian Archipelago. A mere islet, 
 a piece of land visibly and palpably surrounded by water—takes 
 the name of pulo (island) ; but the larger masses like Celebes, 
 Borneo, Sumatra, and (as Mr. Craufurd writes) each and all of the 
 islands with the single exception of Borneo, are treated as continents, 
 —so narrow is the knowledge of the inhabitants and so limited 
 their powers of comprehension and generalisation. Hence, Borneo 
 is an European rather than a native term ; taken from the name 
 of a particular portion of the island and extended to the whole. 
 It was first used by Pigafetta, a companion of Magalhan, during 
 his voyage round the world in 1521. This gave it a currency in 
 Europe which it has maintained ever since. 
 
 As to the different divisions of the population, they generally 
 take their designation from the name of the stream on which they 
 reside ; so that when we hear of such tribes as the Sarebas, the 
 Lundu, the Sakarran, <fcc., we may safely conclude that rivers so 
 called form their several occupancies. 
 
 The natives, then, have no general name by which they desig¬ 
 nate themselves collectively. But we have. We — i. e. , the Europeans 
 —call them Dyaks. Dyak is a Malay word—much such a word 
 as Savage , or Barbarian —so that expressions like Dyak, Sarebas 
 (the savages of the Sarebas ), &c. , are only partially native—partially 
 native and partially Malay. 
 
 The Malay origin of the word indicates the existence of a 
 Malay population in, or in the neighbourhood of, the island ; 
 a Malay population as well as a native. And such is the case. 
 Over and above the proper aborigines, we find in Borneo, Chinese 
 from China, Bugis from the Island of Celebes, and (as aforesaid) 
 Malays from the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra. 
 
 It is the aborigines, however, who alone are represented in the 
 group before us—the Dyaks as opposed to the Malays. And the 
 particular Dyak division is not the one with which an Englishman 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 is the most familiar. The Sarebas Dyaks, the Lundu Dyaks, the 
 Sakarran Dyaks, <fec., are the best known to us, inasmuch as it is 
 those who come in contact with the Rajahship of Sarawak, and 
 the parts under the influence of Sir James Brooke. But the 
 Dyaks before us come from the south and the south-east, rather 
 than from the north-west and west, and from the Dutch parts of 
 the island rather than from the English. 
 
 The aborigines of Borneo belong to the great Malay family, so 
 that they are essentially the same as the aborigines of Sumatra and 
 Java, <fec. But they have this important characteristic ; they 
 have been the least touched by either Indian or Arabic influences. 
 They are the least Hindu, the least Mahometan, the most Pagan. 
 Neither have they any alphabet; at the same time, some vestiges 
 of Indian culture undoubtedly exist. 
 
 The Dyak of Borneo is the Malay in his most unmodified and 
 primitive condition, and it is amongst the Dyaks of Borneo that 
 the characteristic customs are to be found. They are divided 
 into, probably, 100 different tribes, with, probably, 100 dialects ; 
 so far are they from the organisation of a concentrated political 
 power. As some tribes, however, are more powerful than others, 
 and as such tribes encroach and conquer, the tendency towards 
 consolidation exists. 
 
 Of such tribes, the most important are the Kayans, occupants 
 of the central part of the island, cultivators of the soil, domes- 
 ticators of animals, forgers of iron. They are a dominant and 
 encroaching population ; the Kanawit, and the other tribes more 
 immediately allied, being their tributaries. The names which 
 they give to both the other Dyaks and the Malays, are derisive 
 and insulting ; and other circumstances besides this show the 
 extent to which they are a proud, self-respecting population. 
 Their dignity of manner and deportment is favourably con¬ 
 trasted with the comparative servility of the Malays. As to 
 their morals, the accounts are conflicting. The utter absence 
 of female chastity, affirmed by Mr. Law, is denied by Mr. 
 Burns, whose opportunities for acquiring knowledge seem to have 
 been the better, but who writes somewhat in the spirit of an 
 advocate and admirer. The same author considers that their taste 
 for head-hunting has been exaggerated ; at any rate, the custom of 
 handing down heads from generation to generation, as honourable 
 heirlooms, wants confirmation, and besides this, has certain positive 
 facts against it. When two of their chiefs changed their residence, 
 an accumulation of 400 skulls was thrown away, instead of being 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 21 
 
 removed with, care and honour. Human sacrifices, on the other 
 hand, are admitted by Mr. Burns to exist; with the reservation 
 that the practice decreases, and that the victim is a member of 
 some other tribe. 
 
 It was from the parts about the Kayan river that they began 
 their conquests. Successful in holding their own, they suffer from 
 disease rather than war. At intervals of twelve or fifteen years, 
 the small-pox rages as an epidemic ; whilst fever, ague, dysentery, 
 and rheumatism, are endemic. To tattoo the body, to bore and 
 stretch the ears, to wear pendant ear-rings of twenty ounces, so 
 that the ears and breasts meet, are the more characteristic elements 
 of the Kayan cosmesis. In the first of these operations the 
 performer pricks the pattern with a needle, and then engrains the 
 smoke of a dammer torch ; so that the process is partially that of 
 the simple tattoo, and partially that of inustion. Mutual friend¬ 
 ships or brotherhoods, are ratified by the not unusual ceremony of 
 mixing blood. This Mr. Bums considers as peculiar to the Kayan 
 amongst the populations of Borneo. That of drawing omens from 
 the flight of birds is common to them and the other tribes. 
 
 After death, the body is kept in the house from four to eight 
 days. Torches are kept burning beside the coffin which contains it ; 
 and if one of them go out, bad luck is augured from its extinction. 
 For four or five days, too, after the removal of the corpse, they 
 are still kept alight. Previous, however, to the removal, a feast 
 is prepared ; some of the food being placed beside the coffin, whilst 
 the remainder regales the relatives of the deceased. The mourning 
 of the women is loud, passionate, and full of gesticulation. They 
 hug the decomposing body ; they inhale its odours, and finally, 
 they attend it to the place of its ultimate disposal, which is 
 the loft of a small wooden house, built on pillars, about twelve 
 feet high. 
 
 The burial ceremonies are more elaborate than those which 
 accompany the birth or naming of children ; those of marriage are 
 the simplest. To swim, to wrestle, to blow the sumpitan, to use 
 the sword, and to throw the spear, are the chief elements in 
 the training of the Kayan youth.* 
 
 This notice has contained some remarkable suggestions. What 
 means the allusion to the head-hunting ? Ko trophy is more 
 honourable among the Dyaks of Borneo, than a human head ; the 
 head of a conquered enemy. These are preserved in the houses as 
 tokens ; so that the number of skulls is a measure of the prowess 
 
 * Burns, in “Journal of the Indian Archipelago.” 
 
22 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 of tlie possessor. In tribes, where this feeling becomes morbid, no 
 young man can marry before he has presented his future bride with 
 a human head, cut off by himself. Hence, for a marriage to take 
 place, an enemy must be either found or made. 
 
 It may easily be imagined that this engenders a chronic state of 
 warfare between tribe and tribe ; to which, we may add, as another 
 of the scourges of the Dyak population, the piracy that is practised 
 along the whole of the sea-coasts, and on the lower courses of the 
 numerous rivers. 
 
 Cannibalism in Sumatra ; head-hunting in Borneo—such are the 
 characteristics of two of the more important branches of the Malay 
 family, and they are practices which are manifestly condemnatory 
 to the moral character of the nations in which they occur. We 
 must, however, take the evidence to their existence as we find it. 
 On the other hand, it is a good rule to receive with caution all 
 accounts that violate the common feelings of human nature, and to 
 allow ourselves to believe that causes, as yet imperfectly understood, 
 modify and diminish practices so horrible. That it should be so 
 general as the theory demands is incompatible with the proportions 
 between the male and female populations, which are much the same 
 in Borneo as elsewhere. So it is, also, with the express statement 
 of Sir J. Brooke, who says, that the passion for heads has much 
 diminished amongst certain of the Sarawak tribes. In one case, 
 an offer of some was refused ; the reason alleged being that it 
 would revive fresh sorrows. The parties who thus declined, gave 
 a favourable account of some of the customs by which the horrors 
 of a Dyak war were abated :— 
 
 “ If one tribe claimed a debt of another, it was always demanded, 
 and the claim discussed. If payment was refused, the claimants 
 departed, telling the others to listen to their birds, as they might 
 expect an attack. Even after this, it was often the case, that a 
 tribe friendly to each mediated between them, and endeavoured to 
 make a settlement of their contending claims. If they failed, the 
 tribes were then at war. Decently, however, more places than 
 one have been attacked without due notice, and often by treachery. 
 The old custom likewise was, that no house should be set on fire, 
 no paddy destroyed, and that a naked woman could not be killed, 
 nor a woman with child. These laudable and praiseworthy customs 
 have fallen into disuse, yet they give a pleasing picture of Dyak 
 character, and relieve, by a touch of humanity, the otherwise 
 barbarous nature of their warfare. Then there is what is called 
 the Babukid , bubukkid } or mode of defiance , which is appealed 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 23 
 
 to as a final judgment in disputes about property, and usually 
 occurs in families when the right to land and fruit-trees comes to 
 be discussed. Each party then sallies forth in search of a head ; 
 if only one succeed, his claim is acknowledged ; if both succeed, the 
 property continues common to both. It is on these occasions that 
 the Dyaks are dangerous ; and perhaps an European, whose 
 inheritance depended on the issue, would not be very scrupulous 
 as to the means of success. It must be understood, however, 
 that the individuals do not go alone, but a party accompanies 
 each, or they may send a party without being present. The loss 
 of life is not heavy from this cause, and it is chiefly resorted 
 to by the Singe and Sows, and is about as rational as our 
 trials by combat. This babukid must be a check of a permanent 
 sort. 
 
 Houses. —With certain of the Dyak tribes the houses are not 
 huts, nor yet mere dwelling-houses of ordinary dimensions. They 
 hold from one hundred to two hundred persons each ; and are 
 raised above the ground on piles. 
 
 j Religion. —“ The notions of the Dyaks respecting the spiritual 
 world are in general much confused, and at variance with each other. 
 They agree, however, in the belief in good and evil spirits. The good 
 spirits are divided into two classes, viz., spirits of the world above, 
 or of the higher regions, who come under the collective denomination 
 of £ Sengiang ; 5 and spirits of the lower regions, or more pro¬ 
 perly, such as have their dominion in the waters, in great 
 rivers, and these are called ‘ Jata.’ The collective name of the 
 evil spirits is ‘ Talopapa,’ which word signifies, in general, all bad 
 things. 
 
 “It is to be observed here that the Dyaks describe the aspect of 
 the regions above as similar to the terrestrial world. Mountains, 
 valleys, streams, lakes, &c. <fcc., are found there, as well as here 
 beneath ; and the dominions of various spirits are bounded by the 
 different streams and branches of the rivers.”— From the Rev. 
 T. F. Berker’s “ Mythology of the Dyaks,” Journ. Ind. Archip ., 
 vol. iii. p. 162. 
 
 “ In the interior, men are still occasionally sacrificed, principally 
 on the death of chiefs, and other considerable persons. In Sirat, 
 the furthest inhabited point of the Kapus Diver, where I some 
 years ago made a journey of investigation, they had a short time 
 before our arrival, sacrificed two women. An acquaintance who 
 had been present, gave me the following account of the horrible 
 event :—One morning at Sirat, there gathered a great number of 
 
24 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 people, who streamed in on all sides to celebrate a great feast. 
 There was firing of guns—the open plain before the Kotta (fort) 
 was prepared for the occasion, and adorned with branches, flowers, 
 and cloths ; a number of hogs were killed ; and when, finally, 
 by midday, everything had been arranged according to use and 
 wont, the real objects of the festival were brought forward—two 
 women, still young, who had been purchased for the purpose 
 from another race. They had to seat themselves on the 
 side of the ready-dug graves, and contemplate for some time the 
 noisy rejoicings of the feasters. A lance of about thirty feet in length 
 was then brought and laid on one of the victims. All now hurried 
 to take a part in the impending detestable deed. A hundred hands 
 seized the long lance, and the instant the customary sign was given, 
 they threw themselves, amidst the loud acclamations of the multi¬ 
 tude, on the unfortunate wretch, and pierced her through and 
 through, even transfixing her to the ground. They then cut off 
 the head of the fallen victim, and carried it during the rest of the 
 day, dancing and singing round it. The same fate also befel her 
 unfortunate companion. Those who are thus offered become, in 
 their belief, in the other world, slaves of the deceased friend to whose 
 memory they are offered.” —From u Some Remarks on the Dyaks 
 of Banjarmassing ,” in the Journ. of the Ind. Archip ., vol. i., 
 p. 30. 
 
 The blow-pipe, with which so many of the figures before us are 
 furnished, is called, in the native language, sumpitan. It is made 
 of the wood of the palm, bored with the greatest possible nicety. 
 The arrows, which are from four to six inches long, fit 
 the bore, and are poisoned—at least with some of the tribes. 
 At twenty yards the sumpitan is sure to hit ; at one hundred it 
 attains its longest range. Since the ones before us have been in 
 England, more than one amateur has tried them—both with the 
 Dyak arrows, and with little pellets of clay. They have succeeded in 
 bringing down sparrows from the house-tops with the latter. The 
 aim is sure, and a little practice accomplishes it. 
 
 The male in the sailor’s dress is a Philippine Islander, who spoke 
 the Iloco language. The female is a half-blood Spanish and 
 Manilla-Indian. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 25 
 
 GEOUP Y. 
 
 A.-ISLANDERS OF THE LOUISIADE ARCHIPELAGO-PAPUANS, (p. 91 ) 
 
 A. THE PAPUANS. B. AUSTRALIANS. 
 
 When we move eastwards from the more eastern of the Moluccas 
 we reach New Guinea, of which the very name suggests the likeli¬ 
 hood of a change in the character of the population. How did it 
 arise ? Much in the same way that such a term as West Indies 
 did. There was something in the new country which reminded 
 the discoverers of an old one. Now the large island under notice 
 reminded the early voyagers of the coast of Guinea on the western 
 side of Africa. Why ? Because they found there a population of 
 Blacks ; a population that reminded them of the negro ; a popu¬ 
 lation unlike the Malay tribes of islands westward. 
 
 A. New Guinea. This is anything but a native name ; indeed, it 
 is a name that no New Guinea men know anything about. 
 
 Just what occurred in Borneo, occurs here. There is no general 
 name at all; neither one for the island itself, nor one for the 
 population of it—no native name at least. 
 
 There is, however, a Malay one. The word Papua means 
 frizzly-haired. Originally and, more properly, applied to occupants 
 of the north-west coast, it has since been extended—for the 
 purposes of Ethnology at least—to a whole family. Hence, the 
 Papuan stock contains, not only the inhabitants of New Guinea, 
 but those of the islands to the east, and south thereof—the 
 Louisiade Archipelago, New Britain, New Ireland, New Hanover, 
 Solomon’s Isles, New Hebrides, Loyalty Isles, and New Caledonia. 
 
 No part of the world is less known than these Papuan islands— 
 the interior of New Guinea being as much a mystery as the interior 
 of Africa. There are certain points, however, on which attention 
 has been concentrated. Thus— 
 
 a. The western coast of New Guinea itself has been described, 
 more or less incompletely, by the Hutch. 
 
 b. The south-eastern part, along with the islands of Torres 
 Straits, has been surveyed by H.M.S. the Fly. 
 
 c. The Louisiade Archipelago, (fee., by H.M.S. Rattlesnake. 
 
 d. The parts about Tanna, Mallicollo, and New Caledonia, by 
 Captain Erskine. 
 
 The figures before us are from drawings made on the spot by 
 Mr. Huxley, naturalist to the Rattlesnake, and as they were from 
 
26 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 the pencil of an anatomist as well as an artist they may be relied 
 on as characteristic. The chief notices are from Mr. M‘Gillivray’s 
 “ Voyage of the Rattlesnake.” 
 
 The Lonisiade houses (or huts) in their simplest form consist of 
 a roof of palm-leaves on four wooden uprights, each of which pierces 
 a round piece of wood. This prevents rats and vermin from 
 finding their way upwards and into the dwelling. 
 
 The larger and more elaborate contain several families—the 
 following being a section of the part occupied. In parts subject to 
 inundation they stand upon high props—upon j piles as it were. 
 
 This mode of building is common in New Guinea, on certain 
 islands of the Indian Archipelago, the more swampy parts of 
 inter-tropical America ; like adaptations occurring in like 
 localities. 
 
 Next to the domestic architecture that of their canoes deserves 
 attention. These, always, or almost always, are built without 
 riggers—sometimes with a sort of stage or platform projecting from 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 27 
 
 the sides, the structure of a raft being superadded to that of a 
 boat. The sailing vessels take the following form. Less nautical 
 
 than the Malays—the Papuan family is more so than the 
 Australian 
 
 With some varieties the hair is far more elaborately dressed 
 than with those of the present group ; being twisted into long 
 curls, likened to the thrums of a mop, stiffened with oil, and 
 washed in alkaline leys, which give a red tinge. When this kind 
 of ornamentation attains its fullest development, the frizzled mass 
 of strong and stiffened hair makes the owner unable to lie down 
 without disarranging his head-dress. In this case a neck-pillow 
 becomes necessary ; just as it does with certain tribes of Africa, 
 
28 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 with whom the care of these head-gear is one of the primary 
 employments of life. 
 
 The chief weapons are the bow and arrow, their political organi¬ 
 sation of the lowest and simplest kind ; that of small tribes living 
 in a state of chronic hostility with each other. Woven cloth they 
 have none. On the other hand they show some skill in the art 
 of pottery. In Hew Guinea, at least, they defend their soil with 
 tenacity and resolution, eschewing European intercourse. In the 
 more southern and smaller islands, however, this is less the case 
 than in the more northern and larger ones. They contrast more 
 favourably with the Australians than with the Malays. 
 
 But little is known of their languages. 
 
 The islands of Torres Strait, even when they lie nearest to the 
 coast of Australia, are not Australian, but Papuan, so that the 
 following extracts from the 61 Voyage of the Fly ” apply to a 
 population allied to one under notice—allied, but not identical. 
 
 In Darnley Island the natives “ were fine, active, well-made 
 fellows, rather above the middle height, of a dark brown 
 or chocolate colour. They had frequently almost handsome 
 faces, aquiline noses, rather broad about the nostril, well-shaped 
 heads, and j, many had a singularly Jewish cast of features. 
 The hair was frizzled, and dressed into long pipe-like ringlets, 
 smeared sometimes with ochre, sometimes left of its natural 
 black colour; others had wigs not to be distinguished from 
 the natural hair, till closely examined. The septum narium 
 was bored, but there was seldom anything worn in it. Most 
 of their ears were pierced all round with small holes, in which 
 pieces of grass were stuck, and in many the lobe was torn 
 and hanging down to the shoulder. Their only scars were 
 the faint oval marks on the shoulder. The hair of their 
 bodies and limbs grew in small tufts, giving the skin a slightly 
 woolly appearance. They were entirely naked, but frequently 
 wore ornaments made of mother-of-pearl shells, either circular or 
 crescent-shaped, hanging round their necks. Occasionally, also, 
 we saw a part of a large shell, apparently a cassis, cut into a 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 29 
 
 projecting shield-shape, worn in front of the groin. The women 
 wore a petticoat round the waist, reaching nearly to the knees, 
 formed of strips of leaves sewn on to a girdle. These formed a 
 very efficient covering, as one or two were worn over each other. 
 The grown-up woman’s petticoat, or nessoor, was formed, we after¬ 
 wards found, of the inside part of the large leaves of a bulbous- 
 rooted plant, called by them teggaer, of which, each strip was an 
 inch broad. The girl’s nessoor was made of much narrower strips 
 from the inside of the leaf of the plantain, which they called 
 cabbow. 
 
