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1855
VALUABLE SCIENTIFIC WORKS. -
A TREATISE ON THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF THE
Animal Kingdom. By Profs. C. TH. VON SIEBOLD and H. STANNIUS. Translated
from the German, with Notes, Additions, &c., By WALDO J. BURNETT, M. D., Boston.
Two volumes, octavo, cloth..
This is unquestionably the best and most complete work of its class yet published; and its appear-
ance in an English dress, with the corrections, improvements, additions, etc., of the American Editor,
will no doubt be welcomed by the men of science in this country and in Europe, from whence or-
ders for supplies of the work have been received.
THE POETRY OF SCIENCE ; or, the Physical Phenomena of Nature.
By ROBERT HUNT, Author of“ Panthea," " Researches of Light,” &c. 12mo, cloth, 1,25.
We are heartily glad to see this interesting work republished in Ancrica. It is a book that is a
book. - Scientific American.
It is one of the inost readable, interesting, and instructive works of the kind that we have ever
scen. - Phil. Christian Observer.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SPECIES: its Typical Forms
and Primeval Distribution. By CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH. With an Introduction,
containing an Abstract of the views of Blumenbach, Prichard, Bachman, Agassiz, and
other writers of repute. By SAMUEL KNEELAND, JR., M. D. With elegant Illustra.
tions. 12mo, cloth, 1,25.
The history of the species is thoroughly considered by Colonel Smith, with regard to its origin,'
typical forms, distribution, filiations, &c. The marks of practical good sense, careful observation,
and deep research are displayed in every page. An introductory cssay of some seventy or eighty
pages formas a valuable addition to the work. It comprises an abstract of the opinions advocated by
the most eminent writers on the subject. The statements are made with strict impartiality, and,
without a comment, left to the judgment of the reader. – Sartain's Dagazine.
This work exhibits great research, as well as an evident taste and talent, on the part of the author,
for the study of the history of man, upon zoological principles. It is a book of Icarning, and full of
regarded as among the comparatively few real contributions to science, that
serve to redeem, in some nicasure, the mass of useless stuff under which the press groans. - Chris.
Witness.
This book is characterized by more curious and interesting research than any one that has recently
come under our examination. – Albany Journal and Register.
It contains a learned and thorough treatment of an important subject, always interesting, and of
late attracting more than usual attention. - Ch. Register.
The volume before us is one of the best of the publishers' series of publications, replete with rare
and valuable information, presented in a style at once clear and entertaining, illustrated in the most
copious manner with plates of all the various forms of the human race, tracing with the most minute
precision analogies and resemblances, and hence origin. The inore it is read, the more widely opens
this field of research before the mind, again and again to be returned to, with fresh zest and satisfae-
tion. It is the result of the researches, collections, and laborg of a long and valuable lifetime, present-
.ed in the most popular form inaginable. - Albany Spectator.
.
LAKE SUPERIOR: its Physical Character, Vegetation, and Animals,
compared with those of other and similar regions. By L. AGASSIZ, and Contributions
from other eminent Scientific Gentlemen. With a Narrative of the Expedition, and
Illustrations. By J. E. CABOT. One volume, octavo, elegantly illustrated. Cloth, 3,50.
The illustrations, seventeen in number, are in the finest style of the art, by Sonrel; embracing
lake and landscape scenery, fishes, and other objects of natural history, with an outline map of Lako
Superior.
This work is one of the most valuable scientific works that has appeared in this country. Embody,
ing the researches of our best scientific men relating to a hitherto comparatively unknowp region,
it will bo found to contain a great amount of scientific information.
THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION by EDWARD HITCHCOCK, LL.D., President of
Amherst College. 1200, cloth. $1.00.
1 This is a masterly production on a subject of great interest.
The “Plurality of Worlds" is a work of grcal ability, and one that cannot fail to arrest the
attention of the world of science. Its author takes the bold ground of contesting the generally
adopted belief of the existence of other peopled worlds beside our own earth. A gentleman
upon whose judginent we place much reliance writes, in regard to it:
"'The Plurality of Worlds' plays the mischief with the grand speculation of Christian and
other astronomers. It is the most remorseless executioner of beautiful thcories I have ever
stuinbled upon, and leaves the grand universe of existence barren as a vast Sabara. The author
is a stern logician, and some of the processes of argumentation are singularly fine. Many of
the thoughts are original and very striking, and the whole conception of the volume is as novel
as the results are unwelcome. I should think the work must attract attention from scientific
men, from the very bold and well-sustained attempt to set aside entirely the scientific assump-
tions of the age.” — Boston Atlas.
This work has created a profound sensation in England. It is, in truth, a remarkable book,
remarkable both for the boldness of the theory advanced, and for the logical manner in which
the subject-inatter is treated. - Mercantile Journal.
The new scientific book, Plurality of Worlds, recently published in this city, is awakening an
unusual degree of interest in the literary and scientific world, not only in this country, but in
England. The London Literary Gazette, for April, contains an able review, occupying over
nine columns, from which we make the following extract: “We venture io say that no scien-
tiöc man of any reputation will maintain the theory, without mixing up theological with phys-
ical arguments. And it is in regard to the theological and moral aspect of the question, that
we think the author urges considerations which most believers in the truths of Christianity
will deem unanswerable." - Evening Transcript.
The “Plurality of Worlds" has created as great a seusation in the reading world, as did the
Vestiges of Creation. But this time the religious world is not ur in arms with anathemas on
its lips. This is a book for it to "lick its ear" over. It is aimed at the speculations of Fonte-
nelle, or Dr. Chalmers, respecting the existence of life and spirit in the worlds that roll around
us, and demonstrating the impossibility of such a thing. - London Cor'. Of N. Y. Tribune.
To the theologian, philosopher, and man of science, this is a most intensely interesting work,
while to the ordinary thinker it will be found possessed of much valuable information. The
work is evidently the production of a scholar, and of one earnest for the dissemination of truth
in regard to what he considers, for theologians and scientific men, the greatest question of the
age. – Albany Transcript.
The work is learned, eloquent, suggestive of profound-reflection, solacing to human pride, and
even to Christian humility; and points out the great lesson it illustrates, upon the diagram of
the heavens, in language and tone elevated to the standard of the great theme. – Boston Atlas.
One of the most extraordinary books of the age. It is an attempt to show that the facts of
science do not warrant the conclusion to which most scientific minds so readily assent, that
the planets are inhabited. The anonymous author is a genius, and will set hundreds of critics
on the hunt to ferret him out! – Star of the West.
GEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROV-
INCES OF NORTH AMERICA. With an Explanatory Text, Geological
Sections, and Plates of the Fossils which characterize the Formations. By
JULES MARCOU. Two volumes. Octavo, cloth. $3.00.
them The Map is elegantly colored, and done up with linen cloth back, and folded in ootavo
form, with thick cloth covers.
The most complete Geological Map of the United States which has yet appeared. The exe-
cution of this Map is very neat and tasteful, and it is issued in the best style. It is a work
which all who take an interest in the geology of the United States would wish to possess, and
we recommend it as extremely valuable, not only in a geological point of view, but as repre-
senting very fully the coal and copper regions of the country. The explanatory text presents a
rapid sketch of the geological constilations of North America, and is rich in facts on the sub-
jects. It is embellished with a number of beautiful plates of the fossils which characterize the
formations, thus making, with the Map, a very complete, dear, and distinct outline of the geoloov
of our sountry. - Mining Magazine, N, Y.
3.9741
- THE
NATURAL HISTORY
- OF
THE HUMAN SPECIES
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BLACHFOOT INDIAN
BOSTON
GOULD & LINCOLN
59 WASHINGTON STREET
1851,
TEL
-
NATURAL HISTORY
V
..
OF
THE HUMAN SPECIES:
ITS
TYPICAL FORMS, PRIMEVAL DISTRIBUTION,
FILIATIONS, AND MIGRATIONS.
ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
BY
LIEUT.-CÓL. CHAS. HAMILTON SMITH,
PRESIDENT OF TEPE DEVON AND CORNWALL NAT. HIST. SOCIETY, ETC. ETO.
WITH A PRELIMINARY ABSTRACT OF THE VIEWS OF BLUMENBACH,
PRICHARD, BACHMAN, AGASSIZ, AND OTHER AUTHORS
OF REPUTE ON THE SUBJECT.
BY S. KNEELAND, JR., M. D. .
BOSTON: "..
GOULD A N D LINCOLN.
NEW YORK:
SHELDON, LAMPORT, AND BLAKEMAN...
1855.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851,
, BY GOULD & LINCOLN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Stereotyped by
HOBART & ROBBINS;
NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDLY,
BOSTON.
Printed by George C. Rand & Co., No. 3 Cirichill.
PUBLISHERS
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
AFTER the anxious and ardent study of two years, the
talented author of the following pages has reduced to a last-
ing form the labors, original observations, and pictorial illus-
trations, collected during his long and valuable life, upon
this important history, in which he has, with such praise-
worthy industry, treasured up the interesting facts and
reasonings in this volume — very much condensed it is true,
but yet exhibiting such a view of the subject as, we trust,
cannot fail of being both interesting, instructive and popular.
We embrace this opportunity to give an extract of a letter
just received from himself respecting a Preface to the volume,
not being willing to lose any details which may fall from so
valuable a source.
"As for a Preface, I see nothing required, unless it was
thought proper to state what I had said in the concluding
1*
VI
ADVERTISEMENT.
paragraph respecting my predecessors, whose details I did
not think it my mission to repeat, particularly as the confined
space allowed me was not even sufficient to fully explain the
statements I had to make and comment upon. This fact is
abundantly exemplified in the short abstracts I have been
compelled to give of the European Caucasians, whose inter-
mixtures, by well known migrations from the north to the
south, might have been given, with details full of interest;
particularly as, by the means of the Gothic invasions, all the
new elements were brought into existence, which, when
leavened by Christianity and the antique schools of civiliza-
tion, brought forth the present progressive development.
Experiment, fact, and inductive fact, are the basis of knowl-
edge, and stand in perpetual contradistinction to the author-
ity and dicta of antiquity, usually without foundations. In
the work before us, it is true that much rests necessarily
upon induction; but when we have antecedents and succe-
dents, the intermediate cannot be said to be conjecture; it is
an approximation to positive fact, from actual necessity.
This is the line of arguing which I would take up if a pref-
ace be necessary.”
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION, .
.
.
.
.
15
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, .
.
99
CHANGES ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE SINCE THE COMMENCEMENT OF
THE PRESENT ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEM, . .. . .
Asia, . . . . . . . . 105
South of Asia, . . . . .
107
The Indus, . . . . . . . . 107
Ceylon, . . .
The Ganges, . .
Australasia, . .
East Coast of Asia, i
Arctic Asia, . . .
·
113
· 115
118
•
Caspian Basin, or Asiatic Mediterranean,
.
.
. 120
.
.
.
·
124
Europe, .
Arctic Europe, .
Western Europe,
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 126
128
.
.
.
.
.
.
VIII
CONTENTS.
PAGE
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 130
133
. 135
137
135
·
. . 139
141
The Rhine, . . .
Great Britain, . .
Southern Europe,. . .
Italy, . . . .
The Egean, . . .
Asia Minor, . '. .
Basin of the Dead Sea, . .
Currents of the Mediterranean,
Africa, . . . . .
America, . . .
West Indies, . ..
North America, . .
The Pacific,
.
.
. 142
144
. 146
.
.
.
.
147
149
.
.
. 151
53
BONES OF MAN AMONG ORGANIC REMAINS, . .
Vale of Kostritz, . . . . . .
Traditions respecting extinct Species, . .
Human Ossuaries, with Bones of extinct Animals, .
.
. 156
161
. 163
EXISTENCE OF MAN AS A Genus, OR AS A SINGLE SPECIES,
Species or Typical Forms of Man, · · ·
167
· 175
ABNORMAL RACES OF MAN, . . . . . 182
The Giants, . . . . . . . 182
The Dwarfs, . . . . . . . 186
The Aturian Paltas or Flatheads of South America, . '. 190
Remains of other Abnormal Tribes, . . . . 193
CONTENTS.
IX
PAGE
THE TYPICAL STOCKS, . . . . . . . 198
Comparison of Physical Powers and Structural Differences of
the Typical Stocks, . . . . . 198
Intellectual and Moral Characters of the Typical Stocks, . 206
Primeval Location of Man, or position of the Typical Stocks, 208
Diagram of primeval Location- of Typical and Subtypical
Stocks, . . . . . . . 222
.
.
THE WOOLLY-IIAIRED TROPICAL TYPE,
THE MALAY SUBTYPICAL STEM, . . .
THE AMERICAN SUBTYPICAL STEM, ..
.
.
. 223
243
. 255
.
• 307
309
THE HYPERBOREAN, BEARDLESS, OR MONGOLIC TYPE, 279
Tue FINNIC, OURALIAN, OR TSCHUDIO SUBTYPICAL STEN, · 296
The Basques, . . . . . . . 305
The Ligurians or Llogrians, . . .
The Veneti, . .
The Etruscans, . . . .
311
The Finns or Suomi, . .
320
The Huns, . . .
The Khazars, . . .
325
The Hungarians, . . .
The Turks, . . . . . . . 327
323
325
.
.
.
The ETHIOPIAN OR MELANIC STEM
The Egyptians, . .
. 330
. y 349
.
.
.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Atlantics or Berbers,
The Numidians, .
The Amazigh, . .
The Suakim, . .
The Tuarikhs, . .
.
.
.
.
. 355
355
. 355
356
. 357
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
THE BEARDED, INTERMEDIATE, OR CAUCASIAN TYPE, 358
Tue SEMITIC RACES, ·
· 871
The Arabs, . . . . . . . 372
The Hebrews, . . . . . . . 375
The Babylonians, Chaldees, and Assyrians, . . . 378
The Gaurs and Persians, . . . . . 381
14.
TEE TYPICAL CAUCASIANS, . . . . . . 383
The Kaufirs or Mamoges, . . . . .
The Circassian and Georgian Tribes of the Caspian Caucasus, 386
The Pelasgian, Dorian, and Hellenic Tribes, . . 388
The Tirynthians, . . . . . . 391
The Romans, . . . . . . . 393
The Celtic Nations, . . .
The Getxe or Gothic Nations, . . . 410
396
APPENDIX,
APPENDIX,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 421
421
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
PLATE I.
BEGINNING with the most aberrant forms, we have the American,
whereof the Aturian Palta or Titicaca Flatheads form the type. It is so
distinct, that its having a common origin with the forms of the Old Con-
tinent is not satisfactorily established, since the oblique-headed Peruvian
and the depressed-headed Chinook are mere artificial imitations of the
typical head. That this is not itself the result of contrivance, is exempli-
fied in the figure of a Titicaca child's head of perhaps the fifth year,
which is greatly prolonged, yet less so than another in positive infancy.
Both have the orbits more solid than heads of the same age on the
eastern continent, and the older of the two presents the additional bone
(os incæ) at the back of the head. The oblique-headed Peruvian shows
its resemblance to Asiatic figures to be noticed in the sequel.
PLATE II.
Offers specimens of the woolly-haired type, the vertical view of a
Negro’s skull, pointing out the small breadth compared to the depth, and
the projection of the face approaching the Titicaca form. Both have the
XII
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
frontal bone carried high up the dome, though not in the same degree.
There is no very striking difference between the skulls of the west and east
coast of Africa. Those of Oriental Negroes, and even of Horafouros, who
are not an unmixed race, have the same typical structure, though more
debased ; the Tasmanian being the lowest, with perhaps the exception of
the Bushman.
PLATE III.
Of the beardless type, may be observed the shorter and more quadran-
gular cranial form, with still more facial protrusion ; and, in the most
northern partially mixed races, the very contracted occiput is remark-
able.
PLATE IV.
Shows the regular oral form of the most intellectual type : more
breadth of forehead ; prolonged expansion backwards, and nearly vertical
facial angle. The regular dome, as seen in the finest races of mankind -
ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Circassians, and Arabs. In most
European, a slight modification from a Finnic source may be traced.
PLATE V.
Proves the typical identity of the Oriental Negro with those of Mozam-
bique and Guinea.
PLATE VI. — Figs. 1 and 2.
Exhibits profiles of Indo-Chinese, or the sub-type of what we take to
be the Malay races, where, in the vertical profile of one, we have a Cau-
casian predominance, in the other more Papua blood, both in some degree
partaking of the Negro coloring, but with the hard, black straight hair
of a Mongolic intermixture. In the Australasian Islands, many customs
remain, which attest that a portion of the American people derives its
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
XIII
origin from them : for, among their paintings and carved work, represent-
ing gods and heroes, we see personages dancing with human heads slung
to the waist, like modern Dyaks ; we observe ensigns of feathers, stuck
in sheaths at the back, like the Malays of Java ; and masks, tomahawks,
shields, sword handles, and spears adorned, in a similar manner, with
human hair and tufts of feathers. We refer to the figures in Captain
Keppel's voyage, and in the late Dutch publications on their Indian pos-
sessions.
Figs. 3 and 4.
The character of lank hair is universal in the beardless races, and the
presence of Caucasian blood scarcely marked by a somewhat more ruddy
complexion, and slight beard in the Mongol and Eleuth.
PLATE VII. — Fig. 1.
Exemplifies an abnormal family of tribes. We figure a Bushman, once
a private soldier in the Cape Rifles, like all the Hottentot nations, known
by the pale yellow color. From drawings of Captain Nelson, R. E.
Fig. 2.
Cafuse Brazilian ; hybrid between Negro and Cayopa tribe of Indian
blood. At Cape Gardafui, in Eastern Africa, an Arab intermixture pro-
duces the same external aspect in the Jamaule Negroes. It occurs again
among the Mekran Ethiops, and among the Malay Papuas of the Indian
Ocean.
PLATE VIII. — Fig. 1.
Te-Kewiti, a New Zealand chief, showing, in conduct, reasoning, and
person, high Caucasian development.
XIV
• EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Fig. 2.
North American Indian ; from the Travels of Prince Maximilian of
Wied.
PLATE IX. - Fig. 1.
Cluche Indian : a tribe bordering on the Rocky Mountains, strongly
marked with Mongolic characters. He was sketched at New York.
Fig. 2.
'
Portrait of a Mongolic race: the Nogai Tahtar bearing the character-
istics of his type very strongly.
PLATE X.
The Black Kalmuck most strongly marked with the Mongolic charac-
ter ; and a Japanese prize-fighter, with broad but receding forehead.
PLATE XI. — Fig. 1.
Portrait of Mohammed II., showing the Turkish Ouralian character,
before the race was as yet much intermixed with Circassian and Greek
blood.
Fig. 2.
The forehead of the Sarmatian noble is the maximum instance of exter-
nal mental development. It is the same character that distinguishes the
portraits of Wallenstein and other Bohemian and Polish heads.
VIGNETTE.
Blackfoot Indian, taken from Prince Maximilian of Wied's magnificent
Atlas of Plates, illustrative of the North American Indian Tribes and
Scenery.
D
o
M
IYI
mm
U I
u
The subject of the “ Natural History of Man” has become one of
the most exciting topics of the day, both from its intrinsic interest
and importance, and from the various bearings which have been
given to it by sectarians, philanthropists, and savans. It is not a
question of one side only, as many take for granted, nor has it
become two-sided within the last few years. As long ago as the
appearance of the work of Lawrence, scientific men maintained
conflicting opinions on the original seats and characteristics of the
human races; and the great advances now made in zoology, com-
parative anatomy, history, geography, philology, &c., have added
new arguments to both sides of the question, and rendered a satis-
factory decision an exceedingly difficult matter.
Dr. Prichard may be considered as the best expounder of the
theory of the original unity of the human race. The author to whose
work this chapter is introductory, adopts the side of the question
to which Prof. Agassiz, Van Amringe, Dr. S. G. Morton, and
others, give their sanction, in variously modified forms. The argu-
ments of authors on both sides will be given as impartially as we are
able to do it, and as fully as space will permit; so that the reader
may form his own opinion. A sketch of the views of those who
are not committed to either side will also be added, so that informa-
tion from all sources may aid in the formation of a just opinion.
LAWRENCE, following the classification of Blumenbach, divides
Man into five varieties, viz., the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethi-
opian, the American, and the Malay; with the following characters :
1. The Caucasian variety (to which we belong) is so named, from
Mt. Caucasus, as in its neighborhood is found the supposed typical
race of the Circassians and Georgians. It includes the following
nations, ancient and modern —the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Jews,
Egyptians, Chaldeans, Georgians, Circassians, Armenians, Turks,
Arabs, Syrians, Afghans, Hindoos of high caste, Moors of Northern
16.
INTRODUCTION.

UNDT
2
CAS
. Africa, Greeks and Romans, the nations of modern Europe, (except
the Laplanders,) and their descendants in this hemisphere; in fine,
those races in which intellect, both native and cultivated, has pro-
duced the mightiest results; those races, whose history would be the
history of civilization and of Christianity; and, in the opinion of
many, the only race referred to in the Mosaic account of creation.
The color of the skin, in this variety, is while ; 10 this exclusively
belongs the soft-spreading blush, the faithful index of the heart, which
a European writer has erroneously made a moral as well as a physi-
cal difference between the races; to this race belongs redness of the
cheeks. The hair varies in color from black to flaxen, is soft in
quality and abundant. The color of the eyes generally follows that
of the skin and hair, depending, as it does, on the amount of color-
ing matter which is usually distributed equally in these different
pants
The face is small, oval, and almost perpendicular; the features
distinct ; the forehead lofty and broad; the nose narrow and rather
aquiline; the mouth small; the lips thin and slightly turned out;
the front teeth in both jaws perpendicular; the chin full and rounded.
This is the face which agrees best with our ideas of beauty, being
the happy mean between the laterally expanded face of the Mongo-
lian and the lengthened face of the Negro.
Of the facial angle, and the norma verticalis of Blumenbach, we
shall defer the description till we give Dr. Prichard's views, that the
reader may not be wearied by too much repetition. Though the
facial angle is of little value in individual skulls, yet, in comparisons
of the races, it may give a very good idea of their intellectual power.
Those animals which have the longest snouts are always considered
the most stupid and gluttonous. When we descend to reptiles and
fishes, the jaws seem to constitute almost all the head, and these are
the most voracious of animals; they appear to live only to eat. On
the other hand, a great degree of intelligence is attributed to the ele-
phant from his well-marked forehead ; and the solemn owl is made
the companion of the goddess of wisdom, for a similar appearance ;
but these semblances do not depend on any greater development of
the brain. Intelligent Man, whose animal propensities are subordi-
nate, has a cranium much larger than his face; even among men, we
instinctively regard him as stupid and sensual, whose face is very
prominent and whose forehead is receding; the advancement of the
forehead towards the line of the face is always understood by artists
as representing the noble and elevated character. As we descend in
the animal scale we find the face increasing at the expense of the
cranium.
INTRODUCTION.
17
In the Caucasian race the facial angle is from 80° to 85° ; thence
it decreases in the other varieties of Man as low as 65°, in the nor-
mal condition ; in many of the ancient statues the facial angle is 900,
and in one even 100°, which last never existed in nature except in
disease. In children the forehead is more prominent than in the
adult, being usually 90° ; thus is explained their almost uniformly
pleasing countenances, and also the diminution of their beauty as
*age advances. The Caucasian race, whether we judge it by the
facial angle, the norma verticalis, or the basal view of Mr. Owen, is
placed above the other races.
Three great divisions are recognized in the Caucasian race. The
Celtic division, comprising the present inhabitants of Western
Europe, (except the English,) and the ancient Britons, Welch,
frish, and Scotch. The Germanic division, comprising Germans,
ancient and modern, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Saxons, and
English, and the inhabitants of the Netherlands and Iceland. The
Sclavonic division, comprising the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Cos-
sacks, the inhabitants of part of Western Asia and Northern
Africa
2. The Mongolian race seems to have originated from the central
plains of Asia, whence they are supposed so have wandered in all
directions, into the northern parts of Europe and America, and per-
haps into the southern parts of Africa. It comprises, according to
Lawrence, the Mongols, Kalmucks, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese ;
the inhabitants of Thibet, Tonquin, Siam, Cochin China, the Him-
alaya Mountains, Hindostan, Ceylon; the Kamschatdales, Asiatic Rus-
sians, Finns and Laplanders, and the Esquimaux of Arctic America.
The ancient Huns belonged to this variety; these, with Attila at
their head, penetrated to the very centre of Europe; the famous
Zenghis Khan and Tamerlane belonged to this race, which has
always been nomadic and predatory.
The color of the Mongolian skin is olive yellow; the eyes dark,
the hair black, straight, and thin ; with very little if any beard, eye-
brows, or eye-lashes; the face is broad and flattened; the features
not very distinct ; the space between the eyes broad and flat; the
orbits large and open ; the nose flattened ; the cheeks high and
prominent; the opening of the eye-lids narrow, linear, oblique, the
inner angle the lowest; chin not prominent; the ears and lips large.
The forehead of the Mongolian is low and slanting, allowing a con-
siderable portion of the face to be seen when the skull is viewed
vertically from above; the facial angle is therefore less than in the
Caucasian. The cranium is narrower, and the face broader, so that
2*
18
INTRODUCTION.
.
the head has somewhat of a pyramidal form. The stature is infe.
rior to the Caucasian.
* In intellectual and moral characters it is certainly inferior to the
white race. The Chinese and Japanese have made considerable
advancement in the arts of civilization, and their institutions date
back to a remote period ; but the very fact of their having remained
stationary for so many centuries. proves an inferior capacity for
improvement.
3. The Ethiopian race includes the inhabitants of Africa, (exclu-
sive of the northern parts,) and the imported specimens and their
descendants in America and elsewhere. The color of the skin
varies from tawny to jet-black. The iris is black; the hair black,
crispy, generally called “woolly,” though having none of the char-
acters of wool. The eyes are prominent, and the orbits large; the
nöse thick, flat, and confounded with the prominent cheeks; the lips
very thick and everted; the jaws projecting, the chin receding; the
whole face very much developed, and the skull thick and heavy.
The front of the head regarded from above the face, -as well as
the forehead, is compressed laterally, so that the long diameter of
the head exceeds that of the other varieties. The low retreating
forehead allows all the upper part of the face to be seen; the prom-
inence of the upper jaw diminishes the facial angle to 70°, and even
65°. The cavity of the cranium is diminished, while the face is
increased ; the zygomatic arches are very wide, giving a large space
for the elevating muscles of the lower jaw; the opening of the nose
is large and transverse; the foramen for the passage of the spinal
marrow, and the articulation of the head with the neck, are relatively
posterior to their position in the white races, frorn the prolongation
of the jaws forward.
A slight comparison of the Negro with the Caucasian skull suf-
fices to show that the intellectual portion in the former is diminished,
while the animal portion is increased. The low forehead and the
muzzle-like elongation of the jaws give an animal aspect to the
head, which cannot fail to strike an unprejudiced observer; this is
increased by the large and powerful lower jaw, the ample provision for
muscular insertions, and by the greater size of the cavities destined
for the reception of the organs of smell and sight..
Lawrence alludes to the opinion, even then prevalent, that the
Ethiopian resembles the monkcy tribe more nearly than do the pre-
ceding varieties. The size and direction of the face, the promi-
nence of the jaws, the flatness of the nose, the greater length of the
forearm compared with the arm, the narrow and tapering fingers,
render the comparison obvious. But even supposing that this race
INTRODUCTION.
19
is the lowest type of man, it is none the less human, and far more
separated from the highest monkey than the highest man, by the
erect attitude, by the possession of two hands, by a slower develop-
ment, by the powers of reason and speech. The anatomical struct-
ure of the spine renders it as impossible for a monkey to assume the
fours. That there were men, who were called philosophers, fools
enough to maintain that the natural position of man was that of
a quadruped, is thus ridiculed in Butler's Hudibras [Part 2nd,
Canto 1st] : -
"Next it appears I am no horse,
That I can argue and discourse,
Have but two legs, and ne'er a tail.
Quoth she, that nothing will avail,
For some philosophers of late here
Write men have four legs by nature,
And that 'tis custom makes them go
Erroneously upon two."
A French savant has recently described, before the Academy of
Sciences, a tribe of Negroes in Central Africa, às furnishing the long
desired connecting link between man and monkeys. According to
him, there are men who have not been sufficiently accustomed to the
sitting posture to wear off the tail, which he says projects some
three or four inches. This report, which as yet is based upon
the appearance of a single individual, will doubtless be explained, if
there be any foundation for it in truth, by some anatomical peculiar-
ity which can in no way be called a caudal appendage.
4. The American race has been traced by theorists to many
nations; to the Polynesians, the Mongolians, Hindoos, Jews, and
Egyptians, singly or combined. Lawrence treats of them as a dis-
tinct race, differing from the others in physical, moral, and intellect-
ual characters. They inhabit the American continent from Cape
Horn to the Arctic regions, and, with all their differences, are con-
sidered by hiin as one and the same race over this whole extent.
The color of the skin is brown, or cinnamon-hued; the iris dark ;
the hair long, black and straight; the beard scanty; the eyes are
deep-seated; the nose flat, but prominent; the lips full and rounded.
The face is broad, especially across the cheeks, which are promi-'
nent, but not so angular as in the Mongolian ; the features are dis-
tinct. The face somewhat resembles the Mongolian, and we shall
see that many writers, and among them our author, consider the
Americans as transplanted Mongolians.
20
INTRODUCTION.
The general shape of the head is square ; the forehead low, but
broad; the back of the head flattened; the top elevated; the face
much developed ; the orbitar and nasal cavities large, indicating,
according to some, a corresponding acuteness of sight and smell ;
the jaws are very strong.
Their curious modes of deforming the skull will be better
described when speaking of Dr. S. G. Morton's "Crania Ameri-
cana." He maintains that the ancient skulls from Peru, from the
tombs of Mexico, and from the mounds of the Mississippi and Ohio
valleys, present the same characters as the existing Indian tribes;
and that this race is as aboriginal to America, as is the Mongolian
to Asia, or the Ethiopian to Africa.
5. The last variety mentioned by Blumenbach and Lawrence is
the Malay, inhabiting the Asiatic and Polynesian Islands.
The color of the skin in the true Malay is light brown, or tawny ;
sometimes, as in the Tahitians, very light. The hair is black, long,
soft and abundant, - in the Tahitians almost yellow; thick beards
are not uncommon. The eyes are moderately separated ; the nose
prominent, but broad and thickest at the end; in the words of Law-
rence they are “bottle-nosed;" the mouth is large, the lips thick;
the face broad and largely developed ; the jaws prominent; the fore-
head low and slanting. It is truly an amphibious race, and its home
may be said to be on the water ; its extended migrations by sea have
been traced, as Dr. Pickering maintains, even to the western coast
of North America.
Those who believe in the origin of mankind from a single pair
must, of course, account for the changes man has undergone since
Adam.
Climate has been generally brought forward to explain the differ-
ences in color, and even the varieties of form. Blumenbach gives
three arguments, of which Lawrence,* who quotes them in his work,
says, " That so able a writer could find no better proofs in support of
his opinion, only shows how completely unfounded that opinion is."
After many examples, Lawrence gives the following conclusions :
That the differences of the human races are analogous in kind and
degree to those of the breeds of the domestic animals, and must be
accounted for on the same principles. That they are first produced
in both instances as native or congenital varieties, and then trans-
mitted to the offspring. That the state of domestication is the most
powerful predisposing cause of varieties in the animal kingdom.
* Lectures on the Natural History of Man: by William Lawrence,
F. R. S. 12th Edition. London, 1844.
INTRODUCTION.
21
That climate, situation, food, mode of life, have considerable effect in
altering the constitution of man and animals; but that this effect is
confined to the individual, is not transmitted by generation, and
therefore does not affect the race. That the human species, like
that of the cow, sheep, horse, and pig, is single; and that all the
differences which it exhibits are to be regarded merely as varieties.
C
Dr. PRICHARD, the most zealous and learned advocate of the unity
of the human race, commences his second section* as follows:
66 The Sacred Scriptures, whose testimony is received by all men of
unclouded minds with implicit and reverential assent, declare that it
pleased the Almighty Creator to make of one blood all the nations
of the earth, and that all mankind are the offspring of common par-
ents. But there are writers in the present day who maintain that
this assertion does not comprehend the uncivilized inhabitants of
remote regions; and that Negroes, Hottentots, Esquimaux, and
Australians, are not, in fact, men in the full sense of that term, or
beings endowed with like mental faculties as ourselves.” These
half-brutes, half-men, do not belong to what Bory de Saint Vincent
calls the “ Race Adamique ;” they were created to be the slaves of
the superior races; and are capable of improvement to an extent
comparable to that attained by dogs or horses. Such men think it
the extreme of folly for England to have recently emancipated from
West Indian slavery a tribe of Negroes, exactly in the situation for
which nature designed them. There are not a few in this country
who cherish, if they do not express, a similar opinion. But in mat-
ters of scientific inquiry, all considerations, not bearing on the im-
mediate facts in the case, must be set aside; the maxim to follow is
“ fiat justitia, ruat cælum.” “In fact, what is actually true it is
always most desirable to know, whatever consequences may arise
from its admission.”
As the signification of the word "species" has been variously
understood, he defines species as 6 simply tribes of plants or of ani-
mals which are certainly known, or may be inferred, on satisfactory
grounds, to have descended from the same stocks, or from parent-
ages precisely similar, and in no way distinguished from each
other.” The principal object of his work is to point out the most
important diversities by which the genus Man is separated into
* The Natural History of Man: by James Cowles Prichard, M. D.
London, 1848.
22
INTRODUCTION.
different races, and to determine if these races are separate species,
or merely varieties of one species. Permanent varieties, if we
allow the existence of such tribes, come very near species, and
máy be defined as "races now displaying characteristic peculiarities
which are constantly and permanently transmitted ;' differing from
species in that the peculiarities are not coeval with the tribe, but
have arisen since the commencement of its existence: it is not un-
likely that many so called distinct species of animals and plants are
in reality only permanent varieties.
It has been laid down as a law of nature, that, in order to prevent
inextricable confusion in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the off-
spring of different species, or hybrids, are incapable of reproducing
their kind, thus making hybridity a test of specific character. This
has been denied by many naturalists, among others by Dr. S. G.
Morton, of Philadelphia, whose views will be given hereafter. Ac-
cording to Wagner, hybrid plants are very rarely produced in a
state of nature; they are very seldom fruitful among themselves ;
those holding intermediate places between the parent plants are abso-
lutely barren, while those which nearly resemble one or the other
parent are occasionally propagated ; and plants from different varie-
ties of the same species are altogether fertile, while hybrids either
return to the original character, or become gradually less capable of
reproduction, and in a short time extinct. So, in animals, mules or
hybrids are produced among domesticated tribes; but, except in a
few tribes of .birds, they are unknown in a state of nature. A new
breed cannot be perpetuated from them, and their offspring can only
be continued by returning to one of the parent tribes. Wagner
believes that nature has established the sterility of hybrid animals
by an organic impediment.
If these results are true, we are forced to the conclusion that the
different races of men must be either incapable of mixing their stock,
and must ever be separate from each other, or that these races belong
to the same species.
It is a fact that the most dissimilar varieties of man are capable
of propagating prolific offspring with each other. The Mulattoes,
from the mixture of the Negroes with Whites, are said to be increas-
ing in numbers, as well as the mixed race of the Creoles and the
Negroes. The Griqua Hottentots, descended from the Dutch colo-
nists of South Africa on one side, and from the aboriginal Hotten-
tots on the other, are a numerous and rapidly increasing race. The
Cafusos of Brazil, so remarkable for their monstrous heads of hair,
are known to have descended from the native Americans, mixed with
the imported Africans. The Papuas, with equally remarkable hair,
INTRODUCTION.
23
are a mixture of the Malay with the Negro in New Guinea and
the neighboring islands; according to Lesson, most of them are a
frail and feeble race. We hence derive conclusive proof, unless
there be in the human races an exception to this admitted law of
nature, that all the tribes of men belong to one species and family.
If we could compare our breeds of domestic animals with their
original wild stocks, we could easily ascertain the limits of variation
in these breeds; but the wild originals cannot now be recognized.
However, in the animals known to have been imported into America
from Europe since the fifteenth century, we have an abundance of
materials for interesting observations; these animals have greatly
multiplied, and many, running wild in the forests, have lost all
appearances of domestication; the wild tribes are physically differ-
ent from their tame originals, and there is reason to believe that the
change is in the direction of the wild stocks from which the tame
animals originated.
The hogs of the forest very nearly resemble the wild boar; their
ears have become erect; their color has changed to black; instead
of hair and bristles, their skin is covered with thick, often crisp fur,
under which is sometimes a species of wool; their heads become
larger; indeed, they are returning gradually to the appearance of
the wild boar of Europe. The difference between the skulls of the
domestic hog and the wild boar is as great as that between the Euro-
pean and the Negro skull. The horse, the ass, the cow, the sheep,
the goat, the dog, and gallinaceous fowls, show similar changes, and
a tendency to return to the primitive wild type. Even the func-
tions of animal life may be greatly changed in a few generations.
It is not natural for the cow, any more than for other female animals,
to yield milk when she has no young to nourish; the permanent pro-
duction of milk is a modified animal function, produced by an artifi-
cial habit for several generations. In Columbia, the practice of
milking cows having been laid aside, the natural state of the func-
tion has been restored ; the secretion of milk continues only during
the suckling of the calf, and is only an occasional phenomenon.
Says Roulin, “If the calf dies, the milk ceases to flow, and it is
only by keeping him with his dam by day that an opportunity of
obtaining milk from cows by night can be found.” The horses
on the table land of the Cordilleras are taught very early a sort of
running amble, quite different from their natural gait; these horses
become the sires of a race to which the ambling pace is natural,
and requires no teaching. The dogs employed in hunting the pec-
cary are taught the peculiar way necessary to take this animal;
their offspring inherit as an instinct the lesson of their fathers, and
INTRODUCTION.
on the first chase knew how to attack the peccary, while an ordinary
dog is instantly killed by them. The barking of dogs is an acquired
hereditary instinct, supposed to have originated in an attempt to imi-
tate the human voice; wild dogs, and domestic breeds become wild,
never bark, but howl. Cats, which so disturb civilized communities
by their midnight " caterwaul,” in the wild state in South America
are quite silent.
• These well-authenticated facts show to what extent a change of
external conditions may modify races of animals. Similar changes
may be found among our domesticated breeds. For instance, the
breeds of sheep differ greatly in different countries ; but it is main-
tained that they all are varieties of one species. New breeds of
sheep are frequently formed, (and very much as the breeder wishes,)
by crossing well-known races, or individuals having the peculiarities
which it is desired should be transmitted to the new breed. In the
same manner, he says, the numerous varieties of horses are without
doubt members of but one species ; Blumenbach has remarked that
there is more difference between the skulls of the Neapolitan and
Hungarian breeds of horses, than between the skulls of the most
dissimilar forms of mankind. Some naturalists suppose the dog to
belong to the same species as the wolf; others derive him from the
jackal. With all their varieties, Frederic Cuvier believes the dogs
to embrace but one species; he observes that if we make more than
one species we must make at least fifty, all distinguished by perma-
nent characters. Restored to the wild state, all these varieties
approximate to the type which may be supposed to have belonged to
the original species. Dogs differ in stature, in the shape of their
ears and tails, in the number of caudal vertebrae; some have an
additional claw on the hind foot, and an additional false molar tooth
on one side; the hair differs in color, texture and length, according
to the climate in the first instance; but these differences become per-
manent like the corresponding peculiarities of the human races; the
varieties of the dog tribe have become permanent varieties.
This tendency to variation he ascribes not to accident, but a
“nisus formativus," a vital power "in virtue of which organiza-
tion receives a peculiar direction from external circumstances.”'
Varieties in form and structure are found in the offspring of the
same parents which are transmissible, and thus lay the foundation
for different breeds; but these variations are within certain limits,
and leave unaltered the specific character. It is not always easy to
decide what the specific characters are, and what qualities are vari-
able. The shape of the head furnishes the most remarkable in-
stances of variety and of characters distinguishing races; the length
INTRODUCTION.
25
and thickness of the neck are very characteristic of breeds of horses ;
Meckel remarks that the length, height, and proportional breadth of
the hinder parts, the length and thickness of the tail, the shape of
The pelvis, and comparative length of the limbs, are characteristic
of different races. - The physiological and psychological differences
we have seen are equally remarkable.
Races of men are subject, more than the races of almost any ani-
mals, to the varied agencies of climate ; civilization produces in
them greater changes than does domestication in animals; and we
ought, therefore, to expect as great diversities among men as among
brutes, and indeed far greater, from the powerful influence of mind
in the former.
To proceed with the variations of the human species, we are at
first struck with the differences of color. The difference of color
Las generally been thought less important in the discrimination of
the races than varieties in the form of the skull; but M. Flourens
considers it more characteristic of distinct races than any other
peculiarity. He displayed before the French Academy of Sciences
four distinct layers between the outer cuticle and the cutis, viz., a
cellular and reticular tissue lying immediately on the cutis ; then a
continuous membrane resembling mucous membrane in general; then
a black pigment, hardly coherent enough to be termed a membrane ;
and, lastly, the interior portion of the epidermis, which he divides
into two laminæ. The second of these he considers a distinct
organized body, existing only in mnen of dark color, or, at least, ha
failed to detect it in the white races by the ordinary method of mac-
eration. He was unable to find any membrane in the white races,
interposed between the cutis and the inner coat of the epidermis ;
this last being, according to him, the seat of the discoloration of
the white skin from exposure to the sun, as well as the seat of the
brown color of the areola inammarum. This diversity he regards
as a specific distinction, " or as marking out the Negro and Euro-
pean as separate species of beings.”
The supposition of M. Flourens will hardly account for many
discolorations of the skin which are frequent in Europeans. Dur-
ing pregnancy, the mammæ of many females are extensively sur-
rounded by a dark tinge, which afterwards mostly disappears ; in
some individuals the dark color pervades a great part of the body;
so that, independently of the solar heat, certain constitutional condi-
tions may impart to the white skin a dark hue similar to that nat-
ural to the African race. On the other hand, instances are recorded
(in Philos. Trans., vol. 57) of the disappearance of the coloring
matter in Negroes, who have become as white as Europeans.
26
INTRODUCTION.
Microscopical investigation has shown that the skin does not consist
of continuous membranes, but is composed of several layers of cells
not separated from each other by such definite lines. Henle has found
that the apparently membranous parts, which give color to various
surfaces, are also of a cellular structure, and not properly mem-
branous; in the skin of the Negro he found numerous irregularly
spherical cells containing the black pigment to which the color is
due ; they were most numerous on those parts of the rete which pro-
ject and correspond to the furrows of the culis. Dr. Simo:, of
Berlin, has found that the various discolorations vſ the white skin
depend on the presence of similar cells filled with pigment, and that
they are related on the one hand to the normal coloration of the
Negro skin, and on the other to the disease termed melanosis, in
which " the production of pigment cells keeps pace with a change
from the normal or healthy state of organization in the affected parts.”
He thence concludes that there is no organic difference between
the skin of the Negro and the European, which marks them as dis-
tinct species. It may also be added that the epidermic tissue, to
which the horny tissue of many animals corresponds, and which is the
seat of the variations in color and in the hair of man," is precisely
that part of the organic system which undergoes the most striking and
even surprising alterations. The complexions of mankind are not
permanent characters ; there are many changes from white to black,
and vice versa, and both complexions are seen in the undoubted prog-
eny of the same stock; so that no argument, according to Prich-
ard, can be drawn from color against the original unity of the human
species.
The human races have also been distinguished by the color, quality,
and quantity of the hair ; these national diversities probably do not
exceed the measure of variety occurring in different families of the
same nation. Some Europeans are said to have hair quite as crisp
and curly as that of a Negro ; even among Negroes, we find every
variety from a so-called " woolly” hair to curled or even flowing
hair; the same is affirmed of the natives of the Southern Ocean,
where there is no intermixture of races. The nature of the Negro
hair has been the subject of much discussion, as it was supposed to
possess characters indicating a distinct species. The Negro hair is
called “wool," meaning that it approaches the wool of animals,
The fibre of true wool is rough on its surface, and has a feathered
or barbed edge; this is at the same time the cause of its felting prop-
erty, and the mark which distinguishes it from hair. Examined
microscopically, the fibre of wool generally has serrated edges,
resulting " from a structure resembling a series of inverted cones,
INTRODUCTION.
27
encircling a central stem, the apex of one cone being received into
the base of the superior one." Hair, though sometimes rough and
covered with scales, has no serrations, or tooth-like. projections; it
is an even-sided.tube, smooth, and nearly of equal calibre.
The hair of the dark races is not wool, but a curled and twisted
hair; it has the appearance of a cylinder with a smooth surface;
the coloring matter is the most abundant in the Negro hair; the
Abyssinian hair, very dark, had a riband-like band running through
the middle of the tube, as did also the Mulatto hair; European hair
seemed almost entirely transparent, like an empty tube. Even if
that of the Negro were “wool," it would not prove him a distinct
species, since we know that, in some tribes of animals, some of a spe-
cies bear wool, while others of the same species are covered with hair.
· Since the time of Camper and Blumenbach, anatomists have
attempted to classify mankind according to the shape of the skull ;
but hardly any two writers have agreed as to the number of the
divisions and their exact limitation. One of their fundamental
principles seems to be wrong, viz., that tribes resembling each other
in the shape of their skulls must needs be more nearly related to
each other than to tribes having a differently formed head. As sim-
ilar causes may have produced similar effects on widely different
people, any particular anatomical character so produced can afford
no proof of near relationship. If there be any such relation between
the physical characters of different tribes and the chief circumstances
of their external condition, there may be pointed out three principal
varieties, which are prevalent in the savage or hunting tribes, in
the nomadic or wandering races, and in the civilized divisions of
mankind. Among savages and hunters, among whom are the lowest
Africans and Australians, the jaws are prolonged forwards, consti-
tuting the prognathous form of the head; among the wandering
Mongolians, we have broad, lozenge-shaped faces, and the pyramidal
skull; while the civilized races have the oval or elliptical skull.
There are numerous instances of transition from one of these forms
to another, when a nation has changed its manner of life; for
instance, the nomadic Turks of Central Asia have a strongly marked
pyramidal skull, while their civilized brethren of the Ottoman.
Empire have the European or oval form. The three principal ways
of viewing the skull are laterally, vertically, and from below; these
three combined enable us to form an idea of all its cliaracters.
Camper says, “ The basis on which the distinction of nations is
founded, may be displayed by two straight lines ; one of which is to
be drawn through the meatus auditorius, or opening of the ear, to the
ase of the nose, and the other touching the prominent centre of the
28
INTRODUCTION.
.
.
forehead, and falling thence on the most advancing part of the
upper jawbone, the head being viewed in profile.” This gives the
facial angle. For the posterior part of the skull, the occipital angle
may be measured in a.similar ranner. Though these measurements
may be sufficient for the physiognomist, they are not for the geome-
trician, on account of the varying thickness of the skull, the devel-
opment of the cavities in the forehead, frontal sinuses, and the dif-
ferent projection of the teeth, even in adults; and, moreover, they
only measure the skull in one part. To obviate this, Cuvier pro-
posed to compare the areas of the cranium and face sawed vertically
from before backwards; the section of the face is triangular; that
of the cranium an oval. In the Caucasian the area of the cranium
is four times that of the face ; in the Negro the area of the face is
one fifth larger.
To measure the breadth of the skull and the projection of the
face, Blumenbach proposed the.norma verticalis.” Says he, “ The
best way of obtaining this. end is to place a series of skulls, with
the cheek-bones on the same horizontal line, resting on the lower
jaws; and then, viewing them from behind, and fixing the eye on
the vertex of each, to mark all the varieties in the shape of parts
that contribute most to the national character, whether they consist
in the direction of the maxillary and malar bones, in the breadth or
narrowness of the oval figure presented by the vertex, or in the
flattened or vaulted form of the frontal bone.” Thus compared,
he makes three varieties in the vertical view, strongly distinguished
from each other; the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian..
In no view does the human skull contrast more strongly with that
of the quadrumana, than when its base is examined, as suggested by
Mr. Owen. In the orang the. antero-posterior diameter of the base
is much longer than in man; the zygomatic arches are situated also
quite differently. In all races of men, even in idiots, the whole
zygoma is included in the anterior half of the basis cranii, while in
the highest monkey it is placed in the middle region of the skull,
and occupies about one third of the entire long diameter. The
occipital foramen in all the lower animals is further back than in the
human head; in man this foramen is "immediately behind a transverse
line dividing the basis cranii into two equal parts, or bisecting the
antero-posterior diameter.” It is situated exactly alike in all human
races, if due allowance be made for the protuberance of the jaws in
the lower types.
In well-formed European heads, lines drawn from the zygomatic
arches, touching the temples, and meeting over the forehead, are
parallel. But in the pyramidal skull, characterized by great lateral
INTRODUCTION. -
29
projection of these arches, these two lines form with the basis a tri-
angular figure. Another characteristic in the face belonging to the
pyramidal skull, is the obliquity of the aperture of the eyelids ; this
is not due to any want of parallelism in the orbits, but to the struc-
ture of the lids; the skin being tightly drawn over the prominent
malar bones at the outer angle of the eyes, and simoothly drawn over
the low nasal bones; gives to the eye the appearance of having the
inner angle directed downwards. The pyramidal and prognathous
skills being adapted to the nomadic and hunter state, if “either of
these were the original condition of mankind, then were the first
men probably in form like the Esquimaux or the Negro.".
The stature, relative size of the limbs and trunk, and the propor-
tions of different parts of the body, rary much in the different
races of men; these differences have been considered by some as
amounting to specific distinctions. One of the principal of these dif-
ferences is found in the pelvis. · Vrolik says it is difficult to sepa-
rate from the female Negro pelvis the idea of degradation, so much
does it approach the form in the Simiæ in the vertical direction of
the ossa ilii and its elongated shape ; he considers the Hottentot pel-
vis as indicating greater - animality in comparison even with the
Negro." Weber has reduced the forins of the human pelvis to four,
the oval, most frequent in Europeans; the round, most frequent in
the American nations; the square, in people resembling the Mongo-
lians; and the oblong, or wedge-shaped, most common in the nations
of Africa. He thinks these answer to the corresponding form of the
kull in the several -nations. Prichard thinks that no particular
igure is a permanent characteristic of any one race.
As to other parts of the skeleton, in some particulars the less
avilized races bear some remote resemblance to the lower animals.
Uncivilized men, like uncivilized breeds of animals, have lean, slender,
and elongated limbs. These he considers as mere variations, as the
same causes which produce them in individuals might influence a
whole race. In the Negro the bones of the leg are bent outwards
and forwards; the calves of the legs are very high; the feet are fiat,
and“the os calcis is continued in a straight line with the other bones
of the foot, and is more prominent behind ; the length of the fore-
arm is also relatively greater ; but these differences are said to be no
greater than are observed every day in individuals of any race.
Prichard divides the human races principally according to the rela-
tions of their languages, which of all endowments seem to be the
most permanently retained, and can be shown in many cases to have
survived even very considerable changes in physical and moral char-
acters." The system adopted by Cuvier referred the original seats
3*
30
INTRODUCTION.
of the human race to certain lofty mountain chains. The birth-place
of the men who peopled Europe and Western Asia is supposed to
have been Mount Caucasus ; hence the term “Caucasian " as applied
to them. The nations of Eastern Asia were derived from the neigh-
borhood of Mount Altai; and the African Negroes from the southern
face of the chain of Mount Atlas. The tradition in the Hebrew
Scriptures places the birth-place of mankind on the banks of four
great rivers, two of which have been recognized as the Tigris and
Euphrates, in a land rich in animal and vegetable productions.
Prichard recognizes three great centres of the earliest civilization of
the human race, comprising most of the tribes known to antiquity.
“In one of these, the Semitic .or Syro-Arabian nations exchanged
the simple habits of wandering shepherds for the splendor and lux-
ury of Nineveh and Babylon. In a second, the Indo-European or
Japetic people brought to perfection the most elaborate of human
dialects, destined to become, in after times and under different modi-
fications, the mother tongue of the nations of Europe. In a third,
the land of Ham, watered by the Nile; were invented hieroglyphical
literature and the arts, in which Egypt far surpassed all the rest of
the world in the earlier ages of history.”
These three divisions do not correspond to the three departments
of mankind as indicated by the form of the skull; the former were
neither nomades nor savages, but were more or less civilized and
had the corresponding oval form of skull. Yet he would trace a
gradual deviation from this type to the lower, e. g., from the Egyp-
tian to the Negro, without any decided interruption; though he
admits “ that these approximations require further inquiry and more
precise prooſs before they can be admitted as furnishing the ground-
work.of an ethnological system.”
His Syro-Arabian or Semitic race includes the Syrians, the Jews,
the Arabs. According to Baron Larrey, the Arabian race fur-
nishes the most perfect type of the human head, and he believes
" that the cradle of the human family is to be found in the country of
this race."
The Egyptian or Hamitic race contrasts strongly with the Se-
mitic, the latter being full of energy and restless activity, the former
living in luxurious ease on the rich soil watered by the Nile. They
are equally different in their intellectual and moral characters; the
one still living in its energetic and ever-roving descendants, the
other reposing in its own land, which is little else than a vast
.sepulchre. According to Denon, the Egyptians display the "gen-
uine African character, of which the Negro is the exaggerated and
extreme representation.” Some have called the Egyptians Negroes;
INTRODUCTION.
31
others think them Caucasians; Priohard coïncides with Denon, as
above quoted. More respecting this race will be given when speak-
ing of Dr. Morton's Crania Egyptiaca.
The Indo-European, Japetic, or Arian race, includes the Hin-
doos, Persians, Afghans, Balúchi and Brahúi, the Kurds, the .
Armenians, and the Ossetines. It comprises also the numerous and
far-spread colonies of the race in Europe and America. Prichard
believes that the Arian race, on their arrival in Europe, found the
country already occupied by what he terms - Allophylian” nations ;
for instance, the Celts found Spain inhabited by the Iberian tribes,
who preserved the possession of the Pyrenean chain at the era of
the Roman conquest, and whose descendants, even now, are found
there in the Basque mountaineers, or Biscayans, according to Hum-
boldt); so the Northmen found the countries on the Baltic coast
occupied by nations of the Finnish or Ugrian race, of the same east-
ern origin as themselves, but emigrants of an earlier age.
The five great Nomadic races inhabit the great central region
of High Asia, and belong to the Mongolian division of authors;
they are all characterized by the pyramidal form of the skull.
These five races are, the Ugrian race, in the north-west, of which
the Finns and Lappes, the Tschudes, the Ugrians, (whence the
name Ogre, the prototype of fabled savage. monsters,) the Ostiaks of
the Obi, (from whom are descended the Magyars, or Hungarians
of central Europe,) and other Siberian tribes, are varieties.
The Turkish race, often erroneously called Tartars, formerly
occupied all the countries from the north of China to Mount Altai.
The present Turkish nations display two different types of coun-
tenance; the Nomadic tribes, in the ancient abodes of the race, dis-
play strongly the Mongolian type, while the Turks of the Ottoman
empire have very nearly the European form. Some writers have
explained this change by an intermixture of races, which Prichard
thinks is contradicted by the evidence of their languages.
The Mongolian race, including the Kalmuks, strongly displays-
the broad race and pyramidal skull of this division of the human
family. The Tungusians wander over the mountainous regions
which extend from Lake Baikal to the Sea of Okhotsk; within the
Chinese dominions they are called Mantschu. According to Kla-
proth, the languages of the Tungusians, Mongolians, and Turks
have a remarkable connection between them; and the Marischu,
in particular, corresponds singularly in its vocabulary with other
Asiatic, and still more with European, languages. The Bhotiyahs
áre a race often termed Tartars, inhabiting a great part of Tibet and
the Himalayan chain. They are Buddhist, and have peculiar mar-
32
INTRODUCTION.
riage customs ; one woman is generally the wife of a whole family
of brothers; this appears" less injurious in a physical point of
view than the more frequent sort of polygamy.” A vast amount
of literature is preserved in their language in the monasteries of
Tibet.
To the nations with pyramidal skulls belong the races bordering
on the Arctic Ocean, which are styled Ichthyophagi, or Fishing
Tribes, which sufficiently describes their habits of life. They
include the Namollos of the north-east of Asia and the Aleutian
islands, akin to the Esquimaux of America, the Koriaks, the
Kamtschatkans, the Yukagiri of Eastern Siberia, the Samoiedes, and
the Kurilians. To this division also belong the Koreans, the Chi-
nese, and the Japanese; the races of the Indo-Chinese peninsula
beyond the Ganges ;— the aboriginal races of India distinct from the
Hindoos, (who belong to the Arabian stock,) and inhabiting their
present localities long before the latter passed the river Indus; viz.,
the Singhalese, comprising all the races of Ceylon, except the
Tamulian ; the Tamulians, inhabiting part of Ceylon, and the
greater part of the Dekhan or Indian Peninsula, and the Parbátya,
or mountain tribes of the Dekhan.
Among the "Allophylian" races, inhabiting mountains difficult
of access, in the midst of regions long since conquered by the Ara-
bian and Syro-Arabian rạces, may be mentioned the Caucasians,
inhabiting to this day the chain of Caucasus, and successfully resist-
ing all the attempts of the Russians to conquer them; they are
mostly people of European features and form. The Iberians of the
Pyrenees have been already alluded to; to these may be added the
Lybians and the Berbers of the Northern Atlas, also extended to the
Canary Islands, under the name of 6 Guanches," whose custom of
embalming their dead and depositing them in catacombs reminds us
of the ancient Egyptians, though the embalming process was
different.
In his introductory remarks on the African races, Prichard says,
“If we trace the intervening countries between Egypt and Sene-
gambia, and carefully note the physical qualities of the inhabitants,
we shall have no difficulty in recognizing almost every degree or
stage of deviation successively displayed, and showing a gradual
transition from the characters of the Egyptian to those of the Negro,
without any broadly marked line of abrupt separation. The char-
acteristic type of one division of the human species here passes into
another, and that by almost imperceptible degrees.”
The countries above Egypt are inhabited by two races, one
aboriginal, or the Nubians of the Red Sea, ant the other foreign, or
INTRODUCTION.
33
.
.
different from that of the Negro ; they are a handsome people, of
fine form and features; the latter are supposed to be the descend-
ants of the Nobatæ, "brought fifteen centuries ago from an oasis in the
western country, by Diocletian, to inhabit the valley of the Nile ;"!
Prichard thinks they furnish an instance of the transition from the
Negro to the ancient Egyptians, though he admits that the evidence
is open to many sources of fallacy.
The Abyssinians, a fine, dark, but not Negro people, are inter-
esting, as having preserved alone, “in the heart of Africa, and in
its ancient Christian Church ;' it has also extensive remains of a
wide-spread Judaism, and a language approaching, more nearly than
any living tongue, to the pure Hebrew. Abyssinia has been overrun
lately by the Galla, à barbarous people, who approach more nearly
to the Negro type..
Of the black races of the interior of Africa, the principal are the
Senegambian nations, viz., the Mandingos, remarkable for their
industry and energy of character, and who carry on the principal
traffic of northern Africa, and the Fulahs, who are supposed by
some to be an offset of the Polynesian race.
The true Negro characters are most strongly displayed on the
sea-coast, “ which encircles the projecting region of Western Africa,
to the inmost angle of the Bight at Benin ;'. the region which has
been the centre of the slave-trade, and whose inhabitants are reduced
to the lowest physical and moral degradation. One peculiarity of
the African cranium is said to be that “the sphenoidal bone fails to
reach the parietal bones, so that the corona] suture, instead of
impinging upon the sphenoidal, as it does in most European heads,
and in the human cranium in general, joins the margin of the tem-
poral bone.” This peculiarity has been given as a. distinguishing
mark between the orang and the chimpanzé, but it is by no means
constant.
In the vast regions of South Africa, in a country analogous to the
high region of Eastern Asia, we find nations which may be com-
pared with the Nomadic Mongolian races. The Hottentots, and
their oppressed descendants, the Bushmen, in the width of their
orbits, and their distance from each other, in the form of the eye,
the prominent cheek-bones, and the large size of the occipital fora-
men, resemble the Chinese and the Northern Asiatics, and even the
Esquimaux
The warlike Kaſirs, to the north of the Hottentots, are said to
Þave the high forehead and prominent nose of the European, the
32
INTRODUCTION.
thick lips of the Negro, and the high cheek-bones of the Hottentot.
Very likely they may be a mixed race.
The Mozambique tribes resemble the Kafirs, and, were it not for
their black color and woolly hair, would be a handsome race. The
African nations between Cape Lopez and Cape Negro are true
Negroes, though some of their skulls have less than usual of the
prognathous character, and more of the pyramidal form.
The nations of Africa, limited to those with woolly hair, do not
agree in the form of the skull, and cannot be educed to any particu-
lar stock or number of races.
The races of Oceanica he divides into three groups, the Malayo-
Polynesian, comprising a family of nations whose near affinity has
been established by Humboldt; the Pelagian Negroes, of darl-
complexion and crisp hair, more or less resembling African Na
groes ; and the Alforas," savages of dark color, lank hair, and
prognathous heads," including the natives of Australia. Great as
is the physical difference between these nations, Prichard thinks
there is full prooi of unity of descent in the whole class, and attrib-
utes their diversities to spontaneous variation. This, without settling,
only postpones the difficulty.
The first group contains the Malays proper, a people of short
stature and slender limbs, with flat faces, and features resembling
the Chinese, though their complexion is darker; the Polynesians, of
whom Lesson considers the Tahitians as the type ; handsome races,
whose heads might be called European, were it not for the spread-
ing ont of the nostrils, and the too great thickness of the lips ; and
the natives of Madagascar, some of whose tribes approximate to the
European character of the Polynesians.
The second group of Pelagian Negroes occupies the interior A
inany of the islands of the Indian Archipelago ;. those of the Philip-
pine Islands inhabit the mountains, and resemble the nations of
Guinea, wandering about like beasts, and supporting themselves by
rruits of spontaneous growth ; the natives of Van Diemen's Land,
or Tasmanians, belong to this group, and have the compressed and
elongated skull and prognathous jaws of the Negro.
The third group, the Alforians, inhabits the interior of New
Guinea and many of the larger islands to the southward of the
Indian Ocean ; those of New Guinea, according to Lesson, have
" flat noses, cheek-bones projecting, large eyes, prominent teeth,
long and slender legs, very black and thick hair, rough and shining,
without being woolly; their beards coarse and thick, and an
excessive stupidity stamped upon their countenances.” The tribes
of the north-east of Borneo are a savage and piratical race, eating
INTRODUCTION. .
35
the flesh of their enemies. Among the inhabitants of the eastern
isles, a singular custom is the necessity for every person, some
time in his life, to shed human blood ; and generally no person can
marry till he can show the skull of a human victim. The Austra-
lians are supposed to belong to this group; they resemble, in the
form of their skulls, the Tasmanians; they are a lean and half-
starved race, with disproportioned size of head and limbs, if the
representations taken from the atlas of M. d'Urville are correct.
The American nations show characters which are common to all,
and exhibit strong proofs of a community of origin, and of very
ancient relationship. As they probably existed as a separate depart-
ment from the earliest ages of the world, we cannot expect to find
proofs of their derivation from any tribes of the Old World.
Though they have been called “Red Men,” there are tribes equally
red, he says, in Africa and Polynesia. Anatomists have described
an American form of the skull, which he thinks incorrect, and
founded on the study of a few well-marked tribes. The habits of
these nations are equally different; some are hunters, some fisher-
men, some nomadic, others cultivators of the earth before the arrival
of Europeans. The inost decisivé evidence of their relationship is
in the characteristic structure of their languages. Says Humboldt,
"In America, from the country of the Esquimaux to the banks of
the Orinoko, and again, from these torrid banks to the frozen cli-
mate of the straits of Magellan, mother tongues entirely different
with regard to their roots, have the same physiognomy.” This
remark of Humboldt has been confirmed by Mr. Gallatin, who says
that all the languages of the native inhabitants of America, from the
Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, have a distinct character common to
all, and differing from any of those of the other continent with
which we are most familiar. Du Ponceau includes even the
Esquimaux among the American languages.
Remarkable moral and social traits distinguish the American race
from the races of the Old World. Dr. Martius believes that the
American nations are not living in the primitive simplicity of
nature, but that they are the remains of a people once in a high state
of civilization and mental improvement, and now in a state of decline
and degradation ; this he infers from the remains of ancient institu-
tions of government, of religion, and social refinements.
It is probable that the Mexican tribes, Toltecs and Aztecs, were
one race, and that they ascended the central plain of Anahuac, in
the seventh century, from countries lying to the north, by succes-
sive arrivals for a long period. These nations were highly
cultivated in the arts, though their moral condition seems to have
36
INTRODUCTION.
been very low. More of them, when speaking of Dr. Morton's
Crania Americana.
Before the arrival of the Mexican foreigners, this plain was
inhabited by races, some civilized and some barbarous, who have
left behind them the splendid ruins of Palenque. Among these were
the Tarascas, the Othomi, the Totonacs, and the Huaxtecas. The
Othomi were a remarkable people, from the circumstance that,
while all other known languages of America are polysyllabic, they
had a monosyllabic dialect, resembling the Chinese idiom.
In the countries to the eastward of the Gulf of California, and
extending northward as far as the rivers Gila and Colorado, ruins
have been found in various localities, whicli are supposed to be the
different resting places of the Aztecs in their migration towards
Anahuac; the farthest vestige towards the north of this Mexican
civilization is in the neighborhood of the Yaquesila, which flows
into the Rio Colorado.