 “ The younger women were often gracefully formed, with 
 pleasing expressions of countenance, though not what we should 
 consider handsome features. The girls had their hair rather long, 
 but the women had almost all their hair cut short, with a bushy 
 ridge over the top, to which they, singularly enough, gave the 
 same name as to pieces of tortoise-shells, namely, kaisu. Many of 
 the elder women had their heads shaved quite smoothly, and we 
 never saw a woman wearing a wig, or with the long ringlets of the 
 men. At our first landing, all the younger women and girls 
 kept in the back-ground, or hid themselves in the bush. On 
 strolling to the back of the huts, we found a small native path, 
 along which we went a short distance till we came to a rude fence 
 in front of a plantain-ground, where the men objected to our 
 going further, and we heard the voices of the women among the 
 trees beyond. 
 
 i( There were four huts at this spot, all bee-hive shaped, six¬ 
 teen feet in diameter, and as much in height. They stood in 
 small court-yards, partially surrounded by fences formed of poles 
 of bamboo, stuck upright in the ground, close together, and con¬ 
 nected by horizontal rails, to which they were tied by withies. 
 Inside the huts were small platforms covered with mats, apparently 
 bed-places ; and over head were hung up bows and arrows, clubs, 
 calabashes, rolls of matting, and bundles apparently containing 
 bones, which they did not like our examining. Outside the huts 
 were one or two small open sheds, consisting merely of a raised 
 flat roof, to sit under in the shade, and a grove of very fine cocoa- 
 nut trees surrounded the houses.” 
 
 The arms of the natives were the bow and arrow, and in hold¬ 
 ing the former, especial care was taken that the part of the wood 
 which was uppermost as the tree grew, should be uppermost when 
 used as a weapon. Rough imitations of the human figure were 
 common ; but whether they served as idols or not was uncertain. 
 
30 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 The use of tobacco was general. On the part of the females, the 
 reserve and decorum of manner formed a striking contrast with 
 the very different habits of the Polynesians. 
 
 B. The Australians .—These are taken from life ; two natives of 
 the parts about Cape York having been taken up in an English 
 vessel and brought with it to England. They passed a fortnight 
 under the same roof with Mr. Thomson, and were well observed 
 by both the artists engaged on the figures, and the present writer. 
 The thinness of the legs is by no means exaggerated. It is just 
 what the plates of Dr. Prichard’s “Varieties of Man” make it. 
 On the other hand, the chest was well developed, and the arms 
 comparatively—though only comparatively—strong. They told 
 the story of their being on board the ship that brought them over, 
 in dumb show, but they told it in a way that the most consum¬ 
 mate professional actor might admire. But this was about all the 
 talent they showed. 
 
 They ran neither faster nor slower than the Englishman they 
 came in contact with ; but swam as adepts. By no means insen¬ 
 sible to such kindnesses as they received, they evinced quite as 
 much kindness to their English house-mates as they did to one 
 another. So silent, indeed, were they, that until we took a 
 vocabulary of their language, we thought that they belonged to 
 two different tribes who had carried their hostility with them 
 across the Pacific, and nourished it in Sydenham. Smoking, or 
 rather swallowing smoke, was their chief delight. 
 
 Tom, the livelier and less saturnine of the two, has a throwing- 
 stick in his hand, which he is about to project. 
 
 In the group of two he re-appears. When Dick, the gloomier, 
 had a headache, Tom could scarcely be withheld from scarifying 
 his temples with such pieces of glass or flint as he could pick up. 
 
 Dick and Tom are Northern Australians—Northern Australians 
 from the parts about Cape York. 
 
 Observe the points of difference and likeness between them and 
 the Louisiade Papuans. As both are dark-skinned, they have been 
 dealt with as branches of one and the same family ; for which a 
 name (or rather a pair of names) derived from the Greek has 
 been applied —Melanesian and Kelnonesian. Nesos means island ; 
 kelnos, dark ; melas (melan- os), black. The latter compound is 
 the better. They are certainly dark coloured ; and it is equally 
 certain that both New Guinea and Australia are islands. The 
 exact relationship, however, is less certain. Nevertheless, the 
 name Kelnonesian is adopted. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 31 
 
 It has been said that the Papuan contrasts favourably with the 
 Australian ; the latter being the better known of the two. 
 
 The differences between the different Australian languages have 
 long been known and definitely insisted upon. 
 
 Less marked differences in frame and physiognomy between the 
 different Australian tribes, have also been long known and defi¬ 
 nitely insisted upon. 
 
 Differences of customs and manners have been similarly noticed 
 and considered. Notwithstanding all this, however, there is no 
 opinion more generally admitted than the fundamental unity of 
 the Australian population from Swan River to Botany Bay, from 
 the Gulf of Carpentaria to Bass’s Straits. Captain Grey, 
 Schurman, Teichelman, and all who have devoted average atten¬ 
 tion to the language, have given their evidence to this ; and they 
 have supplied facts of various kinds, of their own collection, 
 towards the proof of it. No man is less inclined to disturb this 
 view than the present writer. 
 
 As to the physical conformation of the Australians, I believe 
 that it is so uniform throughout the island, that it has never been 
 made the basis of a division ;—indeed I am inclined to believe 
 that the similwrity of external appearance has been over-rated ; 
 nevertheless, it is certain that there are deviations from the 
 general slim and underfed condition of the body ; and (which is 
 of more importance), from the usual straight character of the hair. 
 Such is the case, according to Mr. Earl, with the trepang fishers 
 of Arnhem Bay. Then as to the hair—with the Jaako, or Croker 
 Island tribe, it is coarse and bushy (the whiskers being thick, 
 and curly) and so short, crisp, and abundant about the breast and 
 shoulders as to conceal the skin ; whereas, on the other hand, the 
 Oitbo, or Bidjenelumbo, have straight silky hair, arched eyebrows, 
 fair complexion, and occasionally the oblique eye. 
 
 The lowest form of humanity has been sought for in Australia, 
 whilst the physical condition of the country and the absence of 
 those animals and herbs that supply human food, have made it a likely 
 quarter to exhibit it. Whether, however, so low a rank in the scale 
 of human development be, upon the whole, a fact or exaggeration, it 
 is certain that, upon several points, there has been considerable 
 over-statement. One sample of this sort is the accredited opinion 
 as to the absolute incapacity of the Australian of forming even the 
 rudest elements of a mythology—an opinion which engenders the 
 notion that their intellects are too sluggish for even the evolution 
 of a superstition. 
 
32 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 That this was not the case was indicated some years hack by 
 Captain Grey, and that there is some exponent of the religions 
 fee lin g in the shape of a rude form of shamanism, has been 
 shown in the account of the American Exploring Expedition ; 
 where the first published details of the Australian mythology, if 
 so it may be called, are to be found :—“ It is not true, however, 
 as has been frequently asserted, that the natives have no idea of a 
 Supreme Being, although they do not allow this idea to influence 
 their actions. The Wellington tribes, at least, believe in the 
 existence of a Deity called Baiamai, who lives on an island beyond 
 the great sea to the East. His food is fish, which come up to him 
 from the water when he calls them. Some of the natives consider 
 him the maker of all things, while others attribute the creation of 
 the world to his son Burambin. They say of him, that Baiamai 
 spoke, and Burambin came into existence. When the missionaries 
 first came to Wellington, the natives used to assemble once a year, 
 in the month of February, to dance and sing a song in honour 
 of Baiamai. This song was brought there from a distance 
 by strange natives, who went about teaching it. Those who 
 refused to join in the ceremony were supposed to incur the dis¬ 
 pleasure of the god. For the last three years the custom has been 
 discontinued. In the tribe on Hunter’s River, there was a native 
 famous for the composition of these songs or hymns ; which, 
 according to Mr. Threlkeld, were passed from tribe to tribe, to a 
 great distance, till many of the words became at last unintelligible 
 to those who sang them. 
 
 “ Da/rarwirgal, a brother of Baiamai , lives in the far west. 
 It was he who lately sent the small-pox among the natives, for no 
 better reason than that he was vexed for want of a tomahawk. 
 But now he is supposed to have obtained one, and the disease 
 will come no more. The Bdlumibal are a sort of angels, who are 
 said to be of a white colour, and to live on a mountain at a great 
 distance to the south-east : their food is honey, and their employ¬ 
 ment is to do good 6 like the Missionaries. ’ 
 
 “It is possible that some of these stories owe their origin to 
 intercourse with the whites, though the great unwillingness which 
 the natives always evince to adopt any customs or opinions from 
 them, militates against such a supposition. But a being who i3, 
 beyond question, entirely the creation of Australian imagination, 
 is one who is called in the Wellington dialect, Wandong; though 
 the natives have learned from the whites to apply to him the name 
 of devil. He is an object not of worship, but merely of supersti- 
 
ETHNOLOGY, 
 
 33 
 
 tious dread. They describe him as going about under the form of 
 a black man of superhuman stature and strength. He prowls 
 at night through the woods around the encampments of the 
 natives, seeking to entrap some unwary wanderer, whom he 
 will seize upon ; and, having dragged him to his fire, will there 
 roast and devour him. They attribute all their afflictions to his 
 malevolence. If they are ill, they say Wando7ig has bitten them. 
 NTo one can see this being but the nujargir, or conjurors, who 
 assert that they can kill him, but that he always returns to life. 
 He may, however, be frightened away by throwing fire at him 
 (though this statement seems inconsistent with that respecting his 
 invisibility), and no native will go out at night without a firebrand 
 to protect him from the demon. 
 
 “ There is some difference in the accounts given of this character. 
 By the tribe of Hunter’s River he is called Koin or Koen. Some¬ 
 times, when the Blacks are asleep, he makes his appearance, seizes 
 upon one of them and carries him off. The person seized endea¬ 
 vours in vain to cry out, being almost strangled. At daylight, 
 however, Koin disappears, and the man finds himself conveyed 
 safely to his own fireside. From this it would appear that the 
 demon is here a sort of personification of the nightmare,—a visita¬ 
 tion to which the natives, from their habits of gorging themselves 
 to the utmost when they obtain a supply of food, must be very 
 subject. 
 
 “ At the Muruya River the devil is called Tidugal. He was 
 described to us, by a native, as a black man of great stature, 
 grizzled with age, who has very long legs, so that he soon. over¬ 
 takes a man ; but very short arms, which brings the contest 
 nearer an equality. This goblin has a wife who is much like him¬ 
 self ; but still more feared, being of a cruel disposition, with a 
 cannibal appetite, especially for young children. It would hardly 
 be worth while to dwell upon these superstitions, but they seem to 
 characterise so distinctly the people, at once timid, ferocious, and 
 stupid, who have invented them. 
 
 “ Their opinions with regard to the soul vary : some assert that 
 the wdiole man dies at once, and nothing is left of him ; others 
 are of opinion that his spirit still survives, but upon this earth, 
 either as a wandering ghost, or in a state of metempsychosis , 
 animating a bird or other inferior creature. But the most singu¬ 
 lar belief is one which is found at both Port Stephens and Swan 
 River, places separated by the whole breadth of the Australian 
 continent. This is, that white people are merely blacks who have 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 died, passed to a distant country, and having there undergone 
 a transformation, have returned to their original homes. When 
 the natives see a white man who strongly resembles one of their 
 deceased friends, they give him the name of the dead person, and 
 consider him to be actually the same being.” 
 
 It is difficult to take an exact measure of the extent to which one 
 superstition is grosser than another ;—hence, all that can be said 
 respecting the Pantheon, of which Baiamai and Wa/ndong are 
 portions, is that it is as low in the scale of mythologies as any 
 that has fallen under the notice of the writer. 
 
 Incomplete Numeration of the Australians. —The import of an 
 Australian having no more than the three, four, or five first 
 numerals, and being thereby as unable to count the number of the 
 fingers of his hands, as that of the hair of his head, is less equi¬ 
 vocal. It speaks, at once, to a minimum amount of intellectual 
 power. Nevertheless, the same inability occurs elsewhere ; espe¬ 
 cially in certain languages of South America. The only vocabulary 
 of Australia where the numerals run beyond five, is that of King 
 George’s Sound, as given in Mitchell’s Australia. 
 
 The political constitution (if so it may be called) of the Austra¬ 
 lians is preeminently simple, exhibiting a society of families rather 
 than of tribes ; and of the facts connected with the evidence in 
 favour of the unity of the Australian division of mankind is the 
 remarkable distribution of families bearing the same name. The 
 principal of these are the Ballaroke, the Tdondarup, the Ngotok, 
 the Nagarnook, the Nogonyuk, the Mongalung, and the Nar- 
 rangar. Now, persons bearing one or other of these names, may 
 be found in parts of the country five hundred miles apart. Nor 
 does this appear to be the effect of migration, since each tribe is 
 limited by the jealousy of its neighbours to its own hunting-ground, 
 beyond which it seldom passes. 
 
 Polygamy in Australia is what we find, and expect to find. 
 The practice of circumcision is what we find, perhaps, without 
 expecting it. The habit of the children taking the name of the 
 mother, will occur again in the south of India. The rule that a 
 man cannot marry a woman of his own family-name will also re¬ 
 appear, and that amongst the Indians of North America. 
 
 The Kobong. — i( Each family among the Australians adopts 
 some animal or plant, as a kind of badge or armorial emblem, or, 
 as they call it, its kobong. A certain mysterious connection exists 
 between a family and its kobong, so that a member of the family 
 wiH not kill an animal, or pluck any plant of the species to which 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 35 
 
 his kobong belongs, except under particular circumstances. This 
 institution again, which in some respects resembles the Polynesian 
 tabu , though founded on a different principle, has its counterpart 
 in the customs of the native Americans. Captain Gray observes, 
 citing Mr. Gallatin, that among the Hurons, the first tribe is that 
 of the bear ; the two others, those of the wolf and turtle. The 
 Iroquois have the same divisions, and the turtle family is divided 
 into the great and little turtle. The Sioux are named on a similar 
 principle. According to Major Long, one part of the superstitions 
 of these savages consists in each man having some totem, or 
 favourite spirit, which he believes to watch over him. The 
 totem assumes the shape of some beast, and therefore they never 
 kill or eat the animal whose form they suppose their totem to 
 bear.” 
 
 The ceremony of initiation .—“ When the boys arrive at the age 
 of puberty (or about fourteen), the elders of a tribe prepare to 
 initiate them into the duties and privileges of manhood. Suddenly, 
 at night, a dismal cry is heard in the woods, which the boys are 
 told is the Bubu calling for them. Thereupon all the men of the 
 tribe (or rather of the neighbourhood) set off for some secluded 
 spot previously fixed upon, taking with them the youths who are 
 to undergo the ceremony. The exact nature of this is not known, 
 except that it consists of superstitious rites, of dances representing 
 the various pursuits in which men are engaged, of sham fights, and 
 trials designed to prove the self-possession, courage, and endurance 
 of the neophytes. It is certain, however, that there is some 
 variation in the details of the ceremony, in different places ; for 
 among the coast tribes, one of these is the knocking out of an upper 
 front tooth, which is not done at Wellington, and farther in the 
 interior. But the nature and object of the institution appear to 
 be everywhere the same. Its design unquestionably is, to imprint 
 upon the mind of the young man the rules by which his future life 
 is to be regulated ; and some of these are so striking, and, under 
 the circumstances, so admirable, that one is inclined to ascribe 
 them to some higher state of mental cultivation than now prevails 
 among the natives. Thus, the young men, from the time they are 
 initiated, till they are married, are forbidden to approach or speak 
 to a female. They must encamp at a distance from them at night, and 
 if they see one in the way, must make a long detour to avoid her. 
 Mr. Watson told me that he had often been put to great incon¬ 
 venience in travelling through the woods, with a young man for 
 his guide, as such a one could never be induced to approach 
 
 i) 2 
 
36 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 an encampment where there were any women. The moral intent 
 of this regulation is evident. 
 
 “ Another rule requires the young men to pay implicit obedience 
 to their elders. As there is no distinction of rank among them, it is 
 evident that some authority of this kind is required, to preserve 
 the order and harmony of social intercourse. 
 
 “ A third regulation restricts the youth to certain articles of 
 diet. They are not allowed to eat fish, or eggs, or the emu, or 
 any of the finer kinds of opossum and kangaroo. In short, their 
 fare is required to be of the coarsest and most meagre description. 
 As they grow older, the restrictions are removed, one after 
 another ; but it is not till they have passed the period of middle 
 age that they are entirely unrestrained in the choice of food. 
 Whether one purpose of this law be to accustom the young men to 
 a hardy and simple style of living may be doubted ; but its prime 
 objects and its result certainly are to prevent the young men from 
 possessing themselves, by their superior strength and agility, of all 
 the more desirable articles of food, and leaving only the refuse to 
 the elders. 
 
 <c The ceremony of marriage, which, amongst most nations, 
 is considered so important and interesting, is with this people one 
 of the least regarded. The woman is looked upon as an article of 
 property, and is sold or given away by her relatives without the 
 slightest consideration of her own pleasure. In some cases she is 
 betrothed, or rather promised, to her future husband in the child¬ 
 hood of both ; and in this case, as soon as they arrive at a proper 
 age, the young man claims and receives her. Some of them 
 have four or five wives, and in such a case, they will give one to a 
 friend who may happen to be destitute. Notwithstanding this 
 apparent laxity, they are very jealous, and resent any freedom 
 taken with their wives. Most of their quarrels relate to 
 women. In some cases, the husband who suspects another native 
 of seducing his wife either kills or severely injures one or both 
 of them. Sometimes the affair is taken up by the tribe, who 
 inflict punishment after their own fashion The manner of this 
 is another of the singularities of their social system. 
 
 “ When a native, for any transgression, incurs the displeasure 
 of his tribe, their custom obliges him to 1 stand punishment, 5 as 
 it is called : that is, he stands with a shield, at a fair distance, 
 while the whole tribe, either simultaneously or in rapid succession, 
 cast their spears at him. Their expertness generally enables those 
 who are exposed to this trial to escape without serious injury, 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 37 
 
 though instances occasionally happen of a fatal result. There is a 
 certain propriety even in this extraordinary punishment, as it is 
 very evident that the accuracy and force with which the weapons 
 are thrown will depend very much upon the opinion entertained of 
 the enormity of the offence. 
 
 “ When the quarrel is between two persons only, and the tribe 
 declines to interfere, it is sometimes settled by a singular kind of 
 duello. The parties meet in presence of their kindred and friends, 
 who form a circle round them as witnesses and umpires. They 
 stand up opposite one another, armed each with a club about two 
 feet long. The injured person has the right of striking the first 
 blow, to receive which the other is obliged to extend his head 
 forward, with the side turned partially upwards. The blow is 
 inflicted with a force commensurate with the vindictive feeling of 
 the avenger. A white man, with an ordinary cranium, would be 
 killed outright, but, owing to the great thickness of their skulls, 
 this seldom happens with the natives. The challenged party now 
 takes his turn to strike, and the other is obliged to place himself 
 in the same posture of convenience. In this way the combat is 
 continued; with alternate buffets, until one of them is stunned, or 
 the expiation is considered satisfactory. 
 
 “ What are called wars among them may more properly be 
 considered duels (if this word may be so applied) between two 
 parties of men. One or more natives of a certain part of the 
 country, considering themselves aggrieved by the acts of others in 
 another part, assemble their neighbours to consult with them con¬ 
 cerning the proper course to be pursued. The general opinion 
 having been declared for war, a messenger or ambassador is sent 
 to announce their intention to the opposite party. These imme¬ 
 diately assemble their friends and neighbours, and all prepare for 
 the approaching contest. In some cases, the day is fixed by the 
 messenger, in others not; but, at all events, the time is well 
 understood. 
 