. Among the aborigines of North America there are only two
races which can be traced across the Continent, from the Pacific to
the Atlantic Ocean ; these are the two northern nations of the Esqui-
maux and the. Athapascas. The Esquimaux, subsisting principally
on what they obtain from the sea, are rarely found more than one
hundred miles from the coast; they inhabit America, chiefly north of
the 60° of north latitude, from the east coast of Greenland, in longitude
20°, to Behring's Straits, in longitude 167° West; they occupy an
extent of coast of five thousand four hundred miles; they liave the
Mongolian cast of countenance. The Athapascas, or Chepewyans,
extend from the western shore of Hudson's Bay, across the Conti-
nent to the Pacific ; their southern boundary is Churchill river,
which falls into Hudson's Bay; they agree in dress and manners,
according to Mackenzie, with the Eastern Asiatics.
The greater part of Canada, and the United States east of the
Mississippi, at the time of its discovery, was inhabited by two prin-
cipal races, the Algonquin-Lenape and the Iroquois, or Hurons ;
both were divided into a great number of tribes, which recognized,
however, their kindred with each other. The limits of the former
were, in general terms, Churchill river on the North ; the Atlantic
coast on the east, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Cape Hat-
teras; on the south, an irregular line drawn from Cape Hatteras to
the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi; and, on the west,
the Mississippi river. The Iroquois, always at war with the for-
mer, consisted of two bodies -- the northern, entirely surrounded by
the Lenapian tribes, in the neighborhood of Lake Huron ; the south-
ern were the Tuscaroras, in Virginia and North Carolina.
. INTRODUCTION.
37
To the southward were the Alleghanian races, many of whom
have become extinct ;, among them were the Cherokees, the Choc-
laws, the tribes of the Creek confederacy, Seminoles, Natchez, and
others. These were the nations among whom Adair thought that
he recognized the institutions of Judaism, such as a city of refuge, a
temple where the sacred fire was continually kept burning, &c.
To the west of the Mississippi are the Sioux and Pawnees; Mr.
Gallatin divides the Sioux into four departments, but all of one kin-
cred, from the evidence of language ; these are the Winebagos, the
Dahcotas, the Minetari, and the Osages. There are two nations of
Pawnees, the Pawnees proper, and the Ricarees on the river Platte.
On the sides of the Rocky Mountains are the Black-feet and the
Rapid Indians, with their numerous families; in their neighborhood
are the Snake Indians ; further south the Utahs and Paducas; and in
New Mexico the Apaches.
The races of the Pacific coast of North America may be divided
into three sections. - The Californian nations inhabit a region barren,
rocky, and sandy, and deficient in water, and of a climate excessively
hot and dry, exactly opposite in every respect to the north-western
tracts; they are of a much deeper hue than the American natives
generally, so that La Pérouse compared them to Negroes; they have
low foreheads, and prominent cheek-bones; they approach, in the
shape of the head and in features, to the nations of New Guinea, and
New Hebrides. New California appears to have a fine race of dark
people.
· The tribes of the North-west coast and the Columbia river, from
New California to Mt. St. Elias, are very different from the hunt-
ing races of the Missouri. The prevailing westerly winds of the
northern Pacific render the clirnate moist and milder than correspond-
ing regions of the interior. The northern tribes, from the Arctic
circle to Vancouver's Island, including the tribes of the Russian ter-
ritories, are hold, industrious, and ingenious; the females have the
singular custom of perforating the lower lip, and wearing in it a
wooden ornament. The southern tribes have been called Nootka-
Columbians, which indicates their locality. The practice of flatten-
ing the head in infancy is universal among them, but unknown to the
north. To this family belong the Chenooks, the Flat-heads, the
Clatsops, and others; they are distinguished for their love of music.
Dr. Prichard thinks the northern tribes more interesting than the
last, as they furnish an example, according to him, of a white
American race, which, compared with the black Californians, bears
a relation to climate similar to the white Europeans of the Old
World compared with the black Africans. The idioms of the Noot-
38
INTRODUCTION.
ka-Columbians bear a remote affinity, as well as those of the northern
tribes, to the Azteca-Mexican ; "a fact which recalls the tradition
that the Nahuatlacas originated from a region far to the north; the
language of Nootka bears strong resemblance to the Mexican in the
terminations of words, and thé frequent recurrence of the same con
M. D'Orbigny divides the South American nations into three
families; the Andian group, or Alpine nations, including the Peri-
vians, the Antisians, and the Araucanians; the Brazilio-Guarani,
from the foot of the Peruvian Andes, eastward to the Atlantic,
including the vast plains of the Orinoko and the Amazon; and the
Mediterranean group, in the central and southern parts of the con-
tinent. Of two and a half millions of the pure aboriginal races, one
and a half millions are Christians, through the efforts of Roman
Catholic missionaries.
The Peruvian family includes the Inca race, the Aymaras, the
Atacama, and the Changos. Of the Peruvians we shall say more,
when noticing the Crania Americana. The Inca race, or Quichuas,
are noted for a very great volume of the chest, which is due to the ele-
vated regions in which they live, and the consequent extreme expan-
sion of the air; living at a height of between 7,500 and 15,000 feet
above the level of the sea, a much greater quantity of such rarefied air
must be inhaled for the respiratory functions; to effect this, or in
consequence of this, the lungs are dilated, and the thorax from infancy
is abnormally developed; in the lungs there is a kind of natural
emphysema. The Aymaras . resemble the Incas in physical charac-
ter, but differ from them entirely in language. It is probable that
from Tiaguanaco, the most ancient city of South America, and one
of the great cities of the Aymaras, the religion, the arts, and the civil-
ization of the Incas originated. The heads of the modern Aymaras
display no trace of that flattening of the skull so conspicuous in the
tombs around the lake of Titicaca and other parts of the Aymara
country. It is now fully proved that the depressed or elongated forin
of the skulls is owing to the intervention of art; its origin was prob-
ably contemporaneous with the reign of the Incas; it appeared to be
a mark of honor, as such deformed skulls were found in the largest
and finest tombs. :'
The Atacamas occupy the western declivity of the Peruvian Andes,
and the Changos spread along the coast of the Pacific ; the latter are
of a much darker hue, probably depending on their local situation
by the sea-coast.
The Antisian branch inhabits the eastern declivity of the Bolivian
and Peruvian Andes, from 13° to 17° south latitude. Living in
INTRODUCTION.
39
1
damp forests rarely penetrated by the sun's rays, they are almost
white, and those tribes are the fairest who dwell in the thickest
woods.
The Araucanian branch defended the mountains of Chili from the
Spaniards; the fishing tribes of Tierra del Fuego are referred by
D'Orbigny to the Araucanian race.
Of the Mediterranean group, the Patagonians comprise the tribes
of this name, and races extending from the Straits of Magellan 10
20° south latitude, including the wandering tribes of the Pampas;
they are the nomadic nations of the New World, fierce warriors,
averse to agriculture and all the arts of civilization. Their com-
plexion is darker than that of inost South Americans ; they have
long been celebrated for their tall athletic forms; the stature of the
most southern is the greatest; it diminishes as we go northward. .
The agricultural and fishing tribes inhabiting the central prov-
inces of South America are called by the Spaniards, Chiquitos and
Moxos.
The vast region of South America east of the river Paraguay, is
inhabited by two great families of nations, the Guarani of Paraguay
and the Tupi of Brazil, and the Caribbees in the countries bordering
on the Gulf of Mexico. According to D'Orbigny, the following is
their characteristic description : - Complexion, yellowish ; stature,
middle ; forehearl, not so much arched as in other races; eyes,
obliquely placed, and raised at the outer angle." These traits •
approximate them to the nomadic races of High Asia. Spix and
Von Martius thought the Caribbees very like the Chinese.
Having thus given the anatomical and external characteristics of
the various human races, and drawn from them the conclusion that
all are varieties of a single species, he adds testimony which he
thinks corroborative from their physiological and psychological char-
acters. He remarks that the average duration of human life is
nearly the same in all the races ; at any rate, there is the same ten-
dency to exist for a definite time, which may be shortened in some
cases by peculiarities of climate and external circumstances. The
progress of physical development and the periodical changes of the
constitution are the same, as also the natural and vital functions; he
mentions the temperature of the body, the frequency of the pulse, and
the periodical changes in the female sex. In all these great regula-
tions of the animal economy, mankind, white and black, are on the
sarne footing by nature. A comparison of the races with respect to
mental endowments, (and he compares the American and the black
races with the white,) shows that all have the same inward feelings,
desires, and aversions ; the same susceptibility of improvement in
-
40
INTRODUCTION.
religion and social condition ; in a word, the same nature. Adding
together the accumulated testimony from anatomy, physiology, and
psychology, he says, “ We are entitled to draw confidently the con-
clusion that all human races are of one species and one family."
DR. LATHAM * separates the human species into three primary
divisions, the MONGOLIDE, ATLANTIDÆ, and JAPETIDÆ: -- the Mon;
golidæ inhabiting Asia, Polynesia and America ; their languages
aptotict and agglutinate ; their influence on the history of the world
material rather than moral ; – the Atlantidæ inhabiting Africa;
their languages with an agglutinate, rarely an amalgamate, in-
flexion ; their influence on the history of the world inconsiderable ;
- the Japetidæ inhabiting Europe ; their languages with amalga-
mate inflections, or else anaptotic, I rarely agglutinate, never aptotic;
their influence on the history of the world greater than either of the
others, moral as well as material.
The MONGOLIDÆ he divides into,
A. — The Altaic Mongolidæ.
B. - The Dioscurian Mongolidæ.
C. — The Oceanic Mongolidæ.
D. - The Hyperborean Mongolidæ.
E. - The Peninsular Mongolidæ.
F. - The American Mongolidæ.
G. - The Indian Mongolidæ.
A. — The Altaic Mongolide, he divides into the Seriform and the
Turanian stock.
1. The Seriform stock, of which the chief divisions are the
Chinese, the Tibetans, the Assamese, the Siamese, the Kambojians,
the Burmese, the Môuand numerous unplaced tribes ; their lan-
guages are generally monosyllabic and aptotic. The Chinese
language is remarkable, from the fact that written signs represent
whole words, instead of syllables or single articulate sounds. In
the wild Seriform tribes we notice erratic agriculture, an exceptional
form of human industry, contrasting strongly with the method of
cultivating the soil in China.
The Chinese civilization he considers the measure of moral
development of the monosyllabic nations; while allowing to the
Chinese several of the most important arts and discoveries of
* The Natural History of the Varieties of Man, by Robert Gordon
Latham, M. D., F. R. S. 8vo. London, 1850.
+ Without cases.
# Falling back from inflexion.
INTRODUCTION. -
41
Europe, (as the art of printing, of paper-money, of the mariner's
compass, of a certain amount of astronomical knowledge, and even
of gunpowder,) 'he doubts the antiquity of this civilization, and still
more the self-evolution of it. Within the historical period, three
civilizing influences have been introduced into China. To begin with
the latest, European and American intercourse has not changed it
in any essential points. The influence of the early Nestorian
Christians, between A, D. 600 and 1200, must have been very
great, from the introduction of Syrian literature, theology and
science. The Buddhism of India is the earliest civilizing influence.
The Han dynasty being the extreme date of Chinese history, begin-
ning B. C. 200, Buddhism must have been introduced since that
period; it is generally believed to have been introduced in the first
century after Christ. He thus limits the growth of Chinese civiliza-
tion to the last eighteen hundred years, believing " that whatever is
older than their religion is reasonable tradition for a limited period,
(say a century,) and unreasonable tradition beyond it."
2. The Turanian stock, of which the divisions are the Mongo--
lians, the Tungusians, the Turks, and the Ugrians, extending from
Kamtskatka to Norway, and from the Arctic Ocean to the frontiers of
Tibet and Persia. Though there are here some physical changes, there
are also greater changes in the languages, from those of a monosyl-
labic and aptotic type to those polysyllabic and anaptotic ; but as
we know wliat inodifies form, and what modifies language, we
may readily understand that physical and philological changes may
go on at different rates. .
An interesting branch of the Ugrian division of the Turanian
stock is the Magyar, or Hungarians, who migrated from the
country of the Baslekirs, about A. D. 900. Those who would con-
nect the Hungarians with the Huns are misled by the similarity of
the name, for no facts are more undeniable than that the Magyars
are of Ugrian and the Huns of Turkish descent. The Magyars aru.
the only members of the Ugrians who have made a permanent con-
quest, within the historical period, over any portion of the Japetidæ.
B. - Dioscurian Mongolide, so called from the ancient sea-port
Dioscurias; the term Caucasian would have been more appro-
priate, but it has already been misapplied in another division, the
Japetidæ. The principal divisions are the Georgians, the Lesgians,
the Irôn, and the Circassians.
Dr. Latham differs from the long established division of man-
kind by placing the Caucasians, who have been heretofore consid-
ered as a preëminently European type, among the Mongolidæ. The
anatomical reason for making the Circassians and Georgians, so
42
INTRODUCTION.
called, Caucasians, was a single fact :- Blumenbach had a solitary
Georgian skull, which happened to be the finest in his collection,
that of a Greek being the next; hence it was taken as the type of
the skull of the higher divisions of mankind, and gave rise to the
term Caucasian. - Never has a single head done more harm to
science than was done in the way of posthumous mischief, by the
head of this well-shaped female from Georgia ;" this is the amount
of fact. Similar attempts have been made to connect the Dioscurian
languages with the Indo-European torigues ; in 1845, Dr. Latham
announced before the British Association, from the comparison of the
words only, “that the closest, philological affinity of the Dioscurian
languages was with the aptotic ones ;” and soon after, Mr. Norriss,
of the Asiatic Society, expressed the same opinion, on grammatical
grounds. As to the symmetry of shape and delicacy of complexion
of the Georgians and Circassians, so different from the Mongolian,
the reader is reminded of the cliinatologic condition of the Caucasus ;
temperate, wooded, mountainous, and near the sea, — the very
reverse of the Mongol areas. “It is only amongst the chiefs
where the personal beauty of the male population is at all remark-
able ; the tillers of the soil are, comparatively speaking, coarse and
unshapely."
C. — Occanic Mongolidæ; divided into the Amphinesians and
Kelænonesiant stocks.
The ocean being a medium of communication between races only
in proportion to the skill, experience and courage to use it, all
a priori generalizations on it, as an element of ethnographical disper-
sion, must be unscientific. With a few exceptions, every inhabited
spot of land in the Indian and Pacific Oceans is inhabited by tribes
of the same race, and that race Oceanic; with the exception of the
Peninsula of Malacca, it is not only everywhere in the islands, but
nowhere on the continent. In an ethnographical distribution by
water, the later date we assign to it the more explicable are the phe-
nomena, from the inore advanced state of navigation favoring the
dispersion; while, in an extension by land, the earlier the migration
takes place, the less is the resistance of surrounding nations.
1. The Amphinesian stock consists of two branches, the Proto-
nesian, and the Polynesian. ..
The Protonesian branch occupies the Malayan Peninsula,
Sumatra, Java, Timor, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, the Philip-
pines, &c. With respect to the Malayan Peninsula, the most
important fact is its being the only continental seat of any Malay
* Amphi, around, and nesos, island.
† Kelainos, black.
INTRODUCTION.
43
nation, which suggests the idea of its being the original country of
the many widely dispersed Malay tribes.
Of all the tribes of the Old World, the Oceanic stock have
been the most extensively accused of cannibalism ; not as a mark
of honor, nor to gratify revenge, but for purposes of food.
Among the singular customs of the Island of Celebes, women are
eligible to the highest offices of the state ; so that, at the present
moment, four out of six of the hereditary rajahs are females.
Among the Bugés, some men dress like women, and some women
like men, for their whole lives, devoting themselves to the occupa-
tions of their adopted sex.
The Polynesian branch inhabits the islands from the Pelews to
Easter Island, west and east, and from the Mariannes to the Sand-
wich Islands ; their aliment is preëminently vegetable; they are
distinguished by the little or no'use of the bow and arrow from the
Kelanonesians. To the inhabitants of the Pelew, Caroline,
Marianne, and Tarawan groups, he gives the name of Micronesians.
The population of the Sandwich Islands is exceedingly mixed;
no area is at once so European and so Polynesian. The Sandwich
Islanders are themselves emigrants, and “are found at the coast of
America opposite, thus giving admixture to the Californian and
Oregon Indians. They do the same in South America, on the
coast of Peru and Ecuador;" thus giving rise to the imperfectly
studied union of the American and Oceanic races..
2. The Kelænonesian stock is divided into three branches, the
Papua, the Australian, and the Tasmanian.
The Papua branch is found in New Guinea, New Hebridés, and
the neighboring islands, and in the Fiji archipelago.
In the Australian branch the lowest form of humanity has been
sought for, though it is probable that there has been considerable
over-statement on the subject.
The Tasmanian branch inhabits Van Diemen's Land.
D. - Hyperborean Mongolida belong to Siberia, on the coasts
of the Arctic Ocean, and the courses of Yenisey and Kolwyma
rivers. They are divided into Samöieds, Yeniseians, and Yukahiri.
The Samöieds resemble very nearly the Greenlanders in their phys-
ical appearance. This section probably will be found to be a .
subdivision either of the Turanian or the Peninsular Mongolidæ.
E. - Peninsular Mongolidæ comprise tribes separated from each
other, both geographically and ethnologically, the principal divis-
ions are the Koreans, Japanese, Kamtskadales, and others, inhabit-
ing the islands and peninsulas of north-eastern Asia ; their lan-
guages are agglutinate, and, in some cases, excessively polysyllabic
INTRODUCTION.
They are connected by common physical and social conditions ;
they lie within a few degrees of the same longitude; and their lan-
guages have a general glossarial connection with each other, and
with the American languages, which is sufficient reason for placing
them in a separate division.
“The true Kamtskadales are a nearly extinct race. Amongst the
causes of their rapid diminution, a kind of death, rare amongst say-
age nations, is enumerated suicide."..
F. - American Mongolide, comprising the Esquimaux and the
American Indians. Over this vast area, whenever the languages
differ from, or agree with, each other, they differ or agree in a man--
ner to which Asia has furnished no parallel.
The Esquimau is the only family common to the Old and the
New World, and the Esquimau localities are the only ones where
the two continents approach each other very nearly; so that it would
seem easy to decide in what manner America was peopled. Our
choice must be between the doctrine that derives the American na-
tions " from one or more separate pairs of progenitors, and the doc-
trine that either Behring's Straits, or the line of Islands between
Kamtskatka and the Peninsula of Aliaska, was the highway between
the two worlds - from Asia to America, or vice versa ;" as it does
not necessarily follow that the race must have arisen in Asia, though
there are valid reasons for this opinion. Physically, the Esquimau
is a Mongol and an Asiatic; philologically, he is an American. The
Esquimaux of the Atlantic coast are easily distinguished from the
American aborigines to the south and west of them, in appearance,
manners, and language ; while the Esquimaux of the Pacific coast,
in Russian America, pass gradually into the proper Indians in the
same respects.
The great differences between the American Indians, as a body,
and the tribes of the Old World would naturally lead to an opinion
in favor of a general and fundamental unity among the several sec-
tions of them; the Brazilian and the Mohawk equally agreed in
disagreeing with the Laplander, or Negro; and this common differ-.
ence was enough to bring them within the same class." The lan-
guages of the American nations differ remarkably from each other;
but, as Vater has indicated, "the discrepancy extends to words or
roots only, the general internal or grammatical structure being the
same for all ;” while they differ glossarially, they agree grammati-
cally, —a philological paradox. The likeness in the grammar has
generally been considered of more weight than the difference in the
words, so that the evidence of language is in favor of the unity of
all the American nations, including the Esquimaux.
INTRODUCTION.
45
Some have been disposed to separate the Esquimaux, and the
Peruvians and Mexicans, from the other Americans -- the former
on account of an inferior, the latter on account of a superior “ civil-
izational development," and maintained in consequence, that the
American stock is not fundamentally one. But the Esquimau civil-
ization is not lower than that of the other Americans, it is only
different, as would be expected from their Arctic habitat, their fish-
ing habits, and their Fauna and Flora. As to physical characters,
they are taller than half of the South American tribes; they are as
dark as most of the American races, only a few typical nations
being copper-colored ; their skulls approach the brakhy-kephalic"
character of the American ; and, finally, their language is Amer-
ican in grammatical structure, and even in words.
The Peruvio-Mexican civilization has been over-estimated ; the
phenomena of their social and political condition should not be com-
pared with European feudalism and chivalry, but rather with "their
analogues, the probationary tortures of tribes like the Mandans, and
the constitution of such an empire as Powhattan's in Virginia ;'! if
we compare this empire of Powhattan with the kingdom of Monte-
zuma, we shall find the difference of civilization to be in degree, and
not in kind. The differences between the Peruvian and the Amer-
ican skull are artificially produced, by flattening in front, behind, or
laterally, as the case may be.
While thus advocating the unity of the American nations, one
among another, he omits the consideration of their unity with nations
of the Old World. He merely says, “I know reasons valid enough
and numerous enough to have made the notion of the New World
being the oldest of the two a paradox. Nevertheless, I know no
absolutely conclusive ones.”
G. — The Indian Mongolide comprise the inhabitants of Hindos-
tan, (in part,) Cashmere, Ceylon, the Maldives and Laccadives, and
part of Beloochistan ; they have numerous relations with the Jape-
tida.
The Atlantidæ he divides into -
A. — The Negro Atlantidæ.
B. --The Kaffre Atlantidæ.
C. ---The Hottentot Atlantidæ.
D. - The Nilotic Atlantidæ.
E. — Amazirgh Atlantida.
F.-The Ægyptian Atlantidæ.
G. - The Semitic Atlantidæ.
It is necessary to remember the difference between the Negro and
the African ; the true Negro area, occupied by men of black skin,
O
.
INTRODUCTION.
thick lips, flat nose, and woolly hair, being an exceedingly small
part of the African continent.
A. - The Negro Atlantidæ are distributed on the low lands, sea-
coasts, deltas, and courses of the rivers Senegal, Gambia, Niger,
and Upper Nile, nearly limited to the tropic of Cancer. The depart-
-ure from the true Negro features is the greatest on the high or table
lands.
· Bi- The Kaffre Atlantidæ inhabit Western, Central (?), and
Eastern Africa, from the north of the Equator to the south of the
Tropic of Capricorn. Their language has two remarkable peculi-
arities which seem to separate it from other African tongues ; viz.,
the system of .prefixing to every noun a syllable without any sepa-
sound of a secondary word into that of the primary one.
C. -The Hottentot Atlantide have“ a better claiin to be considered
as forming a second species of the genus Homo than any other sec-
tion of mankind.” Their language contains two inarticulate ele-
ments, viz., h, (like other tongues,) and a peculiar and characteris-
tic click.
D. - The Nilotic Atlantidæ are principally the Gallas, Agows,
and Nubians; through the Nubian is traced the transition from the
Egyptian to the Eastern Negro.
E. – The Amazirgh Atlantide (or Berbers) comprise the Sievans,
-the Cabyles of the Atlas range, Tuaricks of the Sahara, and the
Guanches of the Canaries. These were probably the subjects of
F.- The Ægyptian Atlantide comprise the Old Egyptians, the
subjects of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies; and the modern Copts,
in the rare cases where they are unmixed : the present dominant
population being Arah.
G. - Semitic Atlantidæ. Connection with the Semitic is by no
means synonymous with separation from the African stock; we may
pass naturally from the Copts to the Semitic tribes of Abyssinia,
Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, &c., including Syrians,
Assyrians, Babylonians, Phænicians, Hebrews, Arabs, Ethio-
pians, &c. .
The Syrian influence on civilization has been undervalued ;
through the Syrians, Armenia and Arabia received the knowledge of
Greece, and more important still has been the influence of the pro-
pagandism of the Nestorian Christians in Central and Eastern Asia.
The Babylonians were among the first, if not the first, builders of
cities and founders of empires; they also made the first application
of weights and measures. The achievement of alphabetic writing
INTRODUCTION.
47
is apparently the work of the Phænicians. The Arabs have ever
heen celebrated for their zeal in the diffusion of knowledge, though
the amount of originality among them is by no means ascertained.
He thinks all the alphabets that have ever been used are referable
to a single prototype, and that Semitic.
In order to account for the difference of tribes under the same lat-
itude, he lays stress upon the accumulation of climatologic influ-
ences, and the angle of migration; which he illustrates by supposed
migrations through a single zone, and through many rapidly passed
zones ; in the former case the climatologic influences would be
iccumulated much more than in the latter.
The Japetidæ he divides into -
A. -Occidental Japetidæ.
B. -- Indo-Germanic Japetidæ.
The first consists of the Celts and their branches. The second
falls into two classes, the European, and the Iranian Indo-Germans;
the former including the Gothic Sarmatian, and Mediterranean na-
tions ; the latter, the populations of Kurdistan, Persia, Beloochistan,
Affghanistan, and Kafferistan, — tribes descended from the speakers
of the Sanscrit languages (in the present state of our inquiry, dead
languages).
CUVIER divides man into three stocks, Caucasian, Mongole or
Altaic, and Negro; he refers the American to the Mongolian
stock.
FISCHER divides man into Homo Japeticus; H. Neptunianus ; H.
Scythicus (Mongols); H. Americanus (Patagonians) ; H. Columbi-
cus (Americans); H. Ethiopicus; and H. Polynesius.
LESSON divides man into the White Race; Dusky Race, including
Hindoos, Caffrarians, Papuans, and Australians; Orange-colored
Race, the Malay; Yellow Race, the Mongolian, Oceanic and South
American ; Red Race, the Caribs, and North Americans ; and the
Black Race.
DUMERIL proposes the divisions, Caucasian, Hyperborean, Mon-
gole, American, Malay, and Ethiopian.
VIREY divides man into two species : the first, with facial angle of
850 to 90°, including the white race, (Caucasian,) the yellow race,
(Mongolian,) and the copper-colored race (American); the second,
with facial angle 750 to 82º, including the dark brown race, (Malay)
the black race, and the lackish race (Hottentots and Papuas).
DESMOULINS' sections are Celto-Scyth-Arabs; Mongoles; Ethio-
48
INTRODUCTION.
pians ; Euro-Africans ; Austro-Africans ; Malays; Papuas ; Negro
Oceanians ; Australasians; Columnbians; and Americans.
BORY DE ST. VINCENT makes fifteen divisions -- races with straight
hair, of the Old World ; viz., Homo Japeticus; * H. Arabicus;
H. Indicus; H. Scythicus (Tartars) ; H: Sinicus (Chinese); H.
Hyperboreus ; H. Neptunianus; H. Australasicus ; - in the New
World, H. Columbicus (North Americans) ; H. Americanus (South
Americans); H. Patagonicus — negro races; H. Æthiopicus; H.
Caffer ; H. Melavinus (in Madagascar, Fiji Islands, Van Diemen's
Mr. Martin † gives a sketch of the principal divisions of mankind,
according to various naturalists, which is quite natural and interest-
ing..
Mr. Martin divides mankind into five stocks, as follows:
.1. JAPETIC STOCK ; including the European branch, or the Celtic,
Pelasgic, Teutonic and Sclavonic nations ; -- the Asiatic branch, or
or Hindoo nations; and the African branch, or the Mizraimic (ancient
Egyptians, Abyssinians, Berbers, and Guanches) nations.
2. NEPTUNIAN STOCK, including the Malays proper, and the Poly-
nesians ; (including, perhaps, among the last, the founders of the
Peruvian and Mexican Empires).
3. MONGOLE STOCK, including Mongoles and Hyperboreans.
4. PROGNATHOUS STOCK, including the Afro-Negro, Hottentot,
Papuan, and Alfourou branches.
5. OCCIDENTAL STOCK, including Columbians (North American
Indians), South Americans, and Patagonians.
Dr. PICKERING I observes, in his first chapter, that, in the United
States, three races of men are admitted to exist, and the same three
races have been considered, by eminent naturalists, (who, however,
have not travelled,) to comprise all the varieties of the human fam-
ily." He continues, “I have seen in all eleven races of men ; and
* Not in allusion to Japhet, the son of Noah, but to Japetus (audax
Japeti genus, Horace), whom the ancients regarded as the progenitor of
the race inhabiting the western regions of the world.
† Physical History of Man and Monkeys: by W.C. L. Martin, F. L. S.
London, 1841.
I The Races of Man, and their Geographical Distribution: by Charles
Pickering, M. D. Boston, 1848. [U. S. Exploring Expedition. ]
INTRODUCTION.
49
1
though I am hardly prepared to fix a positive limit to their number,
I confess, after having visited so many different parts of the globe,
that I am at a loss where to look for others." He enumerates
them in the order of their complexion, beginning with the lightest.
A. - WHITE. Including 1. Arabian ; with nose prominent, lips
thin, beard abundant, and hair straight and flowing. 2. Abyssinian;
with a complexion hardly becoming florid, nose prominent, and hair
crisped...
B.-- Brown. Including, 3. Mongolian ; beardless, with per-
fectly straight and very long hair. 4. Hottentot,. with Negro
features, and close woolly hair, and stature diminutive. 5. Malay ;
features not prominent in the profile ; complexion darker than in
preceding races, and hair straight and flowing.
C. - BLACKISH-Brown. Including, 6. Papuan; with features
not prominent in the profile, the beard abundant, skin harsh to the
touch, and the hair crisped or frizzled. 7. Negrillo ; apparently
beardless ; stature diminutive, features approaching those of the
Negro, and the hair woolly. 8. Indian or. Telingan; with feat-
ures approaching those of the Arabian, and the hair straight and
flowing. 9. Ethiopian; with complexion and features intermediate
between those of the Telingan and Negro, and the hair crisped.
D. - BLACK. -- Including, 10. Australian ; with Negro features,
but with straight or flowing hair. 11. Negro; with close woolly
hair, nose much flattened, and lips very thick.
Maritime habits would separate the Malay, Negrillo, and Papuan,
or the three island races, from the eight continental races. Six of
the races may be considered Asiatic, and four African ; while the
eleventh, or white race, is common to both hemispheres. All races
exist independent of climate. Three well marked divisions of the
soil correspond with desert, pastoral, and agricultural communities.
“It is a mistake to suppose, with many, that pastoral or nomadic life
is a stage in the progressive improvement of society; the condition
is inscribed on the face of nature.”
In the Mongolian race, he thinks, the occurrence of a feminine
aspect in both sexes, rendering it difficult to distinguish men from
women, is characteristic. He was not able to make much use of
the oblique eye as a distinctive character, nor the salleged absence
of a projecting inner angle to the lids.” According to him, the
Mongolian race inhabits" about one half of Asia, and, with a slight
exception, all aboriginal America, or more than two fifths of the
land-surface of the globe.” .
According to Mr. Coan, the stature of the southern Patagonians
s is nothing unusual, but it is exaggerated by their peculiar mode
INTRODUCTION.
of dress." The Fuegians, though living so near the Antarctic
Circle, are entirely destitute of clothing, showing the absence of the
severe winters of the north. “Indeed, we afterwards found that
in the southern hemisphere vegetation is nowhere checked by a
season of cold ; but that, in many respects, a tropical climate may
be said to extend to the Antarctic snows." The dog is found among
the natives of the extreme point of South America; slings are used
by the Fuegians, but not by the North American Indians.
Among the North-west watermen, the air of quietness was very
striking; they appeared on good terms with the birds and beasts,
and as if forming with them a part of the animal creation ; in
accordance with an idea entertained, " that the Mongolian has pecu-
liar qualifications for reclaiming or reducing animals to the domestic
state." The dog is used by them as a beast of burden. The
Chinooks are considerably superior to the hunting tribes of North
America in various arts and ingenious devices. The skulls of the
Chinooks are flattened in infancy ; but, as they grow up, the skull
resumes its natural shape to such an extent as to show very little
trace of the previous deformity, except an unusual breadth of
the face. Slavery exists among the Chinooks, and is probably
connected with the first peopling of the American continent. He
thinks the fate of the Chinooks may possibly be different from the
rest of the continental tribes, from “ the greater density of a spirited
population, and the scanty proportion of agricultural territory," and
that “they can only give place to a maritime people like them-
selves."
Speaking of a bas-relief from Palenque, he says, “It is eminently
characteristic of the Mongolian, and seems decisive as to the physical
race of the people who reared the remarkable ancient structures dis-
covered in that part of America."
The Aborigines of the United States seemed to him physically
identical with their brethren west of the Rocky Mountains; their
stature is higher, however, and not inferior to Europeans. He
thinks all belong to the Mongolian race. Of the Chinese, he says,
“I repeatedly selected individuals, who, if transported in a different
dress into the American forest, might, I thought, have deceived the
most experienced eye." At Singapore, the Feejean captive, Vein-
dovi, saw, for the first time, some Chinese, and "at once identified
them with his old acquaintances, the tribes of North-west America."
Of the Mongolian races, the Aboriginal American has superior
powers of endurance ; the Chinese excel in persevering industry
and frugality; these qualifications promise to have an important
bearing on the future destiny of the race.
D
INTRODUCTION.
The Malay race is the most widely scattered ; it exhibits greater
variety in its institutions and social condition than all other races
combined; and it is truly a maritime race. A marked peculiarity
is the elevated occiput, which gives to the face, seen in front, a
broader appearance than in Europeans ; there is a tendency also to
elongation of the upper maxilla. There is a great variety of
stature among them ; some of the Polynesians (as the Taheitians)
are the largest of mankind, while the East Indian tribes, are of
small stature, — this may depend on food, though in both it is prin-
cipally vegetable; the former (where grain is almost unknown) live
on farinaceous roots and fruits, the latter live almost entirely on rice.
Speaking of the beautiful submarine creation of the coral islands,
he says it was exclusively of animal life, even marine vegetables
being nearly wanting. The mineral kingdom was also absent; noth-
ing but immense masses of the debris of animals. Myriads of
sea-birds and the absence of cocoa-palms announced uninhabited
islands; so, on landing, did the absence of the house-fly, and of the
Morinda, though the soil is often covered with the Pandanus, which
spreads without human aid. The vegetable productions of these
islands are limited to about thirty species, of remarkable uniformity
over every geographical distance.
Among the Polynesian customs is the salute by rubbing noses
together. He calls the Californians, Mexicans and West Indians,
Malay Americans ; a single glance satisfied him of their Malay
affinity. At the Bay of San Francisco it was at first not easy to
distinguish native Polynesians from the half-civilized Californians.
The hair, however, is a test, that of the former being waved and
inclined to curl, while that of the latter is invariably straight. The
Californians have not the custom of scalping, nor do they use the
tomahawk. The presence of two aboriginal races in America
recalls certain historical coincidences. The Toltecs, the predeces-
sors of the Aztecs in Mexico, were acquainted with agriculture and
manufactures. Now, such cultivation could not have been derived
from the northern Mongolian population, who in their parent coun-
tries were by climate prevented from being agriculturists. If, then,
this art was introduced at all from abroad, it must have come by a
southern route, and, to all appearance, through the Malay race.
This is not incompatible with an ancient tradition, attributing
" the origin of their civilization to a man having a long beard ;" he
could not have been a Mongolian ; he might have been a Malay.
“ If, however, any actual remnant of the Malay race exists in the
eastern part of North America, it is probably to be looked for among
52
INTRODUCTION.
the Chippewas and the Cherokees." He gives many examples of
Malay analogies. He refers the Japanese to the Malay race.
The Australian has the complexion and features of the Negro,
but hair instead of wool; the forehead does not recede so much, and
often an unusually sunken eye gives it rather the appearance of pro-
jecting ; the eyes, though small, are uncommonly piercing. He saw
about thirty, some of whom were very ugly, and others decidedly
fine-looking. He did not notice the usually described slenderness of
limb; their forms were generally better than those of the Negroes.
He refers to an Australian as the finest model of human proportions
he had ever seen. The hair was usually undulating, and even curl-
ing in ringlets.
The Australians absolutely reject all the innovations of civiliza-
tion; they are strictly in the “hunter state ;? they appear as anoma-
lous as the inferior animals with which they are associated. If the
wild Australian dog be a peculiar species, as there is reason to
believe, and never the companion of man, these people are absolutely
without domestic animals; "a circumstance perhaps fairly unique."
The Papuan race are robust blacks, inhabiting, among others, the
Feejee Islands. They differ from the rest of mankind in the hardness
or harshness of the skin. The hair is in great quantity, naturally
frizzled and wiry; when dressed, its thickness will protect against
a heavy blow; it actually incommodes the wearer when lying down,
and renders necessary a wooden neck-pillow. The beard exceeds in
quantity that of all except the White races. The features resemble
the Negro, but the face is longer ; in stature they exceed the White
race. The favorite color among the Feejeans is vermilion-red ;
among the Malays it is yellow. The former have not the excessive
fondness for flowers manifested by the Polynesians; they rarely anoint
themselves with oil; they salute by touching noses instead of lips.
Among the Feejeans there exists a general system of parricide ; few
persons die a natural death ; when they have passed the prime of
life, and are unfit for the service of the state, the son makes use of
his privilege and takes the life of his parent. This strange custom,
apparently so inhuman, is a sacrifice in favor of the children, — a kind
of savage virtue in a land where the means of subsistence are limited.
Cannibalism is of daily occurrence, and is regarded in the light of a
refinement.
The Negrillo race occupies the New Hebrides, the interior of
New Guinea, Luzon, &c. It differs from the Papuan in its diminu-
tive staturi, general absence of beard, the inclined profile, and the
exaggerated Negro features; the hair is less knotty than that of the
Negro, and more woolly than that of the Papuan.
. INTRODUCTION.
53
The Telingán comprises the natives of Eastern and Western Hin-
dostan and Madagascar.
The Negro race is the darkest of all, and is rivalled only by the
Hottentot in the close woolly texture of the hair. The absence of
rigidity and of a divided apex of the cartilage of the nose is common
to this and the Malay, and probably other races. In Albinos, when
the skin resembles that of Europeans, the hair resembles "a white
fleece.” The excellence of the Negro ear for music is proverbial ;
much of our popular music, which has been supposed to be of Negro
origin, may probably be traced to a more distant and ancient source.
In Egypt, Negroes are principally confined to Cairo and Alex-
1
labors of agriculture, and they are not so represented on the ancient
monuments. Negroes are figured principally in connexion with the
military campaigns of the Eighteenth Dynasty. One of this dynasty
(Thouthmosis IV.) probably had a negress for his queen. He does
not remember seeing Negroes represented on the anterior monuments,
nor indeed on those of much later date. He says, “I am not aware
of any fact contravening the assumption that Negro slavery may have
been of modern origin; and the race even seems to have been very
little known to the ancient Greeks and Romans.” The Soahili are a
mixed, race of Negroes and Whites, living at Zanzibar and other
localities; in the same island is also a mixed race of Negroes and
Malays. Among the people of Eastern Africa he could not hear of
any pastoral Negroes, nor of Ethiopian cultivators. The Kaffers
« belong physically to the Negro race."
The Ethiopian race is intermediate between the Telingan and
Negro in personal appearance, and in complexion. The hair is
crisped, but fine, never wiry; the skin is soft, and the features
European-like. It occupies the hottest countries of Africa ; most of
the tribes are pastoral, wandering, some of them in the recesses of
the Great Desert. The Nubians of the Nile, and some tribes bor-
dering on Abyssinia, lead an agricultural life.
The Ethiopian race seems to have furnished the originals for the
ancient-monuments of Egypt, as late as the end of the Eighteenth
dynasty; their manner of braiding and plaiting the hair is that
which prevails in the mummies. Most of the monarchs of this
dynasty were certainly of the White race, and subsequent to, if not
before this period, the Egyptians were regarded as a nation of the
White race; at the same time, there is abundant evidence that some
of the Egyptian Pharaohs were physically Ethiopians. The Somali,
Denkali, Galla, and M'Kuafi belong to the Ethiopian race.
The Hottentot differs in physical race from the Negro, being of
5:*
54
INTRODUCTION.
light complexion and diminutive stature. The area of the Hottentot
race has been generally limited to a small locality at the south ; it is
probable that it extends a considerable distance towards the interior
of the continent. Unlike the Kaffers, the Hottentots readily adopt
the habits of civilization, and are useful assistants to the colonists.
Of the Bosjesmans of the frontier, it is quoted, “ They live among
rocks and woods; have a keen, vivid eye, always on the alert; will
spring from rock to rock, like the antelope ; sleep in nests which
they forın in the bushes, and seldom pass two nights in the same
place; supporting themselves by robbery, or by catching wild ani-
mals, as reptiles and insects.”
The Abyssinian race may be said to have European features, with
crisped hair and light complexion. Mr. Rochon speaks of them as
56 a fine set of people, men absolutely such as ourselves, and capable
of doing anything that we can do." Mr. Isenberg says, “ Under the
same advantages, Abyssinia might rise to an equality with a Euro-
pean nation." This is the third race," which will enter into the
question of the primitive Egyptians;" the profile corresponds well
with that of the monumental Egyptian; though Mr. Gliddon has
pointed out the true Abyssinian separately and distinctly figured on
the monuments.
He divides the White race into two branches, differing as well
geographically as in institutions and habits; viz., the European
and the Oriental; the former rules the sea by its ships, as the latter
rules the land by its caravans. He was surprised at hearing from
the lips of Orientals words of ancient and modern European lan-
guages, " until at last the whole class of these languages seemed as
if merely recomposed from fragments of Arabic and Sanscrit; and if
any European words can be traced to a different source, they at least
remain to be pointed out."
Assuming the population of the globe to be 900,000,000, the
races include the following numbers :
The White, .. 350,000,000 | The Abyssinian, .
The Mongolian, . 300,000,000 | The Papuan, . .
The Malayan, . . 120,000,000
120,000,000
The Negrillo, . .
The Telingan,. . 60,000,000 The Australian, i
The Negro, . . 55,000,000 The Hottentot,..
The Ethiopian, . 5,000,000
3,000,000
3,000,000
3,000,000
500,000
500,000
Thougli languages indicate national affiliation, their actual dis-
tribution is independent in a great degree of physical race; and much
confusion has arisen among writers from neglecting the means of
INTRODUCTION.
55
extension or imparting of languages. The adoption of a language
is - very much a matter of convenience, depending often on the
numerical majority.” On the supposition, for instance, that Poly-
nesians had reached the American shores, it does not follow that we
ought to find traces of their language. On the contrary, it does not
follow that races.. speaking the same language are in any way con-
nected in their origin, as the Whites and Blacks of the United States.
He concludes this chapter thus: "In the organic world, each new
field requires a new creation ; each change in circumstances, going
beyond the constitution of a plant or animal, is met by a new adapta-
tion, until the universe is full ; while, among the immense variety of
created beings, two kinds are hardly found fulfilling the same pre-
cise purpose. Some analogy may possibly exist in the human fain-
ily; and it may even be questioned whether any one of the races,
existing singly, would, up to the present day, have extended itself
over the whole surface of the globe.”
It is evident that the manners, arts, and attainments of the Poly-
nesians are not of independent growth, nor are they the remnants of
a decayed higher civilization. If we look to the East Indies, their
supposed origin, we find no resemblance. If man has had a central
origin, and has gradually spread with his inventions and knowledge,
we ought to find his history inscribed on the globe itself; "each new
revolution obliterating more or less of the preceding, his primitive
condition should be found at the furthest remove from the geo-
graphic centre.” If we w could go back into the early history of the
East Indies, we might find there a condition of society approximating
to that of the Polynesian Islanders.” Customs, long obsolete in the
place of their origin, may continue a long time in remote situations.
Between the east coast of Africa and the coast of America, there
are five distinct centres of maritime intercourse, which bring into
connexion this immense tract of ocean. From Arabia to Hindostan the
navigation is performed by Arab “dows"; from Hindostan to the
East Indies, the Bay of Bengal is navigated by the Telingans and
Maldive Islanders ; the East Indians extend their commercial enter-
prises from Asia to the northern part of Australia ; the main Pacific
has two centres of communication with the East Indies, through tne
Micronesian groups, and the Papuan archipelago, though the former
is the main one; this navigation is carried on by Japanese vessels
and by the large double canoes of the Society and Tonga Islands; the
northern Pacific to America has been passed by these same Japanese
vessels and Polynesian canoes ; both would naturally and almost
necessarily reach the northern extreme of California, precisely the
place where we find a second physical race; this course would be
56
INTRODUCTION.
brought about by the ocean currents and the prevailing winds.
Within a few years a Japanese vessel was fallen in with by a whaler
in the North Pacific; another has been wrecked on the Sandwich
Islands; and, still more in point, a third has actually drifted to the
American coast near the mouth of the Columbia river. Finally,
between Asia and North-west America, there is almost a continuous
chain of islands, inhabited by the same population, so that it is
impossible to say where America begins, or where Asia ends.
He considers table-lands as the natural birth-places of civilization.
He compares, with this view, the table-lands of Mexico and Peru
with the American forests, and their corresponding civilization.
America contains two of these natural centres; the table-land of
Thibet is a third; all in possession of the Mongolian race. If we
look for a fourth, we shall find it only in Abyssinia.
Assuming that man has been placed on the earth subject to the
same laws as the rest of creation, and, finding that the species of
animals have in no case been modified by climate, or external cir-
cumstances in the various regions allotted to each, but have been
originally fitted for their natural localities, -- he argues that man, born
without natural clothing, does not belong to the cold or variable
climates; he must have originated “in a region of perpetual sum-
mer, where the unprotected skin bears without suffering the slight
fluctuations of temperature ;' in other words, he is “ essentially a
production of the Tropics.” He thinks there is no middle ground,
between the admission of eleven distinct species in the human family,
and the reduction to one." If the latter opinion be adopted, it implies
Speaking of the introduction of plants into America, he thinks
that its agriculture may not be of spontaneous growth; and many of
the objects of cultivation have been introduced especially from Japan
and the Polynesian islands; many of the American species have not
been met with elsewhere, and are doubtless indigenous.
The foreign animals and plants of the Pacific Islands were invari-
ably derived from the West. Three of our domestic animals, the
pig, the dog, and the domestic fowl, were known throughout tropical
Polynesia before the visits of Europeans. They have also their
indigenous animals and plants. He believes that the Indian caves
of Budha were constructed by the White race.
CD
THERE has been a singular diversity of opinion in regard to the
physical characteristics of the ancient Egyptians; the point of prin-
cipal interest is whether they were Caucasians or Negroes.
INTRODUCTION.
57
ILL
We may here give an abstract of Dr. Morton's* interesting obser-
vations.
Dr. Morton refers the skulls of Egyptian mummies to two great
races, the Caucasian and the Negro, the number of the former being
vastly the greatest. The Caucasian heads he refers to three types,
the Pelasgic, the finest conformation; the Sernitic, as seen in the
Hebrews, with cornparatively receding forehead, long, arched, and
very prominent nose, marked distance between the eyes, and strong
development of the whole facial structure; and the Egyptian, having
à narrower and more receding forehead than the Pelasgic; with a
more prominent face; the nose straight or aquiline, the face angular,
the features often sharp, and the hair uniformly long, soft, and curl-
ing; among these, he includes skulls which blend the Egyptian and
the Pelasgic types. Besides the true Negro type, there are also
heads of mixed characters, in which the Negro predominates; he
calls the latter Negroid.
Of ninety-eight Egyptian (ancient) crania, forty-nine were Egyp-
tian, twenty-nine Pelasgic, six Semitic, five mixed, eight Negroid,
and one Negro; more than eight tenths belong to the unmixed Cau-
casian race. The Caucasian heads have a larger internal capacity
and a greater facial angle than the Negro; and in the order which
he at first enumerated the types.
Allowing for the acquired density from infiltration of bitumen,
the cranial bones are as thin and light as in Europeans. The hair
is as fine and curling as in Europeans, “ perfectly distinct from the
woolly texture of the Negro, the frizzled curls of the Mulatto, or the
lank, straight locks of the Mongolian.” Denon pointed out in the
Egyptian profile the great distance between the nostrils and the teeth;
a small and receding chin is also of frequent occurrence. There is
abundant evidence that the complexion of the Egyptians did not differ
from that of other Caucasian nations in warm latitudes. While the
higher classes, protected from the sun, were comparatively fair, the
lower classes were comparatively dark, and might even be called
black by the Greeks, in comparison with their own. We find a sim-
ilar variation among the modern Hindoos.
The same national physiognomy displayed by the mummies is also
represented on the monuments, as any one will easily find by turning
over the pages of Champollion and Rosellini; viz., an upwardly
elongated head, with receding forehead, delicate features, prominent
face, in which a long, straight, or slightly aquiline nose forms a prin-
cipal feature, the chin short and retracted, the lips rather turned, and
*CRANIA ÆGYPTIACA ; by Samuel George Morton, M. D. Philadel.
phia, 1844.
58
INTRODUCTION.
the hair long and flowing. Adopting the Biblical term, he thinks
the children of Ham, or Mizraimites, (he does not believe that Ham
was the progenitor of the Negro race,) entered Africa by the isthmus
of Suez, and were the aboriginal inhabitants of the valley of the
Nile ; "and that their institutions, however modified by intrusive
nations in after times, were the offspring of their own minds;" he
believes a portion spread themselves over the north of Africa, and
became the nomadic tribes of Libyans. Dr. Beke reverses the route,
and thinks the “ Cushite descendants of Ham first settled on the
western side of the Arabian peninsula, crossed thence into Ethiopia,
and, descending the Nile, became the Egyptians of after times."
The term Ethiopian has been used very vaguely, to embrace
Arabs, Hindoos, Austral-Egyptians, and Negroes; it is properly
applied to the people who occupied the valley of the Nile from
Philæ to Meroë, including the present nations of Nubians and
Abyssinians, and the great variety of mixed races resulting from
Negro proximity. Monumental evidence abundantly shows that the
Meroites and Ethiopians had no affinity to the Negro race; the former
are always represented red like the Egyptians, while the latter has
also the characteristics of his race. He believes “ that the Egyptians
and monumental Ethiopians were of the same lineage, and probably
descended from a Libyan tribe.”
The Fellahs are a mixture of the Arab with the old Egyptian
stock, and are the lineal descendants of, and least removed from, the
monumental race of any now occupying the valley of the Nile.
The monuments also prove that the Egyptian race must have been
modified by Pelasgic, Semitic, Arab, and Hindoo tribes, of the Cau-
casian family. · He regards the Copts as a mixed community derived
from the Caucasian and Negro. The modern Nubians, he thinks,
are " descended, not from the possessors of Ethiopia in its flourish-
ing period, but from the prædial and slave population of the country,
increased by colonists, and raised into a nation by peculiar circum-
stances between the third and sixth centuries of the Christian era."
The monuments give ample evidence of the existence of Negro
slavery among the Egyptians; and the vast influx of Negroes must
have left an impression on their masters, as we see in the ancient
Negroid heads and the modern Copts, thus also explaining the inci-
dental elevation of the Negro caste. Comparing the ancient Egyp-
tian and Negro with their modern representatives, it may be said
" that the physical or organic characters which distinguish the sev-
eral races of men are as old as the oldest records of our species."
INTRODUCTION.
59
* MR. VAN AMRINGE, * while he admits that all the human family
sprang from Adam ; that the whole race, except Noah and his
family, was destroyed by the deluge; and that since then the whole
human family have sprung from three men, — believes, and forcibly
argues, that there are no less than four different species of mankind.
These arguments will be introduced when treating of the diversity
of the races.
His species are, 1. The Shemitic species, including the Caucasian
nations generally; of strenuous temperament. 2. The Japhetic
species, including the Mongolian races, Esquimaux, Aztecs and Pe-
ruvians; of passive temperament. 3. The Ishmaelitic species, includ-
ing most of the Tartar and Arabian tribes, and the American nations ;
of callous temperament. 4. The Canaanitic species, including Ne-
groes and Australians; of sluggish temperament. 5. The Esauitic
species (?), including Malays and Negroes with long hair.
Dr. Smytut divides the subject into the question of origin, and
the question of specific unity of man ; the former he determines
chiefly by the evidence of Scripture; the latter, only, he makes a
question for scientific observation. He has given a great number of
texts to show that the Divine Writings unequivocally teach the ori-
gin of the human race from a single pair, Adam and Eve ; and he
goes so far as to say, "that the gospel must stand or fall with the
doctrine of the unity of the human races.”
He then undertakes to prove that black races of men have ex-
isted in ancient times in a high state of civilization ; and, assuming
that a black race is a Negro race, he contends, contrary to the opin-
ion of the most learned ethnologists, that the Egyptians and Mero-
ites were nearly akin to, if not absolute Negroes.
Remarking that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," and
admitting with Leibnitz that “the utmost that can be fairly asked in
reference to any affirmed truths of Scripture is, to prove that they
do not involve any necessary contradiction," he thinks that the fact
of great existing varieties offers no objection to the revelation of
Scripture, that all the present races are the descendants of a single
pair. He, therefore, adopts the usual theory that the existing vari-
* Outline of a new Natural History of Man, founded upon Human Anal-
ogies: by W. F. Van Amringe. New York, 1848.
† The Unity of the Human Races: by Thomas Smyth, D. D. New
60
INTRODUCTION.
eties of man are analogous to the varieties of animals, and to be
accounted for by the operation of natural causes, and external agen-
cies, “ or by these causes preternaturally excited.”
Speaking of specific differences, he calls color a separable acci-
dent," and not a specific distinction in man, because it is not univer-
sal in all human creatures. His remarks on hybridity will be better
considered when speaking of Dr. Bachman's work, from which they
are mostly quoted. The next two chapters are devoted to the con-
sideration of the unity or common origin of languages as an argu-
ment for the original unity of mankind. The observations on the
testimony of history, experience, the religious character of the race,
and the insensible gradation of the varieties, have been alluded to in
previous authors, or will be summed up hereafter from the original
sources.
The most characteristic part of the work is that in which he main-
tains that the theory of a plurality of races of men is uncharitable,
inexpedient, and unchristian; he collates texts to prove that the
Negro is “God's image carved in ebony,!! maintaining that he has
“the same primeval origin, the same essential attributes, the same
moral and religious character, and the same immortal destiny" (p.
332); and yet, talking about the “first law of slavery,” the right
of property in a human being enforced by divine commandment, the
right of the master to the labor of the slave for life, of anti-slavery
movements as blind philanthropy, &c., he says, (pp. 334-5,)
" The relation now providentially held by the white population of
the South to the colored race, is an ordinance of God, a form and
condition of government permitted by Him, in view of ultimate
beneficial results. God's authority, God's word, and God's will,
and not the applause or the condemnation of men, must be her rule
of action." This, and still stronger, language shows rather the
polemic theologian, and the advocate of Southern institutions, than
the scientific naturalist, and ethnologist; and, however appropriate in
other places, is quite irrelevant on the subject of the origin of
mankind.
In contrast with the last author, Dr. Bachman,* in a philosophic
manner, pursues his investigations “irrespective of any supposed
decisions which may have been pronounced by the Scriptures."
* The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race examined on the Prin-
ciples of Science. By John Bachman, D. D. Charleston, S. C., 1850.
INTRODUCTION.
61
Animals and plants, in a state of domestication, or of cultivation,
are subject to remarkable changes when removed from their native
soils; and these yarieties become permanent, not reverting to the
original wild stock even when returned to their original localities ;
this he considers a well established fact. He collected together a
great number of hybrids of animals and plants, and found them
sterile in every instance but one ; he was satisfied that a union
of two species could not produce a new race, and that species were
the creation of God." With Prichard he considers domestication
of animals analogous to domestication in man, and that the varieties
of the animal kingdom within the range of species explain the per-
manent varieties of man; or, rather, that they have been produced
by similar causes. :
He reviews at length the alleged instances of fertile hybrids in
the article of Dr. S. G. Morton, and finds no reason to change his
opinion as above expressed. He objects that the instances are taken
often from remote distances where it is impossible to verify them;
that the authorities quoted are either contradictory, obscure, or of
little scientific merit; and the innumerable instances to the contrary
seem to him entirely decisive, that hybrids between different species
are sterile. No instance, not open to doubt, can be shown of hybrids
fertile for several generations, without a crossing with one of the
original stocks; many of the so-called different species, breeding
together, are generally believed to be mere varieties of a single
species, e. g., of the horse, the hog, the sheep, the dog.
As hybrids are sterile, hybridity is a test of specific character ;
and, as all the races of men produce with each other a fertile prog-
eny, they may fairly be said to be of the same species.
The striking and permanent varieties of animals are acknowledged
to be the results of an organization by which the species are enabled
to produce varieties. Taking it for granted that we must be governed
by the same laws for determining species in man and animals, he
asks, Why do our opponents persist in calling human varieties dis-
tinct species ? Instancing the well-known varieties of the wolf,
Why do naturalists admit these as mere varieties, and insist that the
human races are as many species? The same question is asked con-
cerning the horse, the cow, the sheep, the hog, the dog, domestic
fowls, and pigeons, in which there is the same disposition to branch
out into varieties from a common stock, as great as between the
races of men. Great variations have occurred in many Caucasian
nations; while wild animals, with few exceptions, have undergone
no change ; showing the influence of domestication. According to
62
INTRODUCTION.
him, man ought to be compared as a domestic species, and not as a
wild one.
He believes that man originated in a tropical climate ; that the
original type no longer exists ; that the European is as much an
improved race in form and color, as the Negro is a degenerated
one. We have no evidence that a white race, like the Europeans,
existed at the primitive dispersion of man. Central Asia, usually
regarded as the birth-place of man, is also the native country of his
domesticated animals and poultry, and of the grains and vegetable
productions carried with him in his migrations. In what manner:
climate tends to produce human varieties, he does not pretend to say;
the fact is evident, the manner unknown. He thinks "there is in
the structure of man a constitutional predisposition to produce varie-
ties in certain regions of country." To show the tendency in ani-
mal and human constitutions to transmit peculiarities to offspring,
he gives examples showing that excrescences and malformations,
and even arrests of development, may be thus transmitted ; he
shows, also, how suddenly Nature goes from one extreme to
another in the production of Albinos. He supposes that the
constitutions of men in early ages, before the races had become per-
manent, may have been more susceptible of producing varieties than
at a later period; he believes that when new varieties are formed,
they multiply very rapidly, while previously existing varieties dimin-
ish. The difficulties in explaining the varieties of animals are just
as inexplicable as those concerning the races of man ; there is, in
the organization of animals and man, a power to produce varieties
suited to every clirnate. Though he considers the African an infe-
rior variety of the race, he shows that it is capable of considerable
improvement; and that even in the shape of the skull there is, in
American-born specimens, a striking departure from the original
type.
From Tiedemann, he gives the conclusions : that the brain of a
Negro is as large and as heavy as that of other human races; the
nerves of the Negro, the form and proportions of the various parts
of the spinal cord, and the inward structure of the nervous system,
show no important difference from those of the European; the
Negro brain does not resemble the brain of the orang-outang, any
more than does that of the European. These results are confirmed
by the measurement of Dr. S. G. Morton. In answer to the ques-
tion, why a negro does not change into a white man in the native
country of the latter, and vice versa, he says the races are already
established, and varieties once formed do not revert to their original
stocks; the Shetland pony cannot be converted again into the wild
INTRODUCTION.
63
Tartar horse, any more than a negro can be reconverted into his
lighter original stock.
He thinks the theory of the creation of the same species of ani-
mals and man in different localities open to the following objections :
it supposes a multiplication of miracles, to produce an effect which
might have been produced by second causes, viz., an organization
capable of producing varieties suited to every climate, and ample
means of migration. It confounds all the rules by which naturalists
are governed in the determination of species. The creation of a
species in one locality, and the creation of the same species as a
very distinct variety in another locality, is very nearly equivalent to
the creation of these as different species. The same species of
animal, as far as he knows, is not created in separate localities, as
regards mammals and birds. Apparent exceptions in the lower
animals and plants may be satisfactorily accounted for in another
manner.' The animals of the Eastern Continent are all of different
species from those of America, with the exception of the Arctic
animals, which can easily migrate to the temperate latitudes of either
continent. The eggs of fishes, crabs, and other lower animals, very
tenacious of life, are the food of many birds of powerful flight, and
may be voided from their bodies at considerable distances while they
yet contain the principle of life. Seeds are also conveyed to im-
mense distances by various animals, pass through their bodies, and
spring up. This may account for the apparent existence of the
same species, in the few cases where it has been observed, in local-
ities remote from each other. Geological changes of the earth's
surface should also be considered in this connection. Currents of
water and winds also scatter seeds to great distances from their orig-
inal source. A last objection is the nature of man's organization,
endowed with a constitutional power to become naturalized in every
climate. .
He coincides with Dr. Pickering in referring the American In-
dians to the Mongolian race, and the inhabitants of California, &c.,
to the Malay, though he arrived at this conclusion before he knew
Dr. Pickering's views.
Dr. Morton* divides the American race into two families, one of
which, the Toltecan, bears evidence of centuries of civilization,
* Crania Americana, by Samuel George Morton, M. D. Philadel-
phia, 1839.
64
INTRODUCTION.
while the other, the American, embraces all the barbarous tribes of
the New World except the Polar nations.
Between the Appalachian, the Brazilian, Patagonian and Fuegian
branches of the American family, there are some slight differences,
which may be attributed to the effects of climate and locality and
the consequent habits of life; though all have the low, broad fore-
head, high cheek-bones, aquiline nose, large mouth, and wide skull,
prominent at vertex, with flattened occiput, peculiar to the American
race. The orbits have their superior margin slightly curved, and
the inferior margin like an inverted arch, contrasting strongly with
the oblong orbit and parallel margins of the Malay. The Toltecan
family includes the semi-civilized nations of Mexico, Peru, Bogota,
Guatlmala, Yucatan, Nicaragua. This differs from the American
family in intellectual faculties principally. Their architectural
remains show their great attainments in the practical arts of life.
This family is the Neptunian species of Bory de St. Vincent, who
refers them to the Malay race, in which Dr. Morton does not agree
with him, for reasons to be given hereafter. From the examination
of nearly one hundred Peruvian crania, he at first came to the con-
clusion that the heads of the ancient Peruvians were naturally very
much elongated, differing in this respect from the Inca Peruvians,
who appeared later. That opinion he has since* given up, and
believes the elongated shape to be the result of compression. He
now believes that the descendants of the ancient Peruvians yet dwell
in the land of their ancestors, under the name of Aymaras, their
probable primitive name; that the Aymaras resemble the surround-
ing Quichua nations in almost every respect, having ceased to mould
the head artificially; that, according to M. D’Orbigny, the flattened
skulls were always those of men, while the heads of women retained
the natural American shape ; that this deformity was a mark of dis-
tinction ; that these people were the architects of their own tombs
and teinples; that the capacity of the cranium is the same in the
ancient and modern Peruvians, about seventy-six cubic inches, -a
smallness of size without parallel, except among the Hindoos.
D'Orbigny also believes that the ancient Peruvians were the lineal
progenitors of the Inca family, - a question not yet decided. The
ancient Peruvian head is remarkable for its long, narrow form,
inclined forehead, and length of the occiput behind the ear; the face
is proportionally narrow.
The Inca Peruvians date their possession of Peru from the 11th
century,--a period corresponding with the migration of the To)
* Journal of Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Vol. 8, 1842.
INTRODUCTION.
65
tecas from Mexico; hence it has been supposed these were of com-
mon origin. At any rate, the Incas are supposed to have been an
intruding nation. The Inca skull is remarkable for its small size,
its quadrangular and unsymmetrical form, its prominent vertex, its
compressed and often vertical occiput projecting to one side or the
other, and its consequent great parietal diameter. He thinks this
flatness of the occiput, common to the whole American race, may
be increased by the manner of treating their children in the cradle.
The heads of the ancient Mexicans resemble, both in size and
form, the unaltered heads of the ancient Peruvians, with considera-
ble lateral swell, and shortened longitudinal diameter. While the
Mexicans were superior to other American nations in intellectual
character, their moral perceptions were as much inferior. All their
institutions, civil and religious, were calculated to debase the best
feelings of human nature ; among these was the custom of sacrificing
human victims. The difference between the ancient Mexicans and
their modern descendants, where the race is unmixed, is no greater
than that between the ancient Egyptians and the present Copt.
The traditions of the Natchez Indians state that they migrated
from Mexico. The analogies between them and the Toltecas are,
the worship of the sun, human sacrifices, hereditary distinctions,
and fixed institutions, in which they also differed from all the other
Florida nations. They had also the singular custom of compressing
their heads from before backwards, giving to them a great height
and width.
He is satisfied that the American Indians, the Toltecan family,
and the builders of the mounds, belong to one and the same great
race, indigenous to America ; and that they are not Mongols, Hin-
doos, or Jews. He thinks the Toltecan family were the only build-
ers of mounds.
In a subsequent paper* Dr. Morton gives his reasons for consid-
ering all the American nations, except the Esquimaux, as of one
race, peculiar and distinct from all others. The Indian physiog-
nomy he considers " as undeviatingly characteristic as that of the
Negro; for, whether we see him in the athletic Charib or the
stunted Chayma, in the dark Californian or the fair Borroa, he is an
Indian still, and cannot be mistaken for a being of any other race.”
From the comparison of 400 crania, from tribes inhabiting every
region of both Americas, he finds the same osteological structure in
all, viz., squared head, flattened occiput, high cheek-bònes, heavy
maxillæ, large quadrangular orbits, and low, receding forehead.
*Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. 4, p. 190, et seq.
6*
66
INTRODUCTION.
This applies equally to the oldest crania from Peruvian and Mexi-
can cemeteries, and the mounds of the Mississippi valley, and the
existing Indian tribes.
The moral traits are equally strongly marked. Among them are
a sleepless caution, which influences ever.y thought and action, and
causes their proverbial taciturnity and invincible firinness ; a love of
war and destruction ; habitual indolence and improvidence; indiffer-
ence to private property; and the vague simplicity of their religious
observances. These are the same from the humanized Peruvian to
the rudest Brazilian savage.
They are averse to the restraints of civilization, and seem incapa-
ble of reasoning on abstract subjects; they improve not in mechan-
ical pursuits, in making their huts or their boats; their imitative
faculty is very small. The long annals of missionary labor give no
authentic exception to this state of things. Contrasted with these
barbarous tribes are the Mexicans and Peruvians, whose civilization
has been before sufficiently alluded to. If it be asked how nations,
derived from the same stock, should differ so widely, it may be
replied that the contrast is the same between the Saracens, who
established their kingdom in Spain, and the Bedouins of the Desert,
between the Greeks of the present day and the Greeks of the age
of Pericles; and yet these last are known to belong to the same
stock. What accounts for the one may explain the other.
In maritime enterprise the American Indian is very much behind
other races, even in situations where the ocean invites him to use it
as a means of subsistence or communication. In this respect he dif-
fers greatly from the Malay, (or Homo Neptunianus, as he might be
called,) to whom some consider the American related in Califor-
nia, &c.
Their manner of interment is so different from that of other races,
and so prevalent among themselves, that it constitutes another means
of identifying them as a single and peculiar race. This consists in
burying the dead in the sitting posture, the legs being flexed against
the abdomen, the arms being bent, and the chin supported on the palms
of the hands. This prevails, with but few exceptions, from north
to south.
The Esquimaux differ so widely from the Americans, in physi-
cal and moral traits, and their aquatic habits, that their ethno-
graphic dissimilarity seems evident to him. He thinks there is no
more resemblance between the Indian and Mongolian, in physical
characters, in arts, architecture, mental and social features, (es-
pecially nautical skill,) than between any other two distinct races.
The Mongolian theory is objectionable on account of its vastness
INTRODUCTION.
67
requiring a long succession of colonies for a distance of 8000 miles,
which must have left traces of their series of human waves in the
north, where the pressure must have been greatest and the coloniza-
tion longest in duration ; but none such are found.
It remains to present the arguments in favor of an original differ-
ence of the human races, and their creation in several different cen-
tres; in doing which we shall be obliged to draw on short treatises,
most of them recently published, as well as on a dissertation pub-
licly pronounced by the writer.
With those who, like Prichard, believe that the Mosaic account
of creation is a full and complete record, to be literally and strictly
interpreted, all argument is of course useless, notwithstanding the
numerous discrepancies and deficiencies which may be pointed out in
that record. Lord Bacon uttered a great truth, when he said, “The
union of religious and philosophical investigation is often detrimental
to the cause of truth.” It is not Christian philosophy that would
have men shrink from the investigation of Nature, from fear of find-
ing a contradiction between the works and the word of God. When
rightly understood, they must harmonize. Nor can we assume that
human knowledge has as yet arrived at its maximum in the com-
prehension of the word any more than it has of the works of God.
Professor Agassiz * remarks that though the question is not at all
connected with religion, and belongs entirely to natural history, still
the theory of the diversity of origin of the human races does not
contradict the Mosaic record, which is best explained by referring it
to the historical races. There is in it no account of the origin of
nations unknown to the ancients, as the Arctic nations, Japanese,
Chinese, Australians, Americans. We have a right to consider all
possible meanings of the text, and no one can object except those
“whose religion consists in a blind adoration of their own construc-
tion of the Bible.” There is not a line in it which hints that the
differences in nations were introduced by the agency of time. All
its statements refer either to the general moral and spiritual unity
of man, (which no one denies,) or to the genealogy of a particu-
lar race. There is no evidence that the sacred writers considered
the colored races as descended from the same stock as themselves.
This is a modern and human invention for political or other purposes.
By taking into view these non-historic races, with no records, and
consequently unmentioned in the Bible, we greatly “lessen the per-
plexity of those who cannot conceive that the Bible is not a text-
book of natural history, and who would like to find there informa-
* Christian Examiner, Boston, March and July, 1850.
68
INTRODUCTION.
tion upon all those subjects which have been left for man to investi-
gate.” If, then, the origin of the human race, from a single pair,
can be proved at all, it must be proved independently of the Jewish
Scriptures; it must be treated as a pure scientific question.
Many of the varieties of domestic animals are ascribed to climate.
If this be the true cause, asks Agassiz, " why do we find different
varieties in the same climate? Why does the Durham breed of
cattle continue in the United States with all its peculiarities?"
The care of man, greater than the influence of climate, can keep
up varieties in spite of it. Superficial observers -- 6those who
have only known the differences called climatic differences, existing
between some mammalia and birds, which occur simultaneously in
different latitudes — may well have assumed that such differences
have been produced by change introduced in the course of time;'
but when we consider the great mass of facts in natural history,
known only to those who have made it a special study, these inade-
quate and accidental causes cannot explain such general phenomena.
In considering this subject we are not to confound the Unity of
Mankind with the Diversity of Origin of the Human Races— ques-
tions which are quite distinct, and have almost no connection with
each other.
The geographical distribution of animals furnishes to the natural-
ist very strong evidence in favor of the original diversity of the
human races. There are certain recognized zoological and botan-
ical provinces, with well-defined and constant limits. The Fauna
and Flora of each hemisphere, and of each zone, have their peculiar
characters; more resembling each other as we go towards the
north, and more widely different as we approach the equator. Even
marine animals, in an element undergoing very little change and
especially suited for rapid and distant migrations, are restricted to a
certain extent of surface, or are confined strictly to certain depths.
We have no right to say that the law, “ Thus far shalt thou go, and
no farther," was impressed on animal and vegetable life as a subse-
quent addition to the creative act.
We know, too, that there have been successive creations of ani-
mals and plants at different geological periods; and that they were
distributed in localities best suited for their life and growth for a
certain time. In many instances, as in the Edentata of Brazil and
the Marsupiata of New Holland, these fossil types were the same
as the actually existing types of these localities, though of different
genera and species ; this coincidence of distinct creations, separated
by immense intervals of time, but occupying precisely the same
limits, is certainly difficult to explain by the theory of the origin of
INTRODUCTION.
69
all animals from the high lands of Asia, or any other single centre.
It is not probable that the same animals would have twice wandered
across land and sea to the same localities. Of this local creation of
animals, the island of New Holland furnishes a striking example ;
nearly as large as all Europe, it contains animals and plants pecu-
liar to itself. With the exception of our opossum, the marsupial
animals are peculiar to this region, and no higher animals are abun-
dant. Most of the genera and all the species of plants were new to
botanists. Most of the fishes belong to the cartilaginous type. To
Asia belong the orang-outang, the tiger, the dziggetai, &c.; to
Africa, the chimpanzée, the zebra, the hippopotamus, the lion, the
gnu, the giraffe, &c.; to America, the ant-eater, the buffalo, the
llama, the grizzly bear, the moose, the beautiful humming birds, and
the mocking bird.
Tliere seems no avoiding the conclusion that there have been
many local centres of animal and vegetable creation. Is it most
consistent with the wisdom of God to place originally every species
in the climate and soil most congenial to it? or to create all species
in one spot, whether suited to them or not, and leave them to find
out their present localities, at the risk, perhaps, of life? To adopt
the latter view seems to be placing the Deity below a.mere human
contriver.* Wherever we examine nature, we find a perfect adap-
tation of animals to the circumstances under which they live ; when
these are changed, the animals cease to exist. The domestic animals
and man are able to resist external changes for a longer period, but
even these finally değenerate and die. “That which," says Agassiz,
Ciamong organized beings is essential to their temporal existence must
be at least one of the conditions under which they were created."
The American tribes are uniform from Canada to Cape Horn,
whatever the variety of climate ; yet they differ from Africans,
Asiatics, or Australians; while the inhabitants of the southern
extremities of America, Africa, and New Holland, regions having
almost the same physical conformation, are extremely unlike each
other. We must conclude that "these races cannot have assumed
their peculiar features after they had migrated into these countries
from a supposed common centre; that they must have originated,
with the animals and plants living there, in the saine numerical pro-
portions and over the same area in which they now occur.” These
conditions are necessary to their maintenance.
**Distribution," says Van Amringe, " can only relate to the subjects
11: he distributed; but the Old World never had the fauna of New Hol-
land and America ; and therefore could not distribute them. Froja
whence did they come ?» (p. 144.)
70
INTRODUCTION.
.
We find the races of man occupying circumscribed localities in inti-
mate connection with the recognized zoological and botanic provinces.
Arctic man, like Arctic animals, is the same in America, Europe and
Asia. The races become more distinct as we approach the equator.
In temperate Europe we have the great Caucasian family, whose
three great branches may be said to be three varieties of the same
species, as the varieties of the lion in northern and southern Afri-
ca (though having their peculiar marks) constitute one species,
In temperate Asia we have the Mongolian race; in temperate
America we have the Indian. In the tropics we have the African
nations, the Malay race, and the people of Central America and the
West Indies (by some considered congenital with the Malays). In
New Holland we have the Australian ; in the Pacific islands we
have the Polynesian, and several local varieties. In southern
Africa we have the Bushman, the Hottentot and Kafir; in south-
ern America, the Patagonian and Fuegian. Among the quadrumana,
which approach nearest to man, we see a similar adaptation of
species to continents. The monkeys of America, of Asia, of
Africa, of Madagascar, are different from each other; and what is
curious is the fact that the black orang is confined to the continent
occupied by the black human races, while the brown orang is found
with the tawny Malay races. Is it at all likely that one is a modi-
fication of the other, by climate or external circumstances ?
These facts, to the mind of a naturalist, would prove that both
man, and animals and plants, originated together in the places
where they are found; for why should man alone assume new
peculiarities, very different from his supposed primitive ones, while
animals and plants, in the same limits, " preserve their natural rela-
tions to the fauna and flora of other parts of the world ?" We trace
the same general laws throughout nature, and there can be no room
" for the supposition that, while men inhabiting different parts of
the world originated from a common centre, the plants and animals
now associated with them, in the same countries, originated on the
spot; such inconsistencies do not occur in the laws of nature.” We
have additional evidence of the primitive ubiquity of man on the
earth in the fact, that, wherever men have migrated, they have
found aboriginal nations; we have no record of people migrating to
a land which they found entirely destitute of inhabitants.
As to the creation of a single pair, or pairs, it is opposed to the
economy of nature, except in a few instances. In some species of
animals, both sexes are of equal numbers ; in some there are many
females to one male ; in others, one female to many males, as the
bee ; some, in which a single individual is the whole species ; others,
INTRODUCTION.
that the number of individuals usually found together is one of the
peculiar natural characteristics of species. The reproductive system
of animals proves, then, that many of them were not created in single
pairs, or in a number of pairs; for thus they could not have propa-
gated their species. "The idea of a pair of herrings or a pair of
buffaloes is as contrary to the nature and habits of those animals, as
it is contrary to the nature of pines and birches to grow singly, and
form forests in their isolation. A bee-hive never consists of a pair
of bees, and never could such a pair preserve the species, with their
habits.” “Was the primitive pair of Įions to abstain from food
until the gazelles and other antelopes had sufficiently multiplied to
preserve their races from the persecution of those ferocious beasts ?"
We find the same animals occurring in places distant from each
other, in Europe and America, under such circumstances that we
must admit their simultaneous origin in both centres. Setting
aside the possibility of the conveyance of eggs in the crops of birds,
&c., which, after having been rejected or laid in the water, may
spread species to a certain extent, the great mass of facts can hardly
be explained in this way, unless by a very great stretch of credulity.
We can only refer to this paper* by Agassiz, where many instances
are adduced, which show that animals have originated primitively over
the whole extent of their natural distribution, and in large numbers ;
and that the same species may have a multiple origin, as is shown
by the lions in Africa, the fishes of the Rhine, Rhone, and Danube,
&c. Is it not, then, equivalent to making physical influences more
powerful than the Creator, to trace all animals from a common
centre, and to trust the production of animals to a single pair,
exposed to innumerable accidents from climate and the attacks of
other animals? Ir. the words of Agassiz,t “ The view of mankind
as originating from a single pair, Adam and Eve, and of the ani-
mals and plants as having originated from one common centre, which
was at the same time the cradle of humanity, is neither a biblical
view nor a correct view, nor one agreeing with the results of
science ; and our profound veneration for the Sacred Scriptures
prompts us to pronounce the prevailing view of the origin of man,
animals and plants, as a mere human hypothesis, not entitled to
more consideration than belongs to most theories formed in the
infancy of science.".
Considering, then, the climatic varieties of man as primitive,
* Christian Examiner, March, 1850.
72
INTRODUCTION.
the question of the plurality of races is converted into the question
whether these varieties are species.
That men are nearly related, physically and mentally, is no reason
why a community of origin should be claimed for them; we have
the same near relations among animals, for which community of
origin has never been claimed. For instance, the carnivora all
agree in peculiar teeth and claws for seizing their prey ; in a short
alimentary canal for digesting animal food; in their savage and
unsocial dispositions; constituting a natural unity in the animal
kingdom, entirely different from that of the quadrumana, ruminantia,
&c. But for all this, who ever derived the wolf, the tiger and the
bear from a common stock? And yet they exhibit closer resemblance
of dispositions then the different races of men. Common character
does not prove common descent. The species of the genus felis,
so similar in habits and structure, were never supposed to be one
and the same species ; for the same reason, there may be different
species of the genus Homo, as far as this argument is concerned.
VAN AMRINGE, * speaking of the incompleteness and obscurity of
the Mosaic account of the creation of man, asks, whence came Cain's
fear that some one, finding him, should slay him, if the only per-
sons living, at the death of Abel, were Adam, Eve and himself?
and why the reply of the Lord, that whosoever slayeth Cain,
vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold?'' and whence the necessity
of putting a mark on him? Surely his father and mother, and their
descendants, would not have killed him. The departure of Cain,
his marriage, the birth of his son Enoch, and his building a city,
took place before the birth of Seth, the next human being, according
to Moses. The intermarriage of the “sons of God” with the
“ daughters of men” was the cause of the wickedness punished by
the flood. There were also a giants in the earth in those days,"
who " cannot be referred to Cain as their progenitor, because four
generations from Cain are mentioned, among whom there were no
giants; and these are sufficient to cover the whole intermediate time"
to the epoch of the flood. [p. 57.] All these point to a race of
men independent of Adam. Even though all the descendants of
Adam, except Noah and his family, had perished in the flood, there
may have been other men, in parts of the earth not reached by the
* Outline of a New Natural History of Man, founded upon Human Anal-
ogies. By W. F. Van Amringe. New York, 1848.
INTRODUCTION.
73
Noachian deluge, who escaped. Those who wish to satisfy them-
selves on the limited extent of the deluge, may consult with advan-
tage the work of Dr. John Pye Smith, “On the Relation between
the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science."
The fact that so many learned men continue to attribute the varie-
ties in animals to climate, food, and other external circumstances,
and the various human races to the same cases, can only be accounted
for 6 on the supposition that they believe the subject to be settled by
revelation in its results; and that, however contrary to it the facts
may appear, they must be made to conform to it in their conclu-
sions ;' this, continues Van Amringe, is a perverse disregard of the
inductive method of philosophizing, “more particularly as, from our
knowledge of the various nations of the globe, all the known facts
are decidedly against any such theory.” That animals change to a
limited extent, we know ; that man thus changes, we do not know;
and that he must so change is based solely on analogy. The human
constitution has a remarkable power of adapting itself to climate,
which animals have in a less degree ; in the latter we expect change,
in the former we do not expect it, and have never seen it; there is no
analogy, in this respect, between man and animals.
As regards the changes produced by food, there is no analogy
between animals and man; the former, in domestication, usually
depend upon a single article, as grass ; while omnivorous man, if he
cannot get meat or vegetables, can fall back upon "train oil, spiders,
serpents, or ant eggs.” If the supply fail for the former, changes
will ensue, against which man is better protected. The Jews are
a rernarkable proof that climate and mode of living do not change
human races to any great extent; wanderers in every land, they are
now as distinct as they were two thousand years ago ; the unmixed
Jew is recognized at a glance.
Prichard and his followers allow that, with few exceptions, the
varieties of domestic animals, if leſt to themselves, show a tendency
to return to a supposed primitive type. The difficulty of keeping up
any particular breed of pigeons or rabbits is well known; sheep con-
tinually show a tendency to return to the dark color of the wild
inouflon ; “ black sheep annoy the farmer by appearing in the midst
of the most carefully-bred flock.” It requires continual care to pre-
vent even the dog, the most modified perhaps of all animals, from
degenerating. That time alone does not alter species is proved by
the mummies of animals found in the catacombs of Egypt, and the
representations of species, identical with the existing ones, on the
walls of the temples and the outer cases of human mummies. (Mar-
tin, op. cit.)
74
INTRODUCTION.
·
The color of the human skin is not regarded as of so much impor-
tance as it formerly was ; though no sufficient reasons are given. In
every animal but man, color, when transmitted from generation to
generation unchanged, is considered of specific value. It is said,
though without any facts to sustain it, that climate insensibly pro-
duces the change of color with other physical changes. If climate
can change a white into a black man, producing what we claim gen-
erally as a specific distinction, what difference does it imply to admit
the general doctrine of Lamarck “ that the vast variety of organisms
were produced by the operation of laws, by development, and not by
direct creation ?" There is no reason why we should not insist on
the specific value of color in man, at least to the same extent as we ,
admit it in animals. Says Van Amringe, “ The moral question of uni-
versal brotherhood and its consequent obligations is not affected by
making the permanent differences, acknowledged by all to prevail in
the different races of mankind, to owe their origin either to the
direct or indirect agency of our common creation.”
M. Flourens considers the color of the skin more characteristic of
distinctness of species than any other peculiarity ; but, though we
may accept his conclusions, (for reasons which will hereafter appear,)
he probably labored under an error in assuming the existence of a
peculiar membrane in the Negro skin, which is entirely wanting in
the white races.* Allowing, with Henle and Simon, that the skin
is not composed of continuous membranes, but of layers of cells; of
epidermic cells, among which are interspersed the pigment cells on
which the color of the skin, hair, and eyes, depends; the fact that
the microscope was necessary to discover the rete Malpighii in the
white races, while "in the dark races it has long been known, and
is easily discoverable, and separable by maceration, without a micro-
scope, and that it increases in thickness in the descending series of
species, until, in some Negroes, it is thicker than the cuticle,” is
sufficient to show that the functions of a skin, so differently pro-
portioned in the various races, may be considered specifically adapted
to the circumstances under which the several varieties of man were
formed to live...
Microscopic examination has proved that the hair of the Negro is
*" The uniform color,' says Lawrence, "of all parts of the body is a
strong argument against those who ascribe the blackness of the Negro to
the same cause as that which produces tanning in white people ; namely,
the sun's rays. Neither is the peculiar color of the Negro confined to the
skin ; a small circle of the conjunctiva, round the cornea, is blackish, and
the rest of the membrane has a yellowish brown tinge.".
INTRODUCTION
75
not " wool,” but at the same time has shown that it is of a very dif-
ferent texture from that of the white races. There is an actual
difference in the structure of the hair in the different races; and this
difference does not depend on the color, for the black hair of the
Negro is not at all like the equally black hair of the European. The
hair of the Albino Negro, " whether red or flaxen, is as knotty, as
wiry, and as woolly, as that of his sable parents.” The closest curls
of the European head. never approach the short wiry hair of the
African, unless the races have been mixed ; and it should be recol-
lected that such a single mixture may have an influence for several
generations.
Are, then, the differences which characterize the several races of
men analogous in kind and degree to those which distinguish the
breeds of domestic animals ? And are they to be accounted for on
the same principles?
It is maintained that the effects of domestication on animals and
the effects of civilization on man are analogous. . This supposes that
the original condition of man was wild like that of animals ; that he
emerged from this condition, became domestic, and domesticated
certain animals with the same results for them as for him. All
these suppositions are necessary, and all have been taken for granted,
and used accordingly. That civilization has not produced physical
changes in man, the authors themselves admit, when they refer this
or that ancient sku]l to the Caucasian or Ethiopian race, according
to its characters, which implies permanence of the distinguishing
marks. This is proved by all history ; by the monuments of Egypt,
which show that 4000 years of civilization, at any rate, have not
changed man. Says Van Amringe, “If it could be proved that a
mouse changed to an ox by domestication, we imagine that it would
be insufficient to prove that man suffered physical change by civiliza-
tion, in opposition to undoubted records to the contrary."
Man is the most domestic of animals ; domesticity is in him sa
natural instinct, a law of his being, a principle upon which all of his
virtues, all of his civilization, all of his progress in this world,
depends;" but domestication in animals, far from being instinctive,
or a law of their nature, is "a violence done to them, a tyranny
exercised over them ; it is a slavery so absolute and perfect that
their very natures are subdued, and their natural instincts, as far as
opposed to man's interest, blunted and overpowered." Their tem-
pers are modified, their bony structure even is changed, by an
unnatural climate, food, and management. Improvements in domes-
ticated animals are degenerations in regard to the animals themselves.
The difference between the skulls of the wild boar and the domestic
76
INTRODUCTION.
hog is constantly adduced, as analogous to the differences between
the Caucasian and Negro cranium. But look at the cause of change:
the wild anirnal is confined in a sty, where his natural instinct of
rooting in the ground, for which his head is especially adapted, can-
not be exercised; the powerful muscles attached to the nose not
being called into play, the bones to which they are attached, by a
physiological law, are modified accordingly. Civilization, on the con-
trary, places man in a position where his natural powers are inore
advantageously exercised and increased. Domestication in aniinals
is a life of unnatural constraint and real degeneration. There is not
only no analogy, but not even the slightest resemblance, between them;
and, consequently, physical differences dependent thereon cannot be
considered analogous. If the physical changes of domestication are
analogous to any physical changes of man, it must be of civilized
man, according to their analogy ; but we have seen that civilization
does not physically change man; and, moreover, where would be
the analogies of the savage tribes of the greater part of our globe,
among whom exists the only difficulty to be explained ?
Neither are the moral and intellectual qualities of man analogous
in kind and degree to the qualities of domestic animals. Dr. Prich-
ard talks about "psychological characteristics” of animals, as if
they had such. Animals have but a single nature, a bodily nature,
depending on, and connected with, their external senses ; man has,
in addition, a spiritual nature, connecting him with eternity, which
animals have not. Animals have no moral nature. Man is, also, a
progressive being, and must therefore have an intellectual element,
capable of improvement. Animals are created perfect, with instincts
capable of no improvement; animals have no intellectual nature ;
animals of themselves never improve ; man improves of himself,
from a law of his nature.* In any view, therefore, animals furnish
no analogies with man, in either physical, moral or intellectual prop-.
* Prichard's theory required that animals should be the analogues of
inen, and it was therefore necessary to raise animals, or sink man to their
level. By merely substituting the word "psychological” for "instinct-
ive" characteristics, says Van Amringe, he raised the whole animal
kingdom to the required level. He thus got related the psychology of
animals and man, "without ihe trouble of philosophically accomplishing
so impossible a thing;" and thus obtained "a specious right to use bees
and wasps, rats and dogs, sheep, goats and rabbits, in short, the whole
animal kingdom, as buman psychical analogues, which would be amaz-
ingly convenient, when conclusions were to be made."
INTRODUCTION.
77
erties, which can be legitimately used to assist in the natural history
of mankind.
This doctrine, that the varieties of man have arisen from native or
congenital varieties, “ rests entirely,” says Van Amringe, “upon
supposed analogy, in this respect, between domestic animals and
man." This doctrine would never have been adopted in any
country but England, where the breeding of domestic animals lias
been carried to such perfection. But even here the analogy fails ;
every breeder knows “ that an improved animal has a greater
tendency to defect than to perfection ;' there is a constant tendency
to deterioration. The varieties of domestic animals are produced
only by the greatest skill and perseverance, and are oily pre-
served by the utmost care in feeding and general management.
" Breeding in and in, closely, constitụtes a kind of hybrid race,
by enervating the procreative power. Thus the highly-bred
new Leicester cattle were speedily extinguished.” How differ-
ent in the case of the human races! Such precautions never have
been taken ; yet, to make out any analogy, they ought to have been
observed. How, then, can it be inferred, from analogy, that an
accidental human variety might have become permanent without the
slightest care ? If it be said, with Mr. Lawrence, that the Negro
and the European are the two extremes of a very long gradation,
with innumerable intermediate stages, it may be replied, there is no
such gradation in domestic animals, whose colors change by very
sudden degrees, as it were by leaps ; here analogy fails again.
How came it, too, “ that some of these changes were arrested in
their intermediate stages, while others proceeded to an extreme
black ?” History reaches far back towards the flood, yet makes no
mention of such changes in inan.
• Too much importance has been attached to individual examples, by
which almost any extravagance might be sustained. It has been
too hastily inferred from the “ porcupine inen,” and such congenital
monsters, observed for a short period only, that accidental varieties
may account for the differences of the human races.
Authors have not agreed as to what is a species ; each one
defining it to suit his purpose. To Prichard's definition is attached
what he calls a “permanent variety," which differs from a species
in the changes not being cöeval with the tribe. Though a most
important point, it is, on his part, a mere assumption, for he does
not mention a single fact in support of it. Showing that domestic
animals change, and that they differ from each other as much as
man does from man, neither proves any relation between them, nor
78
.
:
INTRODUCTIONA
that such diversities have arisen in man since his origin, and consti.
tute a deviation from his original character. *
Taking Dr. Morton's definition of species " a primordial organic
form,” which implies a uniformity of anatomical and physiological
organization from the beginning, let us see if any specific differences
can be made out in man, on as good grounds as in other animals. .
Owen (Van Amringe, p. 263) gives twenty-three differences be-
tween the orang-outang and the chimpanzée, which were long
regarded as one species ; only four of these are instances of really
distinct structure, viz., an additional pair of ribs, a single instead of
a double series of bones in the sternum, the non-division of the
pisiform bone of the wrist, and having two phalanges in the great
toc, with a nail. The other differences relate to shape, length and
persistence of parts; but, as function follows organization, and all
the habits and instincts of the animal depend upon it, these differences
were considered of specific value.
Van Amringe (p. 268) gives the following osteological points in
which the Negro differs from the Caucasian: 1. The cranium is
coinpressed laterally, elongated towards the front, retreating from
the superciliary ridges, and smaller in proportion to the face. 2.
The frontal and parietal bones are less excavated and less capacious.
3. The temporal ridge mounts higher, nearly to the top of the
head. (To this may be added the peculiarity mentioned by Prich-
ard in the Ashantee skull, that the sphenoid bone does not reach
the parietal bone.) 4. The temporal fossa and zygoma are larger,
stronger, and more capacious. 5. The cheek-bones project more,
and are stronger, broader and thicker. 5. The orbits are larger,
especially the external aperture. 17. The ossa nasi are flatter and
shorter, and run together above into an acute angle. 8. The plates
of the ethmoid bone are more complicated, and the cribriform lamella
more extensive. 9. The jaws are larger and stronger, the alveolar
incisive portion projecting. 10. The chin is receding and rudimen-
tary. 11. The foramen magnum and occipital condyles are in a
more backward position. 12. The skull is heavier, and denser, and
harder, particularly the sides. 13. The fore-arm is proportionally
longer. 14. The hand and fingers are proportionally narrower and
longer ; (according to Agassiz, the fingers are more webbed.) 15.
Sesamnoid bones are general .; rare in the Caucasian. 16. The pelvis
is longer and narrower. 17. The femur, tibia, and fibula, are more
* Variety implies want of permanence, and a tendency to return, sooner
or later, to the original type; and we know of no animals, permanently
uistinct from others, which can be undoubtedly traced to the same
original source.
INTRODUCTION.
: 79
convex, or gibbous. 18. The femur and tibia are so articulated,
that the knees are generally thrown outwards. 19. The os calcis,
instead of forming an arch with the tarsus, is horizontal, (the pos-
terior portion longer,) and the foot flat. *
These variations in structure imply variety of function, habit and
powers. Psychical powers may be greatly influenced by slight
anatomical differences; " so slight as to be scarcely appreciable by
the anatomist, and yet confer a character upon the beings more
widely different in every respect, than all the thumbs, tails, cheek-
pouches, and callosities in the monkey family." We must not dis-
regard them, simply because they pass gradually one into the other ;
for this we have seen is true of the whole animal kingdom, which
is certainly not all one species.
Difference of form, if constant and uniform, is of specific value, for
it implies a difference of means to attain the same end.
Difference of color is of no less value in défining species in ani-
mals. “The lion is not more regularly tawny, the tiger more regu-
larly streaked, nor the leopard more regularly spotted, than the sev-
eral races of men are uniformly distinguished from each other by
their colors.”
Difference of hair has been sufficiently alluded to ; being perma-
nent in the respective races, it is of specific value.
We see mankind confined to distinct localities, with permanent
distinctions of form and color ; with different social relations,
religion, governments, habits and intellectual powers; . the same
from the remotest historical time. The psychical differences among
men are as great as usually form specific differences in animals. In
the Caucasian nations, generally, we see the rights of woman
acknowledged and established ; enlightened governments, just laws,
a rational system of religion, commerce, agriculture, art and
science in the highest known perfection. In the Mongolian races,
woman is a slave, an article of merchandise, government despotic,
religion idolatrous, laws unjust and bloody, commerce, agriculture,
in a low state ; all the arts of life little advanced, and stationary
for ages. In the American races, the state of things is worse still;
and in the African, at the lowest point. If it be said that these are
the results of education and circumstances, a difference of capacity
must still lie at the bottom. The causes which have produced
these results “ operated in full force anterior to profane history, and
have never since varied ; consequently, the naturalist may fairly take
it for granted that they are natural causes, until the contrary is
* And, according to Dr. Knox, the nervous system, and every muscle of
the body is different.
80
INTRODUCTION.
proved by something more than a mere speculation, or presump-
tion, that they are accidental.”
The constitutional temperaments of the different races, on which
the author just quoted lays so much stress, seem to measure
their capacity for improvement. There is every variety in the
white races; while the other races are noted for a great apparent
uniformity, so that to have seen one of a race, you have seen the
whole. The dark races have a less“ nervous sensibility than
the white. Dr. Mosely (Treatise on Tropical Diseases) says,
“Negroes are void of sensibility to a surprising degree. They are
not subject to nervous diseases. They sleep sound in every disease,
nor does any mental disturbance ever keep them awake. They
bear chirurgical operations much better than white people ; and what
would be the cause of insupportable pain to a white man, a Negro
would almost disregard.” The American dark races bear with
indifference tortures insupportable to a white man. Is it not possible,
says Van Amringe, that the increased coloring matter in the skin
protects the subjacent nerves to a greater extent against external
impressions? He states, on what he considers good authority, that
the Negro expires less carbonic acid than the white man. “Hence
Africans seldom have fetid breath, but transpire the fetid matter,
somewhat modified, chiefly by the skin." This would explain the
greater amount of oily substance with which the black skin abounds,
by concentrating in the integument a larger quantity of carbon, the
chief element of the fixed oils. *
Dr. Prichard thinks that the liability of all the races to the same
diseases is an evidence of identity of species. Everybody knows
that some races are more liable than others to certain diseases. The
torpidity of the blacks under disease is well known to physicians who
have practised much among them; the Negroes are more exempt
from nervous diseases and the yellow fever, but more subject to the
"yaws." If we regard all men of one species, simply because they
have the same diseases, we shall have to include the monkeys, cows,
horses, dogs, &c., in the human family, for they have consumption,
vaccine disease, glanders, hydrophobia, &c. It is known that epi-
(
C
* It has been ascertained, abundantly, in the East, (according to Dr.
Allen, " on the Opium Trade,'') that the effects of opium on the Negro and
Indian appear rather on the digestive, circulating, and respiratory func-
tions, than in the cerebral and nervous system ; in the whites and Mongo-
lians, it, acts more directly on the mind, though its effects on the body are
not lessened; this accords with the alleged inferior development or sensi-
bility of the nervous system in the dark races. .
INTRODUCTION.
demics have, from the earliest ages, equally affected men and ani-
mals; the causes, the symptoms, the pathology, the treatment, are
the same in epidemics and epizootics. This shows, not that men are
of one species, - if it does, animals belong to the same species as man,
- but that men are of different species ; since some races are very
liable to certain diseases from which others are almost exempt.
Van Amringe considers that the relations between male and female
point to specific distinctions in the human races. If we go back to the
remotest historic period we find that the condition of woman has
always been higher in proportion to civilization: the white races
have always manifested a tendency to honor and esteem woman;
the dark races have always considered her rather as a slave than as
a companion and equal. The prevalence of this rule in species, taken
as a whole, from the earliest times and under all modifying influences,
indicates a natural difference of mental constitution or temperament;
education has modified, but can never change it. The standard of
beauty is different in the various races, physically, morally, and in-
tellectually; and this difference of taste has been one of the chief
means of keeping distinct the different species of men.
It was thought by Buffon, Hunter, and others, and is generally
believed at the present day, that the offspring of two distinct species
are incapable of reproducing their kind ; thus hybridity has been made
a test of specific character. By some, hybrids are considered as
affording the strongest proofs of the reality and distinctness of species ;
by others, they are thought to show that all the present varieties of
animal and vegetable life were derived from a comparatively few
original types. Assuming it to be a law of nature that hybrids are
sterile, it is maintained that all mankind must belong'to one and the
same species, since all the races are capable of producing, a fertile
progeny with each other. Dr. Morton * has examined this subject
with great care, and has collected a great number of authentic facts
of hybrids producing fertile offspring, in mammalia, birds, fishes,
insects, and plants. In the higher animals, he gives examples even
from different genera. In birds, they are very numerous, especially
in the gallinaceous tribes. In plants, they are so common that Mr.
Herbert maintains that botanical species are only a higher and more
permanent type of varieties, and he would discard them altogether,
retaining only the genera to designate those characters which have
hitherto been attributed to species. It thus appears that mules are
* Hybridity in Animals and Plants, considered in reference to the ques-
tion of the Unity of the Human Species. By S. G. Morton, N. D. Phila-
delphia.
82
INTRODUCTION.
not always sterile, even in a state of nature. Still, it must be
observed that hybridity is much the most common among domesticated
animals, and that the capacity for fertile hybridity is in proportion
to the aptitude of animals for domestication.
Dr. Bachman (as has been seen before) rejects the authorities of
Dr. Morton, as unworthy of credit; among which authorities are
Buffon, Temminck, Hamilton Smith, Cuvier, Chevreul, &c. In
subsequent articles * Dr. Morton gives additional reasons for his
positions in regard to hybrids. Respecting hybrids of the sheep and
goat, the facts of M. Chevreul were fully admitted by Buffon and
Cuvier. The dogmatical assertion that the camels are both of one
species, and the quoted authority of Buffon in support of it, merit
no attention, since Buffon's opinion was founded solely on the fact
that the camel and the dromedary produced a fertile offspring inter
se. In Layard's plates of Nineveh are represented the camel and the
dromedary as distinct as they are now; this dates as far back as
2600 years before Christ. There can be no doubt that the wolf
and the dog copulate voluntarily, and that races have been formed
in this manner. No one will probably pretend that all wolves
are of one species, even though they maintain that the dogs
are, and that the latter are the descendants of the former. Hy-
brids between the horse and ass are well known to be sometimes
prolific. As to hybrids in birds, we need only mention the hybrid
grouse, (Tetrao medius,) which is very generally admitted to be the
mule-bird produced by the wood-grouse (T. urogallus) and the
black grouse (T. tetrix). This is now the opinion of Temminck,
who is “ good authority” in ornithology; he confesses that he no
longer regards it as a true species, in a work published ten years
ago, though Dr. Bachman claims Temminck as showing the contrary.
Great confusion has resulted from the habit of regarding hybrid-
ity as a unit, whereas its facts may be classified like other
series of physiological phenomena. Dr. Morton makes four degrees
of hybridity. 1st. That in which the hybrids never reproduce, the
mixed offspring ending with the first cross; this is the case with
almost all domesticated birds, however different their generic rela-
tions. 2nd. That in which the hybrids are incapable of reproduction,
inter se, but multiply by union with the parent stock; this is the
case with the species of the genus Bos. 3d. That in which animals
as the wolf and dog, and other species of the genus canis.
4th. That
* Letter to Rev. John Bachman, and Additional Observations on
Hybridity in Animals. Charleston, 1850.
INTRODUOTION.
83
which takes place between closely proximate species, as among man-
kind and the common domestic animals essential to his happiness.,
According to Mr. Eyton, (Proceedings of Zool. Soc., London, Feb.
1837,) the offspring of the Chinese hog and the common European
hog are prolific inter se; now these animals differ from the wild
boar, and the French hog, in the number of the vertebræ as follows:
50, 55, 45, and 53. To say that these are all domestic varieties of
one species is allowing too much to the semi-domestication of these
animals. It is much less difficult to believe with Hamilton Smith (on
Canidæ) that this is " a case of providential arrangement for a given
purpose, and that there are three, if not four, original species (includ-
ing the African) with powers to commix.” (p. 94.)
The extent of the argument that can be drawn from the phenomena
of hybridity as regards man, is (as Temminck has remarked of birds)
so that the occurrence of the prolific offspring between the different
races shows that there is a near affinity between the species."
We shall conclude this. abstract by a few remarks in favor of the
diversity of the human races, drawn from various sources of modern
date, expressing our own opinion from a careful study of the phenom-
ena, and from personal observation.
Those who maintain the one-pair theory deny the permanence of
races, and place great stress upon the capacity for variation in
animals, and therefore in man; and, when difficulties arise which
cannot be explained by the usual causes, they invoke the aid of
spontaneous variation and accidental generation.
Allowing for the moment that civilization in man and domestica-
tion in animals are analogous conditions, (which is of vital impor-
tance to their theory,) let us see what can be established in regard
to changes produced by climate and external influences.
The capacity for variation is certainly great in our domestic ani-
mals, submitted as they are to various unnatural circumstances.
The most commonly used argument in this connection is fur-
nished by the varieties of the dog', which are considered as belonging
to one species. To say nothing, however, of the “ petitio principii”
here, in assuming the point wished to be proved, many eminent nat-
uralists believe that there are several species of dogs. The objec-
tion of F. Cuvier that, “if we begin to make species, we cannot
stop short at five or six, but must go on indefinitely," is of no
weight; the most it can do is to show us the exceedingly vague
meaning of the word species, and that we have not yet arrived at
84
INTRODUCTION.
the true distinction between species and variety. The “permanent
variety" of Dr. Prichard, from his own definition, is to all intents
and purposes " a species.” Says Hamilton Smith, (Naturalist's
Library : on Dogs,) nó instance can be shown in the whole circle
of mammiferous animals, where the influence of man, by education
and servitude, has been able to develop and combine faculties and
anatomical forms so different and opposite as we see them in dif-
ferent races of dogs, unless the typical species were first in pos-
session of their rudiments.” (p. 100.) Form and size may thus be
somewhat changed, but climate cannot have effected much, as the
two extremes are found in hot and cold regions. Food can do no
more, since the man living on vegetables or fish retains his facul-
ties as well as he who lives on flesh. Food or climate will not so
widen or truncate the muzzle, nor raise the frontals, nor produce a
light and slender structure, nor take away the sense of smell, and
several other of the best qualifications of the dog, (as in grey-
hounds.) These qualities we cannot but consider as indications of
different types, whose combinable properties have enabled man to
inultiply several required species. Ask sportsmen and breeders,
who are led by inferences from their own observations, and do not
follow the authority of high names; they will tell you the same.
In absence, then, of positive proof, we have every reason to doubt
that the differences of domestic dogs can be referred to a single spe-
cies, and especially that the wolf is the parent stock. There are,
indeed, several species of wolves, which might come in for a share
of the paternity of the dogs, which would hardly be in favor of the
latter being varieties of a single species, unless some one will ven-
ture to point out the exact species of wolf. If it be said there
is only one species of wolf, then it is useless to quote animal analo-
gies, for there is no such thing as a species in animated nature ; and
we might as well adopt Lamarck's or Monboddo's development the-
ory at once, from which such views as are maintained respecting
the varieties of dogs are not very distant. The infiuences which
could change, without interrnixture, the bull-dog into the greyhound,
might well change a White into a Negio, or a monkey into a man.
We must admit several aboriginal species, with faculties to intermix,
including the wolf, dingo, jackal, buansu, anthus, &c., as parents of
our dogs; that even the dhole or a thous may have been the parent
of the greyhound laces ; and that a lost or undiscovered species,
allied to Canis tricolor or Hyæna venatica, may have been the source
of the short-muzzled, strong-jawed mastiffs. Smith, moreover, classes
the dogs according to their apparent affinities with wild originals in
neighboring latitudes, - the Arctic dogs with the wolves ; south of
:
INTRODUCTION.
85
the Equator there being no wolves, he refers the dogs in the Old
World to the jackal, &c., in the New World to the Aguara fox dogs.
We have been thus particular on the subject of the dogs, as
they have been triumphantly appealed to as arguments in favor of
the unity of the human races; they certainly show little positively
in favor of this view, and much negatively against it.
But, even among animals, there is a very great difference in their
capacity for variation, which renders any argument that might be
drawn from them of little value.' The mouse, for instance, shows
very little disposition to change, in color 'or form ; the brown rat of
Persia, now spread over the world, very nearly preserves its original
type. According to Dr. S. G. Morton, (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences,
Phil., April, 1850,) the reindeer of Lapland do not change in the
slightest particular after long domestication ; the peacock has not
varied for thousands of years. Some animals, in two or three gen-
erations, are entirely changed in color, as the Guinea-pig and tur-
key; sometimes even the anatomical structure changes, as in the
pigeon, sheep, and dog; some animals, even in the wild state,
undergo great changes, è. g., the fox-squirrel, (Sciurus capistratus,)
whose black variety is not to be confounded with the unchanging
Sciurus niger. The tiger is the same in tint, under considerable
variety of climate, from Siberia to Ceylon. In the province of
Delhi, Bishop Heber saw a shaggy elephant; he says that in one or
two winters dogs, and even horses, brought from Europe, become
woolly in that region, whose men are remarkable for the length and
straightness of their hair. Dr. Morton also remarks that the wool
of sheep becomes long and hairy in Guinea, where human hair is
wiry and twisted. So that the causes which change the lower ani-
mals, do not affect man. In this respect one animal is not an ana-
logue even for another animal, still less is an animal an analogue for
man.
If the races of man are analogous to the varieties of animals,
why does not he, under similar circumstances, tend to a uniform
type? Why do not these varieties occur before our eyes among civ-
żlized man, who has been called the most domestic of animals ? and
the more frequently as civilization, with its many unnatural accom-
paniments, makes progress? The capacity for variation may explain
temporary varieties of men and animals, but it cannot account for
the permanent varieties, or species.
The characteristics most relied on for the discrimination of the
races are the color of the skin, the structure of the hair, and the
conformation of the skull and skeleton. There are several evident
types of these marks in the races; the transition, however, is so
86
INTRODUCTION.
1
gradual from one to the other, that it is impossible to draw the exact
line of demarkation; therefore, say the advocates of the one-pair
theory, the varieties of man may belong to one species. But we
know that this same gradation is seen throughout the whole animal
and vegetable world.
There are many animals intermediate between the orders, families
and genera of the Vertebrata, - between mammalia and birds,
between birds and reptiles, between reptiles and fishes, both living
and fossil - which require all the acuteness of the experienced nat-
uralist to class exactly. Many flowers, known in their typical forms
to belong to different species, can hardly be distinguished in their
varieties; the same plant has borne flowers formerly considered char-
acteristic of three distinct genera.
This will be rendered of more importance if it appear that the
races are permanent, and that color is not dependent on climate.
Seven hundred and thirty-three years after Noah's debarkation from
the ark, (to follow the generally received chronology,) a nation of
blacks occupied the borders of Egypt; now, if these were Negroes,
(as they doubtless were, for we have their features on the monu-
ments,) for the last two thousand years climate has not produced
such a race, as, according to this idea, must have been produced in a
third of that time. Seventeen hundred years ago a colony of Jews
migrated to the coast of Malabar, and settled among black races.
Dr. Buchanan, in his travels, states that they are as perfect Caucasians
as ever. * If, then, seventeen hundred years has not changed these
people, in that hot climate, is it probable that seven hundred and
thirty-three years have changed a white man into a Negro ? A
Portuguese colony, which settled on the coast of Congo, has now
become lost by amalgamation with the black races ; but, by a sup-
pression of a part of the facts, the impression has been given that
they were changed into Negroes by the effects of the climate, while
the true cause of their extinction was the intermarriage of a few
whites for fiſteen generations among a large body of blacks. Yet
this, and such as this, has been adduced as a proof that climate
changes races. The Moors have inhabited Northern Africa from
time immemorial, and yet they have made no approach to the Negro,
any more than the Negro has to them. The American Indian, under
* There are white Jews in Malabar ; where they are black, an intermix-
ture with dark races. may be traced. This fact is carefully kept out of
sight by those who wish to‘use the "Black Jews of Malabar" on the other
side of the question. [Dr. Nott; Proceedings of Am. Association for
Adv. of Science. Charleston, 1850. p. 98.]
INTRODUCTION.
87
every variety of climate, has very nearly the same shade of com-
plexion; no other races have been produced there; there are no
, woolly heads, no Negro features. It is now about two hundred
years since Africans were introduced into this country, and the eighth
generation, where they have not been mixed with the whites, are as
purely African as their imported ancestors ; even in Massachusetts,
where they have been somewhat improved by the most favorable cir-
cumstances, the real characteristics of the race are unchanged. The
Jews have been a permanent race, from Abraham to the present time,
a period of nearly four thousand years, according to Hebrew chro-
nology; and, for still stronger reasons, from him up to Noah, only
ten generations. The Gypsies are a permanent race, preserving their
East Indian characteristics in all places, and for all historic time.
It may, then, be fairly said, thatsunmixed races, from the most s
remote historical time, (nearly 4,000 years,) have preserved their dis-
tinguishing marks amid all the supposed causes of change, and may
be considered permanent. The Ethiopian (Negro) can no more !
change his skin than can the leopard his spots.
As examples of change of color in animals from external circun-
stances, and as proofs that similar causes may have produced similar
effects in man, Dr. Prichard mentions the black swine of Piedmont,
the white ones of Normandy, and the red ones of Bavaria ; and
instances also of horses and dogs, in Hungary and Corsica. If
physical changes so change the lower animals, in these countries,
why do not they change man? Why are the animals so different,
and men so much alike? Man must be proof against these physical
causes of change in animals. This is another instance of the abuse
of analogy
We find, then, the same race occupying different regions, preserv-
ing the same characters in all; and different races in the same cli-
mate, preserving unchanged their national distinctness; and no instance
can be produced of climate having changed, or now changing, one
race into another.
The quantity and structure of the human hair is very different in
the different races. The Mongolians and Northern Asiatics are
remarkable for the deficiency of hair and beard. The same is true,
, to a less degree, of the American Indians. Blumenbach would have
us believe that the habit of pulling out the hair, continued for many
generations, has at length produced this natural variety. Other nations
have hair growing down the back, and covering nearly the whole body.
This, probably, he would explain by the long continued application
of some rude “ Philocome,” or 66 Tricophorus." On this principle,
we should hardly expect that Chinese mothers would bear children
88
INTRODUCTION.
having feet of the usual European dimensions. Very remarkable
heads of hair are frequently produced by the intermixture of different
races, as in the Cafusos of Brazil, - half-breeds between the Negro
and Indians, and in the Papuas. The microscope has proved that
only those kinds of human hair which are straight approximate
to the cylindrical form; and that the curled or crisp varieties are
more or less flattened, the crispation being in proportion to the com-
pression. Even the straightest hair is not exactly round, and in
some cases a little longitudinal groove may be seen. The hair of
the Negro has a deeper groove, and its transverse section has been
coinpared to the form of a bean. It is probable that the twist of
the Negro hair is connected with a greater tension of the fibres
along this groove, as each hair is an assemblage of innumerable
ininute parallel fibres. The hair of the Busliman is more minutely
curled and closely matted than the Negro hair ; and under the micro-
scope appears quite flat and ribbon-like, four or five times as broad as
it is thick; with no groove, but very delicate parallel striæ or
fibres.
Mr. P. A. Browne, of Philadelphia, has communicated to the
American Ethnological Society an Essay on the classification of
mankind by the hair and wool of their heads,” in which he replies
to Prichard's assertion that the covering of the head of the Negro is
hair and not wool. He states that there are, on microscopic examina-
tion, three prevailing forms of the transverse section of the filament,
viz., the cylindrical, the oval, and the eccentrically elliptical. There
are also three directions in which it pierces the epidermis. The
straight and lank, the flowing or curled, and the crisped or frizzled,
differ respectively as to the angle which the filament makes with the
skin on leaving it. The cylindrical and oval pile has an oblique
angle of inclination. The eccentrically elliptical pierces the epider-..
mis at right angles, and lies perpendicularly in the dermis. The
hair of the white man is oval; that of the Choctaw and some other
American Indians is cylindrical ; that of the Negro is eccentrically
elliptical or flat. The hair of the white man has, beside its cortex
and intermediate fibres, a central canal which contains the coloring
matter when present. The wool of the Negro has no central canal,
and the coloring matter is diffused, when present, either throughout
the cortex or the intermediate fibres.
Hair, according to these observations, is more complex in its
structure than wool. In hair the enveloping scales are comparatively
few, with smooth surfaces, rounded at their points, and closely
embracing the shaft. In wool they are numerous, rough, sharp-
pointed, and project from the shaft. Hence the hair of the white
INTRODUCTION.
89
man will not felt. The hair of the Negro will, and in this respect
comes near to true wool.
Prichard says, supposing the Negro hair to be analogous to wool,
it would not prove the Negro of a separate race from the European.
“ Since we know that some tribes of animals bear wool, while others
of the same species are covered with hair." Though this peculiar-
ity depends on climate, it proves nothing, for this reason, viz., in
almost every quadruped there is a growth of both hair and wool, the i
latter generally covered and protected by the former. Now, cli-
mate only changes the relative proportion between these two append-
ages to the skin. In a warm climate the hair would predominate;
in a cold country the wool would be the most increased. This may
explain Prichard's remark. Until a similar coëxistence of hair and
wool can be shown in the human subject, there is not the slightest
ground for analogical argument.
From the examination of the human hair, it may be said that the
degree of relationship of the races is no nearer than that of allied
species among lower animals, even allowing much that false analogy
claims. The hair of man belongs to the same epidermic tissues as
the fur of quadrupeds, the feathers of birds, and the scales of fishes.
The species of birds are in a great measure distinguished by the
form, structure, and arrangement of the feathers. The scales of fishes
have such an intimate and unvarying relation to their other organs and
systems, that Prof. Agassiz has been able to delineate accurately the
form and structure of an extinct species from the examination of a
single scale ; and the classification of these animals is chiefly made
according to the structure of the scales... If such differences in animals
constitute specific and even generic distinctions, why not, by analogy,
in man?
The osteology of the different races of men has been as yet very
little studied, and offers a wide field for observations. The charac-
teristic shape of the skull in different races has been already given,
and need not be repeated. The distinctions are remarkable and
permanent, and cannot be invalidated by the “scale of gradation,"
so often quoted, as this would apply with equal force to all animated
nature. A prevailing form, a type, exists, and that is enough. A
modification of the osseous system involves a modification of function,
which may influence the whole system, and become of specific value.
The chin, e. g., says Van Amringe, is apparently an unimportant
part; and yet a receding chin is almost always attended by a poorly
developed cranium and inferior intellectual powers; not that there
can be traced the relation of cause and effect, but that, all organs
being a part of a great whole, a deficiency of one is almost without
8*
90
INTRODUCTION.
exception followed by the same consequences in the whole class of
animals The prominence of the chin (or its receding) is charac-
teristic of races of men and animals, and is proportioned to the rank
they hold in the scale of being. Again, the posterior portion of the
os calcis is longer in the Negro than in the European. This enables
the muscles of the calf of the leg to act with better advantage on the
foot, the lever being better from the length of the heel. Less mus-
cular force is required for the movements of the foot on the leg, in
walking, &c., and hence the constant comparative flatness of the
Negro calf, the size of a muscle being proportioned to its exercise.
In an animal this would be considered of specific value. According
to Dr. Knox,* in the colored races the nerves of the limbs are one
third less than in the Saxon of the same height. He quotes Tiede-
rnann as having informed him " that he had every reason to believe
that the native Australian race differed in an extraordinary manner
from the European; that this is the case with the Hottentot and
Bosjeman race has been Jong known." He says, the whole shape
of the skeleton in the dark races differs from ours, as also “ the
forms of almost every muscle in the body.” We have already seen.
the great differences in the shape of the pelvis in the different races,
to which Drs. Vrolik and Weber paid great attention, in the belief
that its shape must have some influence on the conformation of the
fætal head. They discovered four principal forms, corresponding to
the cranial formation of the principal races. The oval form of the
European, the round form of the American, the square form of the
Mongolian, and the oblong form of the African races. The last
showing unmistakable signs of degradation, and an approach to the
pelvis of the Simiæ.
It is highly probable that future investigations will detect other
differences in the comparative osteology of the races, which will
present strong claims to be regarded as specific distinctions
The diversity of the human races is by some attributed to acciden-
tal varieties, from whom individuals, tribes, and nations have
sprung. If mankind were originally white, the negroes must have
arisen from such an accidental variety. This, according to Dr.
Morton, is Prichard's latest view. It is a mere supposition; for
nobody ever saw or knew a Negro born as an accidental variety
among Caucasian, Mongolian, or other races, where a very natural
explanation could not be found for the mystery. Prichard, at one
time, believed Adam was a Negro, 1st, from the changes of animals
being from dark to light. 2d, from Albinoes occurring among
* The Races of Men ; a Fragment. By Robert Knox, M. D. London,
-1850.
INTRODUCTION.
. 91
blacks, but nerer blacks among whites. 3d, from the dark races
being better fitted for savage life than the whites. 4th, from the
lowest actual races being akin to Negroes. In his “ Physical His-
tory of Man," he says, “ The Melanic variety may be looked upon
as the natural and original complexion of the human species."
It is a general law of nature that deviations from the natural type,
accidental or the product of disease, have a constant tendency to
return to the original type. For Prichard's reasons, above given,
the white races are not the progenitors of the black races; and if
the first races were black, we ought occasionally to find children of
white parents born black, by reason of the natural tendency to return
to the original type. The difficulty is the same in both theories.
Again, all unnatural, accidental, or monstrous births, are either abso-
lutely incapable of procreation, or they quickly die out, unless
renewed by intermixture of the original stocks. This will be more
fully treated when speaking of hybridity. It is equally vain 10
pretend that varieties were thus produced in early ages, before a
crowded population existed to swallow them up, as would now be the
case. No race of “hairy men” arose from Esau. To suppose
that the sons of Noah had children, of exactly the colors required
by this theory, who married women of a color exactly corresponding,
is too great a demand on our credulity. To say, with Van Amringe,
chat the sons of Noah were changed by a miraculous interposition,
· so as to produce the varieties of man, is not allowable ; for no one
has a right to suppose a miracle.
Professor Agassiz instituted a series of experiments in 1850,
which have a bearing on this point. He took a great number of
rabbits, of every variety of color, and bred them together with great
care ; the offspring were never intermediate in color between the
parents, but were either exactly like one parent or the other, or
showed a tendency to the gray color of the original wild stock. But
take different species, as the horse and the ass, and the offspring
resembles neither parent, but is a mule, intermediate between the
two. So, put black and white together, the child is neither black
nor white, but a mulalto. The rare instances where children from
such a union have been either perfectly black, or perfectly white, must
be regarded as exceptions. So far as analogy can be trusted, the.
result of these observations shows that the human races are distinct
species.
In hybrids; animal and human, there is a tendency to return
to the original stocks. There is reason to believe that hybrid-
ity is,, in man, at least, a state of degeneration, and that the
mongrel race must either keep itself up by continual mixture with
92
INTRODUCTION.
the original stocks, or it will become extinct by reverting to the
original types, or by ceasing to be prolific. Nobody doubts that
mixed offspring may be produced by intermarriage of different races.
The Griquas, the Papuas, the Cafusos, and the mulattoes of the
Americas, so elaborately described and enumerated by Prichard,
only show the existence of such races; and that the same causes
which first produced them may continue to produce them. The
point is, whether they would be perpetuated if strictly confined to
intermarriages among themselves. It has been said, as the result
of observation, that, when the descendants of mulattoes intermarry
for a few generations, (without mixture of the primitive races,)
the offspring either ceases to be prolific, or reverts towards the
original stocks. The same is true, as far as has been observed,
of the mixture of the white and red races.
In the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia,
for April 22, 1851, is a communication from Dr. S. G. Morton, on
the infrequency of mixed offspring between the European and Aus-
tralian races. This well-known fact led the colonial government to
official inquiries; and to the result that in thirty-one districts, whose
inhabitants were 15,000 in number, the half-breeds did not exceed
200. Infanticide, disease, promiscuous intercourse, and the natural
repugnance of races, would not explain the fact in Australia, when
similar causes elsewhere are not followed by similar effects. “Is
not,” he asks, “ the real cause of the difference of race the disparity
of primordial organization?"
The strongest argument in favor of this is that no new variety
of men has ever been thus formed and perpetuated by the mixture of
races, though there has been no greater obstacle to the permanence
of such races than of the existing pure races; we have a right to
believe such a permanent race impossible till the contrary is proved.
This conclusion is strengthened by the well-known consequences of
intermarriage of near relations in civilized communities ; every one
conversant with the subject knows that scrofula, imbecility, and idiocy
are to be traced to this intermixture as effects to their cause. His-
tory abundantly shows that artificial breeds, mixed races of men (and
animals) are never permanent and self-supporting ; they require sup-
plies from the pure breeds, or they become extinct. Look at the
Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru ; the " Mulatto” (which
means a mixed race) arose from the mingling of European and
Indian blood. The supply from Spain has ceased ; the native
Indian continues, and upon him the Mulatto is forced ; thus the pop-
ulation gradually returns to the aboriginal Indian type as in the days
of Montezuma and the Incas. The same is true of the mixture of
INTRODUCTION.
93
the Portuguese and Indian in Brazil and other parts of South
America ; as the foreign supply diminishes, the native blood pre-
race predominates, and under the present regime there is no proba-
bility of any great supply of white blood to perpetuate the existing
Mulattoes ; the mixed race is gradually giving way, and must
become extinct, becoming merged in the black stock.
The phenomena of hybridity, therefore, so far as they bear upon
the question, rather go to prove that there are distinct species.
Mr. Gallatin (Trans. of Amer. Ethnological Soc., Vol. i., p. 192)
gives some facts which show that the agriculture of the American
mound builders was of domestic origin; their principal vegetable
product was peculiar to America. He says, “ We have here two
leading facts, one positively ascertained, and the other generally
admitted by those who have inquired into the subject, the importance
of which has not, it seems to me, been adverted to. The first is that
all the nutritious plants cultivated in the other hemisphere, and
which are usually distinguished by the name of cereals, (millet,
rice, wheat, rye, barley, oats,) were entirely unknown to the Ameri-
cans. The second is that maize, which was the great and almost
sole foundation of American agriculture, is exclusively of American
origin, and was not known in the other hemisphere till after the dis-
covery of America in the fifteenth century." .
If animals have had several distinct centres of creation, why has
not man? There are climates peculiarly suited to the varieties of
man, as well as of animals. Tropical Africa is not adapted to the
Caucasian constitution ; every colony has been wasted by sickness
and death; every expedition into the interior has been attended with
a frightful mortality ; even at a long distance from the unhealthy
coast our national vessels have suffered severely from the pestilen-
tial fevers of Africa. Yet this is the native and the natural climate
of the Negro, where he is as much at home as is the polar bear on
the shores of Greenland, or the chimpanzée on the banks of the
Gaboon. Look at the French colony even in extra-tropical Algeria ;
according to the reports of Marshal Bugeaud, and M. Baudin, the
mortality among the troops is frightful; the European population
annually decreases by seventeen per thousand, and, but for the influx
of emigrants, would become extinct in fifty years. The dominant
foreign population of Egypt does not increase in numbers; the
aboriginal Copt still exists, biding his time. Look at the English
in Hindostan and Australia. The former is held as a military pos-
session ; but the European cannot work there, - he must einploy the
natives; but for fresh arrivals the white man would soon be extinct
94
INTRODUCTION.
as it is, he comes home to die prematurely, with gold in his pockets,
and disease in his liver. In Australia, the Englishman with diffi-
culty rears his children ; he is in an unnatural climate, and must
accordingly decay; he cannot be naturalized there. Finally, let us
glance at America. Says Dr. Knox (op. cit.), " Travel to the
Antilles, and see the European struggling with existence, a prey to
fever and dysentery, unequal to all labor, wasted and wan, finally
perishing, and becoming rapidly extinct as a race, but for the con-
stant influx of fresh European blood.” In Hayti, Cuba, Jamaica,
and the other islands, a black population is necessary to labor. The
sickly European must yield the tropics to the black race; he cannot
fight against the climate. So will it be in our Southern States and
Brazil ; white men cannot labor there; the black man must be there,
either as free or slave, so long as the Anglo-American or European
resides there. Cut off fresh arrivals of whites from the north or
from Europe, and, as in Hayti, the negro race will soon predomi-
nate, and, “ with the deepening color, will vanish civilization, the
arts of peace, science, literature.” Look even at the Northern
States. Contrast the lean, lank, lackadaisical Yankee with the
ruddy, round, and robust Englishman, his ancestor. Says Dr.
Knox, with truth, “ The ladies early lose their teeth ; in both sexes
the adipose cellular cushion interposed between the skin and the
aponeuroses and muscles disappears, or, at least, loses its adipose
portion ; the muscles become stringy and show themselves; the ten-
dons appear on the surface; symptoms of premature decay manifest
thernselves." These are warnings that the climate has not been
made for him, nor he for the climate.
It may now be asked if the species of man were created equal.
We speak not of individuals, but of races. Many Caucasians may
be inferior to many Negroes, or Mongolians, or Malays, and many
individuals of talent may be found among the dark races ; but they
are acknowledged exceptions. The question is not whether a race
may be improved, for 'that nobody doubts ; else were they not
human ; but whether all have the same capability of being improved ;
and what the races are naturally, and what is the standard of the
species.
History need not be very deeply consulted to convince one that
the white races, without an exception, have attained a considerable
degree of civilization and refinement; and that the dark races have
always stopped short at a considerably lower level. There must
have been a time when the Caucasian was as ignorant and uncivil-
ized as the American or the African; all were once simple chil-
dren of Nature, or while the former have advanced, the latter have
INTRODUCTION.
95
degenerated from the original type of their species. Why have
accidental circumstances always prevented the latter from rising,
while they have only stimulated the former to higher attainment ?
The whole mass of facts leads to the conclusion that the dark races
izre inferiorly organized, and cannot, to the same extent as the white
races, understand the laws of Nature, and therefrom obtain an ever-
increasing light and knowledge; that they bear the stamp of their
inferiority in their physical organization.
The North American Indian bears a stamp of inferiority in his
physical and mental constitution; his nature shows a preponderance
of the “ vegetative element," as Guyot calls it; his temperament is
lymphatic, cold, unsocial, insensible; he is the man of the forest,
sombre and sad. The results of the mixture of the White and Red
races for two hundred years are well known. The Indian civiliza-
tion has not advan.ed permanently, or of itself; they will not give
up their wild life for the restraints of civilization; they cannot,
from their organization, be civilized. Like the wild animals of the
forest, they retreat before the whites, contact with whom has nearly
annihilated them as a race. Similar reflections arise in contem-
plating the Negro races. Amalgamation of races will not mend the
matter. The inferior race will gain, for a time, what the superior
loses ; but return to one of the original types, or degeneration and
final extinction, must sooner or later be the result.
Physical geography teaches us that, of the two great elements
of the earth, the water element and the land element, the latter is
by far superior to the former in the animal and vegetable life to
which it gives origin; geology and paleontology show us that this
was true also in ancient ages. The oceanic climate corresponds to
a Flora and a Fauna numerous in individuals, but scanty in species;
all the large animals are wanting ; the types are inferior. In the
continental climate there is greater variety, more numerous species,
and higher types of life. But the highest of all life belongs to whạt
Guyot* calls the maritime climate, the combination of the conti-
nental and the oceanic. To use his words, “Here are allied the
continental vigor, and the oceanic softness, in a fortunate union,
mutually tempering each other. Here the development is more
intense, life more rich, more varied in all its forms." In like man-
ner, we find the highest human types neither among the indolent
man of the Pacific, nor among the energetic Negro of continental
Africa, but in maritime man wherever found ; whether it be in
peninsular Europe, Asia, or North America, “ enthroned, queen-
* Earth and Man: by Arnold Guyot. Boston, 1850.
96
INTRODUCTION,
like, upon the two great oceans," " the mediator between the two
extremities of the world." Physical geography also teaches, what
history confirms, that the three great northern continents are pecu-
liarly organized for the full development of man ; they may be
styled the historic continents, each having a special function in his
education, and corresponding to the periods of his progress. Of
the white race, the most perfect type of humanity, Western Asia
may be called the cradle, both physically and morally; the dwellings
place of the chosen people, from whom Christianity was to spread
over the earth. Europe “is the school where his youth was trained,
where he waxed in strength and knowledge, and grew to a man."
"America is the theatre of his activity during manhood; the land
where he applies and practises all he has learned, and brings into
action all the forces he has acquired."
The precise period of man's appearance on the earth is not
known, as authors very variously interpret the Jewish and other
chronologies. It is not improbable that the generally received
opinion on the subject falls short of the truth, and that man has
lived upon the earth for a longer period than 6000 years.
Since the above was written, there has been published a valuable
work, by Mr. Schoolcraft, * from which we quote a few paragraphs.