 “ The two armies (usually from fifty to two hundred each) 
 meet, and after a great deal of mutual vituperation, the combat 
 commences. From their singular dexterity in avoiding or parry¬ 
 ing the missiles of their adversaries, the engagement usually con¬ 
 tinues a long time without any fatal result. When a man is killed 
 (and sometimes before), a cessation takes place ; another scene of 
 recrimination, abuse, and explanation ensues, and the affair com¬ 
 monly terminates. All hostility is at an end, and the two parties 
 mix amicably together, bury the dead, and join in a general dance. 
 
38 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 u One cause of hostility among them, both public and 
 private, is the absurd idea which they entertain, that no person 
 dies a natural death. If a man perishes of disease, at a distance 
 from his friends, his death is supposed to have been caused by 
 some sorcerer of another tribe, whose life must be taken for satis¬ 
 faction. If, on the other hand, he dies among his kindred, the 
 nearest relative is held responsible. A native of the tribe at 
 Hunter’s River, who served me as a guide, had not long before 
 beaten his own mother nearly to death, in revenge for the loss of 
 his brother, who died while under her care. This was not because 
 he had any suspicions of her conduct, but merely in obedience to 
 the requirements of a senseless custom.” 
 
 Another fact connected with the decease of an Australian 
 deserves notice. When one of them dies, those words which 
 are identical with his name, or, in the case of compounds, 
 with any part of it, cease to be used; and some synonym 
 is adopted instead ; just as if, in England, whenever a Mr. 
 Smith departed this life, the parish to which he belonged 
 should cease to talk of blacksmiths, and say forgemen, forgers, or 
 something equally respectful to the deceased, instead. This 
 custom reappears in Polynesia, and in South America ; Dobrix- 
 hoffer’s account of the Apibonian custom being as follows:—“ The 
 Abiponian language is involved in new difficulties by a ridiculous 
 custom which the savages have of continually abolishing words 
 common to the whole nation, and substituting new ones in their 
 stead. Funeral rites are the origin of this custom. The Abipones 
 do not like that anything should- remain to remind them of the 
 dead. Hence appellative words bearing any affinity with the 
 names of the deceased are presently abolished. During the first 
 years that I spent among the Abipones, it was usual to say Heg- 
 malkam kaliamatek, when will there be a slaughtering of oxen ? 
 On account of the death of some Abipon, the word Kaliamdtek was 
 interdicted, and, in its stead, they were all commanded by the 
 voice of a crier to say, Hemalkam 'negerkatcb ? The word Nihirenak, a 
 tiger, was exchanged for Apanigehak ; Peu, a crocodile, for KaeprhaJc, 
 and Kaama, Spaniards, for JRikil, because these words bore some 
 resemblance to the names of Abipones lately deceased. Hence it 
 is that our vocabularies are so full of blots occasioned by our 
 having such frequent occasions to obliterate interdicted words, and 
 insert new ones.” 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 39 
 
 GROUP YI. 
 
 DANAKIL AND NEGRO OF THE EASTERN COAST OF AFRICA (THE 
 DANAKIL LIGHT-COLOURED) ; FROM THE PARTS BETWEEN THE 
 ENTRANCE TO THE RED SEA AND THE HIGHLANDS OF SOUTHERN 
 ABYSSINIA. 
 
 Attention is directed to the Danakil figures. They are African ; 
 but they are not negro. They are Africans from one of the 
 very hottest parts. They are other than negro, nevertheless. 
 Their hair is longer than the negro’s ; their lips thinner ; their 
 colour lighter ; their nose more aquiline. Travellers who have 
 been struck by their appearance have called them Caucasians, by 
 which they mean that they approach the European type. Others 
 have compared them with the Arabs—others with the Jews ; and 
 this has led them further. The coasts of Arabia are not far off; so 
 why should there not be Arab blood amongst them ? This has 
 more than once been assumed. The assumption, however, is 
 unnecessary—nay, it is incorrect. The negro of the next group— 
 the negro from the Delta of the Niger, the negro in his most 
 extreme form—is not more truly indigenous and aboriginal to the 
 soil of Africa than are these Danakil ; who are not only Africans, 
 in the strictest sense of the term, but also members of a large 
 family, falling into divisions and subdivisions. So far are they 
 from being exceptional, or in any respect peculiar. 
 
 The other members of this family are (a) the Somauli, on the 
 coast of the Pacific Ocean, about Cape Guardafui and (b) the 
 Gallas, or Ilmorma, a pastoral people spread over a vast area 
 to the south of Abyssinia, and who so encroach upon that country 
 that they are in a fair way of reducing it altogether. 
 
 The Gallas, like the Danakil, and the Danakil, like the Somauli 
 and Gallas, are a pastoral people—pastoral, locomotive, wild, and 
 intractable—with manners that remind us of the Arab of Asia, 
 the Kaffre of Southern Africa, or of the Berber of the Desert of 
 Sahara ; and it is these whom they resemble, more or less closely, 
 in their forms—more or less closely in their social constitution. 
 Like all such populations, they fall into numerous tribes, each under 
 the influence of their chief; with the spirit of blood, or pedigree, 
 running strong amongst them. Every man belongs to his tribe, 
 or class, and is proud of being attached to it. Of the Danakil 
 alone, more than fifty of these tribual divisions are known by 
 name. 
 
40 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 In respect to creed the Danakil are what the neighbourhood of 
 Arabia leads us to expect, Mahometans, more or less incompletely 
 converted ; and this is the general rule for the eastern coast of 
 Africa—the coast , but not the interior. In the interior we get 
 amongst pagans. On the other hand, Abyssinia and some of 
 the parts about it are Christian. Dr. Beke considered that he 
 found traces of a corrupt and displaced Christianity among the 
 Gallas. 
 
 The fact of the neighbourhood of Arabia having determined a 
 large portion of the eastern coast of Africa to Mahometanism 
 explains the meaning of the words Kajfre , and Caffraria, or Kaffer- 
 land. Kaffre, in the mouth of an Arab, means Infidel. It means 
 Infidel not only in the mouth of an Arab, but in that of any 
 Mahometan. In different languages it takes different forms, and 
 is applied to different populations. In Persia it expressed the old 
 Fire-worshippers, since Guebre is but another form of it. In Cabul 
 it denotes the occupants of a district to the north of Peshawur, 
 wherein the natives still reject Mahometanism, and, so doing, are 
 Kafirs, their country being Kaferistan. In Turkey it generally 
 means a Christian—since Giaour is neither more nor less than 
 Kafi/r in the mouth of a Turk. 
 
 But to return to Eastern Africa. Where the Arab influence 
 ceases, the land of the Kaffres begins. 
 
 Of these Kaffres more may be seen in group vn. 
 
 The black figure (modelled from life) is evidently more negro 
 than aught else. The hair is crisp, to say the least of it, and 
 the skin black ; the open and patulous character of the nostrils, 
 and their lateral position, claim attention. They are by no means 
 exaggerated. 
 
 The youth from whom the figure was taken belonged to the 
 Msegurra tribe ; of which I can only state that it is an occu¬ 
 pant of some part of the back of the coast of Zanzibar, or 
 Mozambique. 
 
 The present group prepares us for a Kaffre ; let it also prepare us 
 for a negro one. That all Africans are not negroes may be seen 
 from the figures before us. The negro form is by no means 
 universal—not even in the hottest parts of Africa—not even 
 between the tropics : it is only in the lower levels that the true 
 negro is to be found. Look for him amongst the high pastures of 
 the mountains, look for him even on the hot but arid plateaus 
 of the desert, and you search in vain. Tribes with dark skins 
 you may find, tribes with hair more or less wavy, or frizzly. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 41 
 
 tribes with features heavy, massive, and coarse-—but the true 
 and typical negro, with his short woolly hair, and his thick pro¬ 
 jecting lips you will not find. Wherever he is the occupant, the 
 soil is alluvial, and the heat of the atmosphere is combined with 
 moisture. Wherever the land gets high and dry, the inhabi¬ 
 tant is brown rather than black, and long-haired rather than 
 frizzly headed. His features, too, become more prominent. 
 
 GROUP VII. 
 
 NEGROES,- 2. LIGHT-COLOURED. FROM THE LOWER NIGER. 
 
 In the Delta of the Niger we find the best opportunity for 
 contrasting the negro with the European, the black man with 
 the white ; inasmuch as it is in the Delta of the Niger where the 
 points wherein the African differs from the rest of the world are 
 found in the most marked form. The climate is tropical (well 
 nigh equatorial), the soil swampy and alluvial, the atmosphere 
 surcharged with damp warm vapours. Under these conditions the 
 negro is found in his most extreme form. Let us ask what it is. In 
 the true and typical negro (the negro from whom the current no¬ 
 tions of the black man are derived), over and above the colour of the 
 skin, there is a woolly, cottony, or frizzy head of hair, there is a 
 yellow tinge over the white of the eye (the sclerotica), and there are 
 thick lips, with a projecting mouth—a muzzle rather than a mouth, 
 in its more exaggerated form. This is because the teeth are set 
 obliquely, i. e. they slant somewhat forward. Then there is the 
 forehead, which is described as being narrow, and retiring, and 
 receding, or sloping backwards. There is some exaggeration in 
 this, though upon the whole the negro character is well marked ; 
 the hair, the skin, and the lips, being the chief points. To the 
 notice of these it should be added that the nose is generally flat 
 and depressed, with the nostrils thrown out, so to say, sideways. 
 Rarely, very rarely indeed, is the bridge sufficiently curved to give 
 what is called the Roman or aquiline nose ; whilst it is almost as 
 rare to find a Grecian one, i. e. one where the nasal bones are 
 raised but straight. Then there is the proportion which the different 
 parts of the face bear to each other. A # German writer of eminence 
 as a naturalist, has lately been taking measurements from amongst 
 the negroes of Brazil, and states that instead of the parts between 
 
 * Burmeister —The Blade Man, a pamphlet. 
 
42 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 the chin and nose (the nasal portion of the face), and the forehead 
 forming a third, each, of the whole physiognomy, the forehead 
 forms less than a third, the nasal part more than the forehead, 
 and the chin, &c. more than the nasal; in other words, the lower 
 we go the greater the mass of the several parts of the face, and 
 the nearer we approach the brain, the smaUer. I can neither 
 verify nor deny this statement. 
 
 Other points, more or less characteristic, real or supposed, are to 
 be found in the relations of the limbs to the trunk—the former 
 being longer in proportion to the latter than is usual with 
 Europeans. 
 
 It is more important, however, to investigate the amount of 
 difference indicated by the difference of colour, and to do this we 
 must look to the structure of the skin. The structure of the 
 negro’s skin differs from that of the white man in degree only, 
 the one containing much, the other but little colouring matter ; 
 this colouring matter being deposited in a particular layer, called 
 the mucous layer , the stratum Malpighii, or the rete mucosum. 
 The character of this mucous layer , or rete mucosum , is well given in 
 the forthcoming plates, which, along with the description, is taken 
 from ~ ;f K611iker’s Manual. It differs in some degree from the one 
 which occurs in the ordinary works on Ethnology. 
 
 The external integument of all men alike consists of the cutis 
 or true skin, and the epidermis, or scarf-skin, the latter consisting 
 of cells only, the former of cells, vessels and nerves. 
 
 As far as the cutis is concerned, the blackest and whitest of 
 mankind are alike ; so that it is in the scarf-skin or epidermis 
 that the difference lies. This consists of two layers, an external 
 and an internal. 
 
 The internal layer is the rete mucosum. It lies immediately upon 
 the true skin, and consists solely and wholly of ceUs, being equally 
 destitute of vessels and nerves. Here begin the first discrepan¬ 
 cies in the opinion of writers. Some deny that it belongs to the 
 epidermis, looking upon it as a separate substantive tissue, neither 
 skin nor scarf-skin, but intermediate to the two. Others find it 
 only in the coloured families of mankind. It occurs, however, 
 universally ; being of a yellowish-white colour in Europeans, 
 and dark brown or black in negroes, Indians, and the so-called 
 dark races. Hence, the real difference is not in the existence of an 
 additional tissue, but in a greater amount of colouring matter. 
 
 * Translated by Messrs. Busk and Huxley for the Sydenham Society. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 43 
 
 Similar in respect to the two layers of their cutis, similar in respect 
 to the two layers of their epidermis, the black man and the white 
 differ in the extent to which the second layer of the scarf- 
 skin is charged with a black deposit. 
 
 The accompanying figure represents a section through the 
 skin and scarf-skin of the ball of the thumb ; wherein a is the 
 outer layer of the epidermis ; b, the inner, or rete mucosum ; 
 c , and d, the cutis ; e, glands, ducts, &c. 
 
 The next gives us the epidermis only—«, 
 being the outer ; b, the inner layer (rete muco¬ 
 sum) ; c, the cutis, to the outline of which 
 the rete mucosum adapts itself. 
 
 It is in the deepest parts of the inner layer, 
 in the parts more immediately in contact with 
 the true skin, that the most colouring matter 
 is accumulated. Hence, the horny, or outer 
 part of the epidermis is white or yellowish, 
 all the world over. A blister, in popular language, raises the shin ; 
 in reality, it only raises the outer layer of the 
 epidermis. ISTow blisters rise equally white with the 
 African and with the European. 
 
 It is not until after birth that the colouring 
 matter of the second layer of the scarf-skin becomes 
 deposited. A negro child is born of somewhat 
 deeper red colour than an European, but he is not 
 born black. The edges of the nails and the nipple 
 of the breast darken first; the body having darkened by the third 
 day, there or thereabouts. 
 
 As the hue of the skin attains its deepest tinge with the groupe 
 before us, the structure that exhibits it has been enlarged upon. 
 
 What is the moral and social state of these negroes of the 
 Delta of the Niger ? what their habits, customs, and creeds ? 
 
 We cannot follow the account of any observer for these parts, 
 without discovering that, overpowering as is the heat, and swampy 
 as is the ground, unfavourable, in one word, as are the conditions 
 of soil and climate, the whole of the low country represented by 
 the groupe before us teems with human life ; neither is there the 
 absence of human industry. We first hear of villages of from 
 twenty to thirty, from thirty to forty, from fifty to seventy huts ; 
 to each of which we may give, upon an average, some six occupants. 
 Then there are large towns like Iboh and Iddah, wherein the inha¬ 
 bitants are counted by the thousand ; where there are regular 
 
44 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 market-days, and where there is a king with, his court, such as it 
 is. It is with these kings that the treaties have to be made 
 against the slave-trade, these kings who, as in the late case at 
 Lagos, have disputes as to the “ succession”; these kings who give 
 licenses to trade, and who make the access to the interior part of 
 the country practicable or the contrary. There are kings and 
 viceroys—viceroys with kings over them, so that there is a sort of 
 feudal chain of vassalage and sovereignty. King Emmery, for 
 instance, was, at the time of the Niger Expedition, the chief of 
 a village on the river Nun, himself being a subject to King Boy 
 of Brass Town. Then there is the kingdom of Iddah, with its 
 subordinate kingships, whilst Kakanda and Egga are the depen¬ 
 dencies of a really consolidated monarchy at Sakkatu. 
 
 At best, however, the African monarch, except in the Maho¬ 
 metan kingdoms, is but a sorry potentate ; a drunken, sensual, 
 slave-dealing polygamist. When Drs. McWilliam and Stanger 
 visited this same King Emmery, his dress was a uniform coatee 
 that had belonged to a drummer * in some English regiment, a 
 plain black hat, and a blue cotton handkerchief for the lower man 
 —a blue cotton handkerchief for drawers, trowsers and stockings, 
 collectively ; the dress of the ordinary natives being limited to a 
 simple shirt, with a cloth round the middle. In this we get 
 one of the measures of the amount of English influence and 
 trade. 
 
 The huts are of clay, arranged in squares rather than in rows, 
 and when the soil is low and liable to be flooded, they are raised 
 some feet from the ground on a foundation of wooden pillars, in 
 which case a ladder leads to the principal opening. The King’s 
 palace is an assemblage of such huts ; a miniature town ; one 
 side of the square which they form being the <e women’s quarters.” 
 Here reside the numerous wives, half-wives, and ex-wives of the 
 sovereign, the number of which is always considerable, since the 
 rank of the man regulates it. The following table gives us, in 
 the first column, the names of the different members of the Court 
 
 * A drummer’s uniform is a favourite dress elsewhere. In the Ethnological 
 Museum at Copenhagen, Professor Thompson can show no ■ marriage-garment 
 for a male Esquimaux, although of female wedding-gear, and that a truly native 
 and characteristic kind, he has abundance. But there are no male equivalents. 
 The reason of this lies in the fact of a Danish Drummer’s dress having been left 
 as a sort of general property to the community, to be lent or hired, as the case 
 may be whenever a marriage ceremony takes place, to the utter obliteration of 
 the old costume, and with a great disregard to fit. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 45 
 
 of King Obi of Iboli in 1840 ; in the others, their age, and the 
 numbers of their wives and families— 
 
 
 
 Wives. 
 
 Children. 
 
 
 Age. 
 
 Living. 
 
 Dead. 
 
 Living. 
 
 Dead. 
 
 1. Ajeh, king’s brother . 
 
 40 
 
 80 
 
 40 
 
 uncer¬ 
 
 tain. 
 
 uncer¬ 
 
 tain. 
 
 2. Amorara, judge and king’s 1 
 mouth .... J 
 
 40 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 3. Ozama, headman .... 
 
 o5 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 4. Omenibo, headman . . . 
 
 32 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 5. Amebak, headman . . . 
 
 28 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 6. Magog, bugler. 
 
 34 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 7. Ambili, headman . . . 
 
 35 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 8. Ogrou, headman .... 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 9. Obi, king. 
 
 44 
 
 110 
 
 uncertain. 
 
 Let us see something more of this female quarter, which, in 
 the negro parts of Africa, presents a social scene, in the way of 
 barbarism, which the harems of Asia—bad as they are—far fall 
 short of. Obi’s establishment was seen to advantage ; for his wives 
 were amused at the faces and dresses of the Europeans who visited 
 their lord and master, and they flocked in swarms to laugh at 
 them. Their mirth then “ brought * out about twenty damsels 
 of more mature age, who were superannuated wives, permitted 
 to live within the precincts of the palace.” What will be the 
 ultimate fate of these old and young, active and superannuate 1 
 Even this—that when the king dies, they will be sacrificed to his 
 manes. 
 
 This practice is common throughout the districts under notice. 
 At Old Calabar, the south-eastern angle of the Delta, the death 
 of a well-known chief or caboceer,f named Ephraim, caused the 
 death of some hundreds of men, women, and children who were 
 immolated at his burial—decapitation, burning alive, and the 
 administration of the poison-nut, being the methods resorted to 
 for terminating their existence. 
 
 Again, when King Eyeo, father of the present Chief of Creek 
 
 * Dr. McWilliam—Medical History of the Niger Expedition. 
 
 T From the Portuguese Caboccro — Captain. 
 
46 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 Town, died, an eyewitness, who had only arrived just after the 
 completion of the funeral rites, informed me that a large pit had 
 been dug, in which several of the deceased’s wives were bound 
 and thrown in, until a certain number had been procured ; the 
 earth was then thrown over them, and so great was the agony of 
 these victims, that the ground for several minutes was agitated 
 with their convulsive throes. So fearful, in former times, was the 
 observance of this barbarous custom, that many towns narrowly 
 escaped depopulation.* 
 
 The savage character of the negro warfare is on a level with 
 such practices as these—the slave trade being the chief incentive 
 to them. When these take place, and when the burial-place of a 
 king is known to the enemy, they rifle his grave for his remains ; 
 and having obtained his scull, keep it as a trophy. For this 
 reason the tombs of royalty are kept concealed. 
 