The languages of the Indians "have been pronounced, on very
slender materials, to contain high refinements in forms of expres-
sion ; an opinion which there is reason to believe requires great
modifications, however terse and beautiful the languages are in their
power of combination. The aboriginal archæology has fallen under
a somewhat similar spirit of misapprehension and predisposition to
exaggeration. The antiquities of the United States are the antiqui-
ties of barbarism, and not of ancient civilization. Mere age they
undoubtedly have; but, when we look about our magnificent forests
and fertile valleys for ancient relics of the traces of the plough, the
compass, the pen, and the chisel, it must require a heated imagina-
tion to perceive much, if anything at all, beyond the hunter state of
arts, as it existed at the respective eras of the Scandinavian and
* Historical and Statistical Information, respecting ibe History, Con.
dition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. By
Henry R. Schoolcraft, LL. D.
Philadelphia : 1851.
INTRODUCTION.
97
.
Columbian discoveries." He also says, that the antiquities of the
Mississippi valley do not denote a high state of civilization in the
aboriginal race, before the arrival of Europeans; the ruins of Palen-
que, Cuzco, Yucatan, and the Valley of Mexico, are, manifestly,
monuments of intrusive nations.
tions
The Scandinavians had visited the northern part of this continent,
from Greenland, as early as the beginning of the tenth century; and
even in the ninth we are told that Othere proceeded on a voyage to
the North Pole.
The Indian race is of a very old stock, apparently more ancient
than the cuneiform and Nilotic inscriptions, the oldest in the world.
“Nothing that we have, in the shape of books, is ancient enough to
recall the period of his origin but the sacred oracles. If we appeal
to these, a probable prototype may be recognized in that branch of
the race which may be called Almogic (from Almodad, the son of
Joktan), a branch of the Eber-ites. * * * * Like them, they are
depicted, at all periods of their history, as strongly self-willed,
exclusive in their type of individuality, heedless, heady, impractica-
ble, impatient of reproof or instruction, and strongly bent on the
various forms of ancient idolatry. Such are, indeed, the traits of
the American tribes.” They believe in a spirit of good and a spirit
of evil. This duality of gods is universal. They relate, generally,
that there was an ancient deluge, which covered the earth, and
destroyed mankind, except a limited number; they speak emphati-
cally of a future state, and appear to have an idea of rewards and
punishments hereafter.
The whole Indian population of the United States he estimates
at 388,229, with, perhaps, 25 or 35,000 more in the unexplored
territorios.
Mr. Squier * remarks that the ancient population of the Missis-
sippi valley was numerous and widely spread, as evinced by the
number and magnitude of the ancient monuments, and the extensive
range of their occurrence. “That it was essentially homogeneous,
in customs, habits, religion, and government, seems very well sus-
tained by the great uniformity which the ancient remains display,
not only as regards position and form, but in respect, also, to those
minor particulars, which, not less than more obvious and imposing
features, assist us in arriving at correct conclusions." * * * *
66. The features common to all are elementary, and identify them as
appertaining to a single grand system, owing its origin to a family
* Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. By E. G. Squier,
A. M., and E. H. Davis, M. D.
Washington : 1848.
98
INTRODUCTION.
of men, moving in the same general direction, acting under common
impulses, and influenced by similar causes.
He thinks the present condition of our knowledge on this subject
indicates a connection between the builders of the mounds and the
half-civilized nations of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, whose
vast and imposing structures invest this part of the continent " with
an interest not less absorbing than that which attaches to the valley
of the Nile.” The mound builders, like the last-mentioned nations,
were, to a considerable extent, stationary and agricultural in their
habits, "conditions indispensable to large population, to fixedness
of institutions, and to any considerable advance in the economical or
ennobling arts.”
While it is impossible to fix accurately the date of the ancient
monuments, many facts enable us to judge approximately. None of
these monuments occur upon the latest-formed terraces of the river
valleys of Ohio. We are warranted in believing that these terraces
mark the degrees of subsidence of the rivers, and one of the four
which can now be traced must have been formed since these rivers
have followed their present courses. “There is no good reason for
supposing that the mound builders would have avoided building upon
that terrace, while they erected their works promiscuously upon all
the others.” He adds, “ The time since the streams have flowed in
their present courses may be divided into four periods, of different
lengths, of which the latest, supposed to have elapsed since the race
of the mounds flourished, is much the longest."
The primitive forests which cover these mounds are in no way
distinguishable from those which surround them. Some of the
trees of these forests have a positive antiquity of 6 or 800 years.
The process by which nature restores the forest to its original state,
after being once cleared, is extremely slow. Without attempting-
to assign a definite period for such an assimilation, he says, “it
must, unquestionably, however, be measured by centuries.”
S. K.
Boston, 1851.
NATURAL HISTORY
OF
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
To investigate the History of Man, upon zoological princi.
ples, and to apply them to the phases of his earliest available
historical aspects, requires extensive researches, in a multitude
of directions, — physiological, linguistic, religious, traditional,
geographical, and migratorial, — for it is by their mutual com-
parison that light is thrown on many points, which, without
these · means, would remain entirely unknown. While the
first takes cognizance of every question relating to man's
organization, and the position he holds in the scale of being,
according to the laws which should guide all systematic
researches in animated nature, the second, being a faculty
appertaining solely to mankind, inquires into the grammatical
structure and the sounds of oral communication, and traces
out the families of languages, by means of which the more
remote origin, connection, and filiation of different tribes is
larity of tongues or dialects is more complete, the degree of
affinity they should bear, without entirely dismissing from the
question the fact, that nations at times adopt a new language,
to the total extinction of the tongue spoken by their ancestors.
It is in cases of this kind that the records of national super-
stitions, legends, manners, and even proverbs, become, in their
turn, elements of interest, to guide and correct the research.
Finally, when to these are added the ancient migrations which
100
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the different families of man have passed through, under the
various conditions imposed upon them by geographical neces-
sities, conclusions, more or less satisfactory, may be drawn,
even where, as yet, little or no positive historical information
is available, to substantiate them by direct reference to written
authority.
When, however, we endeavor to ascend up to the primeval
period of man's creation, and the distribution of his species on
the surface of the earth, the resources already pointed out will
be found insufficient without the aid of geology, particularly
when on the subject of the tertiary and alluvial strata, which
contain organic remains of vertebrata ; and, most of all, when
these are found to be of mammalia, whose orders and genera,
- nay, species, — are still existing in the same localities, or
in a more remote climate; because it is in the same deposits
of bones that the remains of man occur, though rarely; and
their character and race is the subject of dispute.
From the point of view wherein we propose to examine the
natural history of mankind, it will, perhaps, be found, like
geology, not wholly free from arguments that, to some, may
appear hazarded. In this class of researches, notwithstanding
the positive nature of a multiplicity of facts before us, while we
endeavor to abide by what we deem to be the truth, it is not
intended to push the inferences further than hypothetical
results, by means of which the phenomena of nature are best
explained, and deserve to become facts in science so far only
as they are warranted by the completeness of demonstration.
But as many points of research are, in their nature, not within
the reach of every test, much must remain partially speculative,
or possessed of that sole degree of probability which a compe-
tent judge may be disposed to award, upon dispassionate reflec-
tion, and the existing state of our knowledge.
Man, being possessed of the highest privileges and endow-
ments in the whole domain of zoology, becomes the ultimate
standard of comparison to which all animated life is referred.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
101
His location in systematic arrangement, and the various con-
ditions, physiological and historical, connected with the species,
are, therefore, a subject of the highest interest. His primeval
position, the region selected, where history and science can
trace his first habitation and development, deserve an attention
which it does not seem to have as yet obtained; for, by investi-
gation in that quarter alone, a more correct estimate of the
date of his era, anterior to the great superficial disturbances
which have occurred on earth, can be arrived at. Hence is
drawn the value of a clear view of the facts belonging to the
cavern and loam deposits of organic remains, without, as well
as with, human bones, and the so-called petrified skeletons of
man which have been detected on various occasions. Hence,
also, the interest attached to the changes which have occurred
on the earth's surface, because they may have had a para-
mount influence on the primeval distribution of man, and con-
stitute the only additional question which philosophical research
can attach to the primordial history of the human species. At
a later period, minor catastrophes, and the action of human
passions, led to known rnigrations by sea, and to the progress
of colonization by land. If the most remote were causes of the
approximation of different species of man, or of the separation
of the three great varieties of the human race, taken as a single
species, the later were most certainly the source of the minor
distinctions which do exist, both between nations of different
types, and of the same original stem.
Although the question of the unity of species, – that is,
whether mankind is to be regarded as a genus, constituted of
three or more species, or as only one, composed of as many or
of a greater number of varieties, subdivided into races, --- may
never be positively decided, it will not the less remain an
inquiry of intense interest to trace the several conditions, which,
in zoology, are assumed to have a preponderating influence.
Therefore, researches directed to the questions whether the
differences of conformation are sufficient in their anatomical
9*.
NATURAL HISTORY OF
D
and external characters, or the varying degrees of development
of the intellectual faculties amount to a body of facts sufficient
to come to a decision, are of the utmost importance. The
laws prescribed, when similar questions are applied to the
brute creation, we contend, should be equally imperative when
relating to man in his zoological aspect; and if no better argu-
ment or more decisive fact can be adduced, than that axiom
which declares that "fertile offspring constitutes the proof of
identity of species," we may be permitted to reply, that as this
maxim does not repose upon unexceptionable facts, it deserves
to be held solely in the light of a criterion, more convenient in
systematic classification than absolutely correct. So, again, in
forming an estimate of the antiquity of organic remains, in
juxtaposition with those of man, where the chemical and other
conditions of the bones are the same as those of the mammalia
they are found to accompany, they must be judged upon the
same principles.
With the foregoing elements in view, we desire to enter
upon the chain of our researches, reminding the young reader
that no transient facts, solitary examples, or even allusions to
names of tribes, legendary or religious, are disposed of, without
entering into further details; but, from the necessity of remain-
ing within the restrictions imposed upon us by the want of
space, although many may be far from needing a known his-
tory, or they occur merely as fictions, taken from physical
realities, such as the mythologist, versed in the philosophy of
early history, will immediately recognize, notwithstanding that
they come upon him under the combinations of a fresh aspect.
But where traces occur of great nations, and especially of those
that have had, or still continue to have, a marked influence on
human destinies, a certain extent of detail, we trust, will be
justifiable.
On questions of antiquity, involving periods of time, and on
others which relate to the measurements of distance between
geographical points, it may be well to bear in mind that the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
103
first, having no physical instrumentality, is liable to be con-
tracted to within assumed chronological data, commencing at
arbitrary epochs, not supported by researches in geology, and
often appearing to be of insufficient duration; while the second,
being based upon measures of length, either undefined, or vary-
ing in different places and times, are, from an innate propensity
in the human mind to magnify the unknown, stated to be more
than the reality. The purpose before us is, however, sufficiently
attained, by taking given ages for the one, and approximation
to true distances for the other. We can, by these means,
notice a succession of epochs in the conditions of the earth's
surface, each adapted to the existence of vertebrated animals,
with, it appears, an atmospheric state, gradually more suited
for mammalia, of certain orders and families, until it became
fit for the reception of man, whose creation may have synchro-
nized with the decay and subsequent disappearance of a great
proportion of the most powerful and fierce species, organized to
submit 'to some law of decreasing vitality, yet more than to a
cataclystic destruction. .
Here, then, we have the heads of those preliminary consider-
ations, which demand some notice of the great disturbances
that have affected the earth's surface, since the tertiary period.
came into operation, and our present zoology started into being.
Next will be found requisite a few details on the bone deposits
before mentioned, by whatever agency they may have been
formed; for, as by the former, the primordial nations may have
been forcibly. scattered, so, by the latter, their actual existence
in regions now separated by whole oceans, appear to be indi-
cated.
(
104
NATURAL HISTORY OF
CHANGES ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE, SINCE THE COM-
MENCEMENT OF THE PRESENT ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEM. '
THE present superficial character of the earth may be a
result of the combined action of sudden violent disruptions,
and long durations of gradual disintegrations, either operat-
ing as restorers of equipoises in the permanent laws of ne-
cessity, or as conductors of the slow process of accumula-
tions, which again prepare a great convulsion. Taking the
newer pliocene, or second tertiary age, to be coincident with the
mighty changes of sea and shore, when volcanic disturbances
were still in active operation, and that convulsive state, which
subsequent catastrophes, and the succession of ages, have, as
yet, only reduced in number, and moderated in force, when
first a congenial atmosphere had begun to prevail, we have an
epoch which would include the Mosaic deluge, and terminate
with that greatest.of all recorded destructions, - one, moreover,
supported by innumerable historical confirmations, although
some of these may be attributed to subsequent periods, and to
distinct calamities, such as the bursting of the barriers of great
mountain lakes, and irruptions of the sea; for these being con-
founded, in so many and remote quarters, with one great over-
whelming event, it is natural that the reminiscence should be
common to every region of the world. All these, whether sud-
den or slow disintegrations of-portions of the earth, it cannot
be doubted, must have had material influence on the distribu-
tion of races and human development. It is, indeed, chiefly by
the agency of these changes, — by the insulation of parts of
continents, resulting from submersions; and, again, by the
expansion or rising of the submarine floor, wherein islands
may have stood, till they united into continents, — that many
of the phenomena of zoological distribution can be best
THE HUMAN O
105
SPECIES.
explained ; and if this observation is accepted with respect to
brute mammalia, it surely implies that man, at least in some
degree, may have had to encounter similar contingencies.
In order to appreciate the great changes proved, or asserted
to have occurred, let us take a short review of those which are
the most prominent in the physical history of the earth.
ASIA.
Asia, apparently the most ancient integral continent of the
earth, it may be surmised, is held aloft by the agency. of great
subterrene volcanic trunks, whose direction is externally mani-
fested by the huge mountain range, which, passing longitudi-
nally from east to west, nearly beneath its centre, forms the gen-
eral water shed to the south and to the north, and constitutes the
hinge, the axis of nutation, to the whole of both its planes towards
the two oceans. In the east, the chain forms two or more paral-
lel ridges, widening until an elevated table-land, of prodigious
extent, is included between them. This plateau forms, chiefly,
the Gobi desert; its northern boundary consisting of the Altaic
chain facing Siberia, and the southern, overlooking the great
peninsula of India, contains, in the Himalaya system, the
highest mountains of the world.* To the westward, it is con-
tinued by the Hindu Koh, which is the real Caucasus, and
perhaps the Paropamissus of the ancients. Further on, the
chain of Elburs overhangs the southern shore of the Caspian ;
then succeeds Western Caucasus, and the mountain groups of
Asia Minor and the Crimea, anciently known by the names of
Taurus and Tauris; this, crossing the Hellespont about Con-
* That this lofty chain was bove up at a much more remote period, is
sufficiently proved by the presence of banks of oyster shells, discovered
by Dr. Gerrard at 16,000 feet above the level of the sea; and in Thibet,
shells fallen from cliffs, still higher, were taken up at the height of
17,000 feet. In Asia Minor, oyster beds are not more than 3000 feet
above the sea.
106
NATURAL HISTORY OF
stantinople, joins the Balkan to the Illyrian range, and, with
broken intervals, passes to the Carpathian and Alpine systems,
terminating in the Pyrenees; and that, recommencing west of
the Sea of Azoph, proceeds north to the Euxine, forming the
Cymbric Chersonesus.
From the culminating points of this central region to the
shores of every sea, we find traditions, historical records, and
demonstrated facts, attesting changes of surface and of level
truly appalling, - several of them having been converted, from
physical realities, into mythological fictions. In the north, the
Arctic shore has been for ages in a constant rising progress.
Whole regions have been submerged on the south and east of
Asia, particularly between the coasts of Malabar and Ceylon;
and, again, vast provinces have disappeared in the Chinese and
Japan Seas.
Already, in remote times, volcanic activity, manifested by
upheaving of the earth, relieved the elevated valleys of their
lakes, - such as those of Cashmeer and of Nepaul, — both
events being recorded in the traditions of the people. That of
the western Gobi escaped by the upper Irtish, and the lake of
Balcach was, most likely, absorbed or percolated through the
sand in the same direction. In the present era, percussions
continue to be frequent in Affghanistan and Caubul, sometimes
destroying houses and whole cities, with many human lives;
and they are still more abundant and violent on the east side,
wliere the mountains dip into the northern Pacific, to rise again
and produce desolation in Japan.
A diluvian convulsion evidently occurred during the present
zoology. It passed over Western Asia, from south to north,
affecting the Arctic coast, and snapping a portion of the cardi-
nating mountain ridge, it caused the surface of the earth to
sink below the level of any known dry land, excepting the
basin of the Dead Sea ; thus the Caspian formed an abyss; the
Aral lake, and, further west, perhaps the Euxine Sea shared the
same convulsion ; for all have the greatest depth of water on
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
107
the south side, close upon the most elevated shores, where vol-
canic detonations are still constantly felt. Notwithstanding
the quiescent state of the high sandy plateau of Persia, the fre-
quency of naphtha springs, some boiling, others in actual flame,
with constant smaller eruptions along the northern coast, and in
other parts of the kingdom, attest the presence of numerous
ramifications of active fires, once sufficiently powerful to form
lofty mountain peaks, whose summits, such as Elburs and
Demavend, show by their craters, now extinct or inactive, the
vast extent and force of the disturbing agency, - perhaps still
better exemplified in the high cones of Ararat, the loftiest of
which recently fell in, and proved this mountain to be also of
volcanic origin, crumbling in decay.
SOUTH OF ASIA.
TURNING our attention to the south coast, at the Persian
Gulf, we find the high rocks of Laristan and Mekran border-
ing on a deep-water sea, belted with narrow shores, — thus
bearing tokens of subsidence; for though Reesheer, not an
ancient place, was abandoned in the seventeenth century, on
account of the encroachments of the water, Busheer, built in
its stead, is already so low that, during certain winds, the
whole town is surrounded by the flood.
THE INDUS.
Beyond Cape Monze (Ras Moaree), the terminal point of
the Lukkee mountains, which form the western boundary of
the Indus, we have the great delta of that mighty river. From
the point where the stream escapes through the high lands,
and now pursues a course almost due south, there are abun-
dant tokens that originally it flowed nearly south-east, receiv-
ing the tributaries of the Punjaub, nearer their sources, and
reaching the Indian Ocean as far eastward as the Rhunn and
hat originaise almostues throughty river.
108
. NATURAL HISTORY OF
SS.
Gulf of Cutch, or even of Cambay. But, in a succession of
ages, it has either filled a region of little depth; or, by a con-
stant erosion of the western banks, from longitude 76, the bed
of the river has worked westward to 67° 10", over a space of.
nearly ten degrees. Perhaps allusion is made to the great
changes in the direction of the waters of North-Western India,
in the pretty mythological tale, anciently composed on the
table land of Ommurkuntur; and relating the amours and
jealous quarrel of the Nerbudda with the Burraet, whose
sources are not far asunder; while the course of the first is
westward, that of the latter turns east to join the Jumna.
· In common with other great rivers of low latitudes, whose
course, unconfined by rocky chains, is obliquely to or from the
equator, the Indus obeys a law, probably in consequence of the
earth's daily rotation, which impels the current of the stream
constantly to abrade its western bank, and to forsake eastern
channels; so also, in Arctic regions, it causes floating ice ever
to drift westward, and to pack against all coasts facing the
morning sun. The same results still occur; the current, now
in contact with the Lukkee hills, finds them an ineffectual
barrier; for, being gravelly, they are daily undermined, and,
at Sehwun, the face of the rock is incessantly carried away.
Even the road by which Lord Keene's army passed round its
foot was so entirely swept away by the next following freshets,
that, in a twelvemonth after, boats sailed in deep water over
the very spot.
In the first ages of the present geological disposition of the
earth's strata, the whole space *below the Punjaub may be
deemed to have been a shallow sea, which the enormous
deposits of the river constantly tended to fill up, and the surf
threw back in the form of sand and gravel, until the whole
space was filled, down to the edge of deep water, where the
currents generated by the monsoons first had power to act;
then the present delta, which began higher up, was finally
checked or reduced to very gradual additions. Nor is this
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
109
T.
supposition visionary. What the daily deposits can produce,
in a course of ages, may be inferred from Dr. Lord's calcula-
tion; for he, assuming the discharge of the river to be three
hundred cubic feet of mud per second, maintains it as equal
to form, in seven months, an island forty-two miles in length
by twenty-seven in breadth, and forty feet in depth ; which,
though the remaining five months may not continue an equal
daily deposit brought down from high Asia; even with the
allowance that a considerable exaggeration may exist in the
estimated quantities, is, nevertheless, sufficient to have replen-
ished a gulf of shoal water, of enormous extent, in a few cen-
turies. Proportionably as the current shifted to the westward,
the monsoon winds filled up the abandoned beds of the stream
with drift sand, leaving only those of former affluents to con-
tinue their course, and the plain to become a desert of sand
formed in ridges, sometimes of a considerable height; for the
coasts of France, Holland, and of the Baltic near Dantzig,
demonstrate that the surf and winds can elevate them to
more than eighty feet, without a single ingredient in their
mass to give them real stability. Such is the desert of the
Indus from above the junction of the Sutlege (Hyphasis), the
lowest of the Punjaub rivers, to the sea-shore of the delta,
where Cutch, once a great island, is now a part of the conti-
nent. In this vicinity, so late as 1819, a vast surface of sand
suddenly sunk down, upon which a stream of the Indus came
towards Luckput by an ancient and forsaken channel from
Hyderabad (Pattala?) to Bahmanabad, and filled the depressed
soil in the form of a shallow lake, now called Ullahbund; and
many smaller lagoons of similar origin, mere water deposits,
are still dispersed on the plains eastward beyond Jeysulmair,
to the Hoony river in Malwah.*
* By information very recently received, it appears that a second sub-
mersion, greater than the Ullahbund, has taken place during the present
summer (1845), offering a further confirmation of the theory above
advanced.
10
110
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Proceeding to the opposite coast of the Gulf of Cutch, we
arrive at the island of Bate, or ancient Chunkodwar, renowned
in the legends of India for the demon Haiagrieva concealing
the Vedas in a conch shell; and then, on the furthest point of
Gujrat, observe Cape Juggeth, at a distance appearing like a
stranded ark, or wrecked ship. Here is a celebrated pagoda,
connected with diluvian legends, for on this coast was
Dwaraca, now represented by Mhadapore, “ before the ocean
broke in upon the land ;" and it is still pretended that the
annual mysterious bird makes its appearance, as it did in the
time of Alexander. Inland the elevated Ghauts appear with
but an insignificant breadth of plain at their base, continuing
from Surat to Cape Comorin, in other respects destitute of
indications of important changes; but when this most southern
extremity of the peninsula is turned, the sea between the
mainland and the island of Ceylon is found to be of inconsid-
erable depth, particularly in the Gulf of Manaar, abounding in
the pearl oyster; and, from the long and narrow island of that
name, on the Ceylon side, a shoal, impassable to ships of bur-
then, extends across the intervening space to Ramiseram, a
similar low and lengthy island, which almost joins a point of
land, projecting far out from the coast of the Carnatic. This
shoal, based perhaps upon a natural dyke of rock, is the cele-
brated Adam's Bridge of geographers; and, at the time of the
first European navigators, still retained several islands above
water.* Both Manaar and Ramiseram are decorated with
temples, and the whole region, on either side, is redolent of
* The channels have shoaled up to a little more than four feet of water,
as we were informed by the late Major Rennell, who had surveyed the
vicinity, since the French Admiral, Suffrein, about the years 1780–81,
caused vessels to be sunk in them, from an apprehension that English
forces might pass through these gaps, along the Indian shores, without
his knowledge, and avoid going round the south side of Ceylon. Though
ut certain seasons there is a strong current in the channels, it is likely
that the usual tides meet at the bridge, for the lagoons are everywhere
filling up.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
111
mythological legends of the most remote antiquity. The sea,
in particular that portion to the north and east of the bridge,
denominated the Palk Strait, is the recorded space of a great
diluvian submersion, leaving, on the Ceylon side, evidence of
the fact, in the cluster of Jafnapatam islands, and innumerable
lakes and ponds on the Carnatic side, which partly recovered
from the inundation. The space of land submerged, extended
from longitude gº to 10° 20" north, and from 790 to 80° 15'
east — above 3600 square miles, where mankind, as it appears,
was both a witness and a sufferer. Whether this particular
calamity was one of many postdiluvian events, resulting from
a return to equipoises, after a great convulsion in nature, or
whether it was in connection with the upheaving of Northern
Asia, must be mere conjecture, though it is certain that the
south coast for ages after, and even now, tends to continued
depression.
CEYLON.
BUT Ceylon, the Lanka, Sinhala, Dwipa, Taprobana, and
Salice, &c., of ancient classics, of the Hindoo and early Ara-
bian writers, as well as in the traditions of Southern and
Western Asia, and even in the opinion of a great modern
geologist, was the primeval abode of man, whose first station on
earth lay in the basin of Candy, girt round with high preci-
pices, where the Mavela Gonga rises from beneath the
summit of Mali or Hamateel, better known in Europe by the
name of Adam's Peak. This cone, though not the most
lofty in the island, rises to 7720 feet, and is seen, far out at
sea, towering over the high-girt vale, which, flourishing
in vegetation, may well have suggested an idea of Para-
dise. On the highest summit there is one of those manu-
factured impressions of human feet, which imposture repre-
sents to be of Adam or of Budha, and belongs to a very
112
NATURAL HISTORY OF
early period.* There can be no doubt of the remote civiliza- '
tion of Ceylon, and the ruins of enormous cities, such as
Palæsimundus (Arrian), Amuragramma, Coodramalli on the
pearl coast, and the innumerable artificial tanks, certainly
prove an enormous and industrious population to have once
flourished on the island.
Although Arabian legends of Ceylon have an air of the
greatest antiquity, it is from Hindoo traditions, both in the
island and on the main coast, that the mythological appropria-
tions of the local submersion are confounded with the Mosaic
or general deluge of history; nevertheless, a separate record of
source, first distinctly announced at the pagoda of Juggeth,
before mentioned ; and from thence passing onwards, inore and
more distorted, till every circumstance is obliterated, in fanci-
ful tales, at the black pagoda of Juggernaut.*
On the coast of the Carnatic, eastward to the Bay of Bengal,
tributes of earthy deposit, not only no perceptible extension of
the low coast is discernible, but abrasion by surf, and occasional :
great sea waves, indicate progressive depression. All the
streams are barred, and in deep water the currents are violent;
thus, in 1793, the settlement of Coringa, near the mouth of the
Cawvery, was overflowed by three successive seas, with most
of the lives, houses, and property swept away. The ruins of
Mahabalipuram, at no great distance from thence, better known
as the seven pagodas, once a great and superb city, demon-
strate the sinking soil, by several of the temples being either
* This was already an ancient practice in the age of Herodotus.
Before his timé there were some dedicated to Osiris, in Upper Egypt;
one, ascribed to Hercules, was carved in rock, on the Danube ; others are
still found referred to Budha, in Japan and China. Paducas are common
in India. There is one to Moses in Sinai, to the Saviour at Jerusalem, to
Abraham in Arabia, to Mohammed at Mecca, and to a variety of saints
in Italy, France, and even Wales.
+ Consult Nearchus, Ptolemy, Kosmos, Knox, Upham, &c.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
113
entirely, or already partially, in conflict with the waves.
Annually, immense expense is incurred to defend Madras from
the menacing sea; and even the black pagoda, notorious for
the inhuman religious, practices in honor of Juggernaut, is
threatened with a similar fate; and Hindoo legends tell of a
primeval temple now beneath the sands.
THE GANGES.
In the Bay of Bengal, where the Ganges is reported to dis-
charge, per day, solid matter equal in cubic bulk to the great
pyramid of Egypt, and the Sunderbunds or Calingas form a
delta of immense breadth, no further extension is observed sea-
ward; but, according to Major Rennell, a vast surface of land,
with the ancient city of Bengalla, once seated at the eastern-
most branch of the river, has been submerged in deep water.
Though the peninsula is perpetually disturbed by earth-
quakes, Allahabad offers one of the few indications of volcanic
action, above the surface, by the thermal waters, observed in a
deep cave, where “ the tree of Adam continues to bud;" and
beyond the Brahmaputra, a naphtha spring, in perpetual igni-
tion, is held in veneration even in Thibet.
AUSTRALASIA.
On the east side of the Bay of Bengal, down to the
extremity of further India, the shore, rich in alluvial deposits,
brought down by the great rivers from Indo-China, repels the
western monsoon, and maintains a powerful seaward vegeta-,
tion; but where the Malay peninsula extends towards the great
Australian islands, volcanic disturbances again become predom-
inant, presenting, in their extent, above fifty craters in fearful
activity. Disruption and submersion of what may have been
a continent, a kind of counterpart to South America, may be
surmised, by the shallowness of some parts of the sea, and the
10*
114
NATURAL HISTORY OF
exceeding inequality of the submarine floor; the islands, great
and small, appearing like the subsisting ruins of a once united
region, which the straits of Malacca, Sunda, Bali, the Sea of
Banda, &c., have separated, froin the effect of immense percus-
sions, originating at a great depth. No small confirmation to
this supposition is drawn from the frequent identity of the
manımalia observed on the islands and the neighboring conti-
nent; in several cases, the species cannot, with any probability,
be supposed to have been transported from one to the other, by
human intervention. Some of these are Pachyderms, common
to both, and others of the same order, of different species ; such
as, Ist. Large ruminants : The Banting, Bos leucoprymnus ?
Rusa, or Cervus equinus, Elant of the Javanese Dutch. · 2d.
The Elephant? two or three species of Rhinoceros, a Tapir,
and many more. In the distribution of zoological species,
there is no other instance of great Pachyderms being confined
to insulated locations, and none where the same species occur
on two or more of them, and again on the mainland of the next
continent. They offer, therefore, additional arguments in
favor of the conclusion, that in the earlier period of the existing
zoology, all these great islands formed part of the continent;
and that in one anterior to it, the connection extended to Aus-
tralia, since fossil remains of great Proboscideans (Elephas
angustidens ?) have already been discovered in that soil; not-
withstanding that the present mammalia, perhaps with the
only exceptions of the dog and rat, (both imported species,)
are entirely implacental, with fewer congeners on the Asiatic
than on the Ainerican side of the southern hemisphere. These
exceptions in the former direction, are chiefly confined to those
islands, great and small, clustered together on the north of the
Australasian group, and with more questionable connection,
extending by New Guinea to the south-east, including several
Archipelagos and New Caledonia, all notoriously encumbered
with coral reefs, ever the certain indications of comparatively.
shoal waters, and by Torres Straits passing to Australia
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
115 :
proper; for: the strait which severs it from New Guinea is
almost fordable in many parts, the ship channels being narrow
and dangerous passes. The whole of the islands in question,
from New Guinea to beyond the Solomon's group, bear a still
greater appearance of cataclysis, not by. division so much as by
submersion. Beside the singular zoology already noticed, the
equatorial islands are the habitation of Simiada, such as the
Gibbons, (Hylobates,) or long-armed apes, and of two or three
species of Pithecus, or Orang Outan, in stature as large as
men, and in strength superior to eight or more, - of all the
brute creation the genus which structurally approximates most
to man, who, to the eastward and in Australia, is himself
represented by Papua tribes, cannibals so low in the scale of
humanity, that, were it not for the admixture of other blood,
hopes of ameliorating their condition would appear illusory.
They might be considered to form the centre of that antique
population which alone occupied the southern hemisphere,
before the diffusion of the bearded or Caucasian man; a popu-
lation primevally formed to breathe and multiply in the heated
and moist atmosphere of tropical swamps and forests, at a
period when the great Saurians and the now extinct Pachy-
derms existed ; and that their native region, extending far east-
ward in the Pacific, had in great part subsided, leaving the
islands and their organic creation, the evident wreck of a
former system of existence.
EAST COAST OF ASIA.
It is off the east coast of this part of Asia that the main
ramification of galleries passes from Japan to the north, as far
as Kamtschatka, and to the south by several trunks, beneath
the Bonin, Sulphur, Marian, and Ladrone groups; and again,
by the Philippines, Banda, &c., become connected with the
great equatorial centre of ignition in Java and the surrounding
craters. Although Chinese history commences with their
116
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Formosa, by mbmersions ; suchat the still
deified heroes, toiling to clear the upper provinces of lakes and
marshes, the sea, particularly between the main coast and
Formosa, by many geographical indications, supports the local
tradition of submersions; such as Mauri Gasima, and other
islands shown by the shoals, at the still remaining Piscadore
and Bashee islets; and the tale, notwithstanding a due allow-
ance for the expert impostorship of the natives, seems con-
firmed, by the fishermen's drag nets occasionally bringing to the
surface a curiously colored porcelain, which the art, as now
understood in the Celestial Empire, is unable to produce. The
continent is separated from Formosa by a sea, we believe, always
in soundings, the shores being bordered with a broad belt of sand,
swamp, or sunken rock, generally indications of progressive
denudations; and both coasts are not unfrequently visited by
calamitous overflowings. Since these lines were first written,
(1845), if the foreign news may be credited, an event of this kind
has again taken place on the maritime provinces and the Yellow
Sea, the waters rising in the Gulf of Pechelee, to the destruction
of several hundred thousand human lives, innumerable cattle,
the loss of all the houses and provisions, and the total ruin of
above sixteen millions of the population, who were driven to
seek shelter and food in the upland provinces. Even admit-
ting probable exaggeration in the report, it is an event far sur-
passing the traditional deluges of Greece, or any other
recorded in profane history. It is an occurrence that may
boldly be claimed as a proof of continued depression of the
southern and eastern shores of Asia, and the oscillations pro-
duced on the sea by submarine disturbance, which then, like a
great tide wave, passes upon the land far above its usual
limit.
In Japan, volcanic convulsions have been unremitting, from
periods anterior to the most ancient records of the nation; for
to them alone can be ascribed the repeated discoveries, at great
depths, of jewels and manufactured objects, totally distinct
from the present, and noticed by all the native literati as more
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
117
ancient than the existing creation. . On the line of volcanic
agitation, south of Japan, and near a crater in constant activity
is the island of Assumcion, (or Ascension,) one of the Marian
group (?) — now, like many others of this and neighboring
clusters, low and small : — here there was lately discovered,
by the officers of H. M. Sloop Raven, the ruins of a city, still,
it seems, known by the name of Tamen. It stands so far in
the wash of the waves that a boat is necessary to land at the
buildings, which are composed of very large blocks of stone,
some being twenty feet in length. Other reports were subse-
quently brought to Sydney, stating that one or two other cities
of similar work, were extant on other islands, and equally sub-
merged. One, indeed, seated on an island, named Pouznipète,
or Seniavane, is mentioned by Mr. C. Darwin, in his volume
on the structure and distribution of coral reefs, but he supposes
it to be the same as the first mentioned.* Tinian, however, is
not far remote, and there, when Lord Anson landed, were
found two parallel rows of squared upright stones, in the form
of obelisks, each surmounted by a coping block, immediately
recalling to mind the colossal pillar-idols of Easter Island, which
are known to have been the work of a departed population,
probably of the same race that once inhabited Pitcairn's, the
late well-known retreat of the mutineers of the Bounty. These
antique and now forsaken cities must have been constructed by
a people totally distinct from the present inhabitants, and much
more numerous than the existing locality could now supply
with food. The group is entirely composed of volcanic cones,
and of low coral reef islands; and we agree with Mr. Darwin
in opinion, that they are the remains of land once much greater
in extent, but sunken beneath the sea's level, by the effect of
* The most recent maps are unsatisfactory with reference to these
islands; and, as both Mr. Darwin's account and our own were derived
from the Sydney papers, it may be well to remain somewhat in doubt on
the truth of the reports. We are obliged to that scientific observer for a
note on this subject.
118
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the excavations of igneous exhaustion. The population was
once unquestionably organized in a social state ; it may have
been a kind of Austrál Pelasgian people, distinct from the pres-
ent Jacalvas Biagoos, or Sea Gypsies, who always live on the
water; but that one has wandered, as navigators and workers
in stone, across the whole breadth of the South Seas, is proved
by the monuments left on the islands above-mentioned, not-
withstanding the great distance they are asunder; perhaps the
builders of the great pyramids in some of the Australasian
islands, -again repeated, under the name of Morais, in many
of the South Sea groups, --- the same who ultimately passed
to the west coast of America, and introduced similar structures
at Cholula and many other places; models upon which the
indigenous civilization of the New World was based and pro-
gressing, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of international wars
and conquests, until the arrival of the Spaniards laid the
whole western fabric in the dust.*
ARCTIC ASIA.
BEHRING's Strait is generally of a trifling depth, scarcely
forty miles wide, having several denudated and abraded
islands intervening; and the coasts, in many parts, composed
more of frozen earth than solid rock. As the water, with
several shoals, is floored with fossil bones and shells, and there
being no river of importance on either shore of the continents,
or near, on the Arctic side, no great pressure can have come
from the polar ocean; and, consequently, no great opening, if
any, until the Arctic rising of Asia and Europe altered the
relative conditions of the two seas. That once there was no
"current, may be inferred from the islands of New Siberia, and
the vicinity being in part composed of ice, mixed with mammoth
bones, tusks, and other organic remains; and the presence of
* See Addenda.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
119
several species of land mammals, common to both continents,
attests a facility of passing from one to the other, and a pas-
sage to have been effected by several of them on the ice.
While the foregoing statements, sufficiently demonstrate a
continued declination of the south and east coasts of Asia, the
case appears entirely reversed, from the lofty central mountain
hinge northward to the shores facing the Arctic Sea. Chinese
documents of remote antiquity report the land to have termi-
nated at no great distance beyond the mountain chain of North-
ern Tahtary;* skeletons of whales having been found 800
miles inland, up the Lena.
The enormous loads of debris which some rivers, amongst
the largest in the world, incessantly pour forth from the
great central chains of Asia, convert them, during the melt-
ing of the snows, for a considerable period to the breadth
of marine straits, and carry away hills, banks, and forests, in
their course; and constantly shift the soil in such a manner,
that, speaking of a more elevated basin, Cochrane remarks: -
“It is but twenty years since the present centre of the river
Selinga was the centre of the city Selenginsk.” The Obi,
* According to the Chevalier Paravey, north-eastern Asia was still
rising within the last two centuries. The shadow of a gnomon, set up in
1260, by order of Kobi-lay, emperor of China, proves that the northern
coast then ranged between the 63d and 64th degrees of north latitude ;
whereas, now it is above 70 degrees. - Memoir read at the Geographical
Society, 8th Feb., 1841 ; see Biblioth. Orientale d'Herbelot, t. iv., p. 171;
Hedenstræhm. — M. Arago remarks that the ice has greatly accumu-
lated in the Arctic seas within the latter centuries, and rendered návi-
gation round the polar extremity of Nova Zembla totally impracticable,
although the foregoing travellers maintain that the cold in eastern Siberia
decreases sensibly; and this opinion is in perfect accordance with the
gradual rising of the polar shore, for that must increase the power of the
sun's rays very considerably, on the oblate spheroid surface of the Arctic
Circle. Strahlenberg notices the entire bull of a keeled ship being found in
the Barabinsk, between six and seven hundred miles from the sea. Wran-
gel observed drift-wood above the highest sea level, upwards of 50 versts
inland, and other phenomena of risings of the surface. See Reise.
120
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Jenissei, and Lena, all overflow to a vast extent, as was
already remarked by Abulghazi; and no doubt the deposits of
so many streams contribute largely to the extension of the
shores in the Arctic Circle; but the increase thus obtained
cannot be of sufficient extent to account for the rapid progress
of the land, even where the depth is inconsiderable, and little
current exists. It militates against the conclusions of the most
scientific travellers who have visited the localities; among
whom Strahlenberg, Pallas, and Humboldt stand conspicuous;
and is an opinion, moreover, that every new research tends to
strengthen, and one in unison with the belief of all the barba-
rous tribes that wander over those inhospitable regions.
CASPIAN BASIN, AN ASIATIC MEDITERRANEAN.
A GRADUAL upheaving of the Arctic shore, chiefly on the
north-west of Tahtary, and also to the west of the Oural chain,
can alone explain the general fact, which, in the north of
Europe, is now fully established ; and furnishes, also, the best
argument to account for the loss of that great inland sea which
once spread over the low bed where now the Obi and Irtish
flow united, covering the whole lower Ichim and Tobol, the
Barabintz, Lake Aksakal, and the innumerable pools, sea
sands, incrustations, and efflorescences of salt, and recent
shells. It reached by the Aral to the Caspian, was further
connected with the Black or Euxine Sea, at that period inun-
dating a considerable proportion of Southern Russia, and unit-
ing with the Baltic, had again open communication with the
White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, both by the Gulf of Bothnia
and by that of Finland. *
The Caspian Sea, by accurate measurements taken in 1844,
is eighty-three and a half feet below the Mediterranean, or
about sixty-five feet lower than the Sea of Azoph; and Lake
.* See Addenda.
THE HUMAN SPECIES11
121
.
Aral, though higher, is still known to be below the level of the.
Euxine. Both are, with the exception of the Caucasian moun-
tain system, and the Elburs chain, entirely surrounded by
saline plains of hard clay, and low sandy steppes; on the west,
extended to the Sea of Azoph and the Euxine, and between
the Kama, Don, Wolga, Jaik, Lake Aksakal, the lower Ichim,
and the Amoo, covering a space of 18,000 square leagues. In
addition to the inland seas already mentioned, on the south-
east is the desert of Karakoum, or of black sand, estimated.
alone, at 150 miles in length, by 100 in breadth, forming a
plain without a tree, — the floor of an evaporated and perco-
lated sea.
With the exception of the Oulon-tag, the Ildiglis, and the
low Monghogar hills, the surface extends north-eastward, with
scarcely an undulation. It is studded, in all directions, with
smaller lakes, sedgy pools, morasses, and temporary rivers,
which now terminate in small water basins, or are lost in the
sand; and the occasional more elevated spaces are always
edged by water-worn indications. The vast lake, which for-
merly covered a great space on the south of Khiva, in long.
59°, lat. 41° 15”, has disappeared, all but a few pools, where
the whole region is intersected with vestiges of ancient canals
of irrigation, now dried up. These show a second stage, or
era, when the sea had departed, and rivers still flowed onwards
to the Caspian. So, also, the Kirguise steppe, forming the
northern portion of the depressed region, is composed of a cold
clay, which, notwithstanding, was anciently productive of a
remunerating income to the cultivator; but husbandry con-
tinuing to be invaded by a black sea-sand, blown from the
north, whole districts are now uninhabitable; and ruins of
ancient farms, rendered desolate by a bed of this destroying
substance, attest the progress and influence of the northern
upheaving. The dust comes up from the Obi, and the results
are comparatively recent, though their commencement must
date back to a remote period. They were, no doubt, early, a
122
NATURAL HISTORY OF
cause of the destruction of the caravan trade, already on the
decline during the Roman empire, and show that the efforts
of Russia to revive it are unavailing, because, the course of the
Oxus being changed, trade no longer reaches the Caspian by
boats; and, moreover, water becoming annually more scarce,
the nomad hordes of the desert, gradually deprived of cultiva-
tion by the inroads of the sea-sand, and driven eastward by the
want of that necessary element, are necessitated to live by
rapine where the earth grants no subsistence.*
Rivers like the Jaxartes, now denominated the Syrderiah, or
Syhoun, and the Oxus, since called Jeyhoun and Amou,
which, according to the ancients, originally flowed more
directly westward to the Caspian, are now turned into the
Aral, - a result which changes in the plane of declivity alone
could produce, although the fact has been repeatedly ascribed
to the labors of a poor, idle, and scanty population, destitute of
mechanical skill, and almost of property in the soil. The Jax-
artes now reaches Lake Aral through a sedgy bed, filling the
north-eastern angle with clusters of islands, successively pro-
duced by the deposits bearing the same aquatic plants. The
Tanghi-Deriah, said, anciently, to have constituted the Deltic
branch of the Jaxartes, which discharged its waters into the
Caspian, is reported to have been turned off by the Khokani-
ans, who, dreading the Khiva robbers might plant colonies of
their own people along the stream, raised a bank to cut off the
current. Although great rivers are not to be thus turned from
their natural course, the dry bed certainly exists. It is now
overgrown with Anabasis anmodendron.t
* See Report to the Acad. des Sciences, Paris, by M. Hommaire Dehel,
on the levels of the Caspian and Aral, and on the decrease of the Oxus
and Volga. April, 1843.
† We doubt this being the same as the Janderiah, which ſorsook its bed
so late as 1816. Report of a Memoir by M. A. De Kanikoff, to the Geo-
graphical Society of London, November, 1844. It is reported by Arabiain
authors that both rivers remained dry for seven years, about 460, and the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
123
The Oxus was stated already, in antiquity, to have changed
her course; probably because the bed of the stream shifted
repeatedly; for undeniable vestiges of a broad river course,
with upright water-worn banks, occur between Khiva and the
Caspian, and notably near Old Ourgengj. Both streams now
hasten the repletion of the Aral, already of small depth and
full of islands; and these noble rivers, at some future period,
may be lost in the sand, or take a course still further north, to
Lake Aksakal, or ultimately reach the Tobol or the Ichim, and
terminate in the Polar Sea.
Such are the abstracts of statements, and the inferences
which establish the existence of an Asiatic Mediterranean, or,
rather, a lagoon sea, in the earlier period of man's presence on
the earth ; for until ages after, though in a gradual progress of
evanescence, desiccation was not effected till the bed and
mouth of the Obi were elevated, when the mass of waters in
the lagoons, no longer fed by external supplies, and being
of themselves insufficient to maintain the equilibrium against
percolation and the power of solar heat upon sand and hard
clay, absorbed such an amount of moisture that the level of the
dry plains is now far below the surface of the ocean. But so
long as there was a sea, Northern Europe was insulated, inac-
cessible to migration, excepting on the winter's ice, and in the
skin or birchen kayaks of polar nations. Geographically, our
best course is now to continue the description of the progres-
sive rising of the Arctic soil in Europe, and to return by the
Mediterranean to Western Asia; because the chief phenomena
affecting changes on the earth's surface are again common to
both quarters of the world; in the north referring mainly to
the same effects as already noticed in Asia, but with more
undeniable proof; and, in the south-east of the Mediterranean,
statement is countenanced by the appearance above noticed, and perhaps
still more by the prodigious number of Indo-German and Tahtar invaders,
which broke in upon Europe about that period. They could not remain
in a land without water.
124
NATURAL HISTORY OF
marked by volcanic perturbations, passing, from time to time,
through Western Asia to Africa, and sometimes extending con-
vulsively to Western Europe and even to the Azores.
EUROPE.
EUROPE, in many respects, is only the western prolongation
of Asia, where features of the great central chain of mountains
similarly break into ramified systems, turned to the Atlantic;
while, on the east, they end or border the Pacific. On each
coast there are mighty islands, containing the most energetic
populations; and on each continent are the two forms or races
of mankind, which alone have advanced in mental develop-
ment, without any common point of departure hitherto philo-
sophically substantiated. Both quarters have volcanic spiracula
in the seas beyond them, and on the shores, though not in the
same degrees of activity; for while the craters of many on the
main land of Kamtschatka, in the Japanese islands, and on
multiplied points in the Chinese and neighboring seas, are
incessantly incandescent, those of Europe, with exception of
the Italian, are dormant or extinct; and though the Azorean
cluster turmoils on a smaller scale, Hecla, in the high north,
alone has produced devastations, within the period of historical
cognizance, sufficient to affect profoundly the permanent inter-
ests of a resident population. At the bifurcations of the.
European continuation of the great mountain chains of central
Asia, are dislocations of great extent, among which that formed
by the great basin of the Euxine, or antique Axenus, is the
most remarkable. Its present outlet at the Bosphorus, dating,
probably, not much anterior to the Greek heroic age, was
-clearly a consequence of increased pressure, produced by the
waters of the inland seas, already noticed, increasing their
weight towards the south, in proportion as the north was hove
up; and both the Ouralian and Sarmatian arms were cut off
from their communications with the ocean, but were not to be
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
UC
127
.converted into marshes and deserts until drained off by a new
outlet, and when the sun could act with power in the process
of absorption. Then it was that the emphatical expressions of
" the kings of the isles,” and “isles of the west,” which desig-
nate Europe in the oldest human records, were correct in the
strictest sense; and, until the progressive results had been long
in operation, man was not able to reach Europe in the strength
of numbers, but only by families, or small clans of wanderers,
in. canoes or rafts, on the northern ice, or at the isthmus of
Thrace, before it was rent asunder by a volcanic percussion,
and the local deluges of Hellenic mythology took place.
Russia, west of the Qural chain, exhibits a counter direction
of water-courses, which forms a kind of table land in the
Vologda province, flowing towards the Caspian and the Eux-
ine, and having only inferior rivers turned towards the pole.
Hills, or small mountain clusters, commence already to rear
their heads amid the marshes and lakes bordering on the Arc-
tic shore, through the whole province of Archangel, becoming
more elevated westward, after the interval occasioned by the
White Sea, till they reach their utmost north and western
limits in the Lapland system. Vologda, and the surrounding
high lands of Russia, were then an insulated prolongation of
the Oural range, full of forests and marshes, with the Euxine
reaching to a great distance inland, and the Chersonesus (now
Crimea) was a rocky island.* At present the southern steppes
are still composed of sea-sands, and the vegetation consists
almost wholly of saline plants, — Artemisia, Salsole, and Sali-
cornia, — and lakes of salt water are frequent in the eastern
iccation of the soil by a progressive diminution of water. The
fact applies equally to the Volga, Oural, and Don, as well as
to the Borysthenes or Dnieper, and the Boug, the sacred
·
* Ai-petri, the culminating point of the Crimea, is estimated at 3500
feet above the sea.
11S
*
126
NATURAL HISTORY OF
stream of antique Russia, the seat of Asa gods, when their
Alan kindred still possessed the banks of the Don. At that
period, Sacæ wandered over the newly recovered plains of
western Siberia, and the great streams just mentioned had
ceased to form Archipelagos of upland islands and peninsulas,
between shallow creeks, marshy woods, and salt water pools,
not even now obliterated.* Leaving, for the present, other
considerations affecting the Euxine, till the volcanic system of
eastern Europe is under review, we proceed with the Scandi-
navian peninsula.
ARCTIC EUROPE..
FROM Cape North, to the southward and east, as already
observed, the Lapland high lands are a system spreading to
the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, and, in connection with the
high mountain chain of Scandinavia, once formed a great
island, the Scansia of Jornandes. The gulf and White Sea
being still connected, in 1450, by the Kitkacerva, and, probably,
also, by the Ulea Lakes; and, more anciently, the Ladoga and
Onega, communicating, by the Ozero Sig and Ozero Vigo,
with the Arctic Sea. The greater part of Finland, thick set
with pools, is in itself strong evidence of the fact. At the
summit of the Gulf of Bothnia, it had long been observed that
the sea was retiring by slow degrees, not so much from the
effect of fresh water deposits, as, according to a common
opinion, by a progressive rising of the submarine floor; for
many outlying rocks, known from ancient times by distinct
* The Moscow uplands are given at 460 feet above the level of the sea;
but the base of the hills, and water-courses, can scarcely amount to 100
feet, notwithstanding the continuous rising of the upper soil, by the
deposits from above, washed down by rains and melting snows. In
Poland, the canals between the two seas require only from ten to fifteen
locks, although it does not appear that careful surveys had determined the
lowest levels.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
127
names, and sung in Runic ballads, for being the basking beds
of seals, where daring hunters acquired celebrity in their pur-
suit, had risen above water beyond the reach of their ancient
amphibious visitors; parts of the gulf, which, half a century
before, had been crossed in boats by the French academicians,
were converted into permanent meadow land; and more minute
research disclosed, at a distance inland, successive lines of
beach, each provided with a bed of shells in a very recent state.
From these the sea had evidently receded, according to the
changes which an upheaving motion of the land, proceeding
from the north, effected on the levels; and correspondingly
raised beaches have since been observed by M. Bravais, on the
opposite declivity of the Lapland system, near Hamerfest and
Cape North, which show, by being at greater elevations, the
acting forces to be most powerful on the Polar side. More
than a century passed; with a view of settling the question by
positive measurement, copper bolts were driven in several
rocks at the mean sea level, and subsequent investigation sub-
stantiates that the rising progress is greatest in the north,
being, at the summit of the Gulf of Bothnia, at the rate of 41
feet in a century, decreasing to one foot at Stockholm; and on
the southern or German shore of the Baltic, at 0, or, as we
think, declining.* This supposition is countenanced by several
submersions in the southern Baltic, already observed, from the
year 830, such as those resulting from the great storm, when
the island of Rugen was separated from the German shore, and
the successive marine depressions of the cominercial republics
of Winetha, Arkona, and Jomsberg, near Wollin; some endur-
ing to the twelfth century, when their ruin, effected by the
* These researches date from the year 1700, when, to mark the true
level, copper bolts were driven in, and deep grooves were cut in the rocks.
They terininated in 1827, the observations being made by Davis, Hellant,
Cydenius, Klingius, Rudman, &c. Several French philosophers have
made later researches, and confirmed the progress. See Elie. de Beau-
mont, Mem. Acad. des Sciences de Paris.
128
NATURAL HISTORY OF
hand of man, was followed by submersion beneath the waves.
Continuous denudations of the sea-shore, or erosions of rivers,
furnished the amber of the Baltic from very early ages; and
the check of that trade is now only as it respects discovery of
it at sea, but not inland. A prolonged depression on this coast
alone accounts for the absence of deltas at the mouths of the
Vistula and the Oder, and may be in combination with the
changes of surface, which, while the real plane of declivity of
the two last mentioned rivers became greater towards the
north, did not affect their watershed, and aided in throwing the
masses of the Lagoon Sea down the western Russian rivers
into the Euxine.
WESTERN EUROPE.
The whole of Northern and Western Germany is low and
of a sandy alluvial soil, which, without the aid of cultivation
and human care, might still be threatened with marine inva-
sion; and Denmark, in its oldest poetical aspect, was appar-
ently less intersected by creeks and water channels than at
present. High sand hills are easily formed by the surf and
the wind; they are no proof of antiquity, still less of dura-
bility, from the fact of the sand bank, eighty feet in height, near
Dantzig, being broke through in 1843, and forming a new
mouth for the river, during an unusually high flood of the
inland waters.
Some part of the east and south of England was certainly
connected with the opposite coast, at a period preceding the
change of direction which the Rhine received, when, turning
from its ancient bed through the Cevennes, a channel was
formed to the north, and the waters first reached the sea by
the volcanic basin of Neuwied. Western Germany seems
then to have been indented with deep bays, estuaries, and
islands, the salt water reaching above Wezel, on the Rhine,
where the heaths still abound in sea-shells, in a perfect
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
129
.
state:* No extensive deposits, brought by lengthened water-
courses, had as yet formed deltas; for, while the great volcanic
craters from the Vogesian chain to Kloster Laach, in the basin
of Neuwied; of the Pulvermar, near Gillenfeld, in the. Eifel,
&c., were in activity, the Rhine had not broken through in a
northern direction; and the event may be regarded as a conse-
quence of the igneous exhaustion of that region producing a
considerable change in the levels. The same law which
altered successively the courses of the Oxus and the Jaxartes
towards the north, may have operated in a similar manner on
the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt. But these important altera-
tions in Western Germany and Gaul were effected, and their
consequences were no doubt considerably advanced, before
man was present in Europe; yet comparatively recent the
period may be deemed, since at Arend See, in Brandenburgh,
a lake of about sixteen square miles' surface, apparently pro-
duced by subterraneous percolation, which causes the earth to
sink vertically, in stages each of about forty feet perpendicular,
offered a further instance of this phenomenon so late as 1660.
It is one of the same class as that subsidence of the earth;
which occurred in 1806, near the delta of the Indus.
With the prolongation and change of direction in the course
of the rivers in Western Germany, the weight of waters, or a
contemporaneous percussion, may have shaken the chalky and
alluvial shores, converting Britain from a peninsula into an
island, and forming the Channel and Dover straits.' Waters
which, until that period, covered the drainage of the Elbe, the
Weser, and the Ems, &c., more anciently communicating, but
imperfectly, with the Gallic Sea, (perhaps at high water only,
through the Belgian low lands, behind the chalk cliffs of the
coast to the Liane, south of Boulogne,) suddenly forming a
* We have picked up on the German side of the Rhine, near Wezel,
several univalves, and a pinna, with the hinge ending in a very acute
point. These were found on the line of the new chaussée.
130
HISTORY OF
..
NATURAL vast current by means of the new efflux of the Rhine, would
give such force to the ebb tide, (now first beginning to meet
the flowing wave in the channel,) that a new aspect would be
given to all the shores, even far up the east coast of Britain.
Heligoland, a friable conglomerate, became an island at no
very remote period. So late as the ninth century of our era, it
was still forty times the present area ; in 1300, twelve times
the surface; but woods, rivulets, pagan temples, monasteries,
parishes, and castles, have been swallowed up, and the portion
still above water gradually crumbles away. When the Cym-
bers penetrated into Italy, they had recently been dislodged by
great encroachments of the sea on their native shores, which
were in the low lands of the above-named rivers, on the north
of the kindred tribes of Friesland, who were repeatedly suf-
ferers from the same cause, down to recent times. Thus, on
the river Unsing, which, in the Roman era, reached the sea by
a direct course, and later by the Ems, there is noticed the
Portus Manármanis; and higher up the bank, a place named
Siatulanda, both localities being now lost in the waters of the
Dollaert.*
THE RHINE.
THE whole delta of the Rhine, by the many changes that
have occurred in its several arms within the historical period,
through West Friesland, Holland, and Zealand, proves the
unconsolidated condition of the deposits; and the depth of
alluvial was shown at Amsterdam, in 1604, when a well was
sunk, in an abortive attempt to obtain pure fresh water, the
* If the convulsion, which certainly took place, belonged to so remote a
period as a former order of creation, the final effect would have terminated
long before our historical era. It is more likely to synchronize with the
changes in the Polish and Russian inland seas, when a very considerable
alteration must have resulted in the currents and tides on the west coasts
of Europe.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
131
workmen finding sea-shells and animal hair to the depth of
132 feet.* The lake Flevo, known to the Romans, was
evidently not then ancient, since a great portion of West
Friesland, on its banks, sunk down and formed the present
Zuyder Zee, leaving of the coast only a chain of islands. The
canal of Drusus, now denominated the Yssel, is a further
instance of the tendency of rivers to flow northwards; for this
additional outlet of the Rhine was a proximate cause in the
formation of the Zuyder Zee, by breaking through the coast
more to the north than the ancient channel, which was a river
then known by the name of Flevus, whose waters were dis-
charged close to the present Flie island. Another great sub-
mersion in the south-east of Holland, was felt at the Biesbosch,
near Gertruydenberg, in 1421, when the waters of the Meuse
and Waal, suddenly overwhelming seventy-two villages, 100,-
000 human beings were lost; but the subsoil must have sunk
at the same time, since the whole region has remained beneath
the surface, and is now overgrown with huge reeds.
The principal mouth of the Rhine, during the Roman sway,
is all but obliterated, excepting in name, and the whole coast
of Holland has much receded from its earlier tide-mark; for,
at the spot where the Rhine mouth entered the sea, there stood
a fortress, by some ascribed to Drusus, by others to Claudius,
intended to guard the entrance. The whole plan of this struc-
ture, with walls of hewn stone, still three feet high when it
was last seen, is now buried under the waves, and more than
a mile from the present shore.t Coins of Postumus, Victo-
rinus, and Tetricus, with others, resembling early Anglo-Saxon
VIC
* See Des Roche's Hist. des Pays Bas., vol. i. A learned and exceed-
ingly curious work, which the untimely death of the author has left unfin-
ished. The Ganges offers a similar result, for, on sinking an Artesian
well at Fort William, Calcutta, bones of canidæ were brought up from
the depth of 150 feet.
† This place is known by the name of Huis-ten Britten. Here several
alto-relievo figures of the goddess Nehalennia, and many coins, have been
132
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Skeatta, indicate that the fortress was garrisoned, and, there-
fore, that the river was still navigable after the Roman
departure from Britain. Further west is the Roompot estuary,
where another Roman fastness is supposed to have existed on
the sand bank facing Ter Veer, in the East Scheldt; and
Romerswal, another fortress of the same people, was also a
small town on a bank in the West Scheldt, opposite Bergen-
op-Zoom, where we have seen remains of brick walls, covered
with sea-weed and muscles. So late as 1606, the Hock of
Holland, Goeree, and other parts of the coast, were invaded
and swept away; and, at this day, West Capelle, in Walche-
ren, after similar devastations, is defended by rows of piles,
which occur again at Blankenberg, and even at Ostend.
It was here, amidst the multitude of low woody islands,
formed by the confluence of the Scheldt, Dender, Lys, Nethe,
and Meuse, called the Paludes Morinorum, that places of
safety existed, whither the inhabitants retreated out of the
reach of Cæsar's legions. In the middle ages, all this region
was still encumbered with swamps and water channels, which
extended up to St. Omers or Sethon,* communicated with the
sea at Calais and Dunkirk, until the emperor Otho, about the
year 980, caused a canal to be dug from the Scheldt to the
Hondt, which gradually drained the upland, and now consti-
tutes the Western Scheldt. Persevering cultivation, sus-
tained by manufacturing riches, alone succeeded to rescue the
drowned soil, and make it one of the most fertile portions of
Europe. The old mouth, now the Swyn, between Sluys and
Cadsandria, passed through a vast pool, where the largest
ships and fleets could assemble; and the Swyn mouth was
found during very low tides. The ruins have not been seen above water
during the last hundred years.
*Sethon, Portus St. Aumeri, now St. Omers, was still a seaport; that
is, had a channel opening to the sea, in 1156, as appears by a charter of
Louis VII. Compare Cæsar de B. G., lib. iv., with St. Paulin Epist.
ad Victru, who wrote in the fourth century.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
133
still so broad in latter ages that both the fleets of King John
and of Edward III. succeeded in attacking and destroying their
enemies within the port; but in time that harbor became -
marshy, and then meadow land. On the side of the Western
Scheldt, however, the land diminished, and between 1377 and
1477, upwards of forty villages were submerged, chiefly about
Biervliet. On the coast, the village of Scharphout was swept
away, in 1334, to the sands where now Blankenberg is built;
and Terstreep, near Ostend, shared the same fate. In no part
of this vast: space of alluvial deposit have fossil remains of
Pachyderms been observed. In the Rhine alone and about
the shores of that river, bones of two species of Bos and of
Cervus giganteus, or Irish Elk, were noticed, and one or two
Saurians, referred to Crocodile, have been detected in Upper
Flanders.
GREAT BRITAIN.
If we now turn to the British Islands, we find the whole
east coast of England marked by devastation and marine
encroachment. From Cromer; where the village of Shipden
was lost in the reign of King Henry IV., though it is said the
ruins are still discernible at very low tides, about half a mile
distant from the shore, and thence by Yarmouth-and Harwich
to Reculver in the estuary of the Thames, the work of erosion
is everywhere conspicuous, and still proceeding. The soil is
evidently older than the alluvial of the German rivers, for
debris of Proboscidians, of Saurians, and Tortoises, are not
unfrequently found imbedded in it. At Dagenham, in Essex,
as mentioned in the Phil. Transactions, the Thames bank wall
having given way, the soil washed down, in some places, to
twenty feet in depth, when “many large trees became exposed
to sight, oaks, alders, and hornbeams, one of which bore
marks of the axe, and the head was lopped off."" There is no
reason for rejecting the tradition concerning the Goodwin
12
134
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Sands; and the disappearance of the island was a natural con-
sequence of the tides acting upon its low shores, from the time
the Straits of Dover were opened, and the calamity an imme-
diate result of neglecting to defend the banks by artificial
means. The same force which swept away the town of Win-
chelsea, in the reign of Edward I., had long before destroyed
the Portus Iccius on the opposite coast, and commenced the
gradual denudation of the rocky basis of the Channel Islands,
where a tax is still levied and applied to arrest the further
encroachments of the sea.
If tradition could be trusted, the present channel within the
Isle of Wight, was, in earlier ages, sufficiently shallow to be
forded at very low tides, where now line of battle ships pass in
safety; but this result is applicable to the whole British Chan-
nel, while Poole harbor is filled up by the deposits of slack
water. There is a marked character in the long succession of
landslips and “founders” in the vicinity of Lyme Regis and
Axminster, resulting indeed from percolation to certain under-
lying strata, but, inost assuredly, in connection with a progres-
sive erosion of the floor of the channel.* On the coasts of
Devon and Cornwall, numerous marlis. of ancient sea beaches,
hove up far beyond the present levels, indicate similar press-
ures and slidings of superincumbent strata, forcing the beach
to rise up in the same manner. as occurred near Axminster,
St. Michael's Mount, however, iş now almost severed from
Cornwall; and the invasion of the sea is still attested by the
remains of forest trees, sunk beneath the waters.
Beyond the Land's End, the Scilly Islands, now forming a
cluster of rocks, were almost wholly united when first they
became historically known, under the name of Cassiterides.
In the Irish Channel, submersions, perhaps even greater than
* If similar events in other countries were carefully recorded, they
would be found surprisingly numerous. Balbi, and Mr. G. Roberts, in
his account of the Dowland and Bindon landslip of 1839, enumerate a great
variety of them.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
155
in any other part of England, appear to have occurred, and
phenomenà on shore are equally surprising. A part of the
bed of the Severn is stated to have risen, in 1773, to the height
of thirty feet, the back water immediately forming a lake,
which was drained by cutting a new channel. According to
Camden, and Bishop Hakewell's Apology, at the time of the
Norman Conquest, part of Pembroke formed a promontory,
extending towards Ireland; but the space was already sunken
beneath deep sands, in the time of Henry II., when a violent
storm so far uncovered the original surface, that many stumps
of trees appeared fixed in the earth, "and the strokes of the
axe upon them quite fresh.”