 But there is another peculiarity. In more than one part of the 
 western coast, the woman serves as a soldier, or even as a captain. 
 In Akkim, on the Gold Coast, the notice of a female colonel y 
 when first made, excited as much incredulity as surprise. The fact, 
 nevertheless, has been confirmed by respectable testimony, by Mr. 
 Duncan, and Captain Forbes, more especially; inasmuch as in the 
 kingdom of Dahomey, there is a whole regiment consisting exclu¬ 
 sively of females—a large proportion being the ex-wives of the 
 king. The following song, given on the authority of the last- 
 named author, shows the temper and spirit of the unsexed 
 Amazons :— 
 
 1 . 
 
 “ When Yoribah'f said she could conquer Dahomey; 
 
 When we meet we’ll change their night into day; 
 
 Let the rain fall : 
 
 The season past, the river dries. 
 
 Yoribah and Dahomey ! 
 
 Can two rams drink from one calabash ? 
 
 The Yoribahs must have been drunk to say 
 Dahomey feared them, 
 
 They could conquer Dahomey. 
 
 2 . 
 
 “ There’s a difference between Grezo and a poor man ; 
 
 There’s a difference between Grezo and a rich man. 
 
 If a rich man owned all, 
 
 Gezo would still be king. 
 
 * Dr. Daniell on the Natives of Old Calabar, “ Transactions of the Ethno¬ 
 logical Society.”* 
 
 + A neighbouring kingdom on- the East. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 47 
 
 All guns are not alike ; 
 
 Some are long, some short, some thick, some thin. 
 
 The Yoribahs must be a drunken nation, 
 
 And thus we will dance before them. 
 
 3. 
 
 ‘ * Gezo is king of kings ! 
 
 While Gezo lives we have nothing to fear. 
 
 Under him we are lions, not men. 
 
 Power emanates from the king. 
 
 4. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Let all eyes behold the king ! 
 
 There are not two but one— 
 
 One only, Gezo ! 
 
 All nations have their customs, 
 
 But none so brilliant or enlightened, 
 
 As those of Dahomey. 
 
 People from far countries are here : 
 
 Behold all nations, white and black, 
 
 Send their ambassadors. 
 
 AMAZONS’ CHORUS. 
 
 ‘ 1 With these guns in our hands, 
 
 And powder in our cartouch-boxes, 
 
 What has the king to fear ? 
 
 When we go to war, let the king dance, 
 
 While we bring him prisoners and heads. 
 
 GENERAL CHORUS. 
 
 ‘ 1 Let the king grant war speedily ! 
 
 Do not let our energies be damped. 
 
 Fire cannot pass through water. 
 
 The king feeds us; 
 
 When we go to war. 
 
 Remember this ! 
 
 “We are clothed and fed by Gezo ; 
 
 In consequence, our hearts are glad. 
 
 War and slavery engender each other ; war leading to slavery, 
 and slavery stimulating to war. And slavery takes three forms, 
 all bad—bad, but one worse than the other two. This is the 
 slavery of the traders. An expedition is undertaken against some 
 neighbouring tribe, weak enough, or unprepared enough, to divest 
 the attack of half its danger. Captives are taken, driven to the 
 coast in groups, shut up in barracoons, and then sold for trans¬ 
 portation to the new world. It is this form of slavery that 
 engenders the miseries and atrocities of the middle passage. 
 
43 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 The second form is that of simple domestic servitude, wherein 
 the slave, although under constant compulsion, forms a part of 
 his master’s family, and is ensured against removal from his 
 native soil. 
 
 The third is like that of the JSfexi of ancient Rome, and occurs 
 when a negro, in order to raise a particular sum of money, sells 
 himself as a labourer for a certain period—pawns his body, so to 
 say, or borrows money on himself. 
 
 The administration of justice is on the same low level as the 
 other institutions ; the punishments being cruel, and the rules of 
 evidence barbarous. * Two methods, as may be expected, pre¬ 
 dominate, the ordeal and the torture. The commonest form of 
 the latter is “ what is called tying Guinea-fashion. In this 
 the arms are closely drawn together behind the back, by means of 
 a cord tied tightly round them, about midway between the elbows 
 and shoulders. A piece of wood to act as a rack having been 
 previously introduced, is then used so as to tighten the cord, and 
 so intense is the agony, that one application is generally suf¬ 
 ficient to occasion the wretch so tortured to confess to anything 
 that is required of him.” 
 
 Another form consists in “tying the head and hands, in such a 
 way that by turning the body backwards, they may be drawn 
 together by the cords employed. Another is securing the wrist or 
 ankle to a block of wood by an iron staple. By means of a 
 hammer any degree of pressure may thus be applied.” 
 
 The chief form of ordeal is, what is called on the Gold Coast, 
 the dhoom test, but which appears and reappears all along the 
 intertropical parts of Western Africa. The dhoom is a kind of 
 wood with poisonous and emetic properties. The innocent man 
 drinks and ejects it : the guilty one drinks and dies. In Old 
 Calabar the seeds of an aquatic legume replace the dhoom wood. 
 Unless emetic, they are poisonous. 
 
 Partaking of the nature of the ordeal, as a means of investigation 
 in criminal matters, is the application to priest, sorcerer, medicine¬ 
 man, or Fetish-man ; but as the principles of belief that this practice 
 involves one illustrated in the Zulu group, we only make a passing 
 allusion to it. The notice, too, of the festivals as connected with 
 religion, will similarly stand over. 
 
 What applies to one of the negro populations of the western 
 coast, applies, more or less, to all. There are, of course, differences, 
 nevertheless the general character of the social and political 
 
 * From the United Service Journal, November, 1850. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 49 
 
 institutions, of their habits and superstitions, is alike ; so that the 
 description of one tribe is the description of several others besides ; 
 the chief distinctions consist in the creeds. I do not mean by this 
 that the particular form of the native and indigenous superstition 
 is of much importance. They are all low and debasing, and even 
 when an African form of faith aspires to the character of a 
 mythology, it is a mythology of an unpoetical, unimaginative, and 
 poverty-stricken character, never indicating much play of feeling, 
 never any vigour or activity of imagination, never inspiring either 
 art or poetry. Of such things we must not think here. 
 
 The difference I allude to, and which is one of practical and of 
 ever increasing importance, is that between the Pagan and the Maho¬ 
 metan population, between those which hold to their original 
 Fetishism, to their snake-worship and the like, and those who, 
 having adopted the creed of Islam, are (whatever else they may be) 
 at least, Monotheists. 
 
 The Mahometans of the African states must always be separated 
 from the Pagans. 
 
 The negro districts of the western coast begin with the 
 country of the Wolofs or Jolofs, as far north as the southern 
 border of the Desert, and the lower course of the river Senegal. 
 There are no better-shaped negroes than these same Wolofs, for 
 they are tall, well-made, active, and intelligent men ; Pagans, 
 however, according to their original creed, rather than Mahometans. 
 
 The Sereres of Cape Yerde, and the Scrawoolli in the interior, 
 are in the same predicament. 
 
 The Mandingoes, like the Wolofs, are negroes but not Pagans. 
 They are amongst the first and foremost of the Mahometan 
 negroes : but this applies only to the Mandingoes in the limited 
 sense of the term—the Mandingoes of the Gambia. In the wider 
 sense of the word, the great Mandingo class comprises more than 
 twenty different populations, some of which are as Pagan as the 
 most grovelling snake-worshippers of Dahomey. 
 
 Then come the tribes of the islands between the Gambia and 
 Sierra Leone ; as also of the lower part of the rivers Grande, 
 Nufiez, Casamanca, &c. Under the names of Felups, Papels, 
 Nalus, Sapis, &c. , and we have some of the rudest, but at the same 
 time, the least known of the western negroes. 
 
 Between Sierra Leone and Cape Palmas, along with several 
 populations more or less akin to the Mandingo, lie the Krumen , 
 whom a writer already quoted, calls the Scotchmen of Africa. 
 The Kruman leaves without hesitation or reluctance his own 
 
 £ 
 
50 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 country to push his fortune wherever he can find a wider field. 
 He is ready for any employment which may enable him to increase 
 his means, and ensure a return home in a state of improved pros¬ 
 perity. There the Kruman’s ambition is to purchase one or two 
 head of cattle, and one or two head of wives, and to enjoy the 
 luxuries of rum and tobacco. Half the Africans that we see in 
 Liverpool and London are Krumen, who have left their own 
 country when young, and taken employment on board a ship, 
 where they exhibit a natural aptitude for the sea. Without being 
 nice as to the destination of the vessel in which they engage, they 
 return home as soon as they can ; and rarely or never contract 
 matrimony before their return. In Cape Coast Town, as well as 
 in Sierra Leone, they form a bachelor community quiet and 
 orderly ; and in that respect stand in strong contrast to the other 
 tribes around them. Besides which, with all their blackness, and 
 all their typical negro character, they are distinguishable from most 
 other western Africans ; having the advantage of them in make, 
 features, and industry. Hence, a Kruman is preeminently the 
 free labourer of Africa ; quick of perception and amenable to 
 instruction. His language is the Grebo tongue, and it has been 
 reduced to writing by the American missionaries of Cape 
 Palmas. 
 
 The Gold Coast gives as the chief populations the Fantis, and 
 the Ashantis, pagan and negro ; the latter remarkable for the 
 consolidation of one of the more powerful kingdoms of Africa. 
 
 In Dahomey we reach the nadir of Negro rudeness ; in 
 Dahomey, where the v r ars are the cruelest, the slave trade the 
 most rife, and the heathenism, at one and the same time emin¬ 
 ently debasing in itself, and eminently unmodified by Mahome¬ 
 tanism. 
 
 In the neighbouring kingdom of Yoruba, this is not so much 
 the case, where the influence of the Fellatas has made itself felt. 
 
 This brings us to the Delta of the Niger, the chief population 
 of which is the Ibo. 
 
 South of the Delta come the negroes of the Gaboon, and 
 south of these those of Loango, Angola, and Benguela. Between 
 this last-named country and Walvisch Bay, the type changes to 
 that of the browner-coloured Caffres, and the Hottentots. The 
 language changed long before—in the parts between the Gaboon 
 and the old Calabar rivers. 
 
 I do not profess that scientific imperturbability which enables me 
 t} write about such abominations as human sacrifice, and such 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 51 
 
 follies as snake-worship, without branding them and the nations 
 that adopt them as barbarous. They belong, however, to the 
 darker side of the picture. The brighter gives us something 
 better ; warmth of domestic feeling, aptitude for such commercial 
 dealings as their circumstances develop, adaptation to the habits of 
 the European, susceptibility to the ameliorating influences both of 
 Mahometanism and Christianity, are all negro characteristics. 
 
 We have noticed the character of the Kruman, we will now 
 notice a negro tribe wherein an alphabet has been evolved. A 
 man of the Vey country, to the back of Liberia, a truly negro 
 locality, named Doala Bakara, having seen both Arabic and 
 English books, conceived the idea of producing an alphabet for his 
 own tongue. This idea, as he tells the story himself, haunted him 
 in a dream, wherein he was shown a series of signs of letters. 
 These he forgot in the morning ; but remembered the impression. 
 So he consulted his friends ; and they and he, laying their heads 
 together, coined new ones. The king of the country made its 
 introduction a matter of state, and built a large house as a day- 
 school. The effect of this has been, that a book in the Yey 
 tongue has been deciphered by an English scholar, and that several 
 Yey natives, of both sexes can read and write. The alphabet 
 itself is a syllabariv/m ; i. e. there is a separate sign or letter, for 
 the different syllables of which a word consists—not for the diffe¬ 
 rent elementary sounds. 
 
 The darker individuals of the group before us have furnished 
 a text upon which a general sketch of the negro population of 
 Western Africa has been the commentary. Let us now turn to 
 the men of the lighter complexion, and the less prominent lips. 
 They are Fellatas , Fellatahs , or Falatiya. Sometimes they are 
 called Fellatiya Arabs; but they have nothing to do with the 
 Arab of Arabia except so far as they are Mahometans in creed, 
 and somewhat light-complexioned in respect to their colour. 
 
 The metropolis of the Fellatas is Sakkatu, visited by Clapper- 
 ton, from whom the following remarkable history is taken :— 
 Towards the end of the last century a vast number of wandering 
 pastoral tribes spread over that part of Central Africa, which is 
 called Sudania —underwent a change in respect to the social and 
 political organisation, which Prichard compares with that of the 
 Arabs at the time of Mahomet. Many—but not all—of them 
 embraced Mahometanism, and that with more than ordinary zeal 
 and devotion. They visited the more civilised parts of Barbary, 
 they performed pilgrimages to Mecca, they recognised in one of 
 
 e 2 
 
52 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 their sheiks, called Danfodio, a prophet with a mission, to preach, 
 to convert, to conquer. Under his inspiration they attacked the 
 pagan population of the countries around—Guber to the north, 
 and Kubbi to the south, Zamfra, Kashna, and parts of the 
 Houssa country to the east. Their war-cry was Allah Akbar ; 
 their robes and flags white, emblematic of their purity. Kano 
 was conquered without a blow, so was Yaouri, so was the town of 
 Eyo or Katunga on the Niger, so was part of the Nufi or Tapua 
 country—even the frontier of Bornou was violated. 
 
 Danfodio’s death, which took place in 1818, was preceded by 
 fits of religious madness ; not, however, before he had consolidated 
 a great Fellatah kingdom, and become the terror to the states 
 around. It was in vain that a portion of his conquests revolted. 
 The present Sultan of Sakkatu, Mohammed Bello, is the -most 
 powerful prince of Africa, whether pagan or Mahometan. 
 
 Most of these Fellatas are Mahometans, some retaining their 
 original paganism ; but whether pagan or Mahometan, they are 
 still the same people. Their features are the same, their pastoral 
 habits the same, their language the same. This is one of the 
 most isolated tongues of Africa ; with plenty of miscellaneous, 
 but no very definite or special affinities. 
 
 In Borgho, i. e. in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa, 
 visited by Lander, there are two populations, one speaking a 
 language akin to the Yoruba , one akin to the Fellatah ; so that 
 there Fellata offsets in Borgho. But here, according to Lander, 
 they have been in the country from time immemorial. Here, 
 too, they hold themselves as a separate people from the Fellatas 
 of Sakkatu, dominant and powerful as that branch is, and respect¬ 
 able as would be the connexion. Such, at least, is Lander’s 
 statement. Their name, too, undergoes a slight modification, 
 and is Filani. They have neither idea nor tradition as to the 
 origin—not at least the Filani of Borgho. 
 
 All this looks as if Borgho were the original country of the 
 Fellata stock, the starting-point from which they spread them¬ 
 selves abroad. If so, their movement must have been from south 
 to north. 
 
 But we have yet to hear the whole of their history. Under the 
 names of Fula , Fulahs, Foule or Feule, they appear elsewhere. 
 Where ?—As far north as the Wolof (or Jolof) country—as far north 
 as the parts between the Senegal and the desert—as far north as 
 17 N. L. Here between Galam and Kayor is a vast Fula district— 
 the district of the Fulas of the Siratik. There on the south bank 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 53 
 
 of the river lie the Fulas of Foutatorro, an elevated tract of land 
 forming the watershed to the Senegal and the Gambia. 
 
 Thirdly, far in the interior, on the high ground over which 
 Park passed from the drainage of the Senegal to that of the Niger, 
 is a Fula -du } or country of the Fulas, between Bambuk and 
 Bambarra. 
 
 Fourthly, there are the Fulas to the south of Bammakoo, in 
 the parts called Wasselah, on the Niger itself. 
 
 Fifthly, in 11 N. L., on the head-water of the Bio Grande, 
 is the large kingdom of the Fouta-jallo Fulahs, of which Timbu 
 is the metropolis, surrounded by dry and rocky deserts, and 
 exposed mountain pastures, prolific with sheep, oxen, goats, and 
 horses. Here, although the use of the plough is unknown, the 
 occupants cultivate the soil, and exercise more than one of the 
 mechanical arts. They forge iron and silver, weave, and tan, and 
 support schools and mosques. To the south lies the Sulimana 
 tribe, more or less akin to the Mandingoes. From these, Laiug 
 learnt, that the acquisition of the country about Tembu by the 
 Fulas of Futa-jallo was an event of no great antiquity, having 
 taken place about a.d. 1700. 
 
 There are other Fula, Fellata, and Filani localities, but an 
 enumeration of the foregoing has been sufficient. It shows the 
 Yast space of ground covered by the population so-called. It 
 shows, too, the difficulty of ascertaining the original mother 
 country. Indeed, upon the whole, this is a point upon which good 
 writers are satisfied to suspend their judgment—no one having 
 committed himself very decidedly to a preference for one district 
 over another. 
 
 The main facts lie in the superiority of their organisation over 
 the ordinary negro, and their higher civilisation—this being chiefly 
 due to their Mahometanism. There is no doubt as to either. 
 Although, the particular shade of the particular colour which best 
 suits the Fula is not a matter upon which authors write with 
 unanimity ; the testimony of all observers goes to the fact that, 
 whether Filani or Fellata, Fellata or Fula, whether pagan or 
 Mahometan, whether Sudanian or Senegambian, whether moun¬ 
 taineer or desert-born, the Fula is something different from the 
 typical Negro. Sometimes his coniplexion is intermediate to that 
 of the African and the Moor ; sometimes he is described as being 
 tawny, with soft hair, and lips by no means prominent : some¬ 
 times the skin is of a reddish-black, the countenances being 
 regular. “ The tribe of Fulas,” writes Golberry, “which under 
 
5 i 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 the name of Foules or Peuls, have peopled the borders of the 
 Senegal between Podhon and Galam, are black with a tinge of red 
 or copper colour ; they are in general handsome and well-made ; 
 the women are handsome, but proud and indolent.” 
 
 To the Fula-jallo Fulas the very definite and suggestive term 
 44 Red Peuls ” has been applied; to which the name 44 Black 
 Peuls ” stands in opposition, this meaning the Fulas of the north 
 bank of the lower Senegal. 
 
 What is our inference from these discrepancies of description— 
 what our inference from the points of agreement ? Even this *— 
 that the Fula complexion varies with the physical conditions of the 
 Fula locality. In the high and exposed tracts of Fula-jallo it is 
 the least, in the lower levels of the parts about lake Kay or, it is 
 most like that of the negro. 
 
 GROUP VIII. 
 
 SOUTHERN AFRICA.—NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE CAPE.— 
 PORT NATAL. 
 
 A. ZULUS, (the TALLER AND DARKER.) B. BUSHMEN. (THE 
 SHORTER AND BROWNER.) 
 
 A. The Zulu group is taken from life—from the men lately 
 exhibited at St. George’s Hall. The story told is the search for 
 some lost article. When this is the case, a Fetish-man, medium- 
 man, mystery-man, or conjuror (we may choose our name), is called 
 in, and set upon the suspected parties, who sit round in a circle. 
 The conjuror then works himself, like the Pythoness of the old 
 oracles, into a state of rabid excitement, and keeps it up until he 
 fixes upon the culprit. 
 
 Nothing is less peculiar than this practice throughout Africa— 
 throughout, indeed, most savage countries ; nor is it without its 
 value. Writing about the same practice on the Gold Coast, an 
 author already quoted, after stating the 4 4 superstitious rites 
 employed by the Fetish-men for the detection of crime,” adds, 
 44 and whether it is that these people really possess such powerful 
 influence over their wretched dupes, as to frighten into confession 
 of his guilt the perpetrator of crime, or whether it is that they 
 manage by their numerous spies to obtain a clue sufficient in most 
 cases to lead to the detection of the person, is more than I can 
 
 * For further details, see Prichard, Researches, &c ., vol. ii. pp. 66—73, 
 and 121—125. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 oo 
 
 venture to assert; but, be the means employed what they may, a 
 Fetish-man will assuredly very often bring a crime home to the 
 right person, even after the most patient investigation in the 
 ordinary way has failed to elicit the slightest clue. ” 
 
 The Zulus come from the part about Port Natal. They are 
 closely allied, in language, at least, to the Kaffres—the Kaffres of 
 the Amakosa, Amaponda, Amatembu, and other tribes, but too 
 well known to the Cape Colonist and the English tax-payer. 
 
 They are similarly allied to the Bechuana tribes of the interior. 
 The Bechuanas, however, are browner in colour, as is expected from 
 their locality, which is high and dry. 
 
 The Fingoes are also an allied population. 
 
 The differences between the Proper Kaffres, the Bechuanas, the 
 Fingoes, and the Zulus, lie within a small compass, so that the 
 general likeness is pretty clear. But neither the differences nor 
 the likenesses between the populations akin to the Kaffres end here. 
 
 The word (the derivation of which has been given elsewhere) has 
 two meanings. It means, in its more limited sense, the Kaffres of 
 Caffraria, chiefly of the Amakosa tribe, the men who have given 
 so much trouble to the colonists. But it also has a wider or more 
 general signification, and in this case it serves as the designation of 
 a large family of allied populations—and a very large family—one 
 of the largest in Africa. 
 
 The connecting link between its numerous branches is the 
 language, of which the structure has (amongst others) the following 
 characteristic peculiarities. Suppose that in English, instead of 
 saying 
 
 .Man’s dog, we said dan dog, 
 
 /Sun’s beam —bun be am, 
 
 Father’s daughter—dather daughter, 
 
 Daughter’s father—-/aughter father ; 
 
 in such a case we should accommodate the sound of the 
 word in the possessive case to that with which the word in the 
 nominative case began. And if we did this, we should assuredly 
 do something very remarkable in the way of speech. Now the 
 Kaffre tongues all do this. It is done by the Amakosa, the 
 Zulu, the Fingo, the Bechuana. It is done by the languages 
 on the western coast as far as the Cameroons, i. e., to the north of 
 the equator—by the languages of Benguela, Angola, Congo, 
 Loango, and the Gaboon, (fee. It is done by the languages on the 
 eastern coast as well ; indeed, it was very probably done by the 
 
56 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 language of tRe Moegurras. It is done, so far as we know, by 
 all the languages of the interior south, of the equator—save and 
 except those of the Hottentot class. It is certainly done by 
 the languages of the Great Lake Ngami. 
 
 The Kaffre division, then, is a large one ; and it is based, 
 chiefly, on similarity of language. In physical form, the range of 
 difference is great. Some of the Kaffres are truly negro, others 
 brown in colour, and with lips of moderate thickness. The Zulus 
 before us certainly approach the negro. 
 
 On the other hand, more than one good writer has enlarged upon 
 the points of contrast; and such there certainly are, if we take the 
 more extreme forms—the typical Kaffre and typical NTegro. In 
 the latter, for instance, the skin (as aforesaid) may be brown rather 
 than black. Then the cheek-bones may project outwards ; and 
 where the cheek-bones so project beyond a certain limit, the chin 
 appears to taper downwards, and the vertex upwards. "When this 
 becomes exaggerated, we hear of lozenge-shaped skulls. Be this as 
 it may, the breadth in the malar portion of the face is often a 
 remarkable feature in the Kaffre physiognomy. This he has in 
 common with the Hottentot. Sometimes, too, the eye is oblique ; 
 the opening generally narrow. 
 
 An opinion often gives a better picture than a description. 
 Kaffres, that have receded in the greatest degree from the negro 
 type, have been so likened to the more southern Arabs, as to have 
 engendered the hypothesis of an infusion of Arab blood. 
 
 The manners of the Kaffres of the Cape are those of pastoral 
 tribes under chieftains ; tribes which, from their habits and social 
 relations, are naturally active, locomotive, warlike, and jealous of 
 encroachment. 
 
 It would be strange indeed if the Kaffre life and Kaffre 
 physiognomy had no peculiarities. However little in the way of 
 physical influence we may attribute to the geography of a country, 
 no man ignores them altogether. Now Kaffreland has very nearly 
 a latitude of its own ; inhabited lands similarly related to the 
 southern tropic being found in South America and Australia only. 
 And it has a soil still more exclusively South-African. We connect 
 the idea of the desert with that of sand ; whilst steppe is a term 
 which is limited to the vast tracts of central Asia. Now the Kaffre, 
 and still more the Hottentot, area, dry like the desert, and elevated 
 like the steppe, is called a hairo. Its soil is often a hard, cracked, 
 and parched clay rather than a waste of sand, and it constitutes an 
 argillaceous table-land. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 57 
 
 Their polity and manners, too, are peculiar. The head-man of 
 the village settles disputes, his tribunal being in the open air. 
 From him an appeal lies to a chief of higher power ; and from him 
 to some superior, higher still. In this way there is a long chain 
 of feudal or semi-feudal dependency. 
 
 The wife is the slave to the husband ; and he buys her in order 
 that she should be so. The purchase implies a seller. This is 
 always a member of another tribe. Hence the wish of a Kaffre is 
 to see his wife the mother of many children, girls being more 
 valuable than boys. 
 
 Why a man should not sell his offspring to the members of his 
 own tribe is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the practice of 
 doing so makes marriage between even distant relations next to 
 impossible. To guard against the chances of this, a rigid and 
 suspicious system of restraint has been developed in cases of 
 consanguinity ; and relations must do all they can to avoid meeting. 
 To sit in the same rooim, to meet on the same road, is undesirable. 
 To converse is but just allowable, and then all who choose must 
 hear what is said. So thorough, however, has been the isolation 
 in many cases, that persons of different sexes have lived as near 
 neighbours for many years without having conversed with each 
 other ; and such communication as there has been, has taken place 
 through the medium of a third person. Ko gift will induce a 
 Kaffre female to violate this law. 
 
 B. The Bushmen, too, are taken from life, the two children 
 being in England at the present time. 
 
 Just as the Zulu belongs to the Kaffre, the Bushman belongs to 
 the Hottentot family—the latter family being a large one ; not so 
 large, however, as the former. The present Hottentot districts, 
 wholly surrounded by the Kaffre, lie on the western rather than 
 eastern side of South Africa, and extend from the parts about 
 Yalvisch Bay to the Cape ; the original population of the last- 
 named locality having become well-nigh extinct. 
 
 How has this extinction been effected ? In two ways. By the 
 European settlers of the colony—Dutch and English, English 
 and Dutch ; by the Kaffres, who have ever spread southwards. 
 Before these encroachments had taken effect, there were 
 Hottentot tribes on the eastern as well as the western coast, 
 on both sides of South Africa. Kow there are none, either on 
 the side of the Pacific, or in the parts about the Cape itself— 
 except (of course) so far as they are mixed up with the colonial 
 population. 
 
58 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 The names (all or some) of the extinct branches of the Hottentot 
 family are as follows :— 
 
 1. Gunyeman, nearest the Cape. 
 
 2. Kokhagua, north of the Gunyeman. 
 
 3. Sussa qua, Saldanha Bay. 
 
 4. Odi qua. 
 
 5. 'Khixigriquas, on Elephants’ Biver. 
 
 6. Koopmans. 
 
 7 . Hessa quas. 
 
 8. Son quas, east of the Cape. 
 
 9. Dun quas. 
 
 10. Dama quas. 
 
 11. Guari quas. 
 
 12. Honteni^uas. 
 
 13. Khantouers. 
 
 14. Heykoms, as far on the north-east as Natal. Now replaced 
 by Amakosah Kaffres. 
 
 The chief divisions still existing are the Gonaquas, the Koranas, 
 the Namaquas (between Valvisch Bay and the Orange River), the 
 Soun Darmup, of the Dammara Country (to the back of Yalvisch 
 Bay), and the Saabs, or Bushmen. 
 
 The Koranas are the best-shaped and best-looking of the 
 Hottentots ; the Bushmen the worst. The latter, indeed, are the 
 starvelings of the family. They belong to the most miserable 
 part of the Karroo , and they have neither flocks nor herds. 
 
 The Laplander of Lapland is not more strongly contrasted with 
 his strong and sturdy neighbour of the Duchy of Finland than are 
 the Korana and the Saab. The former are well-grown men, though 
 of the Hottentot family. The Saabs are described as having con¬ 
 stitutions “so much enfeebled by the dissolute life they lead, and 
 the constant smoking of dacha, that nearly all, including the young 
 people, look old and wrinkled ; nevertheless, they are remarkable 
 for vanity, and decorate their ears, legs, and arms with beads, and 
 iron, copper, or brass rings. The women likewise stain their faces 
 red, or paint them, either wholly or in part. Their clothing 
 consists of a few sheepskins, which hang about their bodies, and 
 thus form the mantle or covering, commonly called a kcwoss. This 
 is their only clothing by day or night. The men wear old hats, 
 which they obtain from the farmers, or else caps of their own 
 manufacture. The women wear caps of skins, which they stiffen 
 and finish with a high peak, and adorn with beads and metal rings. 
 The dwelling of the Bushman is either a low wretched hut, or a 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 59 
 
 circular cavity, on the open plain, into which, at night, he creeps 
 with his wife and children, and which, though it shelters him from 
 the wind, leaves him exposed to the rain. In this neighbourhood, 
 in which rocks abound, they had formerly their habitations in them, 
 as is proved by the many rude figures of oxen, horses, serpents, 
 &c. still existing. It is not a little interesting to see these poor 
 degraded people, who formerly were considered and treated as little 
 better than wild beasts in their rocky retreats. Many of those who 
 have forsaken us live in such cavities not far from our settlement, 
 and we have thus an opportunity of observing them in their 
 natural condition. Several who, when they came to us from the 
 farmers, were decently clothed and possessed a flock of sheep, 
 which they had earned, in a short time returned to their fastnesses 
 in a state of nakedness and indigence, rejoicing that they had got 
 free from the farmers, and could live as they pleased in the 
 indulgence of their sensual appetites. Such fugitives from civilised 
 life, I have never seen otherwise occupied than with their bows and 
 arrows. The bows are small, but made of good elastic wood ; the 
 arrows are formed of small reeds, the points furnished with a well- 
 wrought piece of bone, and a double barb, which is steeped in a 
 potent poison of a resiny appearance. This poison is distilled from 
 the leaves of an indigenous tree. Many prefer these arrows to 
 fire-arms, under the idea that they can kill more game by means of 
 a weapon that makes no report. On their return from the chase, 
 they feast till they are tired and drowsy, and hunger alone rouses 
 them to renewed exertion. In seasons of scarcity they devour all 
 kinds of wild roots, ants, ants’ eggs, locusts, snakes, and even 
 roasted skins. Three women of this singular tribe were not long 
 since met with, several days’ journey from this place, who had forsaken 
 their husbands, and lived very contentedly on wild honey and locusts. 
 As enemies, the Bushmen are not to be despised. They are adepts 
 in stealing cattle and sheep ; and the wounds they inflict when pur¬ 
 sued, are ordinarily fatal if the wounded part is not immediately cut 
 out. The animals they are unable to carry off, they kill or mutilate. 
 
 u To our great comfort, even some of these poor outcasts have 
 shown eagerness to become acquainted with the way of salvation. 
 The children of such as are inhabitants of the settlement, attend 
 the school diligently, and of them we have the best hopes. 
 
 “ The language of the Bushman has not one pleasing feature ; it 
 seems to consist of a collection of snapping, hissing, grunting, 
 sounds, all more or less nasal. It is this language that shows that 
 the Saab and Hottentot belong to the same family.” 
 
60 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 We now move to tlie parts on tire left of the entrance, and begin 
 with the parts opposite the Zulus and Bushmen. These give us 
 the southern parts of South America—not, however, the extreme 
 south. 
 
 GROUP IX. 
 
 BOTOCUDOS AND PAMPA GIRL. 
 
 The word Botocudo means plugged ; and it belongs to the Portu¬ 
 guese language. It is applied by the Brazilians to the populations 
 of this group, from the fact of their perforating their lips and 
 ears, and inserting pieces of wood in the openings. In their 
 quarrels, these are torn out, and shreds of the lip or ear to which 
 they belong left hanging. One of these quarrels described and 
 sketched in the Travels of Prince Maximilian of ISTeuwied, is 
 here represented, the faces being taken from casts in the possession 
 of Professor Betzius, and the drawings in the Travels of Spix and 
 Yon Martius. The native name—the name by which the Botocudos 
 designate themselves—is Engraecknung. 
 
 Their country lies to the north of Rio Janiero—between eighteen 
 and twenty degrees JN.L. It never touches the sea-coast now, 
 whatever it may have once done. On the contrary, it lies inland, 
 and is limited to the mountain-range called Tierra dos Ay mores ; 
 wherein lie the sources of the rivers Doce and Pardo. 
 
 On each of these we find Botocudos ; those of the latter having 
 been induced to abandon, along with some of their more barbarous 
 habits, their inveterate hostility to the Portuguese. The other 
 still retain their original and notorious barbarism. They have 
 ceased, however, to be formidable ; though, in the sixteenth 
 century, they carried on a destructive warfare against the settlers 
 in the Government of Porto Seguro. They have the credit of being 
 cannibals. 
 
 The language is peculiar, and different from the other Indians of 
 the same range. Of these the Machacaris, the Patachos, the 
 Camacans, the Malali, are the chief. 
 
 The girl in the bullock’s hide is one of the Pampa Indians ; the 
 face being taken from a cast of Professor Retzius. 
 
 The Pampas are vast plains to the south of the Rio Plata, 
 destitute of trees, free from hills, and without rivers. They are 
 traversed by innumerable herds of oxen and horses, in every 
 stage of domestication or of wildness. The Indians, whose habits 
 are determined by these physical conditions of the soil, are rude, 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 61 
 
 ferocious, and independent ; hardy even for Indians ; and very 
 Centaurs for their skill in horsemanship. They range over the 
 whole district between the frontier of Buenos Ayres and the 
 western foot of the Andes of Chili. 
 
 GROUP X. 
 
 INDIANS OF THE AMAZONS. 
 
 The tribes of so vast a river as the Amazons are numerous, 
 even if we go no further than the main stream—much more so if 
 we look to those on its feeders. 
 
 At the same time they are fragmentary, and most imperfectly 
 known. Neither are they free from intermixture—Spanish inter¬ 
 mixture on the western, and Portuguese on the eastern. 
 
 All the tribes, however, illustrated by the figures before us, 
 belong to Brazil, i. e ., to Portuguese, America. 
 
 Their history is that of aborigines in general; there is their 
 period of independence, their period of oppression, their period of 
 mitigated persecution—of reaction. 
 
 Let us look at the history of the parts about the rivers Negro 
 and Madeira—the one joining the Amazons from the north, the 
 others from the south. 
 
 In 1671, a company of soldiers was stationed to protect the 
 Portuguese trade, and the foundation of the Villa da Barra 
 de Rio Negro was laid by Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho. 
 This was the area of the Juripixunas, or Juruuna—Indians— 
 the Blackfaces, so called because they tattooed themselves black. 
 These also were numerous, and not intractable; handy with 
 their canoes, and active on the water. As many as 1000 at 
 a time found their way to the slave-market at Pera. Sometimes 
 they were stolen without the disguise of a quarrel—stolen, 
 because the man-stealer was the stronger. But, at times, there 
 was a clever piece of villany put in practice. The slave- 
 hunter would get a cross, the symbol of his religion, lay it 
 somewhere in the track of the Indians, look for it some days after¬ 
 wards, miss it, and then make a charge of sacrilege against the 
 Indians of the locality. Out of practices like these rose regular 
 slave-hunting settlements, with barracoons, after the fashion of 
 the negro slave-trade. There was the usual practice, with the 
 usual incentives, the usual organisation, the usual Avars to follow, 
 Auolence, unscrupulousness, cruelty, blood. The enemy to the 
 Indian was the trader ; his best friend the priest. 
 
THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 Weapons, <fec., from the Amazons. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 63 
 
 When King John IV., in 1652, wished to enact a favourable 
 code for the aborigines, the governors of Maranham and Para 
 instigated the population of their respective governments to 
 uproarious manifestations. 
 
 In a.d. 1661, the Jesuits were expelled ; in a.d. 1679 
 reinstated. The interval was a time of sorrow to the Indians ; 
 the restoration a time of joy. The establishment of missions now 
 began. 
 
 A settlement or village, Aldea, was founded in some favourable 
 situation, and the Indians of the neighbourhood induced to put 
 themselves under the tutelage of the resident and directorial father. 
 They were then taught to cultivate the soil or to weave—taught 
 as children, and, when the temper was not that of the wilder and 
 more independent tribes, this training answered. They were also 
 instructed in the Christian creed, the medium being the Tupi 
 language. Their own dialects were numerous—too numerous 
 to make the cultivation of them in detail practicable ; and in 
 each aldea the variety of such dialects was considerable, each being 
 spoken by but a few individuals. To learn a difficult language for 
 the sake of so few, was an unnecessary expenditure of time for the 
 Jesuits ; whilst Portuguese was a difficult language for the Indians. 
 The surer plan, then, of taking the most prevalent Indian tongue 
 and making it into a kind of common medium, a lingua franca, 
 was devised. This prevalent tongue was the Tupi, and the name 
 it took was the Portuguese one of Lingoa Geral—general language. 
 Until a.d. 1757, the Lingoa Geral was used in the law-courts of 
 Gram Park. This state of things lasted till a.d. 1759, when the 
 Jesuits were expelled ; from Park and Maranham as many as 112. 
 
 In 1718, the number of aldeas was as follows :— 
 
 Jesuits . . . . 19 
 
 Capuchins . . . 15 
 
 Carmelites ... 5 
 
 Officers called Directors took the places of the Jesuits. In many 
 respects their orders were those of their predecessors. They were 
 to teach and convert ; but they were also to get some work out of 
 the Indians in the way of public service, e. g. , in the arsenals as 
 pilots, as a kind of police in the case of Indian warfare and bush- 
 ranging. And beside these points of difference, the Tupi, or 
 Lingoa Geral, was to be replaced by the Portuguese. In the 
 localities where the intercourse with the whites was important, 
 judges were appointed to settle disputes. Kidnapping however 
 continued, and things went ill with the Indians until the separa- 
 
64 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 tion of Brazil from Portugal; and they have gone ill since. The 
 Indians and the negroes form the lowest part of the not elevated 
 population of Park, the half-blood between them (the Indians) 
 and the whites being called Cafusos. Both the Cafusos and the 
 full-blooded Indians are free, but they are not flourishing. They 
 drink and live lives of idleness. They live, in short, much as all 
 the coloured races when the whites are in contact with them. 
 
 This prepares us for the necessity of seeking the Indian in his 
 unmodified state on the feeders of the Amazons, rather than the 
 main stream. Mr. Wallace has described those of the Uaupes— 
 which falls into the Bio Negro from the west, and lie just under 
 the equator. 
 