In the Welsh Triads, Orkney, the Isle of Man, and the Isle
of Wight, are styled the three adjacent islands of Britain ; and
they proceed to mention the subsequent separation of Anglesea
from the main land. Nennius similarly alludes to the three
adjacent islands; yet, since that period, Orkney became divided
into several parts; and it is evident that other portions of
Wales and Western Scotland likewise became insulated. So
many important changes, particularly in the British Channel,
imply the agency of forces which were not in activity at very
remote periods; for, had they been of primeval date, their
operation would have effected the whole of the changes they
necessitated long before the dates here mentioned.
SOUTHERN EUROPE.
RETURNING to the west coast of France, we find the important
invasion of the sea, which in the eighth century destroyed a
great space of poor and forest land, separating Mont St.
Michael from the main shore ;* and in the Bay of Biscay,
*There is an earlier great event of this kind recorded in history, in the
reign of Gallienus, when one or two Romano-Celtic cities, in Armorica
or Bretagne, were destroyed. That in the reign of Charlemagne was
equally destructive on the coasts of France and in the Baltic...
136
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the currents and winds continuing the encroachment on the
coast, they have in some places advanced two miles within a
century.
But the Spanish peninsula, forming a plateau the most ele-
vated of Europe, more than 2000 feet above the ocean, without
an existing volcanic crater on its surface, is nevertheless sub-
ject to violent earthquakes, particularly on the side of the
Atlantic. Geologically, as regards ossiferous breccias, the
cation which occurs about Genoa, and is repeated in the islands
on the coast of Dalmatia. They have all compressed, between
beds of limestone, innumerable remains of mammals, held in a
matrix much harder than the bones themselves. In zoological
affinity, Spain and a considerable portion of the greater Medi-
terranean islands bear an African rather than an European
aspect; and the similarity was much more evident in early
times. Spain, having no deltas, with only a few shoals formed
by the Tagus, Ebro, and Llobrega, is surrounded on three
sides by very deep seas, close up to the shore.
Further eastward, within the Mediterranean, the coast of
France presents a totally different aspect; for the whole extent
of the shores, with little exception, is low, belted on the sea-
side by a shingly beach, some hundred yards in breadth, and
having behind it salt water lagoons a mile or more in diameter,
but only a few feet deep. This breakwater of shingle extends
to near Aigues Mortes, and the delta of the Rhone; for that
river has evidently supplied the materials for it. At some
distance, facing the Mediterranean, a chain of lofty hills con-
tains lavas and extinct craters, particularly about Nismes and
Montpellier, and again in the department of the Aude, where
fossiliferous caverns exist, which will be noticed in the sequel.
The hills trend on one side. towards the eastern Pyrenees, and
on the other, ascending the river course of the Rhone, become
connected with the Alps; and, assuming the name of Vogesians,
display basaltic formations and craters, that connect them with
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
137
the basin of Neuwied. The delta of the last-named river is
of considerable size, with a gradual but slow progress in the
sea ; it having been demonstrated, by measuring the distance
between the fossa Mariana and the sea, that from the time of
Marius to the present, a period of nearly 2000 years, only about
1000 yards have been added to the shore.
ITALY
PASSING, for the present, the Alpine system without notice,*
we arrive at the Italian peninsula, reposing, in its whole extent,
upon an ignited gallery, in perpetual activity, and producing a
sea more fathomable than the abysses of the Gulf of Lyons and
the Genoese offing. On the Tyrhenian coast, the changes
most readily ascertained occur at the port and city of Pisa,
which were originally situated at the mouth of the Arno,
whereas they are now above four miles inland; and the Ansar
streamlet, which, according to Strabo, fell into the river close
to the town, now terminates ten miles distant. The volcanic
soil, alike fertile and deleterious in the maremmas, is in some
places unstable, so that, even since the fall of the Roman
empire, certain spots about Baiæ have been sunk below the
level of the sea, and again raised up above it, without entirely
overturning columns, such as those of the temple of Serapis,
all of which, at a certain elevation above their base, have been
subjected to the boring of Lithodomi, while other parts of
the ancient city, and a paved road, are seen beneath the waters.
The whole length of Italy exhibits craters, lakes simmering,
* Remarkable, however, for land slips, anciently more numerous and
extensive than at present. In the Alps, fragments of Roman roads, with
arched gateways, occur anong elevated precipices. Hannibal encoun-
tered a subsidence of the road on his passage. Those of Mont Grenier,
Diablerets, Mont Chede, and particularly of the Rossberg, in 1806, are
well known; and that of Cernans, between Dijon and Pontarlier, in the
Jura, where the high road sank 300 feet, in 1839; is the last of import-
ance.
12*
188
NATURAL HISTORY OF
volcanic pits, crevices emitting sulphurous vapors, till we reach
the kingdom and sea of the two Sicilies, where a vast concen-
tration of volcanic fire permanently discharges from below
smoke, gaseous vapors, flames, and lavas, by the craters of
Ætna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli. Thucydides, Seneca, Strabo,
Pausanias, Pliny, and others, mention numerous earthquakes in
Italy, where mountains were split, cities were overturned, and
volcanic islands rose and again subsided. Since the Vesuvian
eruption, recorded by Pliny the Younger, no calamity more
appalling appears on record than that which took place in
1538, when, in a few hours, Monte Nuovo, a flaming moun-
tain of four miles in circumference, rose out of the earth,
destroying the village of Tripergola, obliterating the Lucrine
Lake, and caused the ruin of the country to six miles around
it; unless one greater still occurred, when Messina in Sicily,
and many towns of Calabria, were destroyed in 1786.
No author states at what period, and to what extent, vol-
canic convulsion changed the surface of Eastern Italy, and
separated Calabria from Sicily, by a disrupture now denom-
inated the Straits of Messina. The event can only be sur-
mised by approximation; for, although the catastrophe confess-
edly took place before written historical record, it was not so
remote as to have obliterated the terror impressed upon the
memories of subsequent generations living in the vicinity, or
to have worn away the dangerous impediments of Scylla and
Charybdis, which intervened at the most adjacent point for
crossing from one coast to the other, and probably not long
before the foundations of Zancle (now Messina) were laid.
The event may synchronize with the close of that transition
era of convulsive phenomena which includes the bursting of
the Thracian Bosphorus at the volcanic Cyanean islands; the
Greek deluges; the separation of Eubæa from Attica; and the
passage of a large diluvian wave across the isthmus of Corinth,
which has left indelible marks on all the coasts in the vicinity,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
139
and was particularly recorded at Dodona.* They were the
necessary precursors of the first swarming of the tribes that
came down the Hellespont, and commenced the heroic age of
Greece and Italy.
In the Adriatic, at the summit of the gulf, we find Adria, or
Hadria, said to have been built on the sea-shore, by Tarchon,
leader of the antique Etruscan people, about the time of the
Trojan war. The present town, standing upon the rubbish of
two others, is now fifteen and a half miles distant from the
nearest mouth of the river Tartarus, which is still six miles
within the farthest point of land projecting in the sea.t It is
only of late years that, in making excavations at the depth of
several feet below the present surface of the town, a former
level was found, with numerous fragments of Etruscan and
Roman pottery; and, at a still greater depth, a second floor,
where all the earthen-ware fragments proved to be Etruscan
alone, and there were vestiges of a theatre! In these facts,
both the raising of the soil and progress of alluvial deposits are
demonstrated in waters but little disturbed by marine currents,
and during a space of 3000 years.
THE EGEAN.
In the Egean, volcanic disturbances have been and still are
exceedingly numerous and destructive. From the remotest
periods recorded, islands have risen up from the sea; such as
volcanic Delos, overhung with vapors to the present time; or
torn from the continent of Asia, like Samos, with its ancient
organic remains of Neiades, and craters, one of which com-
menced latterly to furnish a rivulet running to the sea; and
* Scholiast upon the 16th Iliad, v. 233, quoting Thrasybulus, an ancient
author, and other comments.
† Now Po di Levante, and most likely the oldest bed of the Padus or
Po? The lowest stratum of ruins was at the depth of more than twenty
feet.
140
NATURAL HISTORY OF
other islands, within these few years, have been visited by
earthquakes of the most calamitous violence. Through the
Cyclades there camè, in remote antiquity, a sea wave, raised up
by some volcanic convulsion, which desolated Greece, and is
recorded as one of the deluges; while other percussions
opened the passage already mentioned, for lowering the surface
of the Euxine into the Propontis, and thence to the Egean; an
event commemorated in Samothrace, when that island most
likely was separated from the main coast* It was then
the Cimmerian Chersonesus, from a rocky island, became a
great peninsula, and Phanagoria of the Mæotis began to
exhibit the cones of deposit from which mud is ejected to the
present time. The Euxine, Caspian, and Mediterranean, have
shoal water and islands almost exclusively on the north, and
the deepest sea on the south ; but the Euxine alone witnesses
percussions, which still continue to elevate the highlands of
the Crimea. From the year of the death of Mithridates to the
present period, many severe earthquakes have shaken the
promontories of the coast, and caused destructive avalanches.
At Sevastopol, the ancient Sinus Portuosus of Mela, iron rings,
originally fixed in the rocks, probably by the Genoese, to
secure vessels, in natural docks, close to the shore, are now
risen so high above ground as to be no longer available for
that purpose ; and, in the autumn of 1844, a sudden heaving
of a volcanic disturbance caused the sea to recede from the
whole line of the northern coast, leaving all the vessels then
close in shore stranded.
In the Caspian, Baku, like Derbent, had its walls partly
thrown down by the sea, in 1784; yet now it stands a quarter.
* The effects of this sea wave are clearly marked on the east coast of
Attica and Peloponnesus. It broke across the isthmus, and left marks
of its violence in the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs. Traditional recollec-
tions of these enormous catastrophes are depicted in the language of St.
John - "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not
found." Rev. xvi. 20. Patmos was in the direct line of this convulsion.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
141
.
of a mile from the water's edge. The level varies occasionally
six or seven feet; and small volcanic cones still break forth on
its shores. In the lake, or rather bay of Ensili, three new
islands have appeared since 1811, already showing several
willows upon them; and the back water of the Gemishawas is
become fordable, though, until recently, it was not to be trav-
ersed, the river waters having sensibly diminished. The Cas-
pian is the Deryah Kolsum of the Arabs, because it is covered
with a mist ever hanging on the water.
ASIA MINOR.
Asia Minor appears subjected to the action of at least two
subterranean volcanic galleries, which, in connection with the
Italian system of ignitions, passing beneath the Egean, are the
agents of convulsion in that sea; and in Greece and Thessaly,
produce those mephitic localities, inflammable rivers, and
gaseous exhalations, which were used in mythological doctrines
and in the prophetic impositions of the Delphic oracle.
Others, of at least equal antiquity, existed on the Asiatic
side; and although no conspicuous volcanic crater is pointed
out in the peninsula, excepting at the present Dopos Kalesi,
and at Koolah in Catacecaumene, where the lava district
reveals volcanic agency, apparently not long dormant. There
is, also, at the extremity of the Bosphorus, where the Cyanean
craters are submerged, a recent lava formation, particularly
conspicuous on the Asiatic shore.
No region has been more constantly disturbed by earth-
quakes than this high peninsula, from the earliest period to the
present; but perhaps most so during the Roman sway, when,
in the reign of Tiberius, fourteen, and in that of Julian not less
than one hundred and fifty. cities were destroyed in one con-
vulsion.
142
NATURAL HISTORY OF
BASIN OF THE DEAD SEA.
THESE convulsions of the surface are external signs of the
gallery that passes westward; but there is a second, which
turns from beneath Taurus, south of Syria and Palestine, pro-
ducing, in the valley of Jordan, the celebrated Dead Sea, or
Asphaltic Lake, regarded as the deepest basin, beneath the
level of the sea, in the known world, the surface of the water
being far below that of the Caspian. No exact measurement
of this depression of the soil is, as yet, rigidly determined,
because the instruments employed for the purpose, – the mer-
cury rising to the summit of the tube, — have always failed, by
the excess of their indications, to offer a trustworthy basis for
calculation. Russeger, the last scientific traveller, being simi-
larly disappointed, gives, from other calculations, the surface
of the lake, at the mouth of the Jordan, as 1319 French feet
below the Mediterranean; Jerusalem, by measurement, as 2479
feet above it; and yet no traveller remarks, that if these state-
ments be nearly correct, the ridge behind, or west of Jerusalem,
being in sight from the lake, would be more that 4000 English
feet higher and loftier than any mountain in Great Britain ;*
nor is there any notice taken of the levels of the lake, as com-
pared with the Gulf of Akkaba, — which is nearly on the same
level as the Mediterranean, — and the elevation of the ridge
which parts the Dead Sea from Wady Moosa. Already,
before the era of Abraham, it is evident, by the notice of slime
-pits (naphtha) in the plain of Gomorrah, that volcanic action
was kindled ; and when the surface subsided into the Asphal-
* According to measurements of British naval officers, taken after the
capture of Acre, in 1839, it appears — by lines of altitude, carried from
the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, &c. -- that the Lake of Tiberias was
84 English feet below the Mediterranean; the Arabah al Kadesh 91 ſect;
the Dead Sea, 1337 ; whence it is plain no region of equal extent, on the
earth, presents phenomena of such great difference ; for the culminating
point of Libanus rises, at Mount Hermon, to 10,000 feet.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
143
.
tic Basin, the ridge in Wady Moosa was elevated, and the Jor-
dan, already insufficient to compensate for the evaporation,
could no longer flow to the Red Sea. There is, at least, a
certain affinity with Africa, in this region, supported by a pro-
portion of the local botany, and by the fish of the Lake of
Tiberias. The volcanic flues, branching off, pass through
Arabia, to Aden, and beneath the Red Sea; and another, more
due west, communicates with Northern Africa, beyond the
Egyptian boundary, far into the interior.
From Palestine and Syria, eastward, to the Indus, there are
only three rivers of importance that reach the sea. They all
unite into one channel, and although they drain an immense
surface, generally arid and sandy, and the Tigris, in particular,
is swift, they have no period of inundation like the Nile, but
simply freshes in the spring; and albeit they terminate at the
head of an enclosed gulf, they have not formed an extensive
delta. The high table land of Persia is estimated at little less
than 4000 feet above the sea, a most arid desert, but with rivers
from the north-eastward forming the fertile valley of the Hel-
mund, and terminating in Lake Aria or Zurra, anciently much
more extensive than the present, having ruins of vast cities in
the vicinity, unknown in history, and of the remotest period;
the cradle where Iranian power was nursed. From the social
systems first evolved on the Oxus and the Helmund, and
thence carried to the Tigris, Euphrates, and Choaspes, when
combined with those of Egypt and Palestine, the present relig-
ious, moral, and scientific state of the world is almost entirely
drawn. The fundamental principles relating to the highest
good, and the inaxims of the greatest evil, emanated from
Western Asia, wherein the ancients used to comprehend the
Nile, as far up the course of the river as the Nubian frontier.
144
NATURAL HISTORY OF
CURRENTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
But the isthmus, connecting Egypt with Asia, did not exist
at the commencement of the present geological arrangement.
The Arabian prolongation of volcanic galleries may, indeed,
have dug the channel of the Red Sea, since, on the Abyssinian
sides, mephitic lakes and a sulphurous soil reach from the
coast to the mountains, and chains of dormant craters pass
behind the coast, in a south-east direction, even beyond the
equator. So, likewise, on the west of the Nile, extensive
tracts, bordering on the desert, manifest igneous activity, not
far below the surface, in ebullitions assuming various fantastic
forms. From the period, however, when the Straits of Calpe,
the Bisepharat of Phænician navigators, admitted the Western
Ocean, to give the present form and extent to the Mediter-
ranean, anteriorly supplied with very little fresh water, it may
be supposed that the evaporation, being more counterbalanced
by the influx, passing mostly eastward in the straits, and still
more at a great depth below the surface, raised the sea to a
higher level, and caused the circular course, which now, flowing
eastward along the coast of Barbary, casts all river deposits,
brought down that shore, into the recess of the two Syrtes, and
near the summit of the Mediterranean, sweeps onward all the
Nilotic discharges. At the commencement of the present
superficial terrene system, when the current first acted upon
the efflux of the river, it threw, similarly as in the Syrtes, all
deposits back upon the coast, and filled the channel of com-
munication from the Red Sea, whose level, somewhat higher,
was kept in check by the prevailing northerly winds, until a
bank was formed and marshes created, which the same northerly
winds, acting upon the sea-shore, would supply with dust, and
all other currents of air aided to fill up, until the isthmus was
formed, and the delta had advanced to the edge of deep water,
when first it came within the force of the real sea current.
Thus, a space of 72 miles, from Suez to El-Arish, and nearly
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
145
180 along the sea-coast, from west to east, became a fertile
land, where inundation extended; pasturage where it is acces-
sible only in part, and desert or marsh in all the rest. * .
On the Syrian coast, the Mediterranean current is first
repelled by the rocky soil of Palestine, and turned northward,
undermining, in its passage, the sea-wall, formed of enormous
stones, at the port of Cæsarea ; but, further on, completing, with
the sands of Egypt, Alexander's work, at the isthmus of Tyre.
Next, at the Calpian Gulf, the foot of Cilician Taurus again
turns the current, which, now forced in a direction to the west,
is broken into several devious branches by Cyprus, Rhodes,
Crete, the Egean Islands, Sicily, the Peloponnesus, and Italy;
but still not so entirely but that it is again recognized in the
Tyrhenian Sea, and thence sweeping the deposits of the Rhone
along the coast of Gaul, and finally allowing the unevaporated
portions to pass out at Calpe, or to resume again a new circular
course.t
KT
*. It is inferred, from geological data, that the Red Sea, in former
times, penetrated to the basin of the bitter lake, and there left high-water
marks, distivguishable at the present day; flowing from thence to Lake
Mensaleh, thus entirely separating the land of Africa from that of Asia."
But Captain Veitch adduces strong reasons against trusting to the opera-
tions of nature to excavate for herself a channel, again, in that way, and
shows, also, wby it would not be expedient to form a navigable channel
of still water, with locks, between the two seas, or dependent on the
Nile. This statement, drawn from actual survey, leaves no doubt of the
primæval separation of the two continents, viewed geologically ; and the
expected condition of dead water, instead of a current in the channel,
should a communication be reöpened, is supported by the fact, that a
simple process of nature was sufficient to close it.
† It is the enormous evaporation, and the very scanty supply of river-
water in the Mediterranean, that causes its waters to be deemed even
more salt than the ocean. The direction of its currents is traced by the
species of fishes, periodically entering the straits, from the west coast of
Africa, and in those that remain permanently, either in shore, in sound.
ings, or beyond them.
13
146
NATURAL HISTORY OF
A.
. AFRICA.
Of Africa the most striking feature is the tabular form of its
structure, standing immovable, like a huge bulwark, almost
centrally beneath the equator, without a plentiful vegetation, –
almost without forests; with few undrained lakes, and, conse-
quently, few great rivers, which derive their supplies of moisture
from clouds coming from distant regions, and furnishing a
diminishing supply; for there is an acknowledged desiccation
in progress, observed alike in Morocco, at the Cape, and most
in Abyssinia. Perhaps the oldest of the continents, it appears
exhausted. With a vigorous animal or vegetable life, thinly
scattered, or confined to particular valleys, and with proofs of a
desert state so remote that no other region can produce a simi-
lar example, — namely, in the Baobabs (Adansonia digittata),
of ninety feet in circumference, a bulk so enormous as to
induce Adanson to assert that they contained full six thousand
rings of annual growth, — that is, an age which no other living
organic body on earth can claim.* In this great region, the
Nile alone, of all the rivers, is of ancient interest in what
relates to the History of Man. Though for centuries påst little
or no addition has been made to the delta, the coast lakes have
materially decreased in depth, and the bed of the river is now
much higher than in antiquity, since the plain of Thebes.
is, during inundations, in many parts under water. In Abys-
sinia, mountains, formerly covered with forests, are become
pasture lands; and a large river, the Kibber, which descends
from the south-west side of that great mountain system, prc-
ceeds obliquely to the eastern coast, and is suddenly arrested
at its mouth, under the equatorial line, by a broad beach of
* There are oaks in France, Switzerland, and even in Great Britain,
above thirty feet in circunference, which may be 3000 years old. A
chestnut on Etna, not one of the largest or oldest, left a portion of a side
shoot, not containing the inner core or circles, which, nevertheless, afforded
1700 rings of annual growth. Baobabs thrive best on arid plains.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
147
shingle, through which the waters percolate to the Indian
Ocean.
On this side no other facts of interest are offered, excepting
the great volcanic spiracles, forming islands far out to the
south-east; and a whole range of craters on the outside coast
of Madagascar, probably with submarine trunks that connect
them with the series on the main coast; and the straits them-
selves, which, perhaps, were formed by the collapse of a part
of the Comoro Islands.
Down the coast, to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence
along the western shores to Mauritania, no objects of a direct
interest to our present researches present themselves, excepting
those clusters of volcanic islands, with craters on peaks of very
great elevation, which were believed by the ancients, and by
many moderns admitted, to be the wrecks of the Atlantis,
recorded by the priests of Sais as the site of a fearſul deluge,
which, it seems, was confounded with a similar event, already
recorded among the devastations of Greece. In the plains of
Morocco, among the high lands of Abyssinia, in the bed of the
Quorra (Niger), in Congo, and at the Cape of Good Hope, simi-
larly formed table mountains, with precipitous sides and lime-
stone summits, occur, and with deep valleys or flats between
them, produced by forces that cannot now be satisfactorily
explained. We may add, that while all the ancient adventi-
tious populations have greatly decreased, the indigenous negro
races alone continue to expand.
AMERICA.
AMERICA, stretching from the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle,
has the great chain of cardinating mountains in the same
direction, with indications of far more awful convulsions than
are remarked on the old continent; for here the nutations of
the great ridge, instead of influencing the continent, like the
Himalayas, with a gradual action upon their abutting planes,
148
NATURAL HISTORY OF
have snapped near the fulcrum of its western side, nearly two
thirds of the whole length, from Terra del Fuego to California,
and sunk that portion of the continent in such deep sea, for
many degrees seaward, that scarcely an island remains above
water. Freed, it would seem, from the adhesion of the broad
surface, as naturally belonging to this side as on the other, and
to counterbalance it, as is the case in Asia, the Andes, in their
whole extent in the vicinity of the ocean, retain volcanic
activity in full force, and consequently heave up, at the present
time, as perseveringly as at the remotest periods. They con-
tinue to rise with every great shock of an earthquake, perhaps
affecting the whole height of the mountains, but certainly the
western or maritime side, where successive stages may be
traced to a great elevation, and rocky heads, lines of beaches,
and shoaling waters, become more and more evident; as if
nature labored to recover from the deep a portion of long-lost
terrestrial soil.* The multitude of enormous volcanoes in the
Andes do not appear to have depressed the east coast to a per-
ceptible submersion, or, rather, to what is, more than fully
replaced by the deposits of the vast and numerous rivers
which intersect the whole surface. It is, moreover, stayed by
the mountain system of Brazil, Guiana, and Venezuela, from
whence, and from the basins at the foot of the Quindiu Cordil-
lera and the Pacaraima mountains, have been effected many
entire discharges of elevated lakes, such as the Amucu and
Savannas- of Dutch Guiana, while the swamps of the Parana,
and the lagoons on the coast, remain unchanged. But at the
northern extremity of South America, where the Andes pre-
sent an interruption in the direct chain, a branch turning east-
ward, and then to the north, shows a connection from volcanic
Trinidad, through the West Indian Islands, till the mountain
character, but not the volcanic connection, is lost in the island
* In most volcanic upheavings, there follows a subsidence, - nature
endeavoring to return to its anterior equilibrium, – but the result is rarely
down to the former level.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
149
of Cuba. All this enormous surface, from Barbadoes to Vera
Cruz, forming the two distinct basins of the Caribbean Sea and
Gulf of Mexico, presents many indications of a violent disruption
belonging to the present geological superficies of the earth, and
perhaps not remote in date from the submersion of Atlantis on
the African coast. A series of volcanic craters, still in violent
ignition, may have worked on the single mountain ridge, of no
great breadth of base, pressed by the unceasing action of the
tropical current, laboring in a gyration, which impels the Atlan-
tic Sea, on the north of the equator, and strengthened by the
trade wind, broke through the mountain barrier directly opposed
to it, perhaps not unaided by the collapsing of the submarine
galleries, or struck by some great sea wave, rushing from the
African or from the Azorean regions, under the impulse of a
mighty earthquake. On examining the Windward Islands, the
Grenadines, between St. Vincent's and Grenada, point out
where the force of the current was most violent; and the
rocky hills, from Tobago to beyond Curaçoa, almost perpendic.
ular on the north, and sloping to the south, attest its contin-
uity through the Caribbean Sea.
WEST INDIES.
The Windward Islands are, in this view, only the remains of
a vast mountain chain, still impeding the currents sufficiently
to produce a very considerable difference in the sea levels
between their east and west coasts; or, as they are obviously
port of Havana, the sea is thirty-six feet lower than at the
north side of Guadaloupe, according to the observations of
Jonnes, compared with those of Humboldt and F. de Bellevue.
If the great current were not restrained by the islands, and by
the coast of Yucatan turned into the Florida Strait, the sea
level at the isthmus of Panama, now by some asserted to be
twenty-four feet lower than the Pacific, and by others to be
13*
150
NATURAL HISTORY OF
equal in elevation, or differing only as the tides on either side
may be at full, would rise perhaps sufficiently to separate the
two great portions of America.
Here, then, we have a not improbable diluvian event in the
western portion of the world, sufficient to account for all the
traditions locally current, in the supposition that the progeni-
tors of the present population were already in part upon the
spot. Some authors have assumed the American cataclysm to
be the same as the Atlantic; but what is more evident is the
volcanic agency in both, and the ignited galleries passing
beneath the ocean, with spiracula in the western African
islands, and the Azores completing the electrical circle on this
side, as the Kamtschatka volcanoes and the Caroline and Jap-
anese effect on the other.
S
"NORTH AMERICA.
NORTH AMERICA, having the Rocky mountain portion of the
Cordilleras for central watershed, although it is less disturbed
by volcanic convulsion, in proportion as the ridge is further
removed from the sea, and has not discharged a great propor-
tion of the inland lakes that weigh upon the eastern plane of
its surface, is nevertheless not so free of igneous agency as to
escape the West Indian ramification, which passes through the
Floridas and South Carolina, to the plain of the Mississippi,
where earthquakes left. permanent tokens of their force in
1811. Over a considerable part of the eastern side of the
great mountain ridge, more particularly where ancient lakes
have been converted into morasses, or have been filled by allu-
vials, organic remains of above thirty species of mammals, of
the same orders and genera, in some cases of the same species,
have been discovered, demonstrating their existence in a con-
temporary era with those of the old continent, and under sim-
ilar conditions. But their period of duration in the New
World may have been prolonged to dates of a subsequent time,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
151
since the Pachyderms of the United States, as well as those
of the Pampas of Brazil, are much more perfect, and, in many
cases, possess characters ascribed to bones in a recent state.
Alligators and crocodiles, moreover, continue to exist in lati-
tudes where they endure a winter state of torpidity beneath ice,-
as an evidence that the great Saurians in that region have not
yet entirely worked out their mission; whereas, on the old
continent, they had ceased to exist in high latitudes, long before
the extinction of the great Ungulata. The vast extent of sandy
alluvial territory, from the Gulf of Mexico to the summit of
Long Island, appears as if it were a late deposit, in part debris
of the Mexican and Caribbean portions of the continent, car-
ried north, and thrown off when the Gulf Stream was formed.
At the mouth of the Mississippi, the sea, of small depth along
the whole coast, continues to recede before the delta of the
river; and the Florida and Carolina shores northward form a
series of lagoons on the ocean side. The stream rushes
onwards in a north-east direction, and with a gradually de-
creasing velocity and temperature (though both are still very
perceptible off New York), until it is finally neutralized at
Nantucket, and the last particles of deposit suspended in it are
precipitated to form the banks of Newfoundland. A continent
torn asunder and washed away alone could furnish the immense
alluvial surface and submarine banks here noticed. The rivers
of the United States and Canada are not of a nature to have
added more than feeble deltas, such as that of the Hudson at
Sandy Hook. Great changes are commemorated by the Indians
in their mythological and legendary tales, both in the direction
of the tides and in ancient accumulations of ice.*
THE PACIFIC.
The Pacific and South Seas are likewise replete with evi-
dence of great geographical mutations; some have already
* See Appendix.
152
NATURAL HISTORY OF
1
been noticed, and the active progress of coral reefs proves the
vast proportion of space beneath the waves, either still sinking
lower, or again in a reäscending state. Volcanic cones, far
from continents, like flaming beacons at sea, towards the South
Pole, as Hecla is in the north, may be elaborating elements for
future geogonies, or heave up regions now sunken, on the
southern side of the equator, more particularly where a
peculiar zoology, living and fossil, appears to point out thať
one existed at an anterior period; and, by the evidence of the
great Struthionidæ, such as Dinornis, only recently extinct,
that animals of such bulk were not originally confined to
islands not larger than New Zealand; which, moreover, is
replete with craters nearly all dormant.
The foregoing statements have been submitted, in this place,
somewhat more at length than the nature of the present volume
would seem to warrant; but we apprehend, no view of
the primeval history of Man can be complete, without reference
to the conditions of existence which obtained in the first more
calamitous ages of his presence on earth. Though particular
points in the changes here alluded to may be doubted or denied,
still sufficient will remain to substantiate the influence they
must have exercised upon human distribution, upon man's
earliest wanderings, and they will finally establish, we think,
the fact of his coëxistence with the latter period of the great
Pachydermous era. We have, in fact, both sacred and profane
authority for diluvian convulsions of great magnitude, when
the earth was inhabited by human families, in quarters very
distant from each other, and when many genera of animals
may have perished. If, in the opinion of geologists, more than
due importance has been ascribed to the action of volcanoes,
the answer is, that the violence of subterrene fires was unques-
tionably much greater, and its presence much more generally
manifested, than in succeeding ages; since it can be shown
.
-
--
THE HUMAN SPECIES,
153
that scarcely one fortieth of existing craters is now in activity,
or about one hundred in four thousand; and yet, that there are
still about two thousand eruptions in a century, or about twenty
per annum. Moreover, Iceland offers a comparatively recent
example to what extent a volcanic eruption may ruin a great
region of fertile country. Since this was written, another
devastation has taken place in the same island.
11
BONES OF MAN AMONG ORGANIC REMAINS.
For the further illustration of this important question, it is
requisite to examine whether the organic remains of extinct
animals, found in the soil, and chiefly in limestone caverns and
clefts of rock, are accompanied by human remains, bearing sim-
ilar characters of antiquity. Although, as yet, few systematic
researches on this head have been made, even in Europe, and
it is likely that in many bone deposits no human exuviæ have
been noticed, still a sufficient number of instances attest to the
fact, and leave the question open only on the ground that they
were accidental cases, not belonging to the same period. *
Donati, Germer, Rasoumouski, and Guetard, maintained that
human bones had been found intermixed with those of lost spe-
cies of mammiferæ, in several places. They had been detected
in England,t in caves and fissures, enumerated by Professor
Buckland; they were found at Meissen in Saxony, and at Dur-
fort in France; by M. Firmas. A fossilized skeleton, found in
the schist rock, when excavating the fortifications of Quebec,
* Baron Cuvier, in the last conversation we had with him on the sub-
ject (in 1824), admitted that although the human fragments discovered at
Cetie, near Monaco, and in the caves of the Apennines, might be inore
recent, the opinions then in vogue would require considerable modifica-
tion.
+ At Kirkby, in Yorkshire, in 1786, in the fissures of a limestone
quarry.
154
NATURAL HISTORY OF
in part preserved in the museurn, at the seminary, excited no
attention ; and the well-known Guadaloupe skeletons, one of
which is now in the British Museum, had been pronounced
recent upon hypothetical reasoning. Those discovered by M.
Schmerling, in the Liege caverns, were similarly disposed of,
and the reports of Dr. Lund, residing at Lagoa Santa, in Bra-
zil, respecting partially petrified human bones, found by him in
the interior of the country, and represented to have been in
the same condition with those of numerous animals now
extinct, which accompanied them, attracted no more than cred-
ulous attention, although they were represented to have belonged
to that singular flat-headed form of man which will be noticed
in the sequel.*
But the fact of juxta position of the bones of extinct mam-
mals and of man recurs so often that some may be mentioned
more in detail, thus : - In the caverns of Bize (department of
the Aude), in France, human bones and shreds of pottery were
found in red clay, mixed with the debris of extinct mammalia,
among which were recognized those of Ursus arctoideus, Cervus
anoglochis, a species equal in size to the common Stag; Cervus
Rebouliż, Capreolus Tournaliż, and Lefroii, foc.
Soon after, the celebrated Marcel de Serres examined the
caverns of Pondres and Souvignargues, and detected the remains
of human skeletons and pottery in the same deposits with bones
of a lost species of Rhinoceros (R. tichorinus), a small kind
of Equus, and a Stag (Cervus cataglochis).
On the Rhine, skulls of gigantic Bisontes and Uri occurred,
and Dr. Boué found human bones mixed with others of extinct
species at Lahr. In the vicinity of Xanthen, beneath an altar-
stone, the head of a Cervus giganteus (Irish Elk), and a quan-
tity of ashes, were discovered.
* Dr. Lund has since discovered another deposit of fossilized bones, in
the province of Minas Geraes, along with several entire human skeletons.
He enumerates, in the same deposit, forty-four species of extinct mam-
mals, among which the horse occurs abundantly.
THE HUMAN 155
U
SPECIES.
In 1833, human bones were found, together with those of
Ursus spelaus; U. angustidens, Hyena, and a Feline not much
less than a lion, Elephant, &c., were detected in caves near
Liege, beneath a thick coat of stalagmite. About the same
period, the Rev. Mr. M’Enery collected from the caves of Tor-
quay human bones and flint knives, amongst a great variety of
extinct-species, such as Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ursus angusti-
dens, Hyena, &c., all from under a crust of stalagmite; and
reposing upon it was the head of a Wolf. ·
Before that period, and repeatedly since, caves have been
which had bones, such as Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ox, Horse,
Hyena, and abundant coprolites, denoting that they had been
the dens of Carnivora. Among them we detected the upper
portion of the humerus of man, which was immediately thrown
away upon being pointed out to the possessor ! * Other cav-
erns exist in the Plymouth Hoe; and, no doubt, also beneath
the present level of the sea, for several teeth of Elephants have
been washed up by the surf. Other deposits have been found
at Yealm bridge, and most of the bones applied to mend the.
roads, before scientific men had notice of the discovery. Those
at Kitley, we believe, have not been disturbed ; but eastward,
human bones, with their usual accompaniments, have been col-
lected from a cave near Brixham, by the Rey. Mr. Lyte and
Mr. Bartlett. There were, in this deposit, shreds of pottery,
like those of the caverns of Bize, in France; and it is said the
locality bore evidence of smoke, which renders it probable that
it had once been inhabited by troglodyte savages. Fragments
of pottery were discovered by Captain M'Adam, in the escarp-
ment of calcareous breccia, at least 200 feet above the level of
the sea, and about 100 beneath the vertex, five miles north of
*This is not the only instance of the kind. Collectors, in the plenitude
of ignorance and prepossession, determined that human bones were of no
consequence. - See Appendix.
156
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Monte Nuovo, near Naples; and not within the sphere of
action when that crater rose out of the earth.
- VALE OF KOSTRITZ.
An instance inore remarkably clear, because more carefully
observed, is that of the vale of Kostritz, near the river Elster,
in Upper Saxony, where, about fifty years ago, gypsum quarries
were opened, in a generally undulating country, sufficiently
elevated to preclude all supposition that inundations can have
had the least influence on the deposits, since the present geo-
logical arrangement, and without external evidence of the exist-
ence of any caverns. The soil is of the usual red loam, which,
both in France and in England, encloses organic remains, and
here, as in South Devon, covers the limestone formation of the
whole country. Masses of stalactites occur beneath the surface,
and, at the depth of twenty feet, bones of large land animals
were discovered in the loam of the greater cavities. At Kos-
tritz, in particular, the gypsum is intersected by caves and
fissures in every direction, and connected with each other, but
filled throughout with red alluvial clay, containing in clusters
bones of mammalia, and, among them, of man. They were
first described, in a lucid manner, by Baron von Schlotheim,
who summed up his account by saying: -- " It is evident that
the human bones could not have been buried here, nor have
fallen into fissures during battles in ancient times. The human
bones are few, completely detached and isolated. Nor could
they have been thus mutilated and lodged by any other acci-
dental cause in more modern times, inasmuch as they are
always found with the other animal remains, under the same
relations, not constituting connected skeletons, but gathered in
various, groups," &c. Beside those of man, of different peri-
ods of life, from infancy to mature age, the bones of Rhinoce-
ros, a great Feline, Hyena, Horse, Ox, Deer, Hare, and Rabbit,
bones of an Owl were found; and, since the paper of the baron
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
157
was published, portions of a small Elephant, of Elk and Rein-
deer, - facts which, in this case as in others, confirm the
coëxistence of species in the present zoology, on the same
area.*
Of man, fragments are in the possession of the Prince of
Reuss, Baron von Schlotheim, Dr. Schotte, and other individ-
uals residing near the spot; and Mr. Fairholme, who went
purposely to Saxony to convince himself of the facts by careful
examination of the locality, brought home specimens, which
ke presented to the British Museum. It appears that all the
hones are not precisely entombed within the caverns or the
fissures, since the fragment of an arm and the thigh-bone of a
man were dug out of the clay at eighteen feet of depth, and
eight feet below two phalanges of a Rhinoceros.
IS
As the facts relating to the coëxistence of human remains
with the bones of a mostly extinct mammalogy can no longer
be denied, it remains to be ascertained whether the explanations
that have been offered with a view of proving that they are of
a more recent date, can be substantiated. Those found in the
clefts of lime rock in England (1787) were reburied or thrown
on the public road, without further notice. The late Rev. Mr.
M'Enery disposed of those he found, without examination ;
and, as it appears to us, his replies to our interrogations, and
his letter, afterwards published, did not exactly coincide, since
there was some disparity in the bones not being all found above
the stalagmite, but partly below. The criterion for pronouncing
on the age of vertebrata remains, we believe, rests solely,
beside the circumstances of location, upon the absence or pres-
ence of animal matter in them. In the first case, a bone sticks
to the tongue; in the second, it is not adhesive. No series of
* Cuvier remarked the coëxistence of Elk, in all respects appearing to
be identical with the present, the Asiatic elephant, and other tropical ani.
mals, in the same deposits.
14
158
NATURAL HISTORY OF
.
experiments, elaborately made, so far as we know, has yet
determined to what extent the criterion can be trusted. Mr.
Franklin Bellamy, with his usual patient caution, submitted a
portion of bone from the Yealm Bridge Cave, weighing one
drachm; and also a piece of bone, of the same weight, taken
from one by the road-side, that might have been exposed for
many months. Each was placed in a separate glass vessel,
containing diluted muriatic acid. As soon as the fossil bone
was immersed, a violent action commenced to disengage car-
bonic acid; gradual corrosion, or removal of earthy matter, suc-
ceeded, and in the space of seven hours the bone was reduced
to a spongy, flocculent mass, which, having become lighter than
the fluid, rose to the surface, in the shape of a mere pellicle.
This, being extracted, weighed eleven grains. In the other
vessel, a quiet and gradual escape of gas took place. In the
space of seven hours the earthy matter had been extracted to
one half of the depth of the piece; and after the process was
complete it remained at the bottom, and retained the original
form of the immersed fragment. It was fibrous, soft, highly
flexible, and elastic, and weighed eighteen grains. By adding
sulphuric acid to the liquor, after removing the masses of ani-
mal matter from both vessels, sulphate of lime was obtained ;
and, when weighed, they were found to correspond very nearly.
The fastidious caution of Mr. Bellamy did not suffer him to
regard this experiment as conducted with the greatest nicety.
At our request, he submitted a metatarsal bone of Hyena, from
the same cavern, to immersion in one sixth of muriatic acid to
five sixths of water; but in this case, aſter the earthy matter
was thrown off, the animal substance remained so abundant
that the bone retains its complete form, is only translucent, and
remains at the bottom of the liquor, as if it were a recent speci-
men, of which it preserves all the characters.
Pieces of human skull, from a sub-Apennine cavern, in
Tuscany, probably not less than twenty-five or thirty centuries
old, appeared thoroughly fossilized, or rather entirely deprived
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
159
of animal juices, and in a chalky state. On examination, in
proper chemical tests, by Dr. Armstrong, of the Royal Naval
Hospital at Plymouth, and by Mr. Oxland, chemist, both
gentlemen came to conclusions which did not invalidate Mr.
Bellamy's investigation, though they presented a smaller
quantity of gelatine or animal matter than was obtained from
the bones above mentioned. Human bones, from the Brixham
Cavern, were said to be recent, though they appeared to us as
if the extremities had been gnawed, and marks of teeth were
traceable at the sides. Not far from the cave where these
l'emains were found, there was dug out of the sand a thoroughly
fossilized head of a Deer (Rangifer ?), within a few feet of a
humerus of some great feline, not less than a Panther, but have
ing all the appearance and color of a recent bone. Great dis-
similarity exists in the conditions of the bones of extinct
mammals, undoubtedly arising in part from their relative ages,
but still more from the localities where they are found de-
posited. Those of Megatherium, often discovered on the sur-
face of the Pampas of Brazil, necessarily differ from bones
located in clefts of limestone rocks in the same country.
Again, there is a change between these and the Mastodons of
the clayey bone licks of North America and gravels of Eng-
land; and, still more, between those of the Asiatic Mammoths,
which are so perfectly fresh that bears have devoured the flesh
after many ages of preservation in ice or frozen earth. The
bones found in Gibraltar breccia are not in the same condition
as those dug out of the red loam or clay beneath stalagmites.
They are dissimilar even in the same caves, and therefore we
may infer that the criterion whereby their age is to be deter-
mined is exceedingly questionable, and, consequently, that
human bones found among them, and under similar conditions,
should not be made exceptions upon hypothetical assumptions,
but treated similarly with those around them. No new theory
of guesses should be admitted for every recurring case. With
regard to the pretence that they may have dropped into the
160
NATURAL HISTORY OF
caves, it is to be observed, that few of these receptacles have
been found to have perceptible openings, excepting such
as have been accidentally made in later times. Besides, no
accident could place them under the stalagmite subsequent to
its formation. When recourse was had to the supposition, that
after the ossiferous formation was completed, either by deposits
caused by floods, by the gradual accumulation produced
through the intervention of resident carnivora, or in any other
way, they were buried in the caves, without considering that
savages, who, as the presence of flint knives proves, could, with
such implements hardly break through the dense stalagmite
crust, and, from their nature, would scarcely be willing to
effect a passage through what must have been viewed by them
as solid rock, when, within the distance of a few yards, they
would bury a relative, worthy the trouble, with ease, in the
common soil.* If, in truth, the human bones found among the
others had been placed in those receptacles by the hand of
man, there would be tokens of human care; they would be
found connected, and the skulls, by far the hardest bone and
longest preserved, would not be wanting, as they generally
are; nor, in that case, would the human remains be deprived
of animal juices, exactly in the same condition as those in the
bones of extinct species, that is, varying according to cir-
cumstances, as they occur in both. With regard to the evi-
dence attempted to be drawn in support of the theory that the
human remains are more recent, because fragments of pottery
have been found with them, and, in one case, that the cavern
indicated the effect of smoke, it is surely unnecessary to
remark that savages are still human beings, who make use of
fire and of earthenware, particularly in cold and temperate
climates, provided they are not nomads; therefore, that the
presence of human bones indicates the existence of both fire
* To a comparatively late age, when tools were not wanting, human
bones are found deposited very near or on the surface; not buried, but
covered with heaps of stones or earth, forming cairns or barrows.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
161
and culinary utensils. Cuvier, more profound and more
cautious, simply replied, “Pas encore," when he was asked
whether human bones, proved to be coëval with those of extinct
mammalia, had yet been discovered. This was in 1824.*
TRADITIONS RESPECTING EXTINCT SPECIES.
THOUGH the remains of Mastodon angustidens, found on an
elevated site of Peru, of Toxodon, Macrauchenia, and Mylodon,
may, in America, point to a more remote antiquity, the bones
of Megatherium, in Brazil, are on or near the surface, in a
recent state, and in the same condition as those of Horse, often
accompanying them, whose bones are, nevertheless, accepted
as belonging to an extinct species. Now, could they have
resisted disintegration during four or five thousand years, con-
sidering both of these to have lain exposed to, or, at least,
within the influence of a tropical sun and the periodical rains ?
Yet they occur often on the surface, and the bones of the pel-
vis have been used for temporary fire-places, by the aborigines,
wandering on the Pampas, beyond the memory of man. In
North America, although such remains as are now usually dis-
covered have lain sunken in clay or mud, deposited by foriner
lakes, the fact is not invariable; and exclusive of Dr. Lund's
discoveries in Brazil, there are native legends which indicate
traditional knowledge of more than one species. Such is that
of the great Elk or Buffalo, which, besides its enormous horns,
had an arm protruding from its shoulder, with a hand at the
extremity (a proboscis). Another, the Tagesho, or Yagesho,
was a giant Bear, long-bodied, broad down the shoulders, thin ·
and narrow about the hind quarters, with a large head, power-
ful teeth, short and thick legs, paws with very long claws, body
almost destitute of hair, except about the hind legs; and, there-
fore, it was called “ the Naked Bear.” Further details are fur-
* In this, as in other cases, Cuvier made it a rule to answer only for
his own personal observation; and the human skulls found in the Apen.
nines he considered as demanding further research. - See Appendix.
:
14*
162
NATURAL HISTORY OF
nished by the Indians, which, allowing for inadequate terini-
nology, incorrectness in tradition and translation from the
native dialects to English, leaves a surprisingly applicable pic-
ture to a species of Megatheride, perhaps the Jeffersonian
Megalonyx. The colossal Elk, another name for the Mastodon,
or Père aux Beufs, points out that with designations of existing
species the Indians describe extinct animals with a precision
which, in the state of their information, nothing but traditionary
recollection of their real structure could have furnished. We
remember seeing, in the United States, a rib, supposed to have
belonged to a fossil ungulate species, which bore undeniable
marks of a wound, apparently given by some sharp instrument
of human invention.
Tradition, in the East Indies, similarly mentions the Aula,
or Auloc, Elephant-horse, a solid, ungulated proboscidean, sup-
posed to be figured in Kindersley's specimens of Hindoo litera-
ture, where the Macaira, represented in Budha zodiacs, is
again seen beneath the monster horse, and, still more singu-
larly, bears the same form in a Peruvian bas-relief, always
resembling the presumed figure of Dinotherium giganteum, or,
rather, with the characters of an aquatic proboscidean.
The Uri and Bisontes, of the Hercynian Forest, havé disap-
peared, and the Machlis of Cæsar, if it was identical with the
Sech and Schelch, of the middle ages, and the same as the
Irish Elk, by Breton bards transmuted into the Questing beast
of romance, was a real existing species, so late as the eighth
century, and, perhaps, even to the fifteenth. It is, neverthe-
less, an extinct animal, and its bones are found under circum-
stances similar to the Megatherium of America, and nearly in
the same chemical condition. Next, we have the exuviæ of
existing species, exclusive of Horse, Beaver, &c. The Elk is
not unfrequently found among those of extinct animals, in the
same regions where that ruminant now resides; and we ask by
what theory, compatible with the sentence pronounced upon
others, these are to be disposed of?
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
163
HUMAN OSSUARIES, WITH BONES OF EXTINCT ANIMALS.
Now, the inference which we desire at present to draw from
the foregoing facts, is, solely that the extinction of several lost
species of the so-called fossil mammalia was not entire, nor an-
terior to the first appearance of man on earth, nor even to his
dispersion over the greater part of its surface; and, therefore,
that the asserted alteration in the atmosphere, by the increase
of carbonic acid gas, if it did not affect their vitality, must have
been shared by man, and, at most, can have operated only by
very slow degrees. In order to show this probable coëxisting
state, other caverns may be mentioned, which were discovered
in the calcareous mountains of Quercy, in the commune of
Guienne, district of Figeac, and department du Lot, nearly in
the centre of Southern France. They occur, chiefly, on two
mountains, on opposite sides of the valley, at an elevation of
more than 300 metres (nearly 1000 feet) above the river Sélé,
and at a locality which appears to be connected with circular
and rectilinear fortifications, whereof the ruins bear a resem-
blance to what are commonly called Cyclopean walls, such as
occur in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Here it is that an
unknown people actually did bury, or, at least, made ossuaries
of the dead, at a period so remote as in all probability to be
anterior to the arrival of the historical Celtæ, who were them-
selves colonists ere the Gauls established their power west of
the Rhine. The people in question, though barbarian, was not
a mere assemblage of savages. It was stationary, if we can
* Captain M'Adam, in MS. Lectures, gives the English coal formations
alone to have returned, -
Oxygen, . . . . . . . . . 7,706,700,800 cubic feet.
Absorbed carbonic acid, ... 3,128,530,809 cubic feet.
But since the remains of birds, of marsupials, &c., are discovered, belong-
ing to the eocene period, there does not seem to exist any reason for pre-
suming a marked atmospheric difference could prevail, since the niore
perfect vertebratæ were in being.
164
NATURAL HISTORY OF
trust the defensive structures to have been its work, and had
social institutions, at a time when the Rhinoceros and extinct
Reindeer had not departed. An obscure and remote tradition
pervading the present inhabitants, that, among other localities,
there existed caverns on the right side of the river, replete
with wondrous_treasures, an entrance into one was at length
searched for, and in 1825, digging in a spot judged to be favor-
able, at the depth of three feet, the excavators found a human
skeleton, and an iron tool of a forked shape. They continued
to sink a shaft to the depth of eighteen metres, about fifty-six
English feet, until they encountered a stone barrier of human
workmanship; and having forced a passage, the workmen dis-
covered three branches or natural galleries, and passed by one
of them into the desired cavern. Instead of treasures, however,
human bones were found in great quantities. They were
mostly disposed in the crevices of the rock, with evident care,
and others were pressed regularly into a cavity, and covered
with a flat slab, surrounded by a circle of very clean white
stones. By the precautions that had been taken to block up
every entrance with walls of stone, and the success with which
it had been performed, - (since the shaft by which an opening
was forced did not reach the real entrance), - the whole mani-
fested that it had been a tribal necropolis, formed with great
respect for the dead, at the same time that a strong impres-
sion was created of its remote antiquity, froin the circumstance
of these human remains being accompanied by the head and
three teeth of a Rhinoceros, antlers of a small species of Rein-
deer, the head of an extinct species of Stag, the shoulder-blade
of a very large Bovine, and the canon bone of a Horse. In
this case, we hear of no stalagmite, no red loam ; there is no
mention of Hyenas or other carnivorous animals, and only a
few remains of herbivora, which may have been deposited in
the human ossuary, because they had served for sacrificial
purposes in honor of the dead. It is not probable, if they had
been found in the locality, when cleared for a sacred purpose,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
165
that there would not have been any more, and in company
with debris of carnassiers, or that they would not, in that case,
have been removed, without exception. If the ossuary was
formed by progenitors of Basque, Euscarra, or Cantabrian
tribes (the most ancient marine Hyperboreans of the Ouralian
or Finnic stock in Western Europe), the presence of sacrificial
heads and antlers would call to mind a similar practice still in
vogue among the kindred pagan tribes in the Arctic regions,
where Elk and Reindeer horns invariably decorate the tumuli
of the dead, and would substantiate the inference that the lost
herbivoræ here mentioned, including a Rhinoceros, were still
existing at a time when the people in question were already
settled in Southern Europe.
From the foregoing observations, we have no grounds for
objecting to the coëxistence of man with departed species, and
wc may naturally expect his debris to become more abundant,
in proportion as the others are less numerous, and will contain
an increasing number of the last extinguished, or of such as
are still in being :- Ruminants, among which may be recko :
oned Wrus, Bison, Ell, Reindeer, Sheep; and Carnivora,
more particularly Bears, Felinæ, and wild Canida, whereof
the Wolf is among the latest.
O
TT
We have adduced the foregoing facts and inferences, not
so much to establish the implied dependence that should be
placed upon them singly, but as inducements for the general
reader to bear them in mind as a whole, without which the,
conditions of human life, in a primeval state, such as man's
distribution and earliest migrations, cannot be fairly reviewed.
Thus much we have deemed necessary, foregoing, at the same
time, to search beyond the later age of the great pachydermous
distribution.
In a mental physiological retrospect, we might, perhaps, fan-
cifully, but not without truth, cast a pictorial glance over the
aspect of organic nature, as it may have been presented to the
166
IN
NATURAL HISTORY OF
light of day in the brightness of youthful creation, with ver-
dant meads and dense forests, composed of botanical families
still extant, abounding in Palms of different genera, in species
of giant Arundinacec and Marsh Plants, at this day flourish-
ing in warm regions. Imagination might behold remaining
Pachyderms on the borders of lakes ; huge Ruminants swarm-
ing on the plains; Saurians not as yet reduced in location, and
numbers basking or floundering on the banks of the waters;
Hyenas by the borders of the wood, or glaring from opening
caverns; and, perhaps, a distant solitary column of white smoke
ascending from the forest, the certain indication of Man's pres-
ence, as yet humble, and in awe of the brute monarchs around
him; possessing no weapons beyond a club, nor a tool beyond
a fiint knife; timid on earth, because he is still unacquainted
with his own rising superiority over other animated beings,
though they be more powerful than himself; and ignorant of
his destiny to survive their duration of existence, though he
may already have witnessed convulsions, which, while they
tend to benefit him, and set bounds to the rest, are yet causes
of apprehension, because he cannot wholly escape their opera-
tion.
Whether such a condition of life, one that may be seen at
the present time in those regions and latitudes where the
active-minded European has not yet overturned the old innate
habits of savage life, — whether such an existence dates so far
back as 6000 years, or 7322, according to Professor Wallace,
or does not amount to forty-two centuries, is not; in our view,
a question of importance; since, between the dates of Man's
creation and the present, there is abundant proof, not only of
one general diluvian catastrophe, but, also, of many others
more or less important; and these alone, in a great measure,
are sufficient cause for the dispersion of Man to all the points
of the earth where he is found to reside, and in many places
where the marks of his presence evidently date back to a very
remote period.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
167
EXISTENCE OF MAN AS A GENUS, OR AS A SINGLE SPECIES.
ALTHOUGH the existence of Man upon the face of the earth,
to a very remote period, cannot be denied, it still remains a
question, in systematic zoology, whether mankind is wholly
derived from a single species, divided by strongly marked vari-
eties, or sprung successively or simultaneously from a genus,
having no less than three distinct species, synchronizing in
their creation, or produced by the hand of nature at different
and all endowed with the power of intermixing and reproduc-
ing filiations, up to a certain extent, in harmony with the
intermediate locations, which circumstances, soil, climate, and
food, necessitate. Of these questions, the first is assumed to
be answered in the affirmative, notwithstanding the many diffi-
culties which surround it; and a very recent author, of un-
doubted ability, has gone so far as to conclude that man neces-
sarily constitutes but one single species. The inference, at
first sight, appears to repose almost wholly upon authority
without physiological assent, excepting where physiology itself
rests again upon an assumed conclusion. Now, with regard
to the second proposition, notwithstanding an unnecessary
multiplication of species successively adopted by other philo-
sophical physiologists, it cannot be denied that, by their hy.
pothesis, many phenomena, most difficult of explanation, are
solved in a comparatively natural way, and so far deserve
more implicit confidence. For the first, scientifically taken,
reposes mainly upon the maxim in natural history, which
declares, “ That the faculty of procreating a fertile offspring
constitutes identity of species, and that all differences of struc-
ture and external appearance, compatible therewith, are solely
the effects resulting from variety of climate, food, or accident ;
168
NATURAL HISTORY OF
consequently, are forms of mere varieties, or of races of one.
common spécies !"* The second, on the contrary, while admit-
ting the minor distinctions, as the effects of local causes,
regards the structural, taken together with the moral and intel-
lectual characters, as indications of a specific nature not refer-
able to such causes, albeit the species remain prolific by
inter-union, which, according to them, are the source of varie-
ties and intermediate races.
In systematic zoological definitions, the first may be regarded
as sufficiently true for general purposes of classification; but,
physiologically, it cannot be assumed as positively correct, since
there are notable exceptions, most probably in all the classes of
the animal kingdom, from the lowest up to the most compli-
cated; and, therefore, when applied to mankind, it is of little
weight, since even the exceptional law, assumed by the writer
who regards the human races as necessarily of one species
only, is more likely to operate in the usual generical form of
animated beings, than by acting inversely, granting to one spec-
ified type the attributes that belong, in all other instances, to
a genus; and so far supporting his own doctrine of a progress-
ive creation. In physics, dogmas are admissible only so long
as they are not disproved. Since the fissiparous propagation of
some animals is established, “Omne animal ex ovo” is no
longer asserted to be a universal maxim, nor that all parturi-
tion of mammalia is derived wholly from uterine gestation;
for, without referring to classes of a lower organizatiori, fertile
offspring is obtained among several genera of brute mammals,
from the union of two or more so-called distinct species; or
the definition of that word is several ways incorrect. Frederic
Cuvier, sensible of the fallacy embodied in the maxim above
quoted, endeavored to prop it up by an argument drawn from
the asserted gradual decrease of prolific power in a breed of
* Buffon and Cuvier have made their definitions somewhat more com.
plicated, but essentially the same
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
169
hybrids, obtained from thé union of a Wolf and Dog, reared by
Buffon; an experiment often referred to, but not carried out
with the care and perseverance required to render it of sub-
stantial weight.
We have, for example, among carnassiers, the Wolf, Dhole,
Chakal, and Dog; that is, all the diurnal canidæ, if the dogma
were true, would form only one species, diversified merely by
the effects of chance, food, and climate, though all of them
reside together in the same regions, such as India, and main-
tain their distinctions; or the species Canis alone, as now clas-
sified, must offer the, union of three or more, aboriginally
different. This is plainly indicated by the great inequality in
the number of mammæ; for they are not always in pairs, and
vary from one individual to another, — from five and six, to
seven, eight, nine, and ten.* No condition of existence that
we know of can produce such an anatomical irregularity, with-
out a presumption that it arises from the intermixture of dif-
ferent types; and the opinion is further borne out, by other
structural differences in dogs, strictly so called, amounting to a
greater diversity of forms than there are between that species
and the Wolf, Dhole, or Chakal; differences which maintain
themselves, with very slight modifications, in the extreme cli-
mates, whither Man has conveyed the various races, large or
small, and amounting, in some cases, to greater hindrance to
the continuation of so-called varieties than are recorded to
have obstructed the experiment between Wolf and Dog already
noticed.
The Felidæ offer another instance of blending two or more
species without apparent difficulty. The breeds of the domes-
tic cats produce, with the wild species of the Himalaya Moun-
* On the property of a relative, there was lately a bitch, of the Spanish
mastiff breed, twenty-nine inches at the shoulder, who brought forth
twelve puppies at one birth ; indicating even a greater disturbance in the
original species, and proving that mastiffs are by no means as sterile as
is pretended.
170
NATURAL HISTORY OF
.
tains, the booted of Egypt (Felis maniculata), the wild Indian
(Felis pennaritii), and the original tortoise-shell, -- all regarded
as distinct; yet remaining prolific, with but small appearance
of being varieties. * .
Among Pachyderms, the Horse, and, still more evidently, the
domestic Hog, by the great irregularity in the vertebral column,
&c., indicate a plural origin.
Again, in Ruminantia, Goats and Sheep intermix, producing
permanently fertile hybrids; although the genus Ovis, exclu-
sive of the Argalis, offers several species in a wild state, which
have themselves every appearance of being the types of differ-
ent domestic races, that have been blended into common sheep
after they had been separately subjugated. Such are the Sha,
a species of Little Thibet; the Koch of the Suleimany range,
having only five molars"; the Persian Sheep of Gmelin; and
the bearded or Kebsch of Africa, which is sufficiently aberrant
to have been placed in a sub-genus, denominated Ammotragus.t
Another example may be pointed out in the promiscuous breed-
ing of common cattle with Zebu (Bos Gibbosus), a species born
with two teeth already protruded); with the Gayal (Bos Gav-
@us); and with the grunting Ox (Bos Pöephagus).
Finally, let one more instance be named from among the
Rodentia, where the Hare and Rabbit of Europe, and the vari-
able Hare of America, produce a continued progeny; more par-
ticularly when the hybrids are again crossed with one or other
of the pure species - a condition likewise the case with all the
foregoing.
t
* There is, besides, the brown black-footed cat of north-eastern Russia,
and others that may claim a distinct origin ; but whether the Jaguar of
South America, and the black variety (Jaguarete), forming a common cross-
breed with the Leopard of the old continent, in our itinerant menageries,
be successively prolific, is not satisfactorily determined, though the hy-
brids so obtained are asserted to be both stronger and healthier than a
genuine breed.
† I believe, by Mr. Blyth, who first distinguished several of the above
species.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
171
Those who, in the eagerness of defending a dogma, have
.erroneously assumed that the conditions of hybridism, among
animals in a state of nature, were well understood, have like-
wise asserted that they were confined to domesticated animals,
or, at most, to cases where one of the parents was domesti-
cated; and therefore, in all cases, formed vitiated, degraded,
and exceptional instances, should likewise have reflected, when
the question is raised respecting the specific distinctions of
Man, that if his influence be thus powerful. upon the brute
creation, it should not be denied to be still more efficient
between the species of his own genus, where the degradations
inflicted by slavery, and the corruption of so many varied insti-
tutions, have an empire independent of climate and food in
much more durable operation.
Enough, we deem, has been said, to satisfy the reader of the -.
exceptional character of the definition above quoted, and, there-
fore, that it is not one to be assumed, with confidence, on the
question of the typical forms of Man.
Reverting to Buffon's experiment of breeding between the
Wolf and Dog, intended by him more with a view to ascertain
the reality of their common origin, or specifical identity, and
by Frederick Cuvier pointed out as solved, because, according
to his view, it established an increasing sterility in the succes-
sive generations, we have already stated, that neither sufficient
care nor continuity was given to the experiment; and that one
single pair, of homogeneous origin, continuing propagation
through successive offspring, without a single cross of renovat-
ing blood, would, in all probability, end in similar sterility, or -
at least in sensible degradation. Hence it remains to be proved,
whether it would not hold equally between two such dissimilar
forms of Man, as a typical African negro and an European,
conducted upon the same principle, of admitting no intermix-
ture of a single collateral.* We doubt, exceedingly, if a
2
* It is even pretended, by many white colonists, that no negro woman,
172
NATURAL HISTORY OF
mulatto family does, or could exist, in any part of the tropics,
continued to a fourth generation, from one stock : perhaps .
there is not even one of five generations of positive mulattoes
(hybrids in the first degree), from different parents, but that all
actually require, for continuity at least, a long previous succes-
troon, sambo, native Indian, or Malay blood, before the sine.w
and substance of a durable intermediate race can be reared.
When the case is referred to Mongolic blood, placed in simi-
lar circumstances, or when merely kept approaching to equal
proportions with that of a Caucasian or Ethiopian stock, or
even with any very aberrant, the effect would be the same.
If the moral and instinctive impulses of the beardless stock
be taken into account, they will be found to operate with a
singularly repulsive tendency. Where the two types come
in contact, it produces war, ever aiming, on the Mongolic side,
at extermination, and in peace striving at an absolute exclusion
of all intercourse with races typically distinct. In the wildest
conquering inundations, lust itself obeying its impulses only
by a kind of necessity; myriads of slaves carried off and em-
bodied, still producing only a very gradual influence upon the
norinalisms of the typical form, and passing into absorption by
certain external appearances, with very faint steps.*
War and slavery seem to have been, and still are, the great
elements, perhaps the only direct agents, to produce amalgama-
tion of the typical stocks, without which no permanent progress
in the path of true civilization is made. From war has resulted
the intermediate races of man, in the regions where the typical
having horne a mulatto child, is ever after the mother of a black! She
becomes, they say, in that respect, sterile. But surely this must be very
doubtful, although our researches do not invalidate the assertion.
* This aversion to interüħion with the bearded races is a result of
experience, proving the superior activity of those who have sprung from
sich races, and become conquerors. Genghiz, Timur, and Nadir Shah,
were directly, or in their ancestry, descended from Caucasian mothers;
did bence, also, the jealous'exclusion of European women from China.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
173
species overlapped, strove for possession, and were forced to
withdraw or to submit to absorption. Periods of repose seem
even to be requisite before new influences are efficient; and
thus, by degrees, commences that state of amalgamation which
the necessities of the case, and the conditions already mentioned,
prescribe to generate secondary forms of Man, by combinations,
where new habits, new dialects, new articles of food, together
with at least change of climate in one of the constituents, had
their legitimate sphere of action. It is thus, where the foreign
mixed races spring up and have a continuous duration beyond
the pale of their primitive centres of existence, until the ground
is contested by the purer races, when they fall a prey to the
victors, are exterminated, absorbed, or perish by a kind of
decreasing vitality, or are entirely obliterated.*
The centres of existence of the three typical forms of Man,
are, evidently, the intertropical region of Africa for the
woolly-haired, the open elevated regions of north-eastern
Asia for the beardless, and the mountain ranges towards the
south and west for the bearded Caucasian. But, with regard
to the western hemisphere, it may be asserted that it is not a
centre of any typical stock, since the primeval Flatheads have
already disappeared ; and, though the partial population of the
bearded form had been overwhelmed by the Mongolic, it is in
turn now fast receding, and the woolly-haired, brought in chiefly
by modern navigation, it may be foreseen, will ultimately secure
to itself a vast homogeneous region, without other change in
characters than slight intermixture, advancing education, and
local circumstances, can effect.