 He remarks upon the extent to which they are a truly un¬ 
 sophisticated population, and also upon the extent to which they 
 differ from the Indians lower down, i.e., between Barra and Para, 
 the junction of the Bio Negro and Amazons, and the mouth of 
 that latter river. His description (founded on personal observa¬ 
 tion) is one of the best we have. I quote it freely :—“All the 
 tribes of the Uaupes,” he writes, “construct their dwellings after one 
 plan, which is peculiar to them. Their houses are the abode of 
 numerous families, sometimes of a whole tribe. The plan is a 
 parallelogram, with a semicircle at one end. The dimensions of 
 one at Jauarite were one hundred and fifteen feet in length, by 
 seventy-five broad, and about thirty high. This house would hold 
 about a dozen families, consisting of near a hundred individuals. 
 In times of feasts and dances, three or four hundred are accommo¬ 
 dated in them. The roof is supported on fine cylindrical columns, 
 formed of the trunks of trees, and beautifully straight and smooth. 
 In the centre a clear opening is left, twenty feet wide, and on the 
 sides are little partitions of palm-leaf thatch, dividing off rooms for 
 the separate families : here are kept the private household utensils, 
 weapons, and ornaments ; while the rest of the space contains, on 
 each side, the large ovens and gigantic pans for making caxiri, and, 
 in the centre, a place for the children to play, and for their dances 
 to take place. These houses are built with much labour and skill ; 
 the main supporters, beams, rafters, and other parts, are straight, 
 •well proportioned to the strength required, and bound together with 
 split creepers, in a manner that a sailor would admire. The thatch 
 is of the leaf of some one of the numerous palms so well adapted to 
 the purpose, and is laid on with great compactness and regularity. 
 The walls, which are very low, are formed also of palm thatch, but 
 so thick and so well bound together, that neither arrow nor bullet 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 65 
 
 will penetrate it. At the gable-end is a large doorway, about six 
 feet wide and eight or ten high : the door is a large palm-mat, hung 
 from the top, supported by a pole during the day, and let down at 
 night. At the semicircular end is a smaller door, which is the 
 private entrance of the Tushaua, or chief, to whom this part of the 
 house exclusively belongs. The lower part of the gable-end, on 
 each side of the entrance, is covered with the thick bark of a tree 
 unrolled, and standing vertically. Above this is a loose hanging of 
 palm-leaves, between the fissures of which the smoke from the 
 numerous fires within finds an exit. In some cases this gable-end 
 is much ornamented with symmetrical figures painted in colours. 
 
 “ The furniture consists principally of maqueiras, or hammocks, 
 made of string, twisted from the fibres of the leaves of the Mauritia 
 Jlexuosa : they are merely an open network of parallel threads, 
 crossed by others at intervals of a foot ; the loops at each end have 
 a cord passed through them, by which they are hung up. The 
 TJaupe's make great quantities of string of this and other fibres, 
 twisting it on their breasts or thighs, with great rapidity. 
 
 “ They have always in their houses a large supply of earthen pots, 
 pans, pitchers, and cooking utensils, of various sizes, which they 
 make of clay from the river and brooks, mixed with the ashes of 
 the caripe bark, and baked in a temporary furnace. They have 
 also great quantities of small saucer-shaped baskets, called 
 ‘ Balaios,’ which are much esteemed down the river, and are the 
 subject of a considerable trade. 
 
 “ Two tribes in the lower part of the river, the Tarianos and 
 Tucanos, make a curious little stool, cut out of a solid block of wood, 
 and neatly painted and varnished ; these, which take many days to 
 finish, are sold for about a pennyworth of fish-hooks. 
 
 £< Their canoes are all made out of a single tree, hollowed and 
 forced open by the cross-benches ; they are very thick in the 
 middle, to. resist the wear and tear they are exposed to among the 
 rocks and rapids ; they are often forty feet long, but smaller ones 
 are generally preferred. The paddles are about three feet long, 
 with an oval blade, and are each cut out of one piece of wood. 
 
 “ These people are as free from the encumbrances of dress as it is 
 possible to conceive. The men wear only a small piece of turUrf 
 passed between the legs, and twisted on to a string round the loins. 
 Even such a costume as this is dispensed with by the women : they 
 have no dress or covering whatever, but are entirely naked. This 
 is the universal custom among the Uaupes Indians, from which, in 
 a state of nature, they never depart. Paint, with these people, 
 
 F 
 
the Amazons, 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 67 
 
 seems to be looked upon as a sufficient clothing ; they are never 
 without it on some parts of their bodies, but it is at their festivals 
 that they exhibit all their art in thus decorating their persons : the 
 colours they use are red, yellow, and black, and they dispose them 
 generally in regular patterns, similar to those with which they 
 ornament their stools, their canoes, and other articles of furniture. 
 
 44 They pour the juice of a tree, which stains a deep blue-black, on 
 their heads, and let it run in streams all down their backs ; and the 
 red and yellow are often disposed in large round spots upon the 
 cheeks and forehead. 
 
 4 4 The use of ornaments and trinkets of various kinds is almost 
 confined to the men. The women wear a bracelet on the wrists, 
 but none on the neck, and no comb in the hair ; they have a garter 
 below the knee, worn tight from infancy, for the purpose of 
 swelling out the calf, which they consider a great beauty. While 
 dancing in their festivals, the women wear a small tanga, or apron, 
 made of beads, prettily arranged : it is only about six inches square, 
 but is never worn at any other time, and immediately the dance is 
 over, it is taken off. 
 
 44 The men, on the other hand, have the hair carefully parted and 
 combed on each side, and tied in a queue behind. In the young 
 men, it hangs in long locks down their necks, and, with the comb, 
 which is invariably carried stuck in the top of the head, gives to 
 them a most feminine appearance : this is increased by the large 
 necklaces and bracelets of beads, and the careful extirpation of 
 every symptom of beard. Taking these- circumstances into con¬ 
 sideration, I am strongly of opinion that the story of the Amazons 
 has arisen from these feminine-looking warriors encountered by the 
 early voyager. I am inclined to this opinion, from the effect they 
 first produced on myself, when it was only by close examination I 
 saw that they were men ; and, were the front parts of their bodies 
 and their breasts covered with shields, such as they always use, I 
 am convinced any person seeing them for the first time would 
 conclude they were women. We have only therefore to suppose 
 that tribes having similar customs to those now existing on the 
 river Uaupes, inhabited the regions where the Amazons were 
 reported to have been seen, and we have a rational explanation of 
 what has so much puzzled all geographers. The only objection to 
 this explanation is, that traditions are said to exist among the 
 natives, of a nation of 4 women without husbands. 7 Of this 
 tradition, however, I was myself unable to obtain any trace, and I 
 can easily imagine it entirely to have arisen from the suggestions 
 
68 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 and inquiries of Europeans themselves. When the story of the 
 Amazons was first made known, it became of course a point with 
 all future travellers to verify it, or if possible get a glimpse of these 
 warlike ladies. The Indians must no doubt have been overwhelmed 
 with questions and suggestions about them, and they, thinking that 
 the white men must know best, would transmit to then- descendants 
 and families the idea that such a nation did exist in some distant 
 part of the coimtry. Succeeding travellers, finding traces of this 
 idea among the Indians, would take it as a proof of the existence 
 of the Amazons ; instead of being merely the effect of a mistake 
 at the first, which had been unknowingly spread among them by 
 preceding travellers, seeking to obtain some evidence on the 
 subject. 
 
 “ Tattooing is very little practised by these Indians ; they all, 
 however, have a row of circular punctures along the arm, and one 
 tribe, the Tucanos, are distinguished from the rest by three vertical 
 blue lines on the chin ; and they also pierce the lower lip, through 
 which they hang three little threads of white beads. All the tribes 
 bore their ears, and wear in them little pieces of grass, ornamented 
 with feathers. The Cobeus alone expand the hole to so large a 
 size, that a bottle-cork could be inserted : they ordinarily wear a 
 plug of wood in it, but, on festas, insert a little bunch of arrows. 
 
 “ The men generally have but one wife, but there is no special 
 limit, and many have two or three, and some of the chiefs more ; 
 the elder one is never turned away, but remains the mistress of the 
 house. They have no particular ceremony at their marriages, 
 except that of always carrying away the girl by force, or making a 
 show of doing so, even when she and her parents are quite willing. 
 They do not often marry with relations, or even neighbours,— 
 preferring those from a distance, or even from other tribes. When 
 a young man wishes to have the daughter of another Indian, his 
 father sends a message to say he will come with his son and 
 relations to visit him. The girl’s father guesses what it is for, and, 
 if he is agreeable, makes preparations for a grand festival : it lasts 
 perhaps two or three days, when the bridegroom’s party suddenly 
 seize the bride, and hurry her off to their canoes ; no attempt is 
 made to prevent them, and she is then considered as married. 
 
 “ Some tribes, as the Uacarr&s, have a trial of skill at shooting with 
 the bow and arrow, and if the young man does not show himself a 
 good marksman, the girl refuses him, on the ground that he will 
 not be able to shoot fish and game enough for the family. 
 
 “ The dead are almost always buried in the houses, with their 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 69 
 
 bracelets, tobacco-bag, and other trinkets upon them ; they are 
 buried the same day they die, the parents and relations keeping up 
 a continual mourning and lamentation over the body, from the 
 death to the time of interment ; a few days afterwards, a great 
 quantity of caxirf is made, and all friends and relatives invited to 
 attend, to mourn for the dead, and to dance, sing, and cry to his 
 memory. Some of the large houses have more than a hundred 
 graves in them, but when the houses are small, and very full, the 
 graves are made outside. 
 
 “ The Tarianas and Tucanos, and some other tribes, about a month 
 after the funeral, disinter the corpse, which is then much decom¬ 
 posed, and put it in a great pan, or oven, over the fire, till all the 
 volatile parts are driven off with a most horrible odour, leaving 
 only a black carbonaceous mass, which is pounded into a fine 
 powder, and mixed in several large couches (vats made of hollowed 
 trees) of caxirf : this is drunk by the assembled company till all is 
 finished ; they believe that thus the virtues of the deceased will be 
 transmitted to the drinkers. 
 
 “ The Cobeus alone, in the Uaup^s, are real cannibals : they eat 
 those of other tribes, whom they kill in battle, and even make war 
 for the express purpose of procuring human flesh for food. When 
 they have more than they can consume at once, they smoke-dry the 
 flesh over the fire, and preserve it for food a long time. They 
 bum their dead, and drink the ashes in caxirf, in the same manner 
 as described above. 
 
 “Every tribe and every 1 malocca ’ (as their houses are called) 
 has its chief, or ‘ Tushaua,’ who has a limited authority over them, 
 principally in war, in making festivals, and in repairing the malocca 
 and keeping the village clean, and in planting the mandiocca-fields ; 
 he also treats with the traders, and supplies them with men to 
 pursue their journeys. The succession of these chiefs is strictly 
 hereditary in the male line, or through the female to her husband, 
 who may be a stranger : their regular hereditary chief is never 
 superseded, however stupid, dull, or cowardly he may be. They 
 have very little law of any kind ; but what they have is of strict 
 retaliation,—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ; and a 
 murder is punished or revenged in the same manner and by the 
 same weapon with which it was committed. 
 
 “ They have numerous ‘ Pages,’ a kind of priests, answering to 
 the ‘ medicine-men ’ of the North American Indians. These are 
 believed to have great power : they cure all diseases by charms, 
 applied by strong blowing and breathing upon the party to be 
 
70 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 cured, and by the singing of certain songs and incantations. They 
 are also believed to have power to kill enemies, to bring or send 
 away rain, to destroy dogs or game, to make the fish leave a river, 
 and to afflict with various diseases. They are much consulted and 
 believed in, and are well paid for their services. An Indian will 
 give almost all his wealth to a page, when he is threatened with 
 any real or imaginary danger. 
 
 44 They scarcely seem to think that death can occur naturally, 
 always imputing it either to direct poisoning or the charms of some 
 enemy, and, on this supposition, will proceed to revenge it. This 
 they generally do by poisons, of which they have many which are 
 most deadly in their effects : they are given at some festival in a 
 bowl of caxirl, which it is good manners always to empty, so that 
 the whole dose is sure to be taken. One of the poisons often used 
 is most terrible in its effects, causing the tongue and throat, as well 
 as the intestines, to putrefy and rot away, so that the sufferer 
 lingers some days in the greatest agony : this is of course again 
 retaliated, on perhaps the wrong party, and thus a long succession 
 of murders may result from a mere groundless suspicion in the first 
 instance. 
 
 44 I cannot make out that they have any belief that can be called 
 a religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God ; if 
 asked who they think made the rivers, and the forests, and the 
 sky, they will reply that they do not know, or sometimes that 
 they suppose it was 4 TupAn.au, 5 a word that appears to answer to 
 God, but of which they understand nothing. They have much 
 more definite ideas of a bad spirit, 4 Juruparl,’ or Devil, whom 
 they fear, and endeavour through their pages to propitiate. When 
 it thunders, they say the 4 Juruparl ’ is angry, and their idea of 
 natural death is that the Juruparl kills them. At an eclipse they 
 believe that this bad spirit is killing the moon, and they make all 
 the noise they can to frighten him away. 
 
 44 One of their most singular superstitions is about the musical 
 instruments they use at their festivals, which they call the Juruparl 
 music. They consist of eight or sometimes twelve pipes or 
 trumpets, made of bamboos or palm-stems hollowed out, some with 
 trumpet-shaped mouths of bark and with mouth-holes of clay and 
 leaf. Each pair of instruments gives a distinct note, and they 
 produce a rather agreeable concert, something resembling clarionets 
 and bassoons. These instruments however are with them such a 
 mystery, that no woman must ever see them on pain of death. 
 They are always kept in some igaripe, at a certain distance from 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 71 
 
 the malocca, whence they are brought on particular occasions : 
 when the sound of them is heard approaching, every woman retires 
 into the woods, or into some adjoining shed, which they generally 
 have near, and remains invisible till after the ceremony is over, 
 when the instruments are taken away to their hiding-place, and 
 the women come out of their concealment. Should any female be 
 supposed to have seen them, either by accident or design, she is 
 invariably executed, generally by poison, and a father will not 
 hesitate to sacrifice his daughter, or a husband his wife, on such an 
 occasion. 
 
 <c They have many other prejudices with regard to women. They 
 believe that if a woman, during her pregnancy, eats of any meat, 
 any other animal partaking of it will suffer : if a domestic animal 
 or tame bird, it will die ; if a dog, it will be for the future incap¬ 
 able of hunting ; and even a man will be unable to shoot that par¬ 
 ticular kind of game for the future. An Indian, who was one of 
 my hunters, caught a fine cock of the rock, and gave it to his 
 wife to feed, but the poor woman was obliged to live herself on 
 cassava-bread and fruits, and abstain entirely from all animal 
 food, peppers, and salt, which it was believed would cause the bird 
 to die ; notwithstanding all precautions however the bird did die, 
 and the woman got a beating from her husband, because he thought 
 she had not been sufficiently rigid in her abstinence from the 
 prohibited articles.” 
 
 Few ethnological phenomena deserve more attention than the 
 re-appearance of similar customs in the distant parts of the world, 
 where, however, the physical conditions are alike. 
 
 Borneo and the Uaupes country, both are under the equator ; 
 and the same mode of building large houses for joint occupation 
 prevails in both. 
 
 Observe, too, the use of the blow-pipe ; it appears equally on 
 the Amazons and in Borneo. 
 
 The details of the group before us are as follows :— 
 
 The tattoed and painted individual with the skull of a slain 
 enemy on a pole, is a Mundrucu, of the River Tapajos, the most 
 formidable, numerous, and independent of the Brazilian Indians. 
 
 When a Mundrucu has slain an enemy, he cuts off his head, 
 extracts the brain through the occipital foramen , washes the blood 
 away, fills the skull with cotton, and then converts the whole into 
 a kind of mummy, by drying it before the fire. The eyes he 
 gouges out, and he fills up the orbits with colouring matter. Thus 
 prepared, the head is placed outside his hut. On festive occasions 
 
72 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 it is placed at the top of a spear. Such is the history of the head 
 of an enemy. Those, however, of friends and relations are pre¬ 
 served, and kept—though with certain differences of detail. Thus, 
 on certain days dedicated to the obsequies and memory of the 
 dead, the widow of the deceased takes his skull, seats herself before 
 the cabin, and indulges either in melancholy lamentation, or in fierce 
 encomium—the assembled friends meanwhile dancing round her. 
 
 The one behind is a Mura ; the Mimas being a numerous 
 tribe, and from the vast extent of country over which tliey 
 are spread, or rather scattered, a tribe whose number seems 
 greater than it is. Settled habitations they have none ; but, 
 just as necessity or inclination takes them, they wander from 
 wood to wood, from stream to stream. Taking the different 
 divisions of them altogether, their number may amount to 
 between 6000 and 7000 “bows,” (this “bow” meaning “fight¬ 
 ing-man ;) ” the rest of the population being in proportion. This 
 gives us from 20,000 to 30,000 persons. The lower Madeira 
 was their original area, but the lower Madeira was vexed and 
 harassed by tribes of the powerful and hostile Mundrucus ; and 
 the Mundrucus and Muras are ever at war with each other. At 
 present the Mundrucus are the superior population. They are 
 bigger in body, and they are more closely allied to the Portuguese. 
 Indeed the Portuguese used them as a sort of military police 
 against the Muras ; who fear them so much that the presence of a 
 single Mundrucu on board Yon Martius’ canoe terrified a whole 
 family of Muras. 
 
 The incursions, then, of the Mundrucus dispersed the Muras of the 
 lower Madeira over vast districts on the Solimoes, and on the Rio 
 Negro. Here they are formidable as pirates. The Muras, with 
 their associates, the Toras (or Torayes), harass the navigation of 
 the Amazons, where the settlers and traders know them as the 
 Indios de Cor so, and attempt their extermination accordingly. 
 When the stream gets narrow, and the current strong, and the 
 canoe has to labour slowly against the stream of a mighty river, 
 the Mura places himself on the banks, and lies in wait, ture in 
 hand. The ture is an instrument, half wood and half reed, made 
 out of the bamboo, the transverse septum of which is pierced in its 
 centre. Here is inserted a second piece of cane, split. The ture 
 is heard at a considerable distance, and the watchman that blows 
 it has a tree for a watch-tower. The ture, too, is the instrument 
 to which they dance, and sing, and drink, at their festivals. 
 
 Less formidable than they once were, the Mura is still shy, 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 73 
 
 indocile, intractable, and impracticable as a labourer. Nothing 
 but liquor will tempt him ; and liquor tempts him but little in the 
 way of work. He hunts skilfully, and he fishes skilfully ; but he 
 is rarely provident enough to economise the results of any success¬ 
 ful exertions for the future. He gorges himself when he is in 
 luck, and starves when out of it ; he thinks of the passing time 
 only. 
 
 As a general rule, the Indians of the Amazons neither respect . 
 the female sex, nor vex themselves with jealousy on account of 
 them. The Muras are said to be exceptions. The number of 
 wives is two or three, and of these the youngest is the favoured 
 one. The other is little more than a domestic drudge. To win 
 them, the Mura must have fought at fisticuffs ; for a battle of this 
 kind always takes place whenever a young lady becomes marriage¬ 
 able. Those who enter into the list for possession, fight, and the 
 winner carries her off. 
 
 Their language is harsh and guttural, and their speech is accom¬ 
 panied with gesticulation. It is peculiar, at least it is different 
 from the Lingoa Geral, which but few Muras understand. It has 
 been stated that the Mundrucus are their chief enemies. Besides 
 these there are the Mauhes, and the Catauxis—hostile also. 
 