· Although, on debatable ground, a race may be dislodged,
evidence of their having had possession of it remains in the
population of the more inaccessible mountains and forests; and
* Yet this apparent obliteration inust ever affect subsequent forms and
mental conditions in the victors, which the physiologist ought to bear in
mind, where known, or indicate when only suspected.
15*
174
NATURAL HISTORY OF
this fact is still oftener observable when distinct races of the
same type have contested the tenure of the soil. We see both
these cases repeatedly exemplified in all the more isolated
mountain systems, for the chains are guides to further prog-
ress. It is shown in the Neelgherries, the Crimea, the Carpa-
thians, the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Atlas, and even in the
group of Northern South America — all the residence of very
different tribes, driven to take refuge in them at various peri-
ods, and a single ridge or valley often separating people totally
distinct in religion, language, and aspect. The conditions of
their several states of existence often produce a more certain
and impressive history of the transactions in foregone ages, in
a given country, than its best chronicles afford.
Thus, the temporary tenure of Caucasian tribes, the Kin-
tomoey, Scythi, Yuchi, Yeta, and Sacæ, and the overlapping
nations in the north-east of the centre, and in north-western
Asia, is proved by their insulation or expulsion by the Mongo-
lic, to whom the whole expanse is more genial; while, for the
same reason, this last named stock could not maintain its con-
quests in Europe, nor to the south of the central ridge in
Asia.
But the white and negro races of Africa readily inter-
mix. The woolly-haired form has there no pretensions on
the debatable land between them. The Caucasian might
have assumed mastery beyond it, had not the force of nature
interposed; for this race does not and cannot multiply in the
centre of Negro existence; and in the warmer valleys of
the intermediate spaces, such as that of the Nile, only a mixed
Semitic stock possesses durability. It has been calculated,
that, since the introduction of the Mameluke power, not
less than five millions of well-chosen colonists, of both sexes,
from higher Central Asia, have been introduced, not to wear
out a life of slavery, but one of power and rule ; yet no fourth
generation of this stock can anywhere be shown in Egypt,
even with all the additional aid of Syrian and Persian females,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
175
to supply the deficiency.* The force of a true Negro expan-
sion is felt coming from the centre of Africa. It presses upon
the Caffres, the Abyssinees, and the west coast of Nigritia.
Morocco is already ruled by black sovereigns; and the antique
semi-Caucasian tribes of the north part have greatly dimin-
ished.
As it is with individual life, so families, tribes, and nations,
most likely even races, pass away. In debatable regions, their
tenure is only provisional, until the typical form appears, when
they are extinguished, or found to abandon all open territories
not positively assigned them by nature, to make room for those
to whom they are genial. This effect is itself a criterion of an
abnormal origin; for a parent stock, a typical form of the pres-
ent genus or species, perhaps with the sole exception of the
now extinct Flatheads, is, we believe, indestructible and inef-
faceable. No change of food or circumstances can sweep
away the tropical woolly-haired man; no event, short of a gen-
eral cataclysis, can transfer his centre of existence to another ;
nor can any known cause dislodge the beardless type from the
primeval high north-eastern region of Asia and its icy shores.
The white or bearded form, particularly that section which has
little or no admixture, and is therefore quite fair, can only live,
not thrive, in the two extremes of temperature. It exists in
them solely as a master race, and must be maintained therein
by foreign influences; and the intermediate regions, as we have
seen, were in part yielded to the Mongolic on one side, and but
temporarily obtained, by extermination, from the woolly-haired
on the other.
SPECIES OR TYPICAL FORMS OF MAN.
WHETHER we take the three typical forms in the light of
distinct species, or view them simply as varieties of one aborig-
* The same result is asserted to be observed on the banks of the Ganges;
though, in the South Sea Islands and Australia, the bearded stock multi-
plies in itself, and with semi-Caucasian Malay races.
176
NATURAL HISTORY OF
inal pair, there appear immediately two others intermediate
between them, possessing the modified combination of charac-
ters of two of the foregoing, sufficiently remote from both to
seem deserving, likewise, the denomination of species, or at
least of normal varieties, if it were not that the same difficulty
obtrudes itself between every succeeding intermediate aber-
rance. Hence, from the time of Linnæus, who first ventured
to place Man in the class Mammalia, systematists have selected
various diagnoses for separating the different types or varieties
of the human family; such as, the form of the skull, the facial
angle, the character of the hair, and of the mucous membrane.
But the skeleton and internal structure may not have been suf-
ficiently examined in all conditions of existence.
It does not appear that a thorough research has yet been
made in the successive cerebral appearances of the fætus, nor
of the character the brain of infants exhibits, immediately after
parturition, in each of the three typical forms. M. de Serres,
indeed, has led the way, and already, according to him, most
important discoveries have resulted from his investigations ;
for, should the conditions of cerebral progress be more complete
at birth in the Caucasian type, as his discoveries indicate, and
be successively lower in the Mongolic and intermediate Malay
would follow, according to the apparently general law of pro-
gression in animated nature, that both — or at least the last
mentioned -- would be in the conditions which show a more
ancient date of existence than the other, notwithstanding that
both this and the Mongolic are so constituted that the spark of
mental development can be received by them through contact
with the higher Caucasian innervation; thus appearing, in
classified zoology, to constitute perhaps three species, originat-
ing at different epochs, or simultaneously in separate regions,
while by the faculty of fusion with the last or Caucasian, im-
parted to them, progression up to intellectual equality would
manifest essential unity, and render all alike responsible beings,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
177
according to the degree of their existing capabilities -- for this
must be the ultimate condition for which Man is created. Fan-,
ciful though these speculations may appear, they seem to confer
more harmony upon the conflicting phenomena surrounding
the question, than any other hypothesis that rests upon physi-
ology, combined with geological data and known historical
facts.*
| .
* The higher order of animals, according to the investigations of M. de
Serres, passes successively through the state of inferior animals, as it were
in transitu, adopting the characteristics that are permanently imprinted
on those below them in the scale of organization. Thus, the brain of
Man excels that of any other animal in complexity of organization and
fulness of development. But this is only attained by gradual steps. At
the earliest period that it is cognizable to the senses, it appears a simple
fold of nervous matter, with difficulty distinguishable into three parts,
and having a little tail-like prolongation, which indicates the spinal mar-
row. In this state it perfectly resembles the brain of an adult fish; thus
assuming, in transilu, the form that is permanent in fish. Shortly after,
the structure becomes morg complex, the parts more distinct, the spinal
marrow better marked. It is now the brain of a reptile. The change
continues by a singular motion. The corpora quadrigemina, which had
hitherto appeared on the upper surface, now pass towards the lowers the
former is their permanent situation in fishes and reptiles, the latter in
birds and mammalia. This is another step in the scale. The complica-
tion increases; cavities or ventricles are formed, which do not exist in
either fishes, reptiles, or birds. Curiously organized parts, such as the
corpora striata, are added. It is now the brain of mammalia. Its last
and final change is wanting, that which shall render it the brain of Man,
in the structure of its full and human development. But although, in this
progressive augmentation of organized parts, the full complement of the
human brain is thus attained, the Caucasian form of Man has still other
transitions to undergo, before the complete chef d'auvre of nature is per-
fected. Thus, the human brain successively assumes the form of the
Negroes, the Malays, the Americans, and the Mongolians, before it attains
the Caucasian. Nay, more, the face partakes of these alterations. One
of the earliest points where ossificationi commences is the lower jaw.
This bone is therefore sooner completed than any other of the head, and
acquires a predominance which it never loses in the Negro. During the
soft pliant state of the bones of the skull, the oblong form which they nat-
urally assume approaches nearly the permanent shape of the American. '
At birth, the flattened face and broad smooth forehead of the infant; the
178
NATURAL HISTORY OF
How much remains still to be done, may be further instanced
in the mental faculties, which have been even more neglected;
neither have they noticed religious and traditional opinions and
practices; and the connection they have with the external
world assuredly demands rigorous and dispassionate inquiry.
In general, the leading character, somewhat arbitrarily chosen,
is held up as singly, sufficient and uncombined with others, ---
some of the most important points in the question remaining
unnoticed, — and sometimes the conclusions are drawn at vari-
ance with the systematic rules prescribed in zoology on all other
occasions. No common concert is the result of this variety of
systems; and a great number of arbitrary divisions and cause-
less names are introduced, — the proof how little zoologists are
agreed in their views, — while the main points are scarcely
influential; and more than justifiable stress is laid on coin-
cidences of language, which, notwithstanding they have un-
questionable weight, are not as yet sufficiently discriminated
for the general acquiescence of linguists, and should, more-
over, be used with some regard to the occasional oblivion of a
parent tongue, by the encroachment of another, brought in
vogue by a conquering people.*
All, however, appear to have taken but slight notice of
numerous races of the several forms of Man, which have been
entirely extinguished, and to have assumed, for incontroverti-
position of the eyes, rather towards the sides of the head, and the widened
space between, represent the Mongolian forin, which, in the Caucasian,
is not obliterated but by degrees, as the child advances to maturity.
*We refer to such as the dialects of ancient Italy, Etruscan, &c., ohlit-
erated by the Roman Latin; the Celtiberian and Turdetan, by the Latin
and Spanish; the Syriac by Arabic; Celtic by the Latin and French; the
Celtic of Britain by the Saxon and English ; the Pelhevi and Zend by
Perso-Arabic; the Mauritanian by the same ; and many more. Those
who wish to view tbe abstract forms of the classifications of Man, zoolog-
ically considered, will find an interesting article in the Edinburgh Jour-
nal of Physical Sciences, by William Macgillivray, fol. vol. i. ; and in
the Animal Kingdom, commenced by Linnæus Martin ; two works which,
it is to be regretted, were discontinued from want of public support.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
179
ble, that the structural differences observable in nations are
solely the result of changes of climate, food, and other condi-
tions of existence, which a careful attention to history does not
confirm ; and which, if they operated at all, must be a result
of the long-continued action of the same causes upon the por-
tions of mankind placed within the sphere of their operation,
such as arid or moist tropical heat, arctic cold, open mountain
ridges, or low swampy forests; — yet there is so little cer-
tainty that such causes do or would effect the modifications
ascribed to them, that it is not even proved they influence the
brute creation to any extent, except in clothing; and the three
normal forms of Man, in every region which is sufficiently
genial to sustain the persisting duration of one of them, feel
the effect but slightly; and as there are only three who attain
this typical standard, we have in them the foundation of that
number being exclusively aboriginal.
This inference is further supported by facts, which show, if
not a succession of distinct creations of human forms, at least
probabilities that their different characteristics are of a remoter
date than the last great cataclysis of the earth's surface;
for the admitted chronological data do not give a sufficient
period of duration between that event and the oldest picture
sculptures of Egypt, to sanction the transition from Caucasian
bearded to the Negro woolly-haired, or vice versa, as both
appear on the monuments. In that case, the operation of the
decided changes would have passed through all their main
gradations in three or four centuries, without any subsequent
perceptible addition in as many thousand years; * or should
*There are, besides, such facts as the perfection of style in building,
in drawing, and in hieroglyphicintaglio sculpture, remarkable in the oldest
monuments ; not surpassed, but even receding to inferior execution, in
subsequent ages. A national multitude must have risen out of few parents
- all the subordinate arts invented, and so far carried to perſection, as to
be available for scientific purposes, such as architecture, &c., in some
cases exceeding our present capacities, or demanding the utmost ability
in the moderns to equal. All this, without mentioning Etruria, Bactria,
Assyria, India, and China.
TS
180
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the beardless stock, which never becomes intensely black,
be regarded as intermediate, the difficulty is increased; and
it may be remarked, in addition, that the first admissible
appearance of this type, in historical records of the west, is
incomparably more recent. Cuvier, and other eminent writers,
viewed the typical forms of Man to have descended from dif-
ferent high mountain chains of the world after the deluge, and
therefore dated them at least as old as that period. But if
they were in their characteristics the same before, by what
force in nature did they suddenly, in a short time, change to
their present distinctions, after that event? Or if they were
clearly possessed of them, then the remoteness of the time
renders all trustworthy decision impossible, or favors, more
than it contradicts, that the tropical conformation was the
most general, and the Mongolic next, because both extremes
of temperature are not incompatible with its vitality ; and the
bearded type last, the highest, the best endowed, and destined
ultimately to elevate the others by its contact; and, finally,
supports the same facts in the location of species which are
observed to exist in the distribution of animals and plants in
particular regions, according to their nature and structure.
Thus, reasoning merely from facts, the woolly-haired type
again bears tokens of greater antiquity than either of the other,
and it may have been of Australasian origin; not necessarily
black, for color alone is of very secondary importance. Other
distinctions of a specific character will be found, when those
of the three forms are explicitly enumerated ; and thus far
their separation as species might be claimed as established,
but that there remain still other considerations which should
not be overlooked, since they tend to an opposite conclusion.
Among these, perhaps not one is more forcible than the fact
that the lowest form of the three is the most ready to amalga-
mate with the highest. Again, that both the beardless and
THE HUMAN SPÉCIES.
181
a first intermixture, and very often both stature and form ex-
ceeding either type; and, in the second generation, the eyes of
Mongoles become horizontal, the face oval. The crania of the
Negro stock immediately expand in their hybrid offspring, and,
leave more durable impressions than when the order is reversed.
tion to be intellectually excited by education, it is progressive
in development in succeeding generations. Here, then, at the
point of most intense innervation, the spark of indefinite
progress is alone excited, and communicated in power, pre-
cisely according to the quantity received. Forthe rest, gesta-
tion, puberty, and duration of life, exclusive of accidental
causes, are the same; and in topographical location, though
each is possessed of a centre of vitality, yet all have races and
tribes scattered in certain directions through each other, and to
vast distances, at the very first dawn of historical investigation..
This may be the cause why all nations acknowledge a great
deluge, although they do not foresee a second; but almost as
universally expect a conflagration. It is, however, true, that
the obvious inference to be drawn from the foregoing remarks,
does not amount to a demonstration that mankind sprung from
a single pair, or is of one species only, since there are numer-
ous proofs, notwithstanding a permanent divergence, of the
three types having been constantly in sufficient contact to
learn great general traditions ; and the diluvian fact itself was
of such magnitude, that it may have been actually witnessed
by all. But then, the intention of an aboriginal unity of the
species is at least so far indicated by the circumstance of
Man's typical stock, having all' a direct tendency to pass
upwards towards the highest endowed, rather than to a lower
condition, or to remain stationary.
However, these remarks appertain solely to the traditional,
geographical, and historical considerations, leaving untouched
the structural phenomena, which the physiologist must weigh!
16
182
NATURAL HISTORY OF
and value according to their true importance, if so be, that the
solution can thereby be effected, and bearing in mind how cir-
cumscribed is our knowledge of the exceptional laws of nature.
Without, therefore, coming to a peremptory” conclusion in
the present state of our knowledge, and having stated, so far
as space and our means permitted, the principal conditions of
the questions at issue, - questions which are, aſter all,
in a great measure speculative, and whereof the result can
in no shape have weight, where the moral obligations of Man
regard his intercourse with fellow-men, — let us now proceed,
first, to take a view of extinct abnormal races of our species;
and then, after noticing generalities, offer a somewhat detailed
account of the three great typical forms which constitute the
human family.
ABNORMAL RACES OF MAN.
GIANTS AND DWARTS.
There were, in early antiquity, nations, tribes, and families,
existing in nearly every part of the earth, whose origin and
affinities appear so exceedingly obscure, that they have been
transferred from physical realities to põetical mythology; and,
under the names of Titans, Æooras, Hastikarnas, Danaras,
Gins, Deeves, Thyrsen, Divarfs, Swergi, Elves, and Fairies,
regarded as personifications of phenomena in nature, although
the inverse may be assumed with more probability, taking the
pretended creations of mere fancy to be, in their origin, derived
from physical realities more or less distorted. Such are the
Giant and Dwarf races of mythology, romance, and history,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
183
both sacred and profane.* They occur in the traditions of
most nations; and in both hemispheres their physical existence
has survived to within late ages; provided, in considering the
question, we reject wild impossibilities, and adopt, in their
stead, the subdued impressions compatible with the sobriety of
nature, reducing them to an admissible stature, and view them
more by the brutal ferocity of their manners, coupled with
superior physical powers, than as absolute monsters in size
and energy. At a period when animal development and mus-
cular strength alone gave preëminence, it causes no wonder that
the possessors of those qualities should abuse them. They
were the source of the first desires of conquest for dominions
sake. They caused nations of more lofty structure, almost all
arising among the nomad shepherds of temperate latitudes, —
perhaps Shetæ, Kheta, or tribes of milk-eating Scythæ - to
wander southward, and establish supremacies over weaker
constituted people; first as conquerors, next as a privileged
body, and last, as families, among the subjugated populations,
till intermixture, or new conquerors, partially effaced the dif-
ference of nationality. Thus, the myrmidons of Achilles may
have been identical with the Penestes of Thessaly, the Helots
of Sparta, the Charotes of Crete, Gymnetes of Argos, and
Conephores of Sicyon, which were all tribes enslaved by
foreign conquerors. Thus, with scarce an exception, Giants
are ever found in juxtaposition with Dwarfs, who, in reality,
* The extent of Giant legends is shown, from their having no satisfac-
tory interpretation, except in the Scythian (Gothic) mythology; yet they
are interwoven in all the earliest Greek mystical fables, without being
intelligible to them. It seems as if there did exist, in Asia Minor, a
particular version on this subject, for it is not a Greek mythus which has
served the Jewish fabricators of their pretended Book of Enoch, where it
treats of the commerce the Egregori, or fallen angels, had with women.
The Giants beget Nephilim (Scandinavian Niſlem,) and then Eliud
(Elſen.) This is almost like the Edda, and may have been forged after
the first captivity, when some Jews certaioly visited Armenia. See Lac-
tant. and Syncell.
184
NATURAL HISTORY OF
are the mere subjects of the other, and perhaps little inferior
in stature, but certainly not so well supplied with food, and its
consequent physical results. Hence, in the early ages, each
party sees Giants among the leaders of the enemy, and only
heroes in its own. Here, again, the rapid decline from con-
quering tribes to single families, sinking still to individuals in
a tribe of casual birth, who on some occasions were elected to
be Roman emperors and Gothic chiefs. At a later period, they
pass into a kind of brutal champions, kept for the sport or for
the wars of chieftains in the middle and feudal ages, or for
show, as certain men are still retained in Asia. Such Giants,
in remote times, were the leaders and princes of idolatrous
Egypt and Canaan, Apoplieis, Og, Goliath, &c. Such the first
horsemen conquerors of the Bedoueen or Ethiopian Arabs, stil)
obscurely designated in the national lore as fair and blue-eyed,
till the Almighty turned them red, and then black, in punish-
ment for their iniquity.* And in mythological dualism, the
red-haired Typhon, Baby, or Anteus, types drawn, equally with
the Nephilim, from the red and fair-haired nations of Northern
Asia, Gog and Magog (Haiguge and Magiuge, or the lofty and
kindred lofty) Scythian tribes; the Cyclopians and Lestrigons,
the Thyrsen or Tyrheni, and Raseni. Such the deified heroes
of Greece and of Etruria, always represented naked, like the
Baresarks and Blaumans of the north, and Gaurs and Hunen
of the Celtic and Teutonic nations. Such, finally, the Goths
still figured on the brazen bas-reliefs of the cathedral gates at
Augsburg,f and others lately discovered during some excava-
tions in the Tyrol. Naked championship was a custom pre-
served by Greeks, Gauls, Britons and Franks. So late as the
year 1578, the Scottish Highlanders still fought naked against
the Spaniards, at the action of Rymenant, near Mechlin.
* See Tarikh Tebry. '
+ These gates are certainly older than the eleventh century; the male
costume renders it likely that they really belonged to the palace of Theo.
doric, at Ravenna, and the workmanship, that it is Byzantine.
THE HUMAN SPECIÈS.
185
The Baresarks were true Giants in their manners, in their
liability to fits of phrensy, paroxysms already characterized in
the deeds of Hercules, and like the Malay muck. In Moslem
Asia were the Chagis, naked fanatics of giant stature, in the
wars of the Crusades; and there still remain Shumshurbas,
Pehlwan, Kawasses, prize-fighters and wrestlers, often pos-
sessed of immense muscular strength, kept in the pay of gran-
dees, like the ancient Blaumen of the north, or like Orson in
romance ;* besides these, a nation of primeval invaders of
India, denominated Cattie, even now contains many warriors
revealing the origin whence it came, by the occasional presence
of light-colored hair and gray eyes.
As might be expected, physical Giants flourished longest in
the colder temperate regions of our hemisphere, and are traced
on the American continent, in the Mexican records, and high-
nosed human forms in relief; while there exist also several
tribes of American Indians, of very large stature, bearing, in
and still more from the Esquimaux. Again, in the cold
extreme south, the Patagonians, likewise apparently differing
from the more stunted Fuegians near them; and the Araukas
or Arookas, perhaps a mutation of the Indian Azooras, com-
pared with the now extinct Flatheads; and in both cases, fast
disappearing, by reason of recent interunion 'with tribes of
lower stature. South Africa, again, is in the possession of
a lofty race of Caffres, with their champion, Aba-lafas, by the
side of the dwarfish Bosjemans and Dokkos; and in the moun.
tains of northern China, men above six feet in height occur.
But it is doubtful, whether, in any region, they do not all,
directly or indirectly, spring from the original bearded stoch
of High Asia; therefore conquerors, and always a master race.
* The chained giant Widolt with the gavelock, and Wade with the
hammer, of the "Heldenbuch and Niebelungen” romances ; and the
wrestler Charles, in "As you like it," belong to this class.
16*
186
NATURAL HISTORY OF
They have been often and long cannibals, the earliest pós-
sessors of horses; and hence doubly meriting the Chinese name
of horse-faced ; because, in addition to the first possession of
the animal, all the lofty tribes of mankind have elongated
features. *
THE DWARFS. .
The races below a middle stature, frequently sinking to the
form of Dwarfs, though seldom noticed but in conjunction with
Giant tribes, are nevertheless much more numerous, more
* In the list among the giant tribes of Syria alone, we find so many,
that it is evident they were mere families, ruling, most likely, by con-
quest, over Canaanitish tribes - Nephilim, Rephaim, Zuzim, Gibhorim,
Enakim, Zamzumim - some being distinguished by a malformation,
having six fingers and six toes on the bands and feet; of which there is
a counterpart in the legends of India. Of the stature individuals may
have attained, are the examples of Teutobochus, king of the Cymbers,
whose head overtopped the spears, bearing trophies, in the triumph of
Marius. The Emperor Maximinus exceeded eight feet ; Gabarus, an Ara-
bian, in the time of Claudius, was nine feet. nine inches high; he was
shown at Rome. In the reign of Augustus, Pusio and Secondilla vere
ten feet three inches in height; their bodies were preserved and shown
in the Sallustian Gardens. The Emperor Andronicus was ten feet high,
according to Nicelas. Herodes Hercules was eight feet. Porus, six feet
nine inches. Charlemagne, seven feet. George Castriot, or Skanderbeg,
and George Freunsberg, nearly eight feet. Without, therefore, vouching
for the exact measurements here given, we have still sufficient evidence
to show, that, even in recent times, men of high stature, and of immense
strength, have been historically conspicuous. The last trace, in Great
Britain, of the Giant character, may be perceived in the Broinech of the
Hebrides, where they are called Gruagaichs, (Gruage feachd,) a hairy
bandit, concealed in the glens, and coming forth at night to plunder.
During the operation of the Berlin and Milan decrees, we have personally
known, in London, a Moor, usually named Gibraltar, captain of a neutral
merchant ship, who was visible, at a great distance, in the Strand, head,
breast and shoulders above the hats of the passing crowd, for be meas-
urel six feet seven inches and a quarter, and was, in all respects, of the
finest proportions, and of very considerable acquirements in languages,
&c.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
187
generally diffused, and bear evidence of greater antiquity,
wherever they are located. In some instances supplying, by
ingenuity, the want of superior strength, they appear possessed
of a certain progress in civilization greater than the conquer-
ing tribes. Either from a kind of instinctive impulse, aiding
natural intelligence, or from a docile spirit taking counsel,
when the sense of physical inability prevails, from experience,
or from instruction obtained in the Caucasian or even Mon-
golic stocks, to which they appear directly or indirectly related
-- they are miners, metallurgists, smiths, and architects.
When not driven to the woods and fastnesses, they have agri-
cultural habits and superstitions of a low polytheistical charac-
ter, but bearing evidence of systematic organization. These
qualities, in conjunction with retiring defensive habits, have,
in every region, conferred upon them mystical properties,
generally marked in legends by more excessively reducing
their stature. Thence, we have Indian mythological Balak-
hilyas and Dwara pulas; in Western Asia, Eliud, Peri, Gin;
Celtic Dubh ; Northern Elfin; Dwergar, always marked with
Ouralian, Finnic, and Mongolian peculiarities; passing to
more poetical fairies and pigmies, and then to true Fins, Lap-
landers, Ostiaks, Samoyeds, Skrelings, and Myrmidons (of
Achilles) afterwards named Elfin, in the woods of Thrace, and
in the Hartz, Tyrolean, and Pyrenean mountains, where they
are evidently the present Basques; all attesting' a similar
dualism of fancy and fact, as was shown to exist in the Giants.
They bear, however, beside their diminished stature, one com-
mon character in physical history ; namely, that all the races,
where by superabundant intermixture the distinctive marks are
not effaced, are swarthy, with black hair and black eyes, grow-
ing still darker in southern latitudes, till at length they become
positively black, and the hair assumes a woolly character.
Still, among these, some may be seen of ordinary stature, and
others are stunted by habitual want of food. In this shape
they are, in Asia, recorded to have existed under various
188
NATURAL HISTORY OF
legendary names; and they now occupy many localities, but
greatly debased by persecution. Indeed, their intermediate
races, and still more and more, as they pass into the purer
type of the Papua or Negro, have suffered, and continue to
suffer, the unmitigated oppression of Caucasian superiority.
In hot regions, where a powerful vegetation supplies the
means, some of the most brutal tribes, such as the Vedas of
Ceylon, Cookies, and Goands of Chittagong, east of the Bra-
maputra, reside in trees, with little more contrivance, or the use
of reason, than is evinced by Chimpanzees, the great apes of
Africa. The Pouliahs of Malabar are no better, for they also
form a kind of nests, in trees, beyond the reach of elephants
and tigers, never associating with other nations, and not even
permitted by the Hindoos to approach within one hundred
yards. In open mountain country, these nations are more
commonly troglodytes, dwellers in natural grottos; and only
in colder regions inhabitants of caves, excavated by their own
industry. Mat tents, bark and skin huts, belong to a third
class; and all are, or have been, cannibals; but this appears to
be a condition of existence which, at some time or other, was
a habit in the highest and noblest races; for human sacrifices
are always the last symptom of the expiring custom.*
To the east of the Indus we find the primeval nations of
India sometimes typified, in mythological poems, by Hanuman
and his monkey followers; but historically shown to designate
certain human tribes, since the Ranas of Odey poor, heads of
the Sesodya' tribe, noblest of the Rajpoots, claims to be
descended from the monkey god, which they pretend to prove
by a peculiarly elongated structure of the coccyx in their
family. The claim establishes much more clearly, that the
Bheels of this region, primeval inhabitants, and still the most
numerous portion of the population, were the chief means of
* The Mexican sovereigns, in the time of Cortez, were still obliged, by
law, to taste human flesh once in the year. The Goands do the same as
a religious behest.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
189
conquest in the wars of Lankadwipe or Ceylon ; although they
had many wars with their more western conquerors. The
nation is further mixed up with Brahminical mythology; for
Bhil, the chief god of these foresters, slew Heri, one of the
Pandoo family. Bheel likewise shot Chrishna with an arrow;
and the Kabandaz of the same primeval stock are related to
have captured Rama. · These, with many others, extending to
beyond the Brahmaputra, may be considered as the physical
Nagas of Sanscrit lore; that name being still applied to the
Cookies, whose inveterate cannibalism we have already men-
tioned; and other tribes of the same source, such as the Chong,
extend to the extremity of the Malay peninsula.*
The nations of this class, mystified in the records of tradi-
tion, mythology and legends, are again prominent in Southern
Asia; such as the Nagas and Nishadas, the Acephali of Greek
authors; or Nimreks, Flatheads, Dombuks, Kakasiah, or Black
Brethren; in Persian lore, they are the objects of constant per-
secution and extermination, by the earliest heroes of the first
Iranian riding conqueror tribes --- Husheng, Temurath Div-
bend, &c., who sometimes vanquish Deeves, at others subdue
the black tribes of Southern Persia, among whom there appear
to have been one or more, whose foreheads were naturally, or,
perhaps by art, greatly depressed -- a character we shall soon
see which occurs again in America. Bones and crania of men,
with this conformation, have been found in Yemen ; † profiles
of Negroes, similarly conditioned, occur in Egyptian figures,
published by Gau and others; and the same frontal structure
is observed in portraits referred to Caratchai (black Circassians,
more probably Koords), allied to the Georgian stock, as if they
* There are tribes of Negroes in Central Africa, likewise known by the
name of Nagas; and Cookies is again the name of the dark slaves of
New Zealand.
† Communicated by an officer who was employed in surveying that
coast.
190
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
still bore testimony to the ancient intermixture with the black
Colchians mentioned by Herodotus.
To the west of Persia, the Chna or Canaanites, and Ethio-
pian Arabs, before the inroads of the Giant Scythic horsemen,
appear to have belonged to the same family of nations, extend-
ing northward to the Colchians before named. To this day
there remains a clan of crisp-haired Arabs on the Hieromax,
east of the Lake of Tiberias, with Mongolic features, by profes-
sion graziers, and, like the Hottentots, destitute of horses. To
the west, in Africa, exclusive of the basis of the ancient Egyptian
population, these abnormal tribes appear again to recur in the
Hottentots, Bushwanas, Boshemans, and probably Dokkos, who
may be the pigmies of ancient fable. Certain it is, that Hebra-
isms and Semitic words, in proper names, &c., are abundant,
from the mouth of the Nile to the Cape of Good Hope. Thus,
the Indian Parbatia, Naga tribes, as well as the African Bush-
wanas, have all indications of a remote intermixture with the
Mongolic races; and this character is retained in the earlier
forms of their idols, always represented with crisped hair,
oblique eyes, and ears detached from the side of the head;
and it may, perhaps, be traced in another direction, among the
swarthy Kirguise.
THE ATURIAN PALTAS OR FLATHEADS OF SOUTH AMERICA.
Or all abnormal nations, the most singular were those Flat-
heads of South America, whose bones and skulls now remain-
ing furnish the only proof that a people with such strange
conformation of the cranium have positively existed, and if we
could now ascertain to what extent they likewise differed from
the other typical forms of man, in the physiological conditions of
structure of the softer parts ; such, for example, as the peculiar
epidermis which Monsieur Flourens ascribes to the whole red
race of America; a quality which they, as the most normal of
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
191
them, may have possessed to a still greater extent; the ques.
tion would assume a paramount interest - one, perhaps, more
indicative of a distinct origin than any before noticed.
Dr. Tschudi, describing this form, in his paper on the ancient
Peruvians, remarks on the flattened occiput of the cranium, and
observes, “that there is found, in children, a bone between the
two parietals, below the lambdoidal suture, separating the latter
from the inferior margin of the squamous part of the afterhead;
this bone is of a triangular shape, the upper angle between the
ossa parietalia, and its horizontal diameter being twice that of
the vertical. This bone coalesces at very different periods with
the occipital bones, sometimes not till after six or seven years.
In one child of the last mentioned age, having a very flat occi-
put, the line of separation was marked by a most perfect suture
from the squamous part, and was four inches in breadth by two
in height.” In remembrance of the nation where this confor-
ination is alone found, the learned doctor denominated this bone
Os. Ince; and he further remarks, that it corresponds to the
Os. inter parietalis of Rodentia and Marsupiata.
These characters had been previously noticed by Mr. Frank-
lin Bellamy, in a paper read by him to the Naturalist's Society
of Devon and Cornwall, together with remarks which do not
occur in Dr. Tschudi's communication, and are, nevertheless,
of considerable importance. Comparing the cranium of two
Titicaca children with skulls of Europeans of similar, age, he
found the frontal bone, the parietal and occipital bones, of the
former, all considerably larger than the latter, elongating the
head posteriorly, and throwing back the whole skull. This
peculiarity was greatest in the cranium of an infant, not many
days old, and lessening with growth in the older head; there-
fore it was not absolutely the result of bandages; because the
natural effect of these would tend more to increase than to
decrease this result. From the small flattened forehead there
could not be much space for the anterior lobes of the brain.
The orbits were exceeding strong, with a somewhat elevated
.
192
NATURAL HISTORY OF ,
ridge, and the bones of the face harder and more solid than
those which were produced for comparison. Dr. Lund like-
wise observed the incisor or molar teeth of adults to be worn to
flat crowns --- à character which occurs also in some ancient
· Egyptian jaws, and in heads of Guanche mummies.
Here, again, we have characters so marked and decisive, that
if the case were applied to a lower animal, systematists would
not hesitate to place it as a separate species; and the comments of
physiologists who refuse their assent, not being in harmony with
the admitted definitions, are more specious than convincing. It
appears that the nation to which this form of head was peculiar,
although with all the signs of very low intellectual faculties,
had nevertheless made advances in civilization, which several
of the Asiatic abnormal tribes have never even attempted to
acquire. They built houses of large stones, in a pyramidal
forın, having an upper floor; and, judging from certain remains
of their implements, and the contents of their graves, they were
peaceable beings, most likely under the control of superiors not
of the same stock, even from periods anterior to the formation of
the Incá system of civilization. Mr. Pentland, we believe, first
brought this singular race into notice, from skulls dug up near
the shores of Lake Titicaca. Dr. Lund found others, even in a
fossilized state, in the interior of Brazil. They were discovered
in limestone crevices, in company with bones of different
species of extinct animals ; proving both the remote age when
this form of man already existed in America, and the extent of
surface it is now known to have occupied. As the Budha, and
several other idols of India, constantly represent Man with pro-
files taken from a very low type; so, in America, the Flathead
form appears to have had a commanding influence in the ideal
divine of the human head; for the depression of forehead and
occiput is found artificially reproduced by many tribes in both
the southern and northern continents; and specimens of these
are observed among human remains, buried in the high sea
sands of Peru itself; but these last mentioned have, in general,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
193
the occiput flattened obliquely, with but little apparent artificial
anterior depression, evidently the effect of the back of the head
having been secured to a board during infancy, as is still a
practice in the north. The same form of the head is likewise
observed in the high-nosed bas-reliefs of gods and heroes, both
sculptured and tooled in the ancient temples and buildings of
Yucatan and southern Mexico; the representations of a people
the Giants of their primeval ages. The account is not without
some probability, since the profiles belong to a race entirely
distinct from the general population of the western hemis-
phere, and is only conformable to the high-statured races of
Asia; excepting some tribes of North America, who, by
their traditions, came from the north-west, are still of a lofty
growth, and bear the aquiline features which may prove
their descent from a kindred race. Several of these, like
the Osages, not uncommonly reaching the height of six feet
eight inches; but since the great disturbance of location, pro-
duced by the European influx, they have latterly intermingled
with other tribes, and are now fast effacing their particular
characteristics. Perhaps the Yucatan Giant master-race disap-
peared, when the Aztecs prevailed in Anahuac, from causes of
a similar nature. Upon the whole, the nations with depressed
foreheads, when under the guidance, perhaps, of Gomerian
masters, seem to have a community of other characters, such as
constructiveness, which distinguish the Paltas of South Amer-
ica, as well as the older Egyptians.
REMAINS OF OTHER ABNORMAL TRIBES.
From the occasional destruction of whole tribes and races,
which is sometimes caused, even in modern ages, by the sword,
by contagious diseases, or by new modes of life, and the intro-
duction of vices before unknown, it is evident, that numerous
populations of the human family have disappeared, without
17
194
NATURAL HISTORY OF
leaving a record of their ancient existence. We may instance
savages in the British Islands, who had flint knives, a kind of
earthen pottery, and dwelt in caves. They were contempora-
neous with hyænas and lost species, for their bones are found in
the same deposits ; consequently, they are older than the
Cynetæ, who preceded the other Celtic colonies in this island.
Continental Europe affords instances of several more, whose
history is a blank, although there remain scattered families,
with peculiar marks of distinction, in evidence of the anterior
existence of communities of the same kind. Some, still extant,
seem to have been objects of slander and persecution, under
several successive social systems, denied the rights of common
humanity, without a comprehensible cause, and even in defi-
ance of the kindness which Christian pastors evinced for them.
Others are still said to be untractable, notwithstanding the gov-
ernment endeavors to make them adopt the manners and duties
of civilized life. The caves, with human bones, in Quercy,
already mentioned, belong to this class. Such are the Cagots
of the south-east of France, by some asserted to derive their
name from the contraction of Can-goth, because they are a resi-
due of the Goths, who, being anciently Arians, were held in de-
testation by their neighbors; they were stigmatized as lepers, and
refused entrance into church by the common doors, &c. This
people, either an ancient residue, or latterly forced to a vagrant
life, extended, under many different names, to Guienne, Bearn,
Bretagne, and la Rochelle, being sometimes confounded with
Gypsies, although they were known before the arrival of the
latter, and even enjoined not to appear abroad without the
mark of a goat's foot sewed upon the outer garment. King
Louis XVI. first ameliorated their condition, and the French
revolution finally swept away all the remaining legal dis-
abilities.*
In the forests of ancient Dauphiny, there exist also relics of
* There are recent accounts of this people, written by Baron Ramon, as
well as ancient notices by Ochenartus," Vasconiæ notitia." Bel Forest
and Paul Merula.
THE HUMAN SPECIES195
TT
.
:
another population, unrecorded in history, but commonly
ascribed to a Saracen or Moorish origin, stragglers of those
who invaded France in the seventh and eighth century, and
were unable to escape. There were Caucones in the Pelopon-
nesus, Conconi (drinkers of horse blood), and Cheretani, in the
Eastern Pyrenees; but they and the Almogavaries have been
absorbed.
The Chuvash, still found scattered in the provinces of Kasan,
Sembirsk, and Orenburg, in Russia, are a still more obscure
race of men. They seem to be the remnant of a semi-brute
population, which was scattered on the arrival of the more
intellectual Caucasians. In mental capacity, the Chuvashes
are reported to be inferior even to the Ostiaks and Samoyedes.
They live without taking the slightest notice of the world
around them, in a condition little elevated above the orang-
outang. While increase and activity is everywhere witnessed
in their vicinity, they alone remain stationary ; industry and
civilization excite in them no desires, no wish to be partakers
of prosperity; none ever show inclinations to barter, or to be
stimulated by gain to increase the means of comfort or of per-
sonal happiness, still less to learn any trade. Their counte-
nances are stupid, their habits incurably lazy, and their religion,
for they have a worship, the most degrading idolatry. Their
language is barbarously imperfect, and their manners and
customs are still more revolting. The Assassins, Ansarie,
Batenians, Dozzim, Laks, and Yezeedis of South-Western
Asia, still persecuted, but not wholly exterminated, are tribes
of primeval origin, variously mixed.
The Gypsies, Zingari, Sinde, may be of the same stock as
the Tschinganes at the mouth of the Indus, who are them-
selves a tribe of mixed oriental Negroes and Caucasians, and
are likewise connected with the Gungas or Indian Gypsies and
Laubes of Africa, who may all be instanced as examples of the
development of human beauty, whenever the typical races are
crossed; for, while this result is impressed on the whole of
.
196
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the Asiatic stems, the Laubes, dwelling in the Jaloff country, in
western Africa, though of the Zingara race, are remarkably
ugly and diminutive, probably because they are unmixed even
with the Negro tribes around them. In one characteristic they
all unite, namely, to be, by predilection, wanderers without
a home; not graziers nor cattle-dealers, but tinkers and piller-
ers. Another outcast race, in Central Africa, are the Cumbrie.
· Blacks, whose origin is still less known. - Though they are
considered to be genuine Negroes, they are not permitted to
have a national existence, but are treated as slaves by all the
other tribes in Yaouri and Engarski. This fact is sufficient to
prove them of a distinct origin, and their present character to
be superinduced by the lust and lawlessness of conquest and
oppression.
The Guanches, perhaps identical with the ancient inhabi-
tants of Fernando Po, both sallow. nations; the first latterly, the
second not yet extinct, appear on the skirts of Africa, as rem-
nants of a race of tenants of the soil, before the expansion of
the Negroes.
The cannibal Ompizee of Madagascar, or copper-colored sav-
ages, who fed upon each other till they are nearly or perhaps
now entirely destroyed, may have belonged to the same stock,
for they have no national affinities with any other people of the
island. We may mention here the Benderwars, a Joand tribe
on the Nerbudda, who devour their aged and sick in honor of
Kali; the Ogres or Gholes of Rajahstan, known by the name
of Rakshassas, Pisachas, or Bhutas, Aghori, Mardikohrs, &c.,
feeders on human carrion, whose habits are already mentioned
by Ctesias, and are still not entirely extinct. Other tribes
there are, equally aberrant, almost as degraded in mind and
form, but caused by the wretched conditions of their existence,
or by an apathy of character, which no force of example or
change of circumstances seems to affect; such are the Samang
Dwarfs of the Malayan mountains, and the black Inagta of the
island of Lasso, whose stature seldom exceeds four feet eight
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
197
inches. It will be an interesting object of consideration for
anatomists, who may be placed in favorable conditions for
observation, to examine the brain of children belonging to these
races in the fætus, and particularly after birth, as it may be
expected to display a still more imperfect state than that of a
Negro infant.
The foregoing discussions have chiefly had for object, to
offer some points relating to the physical history of man,
which, it appears, have not as yet been viewed in the light
here shown; perhaps, because the facts relating to them are
uninteresting and few, or are concealed under a dense veil of
tradition and figurative mystification, with only occasional
glimpses that can be appreciated, and therefore difficult to
grasp, and uncertain in the application ; still, when collected
into somewhat of a series, give consistency to conjecture, and
frequently bestow upon it most, if not all, the conditions of his-
torical truth. As we proceed, names of nations and tribes
above indicated among the unassignable in the family cogna-
tions of man, may again appear with more detail, clothed in
the form they seem to have passed into, and become known
and well-defined races.
17*
198
NATURAL HISTORY OF
THE TYPICAL STOCKS.
1
COMPARISON OF PHYSICAL POWERS, AND STRUCTURAL DIF-
FERENCES OF THE TYPICAL STOCKS.
Let us now proceed to review the structural characteris-
tics of man, in their general application to the distinction of
species, varieties, or stocks. Among these, Camper's observa-
tions on the facial angle which distinguishes the three typical
races, taken in a general view, are most important. The human
head, seen vertically, or from above, conceals, in the Caucasian
form, nearly every part of the facial surface; whilst the same
view of the woolly-haired type demonstrates the narrowness
and obliquity of the forehead, by exposing the greater part of
the face. A smaller obliquity may be observed in the cranium
of the Mongolic stock, but differing from both the preceding by
the lateral expansion of the cheek-bones. · Hence the facial
angles, taken by drawing a line from the opening of the ear to
the nostril, bisected by another line dropped from the promi-
nent part of the forehead to the most advanced edge of the
upper jaw, taken on the profile view of the head, produce an
angle, which, according to the number of degrees it is found to
open in Camper's hypothesis, advances the forehead towards a
vertical structure, gives prominence to the anterior lobes of the
brain, and consequently develops intellectual capacity. Bụt
this criterion, though generally true in all mammalia, if the
question be referred to man, is liable to the objection, that
whole races have the orbital crests, at their junction on the
lower edge of the frontal, so prominent as to prevent the facial
lines touching the forehead, which from that point falls sud-
denly, both in the natural structure of the flat-headed nations
of Asia, and in the heads by nature or artificially depressed,
such as occur in America. In other respects, where the facial
line can be drawn fairly, there is no doubt of the general cor-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
199
rectness of the principle, provided a vertical view upon the
skull, according to Blumenbach, and another upon its base -
the lower jaw being removed as recommended by Professor
Owen - be likewise employed to form a comparison. The
highest intellectual bearded nations présent, by the Camperian
method, individuals rising to eighty-five and even nearly to
ninety degrees. These are, for example, occasionally observed
in the Teuto-Sarmatian nobles, and, more rarely, in other
European nations;* but beyond the perpendicular line of fore-
head, there occur only indications of morbid development, and
ideal exaggerated profiles of Greek divinities, whose over-
hanging brows, and deep-seated eyes, produce the effect of a
calm shadowy frown, which we learn to view as an attribute
of majesty and conscious power. Much, however, and indeed
the essential, in all mental constitution, must depend upon the
proportions of the cerebral structure being in sufficient harmony
for their rational operation ; and this condition is found pre-
served, without material injury to ratiocination, where both the
anterior and posterior portions of the brain are distorted by
artificial pressure in infancy, or where the volume is small, by
the retreating low angle of the forehead; whether or not the
case applies to a whole race, or to an occasional individual
among the bearded tribes.
It appears that individual interunions between the typical
races not only tend to the superior development of form and
Y
* In a series of portraits, representing Polish, East Prussian, Silesian,
Bohemian, and Moravian nobles, they occur frequently. The late Count
Harach, from our personal knowledge, was remarkable for this feature ;
i. e., a loſty and broad, very nearly vertical forehead; and it must be
added, that many so distinguished, were conspicuous as statesmen and war-
riors, probably all as ambitious men. It were to be wished that portrait
painters paid more minute attention to this object - we mean, placing the
aperture of the ear in relation to the nostril. It is important to them for
the sake of truth, and to the physiologist for the same reason; since,
without accuracy, he cannot draw fair conclusions from painted human
likenesses.
200
NATURAL HISTORY OF
capacity in the offspring, but that the same tendency continues
to operate between different tribes; the constant crossing of
Celtic with Teutonic blood, upon a Perso-Arabian basis, being
perhaps a principal cause of the early progressive civilization
of Southern and Western Europe; and the stationary charac-
ter, chiefly observed in the Mongolic race, being a result of the
want of the same acting cause. Notwithstanding the desire
of the beardless type to violate its own prohibitory laws, inter-
marriage with Caucasian women is decidedly more sterile than
the union of the bearded and woolly-haired sexes. Where
human laws prevent intermarriage, nature endeavors to be
avenged through the more powerful operation of the passions,
by means of interunion with foreign slaves, by abduction, and
by child-stealing; whence results a certain restoration of the
balance. There are localities in Europe, where the frequent,
intermarriages of the same families produce constantly indi-
viduals defective in constitution, mind, or limbs. . -
Without intermixture of races, the ratiocination of mankind
appears inoperative to certain particulars in life. Nomad
nations may not wander with their cattle solely from inclina-
tion. Necessity is the first cause. But there are tribes, such
as we have already named, who are not to be taught by
example, or by the advantageous results of undertaking certain
things that their inclinations reject. The Jews probably never
were a truly agricultural people, working with their own
hands. The Veneti, Heneti, Gwyniad, or Ventæ, were always
the real commercial pedlers of antiquity. The Armenians are
nationally merchants, from London to Bokhara. Neither were
ever warriors; they traded solely; and the last mentioned con-
tinued to act on the same principle. They lived under the
shield of the skongest warlike people that would protect them;
the first, under Etruscans, Gauls, and Romans, till the fall of
the Western Empire ; and the second, under still existing gov-
ernments. Some nations decline the use of horses; others
abhor the plough or a sea life. The Gypsies are always
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
201
tinkers. These predilections must therefore depend on modi-
fications of the brain.
That the volume of brain is in relation to the intellectual
faculties, is clearly proved by Dr. Morton's researches, who,
having filled, for this purpose, the cerebral chamber of skulls
belonging to numerous specimens of the Caucasian, Mongolian,
Malay, American, and Ethiopian (Negro) stock, with seeds of
white pepper, found the first the most capacious, and the Ethi-
opian the smallest; though there may be some doubt whether
the. Negro crania that served for his experiment, were not, in
part at least, derived from slaves of the Southern States of
North America, who, being descended from mixed African
tribes, and much more educated, have larger heads than new
Negroes from the coast. We have personally witnessed the***
issue of military chacos (caps) to the 2d West India Régiment,
at the time when all the rank and file were bought out of
slave ships, and the sergeants alone being in part white, men
of color, Negroes from North America, or born Creoles, and it
was observed, that scarcely any fitted the heads of the privates
excepting the two smallest sizes; in many cases robust men,
of the standard height, required padding an inch and a half in
thickness, to fit their caps; while those of the non-commis-
sioned officers were adjusted without any additional aid.
Though, on one hand, it is here stated that the Negroes from
the coast of Africa were, in all probability, still less favored
than the measurements of Dr. Morton proved; it is, on the
other, equally true, that the progress of development, and the
elevation of the forehead, in the mixed offspring between the
woolly-haired and white races, is often effaced in a second
generation. It is so always much sooner than the apparently
insignificant characters of the color of the skin, and the crisp-
ness of the hair, which are never totally obliterated till after the
fourth generation, when the African character may be deemed
absorbed. It is advanced as established, that an accidental
effect in the external characters of an individual may become
202
NATURAL HISTORY OF
permanent in a race. But accidental appearances must have
a cause, and terminate when that cause disappears. Men
covered with hair, or with a horny skin, may reproduce this -
character in their offspring; but then it is exceptional and dis- .
appears in the next generation. Albinism is more evident,
and therefore believed to be more frequent in the woolly-haired
races of man; but in the sandy plains of the north-west of
Europe, the same appearances occur, though not quite with the
marks of disease; it is mere absence of coloring matter in the
system. Among Mongolic nations it is unknown, or very
rare, and it is equally so with the aboriginal.tribes of America.
The stature of mankind is unquestionably influenced by the
adequate supply of wholesome food; and hence the civilized
nations of moderate climates are more generally of an equal
standard 'than barbarians and savages, among which the
hunter and pastoral nomad tribes arrive at the greatest stature.
But, in these cases, a Caucasian element may be expected to
be present, whether we take the Miao-tze of China, the
Caffres of Eastern Africa, the Patagonian Araucas of South
America, or the Creeks and other tribes in the north. For, if
some latent cause of this kind did not produce the difference,
all other tribes in the same climate, and under similar condi-
tions of food and mode of life, would acquire a similar height;
yet this is not the case; and it is even known, in both the
Americas, that the union of two tribes, differing in this respect,
has produced; in one generation, the disappearance of a
superior growth. Ancient history likewise represents the
northern Gauls (Belgæ), and the Teutonic nations, as far
superior in stature to the civilized Romans, though they do not
appear in their barbarous habits to have been better fed than
the tall tribes of North America. In gracefulness of propor-
tion, the American mixed white races with Negroes, both of
French and British, and still more, of Spanish origin, yield to
none in any part of the world ; and it is a mistaken notion to
believe in the assertion that the standard contour of beauty
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
203
and form differs materially in any country. Fashion may
have the influence of setting up certain deformities for perfec-
tions, both at Pekin and at Paris, but they are invariably apol-
ogies which national pride offers for its own defects. The
youthful beauty of Canton would be handsome in London;
and the Tahtar nations, in the days of their conquering career,
married the daughters of semi-Caucasian nomad princes, or
notoriously selected, for their chiefs, the same class of
European or Caucasian forms as they still purchase from Cir-
cassia and Persia, Affghanistan, Cashmere, and India.* Lud-
dee, the young wife of Abba Thule, chief of the Pelew Islands,
was handsome on the Caucasian model; so are all the beau-
ties of Malay or other blood in the South Sea Islands; the
most admired young females among the Arookas' and the
Caribs. The Chippeways likewise have many beauties; and
so was Harriet, the belle of Lorette Sauvage, a Huron village
near Quebec. In all these cases, both Europeans and natives
agreed.
Human growth, according to Professor Quetelet, is not com-
pleted until the twenty-fifth year, at least in Belgium; but
this period is supposed to be shorter in other countries; cer-
tainly so within the tropics, and in very warm regions, where
development and decay are universally allowed to be more
rapid.
Weight is another element in the consideration of races, as
this quality materially influences physical strength, and conse-
quently bestows confidence, enterprise and success. An
instrument, the dynamometer, has been invented to measure
the relative scale, and they have shown savage nations to be
* It is from these sources that the energetic innervation was principally
derived, which gave birth to the great Toorkee Mongole conquerors, both
in the west and in China. Such, for example, was Alancona, wife of Pé-
souka Bahander, of the Niron Toorkee tribe of smiths; Purtan Congine,
daughter of Conjorat Khan, the ambitious wiſe of Genghis, and Toora-
kina Catan, wife of Octai.
204
NATURAL HISTORY OF
strong in proportion to the abundance and wholesomeness of
the food they possess; but in all cases hitherto examined,
civilized Europeans surpassed them;* and, it appears, English
exceeded French; or perhaps more correctly, the Teutonic
stock surpassed the Celtic, both in strength and weight,
although the Irish Celts are said to be taller and heavier than
the English Saxons. As yet, no great stress can be laid on
results obtained from an imperfect instrument, partial inquiries,
and questionable nationalities; still, enough is determined
to reject an opinion, often prevalent, that the moderns are
degenerate when compared with their ancestors. The conclu-
sion is further controverted, by an experiment made at Good-
rich Court, where the splendid collection of ancient armor is
classified, with rigorous attention, both to date and nation, by
Sir Samuel R. Meyrick, the enlightened and munificent pos-
sessor. Two gentlemen, one of middle stature, with ample
chest and shoulders, and the other somewhat taller, but of
more slender structure, endeavored to find armor sufficiently
large to fit either one or the other, and failed, in a collection
where, we believe, they had a choice of upwards of sixty com-
plete suits of plate, all defensive armor, which nevertheless had
been worn, in preceding centuries, by chivalry, and persons of
distinction, in England, France, Germany, and Italy. Hence
King John, Petit Jean de Saintré, the Constable of Bourbon,
the Prince of Condé, (“ce petit homme tant joli,”) and Nicolo
Piccinino, were not the only valiant men of small proportions
in the feudal ages. · At the present period, the British upper
classes are probably of higher stature than the aristocracy of
any other civilized people ;t but taken nationally, the Prussian
* The strongest North American Indians are asserted to fail against
the ordinary power of wrist of Europeans; that is, when each side place
the right elbow to elbow, and cross the fingers through each other's hand,
striving to bend the opposing wrist back. The fact was established by
the 60th Regiment in Canada.
† Mr. Laurence, in his work on the Natäral History of Man, may have
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
205
and all the fair-haired natives of the north-west of Europe, are
of greatest height, since the standard size for the military
service is above that of any other people in Europe. Northern
Chinese, or Highland Tahtars, we have been informed by a
general officer who served in the late war, were found to be
fully equal, in stature and bulk, to our stoutest grenadiers; but
we have since learned, from another officer, that when these
men appeared on the field, they were found to be Miao-tze, -
that is, a people of Caucasian or Caucaso-Malay origin. .
Elasticity of frame is, however, a quality very distinct from
weight and strength. The Caucasian of Europe is trained to
harder manual work than other races; but it may be doubted
whether he could ride continuously, like the Turkish Tahtar
messengers, or Persian Chuppers; or whether he could sustain
the fatigue of such unceasing marches as the aboriginal Ameri-
can warriors perform, or run on foot with the speed of Bechuana
Hottentots, or even compete with New Hollanders, the most
slender-limbed race on earth. When, therefore, comparative
trials of strength are made with other nations, the selection of
the modes should not be more than one half in favor of those
which Europeans are most inured to. Captain Cook found his
seamen unequal to a boxing contest with Hapacearis. There
have been Negroes able to dispute the sparring championship
of the English fancy ring; and beside the porters of Constanti-
nople and Smyrna, celebrated for prodigious strength of loins,
there are Pehlwans, professed wrestlers, in middle Asia, whose
physical powers are certainly equal to any Europe can produce.
It is not by comparing French or British seamen, as Peron did,
with natives of Van Diemen's Land, New Hollanders, or
Timorians of torrid regions, -all notoriously of small bone
and light weight, --- that a true estimate can be obtained of the
easily found Englishmen of six feet and more in height, and Negroes
below that standard ; but had he visited tropical market-places, and com-
pared the stature of our planters and sailors by that of the Negroes, he
would most likely have found the white men the smallest.
18
206
NATURAL HISTORY OF
relative strength of savages. The experiment should be tried,
likewise, with Caffres, Patagonians, Araucanos, and Osages,
notwithstanding these nations train their powers more to active
exertions of body than to heavy manual, toil; for if the trial
were made with women, it may be expected that, in most cases,
Europeans would be inferior to savages, excepting those who
are particularly destitute of food; or if it were made between
populations of the bearded race, such, for example, as French
Canadian boatmen and English laborers, there is no doubt that
the last mentioned would as greatly surpass the first, in the toil
of agricultural labor, as they would be outdone by them in the
lasting exertions of poling, – that is, pushing boats up the cur-
rent of rapid streams by the help of poles.
.
.
INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTERS OF THE TYPICAL
STOCKS.
CONFINING the number to three, because they alone are pos-
sessed of the extremes of difference in structure and color, and
because they have received, as before stated, centres of exist-
ence where the others cannot predominate, we shall find pro-
ceeding from them sub-typical stems, always interposed at the
geographical points of contact between the two nearest types;
and, further on, third and fourth branches, or races and nations,
consisting of more divergent forms, which have combined the
characters of all the three in greater or less proportions;* while
over the whole are spread adventitious distinctions, sprung
from changes, of climate, latitude, food, mode of life, and the
* The ancients, in several of the trinal combinations which play in
their doctrines, seem to have an allusion, perhaps unwittingly, so far as
the Greeks were concerned, to the three typical stocks, in the evocation
of Hecate, (a Scythian divinity); for the ceremony demanded a waxen
triform iinage, whereof one was to be white, the second red, and the
third black. These indications are significant on a spot such as Tauris,
notwithstanding the usual explanation, which refers them to the triune
doctrines of India.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
207
innumerable other influential conditions of existence, --- con-
ditions that affect, though in a less degree, the typical structure,
the external appearance of Man, and that acquire a deep-seated
power over his intellectual faculties, in their possible develop-
ment, and, consequently, also in their contraction, externally
observable. Therefore, in reasoning upon them, we must be
guarded against certain prepossessions of self-esteem, which
the educated man of the bearded stock, and, indeed, mankind
in general, is apt to entertain of strangers; for the same ten-
dency is ever at work between nation and nation, and between
every sub-division of the human family, however formed. In
the description of characters, scientifically taken, we can only
point out what they are, without having the power of stating
what may be eventually evolved; and though already assured,
even with the apparently most degraded nations, that moral
rectitude is fully understood, nay, often put in practice, by the
savage, to the disgrace of the rapacious Christian who visits
his abode; not ashamed to use knowledge for the purpose of
deception and illusions for his own gain, though the conse-
quences carry destruction to his victims. When bearing in
mind what our own remote progenitors were, we must allow
that all men, and all races, bear within them the elements of a
measured perfectibility, probably as high as the Caucasian;
and it would be revolting to believe that the less gifted tribes
were predestined to perish beneath the conquering and all-
absorbing covetousness of European civilizatiớn, without an
enormous load of responsibility resting on the perpetrators.
Yet their fate appears to be sealed in many quarters, and
seems, by a preördained law, to be an effect of more mysterious
import than human reason can grasp.*
* There is, however, a great distinction to be drawn between conquest
that brings amelioration with it to the masses of the vanquished, and
extermination, which leaves no remnant of a broken people. It seems the
first condition is only awardable to the great typical stocks, effecting
incorporations among themselves; the second almost invariably the lot of
the intermediate, which, in ipost favorable cases only, are absorbed.
208
NATURAL HISTORY OF
As, therefore, we cannot attain, in our state of knowledge,
satisfactory conclusions on this head, it becomes the duty of all
to assert, at least, the rights of humanity, in their indisputable
plenitude, although to us, in particular, as mere naturalists, it
is a bounden duty to confine ourselves to known historical and
scientific facts.
PRIMÆVAL LOCATION OF MAN, OR POSITION OF THE TYPI-
CAL STOCKS.
As the more detailed characters of the typical stocks, their
real or primæval location, and the diffusion of subsequent races,
cannot be readily understood without some retrospect of the
geographical conditions of the earth, not only with regard to
the convulsions already mentioned, but likewise as they bear
upon the position of the great chains of mountains, seas, and
deserts, and the direction of leading rivers, it is important not
to overlook them, wherever the influence they must have exer-
cised in the question under review is clearly ascertainable.
Mankind, when first it becomes historically known, is already
diffused over the greater part of the eastern hemisphere, and,
probably, far beyond it, even to the western; yet it appears
to have departed from the vicinity of a common centre, or, at
least, to have primævally formed several stocks, clustered in
the vicinity of that high central region of Asia which com-
prises the external rampart, and, perhaps, interior of the vales.
of Thibet, and the so-called Khangai* of the Gobi desert; for
this was, approximately, either the seat of Man's first develop-
ment, so far as it can be now traced, or the space where a por-
tion of human beings found safety, when convulsions and
changes of surface, which may have swept away a more
ancient zoology, had passed over the earth, and were introduc-
tory to a new order of things.
* Khangai, or oases, verdant river courses, and lakes, which occur in
several places.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
209
The Gobi or Shamoo region is a true Shinar or Djeen, a
series of sandy deserts, intersected, at great distances, by moun-
tain ridges, and not unfrequently by rivers ending in lakes,
which all naturally tend to separate small populations, and to
keep them isolated so long as numbers do not compel the
inmates to seek for more abundant subsistence. This state of
being urges Man equally to a shepherd's life and to a begin-
ning of agricultural industry. Around this space can be traced
several high mountain systems; bearing the names of God, of
Heaven, and of Snow (purity); for these are often expressed
by the same words, such as Himaleh, Thianchan, Bog, &c.,
and mythical traditions, without geographical localities, where
Pagan nations, at various times, centred the habitations of their
gods, or progenitors, in spaces of eternal snow, such as Mount
Meru, Kaf, or the oldest Olympus, find here in Bogtag, Hima-
vali, and the peak of Himavahn, real geographical positions.
It is there we find the Chumutaru peak of snow; and Somero
purbut, created by Mahadeo, for his retreat and throne, when,
like another Jupiter, he fled from Ravan; the Hindoo diluvian
Titan is clearly the snowy group at the sources of the Ganges.
In this high region are the local sites commemorative of tradi-
tions more than once repeated, at successive more distant
stages, in proportion as the earliest nations moved further from
their original common centre, or mythical tales spread onwards
with time. There is Naubundana, — perhaps Dhawalaghiri,
- where the patriarch god himself, in the form of Kapila, con-
ducted the ark, and secured it to the rock, according to Hindoo
Tore ; and, on the north, where the Tahtar legend places
Nataghi, the boatman god of the mountain, with his family, in
one of the peaks of Altai; for it is not a fact which always
marks 'a pagan source, as has been remarked, when Man's
existence is made to commence after the diluvian cataclysis.
There is constantly a record of antecedent existence, though
not a history, among early nations. It is variously told, but
18*
210
NATURAL HISTORY OF
not the less the same in substance, in both hemispheres, and in
the South Sea Islands. .
Although, in Central Asia, no very distinct evidence of a
general diluvian action, so late as to involve the fate of many
nations, can be detected, still there cannot be a doubt that, with
scarce an opposable circumstance, all Man's historical dogmatic
knowledge and traditionary records, all his acquirements,
inventions, and domestic possessions, point to that locality, as
connected with a great cataclysis, and as the scene where
human development took its first most evident distribution.
The animals subdued for household purposes, by the earliest
nations, are found upon or around it in all directions, - like
the Dog, universally spread where Man resides; and the Hog,
found radiating from points, where the wild species occur, from
south-east to north-west; the Horse, Ass, and Camel, in direc-
tions originally commencing from the west side; so, again, the
Ox, Sheep, and Goat, still existing wild in the form of more
than one species on the same borders; whilst even the Ele-
phant walked once through the more southern woods; and the
Wild Cat, similar to the European, now haunts the same, and
prowls far onwards in the north. Of birds, Gallinacea, all
originating in the south-east of Asia ; several kinds of poultry
are wild in the woods; and one domesticated species, at least,
was carried, in Man's earliest migrations, onward to Egypt and
the west of Europe, as well as to the furthest islands in the
South Seas; perhaps even to Chili, before the arrival of the
Spaniards.
On the western side, at least, are found the parent plants of
many fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, now naturalized in Europe;
the walnut, chestnut, filbert; the apple, medlar, cherry, and
almost all the wild and cultivated berries, and the vine at no
great distance.* Wheat and barley, of more than one variety
* The vine is now cultivated about Llassa, in Thibet, 29° 40" north
latitude, and may also be indigenous.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
211
or species, occur on the skirts of the same central region, some
thriving at more than 10,000 feet of elevation in the Himalayas
and in China, with buckwheat and oats on the plains of the
north-west, and onions, turnips, &c., growing wild in many
places; wild flax and hemp on the northern plains; and, in
Cashmere, the valleys even possess edible gourds, pumpkins,
and melons, whereof one or two species flourish in the arid
deserts; even the lotus, celebrated in Egypt, was derived from
some part of India.
It would be vain to look for so many primitive elements of
human subsistence, in a social state, in any other portion of the
globe. Nearly all of them were originally wanting in the
western Caucasus, and the civilized development of Egypt
could not have occurred without the possession of wheat, bar-
ley, flax, the leek, garlic, onion, and many other objects, all
foreign to Africa.* These can have been brought westward
only by colonies practically acquainted with their value. In
the devious course of the nations moving westward, the mul-
berry, apricot, and the date palm, may have proved an early
resource to the traveller; and, further on, the olive, fig-tree,
and plum, were, no doubt, luxuries; but the sorbus, and, more
certainly, the citron, were a later importation from beyond the
Indus, as well as the orange, which came from China last of
all. Rice was, most probably, a substitute for corni, first per-
haps cultivated in China, or Indo-China, where the requisite
heat and watery soil naturally present themselves.t
On the west side of Thibet is the huge table land of Pamere,
* Triticum sativum ; Triticum spelta, still wild near Hamadan ; Hor-
deum vulgare, in Northern India and Tahtary; Allium cepa, &c., wild
in various places.
+ In Egytian representations of tribute, brought by subjugated nations
from "far countries,' it is pleasant to remark, among many objects, liv-
ing plants and shrubs, carefully transported for replanting, and, by those
accon.panying lhem, are evidently from an eastern region. These figures
likewise bear the Swasteca, or a similar cross, indicative of a symbolical
creed.
212
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the back-bone of the world, not yet distinctly marked in maps ;
a more real umbilicus of the earth than any other of the sacred
centres of primæval society. Here is the mysterious Lake
Surikol, at the source of the Oxus, where local belief pretends
that the Jaxartes and the Indus have both affluents rising at no
great distance, while the Kash-gar, on the east of the summits,
flows towards the rising sun. To the west are the mountains
of Northern Hindoo-Koosh, the probable seat of the first Celto-
Scythæ, for in these regions was afterwards established a
Macedonian empire, which, without an original consanguinity
with the local nations, could not have lasted even for one gen-
eration.
Most primæval nations have traditions of a primordial city
of the gods, of the progenitor heroes of each stem, — a Babel,
Nagara, Pasagardæ, or Asgard. It appears that Balkh (Kham-
balu*), is, at least, the most prominent, so far as the western
and southern nations are concerned, notwithstanding that the
present Bamean, with the interminable troglodyte habitations
around, may well represent the spot where increased popula-
tion, finding insufficient food, would be excited to discord; and
an appeal to force would naturally end in the weaker party
being driven to exile or dispersion.
Though other traditions may be more purely Caucasian,
mention may be made of some, perhaps, no less important.
Among these is the very ancient name of Neel-ab, Blue River,
given to the Indús by the earliest Semitic tribes in the east,
and similarly applied to the Nile of Egypt, causing that con-
fusion in geographical ideas which believed the river of Africa
to come, by some unknown way, from the east, until the expe-
dition of Alexander cleared up the error. It is curious that the
Sutledge of the Punjab is still the Blue River; pointing to
Cashmere (Kaspapyrus) as the first seat of the Perso-Arabian
races.
* The first Cambalu, or rather Khan-balk, is not Pekin. Samarcand,
the first lorse-fair, and thence commercial city, is at no great distance.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
213
The oldest form of social existence was parental, or by fam-
ilies, which soon expanded into the patriarchal, still retained by
nomad pastoral nations. With others it broke up by the sep-
aration of the priestly dignity from the head paternity of tribes.
As soon as dogmas and political considerations multiplied, the
struggle between authority by birth, and the suggestions of
expediency, began; for ambition pleaded the claims of valor,
justifying them by surrounding dangers and the inefficiency of
nonage; the pontificate demanded an undying adequacy of
purpose, upheld by sanctity of example : arguments which,
being repeated as the social existence spread wider, hierarchies
were instituted, and the rights of pleading the cause of jus-
tice, or the art of healing the sick, became separated, or clas-
sified into learned orders. .
In religious feeling, a deism, perhaps a form of Budhism,
can be traced back to Central Asia as early as the reign of
Sesostris. The Vedas, not much, if at all later, show the pos-
session of a higher truth than the subsequent philosophizing
social dogmas, depending upon dualisms and astronomical fan-
cies, could teach; and those in the east have a more reasoned
cohesion than the Egyptian, and, still more, than the Greek
and Roman poetical physicalities, drawn from eastern sources
and inisinterpreted. In high Asia we find the legends of Eu-
rope extant in their sources. Many of the arts of social life
are similarly derived from thence; every wave of invasion
westward bringing new ideas; and, in later ages, the crusad-
ers, coming from the east with loss and shame, still returned
with the additional information they had acquired. From
Madagascar, back to the Indus, we find a similar connection,
and, in the South Seas, there are everywhere evidences of an
Asiatic priority. Finally, the western continent of America is
redolent of Malay, Mongolic, Ouralian, and even purer Caucas-
ian sources, in physical as well as traditional objects. .
In order to proceed to their various destinations, each typical
stock naturally followed the great rivers in their course, for
214
NATURAL HISTORY OF
these are the natural directing lines of nations exploring the
way to unknown regions; and the necessity of facilitating
progression is the cause why all tribes, however rude, are
acquainted with some mode of conveyance by water. Other
roads were early indicated, by local necessities, differing from
the subsequent caravan routes, which took directions from and
to points already known to be most favorable for trafficking
with distant nations, who had objects of barter to exchange,
and, therefore, on both sides, had an interest in the speediest
and safest passage. From the well-known proceedings of sub-
sequent ages, it is clear that outcasts and scouts, then hunter
families, would naturally be the first adventurers, and tribes
would follow onwards only as far as immediate necessity or
convenience might dictate ; pushing further when more was
known of the world before them, and pressure from new
colonists urged them from behind. Starting through the
gorges of the great river outlets to the plains, and following
their course, or ranging along the flanks of mountain chains,
ridges, or interminable swamps, which were, or might be, im-
passable; while, at the same time, water, game, and wild fruits
would be most abundant.
Deserts and plains are never so absolutely impassable as to
prevent ulterior progress. Water is found in some localities,
and occasionally verdure ; and these oases are soon marked
by the wanderer, who then guides his family or moving tribe
along them, till they reach a better region. Impediments of
this kind are, therefore, incentives to progress, and generally
much less obstacles than morasses and dense forests; for it is
by the river courses alone that these last are penetrated.
In the progressive colonization some leading tribe would find
a natural obstacle to retard or prevent its further migration;
halting on the spot, other clans would come up; and where no
forests near the sea, nor a great stream, would favor the struc-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
215
knowledge of the acquirements and experience each had gained
would be the result, although it might be obtained after col-
lision, by much slaughter and suffering, if not by the subjuga-
tion of one of the parties. Yet, out of these disasters rose
almost all the elements of civilization; and it may be remarked,
as a fact of constant occurrence, that human intelligence is per-
haps never fully awakened to a progressive social system from
'suffering alone, but by intermixture, when races are packed
together on the ultimate border of a sea, checked or forced to
prass close upon or through each other, and to appeal to the
sword. Thus, Palestine and Egypt, seated on the bridge that
leads into Africa ; Ionia and Greece, on the ferry of the Helles-
pont; Tangier and Cadiz (the Bisepharat of antiquity); Bab-
el-mandel, the gate of tears, or passage into Africa ; even the
isthmus of Panama, all attest the fact, together with an addi-
tional result, which shows not so much the stationary people,
as that which has passed on, to be likewise foremost in civili-
zation. Such was Egypt compared with Syria, Greece in re-
spect to Asia Minor; Spain with Africa ; such was Peru to
Mexico; and Western Europe is now, in comparison, to the
east.
Total civilization is not even produced by the mere compul-
sory mixture of nations moving in the same direction ; it
requires the additional influence of the modes of thinking and
acting, from sources coming through other latitudes, to pull
down and reconstruct a system that will accept of a progressive
march of reasoning, independent of ancestral routine. Had
the northern nations, by their own ambitious free will, not
crossed upon the older migratory movement that came from
east to west, such civilization as Egypt, Greece and Rome
had conferred, notwithstanding that marine influences had
greatly aided in the development, must have continued sta-
tionary, then decayed, until they fell to ruin.* A want of
* The power of habit, of educational prejudices, is forcibly seen, in
Christian Rome continuing wild beast and gladiatorial exhibitions, though
216
NATURAL HISTORY OF
such concurrence, as already observed, may be the sole cause
why China has remained stationary; for even the slight shock
lately given to that empire by Great Britain, has already had
an effect, disproving the common opinion that the Mongolic
mind cannot advance beyond a certain point. No people of
the typical stocks could arrive at a progressive social existence,
without intermixture of one or more branches of the homoge-
neous nations of the bearded and beardless forms; and through
these, such rudiments of advancement as can be traced among
the woolly-haired, were likewise engendered.
While nations pushed each other forward, and contested the
possession of desirable territories, sudden extermination of the
advancement; there was scarcely a desire to make slaves,
where food was often insufficiently abundant for the victors;
but when the great roads of colonization had been trodden by
many nations to the verge of oceans, the result was different,
because by that time Man had learned to subdue the Horse for
his convenience, whereas, until that moment, the Ox alone
appears to have been used for the saddle.* This conquest over
brute power again commenced in high Asia, perhaps about
Samarkand, but more certainly on the great plains north and
west of the central table land; and with the aid of this valua-
ble acquisition, began the era of invasion for dominion's sake;
at first, in a more cumbrous manner, by charioteering; but,
soon after, riders, on the backs of their horses, passing rapidly
over immense distances, and almost entirely from east to west,
carrying few or no wives or children, obtained both by the
sword, and even spared the vanquished male sex, in order to
enslave it.t
both had been repeatedly scenes of martyrdom, until they were stopped by
a Pagan, held to be a barbarian, because he was a Goth.
* This was certainly a practice of Hindoo princes, before the Horse
appears, and even long after. It is still in use among the Caffres,
who ride their Bakeley Oxen in war; and by mendicant fakeers in India.
+ Yet there are examples, down to the ninth century, when Christian
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
217
From conquests by military invasion, there thus arose privi-
leged families and tribes, a master class, in nearly every nation,
marked, even at present, in many instances, by a distinct
exterior, notwithstanding that, with scarcely an exception, it is
issued from a cognate stem. Only time softened the bonds by
gradual interunions, and by new conquerors again subduing both
master and slave. In Europe, where the history of foreign
subjugation is best preserved, there are instances of three or
more having passed over the same people, each in turn crush-
ing the former privileged orders. All were originally pastoral
tribes, and they continued to conquer so long as agriculture
had not yet fostered the other sciences of civilization; and
defensive war was unavailing to scattered husbandmen, whose
masters' subdivided power thwarted each other, and left the
masses little worth defending. The nations who seem to have
escaped servitude, it may be remarked, retreated to mountain
regions, where cavalry had no advantage. Such are the
Nilgherries, the Vindayan system, the western or modern Cau-
casus, the Alps, the Pyrenees, &c., all peopled by refugees, not
by Autochtones. Mere insular situations did not afford equal
security, because boats conferred the same invading facilities
which the horse produced on land; and hence even the more
remote South Sea Islands are not without a master race, which,
in whatever way attention is turned, will ever be found. to be
directly or indirectly of the Caucasian stock, excepting only in
those centres of existence where the two other typical forms of
Man reside ; for one of these, sensible of an inferior innervation,
is possessed of a well-founded jealousy of the bearded race, and
by political precaution endeavors to exclude it, while the other
rests secure in the effects of climate; and both abuse their good
fortune by, at least, inflicting subjection each upon kindred
tribes; but much more restricted in the extent by the increasing
progress of the Caucasiari.
kings (Franks) could direct the slaughter of every male whose height sur.
passed the length of the conqueror's sword.
19
218
4
NATURAL HISTORY OF
West of Central Asia, all records agree in pointing to the
east for the direction whence nations migrated. Only three
exceptions occur, where the course was a return homewards
from anterior progression. Such was the Hebrew from Egypt
to Palestine, the Ionian from Greece to Asia Minor, and the
Nogay Tahtar from Russia to China. If the Egyptians, led
by a Sesostris, penetrated to Bactria, a fabulous Bacchus to
India, the Gauls to Greece and Galatia, and the Macedonians
to the Punjab, beyond the Indus, they were mere conquering
inroads, which lasted only for a few generations, sustained in
some degree by the aboriginal homogeneousness of the invaders
with the races in possession of the land. The pseudo-Greek
kingdoms, notwithstanding the great national influx of that
people in Western Asia, had no permanent tenure; and the
Romans, the Crusaders, and the modern French, have only
produced militarý occupations, not national colonizations.
None are historically known to have departed from the inter-
Pontine Caucasus, though many came westward, by the route
of Armenia, with more or less delay in that high region, because
- the avenues leading south and west, from both sides of the
Caspian, to Asia Minor, Syria, and Africa, mainly pass through
it.*
Had the first population of mankind radiated from the Ara-
rat of Armenia (for the word is generical), all the present
nations of the west, whose great movements are historically
traceable to the high Oxus and Jaxartes (such as the Gomerian
Celtæ, and the Indo-Germans, Yuchi and Sacæ), would have
travelled, without being pressed in the rear, across deserts, up
great rivers and high mountain ranges, before they multiplied,
for no other purpose than to return over the same ground, that
* Of course, the dispersion of the Jews eastward, and some more recent
forcible transpositions of western Caucasian tribes to high Asia, are not
here regarded:
+ In the Circassian tongue, Ararat, Arak, or Areck, simply denote a
peak.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
219.
life already compose of fetching the important of the the globe
they might thence continue still further west than they had
been east, and delay peopling only that portion of the globe
which is unquestionably the most important of the whole; or
for the sole purpose of fetching the physical elements of social
life already mentioned, which western Caucasus never spon-
taneously produced, and to learn, at a distance, forms of
speech, fundamentally belonging to the oldest Scythic, or a
parent Sanscrit - a language found to influence, with very
few exceptions, every known grammatical tongue in the world,
though, in its present shape, it may be a mixture of various
dialects. Asiatic early lore proves this primæval tongue to
have originated in the southern and western Highlands already
noticed, and to exist still in many idioms, spreading from their
border through India, Indo-China, and, with less evidence, to
Australasia, far more than to the west, in Europe, Persia, and
Syria ; and none of its dialects positively belonging to western
Caucasus. The present Imeritians, Circassians, &c., though
they may have a just claim to be of the purest bearded typical
stock, like the Coords, or Gaurs, were originally riding con-
querors, and were driven into their present fastnesses at a com-
paratively recent period.
If we turn to India, although the woolly-haired stock may
have retained, from priority of diffusion, a typical nucleus with-
in the tropics, expanding even westward, there is a master race,
of a distinct origin, domineering over the oldest discoverable
tribes, gradually more and more intermixed, till, from pure
white. it becomes positively black, without, therefore, being
deprived of a superior aspect, which the Caucasian blood alone
confers. It extends, with few exceptions, down to very near
the equatorial line, where, indeed, contamination is still observ-
able; but the mastery of a foreign race evidently disappears.
These conditions recur, in a south-western direction, along the
Persian and Arabian maritime provinces, and eastern Africa;
the Caucasian, whether brownish or black, preponderating
numerically towards the shores. of the Međiterranean, exactly
220
NATURAL HISTORY OF
in the ratio structural conformation would prefer, if left at
liberty. This intermediate sub-typical race, in all its shades
of color, is the Ethiopian of antiquity, and seems to have
included those tribes which were held accursed by several of
the most ancient white immigrators in Western Asia.
The Mongolic nations record, in the same manner, their
descent from high mountain ranges, and the early struggles of
their heroes in draining marshes, teaching cultivation, letters,
and metallurgy; in time, making even regular observations on
comets, when the wisdom of Europe was hidden in a howling
wilderness, and long before science amongst us assumed a
rational shape.* In America, all the tribes that retain tradi-
tions of their origin, point to the north-west, with the exception
of the extinct Flatheads, whose history is wholly unknown.
They have propelled each other east and south, although cer-
tain tribes of the most ancient residents in the south-east and
Patagonian regions, may form exceptions; and there are tradi-
tions, even in Mexico, of marine strangers from the east; for
man soon passed from fishing on the lake, or paddling in a
stream, to adventure his person beyond the surf of seas; and,
when it served his purpose for coasting, trusted to the simplest
materials to support his weight. Catamarans of three dry
pieces of wood, and a staff, with flattened ends, for oars, have
been in use, for uncounted ages, on the rolling seas of Madras,
and models like them are often dug out with the bones of
ancient Peruvians, where the inhabitants have similar breaking
rollers to encounter. Coracles, made upon a frame of twigs,
with the skins of seals, oxen, and horses, belonged to most
nations of the Old Continent; birch kaicks to the Arctic people
of both; and canoes of solid wood, hollowed out, to every por-
tion of the globe. When these had attained a certain bulk and
adequacy of structure, a family might transport itself from one
end of the world to the other, in a few seasons, merely by
coasting. Thus did the messenger of Vasco de Gama pass, in
* See Biot on Comets.
THE HUMAN SPECIES:
221
an open boat, * from Diu, in the East Indies, round the Cape,
to Lisbon, in safety. In this manner, opinions, languages, and
records, were transmitted, unadulterated, from the Euxine and
Asia Minor, as far as Britain, in a single generation; while the
tribes whose fate it was to travel by land, were compelled to
fight their way onwards for ages, gradually losing all memory
of the pristine fatherland, and unable to recognize their ancient
kindred, when they met again in the west, but by broken
accents of a once common language, as is sufficiently evident
in the meeting of the devious tribes of Gomerian Celtæ.
In the view here taken, mankind might be primitively
arranged somewhat in the form of the diagram on page 222, sup-
posing the apex of an equilateral triangle to point to the north.
Thus, we have the southern line representing the Himalaya
chain, with its great streams ending at the Indian Ocean, the
eastern similarly leading to the Pacific, and the western to a
sea gradually contracted into the Caspian; and the intermedi-
ate, conducted by geographical necessities, reaching the South
Seas, the Northern Pacific, and from thence to America, the
Polar and Western Regions, and the Erythrean Seas to North-
ern Africa. Of these, however, the Caucasian alone bears
evidence of commencing development upon the table land, and
under the shadows of the western chains; the Mongolic being
at first no nearer than the eastern extremity of the Gobi, and
the woolly-haired type coming up to, and along the skirts of
the southern chain, rather than commencing primæval diffusion
so far to the north of its general centre of existence.
The review of typical and sub-typical forms of Man, intended
to be submitted here, appears to be best arranged by taking in
succession the woolly-haired; the Malay and mixed races of
* It is supposed that Iago Botello used a pattemar, or Cutch native
boat, in this daring voyage. The vessel was half-decked, but only 163
feet long, 9 broad, and 41 in depth.
19*
222
NATURAL HISTORY OF
NORTH.
FINNIC.
OURALIAN.
AMERICAN.
CAUCASIAN
EAST.
THIBET,
TOORKEE.
WEST.
MONGOLIC
OR
BEARDLESS TYPE.
OR
SOUTE SEA CAUCASIANS.
BEARDED TYPE.
à OBI DESERT,
AND
MOUNTAIN CHAINS
AROUND THEM.
N. ATLANTIC.
MALAY.
ETHIOPIO.
HORAFOURA.

WOOLLY-EAIRED OR TROPICAL TYPE. .
NEGRO.
PAPUA.
SOUTH,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
223
the South Seas; the American abnormal nations; the Mon-
golic, or beardless; and the Quralian and Toorkee. From
these we arrive at the true Caucasian, whose early history,
being best known from the south-east side of the central region,
will require that first the mixed semi-woolly-haired tribes of
South and Western Asia be examined, in order that the great
influence and expansion of the bearded stock may be established;
and the records of its principal races will form the remaining
subject of consideration.
Beginning, therefore, with that form which may likewise, on
that account, be considered as the most ancient, we find, —
THE WOOLLY-HAIRED TROPICAL TYPE.*
The woolly-haired, tropical, dark-colored stock, improperly :
called Atlantic and Ethiopic, is considered to be most distinctly
typical, where the maximum of development is found, in the
peculiarities of structure and faculties that distinguish it from
the other normal forms. It is that which predominates in
Central and Western tropical Africa, — a form of Man of good
stature, though seldom attaining six feet in height, and falling
* By this denomination is understood, not wool, strictly speaking, but
hair so highly frizzled as to appear like the wool of Iceland sheep, and in
coarseness so rude, that the wool of a Negro head, struck with the
knuckles, frequently cuts the skin to the bone. The pile of the beard,
&c., is equally file-like or lacerating. These effects we have repeatedly
witnessed. Though within the tropics no microscopes of sufficient power
were at hand to test the fact, the general impression was, that this kind
of hair is angular, and we doubt that Dr. Prichard's observations on the
subject are wholly satisfactory, - the less so since the hair of the head
seems to have been exclusively examined, in all the researches we have
been able to consult.
224
NATURAL HISTORY OF
as rarely beneath five feet six; the facial angle varying from
65 to 70 degrees; the head being small, laterally compressed ;
the dome of the skull arched and dense; the forehead narrow,
depressed, and the posterior part more developed; the nose
broad and crushed, with the nostrils round; the lower jaw pro-
truding, angular, but more vertical in nonage; the mouth wide,
with very thick lips, black to the commissure, which is red; the
teeth large, solid, and the incisors placed rather obliquely for-
ward. The ears, which are roundish, rather small, standing
somewhát high and detached, are said, like the scalp, to be
occasionally movable; the eyes always suffused with a bilious
tint, and the irides very dark. The hair, in infants, rises from
the skin in small mammillary tufts, disposed in irregular quin-
cunx, and is, in all parts, of a crisp woolly texture, except-
ing the eyebrows and eyelashes. In men it is scanty on
the upper lip, generally confined to the point of the chin, with-
out any at the sides of the face, excepting in late manhood.
On the head it forms a close, hard frizzle of wool; in the pure
races never hanging loose, nor rising into a kind of mop; and
the breast sometimes has a few tufts, but the arms and legs are
without any. The throat and neck are muscular, and, with
the chest, shoulders, abdomen, hips, back, upper arms, and.
thighs, very symmetrically moulded ;* but, compared with the
Caucasian, the humerus is a trifle shorter, and the forearm
longer, thereby approximating the form of Simiadæ. The
wrists and ankles are robust; the hands coarse, with phalanges
rather short, particularly the thumb; and the palms are yellow-
ish. The legs have the shin-bones slightly bent forwards, and
* The late Sir Francis Chantrey's magnificent cast of a Torso, taken
from a Negro in London, bore ample testimony to this fact. Our own
sketches of the naked figure, drawn during a residence of twelve years
within the tropics, gave so much additional proof, that the great sculptor
was tempted to copy several for his own use. With regard to the other
sex, the tropics alone produce the combination of infantine natural grace
with the full development of female maturity.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
225
:
the calves placed high up; the feet broad, heavy, squarish,
with the soles flat; the os calcis less prominent; the toes short,
more equal in length; and all the nails strong, short, and
broad. The skin is soft, silky to the touch; in the new-born
infant, dull cherry-red, gradually darkening to the permanent
depth of shade; beneath the epidermis the mucous membrane,
loaded with a coloring matter in the bile, causes the melanic
appearance of the skin, which varies, however, from deep sal-
low to intense sepia black; darkest in health; and that color
always distinctly affects the external glands. It is likewise
the source of an overpowering offensive odor, spreading
through the atmosphere, when many are congregated in the
hot sun. The silky texture of the epidermis is more liable to
erosion from pressure than that of white men. It is a charac-
ter as organic, or more so, than the arched dome of the skull,
and the perpendicularity of the vertebral column, which are
quoted as the sole cause, why burthens are best borne by
Negroes on the head instead of the back; for their general
structure is athletic, the gait erect, free, and in young persons
not ungraceful. .
It appears that some tribes in Dongola and Sennaar have
one lumbar vertebra more than the Caucasian, and the stomach
corrugated. * In general, the female pelvis is wider, the aper-
ture round, and both sexes have the hips remarkably well pro-
portioned. The bones of the typical nations are heavy, well
knit, or with the apophyses fitted to receive broad insertions
of the muscles; and the dome of the skull is particularly solid,
but the ribs slender and flexible. Hence, Negroes, of all
human beings, are distinguished for fighting, by occasionally
butting with their heads foremost, like rams, at each other, the
collision of their skulls giving a report that may be heard to
** Observations sur les battaillons Negres du Cordofan au service de
Mehemet Ali en Egypte et qui servirent en Candie." By a German sur-
geon. The same remarks are likewise offered, we believe, by Dr. Mad-
den, Travels, &c.
226
NATURAL HISTORY OF
some distance. Even women, in their brawls, have the same
habit. The dense spherical structure of the head, likewise,
enables several tribes to shave their crowns, and in this
exposed state to remain, with the lower half of the body
immersed in water, under a vertical sun. This very structure
may influence the erect gait, which occasions the practice,
common also to the Ethiopian or mixed nations, of carrying
burthens and light weights, even to a tumbler full of water,
upon the head; a feat which they effect with perfect safety
and gracefulness.*
Most of the black nations are capable of protracted toil,
without much injury to their frames; they willingly share
labor with the female sex in a state of independence as well as
in captivity; they dig, hew wood, carry, wall, or row, for
many hours, in a tropical sun, without repining. They mul-
tiply on mountain and in morass, in sterile and in rich soil,
throughout the tropical region. Though a new locality like
South America be not their original centre of existence, they
spread, on both sides, beyond the equatorial belt, over the
lower degrees of the temperate latitudes; do not decrease in
the presence of Caucasians when not overworked by their task-
masters; and flourish under the fiercest solar heat, when other
types of man decay or perish. In constitution, they escape or
withstand many of the most virulent epidemics, among the
rest, small-pox, so fatal to all the American races; and others,
incidental to the tropics, or introduced by Europeans, visit
them with less violence.
In South America, where the indigenous tribes diminish, in
regions where white men are but little known, the Maroons
* Though the practice is generál, pride nevertheless can counteract it ;
for we have invariably seen the Jamaica Maroons carry their produce to
market on the back, and take their rest under distinct trees, apart from
slave Negroes, because, as they told us, they would show themselves
s free like Buckra man!” A second jar of water, Negroes always carry
upon the palm of the hand inverted.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
227
or Negroes, escaped from Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch
slavery, increase; they have established independent commu-
nities in the swampy regions of Guiana, ånd, still more,
between the rivers Amazon, Iza, and Japura, where, under the
name of Jurie Negroes, they occupy an extensive territory,
since they expelled the Moruas and Maruquevare Indians.
These, however, together with the Haytian, the Jamaica
Maroons, and Guadaloupe Quelehs, as well as all the West
Indian and North American woolly-haired populations, being
the offspring of the greatest intermixture of different African
tribes, and not entirely free of European and American Indian
admixture, are excited by acquired knowledge, under new cir-
cumstances, and therefore capable of a united and reasoned
energy. They have mostly lost the peculiar features belong-
ing to the different African parent tribes. Their heads are
larger, as is seen also in Dr. Morton's measurements, who, we
are inclined to believe, was not aware of the rapid change that
takes place in the development of the skull; though, even in
Europe, the difference of size in heads of the educated and
uneducated classes, among civilized nations, is no secret to
hatters. In this condition, colonial born Negroes are often
ingenious handicrafts. We have known a slave cooper, whose
owner refused to grant his emancipation for less than £600.
They make good masons and joiners, and excellent steersmen
at the wheel and tiller are not uncommon.
The voice of Negroes is feeble and hoarse in the male sex;
exceedingly high and shrill in females; the sense of sight is
acute; that of taste sufficiently delicate; hearing sharp; with
notions of time, but very little of melody; yet fond of music,
and constantly handling instruments of the most imperfect
kind, excepting a species of harmonicon, made of slips of
bamboo, or of a set of sounding stones, --if it be that these are
of their own invention. They have drums and a kind of cas-
tanet; but stringed instruments are derived from a Moorish
source. Though the physical qualities are well developed, the
228
NATURAL HISTORY OF
intellectual are low, in some tribes quite puerile; yet the
moral impulses are not unfrequently of a most noble nature.
They offer, therefore, a discordant mixture of qualities,
wherein the good predominates, till the European, not mis-
guided by personal interests or prejudices, cannot refrain from
feelings of affection for them. They all believe in some kind
of future state, though religious sensations are with them
superstitious and childish mummeries, too often connected
with fetiche necromancy, which deals in the crimes of poison-
ing and murder.' Thought is habitually dormant, and, when
roused, it is manifested by loud soliloquy and gesticulations,
regardless of circumstances. War is a passion that excites in
them a brutal disregard of human feelings; it entails the
deliberate murder of prisoners; and victims are slain to serve
the manes of departed chiefs. Even cannibalism is frequent
among the tribes of the interior. But these habits were once
not unknown to the highest endowed Caucasians; human
sacrifices belonged to the heroic age of Greece; to the historical
of India, Phænicia, Carthage, Egypt, and Celtica; to nations
who must have known better, and were not, like the African
savage, in mental nonage, without neighbors to teach a better
doctrine or more humane example ; for wherever higher moral
duties have been promulgated to Negroes, they have been
quickly accepted. Notwithstanding the listless torpidity
caused by, excessive heat, the perceptive faculties of the chil-
dren are far from contemptible. They have a quick apprehen-
sion of the ridiculous; often surpassing the intelligence of the
white, and only drop behind them about the twelfth year,
when the reflective powers begin to have the ascendency.
Collectively, the untutored Negro mind is confiding, single-
hearted, naturally kind and hospitable. We speak not without
personal experience. The female sex is affectionate, to abso-
lute devotedness, in the character of mother, child, nurse, and
attendant upon the sick, though these be strangers, and the
often experienced reward scarcely amounting to thanks. As
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
-
229
housewives, they are charitable to the wants of the wayfaring
visitants; within doors orderly; and, personally, very clean;
they are joyous; noisy; in the night-time indefatigable danc-
ers equally with the men, who are in general orderly, trust-
worthy, brave and unrepining. Both sexes are easily ruled,
and appreciate what is good, under the guidance of common
justice and prudence.
Yet, where so much that honors human nature remains—in
apathy, the typical woolly-haired races have never invented a
reasoned theological system, discovered an alphabet, framed a
grammatical language, nor made the least step in science or
art.* They have scarcely comprehended what they have
learned, or retained a civilization taught them by contact with
more refined nations, so soon as that contact has ceased.
They have at no time formed great political states, nor com-
menced a self-evolving civilization. Conquest with them has
been confined to kindred tribes, and produced only slaughter.
Even Christianity, of more than three centuries' duration, in
Congo, has scarcely excited a progressive civilization, because
it is unattended by the stimulus of a stranger race (for the
small number of Portuguese officials, priests, exiles, criminals,
and slave merchants, are inadequate, and of all European
nations least capable of stirring the mind to activity, by educa-
tion, and the example of exertion); notwithstanding that the
nations south of the Zezere have a more intellectual aspect,
and have a barter trade across the continent to Mozambique.
Thus, the good qualities given to the Negro by the bounty
of Nature, have served only to make him a slave, trodden down
by every remorseless foot, and to brand hiin for ages with the
* The simple formula of Negro languages remain, when they are
obliged to learn European ; thus, all the Negro slaves of tropical America
speak a dialect in form the same as the general African tongue, though
the words are Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, or Danish.
Education and time have no doubt made the present generation more gram-
matically correct.
20
230
NATURAL HISTORY OF
epithet of outcast; the marked unceasing proof of a curse, as
old as the origin of society, not even deserving human forbear-
ance! and true it is, that the worst slavery is his lot, even at
home, for he is there exposed to the constant peril of becoming
also a victim, slaughtered with the most revolting torments.*
Tyrant of his blood, he traffics. in slavery as it were mer-
chandise; makes war purposely to capture neighbors, and sells
even his own wives and children.
A second stem of the typical group is the eastern tropical
or Samang, which we shall continue to denominate Papua,
notwithstanding recent investigations have endeavored to con-
fine this name to a more hybrid-population of the Australian
islands. It is in general greatly intermixed with Hindoo,
Mongolic, and Malay blood; and in comparatively few locali-
ties sufficiently pure to retain the close crisp woolly scalp
which is the most decisive criterion of the fact; for, so soon
as, in any warm climate, there is foreign alliance, the wool
becomes bushy, and rises into a huge round mop; and, if there
be still greater connection, it droops, and gradually turns into
incipient curls. By this token the amount of adulteration
may be traced, independent of the color of the skin, with per-
haps no exceptions, although it is true that there is in some
cases a tendency to variation, in the offspring taking, in one
birth, a more decisive maternal character, and perhaps in the
next a paternal, even to the extent of modifying the hair, par-
ticularly between true Negroes: and hard lank-haired South
Americans of the Austral-Malay cast of structure. These
remarks show that the earlier Egyptians had only a casual
knowledge of the true Negro populations; for, when these
were first noticed, they occupied, it seems, the high lands
behind the east coast of Africa ; and the ages they may have
nestled in the central regions, without further progress west-
* See Bowdich's Mission to Ashantee.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
231
ward, may be surmised, from the Phænician navigators, who
reached that coast by the Atlantic, not mentioning the presence
of real human beings to the south of Cape Blanco, since they
brought back to Carthage specimens or skins of the Chim-
panzee, which at no time could exist to the north of the great
rivers, where alone there are trees and food. The abnormal are.
portrayed on Egyptian temples, often repeated, with great bushy
heads; but real Negroes may be alone intended in the figures
of black human victims, significantly offered to a Python god.
In Asia the circumstances were different; to this time the
Hubbashee clans of real Negroes exist in Laristan and
Mekran, in Persia, and even on the Helmund; and are evi-
dently of the primitive race, to the south of the Himalaya
chain as well as Southern Persia.* This type forms the
primæval inhabitants of the Australasian and many tropical
islands, although they have been rooted out or subdued to form
a low cast of slaves in most of them; and notwithstanding that a
remote idolatry, of Papuan origin, can still be traced out in parts
of India, and sovereign families even claim descent from monkey
gods, that is, from primæval Bheels, the worship has changed
to Brahmanism, and the ruling dynasties are now of high caste
Caucasians, as will be shown in the sequel. Only, in the larger
islands, the Papua tribes are in general still found masters of
the central mountain forests. Rarely, however, is this branch
of the Negro stock equal in stature and vigor to the African.
>
* Professor Wilson, in his notice of the animals, &c., mentioned by
Ctesias, gives some account of the Kalestrii; and in my manuscript note
upon it, I find, that "there were other tribès, higher up the country, and
nearer the sources of the Indus, who were very black, drank no water nor
ate corn, but lived on the milk of their flocks." These were, perhaps,
the typical Asoors or Azuras of Hindoo mythology. Abulghazi speaks
of black people residing between the Hylas (Cabul ?) and the Indus.
(vol. i., p. 15.) The present Aghori, by Ctesias named Andropophogoi,
and by the Persians Mardikohr, still occasionally feed on putrid human
flesh, and reside in caverns about Aboo, among the Jains. They cannot
well he Caucasians, nor are they Mongoles.
232
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Sometimes varying to yellowish-brown, it is in color sooty-
black; in stature often so diminutive, that the small heads they
have appear large, the more in disproportion, because the
extremities are ſeeble and slender. Such at least is the case
with many of the tribes still possessed of retreats in the Malay
Archipelago and Peninsula; but this form of the woolly-haired
stock, unlike the African, diminishes rapidly before the en-
croachments of Malays, Arabs, and Europeans. Many of them
prefer death to slavery; others vegetate in that condition, their
marriages not producing more than one or two children; and
some, becoming Mahometans, form mixed populations, where
Horafoura and Malay, Hindoo and Arab, Chinese and Euro-
pean, have been promiscuously mixed, and their characteristics
obliterated. In this way Western Asiatic nations, with more
undulating or lank hair, were likewise formed, by intermixture
with the low-fronted Dombuks, Nimreks, and Kakasiah, or
black brothers. They may have influenced even the black
Kalmuks, the Colchians of Herodotus, and the black Bedou-
eens.
From the geographical position of the purest Papua Negroes,
it is evident that they have been the first race expelled the
coasts and plains, since they are insulated in the mountains, or
driven to the unhealthy equatorial points, where other tribes
cannot multiply. Hence, they are the oldest primæval race,
even if it should be denied that they are a population of ante-
rior date to a great territorial cataclysis, which submerged a
continent beneath or on the south of the line. It is also
evident, that around them, and northward, up the Indus, to the
southern foot of the Himalayas, the (Nishada) most ancient
nations, with some relation to the distance from their equatorial
centre, bear strong marks, in structure, intellectual capacity,
habits, color, and hair, of a succession of intermixtures with
races coming down by the gorge of the Brahmaputra, and along
the eastern secondaries of the great mountain range, causing a
Mongolic adulteration; and, on the north-west, by the Cabul
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
233
and Indus, another of Caucasian blood, passing to the plains
of India in overpowering numbers; and by the Ganges and
Jumna; likewise along the western flanks of the range from
Cashmere, and indeed from China itself, where, in the earliest
ages, the bearded race had numerous colonies. But there is
no evidence of the woolly-haired stock possessing, at any time,
the valleys above the secondary ranges, since none are now
found shut up in the colder mountains; and the bearded races,
tenants of the region, are fair, and not unfrequently marked by
gray eyes, and light or red curled hair, showing how remote
was the starting-point from whence they first proceeded.
Both the earliest known invasions of the Indian peninsula,
coming in successive waves, demonstrate how variously crossed
and intermixed have been the populations already, before the
recorded historical repetitions of the same movement took
place. Similar events were equally in active operation to the
south-west, through Persia and Syria. While a proportion of
the black races may have coasted towards Africa, others no
doubt passed through the isthmus of Suez, and by the Arabian
shore into their present central region, leaving marks of their
progress in the Mekran, and other fish-eating Suakim on the
African shore.
The Papuan stock, notwithstanding mental and physical
deficiencies, has advanced to the pastoral and even agricultural
conditions, when not molested by invaders, and favored proba-
bly by some foreign innervation ; for, in a pure, unmixed state,
no eastern Negro tribe has passed beyond the profession of
hunter, or is observable on islands at more than a moderate
distance from its Australasian centre. The inapprehensive
character of their constitutions, or an impulse which leads
them to the sea, induces both African and Papua stems readily
to accept a marine mode of life. They are generally excellent
swimmers; they dive fearlessly, and will fight the shark in his
own element. Yet they have never invented the construction
of large canoes, such as the Malay and American make with
· 20*
234
NATURAL HISTORY OF
so much skill. The marine enterprise, however it may have
been occasioned, is manifest even among tribes residing far
inland ;* such, for example, are the brave and honest Menas
or Kroomen of Western Africa, who all become in some degree
sailors; and colonial Negroes, who are often seamen in the
merchant service.
In what manner the black Caribs of St. Vincent first reached
the Western Hemisphere, is narrated upon questionable evi-
dence. Those said to be remains of this adventitious race, are
still excellent boatmen; and if Peter Martyr (Decads) may be
credited, there was a Negro population already established on
the coast of America t before the arrival of the Spaniards.
On the west coast of Africa the most energetic tribes are
Coromantees, very black, and marked on the cheeks with tri-
bal scars. They are a daring and martial people; when en-
slaved, often rebellious. The Eboes, on the contrary, are less
vigorous, paler in color, with a more slender form and elon-
gated features. They are a gentler race, yet more truly say-
ages; and, though addicted to despondency and suicide, they
were formerly sought for house servants. The Widahs, or
Fidahs, are of the stem usually called Papaws and Nagas in
Africa; they resemble the Papuas of the Indian Ocean more
than any other race; and they assimilate likewise with the
Eboes, but are still more submissive as slaves. They have
a baboon-like expression, and the peculiarities of the Negro
* The fearless propensity to venture on the sea was shown in Jamaica,
during our residence on the island, by two very young Negro lads, both
natives of the interior of Africa, who could know liitle more of a water
life than perhaps fishing on the Niger; yet they stole a canoe ; and, unpro-
vided with food or water, went to sea from Port Royal harbor, with the
resolution of returning to their own country! The poor lads were forta-
nately picked up by a merchant ship, when they had already drifted far out
to the south-west, and were nearly dead from exhaustion.
-
+ Peter Martyr, who wrote from the manuscript documents of the first
discoverers then living, cites Vasco · Nunez meeting with a colony of
Negroes at Quariqua, in the Gulf of Darien.. This, it should be
remarked, is anterior to the introduction of black slaves.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
235
type strongly marked. Among them, in particular, the Naga
tribes practise circumcision, and have other eastern indications
about them; the Cumbric Negroes may belong to this branch;
and the Mocos, who file the teeth in order to resemble the
Lion, are still cannibals, and the most savage of the Papaw
nations. Like the eastern Papuas, they are of a dirty black
color, and have the same Jewish rites as the rest. Hebrew
or Semitic words occur in their dialects, as in the Hous-
wana tongues. Ideas, and perhaps affinity with the An-
gola and Benin tribes, recall to mind the still existing barter
trade across the continent to Mozambique, and this may point
out the route from the east by which they may have come to
their present location ; for, had they spread from west to east,
no oriental words or institutions would be found in their ancient
national dialects or habits.
In Eastern Africa, the woolly-haired races, though occupy-
ing a vast extent, are likewise of intermixed origin. The
whole east coast is possessed by nations tinged with Arabic
blood ; the extreme south by apparently an outcast Mongolic
population; and, from the north, Gomerian tribes have likewise
produced commixtures to beyond the Senegal. Among these,
ancient Numidians appear to have been propelled by Arabian
conquerors, and to have originated the red and black Poulas,
so called in proportion as the brown or black color of their skins
predominates. These have horses and camels, unknown to all
other Negroes, and are now Moslem. The Jaloffs are a branch
of this ster; and the Mandingoes, once a nomad people, bear
evident tokens of a more northern origin, only in part effaced
by intermixture with true Negroes. Beyond the Menas or
Kroomen, on the Gambia, there are, however, important nations
of true Negroes, such as the Basus and Buyere on each side
of them; and in the interior of Africa the mysterious Ba-u-ri.
Of the African stock the most conspicuous abnormal stem is
the Kafir or Caffre, a race which, having a Semitic innervation,
has risen in stature, intelligence and beauty, above all the
236
NATURAL HISTORY OF
tribes of nearly pure Negro blood. They have formed states
of some extent; they build large towns; possess the art of
smelting and working metals; are very considerable graziers;
and have some agriculture. The Caffres have trained their
war or Bakeley Oxen to be ridden in battle ;* have large, and,
in some measure, organized armies, distinguished by decorated.
spears for ensigns, and shields painted with different cogni-
zances for each corps. Among the men there are individuals
nearly seven feet in height; and the women frequently possess
considerable beauty. Extending on the south-east coast to
Port Natal, they have all, it is asserted, formerly migrated
from the north-west, or Central Africa; but this is evidently
only the expansion of increased population, which, in earlier
ages, shrunk frorn the barren coasts, and, since returning, have
directed their march to the south-east.
Next, or perhaps superior to them in energy, are the Galla
or Sidana nation, constantly-encroaching on the Abyssinian
states, and containing several mighty tribes; such as the
lees on the north of them, and the pure Gallas in the interior,
who are chiefly composed of Carrachi and Boiran tribes. — all
speaking dialects of one great language.
In the east, the propensity to an aquatic life is likewise man-
ifest, for true oriental Negroes inhabit the Nicobar islands, and
spread through many Australasian, Philippine, and more east-
ern groups, though they are often intermixed with Malay, or
with Hindoo races, who have modified their characteristic dis-
* No doubt, oxen were ridden in India before war-horses were intro-
duced by the north-western conquerors. There exist allusions to the prac-
tice ; and I have copied an Indian Rajah, seated on his war-ox, from a
painting on ivory. Siva on the bull Nundi represents the same fact; and
the African Caffres, having the like custom, may indicate the region
whence they emigrated, and the date as anterior to the arrival of domes-
ticated horses in southern Asia.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
237
tinctions, and there also, in general, constituted a privileged
order among them. This occurs even among the Tasmanians,
the lowest race of oriental Negroes, and now nearly extinct,
yet still familiar with water. The New Holland Papuas, who,
i for want of trees serviceable for excavation, venture out upon
slips of bark but slightly bound together at the extremities, or
on pieces of drift-wood, not capable to support them until their
bodies are partially immersed; nay, on the central lakes of
Africa, Negroes venture out, riding a stick, having two open
calabashes, one before, the other behind, which buoy them up
sufficiently, to admit in them the fish they catch, and stun or
kill with a billet.
The Papuan of Australia is, in many respects, the most
sunken of human beings, and is partly mixed with Horafoura
tribes, whose presence is indicated by the hair being more
drooping and matted, the features less debased, and the limbs
more masculine. Some tribes towards the north are even fair,
and appear to have a tinge of Malay blood, perhaps imported
by the Trepang fishers on the coast.
If the woolly-haired type, in the oriental portion of its dis-
tribution, is often of the smallest and ill-made proportions,
there are instances (perhaps, indeed, of races already somewhat
mixed) where they rise to six feet high, and possess powerful
frames, as was lately discovered in the interior of Australia.
But, in all, where any religious sentiments have been observed,
they seem to be imported, or sink into the lowest puerilities.
This is also the case in Africa, where the divinities are spec-
tres; or are reptiles, lizards, insects, birds, or beasts ; gods in
one season and game in another; or they are wretched little
idols they call Fetiche, a word derived from Pet, pataichos, of
Phænician or Egyptian origin; and, as it evidently means
father, shows that, in the first acceptation, was implied venera-
tion for departed tribal or family ancestors, but became de-
graded to a kind of idolatrous worship, which, in the hands of
Negroes, is bestowed upon monkey skulls, bits of bone and rag;
238
NATURAL HISTORY OF
or is a gross scarecrow, set up under a canopy of straw. The
Negro has shown always a great propensity to incantation and
sorcery; has recourse to protective amulets, which he calls
Grisgris; and positive impostures are both believed in and
practised by the male part, without an attempt at reflection;
although, in other respects, he can be a mimic --- and does not
want craft in the mysteries of huckstering, or of small dealing,
which all classes are inclined to. . These propensities can be
traced to the extent of a kind of caravan trade, and the fre-
quentation of sacred, or, at least, neutral marts, scalas, or ven-
tas, where dealers assemble at stated periods within the precincts
of Nigritia, for elsewhere the lawless ferocity of slave-making
Caucasians has rendered the practice impossible to the Negro
race. All these opinions and customs are, however, perfectly
in harmony with the oriental development of the woolly-haired -
tribes; with their primæval passage even through Egypt and
the desert, which most recent discovery shows to be still, in
parts, not entirely barren; although, as Dr. Hoskins has proved,
increasingly desolate. .
The Horafouras, or Alforees of the Australasian islands,
are, we believe, the first and most ancient abnormal race of
Papuan origin, tinged sufficiently with Malay blood to possess
the energy and malignant ferocity of that people; while they
have the color and the great mop-formed hair, which result
from an interunion thus formed, and, having greater mental
development, their social progress is more advanced. They
possessed already, in remote antiquity, the means of marine
venture, which causes their descendants to be found singly, or
partially mixed with Caucasian blood, on most of the South
Sea islands.
They appear to have been the leaders of that generally pre-
vailing fashion among those tribes, of tattooing the skin not
only of the face, but nearly of every part of the body; distinctly
marking, by means of raised lines and figures, the family clan
of every individual so adorned.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
239
The Negro or woolly-haired type, independently of diluvian
convulsions, appears, as before stated, originally to have
extended north ward to the lower ranges of the Himalaya
chain, if indeed that region was not its original seat; and that
it did not extend, in a pure or perhaps somewhat mixed state,
eastward to Japan, may be surmised by the present population
of Formosa being apparently descended from an expelled people,
once resident about the coasts of China. It is confirmed from
the existence of a black stock, with Caucaso-Mongoles, and now
termed Min-leu, black-haired people; a denomination which
implies a distinct race, not genuine Chinese. The same infer-
ghazi, and even from the melanic Californians on the west
In this view, the first migrations of the Negro stock, coast-
ing westward by catamarans, or in wretched canoes, and
skirting South-Western Asia, may synchronize with the
earliest appearance of the Negro tribes in Eastern Africa, and
just precede the more mixed races, which, like the Ethiopians
of Asia, passed the Red Sea at the straits of Bab-el-mandel,
ascended the Nile, or crossed that river to the west; for that
movements of this kind were long continued, is apparent, from
the Nagas or Norages, who visited Spain and the Mediter-
ranean islands under Norax, so late as the dawn of authentic
history.
Taking the whole southern portion of Asia westward to
Arabia, this conjecture, which likewise was a conclusion
drawn, after patient research, by the late Sir T. Stamford
Raffles, accounts, more satisfactorily than any other for the
oriental habits, ideas, traditions, and words, which can be traced
among several of the present African tribes and in the South
Sea islands; it points out the primæval cities of the woolly-
haired people in Nangasaki, or rather, in its, ancient form,
Nagaraki, according to Phitzmayer; Nagara, now Cashmere;
240
NATURAL HISTORY OF
1774
Nagara, the known capital of a most ancient Naga people. *
Further, in the plains, are Nagpoor, and a ruined city without
name, at the gates of Benares (perhaps the real Kasi of tradi-
tion), once adorned with statues of a woolly-haired race; and
lower still, on the Indus, Pattala, the ancient empire of the
Naga: or serpent kings, before it became a mythological
legend. These cities existed, and a given social state was
advancing to civilization among the typical woolly-haired tribes
of higher Asia, but declined and fell, from the moment the
Hindoo races invaded Bharata or the peninsula of India. The
people, nevertheless, which they subdued, expelled, and vainly
endeavored to extirpate, survived, in scattered purer groups, in
the more inaccessible parts of the continent, chiefly along the
subordinate ramifications of the Himalaya range, from the Indus
to Indo-China, and the Malay peninsula; or in the forin of
hybrid tribes, even åt present lurking in the Vindaya chain,
and spread through the southern states to Ceylon. Taking
the characteristics of some tribes still remaining for the general
standard, they were a strong-built under-sized people, with a
depressed forehead, frizzled hair, crushed nose, thick lips, and
black skin, all to some extent cannibals, and incapable of
rising, by their own intellectual powers, much beyond the
degrees of social improvement they had attained; yet not so
low, but that some of the worst features of their religious and
moral notions were adopted by their conquerors. The names
of the nations varied of course. Among the most ancient and
general, was that of Nats, Nagas, Nishadas, Kabendas, Bhils,
and Puharees.t They are now found under similar denomi-
* This Nagara stood on the Indus, between latitude 32 and 330, and was
a Dionysiopolis, according to Ptolemy; but more probably the ſanum of
some Naag Sahib, a serpent god with human sacrifices, such as the Naag
tribes had upon the upper Nile, and still retain in Cutch. Naag and
Naga, if it be a Sanscrit word, is also well known in more than one Afri-
can dialect.
+ Several of these names recur, most significantly, among the Negro
tribes of Western and Southern Africa, particularly those of Nagas or
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
241
nara, Daguisa Kholes, &c. In
nations, such as Cutchees, Bheels, Binderwars, Paharias of
Bhangulpoor, and Mongheer, who are complete Papuas; there
are the Sedies of Canara, Daçoits of Bengal, Ghọnds of Ghond-
wana, Koolies or Kholes, Lurka Kholes, Cookies or Nagas of
Indo-China; Bėdas or Vedas of Ceylon, &c. In Persia are
the Hubbashie and Mekran fish-eaters; and the Jamaules, near
Aden, and the Ovahs of Madagascar, are partially mixed races.
The most aberrant of all are, however, the Houswana
nations, the Hottentots, Bushmen, Coranas, &c., all of a lemon
peel or dirty yellow color, and often with strange peculiarities
of form; speaking dialects inimitably articulated, and possibly
forming a hybrid race of Mongolo-Papuan origin; one flung
abroad at so remote a period, as to have preceded both the
true woolly-haired tribes, the Ethiopian, and the Caucasian
nations, since they, together with the Ompizee of Madagascar,
a portion of the inhabitants of Fernando Po, and the ancient
Guanches of Teneriffe and the islands of the west coast, seem
to have belonged to the same origin, and to have been driven
off in all directions by the Negroes who succeeded them ; *
until, at a later period, they effected interunions, which form
some of the modifications among the black tribes, and consti-
tute the existing populations above named. That certain
tribes, of a partially civilized race, preëxisted in the present
Caffraria, is even proved by the rectangular stone walls of old
Leetakoo (Leetakoon, in the Caffre dialects, denoting the old
stone buildings), the ruins of which still remain, in a country
Nagoes, Puharees, Menas, and, perhaps, Galla ;. for in India the Gwalla,
or grazier profession, is the same as that of the African Gallas, who also
bear another Asiatic and their true name of Sidana. Gal, Gail, in Cel-
tic, moreover, denotes a stranger or wanderer, therefore radically also a
nonad
* To this expelled sallow people may be ascribed also the ruins of
houses, which are reported to have been still visible in the Canary Islands,
at the commencement of the ninth century; as related by the Irish Monk
Dicuil, in his curious work, "De Mensura Orbis Terræ." He wrote in
the year 629, and is better known by the name of the " Anonymous of
Ravenna."
21
242
NATURAL HISTORY OF
where the Amazula, Bachapin, or Caffre population, never hare
built a house but of reeds and clay.
• In north-eastern Africa, an expansion similar to that in the
south is taking place : the Cushi, Kopths, Mauritanianş, Abys-
sinians, and Arabs, gradually diminish or become absorbed ;
the Negro races press forward, by the Bahar-el-abiad, upon
Egypt, and through the desert, upon Morocco, not so much by
conquest as by the increase of their numbers; a result which
continued slavery only tends to hasten. Such also has been
the consequence in Hayti and in Central America ; nor can.
the evil effects impending over Brazil, and even over our own
colonies in the west, be avoided, but by timely liberal and
humane laws, aiding a true, zealous, and applicable system of
education. The really good qualities, and single-heartedness
of the Negro, may then be safely expected to evolve that quiet
coöperation and patriotic feeling which justice will teach him
to appreciate ; but the prejudices of colonists have still much
to retrace and to unlearn. Fear alone imparts moderation and
reason upon masses, who believe they derive an advantage
from injustice.
Before concluding, we may mention here the gradations
through which intermixtures of the typical stocks are distin-
guished in the West India Islands. The offspring of a black and
a white parent is denominated a Mulatto; a black and a mulatto
produce a Sambo; a black and a sambo a Mungroo; and a
black and a mungroo is again completely black. But, in this
case, the disturbance in the intellectual qualities is not again
obliterated; it remains, to a considerable extent, of a more
developed character than in a true Negro of unmixed origin.
A mulatto, however, and a white generate a Quartroon ;
a quartroon and a white a Mestie; and a mestie and a white
a complete white, having already, before the emancipation of
the slaves in all our colonies, the legal rights of a white man
of pure blood. Yet this class of persons still, in general, have
black and curly hair; the nails on the fingers remain darker
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
243
and ill-shaped; the feet are indifferently formed; and in
their propensities much of the Negro origin continues to be
traced. The Spaniards carry their distinctions to a seventh
generation.
As the early history of the real Ethiopic nations is better
known by means of the connection and hybridal descent they
drew from the Caucasian races, we shall enter into more detail
respecting their primæval filiations and migratory movements,
when treating of the bearded tribes which first invaded India,
and pursued, subdued, and absorbed the Negro population in
south-eastern and south-western Asia, and northern Africa;
an inquiry that can be followed out by certain geographical
necessities, and by a right appreciation of many ancient mythic
tales, notwithstanding that historical data were few and
scanty.*
THE MALAY SUB-TYPICAL STEM.
PURSUING our course of investigation onwards towards the
east, we find from a commencement somewhere on the gorges
of the Brahmaputra, where that mighty stream turns towards
the Ganges, an intermediate form of Man; one which, in a
most remote period, was perhaps seated further to the north,
about the sources of the great rivers which rise to the eastward
* Our personal observations on the Negro races, it is proper to mention,
commenced in 1797, on the coast of Africa. They were continued, on
1807; during which period the slave trade remained in activity, and new
Negroes, as they were termed, coming from different nations, could be ex-
amined, and their characteristics compared at most of the tropical seaports.
The distinctive characters then possessed by them are now confused or
obliterated by commixture of the different races, by education, and other
changes of circumstances in the western hemisphere, and are no longer
accessible on the coast of Africa. Hence, several remarks above made
cannot now be entirely verified in any quarter. From what is here stated,
it follows that the observations, more or less carefully made, extended
over hundreds, belonging to very different tribes of western and central
Africa, exclusive of North and South American, and West Indian colonial-
born Negroes.
244
NATURAL HISTORY OF
of that stream. This stem now extends across the great pen-
insula of Indo-China, or has been propelled, by the pressure of
genuine Mongolic races and mixed Indo tribes, not only to the
extreme south of the peninsula, but driven onwards; beyond
séa, to the islands of Australasia, to Madagascar, the archipel-
agos of the Pacific; and, it would seem, even to South Amer-
ica, before that continent was visited by the great migrations
which came down the coast by the west of the Cordilleras.
Conquered on the mainland of Asia, tribes of Malays, no doubt,
reached the peninsula of Malacca at a remote period, but not
before Java and Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes were detached
from it; for notwithstanding that the deep channels, extant in
their present waters, soundings and shoals, spreading even to
the vicinity of Australia and New Guinea,* indicate the com-
paratively recent period when a great disruption of the land
occurred in those latitudes, or the present conditions of the
coasts were completed, still the presence of a more ancient or
a more purely typical race, on the centre and on the west coast
of the two first-mentioned islands, seems to prove that these were
anterior, and the Malays only the second, or more probably the
third source of the present population.
· Preceding the arrival of the Malays, there was already
extant, as the scattered fragments of the former population
prove, the Oriental Negro stock ; both on the continent and in
the islands; and coëval with the first-mentioned tribes, the
black Hindoo mixed Caucasian stem seems likewise to have
been urged to the same coasts. Thus, the adulteration of the
woolly-haired stock was effected in two directions, and the Malay
stem, apparently resulting from the union of Caucasian with
Mongolic tribes, caused that great variety of feature, complexion,
and form, which it is known to possess, without therefore oblit-
erating the perceptible sub-typical general resemblance which
constitutes the characteristic marks of the whole race. If the
Malays were a real typical stock, they would likewise possess
* Earl's Report in Journal of Geographical Sciences,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
245
a nuclèus, or centre of existence, exclusively adapted for their
permanent abode, whereas the contrary is clearly shown, by the
presence of unadulterated races, and mixed tribes of the other
two stocks, in both conditions suited to the same geographical
région. This circumstance likewise indicates the probability
of a great atmospheric change in relation to man, after a dilu-,
vian cataclysis, if it be admitted that this equatorial vicinity
was once the real Nigritia of the woolly-haired type. Now,
as it is evident the centre of development belonging to this
type is at present in the tropical regions of Africa, and, as was
before shown, that there are indications of a third being in
preparation, under the same latitudes in South America, while
the Oriental is gradually disappearing, it might be asked,
whether there is not here the indication of a submerged conti-
nent, and another instance of that progressive migratory move-
ment from the east to the west, or expansion and decay,
ordained to be the fatë of the great human typical stocks, and
impelled by laws whose operation may be perceived without
affording the means of tracing their causes beyond probable
assumptions? Yet this physical procession over the earth by
longitudes may not be without ultimate connection with that
intellectual march of Man by latitudes, which, while departing
from the temperate regions of our northern hemisphere, and
arriving at the extremity of the habitable south," appears to
repeat, on a greater, the workings of civilization which it com-
menced on a less scale in Europe, and thus to be evolving the
mysterious problem of human fusion into one great family, led
by one religious system, and trained to the sciences and litera-
ture of Europe.
As the Malays are nowhere expansively homogeneous, and in
most places only tenants of coasts or parts of islands, varied
marks of national adulteration are constantly perceptible. In
general, however, their distinctive characters are marked by a
coinparatively small head, measuring, in the capacity of the
skull, according to Dr. Morton, from sixty-four to eighty-nine
21*
246.
NATURAL HISTORY OF
cubic inches; a diversity in itself sufficient to demonstrate the
mixed nature of their origin. The dome is high and rounded,
with a low forehead; the face is flat and broad; the nose
short, expanded at the wings; the mouth wide, with projecting
upper jaws, and teeth resembling Negroes; the skin varying
in color from clear brown to dark clove; the auditory aperture
elevated, and consequently with a depressed forehead, — nearly
as much so as in the woolly-haired type, but commonly distin-
guished by prominent ridges of the orbits overhanging the eyes ;
and we have seen a light brown, so-called, Papua girl, from one
of the South Sea cannibal islands, * whose forehead had the.
lengthened form assumed to be peculiar to the American races.
In the more typical tribes, the Malay's hair is coarse, lank and
shining, like the Chinese; more aberrant, it becomes undulat-
ing and bushy, till, in still more adulterated races, it rises in the
high curly mops which attest the intermixture of blood to be
not less than half with woolly-haired families. This condition,
however, most frequently advances the physical improvement
of the possessors, and even the intellectual, when there is an
additional innervation from a Caucasian source. The beard is,
often plucked out, generally scanty in the purer hybridism of
the Malay composition, nor does it increase to the full honors
of a well furnished fringe, up to the ears, unless there are again
other indications of a Caucasian infusion. In that case, consid-
erable stature is likewise not unfrequent; while, without the
exciting cause just mentioned, a lank spare structure is the
more usual, and the lower extremities are often somewhat defi-
cient and short among the tribes addicted to marine lives. In
moral capacity, the Malay races are inferior to the Mongolic,
yet they exhibit, like them, intellectual vitality, great bodily
activity, and considerable manual dexterity, as well as enterprise.
The temperament of true Malays is treacherous, the disposi-
tion ferocious, implacable, and the nervous system compatible
with a kind of insensibility to bodily pain; hence, fits of
* From Tikienitri, a sandal wood island.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
247
ungovernable passion are always breaking forth in acts of
indiscriminate murder, brought on by an abuse of ardent spirits,
opium, and bang (smoking hemp). These occur so frequently
among them, that in most European settlements, where this
race is apt to congregate, particular police regulations and pre-
cautions are taken to obviate the greatest mischief; and it is
not unusual to kill the maniac on the instant, as the only
effectual preventive, since instances are recorded, where they
have run up the spear that had transfixed them, and thus have
sabred the spearman. This frenzy is commonly known by
the name of Muck, Mook, Mengamok, in Sumatra, and Wude
in India. To the same insensibility may be ascribed their
ferocious, unyielding spirit in battle. They fight to the last
gasp, never ask, and scarcely will accept quarter, nor profess
thanks for mercy and the cure of their wounds.
The great affluence of Arab merchants and fanatics has con-
verted the more polished Australasian tribes of Malays to Islam;
the others are still Pagans of very different creeds, generally
not resting upon any reasonable system; but Christianity is
now spreading rapidly, through the zeal of missionaries, in the
Polynesian islands, where, however, the Caucasian stock is
more deeply mixed up in the composition of the nations, than
in the great islands nearer the Asiatic shore.
All, however, record, in somewhat similar forms, a great
diluvian catastrophe, have the same notions about the Makeri,
or Dragon Serpent, a dragon-fish god assailing the moon, the
crescent boat during eclipses ; notions alike remembered in
Central Africa, Peru, China and Ceylon, as well as in Borneo
and Sumatra. They are essentially the same as the Indian
legends of Vishnou, the Tahtar Nataghi, can be traced in the
Scandinavian and other heathen mythologies of Europe and
North America, being all distorted versions of the scriptural
record in Genesis.
The languages of Malay nations, influenced by the various
causes before noticed, and even by the contact of antique de-
-245
NATURAL HISTORY OF
tached tribes, whose original affinity cannot now be traced,
have produced great differences of opinion among ethnologists,
as regards their classification; the learned William von Hum-
boldt vainly claiming a unity of origin from the identity of the
dialects spoken by a great proportion of the Polynesians, whom
he and others regard as Malays. But, although we do not
mean to deny a pervading intermixture of Malay blood in the
composition of these tribes, still, as they vary, from absolutely
Oriental Negroes, to nations having most striking characteris-
tics of true Caucasians, the sole test of language, even if it were
beyond dispute, is scarcely of sufficient weight to determine the
whole question. It should be remembered that all the Malay
dialects abound in Sanscrit words, which, be they borrowed
from the tongues of the present Indo-China, or from the Te-
linga of the peninsula, are still.evidence of a prevailing Cauca-
sian admixture. Indo-China, the primæval abode of the Malays,
bears Sanscrit names in every locality, whereas the Polyne-
sian languages are without these characteristics in the words
and grammatical structure. There are, moreover, monuments
of Man's presence in many islands, from the Ladrones, in the
Chinese seas, and Tinian, to Java, the Marquesas, Easter and
Pitcairn Islands, monuments, not the work of the present exist-
ing nations, but raised at so remote å period, that all memory
of the facts connected with them is departed even from myth-
ical tales; yet they are constructed upon principles positively
akin to Caucasian reasoning and Caucasian skill. Tribes of
this type have left strong evidence of their ancient. prevalence
in the present mop-headed Figees, the brown curly-haired
Marquesans, the dark-haired Hawaiians, and the variously
featured New Zealanders, in all of which, though the masses
of population indicate mixtures of lower oriġin, the chiefs point
to the true Caucasian descent, in their whole external con-
formation, and still more in the intellectual qualities they pos-
sess. It is from this high order of ancestors, it appears most
probable, that the pyramidal Morais, and other monuments,
THE AUMAN SPECIES.
249
have been derived; for in the Malay peninsula, and where
they acknowledge are bell-shaped, notoriously made of straw,
rushes, mats, and poles; or, at most, they are of a Mongolic
character, built with wood and mortar. Now, if we compare
the Egyptian pyramids, the ruins of the supposed temples of
Belus or tower of Babylon, and of Baradan in Persia, it will
be found that one of them certainly had four towers, and,
from the shape of the ruins, it had also a projection or
propylon, characteristics which mostly occur again, and with
the same cardinal aspects, as the great Morai of Suka, in Java,
of Temurri, at Poppara; that at Atte Hura, and the base of
the Fiatookas, like the Mooau at Tonga, and others in Poly-
nesia ; there are occasionally similarly constructed successive
terraces, forming pyramidal elevations in the Marquesas and
elsewhere, and these are again repeated in America, with
exactly the same forms — one of these at Cholula, exceeding
in area, and in cubic quantity of artificial accumulation, both
the great tower of Belus, and the great pyramid of Cheops,
taken together. * The forms of all these structures indicate a
common religious system, more ancient than the extant idola-
tries; they may be claimed by a solar theism, distinct from the
subsequent elaborate astronomical religions, but containing the
basis of what has since been ascribed to Foh and Budha,
which both Mongolic and Eastern Caucasians have long revered
on the continent, and in the Asiatic Archipelago.