 The use of the paricd is one of the characteristic customs of 
 the Muras. The paricd is a powder. It is made from the dried 
 seeds of a kind of Inga. It is a narcotic stimulating in the first 
 instance, sedative or depressing afterwards. Once a year there is 
 a pwica feast, where the “snuff” is indulged in to excess, and 
 where the additional stimulants of dance, and song, and fermented 
 liquors are superadded. 
 
 The other Indians are from the northern bank, on the frontier 
 of Brazil and Bolivia. They cannot be said to represent any par¬ 
 ticular tribe. If they give an idea of the general character of a 
 $outh American Indian of the parts in question it is sufficient. 
 All the current descriptions are of this general character. The 
 figures before us approach, however, the Ticunas Indians of 
 Osculati, the nearest. Ticunas, however, is a term of a somewhat 
 lax import; inasmuch as it means any of the Indians who use 
 the Ticunas poison, or come from the country which produces it. 
 
74 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT, 
 
 Weapons, &c., from the Amazons. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 75 
 
 GROUP XI. 
 
 INDIANS FROM BRITISH GUIANA. 
 
 These are from casts taken from life during Sir R. Scliomburgk’s 
 expedition. All belong to tbe great Carib stock, and speak dialects 
 of the widely-spread Carib language. 
 
 This is a point of importance. In Brazil the predominant 
 language is the one alluded to under the name of Tupi —the basis 
 of the Lingoa Geral (General Language) or Lingua Franca. 
 
 In other respects, the leading characteristics are the same, or 
 similar ; the details being more or less different. Some tribes, for 
 instance, flatten the head, or tattoo the body ; which the others 
 do not. Some bum, others bury the dead. With the Carabisi, 
 for instance, in ordinary cases the hammock in which the death 
 took place, serves as a coffin, the body is buried, and the funeral 
 procession made once or twice round the grave ; but the bodies of 
 persons of importance are watched and washed by the nearest 
 female relations, and when nothing but the skeleton remains, the 
 bones are cleaned, painted, packed in a basket and preserved. 
 When, however, there is a change of habitation they are bu/rned ; 
 after which the ashes are collected, and kept. 
 
 The Macusi , on the other hand, buries his dead in a sitting 
 posture without coffins, and with but few ceremonies. 
 
 The Arawak custom is peculiar. When a man of note dies, his 
 relations plant a field of cassava. They lament loudly. But 
 when twelve moons are over, and the cassava is ripe, they re¬ 
 assemble, feast, dance, lash each other cruelly, and severely with 
 whips. The whips are then hung up on the spot where the person 
 died. Six moons later a second meeting takes place ; and this 
 time the whips are buried. 
 
 GROUP XII. 
 
 NORTH AMERICANS DANCING. 
 
 This group gives us the general character of the more typical 
 North American Indians, rather than the details of any particular 
 division ; the chief sources being the portraits in McKennedy’s 
 Gallery, and some well-executed daguerreotypes taken at St. Louis, 
 and kindly placed at the disposal of the Crystal Palace Company 
 by Mr. Fitzherbert of New York. 
 
 The prominence of the features, along with the red or copper 
 
76 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 tinge of tlie skin, characterises the Americans before us. This 
 contrasts them with the Eskimo. Their size, on the other hand, 
 distinguishes them from the majority of the South American tribes. 
 Nevertheless, the size decreases as we go southward ; and the 
 Eskimo configuration (along with the Eskimo habits) is approached 
 as we move westward of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Nine-tenths, and perhaps a larger proportion of the Indians of 
 the northern half of the United States are referable to one of three 
 great groups—the Algonkin , the Iroquois, the Sioux ; each of which 
 falls into divisions and subdivisions. 
 
 I. The Algonkin is the greatest ; greatest in respect to the 
 number of its divisions and subdivisions, greatest in respect to the 
 ground it covers, and greatest in respect to the range of difference 
 which it embraces. 
 
 The whole of the Canadas, with one small exception, the whole 
 of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward’s 
 Isle, was originally Algonkin, as were Labrador and Newfoundland 
 to a great extent. 
 
 To the Algonkin stock belonged and belong the extinct and 
 extant Indians of New England, part of New York, part of 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, part of the Carolinas, 
 and part of even Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 The Pequods, the Mohicans, the Narragansetts, the Massachuset, 
 tke Montaug, the Delaware, the Menomini, the Sauks, the 
 Ottogamis, the Kikkaphs, the Potawhotamis, the Illinois, the 
 Miami, the Piankeshaws, the Shawnos, &c. belong to this stock— 
 all within the United States. 
 
 The Algonkins of British America are as follows :— 
 
 1. The Crees ; of which the Skofi and Sheshatapi'ish of Labrador 
 are branches. 
 
 2. The Ojibivays ; falling into— 
 
 a. The Ojibways Proper, of which the Sauteurs are a section. 
 
 b. The Ottawas of the River Ottawa. 
 
 c. The original Indians of Lake Nipissing ; important because 
 it is believed that the form of speech called Algonkin, a term since 
 extended to the whole class, was their particular dialect. They 
 are now either extinct or amalgamated with other tribes. 
 
 d. The Messisaugis, to the north of Lake Ontario. 
 
 3. The Micmacs of New Brunswick, Gasp6, Nova Scotia, Cape 
 Breton, and part of Newfoundland ; closely allied to the— 
 
 4. Abnaki of Mayne, and the British frontier ; represented at 
 present by the St. John’s Indianst 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 77 
 
 5. The Bethuclc —the aborigines of Newfoundland. 
 
 6. The Blackfoots, consisting of the— 
 
 a. Satsikaa, or Blackfoots Proper. 
 
 b. The Kena, or Blood Indians. 
 
 c. The Piegan. 
 
 To these must be added numerous extinct tribes. 
 
 II. The Iroquois class has been larger than it is now, many of its 
 members being extinct. It still, however, contains the Wiandots , 
 or Hurons , of the parts between Lakes Simcoe, Huron, and Erie ; 
 the once famous and formidable Mohawks, the Scnekas, the Onon- 
 dagos, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, and the Tuskaroras. 
 
 III. To the Sioux class belong the Assiniboins of the Red River, 
 and the Osages of Arkansas ; tribes widely distant. It is the great 
 Sioux to which nine-tenths of the Yalley of Missouri originally 
 belonged—Sioux, whose original hunting-grounds included the vast 
 prairie-country from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi, and 
 who again appear as an isolated detachment of Lake Michigan ; 
 Sioux, known under the names of Winebagoes, Dahcotas, Yanktons, 
 Tetons, Upsarokas, Mandans, Minetaris, Missouris, Osages, 
 Konzas, Ottos, Omahaws, Puncas, Ioways, and Quappas. 
 
 None of the Sioux tribes came in contact with the sea. None of 
 them belonged to the great forest districts of America. Most of 
 them hunt over the country of the buffalo. This makes them 
 warlike migratory hunters ; with fewer approaches to agricultural 
 or industrial civilisation than any Indians equally favoured by soil 
 and climate. 
 
 It is the] Iroquois, the Sioux, and certain members of the 
 Algonkin stock, upon which the current and popular notions of the 
 American Indian, the Bed Man, as he is called, have been formed. 
 
 GROUP XIII. 
 
 GREENLANDERS. 
 
 Greenland is occupied by the same family that occupies the 
 coast of Labrador. It does more. It extends all along the 
 northern coast of North America ; all along the shores of the 
 Arctic Sea, both east and west. It extends to Russian America, 
 and beyond it to the other side of Behring’s Straits, and to the 
 Aleutian Islands. Hence, there -are certain members of the 
 family to which the Greenlanders belong in Asia; 
 
78 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 The general name for this is Eskimo , a word, which, like 
 Malay and Mongol , is used in a general, as well as a particular 
 sense. It denotes a large family, and it means the special occupants 
 of the coast of Labrador, and the coast of the Arctic Sea. 
 
 The Eskimo is the only family common to the Old and the 
 New World. 
 
 The large Greenland tent, with its furniture, and a canoe, is 
 from one of the few ethnological museums in existence,—that of 
 Copenhagen ; from which it has been liberally and courteously 
 supplied to the Crystal Palace. The details are due to the skill 
 and care of Professor Thomsen of that capital. 
 
ETHNOLOGY. 
 
 79 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 1. For the Tibetans, &c., Turner’s Embassy; Works on the Himalayas, 
 by Thomson and Hooker ; Cunningham’s Ladakh. 
 
 2. The Aborigines of India, by B. Hodgson ; Papers in Asiatic Researches ; 
 Transactions of the Asiatic Society; Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal, &c. &c. 
 
 3. 4. Marsden’s Sumatra; Raffles’ History of Java; Craufurd’s Indian 
 Archipelago; Papers in Journal of the Indian Archipelago; Sir James 
 Brooke’s writings. 
 
 5. Jukes’ Voyage of Fly; McGillivray’s Voyage of Rattlesnake; The 
 Papuans, by Windsor Earl ; Works of Collins, King, Mitchell, &c» ; 
 Journal of Indian Archipelago ; United States’ Exploring Expedition. 
 
 6. Travels in Abyssinia by Johnstone, Harris, Mansfield, Parkyns, &c. 
 
 7. The Negroes, &c. Medical History of the Niger Expedition, by Dr. 
 McWilliam ; On the Natives of Old Calabar, by Dr. Daniell. 
 
 8. Licshtenstein’s Travels; Galton in Journal of Geographical Society; 
 The Caffres and Bushmen. 
 
 9. 10, 11, 12. Travels of Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, of Spix, and 
 Von Martius ; Sir R. 'Schomburgk, in Geographical Transactions; 
 Wallace’s Travels on the Amazon ; Squier’s Nicaragua. 
 
 13. North American Indians. —Archseologia Americana, Vol. ii. ; Transac¬ 
 tions of American Ethnological Society ; Works of Schoolcraft, Squier, &c. ; 
 Smithsonean Contributions to Knowledge. 
 
 14. Papers by Dr. King on the Industrial and Intellectual character of the 
 Eskimo, in Transactions of Ethnological Society ; Accounts of the Arctic Expe¬ 
 dition, by Parry, Ross, &c. &c. 
 
 For Ethnology in general— Prichard’s Natural History of Man, five 
 volumes ; Ditto, one volume. 
 
 The large Greenland hut, boat and furniture, kindly supplied by the 
 Curator of the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen (Professor Thomsen) 
 reached us after the present pages were in print. 
 
80 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 Animals and plants are not scattered indifferently over the 
 earth’s surface, but are grouped together in assemblages of different 
 kinds. The animals and plants of the British Isles, for example, are 
 wholly distinct from those of the West Indies, and these again 
 from the East Indian kinds. Naturalists, after a long study of 
 the distribution of organised beings, have been enabled to divide 
 the earth’s surface into provinces, each characterised by its peculiar 
 set of inhabitants. The assemblage of organised beings in each 
 province exhibits, when viewed en masse , a general aspect, or 
 facies , independent of its being composed, in part, of kinds of 
 creatures different from those found in any other province. This 
 facies depends on combinations of colour, sculpture, texture, and 
 often minute and insignificant characters, when regarded separately, 
 but when presented in coordination, becoming of importance 
 through their constancy and their influence in determining the 
 leading features of a fauna or flora, or both combined. Even 
 when comparatively few of the characteristic animal and vegetable 
 types of a province are brought together, within a limited space, 
 some notion may thus be conveyed to the spectator of the facies , 
 or aspect of life in that region. This has been attempted in the 
 arrangement of the Geographical Garden in the Crystal Palace. 
 
 Organised beings are distributed over the earth and in the 
 sea horizontally and vertically. On their horizontal distribution 
 depend their geographical life-provinces ; on their vertical distri¬ 
 bution, their arrangement in altitudinal and bathymetrical zones or 
 belts. If we ascend any high mountain, we rise through succes¬ 
 sive belts of vegetation, each frequented by its favourite form of 
 animal life. We are reminded during our ascent of the successive 
 faunas and floras that we should pass amongst, were we proceeding 
 from the mountain’s base to the pole. If the mountain be suffi¬ 
 ciently high, we at length reach a region where all life ceases. So 
 likewise in the sea—if we explore the depths of ocean, and com- 
 inence our examination on the borders of the shore, we shall find 
 that the animal and vegetable population of the waters are not 
 dispersed indifferently through their depths, but occupy successive 
 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 81 
 
 levels, or zones. If we go deep enough, vegetable life first 
 disappears, and animal species become so few, comparatively, that 
 we cannot but conclude that we are approaching a point beyond, or 
 rather below which all is desert. 
 
 As yet, no attempt has been made in the Crystal Palace to 
 display the zones of altitude, though it is quite possible to do so, 
 by means of a miniature mountain encircled by belts of alpine 
 vegetation, amid which the characteristic animals of the zones 
 might be placed in relative order of elevated dwelling-places. 
 This may be looked forward to, as a worthy object for carrying out 
 hereafter. A slight and partial indication of the phenomena of 
 distribution of marine animals in depth, is exhibited in cases 
 representing the sea-population of a few regions ; especially the 
 British, the West Indian, and Australian seas. In these the 
 spectator will observe that the law of distribution in provinces 
 holds good among marine animals as among terrestrial. And if 
 we regard the peculiar features of the contents of the West Indian 
 case, contrasting it with that filled with British sea-animals, a 
 striking example of the difference of facies , or general aspect, in a 
 temperate province as contrasted with a tropical one, is too 
 evident not to attract our notice. Differences of the same kind 
 are displayed in the contrasts of form and colour presented by the 
 birds of different regions, inclosed in the cases placed at intervals 
 among the plants, and always in connection with the other illus¬ 
 trations of the portions of the globe to which they belong. 
 
 EASTERN OR OLD WORLD. 
 
 The Boar-hunt, one of the relics of the Great Exhibition of 
 1851, placed beyond this Court, must be accepted as a type of 
 Europe—a region so familiar to all, that no space has been spared 
 for its fuller illustration. The Old World Court is consequently 
 devoted to African and Asiatic illustrations. The several provinces 
 of Africa are fairly typified, but those of Asia, great and impor¬ 
 tant though they be, have, for the present, an inadequate share of 
 space assigned. 
 
 The southernmost portion of this Court is occupied by the south 
 extremity of Africa ; to this we pass southwards through the 
 northern African provinces of Egypt and Barbary, brought into 
 unavoidable proximity with the tropical countries of Asia. Central 
 and Eastern Africa follow, the latter having affinities with Asia 
 through Arabia. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 The visitor when beside the North African section of the Court 
 must suppose the proximity of Southern Europe, and by doing so, 
 bear in mind the close affinity that exists between the mass of 
 vegetation that he then sees around him, and the floras of Italy 
 and Spain. 
 
 CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 The yak and Ovis Ammon stand as representatives of the 
 central regions of Asia. The former is a characteristic animal of 
 Tibet, and does not thrive except at high elevations. Here, too, 
 is placed the Bactrian camel. The vegetation among which these 
 animals are grouped is mainly Himalayan, and may be regarded as 
 representing the flora of the verge of this great province. 
 
 Beyond the northern bounds of the Central Asiatic region, we 
 pass rapidly amid European types, mingling, as we proceed east¬ 
 wards, with Boreal American forms. The vegetation, like the 
 animal life, puts on a mixed aspect, and one of a transatlantic 
 character. In the main, the Siberian fauna and flora are linked 
 with those of eastern Europe. 
 
 The arctic portion of Asia presents the characteristic assemblage 
 of polar animals, white bears, seals, walruses, narwhals, dolphins, 
 gulls, and cormorants, whilst along the shores range reindeer, 
 arctic foxes, lemmings, ptarmigans, and snowy owls ; more inland, 
 wolves and otters, with fur-bearing animals abound. This is the 
 linking region of the Old and New Worlds. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 The group of the Tiger-hunt indicates some of the zoological 
 features of the low country and jungles of India and the warm 
 regions of Asia. The tiger is indeed one of the most charac¬ 
 teristic animals' 1 of the Tropical Asiatic provinces, as is also the 
 Indian elephant. The one-horned rhinoceros, the Indian hyaena, 
 humped oxen of various kinds, a few peculiar deer, the scaly 
 ant-eater, the bonnet-monkey, the Hoonuman (Semnopithecus 
 entellus ), and the wanderoo, are all well-marked and conspicuous 
 Indian mammals. Some of the larger quadrupeds are common 
 to Europe and Africa. The birds of India are numerous, and 
 often very beautiful. 
 
 By bamboos and orange-trees, and a few forms of vegetation 
 capable of cultivation under the conditions and within the space 
 of our Garden, a very slight indication indeed is afforded of 
 the general Indian flora. But in the back-ground of the 
 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 83 
 
 Indian group, the rich assemblage of Indian rhododendrons and 
 azaleas, the Juniperus recurva and the Ficus elastica, serve to 
 represent one of the most beautiful floras in the world, that of the 
 mountain ranges of India, whilst on its eastern-side, camellias, 
 tea-plants, Carphon laurels, and magnolias exemplify the change 
 in Asiatic vegetation with the great Chinese province. 
 
 NORTH AFRICA. 
 
 The portion of this continent, north of Sahara, west of the 
 Libyan desert, and including the chains of the Atlas, is clothed 
 with a very different vegetation, and peopled by a distinct set of 
 land animals from those occupying the greater and more charac¬ 
 teristic African regions. In many respects, it has more affinity in 
 its natural history and features with the southern countries of 
 Europe, especially Spain and Sicily, than with Africa. Even 
 its most characteristic mammal, the Barbary ape, has apparently 
 an indigenous stronghold in Gibraltar. The wild boar, genet, 
 porcupine, and fallow deer, the last alone of its tribe in Africa, 
 indicate European affinities, whilst southern relations are marked by 
 a few forms of antelope and by the lion. Some small rodents are 
 peculiar. The traveller passing from temperate Europe to Barbary, 
 sees in the domesticated camel and many plants—the date- 
 palm, the opuntia, and the agave—distinguishing and peculiar 
 features of its landscape; yet none of these is an original native 
 of the region. Even the date-palm belongs properly to the 
 countries south of the Atlas. The truly characteristic plants— 
 such as the carob, fig, and palmetto, are all of Mediterranean types 
 and South European forms. The sea that separates Europe and 
 Africa has an uniform population nearly throughout ; and, in the 
 main, is not more than a colony of the Atlantic. 
 
 NORTH-EASTERN AND EASTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Egypt is a truly African province, and is linked by many of 
 its productions with Nubia, Abyssinia, and the countries that 
 border on the Indian Ocean. The crocodile and the hippopotamus, 
 now confined to the higher portions of the Nile, are essentially 
 African types. The fishes of the Nile have close affinities with 
 those of the rivers of the Senegal streams. Among them the 
 polypterus is remarkable for its approach to the ancient and extinct 
 forms of ganoids. From Sennaar, southwards, we find the elephant 
 and one-homed rhinoceros. Monkeys, species of Cercopithecus, 
 occur in the same region. 
 
84 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 In the highlands of Shoa, the undulating surfaces of the table¬ 
 lands are covered with green bushes of euphorbia; lions and 
 hysenas are common. In the lower country of the Danakils, palms 
 abound, with acacias and aloes ; and the wart-hog, small antelopes 
 and guinea-fowls, are among the animals. Crocodiles and hippopo¬ 
 tami haunt the streams and marshes. On the plains are the 
 Koodoo antelope and zebra ; ostriches are hunted below the Galla 
 country, and leopards and buffaloes abound. 
 
 Taking the vegetation from the north southwards, not a few 
 conspicuous plants are distinctive of successive districts ; thus, the 
 date-palm, the papyrus, and the bean of Pythagoras may be cited 
 for Egypt Proper ; the doom, the coffee, and acacias to the more 
 southern provinces. Some curious affinities with South African 
 vegetation are indicated by Abyssinian species of pelargonium and 
 protea. 
 
 There is a close relationship between the natural history of the 
 Eastern African region and that of Arabia ; so near, indeed, that in 
 many respects we may regard these provinces as subdivisions of 
 one great region. Many of the most striking plants are common 
 to both, and the same may be said of not a few characteristic 
 animals. The Red Sea, that separates them, proves, when its 
 animal and vegetable inhabitants are explored, to be only a colony 
 of the great Indian Ocean marine province, the most extensive of 
 all the natural-history regions of the ocean, and the most varied in 
 its contents. These are remarkable for brilliancy of colouring and 
 beauty or singularity of shape and sculpture, as well as for the 
 richness of the fauna in the number of generic and specific types. 
 
 WESTERN - AFRICA. 
 
 Western Africa within the tropics constitutes in many re- 
 yspects one vast natural-history province, extending far into the 
 interior and towards the eastern coasts. This wide-spreading region 
 is capable of being subdivided, and the steaming districts along the 
 coast from Senegal to Congo present numerous peculiarities that 
 are not seen in the inland portions. These latter again vary con¬ 
 siderably in features of surface, and the animal and vegetable 
 population must change more or less accordingly. But throughout 
 this portion of the African continent there range not a few of the 
 large quadrupeds, and doubtless of the smaller ones and other 
 tribes along with them. The African elephant, the hippopotamus, 
 the two-horned rhinoceros, the phascochoerus, or wart-hog, the 
 lion and the jackal, are examples ; although the Great Desert cuts 
 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 85 
 
 off the range northwards of several of them. Among birds, the 
 ostrich and the Vultur Tcolbii are instances. 
 
 The most conspicuous zoological peculiarities of this region are 
 manifested by quadrumanous and edentate quadrupeds. This is 
 a country of monkeys, and of very remarkable ones. The thumb¬ 
 less apes ( Colobus ) are concentrated here. The various herds of 
 Cercopithecus are chiefly members of this region : the mandrills 
 are all belonging to it, and the baboons abound. The African 
 orang-outang is a native of Guinea ; and three species of chimpanzee 
 are found on the same line of coast. 
 
 The edentata of this region are confined to the countries in the 
 neighbourhood of the coast, and though few are highly peculiar. 
 There are species of the genus Manis , the scaly ant-eater, or 
 pangolin. In the presence of these extraordinary quadrupeds 
 along the western shores of Africa we seem to have a relation with 
 the New World shadowed out ; one that is also indicated by a few 
 analogies among the plants. At the same time, by similar indi¬ 
 cations, a relationship of analogy with the Indian region may be 
 traced. Thus, there are curious resemblances between the flora of 
 Congo, that of India, and of the islands of the Indian Ocean. 
 These similitudes are the more remarkable since the physical 
 features of the country between the western and eastern coasts 
 are such as scarcely to admit of any continuity of like vegetation 
 or animal population. With the flora of South Africa that of the 
 west has but very slight connection. 
 
 A number of antelopes, though as we go northwards the species 
 are less numerous, manifest the distinguishing feature of the 
 group of African ruminants. In our group the harnessed and 
 Isabella antelopes typify this character. 
 
 The vegetation of intertropical Africa varies considerably in dif¬ 
 ferent districts, on account of the striking difference in the mineral 
 constitution of the soil, and the elemental peculiarities of the sea¬ 
 ward and inland districts. Palms of several kinds are abundant 
 along the coast countries, and among them the most prominent is 
 the Blais guiniensis , a palm-oil species. As a group, however, 
 although playing so prominent a part in the West African land¬ 
 scape, the number of kinds of palm is small, when compared 
 with the vast number of individuals. The Pandanus candelabrum , 
 one of the screw-palms, is a conspicuous tree. Mangroves clothe 
 the sides of swamps and the deltas of rivers. Towards the inner 
 country the great Adansonia digitata or Baobab , the largest tree in 
 the world, becomes frequent, and ranges westwards to the boun- 
 
86 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 daries of Abyssinia. The great tree-cotton, or Bombax , is also 
 characteristic. Among the herbaceous plants that range along the 
 western coasts of Africa, one of the best known and prettiest is 
 the Gloriosa superba. Cinchoniacece and Malvaceae are among the 
 tribes of plants that attain a considerable development. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 There are few tracts of land on the earth’s surface so distinctly 
 marked by zoological and botanical peculiarities, and by a striking 
 aspect of fauna and flora as South Africa. Its mountains—and 
 they attain considerable elevation, as much as 10,000 feet in some 
 instances—its low grounds, sandy plains, and deserts called 
 Karoos, if not everywhere adorned with a luxuriant vegetation, are 
 singularly prolific in remarkable and interesting plants, and are the 
 resorts of numerous quadrupeds, many of them of considerable 
 dimensions. In its mammalia and its flowering plants we recognise 
 the prominent and distinctive natural-history characteristics of 
 the region. 
 
 One baboon, Cynocephalus porcarius, and a Cercopithecus , are the 
 only monkeys of the Cape region, and though peculiar as species, 
 are rather to be regarded as links of the fauna of the South African 
 with the general fauna of Africa. In this light, too, must the 
 carnivora be regarded, although numerous and prominent; for the 
 most conspicuous, the lion for example, are common to a vast 
 extent of the African continent. The hysena genus, however, may 
 be regarded as having its metropolis in this province. Some of the 
 conspicuous pachyderms also appertain to the general African 
 group, such as the elephant, the hippopotamus, the two-horned 
 rhinoceros, the Ethiopic hog, and the zebra. Here is the country 
 of the gnoos and other antelopes, of quaggas, lions following in the 
 track ; some of the antelopes may be seen in herds of hundreds. 
 
 Here we are out of the region of palms ; nor are large trees of 
 any kind very distinctive of the South African flora. There are no 
 vast forests, arborescent plants are scarce, but instead, there are great 
 tracts of bush, composed, in the Caffrarian districts, for the most part 
 of succulent and thorny shrubs; leafless columnar euphorbias, some 
 of them shaped like great candelabra and occasionally towering to 
 thirty or forty feet, and fleshy aloes with threatening weapon¬ 
 like leaves and tall standards of handsome flowers, give a strange 
 and bizarre aspect to the Bush-country vegetation, and cover 
 with prickly thickets the steep sides of the ravines that furrow and 
 separate the long flat ridges of hills. Here grow the Zamia 
 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 87 
 
 horrida, the crane-like Strelitzia, prickly kinds of acacia, 
 everlasting-flowers in great variety, and ice-plants. One of the 
 latter, the Mesembryanthemum eduie , or Hottentot fig, is the only 
 native fruit, and a bad one at best. 
 
 The mention of Cape plants at once suggests to the lover of 
 flowers a number of beautiful natives of the South African region : 
 Cape lilies, various sorts of corn-flags, ixias, lobelias, oxalidise, 
 peculiar orchids, pelargoniums, diosmeas, polygalas, and heaths, 
 of the last in wondrous variety. The curious little pachydermatous 
 quadruped, Hyrax capensis, is a specific peculiarity ; so also is the 
 quagga. It is the group of the hollow-formed ruminants that give 
 the grand distinguishing feature to the South African fauna. The 
 beautiful family of antelopes attains its maximum here, nearly one 
 half of the total number of species being South African. The gnoo, 
 the eland, the harte-beest and spring-bok, are some of those most 
 familiar on account of their dimensions or beauty : the abundance 
 of antelopes compensates for the absence of deer. The Cape 
 buffalo (Bos caffer ) is another distinctive ruminant ; and the 
 giraffe, though ranging far to the north, is a conspicuous member 
 of the southern fauna. The sand-flats around the Cape are bored 
 by peculiar moles of the genus Bathyergus, and one of the most 
 curious of African animals, the Cape ant-eater, Oryderopus capensis, 
 one of the few members of its order existing in the Old World, is 
 confined to the province from which it derives its specific appellation. 
 The ornithological peculiarities of the Cape are not so striking. 
 
 Many of the animals mentioned are now becoming scarce, or to 
 be seen only far in the interior. The elephant, rhinoceros, and 
 hippopotamus are rapidly disappearing through the persecution of 
 the hunter. On the high open table-lands of the interior immense 
 multitudes of quadrupeds congregate especially ; and the proteaceae, 
 equally distinctive of this flora, abound most in the western 
 districts of the colony, and are especially numerous on the sandy 
 plains. One of the most beautiful of orchids, the famous Disa 
 grandiflora , is a plant of Table Mountain. Among remarkable 
 plants may be mentioned, the waxberry, Myrsia cordifolia , a shrub, 
 the berries of which are thickly coated with wax ; and the well- 
 known monstrous-looking Testudinaria elephantipes. The much- 
 cultivated and familiar great White Arum, Calla JEthiopica , is 
 common in wet places. 
 
 It is worthy of note, that whilst the animals, both quadrupeds 
 and birds, of South Africa have many relations with those of 
 Western Africa within the tropics, the plants belong to completely 
 
88 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 a different series, and are connected with the flora of the rest of 
 Africa only by eastern relations. In some features of the flora 
 there is a curious analogy manifested with the Australian types. 
 
 The coasts of the Cape have a marine population as peculiar and 
 striking in their way as the terrestrial, and constitute a well- 
 marked sea-province, the eastern limits of which are to the south 
 of Natal, where the great Indo-Pacific region meets that of the 
 Cape. Among shell-fish, the limpet tribe has its chief congre¬ 
 gation of species here. 
 
 WESTERN OR NEW WORLD. 
 
 ANTARCTIC AMERICA. 
 
 We enter the New World by the cold regions of the extreme 
 south—the home of penguins. Here we find forms of animal and 
 vegetable life representative of those that inhabit the Arctic regions 
 and their borders. The most southerly arborescent vegetation is 
 seen in Hermit Island near Cape Horn, where stunted forests 
 of antarctic and evergreen beeches grow. The same phenomenon 
 is exhibited of multiplication of individuals and paucity of species 
 to which attention will be called in the notice of the extreme north. 
 The southernmost of all flowering plants is a grass, the Aim 
 antarctica, a native of the South Shetland islands. 
 
 SOUTHERNMOST REGIONS. 
 
 By the Chilian auraucarias, the fuchsias, calceolarias, and 
 petunias, some of the peculiar features of the vegetation of the 
 southernmost regions of South America are indicated. Many of 
 our most beautiful and familiar garden plants come from these 
 provinces. In the high regions of the Andes of Chili, as well as 
 further towards the equator, lives the chinchilla, famous for its 
 fur, at an elevation of between 12,000 and 14,000 feet—guinea- 
 pigs are found of peculiar kinds, and the llama, which ranges to a 
 height of 1800 feet. 
 
 TROPICAL SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 The rich regions of Brazil and Tropical America are typified 
 by some of their most characteristic vegetable forms, and by not a 
 few of the most striking members of their mammalian fauna, as well 
 as birds of exquisite hues and strange shapes. Among the latter, 
 the toucans and humming birds are singularly striking. This is 
 the great central home of the New World monkeys, contrasting 
 with and representative of those of the Old World, but constituting 
 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 89 
 
 an entirely distinct group. Their nostrils placed far apart and 
 flattened, the number of their teeth, and the prehensile tail,— 
 a fifth hand,—with which so many of them are endowed, give them 
 an aspect very different from their relatives over the Atlantic. In 
 the vast forests of Brazil they revel among the palms, Barringtonias 
 and monkey pots, whilst, on the ground below, the giant ant-eater, 
 and many another creature equally strange, prowls around the 
 shade. The jaguar, puma, and ocelot, which take the place of the 
 great cats of the Old World, the agouti and capabara, the sloth and 
 coati-mundi, all present themselves in this compartment. The 
 American tapir is here, and in the more western portions of the 
 ground, are placed crochet-deer, and the Rhea americana, the ostrich 
 of the west. The llama marks the region of the Andes, and in 
 the ISTew World represents the camel of the Old. 
 
 CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 Birds of beautiful plumage, and vegetation of singular and 
 fantastic forms, mark the separating region of Central America. 
 The cactus tribe of plants, the yuccas, and the great aloe or rather 
 agave give a peculiar and striking aspect to this region. Yet of 
 the larger forms of animal life there is little to display. Before 
 long we may show the strange sea-cow, or manatee, as coming 
 within the bounds of this province, and a glance at the West 
 Indian marine case will serve at once to indicate the richness and 
 beauty of the fauna of seas and shores. The number and curious 
 variety of its sponges, the elegance and rich painting of its shell-fish, 
 the odd shapes of its fishes, and the presence of striking forms of 
 reef-building corals, all, however, different from those of the 
 Indian seas, cannot fail to impress its peculiarities on the thoughtful 
 visitor. 
 
 Along the southern verge of this province is the country of that 
 most exquisite of water-lilies, the great Victoria: on secluded 
 lakes, among luxuriant forests, and in the reaches of the mighty 
 rivers that flow tranquilly among them, this beautiful plant 
 flourishes indigenous. 
 
 TEMPERATE NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Between the Central and the Arctic Provinces are the wooded 
 regions of North America, where the vegetation of Canada passes 
 into that of the United States, and is bounded on the western side 
 by Oregonian fauna. A wide range has to be illustrated in a 
 small space, and we are obliged to bring together in close pro xim ity 
 
 n 
 
90 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 the countries of the pines and the palmettos. The Canadian 
 porcupine, Wapiti deer, elk, beaver, raccoon, Virginian opossum, 
 and Virginian deer stand here as representatives for the States 
 and neighbouring countries. Shrew moles (Scalops aquaticus), 
 starnoses (Condylura cristata), musk-rats, bony pikes and lirmili 
 would be effective additions, and highly characteristic. The 
 fauna and flora of the United States, though in great part 
 peculiar, are in many of their members curiously representative 
 of the vegetable and animal life in the corresponding portion of 
 the Old World ; in not a few instances form replaces form. At 
 the same time, the differences are not to be overlooked, and in the 
 presence of the opossum, of some of the fishes and certain in¬ 
 vertebrate animals, we seem to have indications of claims to a 
 superior antiquity on the part of the so-called New, over the 
 boasted Old World. 
 
 barren grounds. 
 
 The Barren grounds that skirt the polar regions of North 
 America, and which include the country to the east of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and north of the great lakes, constitute a region of low 
 hills with rounded summits, and more or less precipitous sides, 
 separated by narrow valleys. They are bare of trees, except near 
 the margins of larger rivers ; a few stunted willows, dwarf birches 
 and larches, are occasionally met with, but the greater part of the 
 surface is covered with lichens only. The brown bear, the glutton, 
 the ermine, the Canadian otter, the wolf, the zibet, the arctic 
 hare, the reindeer, and the musk-ox, are characteristic quadrupeds. 
 Between this district and the northern shores of Lake Superior is a 
 belt of wooded land, where the elk, squirrel, beaver, <fcc., occur. 
 On the prairie lands that belong to the next section are the great 
 bison or American buffalo, peculiar deer, and the grisly bear. 
 Towards the west, and along the Rocky Mountains are found the 
 American goat (only on the highest ridges), and the pretty prong¬ 
 horned antelope. The distribution of most of these large animals 
 is determined by the vegetation, and that in a great measure by 
 the disposition of the water-sheds. 
 
 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
 
 To realise our conceptions, we ought, before quitting the Geogra¬ 
 phical Garden from the north, to find ourselves surrounded by 
 masses of ice and snow. Let us picture in our minds long lines 
 of hoary coasts, the dark rock occasionally breaking through its 
 
91 
 
 \ 
 
 ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
 
 frosty covering, tlie deep green waves tossing masses of ice, and 
 bearing up towering and fantastic icebergs, whose cleft and caver¬ 
 nous sides are beautiful with intense blue shadows. Great whales 
 sport among the waters, their black masses, here and there, 
 breaking the monotony of colours. Myriads of glancing jelly¬ 
 fishes, iridescent beroes, and pearly molluscs, give animation 
 to the transparent waters. Flocks of sea-birds fly in 
 every direction, watching the fishes that supply them with 
 abundant food ; seals rest on the icy platform, and nearer the 
 land the great white bear, beautiful as strong, prowls along the 
 verge of the shore. A scene such as this cannot be realised ever 
 at Sydenham, but we can indicate some few of its charac¬ 
 teristic elements. The imagination of intelligent visitors must 
 supply the rest. 
 
 The Arctic Province is represented only in one geographical 
 Court, that of the Western or New World. The one indication 
 must serve for all the regions that border the icy seas. Indeed 
 there is no forcing in this arrangement, for the entire Arctic 
 fauna is characterised by prevailing monotony. Myriads of 
 individuals of the prevailing species, mostly dull in hue, or at 
 least deficient in brilliant colouring, whether they belong to the 
 earth, the air, or the sea, compensate for the paucity of different 
 kinds. White and grey, in the air ; dull browns in the sea, are the 
 prevailing tints. Some bright flowers during the summer season, 
 break the modest rule by their gaiety. Throughout the icy seas, 
 from Greenland round by Spitzbergen to Behring’s Straits, and 
 along the labyrinthine coast of Asiatic America to Greenland again, 
 the same marine animals are diffused. This is the region of the 
 salmon genus, all the species of which radiate, as it were, around 
 the Arctic province. 
 
 By the polar bears and a group of Arctic birds an indication of 
 this northernmost of faunas is afforded. The various foxes of 
 the Arctic shores, the dogs of the Esquimaux, the walrus with its 
 human head, whalebone .and finner whales, were their bulk 
 admissible, would fill up the group with more completeness. The 
 reindeer serves to indicate the boundary of the province, and stands 
 as a representative of the verge of these realms of ice and snow. 
 
 AUSTRALIA AND INDIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 The vegetation and much of the animal population of the Indian 
 islands, both on the land and in the sea, constitute a passage between 
 
92 
 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY COURT. 
 
 the floras and faunas of Asia, and those so exceedingly peculiar, when 
 regarded apart, of Australia. The group of islands connected with 
 New Guinea—mountainous, forest-clothed, hot and moist in their 
 climate—especially exhibit this passage. Spice-trees and numerous 
 forms of palms mark differences ; the presence of casuarinse, gum- 
 trees, and melaleucas, resemblances. A few species of Austra¬ 
 lian types are highly suggestive of the same relation. 
 
 The ourang, the Malay tapir, and bears, and the flying-squirrels, 
 with a rich array of birds, illustrate the zoology of the Indian 
 Archipelago ; while that of Australia and Tasmania are indicated 
 by the kangaroos, duck-billed platypus, Tasmanian wolf, and 
 echidnas, with many of the singular and strangely peculiar birds 
 of this most remarkable zoological province, where we seem to 
 have the lowest conditions of the vertebrate type, assembled as if 
 to indicate a rudimentary stage in the world’s history. The 
 vegetation—typified here by Banksias and other proteaceous shrubs, 
 epacridiae, gum-trees, and many more forms as striking and 
 peculiar—indicates a corner of the earth set apart. 
 
 **AT>BrnY and fws, printers, whttbfpiauSs 
 

'GEOLOGY AND INHABITANTS 
 THE EXTINCT ANIMALS RESTORED BY 
 
 OF THE ANCIENT WORLD 
 ' B .WATERHOUSE HAWKINS. F G.S= F.L.S. 
 
GEOLOGY AND INHABITANTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 DESCRIBED BY 
 
 EICHAED OWEN, E.E.S. 
 
 THE ANIMALS CONSTRUCTED BY B. W. HAWKINS, F.G.S. 
 
 CEYSTAL PALACE LIBEAEY, 
 
 AND 
 
 BRADBURY & EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON. 
 1854.