The Malay form, whether composed of two normal types, or
of three, in various quantities of admixture, can be traced to
Ceylon, where the blowpipe, the outrigger canoe, and other
peculiar customs and words, give evidence that it visited at
least the southern portion of the island. In the same manner,
* The base is square, and covers forty-four acres, the upper platform is
somewhat more than one acre. The elevation at present is 177 feet ; but
this is partially diminished by the ruinous state of the lowest platform,
and is exclusive of the temple which adorns the summit.
250
HISTORY OF
NATURAL AN
1
1
and by like evidence, they are found to be a component part of
the populations in North Australia, Polynesia, and probably in
the eastern portions of South America, where the blow pipe is
likewise in use, and a variety of practices, customs, opinions,
weapons, and industrial arts; feather mantles and caps, tas-
selled swords and war-clubs, support the opinion of a commu-
nity of origin, which is still further substantiated by legends
and traditions.
The Malays, as before hinted, do not extend får into the
interior of the east coast of Sumatra ; the local tribes belong to
the Orangulu, extending thence to the Rejang Islands; appar-
ently they originate from a mixture of the Negro type with
aberrant Caucasians, or Indo-Chinese, having the slender
points, pale yellow color, and even the practice of allowing the
nails to grow, of a Mongolic character, though they crush the
nose and draw out the ears, in order to look more like Papuas.
In Java, the Malay stem is still less predominant; for the
oldest population was a race of Negro cannibals, termed
Gunos, who were assailed and driven into the mountain fast-
nesses by a nautical people, the real Javanese, under the com-
mand of their legendary hero, Passara. Now this name, as
well as Javana, i. e., mixed, a mixed people, are both of San-
scrit origin, and show that the invaders were Indo-Caucasians,
with perhaps only a mixture of Mongolic, that is, Malay
blood; the oldest religious edifices are of Indian character;
and from names, such as Pen-y-gawa for a chief; Kralon, a
palace; Sasa kadom, a hall or temple, might indicate a branch
of Pandoo wanderers, Gomerians, allied to the Pelasgian and
Celtic tribes of the west, — a conjecture further strengthened
by the Morai pyramid of Suka before mentioned. The Java-
nese appear to have sent colonists to Madagascar, since known
by the name of Jacalvas, who similarly waged war against
the cannibal Anachimous, and were for many ages noted
marine pirates, distinct from the Jóasmees, who are of Arabian
origin.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
251
Further east, in the island of Borneo, where true Malays
have the ascendency, but only reside on the coasts, there is
another people distinct from them, partly sedentary and in part
exclusively nautical. These are the Orang Darrah and Orang
Laut, men of the soil and men of the sea, one ma'intaining an
unequal struggle against the Malays, and the other pirates
from birth, and always residing on board their proas; freeboot-
ers in every sense, and ready to aid in the oppression of their
kindred race inhabiting the interior. Both are nationally
denominated Dyaks, are fairer than the Malays, and most
likely allied to the Joasmees before noticed. They are of the
Horafoura stem, also marine adventurers, who, having for ages
frequented the north coast of New Holland, have certainly
caused a further hybridism among the Papuas of that region,
and are themselves the most mixed branch of Indo-Caucasians
in Australasia, with a language and religious notions originally
unconnected with any Malay source. : The tribes of Borneo,
here enumerated, are evidently older possessors of the soil
than the Malays, and the most ancient in these seas excepting
the Eastern Negroes, who may be regarded as absorbed by them
in this great island, since none of the purely woolly-haired
stock are now known to remain in the country.
Celebes is principally inhabited by the Boun, Bouginee,
Buges, or Bugesses, of which one nation is called the Macas-
sar, and the whole appear to be of the same stem as the Hora-
fouras. Here they are again fairer than the Malays, with
very long. black hair, and soft silky beards and whiskers:
Their original language, more allied to southern dialects of
India, with the admixture of Sanscrit, is now much corrupted
by the Malayan. The women of this, island are the hand-
somest and most polished of the eastern seas, setting the fash-
ions which other nations strive to imitate; and a more
advanced civilization is shown in several articles of their man-
ufacture, which are carried in native vessels as far as Fort
Cornwallis. The male population are mercantile resolute sea-
:
252
NATURAL HISTORY OF
men, and the reputation they possess for valor has caused the
name of Macassar to be regarded as equivalent to warrior. It
may be questioned, whether the possession of some parts of
Malacca, near Salengore, and Point Romania, at no great dis-
tance from remains of the Samang expelled Oriental Negroes,
is not also an indication that the Buges tribe came from this
portion of the continent.
The same observation is equally applicable to the Magin-
danao, who are also Horafouras, that reached the island when
the Philippines were still wholly possessed by Papuas or
Bangel-bangel savages. Such, again, are the Bissayans of
Luçon; the races found onwards to Tywan or Formosa, and
the Ladrones, who are all possessed of Hindoo tokens of
affinity, mixed with evidence of an original consanguinity with
the Japanese, particularly to the eastward; and, according as
either preponderates, adopting a Caucasian or a Mongolic
ratiocination : these mental qualifications are evinced in the
readiness many have shown to. abandon their ancient idolatry;
and the preference they give to the law of Mohammed, rather
than to the Christian, is in consequence of the former having
had merely teachers to spread the new doctrines, while the latter
endeavored to make proselytes by means of Portuguese and
still are, cannibals; the others have certain forms of govern-
ments established, and often written laws, in alphabets of their
own construction, having scarcely any retrospect to Chinese
ideas; and they were so little in communication with pure
Mongols, that it was not until after the arrival of European
navigators, that bodies of colonists, from the celestial empire,
made their appearance in Luçon and Java. Even in Formosa
the population was alien, until refugee emigrants, escaping
from Mantchou conquest, reached the island in the seventeenth
century, when the Dutch were already in possession of it. ..
But notwithstanding this historical fact, Caucasians from
Eastern China, Indo-Arabs from Western Asia, and unnamed
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
253
tribes from the Malay peninsula, seamen from choice or neces-
sity, had long before laid the basis of the resident populations,
being in a more or less state of degradation by Oriental Negro
interunions. They formed the numerous pirate communities,
Orang Laut, Sea Gypsies, Jacalvas in Madagascar, Idaan,
Marootzie, Sea Dyaks in Celebes, Biagoos or Bragus in Bor-
neo, some partially sedentary, others entirely dwellers on the
seas, shifting their stations with the monsoon, so as to be
always under the lee of land; and, among other supersti-
tions, like western Hindoos, sending a model canoe, cursed and
loaded with the sins of the people, far away on the ocean.
Their legends and romances, most particularly in Sumatra and
Java, are of Hindoo origin; and vast temples of Indian divin-
ities, such as that of Boro-budor in Java, point to a Brahmin-
ical religious system prevailing there before the Arabian inno-
vations of Islam came among them. From families of these
tribes, rather than from pure Malays, the majority of the
Polynesian islanders are composed; their chiefs still bearing
the marks of higher Caucasian castes than the vulgar, who
were, from the first, servants and rowers; and both together
are the descendants of wanderers, blown off by untoward mon-
soons, in like manner as are still frequently witnessed, in á
similar condition, on most islands of the South Seas.
While the European navigator and conqueror is invariably
held to be an enemy, nothing but ancient amicable reminis-
cences can account for the peaceful passage of Chinese and
Japanese traders through most, if not all, the seas infested by
the vast pirate fleets before mentioned. A tacit law of com-
mon affinity binds the inhabitants of the South Seas, even to
the most remote islands, sufficiently to receive among them the
shipwrecked or storm-driven wanderer on equal terms, excepting
where the resident population is of purer Papua stock; for
these regard all others as conquerors, and usually. treat them
in the light of victims.
The South Sea islanders, beside feature, hair, and personal
.
22
254
NATURAL HISTOR
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Y
O
conformation, show their consanguinity with Caucasians most
distinctly in the structure of their minds. While other savages
and barbarians are incurious, merely satisfied with childish sur-
prise, or value only the superior means of destruction possessed
by Europeans; they alone, though so near the savage state
when first visited by our navigators, were struck with the
wonders of civilization in a right spirit. No other tribe of
Man was so desirous of learning the useful, the peaceful, and
ornamental arts of Europe. Some examples may be quoted of
other races listening with respect to the doctrines of religion,
and becoming imperfect proselytes; but the Polynesians, even
when they were still cannibals, embraced Christianity with
ardor,- and now hold it with an intelligent sincerity, that.
enables converts of a late date to become messengers of peace
to other tribes, and open the path for more educated teachers.
They alone have shown examples of chiefs, quitting the pleas-
ures and prejudices of local consideration, who, for the purė
love of benefiting their native land, have entered as common
sailors on board British ships, that they might visit England,
see, learn, and adopt improvements in ship-building, naviga-
tion, and agriculture ; procure seeds of triticum and legumin-
ous plants, and advance civilization. Others used the pleni-
tude of power to encourage the same object, to learn the alpha-
bet, to read, write and cipher; they set up a printing-press, and
had the honor to throw off the first printed words of the native
language. They have shown, when at war with the white
men of Europe, instances of romantic forbearance and valor,
under impressions of unjustly suffering a public wrong. All
these seeds of human progress have developed in the first gen-
eration, since they have become acquainted with better things,
and are going on notwithstanding the evil examples but too
commonly held out to them. If, therefore, Frederick Cuvier,
when descanting on the trifling external characters of some
mammalia, nearly allied in structuré, be right to recommend
rigorous researches in their relative moral instincts and intelli-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
255
gence, in order, by their aid, to establish a primæval unity of a
genus, how much more important must the same method prove
in researches after the aboriginal unity of a sub-typical stem
of Man. If there were no such other indications as have
already been noticed, by these facts alone we may with confi-
dence appeal to the presence of a considerable portion of Cau-
casian blood, in the composition of the master race of the
Polynesian islands. It is undeniably conspicuous in some of
the groups, less so in others, and evident in despite of linguistic
considerations, which, to say the least, are still not sufficiently
mature to admit the generalizing conclusions of Humboldt.
The Maori tongue of New Zealand is an example, which,
while it shows the presence of a Semitic element in the com-
position, is but feebly tinged with Malay; perhaps, by reason
of the great majority of its component words being the offspring
of Papua dialects, the basis of the population being originally
of Eastern Negro derivation, only by degrees amalgamated or
destroyed. Whence these two races came, can now be only
conjectured from the reminiscences of the people, that two
immigrations originally took place on these islands; they still
name the localities, and assert one to have come from the east
and the other from the west. To individuals or families of the
earliest Polynesian wanderers, the introduction of at least one
system of doctrine, in South America, may be ascribed ; and
to another, of Caucaso-Mongolians, a second, which appears to
have reached the north-west coast, and finally to have estab-
lished itself on the plateau of Anahuac. These considerations
lead us to the New Continent, before the two historical archi-
typical stocks of the Old can be traced out without interrup-
tion.
THE AMERICAN SUB-TYPICAL STEM.
Though researches on the primitive population of America,
may be deemed unphilosophical, because the conclusions are
256
NATURAL HISTORY OF
not aménable to positive proofs, yet the inquiry is not without
profit; and surely, so long as physiologists continue to admit
the maxim, that mankind consists of one species only, it must
involve, as a consequence, the necessity of migration, in order
to people the earth in all its habitable portions; or it demands
a plural creation of the single species, sufficiently diversified to
be adapted to the varieties of climate and circumstances
wherein they are found to exist; in which case, the term
" species” assumes a different acceptation, and confounds the
· notions hitherto attached to it, notwithstanding that no positive
definition has been undeniably established to guide the natu-
ralist.
Always regarding the flat-headed Paltas, Aturians, or
primæval race of South America, as anomalous, though evi-
dently mixed with tribes of a more marked origin, and admit-
ting that of them some small clans, such as the so-called Frog
Indians, with probably others, are still in being about the val-
leys on the east side of the Cordillera's, we cannot būt remark,
considering the antiquity of the deposits and extensive range
where their bones are discovered, (from Brazil to the west
coast of America,) that the stock is fast passing away. It has
been supplanted for ages, by the Guarany and other nations
in Brazil, whose Malay aspect countenances, the supposition of
their original arrival in the New World somewhere about the
Californian coast, whither they seem to have transported, along
with legends already pointed out, the practices of boring the
septum of the nostrils, the lobes of the ears, and even the lips
and cheek-bones, for the purpose of inserting therein bits of
bone, of shells, wood, feather, or leaves.* These, and other
fashions before described, they have in common with many
islanders of the South Seas and coasts of the Northern Pacific;
CO
:
* Dr. Burchell, Prince Maximilian of Wied, and many other travellers,
entertain similar ideas with ourselves. The present physiologists who
draw other inferences, are not always reconcilable to each other when
their arguments are generalized.
THE HUMAN SPECIESLO
257
.
and, if they are not of foreign origin, they most assuredly are
startling coincidences. But that these, and nearly all other
invaders of the west coast, are intermixed with the flat-headed
aboriginals, is shown in the artificial means employed by the
former to obtain the resemblance of the flat-head conformation;
inflicting for this purpose daily torture upon their infants, till
the desired effect is produced.
Torture, self-imposed, is indeed a part of the education of
most American tribes, and the habit is sufficiently indicative
of the small irritability of fibre they possess, in common with
the Mongolic and Indo-Papua races of Asia.
If the typical Flatheads were not a distinct species of Man,
they were, at least, the oldest and first wanderers that reached
the American continent.* They appear to have possessed in
Peru, elements of social progress before strangers came among
them, provided always that the Titicaca and other remains of
this type represent the Peruvian people before the Incas
obtained the sway. The question would certainly be more
doubtful, if the imitation of their cranial form had not been
adopted by races of strangers in both Americas, and even by
the aquiline-nosed hero tribes, whose portraits still adorn the
ruined temples of Yucatan, where they represent giant divini-
.
*Natives of scattered southern islands, such as the Malecolese, and
sallow Papua-NIalays of some sandal-wood islands, all distinctly marked
with very elevated frontal bones, seem to countenance the probability that
there were men of this form in Polynesia, but then their frontal does not
appear depressed.
† There is a statement somewhere, that the Incas permitted one or more
villages of Flatheads, taken during a war of conquest to the east of the
Andes, to settle near the capital ; but this seems to be at variance with
Dr. Tschudi's observations. It may be right to repeat here, that writers
speak often in very indefinite terms of American flat-headed tribes, there
being certainly three very different in form ; the first, those whose crania
are naturally depressed ; the second, with the occiput obliquely flattened
in a vertical manner (this belongs also to Peru, and is seen on the Yuca
tan images); the third is the North American, where both the frontal
and occiput are pressed down, bulging out laterally. See Plate I.
22*
258
NATURAL HISTORY OF
ties in the character of conquerors. Such homage was never
paid by conquerors to the vanquished, unless these last were
in possession of indisputable superiority in arts, or in the forms
of their institutions, and then the consequence is natural. We
see the proofs of it in the Turkish imitations of the Byzan-
tines, and in the Mongolic of the Chinese.
The foot of Man has pressed many a soil which later trav-
ellers assume was never trodden before them. Navigating
antiquity knew many geographical facts that scholastic prejus
dice neglected for the sake of grammatical pursuits. From
King Alfred's writings. we know the voyage of Othere towards
the North Pole; and that even from England navigators vis-
ited distant seas in the ninth century. Dicuil's incidental
notice of Iceland, in the beginning of the same. age, was not
observed till of late years. The Scandinavian discovery of
Greenland was long doubted; though it is now proved that
these hardy seamen pushed their discovery along the coasts of
America, beyond the equator, to Brazil. We have discredited,
with equal resoluteness, the discovery of Newfoundland by the
brothers Zeni, Venetian navigators, seventy years before the
voyage of Columbus, according to Cardinal Zurla. Docu-
ments published at Copenhagen prove the same coast to have
been repeatedly visited by the Northmen from the years 980
and 1000 to 1380 ; and the Biscayen whalers seem to have
equally known this region by an accidental south-easterly
storm, which drove them from their fishing station off the
Irish shores, in the reign of King Henry VI., that is, about
1450; and all this incredulity and apathy, when the names
of Brazil, of Antillia, and the country known as Newfoundland,
were already noted, though not correctly laid down, in the chart
of Andrea Bianca, bearing date 1436, still in the library of St.
Marc at Venice. Columbus himself found the rudder of a ship
cast on the beach at Guadaloupe. This would be a natural
consequence of any ship being disabled, and driven to the
south-west, till it falls in with the trade winds, which, perpetu-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
. 259
ally blowing in the same direction with the currents westward.
drive all floating bodies onwards to the coast of the New
World.* What, therefore, the ancients, and more particularly
the Phænicians and Carthaginians, nay, the Celtæ may have
done, beyond the Atlantic, is not even entirely a conjectural
question, since there are still extant elements of a Semitic dia-
lect in certain tribes of South America, and of Celtic in the
coasts of the Old Continent, the legend of Quelsalcoatle, a
Toltecan legislator, with Budhistie, perhaps Christian dogmas,
could not have been framed prior to the arrival of the Spaniard ;
yet Cortez was told that he returned to the east; and hence
arose that general belief, that beings of a superior nature would
again visit the west from their abode beyond the broad ocean,
which was fully established in Anahuac.t But, stimulated by
the discoveries of the Portuguese, the power and commercial
vigilance of Spain successfully blinded for a time the scholastic
apathy of the rest of Europe, and persuaded political ignorance
that it was Columbus who first made the discovery of America.
Thus, every probability supports the opinion, that men from
Europe or Western Africa had reached the New World long
before the assumed discovery of Columbus; yet it does not
follow that any who were carried to the west by the trade
winds ever returned. The Scandinavians, however, reached the
coast at a high latitude, where the north-western: winds pre-
vail in autumn, and the marine current sets towards Europe.
* See Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, No. 75, October, Jan.,
Travels of Prince Maximilian of Wied.
† If the painted chronology of the Mexicans could be relied on, the
legislator priest came with the Toltecs to the plateau of Anahuac, which
would then be in A. D. 648. It was asserted, that he began the pyramid
of Cholula. There was another legislator priest, named Votan, who
arrived much earlier in Mexico, but then the chronology now admitted
must be wrong. See Don Antonio del Rio. Teatro critico Americano,
by F. Cabrera.
260
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Hence they returned to Iceland or to Norway with little
uncertainty.
Disregarding for a moment the probabilities already men-
tioned of the subsidence of a great extent of land in the Pacific
Ocean, it is evident that from the East of Asia and the Poly-
nesian Islands, the principal immigrations of mankind have
taken place. Of these the Pitcairn and Easter Islands, near-
est to the coast of South America, are remarkable for the co-
lossal idols of stone, which have been observed in both, though
the first was for a time believed never to have been inhabited
before the arrival of the mutineers of the Bounty, and the
other is now in the possession of a race who do not claim
the fabrication of them. It may be observed, in confirmation
of the removal of Polynesians by war, by design, or by stress
of weather, to the eastward, that to the 20th degree of south
latitude, and to more than 200 leagues at sea, a south-west
and south cold wind blows, with a current coming from the
pole, and, setting towards the south-west coast, drives float-
ing bodies on the shores of Chili. Easter Island, the farthest
eastward of all the Polynesian groups containing inhabitants,
is as remote from them as from the longitude where these
winds and currents prevail ; hence the casual arrival of Poly-
nesian wanderers could scarcely fail to reach the coast of Chili;
and subsequently they were, it is obvious, driven eastward, to
commix with the Brazilian tribes, and southward, to form the
race of Araucas; others, perhaps from the Sandwich Islands,
are the progenitors of the tribes on the Sacramento river, on the
north-west coast, where the women still wear the Maro, and
the men have short undulating hair, with beard and whiskers
very soft and silky.
· That another immigration was continuous for ages from the
east of Asia, is sufficiently indicated by the pressure of nations,
so far as it is known in America, being always from the north-
west coasts, eastward and southward, to the beginning of the thir-
teenth century. It appears to have taken place mostly by the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
261 -
Aleutian Islands, and southward, to the Columbia and Cali-
fornia. Here, also, the facilities for this purpose were mostly
furnished by nature, and the propelling cause, when landed, is
likewise detected, by the country supplying little food between
the Rocky Mountains and the sea. The Northern Pacific was
navigated by Japanese tribes in ancient times, and is so even
now, although, since the appearance of European navigators,
the trade has been discontinued, if not absolutely forbidden;
yet, within these few years, a British vessel boarded a Japa-
nese junk within two days' sail of the California coast, and
found that it had drifted, without human care, for many
months, and that, of forty of the ship’s company, only seven
persons survived. This vessel, having lost its course, was car-
ried by the prevailing winds and currents of that portion of the
Pacific to the eastward, and was in all probability wrecked on
the American coast, after the living people had been taken out
of her and saved.*
Here then, we have likewise, on the east side, instances, not
of facilities, but of necessary consequences, of vessels reaching
the west coast, so soon as they are placed within the influence
of the winds and currents which prevail, either constantly or
at certain periods of the year, in the latitudes above indicated;
nor is there a want of proof that canoes, with a proportion
of Polynesians, have survived the hardships of four months at
sea, nor that they have been found at eight hundred leagues'
distance from their homes; for both facts are noticed by our
navigators in the tropical Pacific; and by the Aleutians, à con-
tinuous chain of islands passing from one quarter of the globe
to the other, a route is established, as if they were intended for
an easy and speedy method of crossing between them. But
though timber for canoes and sea-rafts is abundant, both on the
north and south points of departure, there is scarcely any near
* They were carried to the Sandwich Islands, and thence, by the first
opportunity, sent on to their native land.
262
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the western coast of America to keep up marine habits, nor are
there navigable rivers without bars, nor ports with safe places
for landing, but mostly everywhere an open, barren, sandy, or
rocky shore, beaten by a heavy surf.* Hence, on this side of
the Americas, if arrivals were not frequent, departures were
impossible, excepting in the more northern latitudes; and that
these had been crossed and recrossed may be presumed, even
in case the assertion of Chinese scholars, that America was
known by the name of Fu-sang, and mentioned in the great
annals of the celestial empire, down to the fifth century of our
era, was a mistake.f The absence of Chinese forms of speech
on the American continent is not absolute, since the Othomi
language, spoken on the north of the valley of Mexico, is mon-
osyllabic. In Europe, we know the existing eastern tongues
of the Mongolic stock so imperfectly, that the work of Dr.
Pfitzmayer on the Japanese, though not directed towards the
spoken dialects of the more remote islands of the empire, yet
shows that the learned had, until lately, a very slight acquaint-
ance with it, and often mistook written Chinese for the Niphon
language. Even the learned Chinese is more a lettered than
a nationally spoken vehicle of thought; and in both the em-
pires, the written is partly different from the spoken tongues,
though the characters, being symbols instead of alphabetical
* The surf in many places is as high and violent as at Madras, and ·
there being little wood procurable on the coast, the natives invented great
floats of inflated seal skins, which are still in use. They had formerly cat-.
amarans, like those on the Coromandel coast. Models of these are
frequently found, with a double-bladed paddle, in the graves of the aborigi-
nal inhabitants ; but, from California to Peru, raſts, balzas, or janjadas,
served, capable of carrying great loads with safety, sailing with uncom-
mon speed. See Charnock's Marine Architecture, vol. i., p. 13. Balza
wood is a very light kind of palm.
+ See C. Frederick Neumann and De Guines, though Klaproth sup-
poses Niphon or Japan is meant; Japan, however, bears a different name
or names in the same annals.
A Dictionary in the so-called Tirokana characters, containing 40,000
words, is in preparation by Dr. Pfitzmayer, at Vienna.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
263
signs, can be interpreted by words in several languages, differ-
ing in every other respect from each other. Thus, there can-
not be a reliance on arguments drawn from the difference of
American languages from the Mongolic; they vary among the
distinct families of North America, as much as from any Tah-
tar tongue; and there exist sufficient coincidences and similar-
ities in the sounds of words, as well as in the opinions, man-
ners and practices of the natives, resembling those of Eastern
Asia, when taken with the other arguments already produced,
as to overthrow the whole fabric of an exclusively American
aboriginal species or form of man, constituting the races of that
continent, always excepting the Flathead type, which, it must
be owned, constitutes an ingredient. very generally diffused
through the native tribes, but not their principal portion.
Even the most determined advocates of the original unity of the
races reject the Esquimaux, who are admitted to be of an
Asiatic stock, when they should also reflect, that, in the north-
ern portion, several tribes of the present Indians, such as the
Iroquois, confess that they dwelt themselves in the high north
before they migrated to their present habitation; while the
Tschutski of Eastern Asia are assumed to be of the American
stem; accommodating the conclusion to a reversed order of migra-
tion, which, with singular inconsistency, admits the practicabil-
ity, on hypothetical grounds, in favor of utter savages, what it
refuses to the ancient and middle ages of great and organized
nations, who were navigators both on the east and west of the
New World, and for times when facilities for that purpose were
apparently more at hand than in later ages; for, by strangely re-
versing the natural order of human dispersion, another and prob-
ably not inconsiderable transition from Asia is disregarded; one
which, being taken in connection with the more immediate
facility, by an entire, or almost an entire, communication by
land, when Behring's Straits had not yet greatly widened,
obviated all serious difficulty. At that period not only Esqui-
maux, but Finnic, and the north-eastern Caucasian races, here-
264
NATURAL HISTORY OF
after to be mentioned, had no doubt inducements which brought
the parent families of the high-nosed and other nations of
North America to that continent; and the influence of rigor-
ous winter seasons must have gradually induced them to seek
milder latitudes, where more plentiful means of subsistence
were accessible, in the same manner as the nations of northern
Asia and Europe have and ever will continue to do when they
have a chance of success. It is perhaps here that we must
look for the sources of those multiplied evidences of Asiatic
origin, shown by most, if not all, the American tribes, both
those of the Mongolic or of the beardless stock, and of the true
Caucasian ; for, when the former of these had journeyed almost
entirely southward, tribes of the latter appear to have occupied
their abandoned localities, and, in a pure condition, or blended
with such as remained behind, to have passed on across the
isthmus, or the straits, to the American shore, whither they, in
their turn, were followed by the Esquimaux or Skrelings, who,
it is evident, came last, since their descendants have never been
able to penetrate more to the south than the shores of Nootka.
All these occurrences coincide with the known progress of
the Caucasian nations to western Asia and to Europe. They
account for the presence of similar inscriptions in Siberia and
in America, and for many of the facts of the peopling of the
new continent at a later period than the west of the Old World;
they admit, without violence, the usual immigrations of dis-
tressed marine wanderers, whether they were of Malay or of
Phænician origin, and even of African as well as Oriental
Negroes; such as the colony of the former found at Cariquel,
near the Isthmus of Darien, or the now- exterminated Char-
ruans * of the Guarani, or, like the latter, found in a mixed
state on the shores of California. This view gives sufficient
time for the local intermixture of the races with the flat-headed
* These may be the same Sir Walter Raleigh mentions as having lank
hair in Guiana, where he observed them.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
265
aboriginal, whose peaceful phlegmatic habits readily yielded to
the turbulent activity of male adventurers, and accounts for the
various other phenomena which attend the question under con-
sideration.
.
In the successive struggles of nations, which must have
ensued, for hunting grounds or for dominion, the more advanced
nave evidently been obliged to yield to those from the north.
Whether both originally came from the same quarter, or one
had previously arrived by a marine route, the result was the
same. The proofs are seen in the ruins of vast castral cities,
and human tumuli, still extant in the United States; in the
Maen Stones and Cromlehs of the more eastern regions;* in
the pyramids and temples possessed by the successive nations
of Mexico ; and, if the singularly squared cone in the middle
of a lake of Northern California be wholly or in part the work
of Man, it may be a memorial of departure, or a mark of direc-
tion for other tribes, perhaps similar to the semi-artificial pile
of Chehel Suton — that antique landmark of migration, and
directing guide of caravans, situated on the edge of the western
Gobi desert, almost midway between Pekin and Constantinople,
or Serica and Byzantium. At all events, it would then point
out the station which the builders of similar edifices in America
once occupied in their earliest day, and confirm the conjecture
that the Wapisians of Guiana, at least, are of those tribes,
which, at a period long anterior to the march of the Ulmecks
and Toltecs, nations of a kindred race, had passed over the pla-
teau of Anahuac. Beside the monosyllabic Othomi language,
there is a similar mode of connecting sounds into long strung
words, pervading the American, Astec and Maya, approach-
ing Finnic and Tahtar dialects; the syllables Ac or Ak, Uk
and Kuk, often recur in the northern Indian tongues; and Tla
and Tle in the Mexican; sounds which are again found in the
speech of the Arctic nations of both continents. In addition to
* At North Salem, New York ; at Winipignan river, on the Ohio, &c.
23
266
NATURAL HISTORY OF
these rude and simple characteristics of a mixed Tahtar and
Finnic form of speech, there are Scythic words, that is, words
of Sanscrit origin, which can scarcely be coincidences, and
rather show that some tribes, perhaps of kindred Yuchi, passed
over to the western continent. Again, Semitic words occur
rather profusely in the Carib and Makusi dialects,* and strik-
ing coincidences of similarity between certain tribes of Aus-
tralia and the Fuegians of the Straits of Magellan are pointed
out by Captain Stokes, in his voyage of discovery lately pub-
lished.
One, more, or all the nations of America had, besides, creeds,
usages, and traditions, in common with stems of the Old
Continent, and particularly with Asiatic tribes. Such, among
others, were the diluvian legends and the celestial dragons'
attempts to devour the moon during the appearance of an
eclipse. Next, there still exists in the northern portion a basis
of pure Deism, coinciding with the common belief of all the
nations of high and northern Asia. It was ever independent
of tribal and subordinate divinities, and admits of various
forms, such as Shamanism, with its demonology, and the more
moral system of Budhism; one being outwardly remarkable
for sorcery, incantation, the magical drum, and rattles; the
other for several religious monastic orders, for penances, self-
ci
Thus, in the Dakotah dialects, which convert M to W, the Teutonic
Mag, large, becomes Wah and Wak, great, superior, master. Wehrman,
warrior, is converted to Wcrowanie, a war chief, &c. Sachem, a priest
chief, may be derived from the same root as segher, a priest, from sagen,
to speak, and belong to the series with g'esach, schah, &c., authority, right
to speak, to command. Hooloo is holy, sacred ; min, many, plural ; Hogh
or Oug, high, superior, &c. In other dialects we find Eloa to denote
God; and, in the Carib, Makusi, &c., there are, among many other,
Tamoosi, Phænician, Tammus, for God; Karbet is the same as Grabit,
a house ; together with usages and opinions closely allied to those of the
ancient nations of Syria. The Mexican words, Atzlan, Tlapallan, Teno-
titslan, witbout radical meanings in the language, are readily convertible
into very appropriate appellations in several Caucasian languages.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
267
mortification, and undying chief-priests, and both recurring in
the New World ; nay, tokens of what seems a Christian doc-
trine are detected in the worship of the cross, repeatedly found
carved among the ruins of Palenque. There are, moreover,
evidences of Hebrew lore in the metal plates dug out of the
same ruins, where the serpent is represented twisted round a
tree; and another, with a naked human figure, kneeling in
the attitude of supplication, surrounded by huge monsters,
among trees of a tropical forest. * What makes these repre-
sentations still more remarkable, is, that though they belong
to the high-nosed Toltecs; the mystical figure in distress has
neither the features nor flat occiput of that people, nor the
posture of prayer which belonged to the idolatrous nations of
Anahuac. They had, it is true, a serpent or Naga worship,
and believed that tutelary genii appeared to mortals in the
animal forms assigned to constellations. But this very fact
is again an indication that even the astronomical signs of
Asia had passed over to them, for they were figured in astro-
logical books which were employed for incantations by an Aste-
can order of priests. The medicine men, with their drums,
are still perfect counterparts of Siberian Shamans, who per-
form their mummeries with a like instrument, similarly
painted.
The nations of Anahuac were acquainted, like the Tahtars,
with a great dragon standard; had, like the Thibetans, huge
banner lances, such as are still planted before Lamaite tem-
ples and palaces; and there were ensign spears similar to
those of ancient Bactria : one of these was the Shiemagun of
the Chippeways, the other was the guiding sign of the Choc-
taws, during their great migration from the west. The Mexi-
cans had some adorned with wings and feathers like the Huns
* The priesthood kneaded maize flour with blood, and baked it in the
form of the god of war, then broke and gave it in morsels to the people,
who partook with signs of humiliation! See Prescott's valuable History.
Was this Budhism ?
268
NATURAL HISTORY OF
and early Turks. The nations of the plateau of Mexico had
all a practice of fixing several ensigns or banners, stuck in
ferula, at the back of a warrior, like the earlier Chinese, or
they attached them to their shields; which was likewise not
unexampled in Asia. Symbolical devices, almost amounting
to real heraldry, designating even at this time many tribes of
North America, were thoroughly understood in Mexico, and
are likewise well known to all the Tahtar nations of Asia.
They had, it is asserted, the use of a peculiarly Chinese instru-
ment, the well-known gong; but more likely it was a great
drum, audible, according to Bernal Diaz, to the distance of
two leagues; the same as the Nakara of Southern Asia. In
common with Tahtar nations, nuptials were symbolized by the
ceremony of tying the garments together of the two contract-
ing parties; and, like them, there was only one lawful wife,
though there might be a plurality of concubines. In very an-
cient graves, not far distant from Niagara, human debris have
been detected, having with them a reversed shell of the whilk
(Buccinum) exactly similar to the Shonk found in the tumuli
of ancient Ceylon.*
Peru, with its Palta people, instinctively builders, has left
ruins of huge walls, surpassing the Cyclopean and Pelasgian
structures of the older continent in bulk, and superior to them
in artistic skill. From the institutions, religious, humane and
moral, the legislator of the Incas has rarely been considered
by the learned to be of indigenous origin, but more generally
as a Japanese or a Brahmin philosopher, who, if he were an
Asiatic, certainly did not traverse the Pacific alone. Several
nations in both parts of the continent, had, like the Oceanians
of the South Sea, and of the north-east of Asia, a bone thrust
through the cartilage of the nose; they had also swords with
tassel handles, like the Malays, feather mantles, and decora-
* The fact was cominunicated to us by Captain Chapman, late Royal
· Engineers, who had examined both instances on the spot.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
269
tions like natives of the Sandwich and other Polynesian
islands.
The progressing nations, and, in particular, among those
of Anahuac, the Mexicans, were a bearded and hairy race, and,
being in a state of greater civilization than other American
tribes, they were in a condition of representing more circum-
stantially the tenor of their ancestral history. Accordingly,
they had traditions, supported by hieroglyphical maps, which
marked the stages of their ancient migration from the north
to their arrival on the plateau of the Andes, where they
founded Mexico in 1325 of our era, according to Clavigero.
They had then already resided at Tula and its vicinity for
above a century, gradually dislodging other tribes, who had
successively pressed upon each other from the same quarter.
These were chiefly the Acalhuans, Chichimecas and Toltecs,
whose first arrival is referred to so early å time as the year 648;
and even these were posterior to the Ulmecs : but the dates
may not be safely relied upon ; and the charts themselves,
though still existing, at least in copies, cannot be deciphered
with trustworthy precision. The point of primæval departure
is, however, designated by the names of Aztlan (the Eden, or
land of nourishment), and Huehuetlapallan, which has been
interpreted, the bright abode of ancestors, a region which cer-
tainly lay in the north; and, when coupled with the departure,
includes likewise the west. This region was certainly not the
valley of the river Gila, in California, notwithstanding that a
cognate language is still spoken there, and that ruins of mag-
nitude attest there was anciently a people resident on the spot
already in a progressive state of civilization. It is probable
that this people were the Astecans, who may have resided on
the locality until they had increased to a nation, and were
forced to depart by pressure from behind; for sedentary nations
do not abandon cities and temples but by force, or by the fear
of foreign and unknown invaders, from whom they expect no
mercy. It is a curious coincidence of time, that these great
23*
270
OF
NATURAL HISTORY TA
recorded migrations in America correspond sufficiently well
with the same kind of migratory and invading wars in Asia,
which precipitated. the Yuchi from Chinese Tahtary west-
ward, and brought the Hyatili or White Huns first to conquer
Cabul and Bactria ; being followed by true Mongolic nations
till their hordes established themselves beyond the Danube
and the Vistula. These are uncontrovertible signs of the great
expansion which the beardless stock then made in north and
eastern Asia; and may well account for clans of Caucasians,
such as still have possession of sundry mountain chains in
China, taking refuge towards America, by a route sufficiently
near the Arctic Circle to give the north and west for a true
point of their first abode on that continent. Followed, as all
fugitive nations are, by their enemies, no doubt real Mongo-
lians came after them; and both, in departing from eastern
Asia, lost their horses and their nautical habits. Thus, these
migrations of distinct types may be a cause of the intermediate
character of the present Aleutian Islanders.*
With these facts before us, it is vain to assert that all Ameri-
can races, excepting the Esquimaux, have originally sprung from
one stock; for many more coincidences could be enumerated ;
and while one like the last mentioned is admitted to be of the
beardless type, of Ouralian or of Finnic origin, surely others
could migrate in a similar direction, at earlier periods, when,
in all probability, this passage was much more practicable ;
and, according to observations made by Biot, the climate less
* See Warden's Antiquités Americaines. Pennant's Arctic Zoology,
Introduction ; where many other customs, common to the Scythians, and
to the North American nations, are enumerated. There is a Japanese
map now in the British Museum, which marks islands in the straits of
Behring, and notices the region by the name of Ya-zue (the kingdom of
the dwarſs), that is, the diminutive Esquimaux. This map, presented by
Kæmpfer to Sir Hans Sloane, is, therefore, of comparative antiquity, and
shows Behring's Straits to have been known to the Mongolic stock long
before Behring made the discovery, or Cook fixed the real position of the
two coasts.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
271
severe than at present. More than twenty tribes of Indians,
of the present territory of the United States and Canada,
record their migration either from the north, or from beyond
the Rocky Mountains. Many of these nations have therefore
occupied a high northern latitude on the west coast; regions
now mostly in the hands of Esquimaux tribes, who, as they
have replaced them, have evidently arrived after their depart-
ure: the former tribes, not emphatically fish-eaters, but hunt-
ers, when, from single families, or from a race mixed with the
indigenous Flatheads, they had increased to tribes; and when
in that little productive region, where game is rare, they could
no longer remain stationary, must have sought subsistence in
and beyond the mountain chain ; for to the east only, with
the exception of the valleys of California, could they find the
Bison, the Elk, the white mountain Goat, the Ahzata, Argali,
prong-horned Antelope, and the wapiti Stag. In pursuit of
game, they must have come upon the sources and feeders of
the great rivers that run to the south-east, and fall into the
Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic. They would naturally follow
their course, or crossing the Ohio and Mississippi to richer
woody regions beyond the Alleghanies, occupy the eastern prov-
inces of the present United States and Canada. Other tribes
of the west, probably immigrants of later periods, and pos-
sessed of higher attainments, even with a remnant of nautical
means, descended between the islands and the coast, till they
reached the rivers now significantly denominated de los Mar-
tires, and de los Piramides; and thence, crossing the Colorado,
rested for some ages in the valley of the Gila.* Here they
gradually multiplied, advanced in civilization, and raised those
structural monuments which are still to be seen in their ruins;
thence, in successive waves, ascending the plateau of the An-
des, they made their appearance in Anahuac, to seize new and
* Surely these point out two or more of the Astecan halting places.
272
NATURAL HISTORY OF
perhaps better settlements; but, from their new position, event-
ually forsaking all acquaintance with navigation.
Thus are shown those successive proceedings of nations in
the New World, which were counterparts of the well-known
invasions of the northern tribes in the Old; both radiating
from a common centre; surmounting obstacles of seas, deserts,
swamps, forests, and mountain-chains; surviving mutual
slaughters, victories and defeats, till they reach the utmost
limits of the habitable earth. If now we inquire whether the
nations of America attest, in their structure, the various origin
here shown, or have a uniformity of characteristics, which
many eminent physiologists, together with Dr. Morton, contend
for, we shall find great evidence of a common type very gen-
erally, but not unexceptionably, pervading the nations in ques-
tion. It is found chiefly in the great vertical prolongation of
the frontal bone, though this distinction, we have before
noticed, is not exclusively American: it yaries in size, probably,
according to the degree of intermixture different tribes have
received — there being, besides, populations on the coasts of
the sea of Okotsk, and even on Saghalin Island, similarly dis-
tinguished.* Many Japanese, particularly Bonzes of the lower
classes of the nation, have the forehead remarkably depressed.
In several portions of the New Continent, the oblique eyes,
complexion, and other characters of Mongols occur, as among
the Alikhoolis of Terra del Fuego; but the Chilenos bave
strikingly Hindoo features.
* It is externally apparent, in somc abnormal tribes of the Polynesian
islands, and exclusive of the Flathead Paltas, most conspicuous in peak-
headed natives of Kotzebue's Sound, on the north-west coast, who,
though they do not belong to the Esquimaux stem, are more like natives
of the east coast of Asia; and if these are claimed as a portion of the
Tschutski race, then they would show the last mentioned to be originally
not American, but Asiatic, nay Finnic; and, consequently, that the cra-
nial conformation in question is not peculiar to the New World ; but an
excessive divergence arising in an abnormal stem, where the sutures close
more slowly than in the typical stocks.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
273
In general, however, it is evident that the nations of this
portion of the globe possess a marked similarity of physical
characters. They have a small skull, varying in the capacity
of the cranial chamber from 100 to 60 cubic inches, according
to Dr. Morton's measurement. It approaches the Mongolian
in shape, but the summit is more rounded, and the sides are
less angular. In some tribes there is a somewhat more pointed
crown, and the back part is often flattened, in most cases arti-
ficially so; the cheek-bones are high, the forehead naturally
- rather low and depressed; the nose prominent; in a few tribes
aquiline; maxillæ powerful; the mouth rather large, and the
lips full, if not tumid. The eyes of all the nations are black,
and the hair rather scarce, lank, and coarse; though, among
the Arauca mountaineers, and also on the west coast, gray
eyes and lighter colored hair are sometimes seen. These
tribes, also, are as fair as southern Europeans. The South
Americans are more yellow than copper-colored; but in the
northern portion the skin is reddish, agreeing with the distinct-
ive name which the native tribes bestow upon themselves; that
color being formed by a peculiar tissue below the epidermis,
according to Flourens, but yet not nearly so vivid as we have
often observed it to be among French and Spanish fishermen
in the West Indies.* The Caribs are intermediate : some
tribes of Guiana much darker than Mulattoes, and the Cali-
fornians almost black, or dark like Samboes.
In most respects, the aboriginal population may be divided
into the yellow tropical semi-Malay stem of the eastern regions
of South America, and the Caucaso-Mongolians of the north,
and of the Cordilleras, along the whole west coast of the conti-
* We have personally compared and drawn from life many individuals
of different tribes: -- Fuegians, Brazilians, Arookas, Carihs, Mosquito
Indians, Seminoles, &c., of the United States, and others in Canada of
different northern tribes. The highly developed reddish color may be a
result of the long-continued action of dry, sharp winds in the prairies of
Upper North America.
274
NATURAL HISTORY OF
nent. The frame is, in general, symmetrical, rather tumid; in
the one, below the middle stature; in the other portion, gener-
ally above it; and among some tribes, equal to the largest men
of the old continent. With regard to mental qualifications, the
nations of North America, not having passed beyond the state
of hunters, show, for want of the laboring Ox and conquering
Horse, the characteristics of others in the same condition.
They are active, vigilant, daring, revengeful, restless, cruel, but
capable of lofty feelings; full of hospitality, of the love of truth,
and of vast earnestness of purpose, when once their attention is
roused. Ruins still extant in nearly every region of the conti-
nent, and, still more, history, as written by their enemies, attest
that they could work out systems of self-development, creating
civilizations which were fast advancing to a more reasoned
maturity, notwithstanding that the foundations were often
stricken down by successive hordes of new invaders, till the
whole was finally crushed by European zeal and cupidity; for,
notwithstanding our view of a foreign element having worked
in the development of the indigenous social institutions, it must
be recollected that a few strangers cannot sway a distinct peo-
ple unprepared to receive their suggestions. They must be
homogeneous, — the result of time and of national engraftings,
— before they can take root. Now, the Mexican civilization
was a reconstruction of one or more preceding it; and the
Ulmec and Toltec, so much older, were, most likely, not the
first that pervaded the warmer regions of Western America;
therefore, the American mind, resulting, as we claim it to be,
from two typical stocks of Man, is only inferior in capacity, so
far as the existing races are more or less removed from the
means of attainment of social improvement; and the cold
philosophy of modern science, which inflicts the accusation, is
not totally destitute of cognate participation, in producing the
conditions of existence it stigmatizes. Luckily, a host of
writers, and among them, lately, Prescott, have fairly summed
up what the intellectual powers of the aboriginal races had
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
275
already attained, without the intervention of European science.
· because that empire was more within reach of European curi-
osity, have not regarded Peru with sufficient discrimination;
perhaps because its splendor and civilization was more suddenly
and more universally trodden down by the European monsters
who invaded it; and fewer documents of its condition have
come down to our time. But the nation which had advanced
to the established practice of bloodless sacrifice in its worship,
had surely gone far beyond the Mexicans; and although we do
not know how much of scientific progress was the property of
mentioned, where the sun is represented in the centre of the
system, with other planets in the irradiated circle around
it, shows that children of the sun, though they claimed them-
selves to be, had a better notion of the planetary disposition
than Europeans possessed to a late period; and that the
superior men of the nation were not blinded by the solar dog-
mas of their religion, is proved by the memorable reply of Inca
Tupac Yupan-gui to the monk Valverde, wherein he rejected
the belief that the sun was a living body, creating all things;
but thought him to be “like an arrow which performs the flight
intended by the archer who shot it off.” The Peruvians of
history appear to have been a partial compound of naturally
flat-headed Paltas, and a mixture, probably, of the dominant
tribes, with partly artificial-flattened occiputs; but the figures
of Incas, preserved in early Spanish documents, offer neither
of these deformities. The first were, most likely, the working
castes, the second the privileged, and the last appears to have
been confined to one sacred family. Cyclopean structures, * or
walls, fortifications, and pyramidal elevations, raised with
enormous stones, belong, certainly, to the oldest population.
* Such as Chulucanas, on a secondary ridge of the Cordilleras, as well
as pyramidal instances of tombs.
NATURAL HISTORY OF
It is likely that others, particularly those evincing greater skill,
were constructed during the sway of the second, and that the
Inca period only adapted them to the system of solar Budhism,.
which it can scarcely be denied formed the basis of their insti-
tutions. Of the Cromlechs of America appearing to be identi-
cal with the Celtic, known all over Europe and Asia, we wish
not to say more than that they are, to a certain extent, evi-
dence of the early wandering of some Gomerian tribes to the
New World; and of the Northmen it is now proved that they
reached the east coast by a western course from Iceland, and
wandered much further to the south than was suspected in
earlier times. Whether any of these survived and amalga-
mated with the local races, is a question not likely ever to be
settled.
The decay, amounting to prospective extinction, observed to
be the lot of the American races, is, moreover, a further proof
that they are not a typical people, but that they are stems
occupying debatable ground, which we have before shown are
alone liable to annihilation, or to entire absorption. Yet, in
some parts of the tropical latitudes, in Yucatan for instance, so
great an amalgamation of the white with indigenous tribes and
with Negro imported slaves, has taken place, that this mixed
population, becoming sensible of numerical superiority, as well
as of the more intense energy they possess in those climates,
are now asserting their power; and ultimately this hybrid race
may prove a more serious opponent to the white man's insa-
tiable cupidity than the descendants of European conquerors
have yet had to encounter.
We have not space to enter into the geographical details of
the distribution of the indigenous tribes, further than has been
already done, nor to advert more particularly to their dialects;
for hordes, without letters or great national expansion, and
which are constantly subdividing, exterminating by mutual
slaughter, or perishing from constitutional liability to disease,
are therefore by no means able to form durable communities
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
277
and persisting dialects. This last observation is already per-
ceptible in the catechisms and prayers printed in the Huron
and other languages, by French missionaries, not quite a cen-
tury ago, and now only understood in consequence of daily
repetition and careful explanation. At least, such was the
information we received on the spot. One people we must,
however, except from the rest, namely, the Carib, or that por-
tion of the Carib tribes which still occupies parts of the mari-
time border of north-eastern South America, because, as we
have before observed, many opinions, institutions, and even
words in their language, bespeak an intercourse that once
appears to have existed between the ancestors of the present
families and a Semitic nation, perhaps Phænician or Hebrew.
That they were once not a sedentary nation is evinced, since
they still refrain from travelling in the interior, unless previ-
ously prepared for it by peculiar ceremonies, excepting one
tribe, which is remarkable for enterprise, and, in a small com-
pany, will fearlessly penetrate among hostile nations, much in
the character of fighting pedlers. The Caribs were, like their
prototypes of the Old World, a nautical people, partly cannibals
and conquerors, over all the islands of the West Indian seas;
having commenced, some generations before the arrival of
Columbus, their career of invasion by those nearest the coast,
and gradually extending their enterprise to the north and west,
till they had subdued all to the east of Hayti, where, at the
time of the Spanish discovery, they had, as yet, only secured
dominion for themselves in the vicinity of Samana Bay. It is
erroneously asserted that no indigenous people of America had
contrived sea-going vessels of any size; for if the information
we received while in the country be trustworthy, within a
sandy portion of the border of the river Yuna, in this very bay
of Samana, a sunken canoe was found buried, which was
nearly 100 feet in length, proportionally broad; and what was
considered to be sufficient evidence of the period when it had
perished, was the discovery of a stone vessel, a stone casse-tête,
24
278
NATURAL HISTORY OF
and an axe of flint, all within its hollow. Canoes of great
capacity were necessary to nautical invaders of populous
islands, and the materials for constructing them abounded on
the north coast of South America ; and, indeed, in the northern
portion, there still remain rude sculptures of very long vessels
of this class, manned with numerous rowers, particularly on
tide rocks, in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
At foot note, page 270, we should have noticed, in confirma-
tion of the northern and marine migration of some tribes, that
the Chichimecs relate, that after they emerged out of seven
"caves" (islands), they travelled to Amassiemecan, or the
northernmost portion of America. Perhaps they were Aleu-
tians, and the term caves, if not denoting islands, may refer to
canoes, which, in many languages, bear names allusive, like
caves, to hollowness, Alvei. The legend is exceedingly like
that in Strabo, which relates to the original seven Cyclopeans,
who first came from Lycia by sea. They evidently designate
ships' crews, since they began soon after to build works of
huge stones, such as those near their caves at Nauplia, &c.
Votan, the third personage in the Mexican Calendar, according
to Francisco Nunes, was the leader of seven families, who
came from an island to America, and then brought seven more
to the same country. But the bishop of Chiapa is questionable
authority
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
279
THE HYPERBOREAN, BEARDLESS, OR MONGOLIC TYPE.
11
From what has been stated in the foregoing pages, on the
two preceding extensive subtypical stems of the great family
of Man, our chief aim has been to produce some of the reasons
which, at least, seem to substantiate the conclusion, that both
are results of amalgamations of two, or of all the three normal
stocks, separated from their original centres of existence, at-dif-
ferent epochs, part whereof may be of so remote a date that
they precede a portion of those great territorial dislocations
already pointed out, which affected both the Northern Pacific
as well as the equatorial and southern seas. Whether the
period in question synchronized with the avulsion of the plane
of earth which originally abutted on the western base of the
Cordilleras, is not now a question to be discussed in the bear-
ing it might have on human existence, since there are sufficient
evidences to show that the present tenants of the island groups
can mostly be traced to more recent periods; and the traditions
of the northern hemisphere, in both continents, tend to prove
the arctic nations, of the present time, to be of comparatively
late expansion over their now dreary abodes. The question,
however, is not without some curious circumstances affecting
the beardless type, which we pointed out as first traceable in
the north-eastern flanks of the great central table-land of Asia.
But more attentive search seems to establish the fact, that, even
there, during many ages, it cannot have been the dominant
stock; for as on most other occasions we find the older races of
Man, that possessed a given country, and were obliged to yield
to the power of later invaders, hold to the last in the fastnesses
of mountain ranges, so we observe here, from the Chinese
annals, whole nations of Caucasians, Kinto-Moey, Yuchi, &c.,
possessed of vast portions of Thibet and Eastern Tahtary, and
280
NATURAL HISTORY OF
maintaining their ground to the times immediately preceding
and succeeding the Christian era, when they were first driven
westward, whilst others are now found subdued and incorpo-
rated with the Celestial Empire, though still retaining their
distinctive characters of ample beard, horizontal eyes, and lofty
stature. They are spread in population about the river Amour
and the hill countries, while others, such as the Miao-tze (cat-
people) and the Mou-lao (wood-rats), occupy, in the south, the
wildest mountains in Se-tchuen, Koei-tcheou, Houkang, and
Quangsi, to the frontiers of Quang-tong. None of these
nations and tribes can have penetrated eastward, from Thibet,
after the Mongolian races were fully established in the plains.
They must, therefore, be of anterior date;. and, as we see
above, in the case of the Yuchi, the residue of the people
driven from the more fertile plains, by the force of invaders.
All the way to the Malayan peninsula, every known event
tends to prove here, as in America, that a succession of invasions
followed upon each other, from the north, and formed vari-
ously amalgamated nations, still marked by strong distinctions
in Indo-China, Australasia, and the South Sea Islands.*
The facts here stated, when accepted to the extent they of
necessity imply, establish that the Mongolian type was not
primævally predominant in Thibet, and, at most, hung on the
north-eastern flanks of the plateau of Tahtary, in the same
manner as the woolly-haired appears to have done on the
southern. Yet there was assuredly a huge development of
this stock, at the most early human period, which, as it could
not be concentrated immediately on the high land, was clearly
produced in the north-east, most probably from the basin of the
* In proof of the departure of the Mongolic nations from the high north,
may be shown, that they always look to the south as the object of desire,
naming the west by the same denomination as the right hand, and the
east as the left; therefore totally distinct from Caucasians, who univer-
sally, from a religious motive, look to the east, and call the west the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
281
upper Lena to the sea of Okotsk, and bounded on the south by
the mountains of the Jablonoi and Tugurek chains, that is,
between 55 and 65 degrees of north latitude ; for it was through
the passes, at the head waters of the river Vitim, that it appears
the Mongols first pushed their conquests forward among the
Yuchi, then in possession of the southern borders of Lake
Baikal, and the Mandshures subjugated the Shagallian terri-
tory, washed by the great Shika or river Amour, where the
ruins of most ancient cities, captured and abandoned by
the beardless stock, are still to be seen. Desolate cities, with
standing gateways, in a great degree perfect, and monstrous
statues, akin to, but far more elaborate than the more early
Scandinavian and Gothic works of art in Europe, indicate no
very: remote period when they were forsaken, and testify that
the religion once predominant had more affinity with the
northern Caucasian doctrines of the west, than with the
Budhism, Shamanism, or any other superstitions known
among the beardless nations.*
Having before shown the opinion, drawn from high authori-
ties, and corroborated by Chinese annals, that while the Polar
Sea covered, to within recent ages, several degrees of latitude
in northern Asia, the climate must have been considerably
milder than at present, and consequently have facilitated
migration to the eastward, even if Behring's Straits had then
already its present dimensions, and the Aleutian islands did not
form a more continuous chain than they now exhibit. These
circumstances may account both for the Caucaso-Mongolic
propulsion to America, and for the comparatively late period
* Par-hotan, city of the Tiger, a mass of extensive ruins, on the Kirton-
Gura of the Kalkas, and to the north of Mongolia. The Kirton-Gura
communicates with the Amour by the Kulon-nor lake. The ruins are in
latitude 48, and in longitude a little west of Pekin. Though not built by
the Mongolic nations, this and other cities were no doubt occupied by
them till after their conquest of China, when to permit another hardy
population to grow up concentrated in the north was no doubt found to
be unadvisable.
24*
282
NATURAL HISTORY OF
of development which that stock displays towards the south
and west.
The earliest Chinese annals may not in reality belong to the
beardless races, but be an appropriation made by them after
their first conquests were effected; for the Chinese heroes and
social institutions, including Foh himself, have, in their human
relations, characters that do not belong so much to them as to
their predecessors, the Kinto Moey, or Yuchi. They have
also usages, like the feast of lanterns, which have no proper
meaning in their legends, though, like the Hoolee of India in
substance, they may be regarded as the same, since they are
both dedicated to the opening spring. It is doubtful whether
at Canton the votaries of Budha understand the hymns sung by
them in his praise; for they are obtained from Ceylon, though
the religious system itself is derived originally from Thibet, or
. perhaps, with still more certainty, from the more western
portion of High Asia, before the Hyperborean diffusion reached
that quarter.
The beardless stock, in its primæval abode, may not have
* attained the full stature of Caucasians. Migration to more
southerly regions, still more, innervation derived from inter-
union with bearded races, probably gave it the development
now attained; for no giant tribes are recorded among the
unadulterated nations of Mongolic origin; and many instances
occur, where, like Anna Comnena, speaking of the first
appearance of the Turks, they are described to be of small
stature. Here, like in other cases, it should be borne in
mind that the ruling tribes and royal clars, the greatest
sharers in the division of spoil, possessed the principal propor-
tion of Caucasian captive females, and thence acquired an
external superiority of aspect, as well as much greater cerebral
expansion. This fact is forcibly shown in the Osmanli and
Toorkee dynasties of Europe and Persia. Mythology and
romance notice dwarfs and Pypilikas, or gold-finding ants (pos-
sibly a mode of describing the gold miners of the Altaic range),
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
283
Tschutski, Jakoutski, or others, not perhaps pure Hyperbo-
reans, such as the iron-working Niron tribes of Mongolia
appropriately typified by griffins and dragons, since these very
mönsters have been their national ensigns from the remotest
ages; and at several times conquerors have issued from among
them, desolating the earth, and forming the greatest as well
as the most transient empires in human history.*
Whether the Phryni and Seres of antiquity, mentioned by
Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy, were really of the beardless stock
in possession of Kashgar and Yarkund, and associated with
the Tokhari as early as the Macedonian conquest, may well
be contested, since the conjecture of Dr. Vincent, that for
Scythiæ should be read Sindh, is proved to be incorrect. The
southern glens of that region, being the spontaneous land of the
mulberry tree, had then, no doubt, their own different species
of indigenous silk-worms, which they still possess, and from
their produce the name Serica was derived, as well as Seres,
without reference to the origin of the nation that then had
rule. There can be little doubt but that they were Caucasian
Scythians of remote times, since the name of the Tokhari has
been read phonetically among the vanquished tribes repre-
sented on Egyptian temples, where the conquests of a Thoth-
mes or Remses are depicted, and the population of those high
lands is not even now Mongolic. What the earlier Greeks
related of the Seres, who were reported to be satyrs, eighteen
cubits in height, sufficiently proves they knew the name only
in connection with some colossal statues of Indian or of Bac-
trian divinities.
The Chinese, in their earliest records, seem to denominate
the whole beardless stock Le Min, or black-haired people,
according to the old classical comment on the Yaou Tan, in
order to distinguish them from the foreign races, which are
designated as invariably red or fair-haired; that is, Yuchi.
* Such as Ogus Khan, about 657 B. C., to Genghiz Khan, about 1154
. D.
284
NATURAL HISTORY OF
The Mongolic type is, in truth, unknown to ancient history
in the shape of organized nation's; but isolated tribes have pen-
etrated westward at early periods, more or less mixed up with
that subtypical stock which formed the Finnic or Ouralian
nations, whose presence in Europe we shall shortly mention.
Those among them which are least mixed by Caucasian inter-
union, certainly still retain the characteristics evidently belong-
ing to the most pure and ancient Hyperborean beardless tribes;
still the following description is applicable to both, with only
so much difference as the conditions of their respective situa-
tions admit to be results of circumstances only.
The Beardless Hyperbórean,* or Mongolic type, differs
from the white Caucasian and Melanic stocks, by constant
characters, which mark it externally, even where the subordinate
stems are greatly adulterated by intermixture, or modified by
climate and other causes. It is a form of Man distinguished
from the other two types by a facial angle, sloping backwards
from 70 to 80 degrees — the contents of the cerebral chamber
varying, according to Dr. Morton's measurement, from 69 to
93 cubic inches; the head is rather small, the face flat, the
cheek-bones projecting laterally, the eyes small, not much
opened, appearing to be placed obliquely, with the external
angle upwards, chiefly because the lachrymary gland is con-
cealed by the upper lid, which turns directly down over it.
This is a provision of nature common to the ruminants of high
latitudes, and the most elevated ridges, who are all destitute
of tear pits, probably because the lachrymary structure cannot
be exposed in a rigorous climate without positive detriment to
the eyes. The Mongolian eye has always a dark iris, the
eyebrows are narrow, the hair is coarsė, lank, and black, the
beard scanty, not curly, partially or wholly wanting at the
* The denomination of hyperborean is more strictly applicable to the
Arctic stock, though by the ancients the same designation is commonly
believed to refer to Gothic, or at most to Finnic tribes, who were at that
time merely borcal, or northern inhabitants.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
285
ears, and it appears to be of the same pile as the hair of the
head. The nose is small, somewhat pointed, and the mouth
well-formed. In the Nogai race the nose is, however, round,
flattened, and dilated, the cheek-bones still more prominent,
the lips are tumid, and the eyes almost reduced to linear open-
ings; while the black Kalmucks have the obliquity of the lids.
still greater, so that their external angles seem to be almost
forty-five degrees above horizontal. All the true beardless
nations are olivaceous in color, the skin varying from a
kind of sallow lemon-peel, through various shades of greater
depth ; but it is never entirely fair, nor intensely swarthy;
although, in the adulterated races that occupy the Himalaya
range, slight appearances of blush may be discerned among
young people; and the black Kalmucks, from some other unex-
plained cause, are of an ashy darkness, not far remote from the
true Papua color. The typical nations are all square of body,
in stature rather low, the trunk long, the extremities seldom or
never lengthened, and the wrists and ankles are weak.*
These characteristics of the Hyperborean type retain such
uniformity, that the American races are in most particulars, as
we have already shown, but little aberrant, and the Malay;
Indo-Chinese, &c., continue to bear them, in the exact propor-
tion of their commixture with other aberrants, and of the influ-
ences generated by local circumstances. In the same ratio we
also find the physical structure to harmonize with the intellec-
tual qualities. The Hyperborean evinces a feebler innervation
than the other typical forms of Man; he is less under-amatory
influences, less prolific, less enduring in toil; hence more dis-
* Where the gland is visible, the eye horizontal, and the beard spreads
up to the sides of the ears, there is certainly a mixed descent. It is most
common, perhaps solely observed, among natives of the northern prov-
inces beyond the wall. No doubt the superior energy and capacity they
evince is the cause why they are everywhere in office, and that so many
portraits, thus characterized, occur in the Chinese Museum now exhibit-
ing in London.
286
NATURAL HISTORY OF
posed to severity where he has power; to a victim or a captive
inflicting needless torture, less from natural ferocity, than from
the want of individual self-reliance, which is thus prone to
express fear by precaution. More readily reduced to order
when subdued, he evades rather than resists oppression by
force; he is more obstinate than brave, but savage to self-
destruction when roused by despair ; avoiding personal exer-
tion, such as to walk or to dig unremittingly in the fields, he
rides in every region when the Horse is accessible; more imita-
tive than inventive, he exerts his ingenuity to apply mechani-
cal aids in necessary labors. Sitting at work, he is dexterous,
but little tasteful; at handicraft professions, preferring patient
elaboration to exertion ; lazy, yet gluttonous, omnivorous with
scarcely any distinction ; filthy, amounting to a dread of
water'; crafty, dishonest, plausible; in war he trusts to his
horse, or to numbers; he finds sudden irruption, cruelty, plun-
der, and desolation, more congenial than open battle and
victory.
With the mind more vacant than contemplative, the relig-
ious sentiment, that source of all exalted and practical feeling,
has never risen above an indistinct idea of a Supreme Being,
a heaven, or a solar worship; it is better satisfied with the true
northern impostures of Shamanism, and with the borrowed
demon worship engrafted on Budhistic doctrines; for what is
of true moral tendency, either in the ethics of Foh or Budh, is
of foreign origin, and repugnant to the intellectual puerilities
which are his substitutes for reason, philosophy, and science.
A deified, ancestral, and paternal obedience stands in lieu
of practical religion - his only support of that innate moral
feeling belonging to all human beings. It is the key-stone of
absolute power in the state; hence coercion is the civilization
of the masses, ceremonious punctiliousness that of their supe-
riors, ignorant self-laudation the acquirement of literati, and
insolence the portion of all. The discoveries they possess in
physics are the results of chance; all the maxims of state are
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
287
immutable, and repressive of progress. Though early in pos-
session of the mariner's compass, and (particularly the Japan-
ese) long compelled to a familiarity with the sea, none of the
beardless tribes ever became true navigators, or reasoning ship-
builders..
The typical nations have monosyllabic languages, depending
greatly upon phonetic expression, and their letters are pictorial
symbols, immensely diversified; hence their so-called poetical
compositions cannot be highly figurative, or reach beyond
mediocrity, and their learning is greatly restricted by the
cumbrousness of its elements. Finally, what is known of
social advancement, of inductive reasoning, or of mathematical
acquirement, is derived from foreign sources, or is the work of
interunions with the various Caucasian races, Yuchi, Kin-to-
Moey, Hindo-Chinese, and others, scattered through every part
of the organized nations of the beardless stock.
It appears that the present Mongolic tribes were long
ignorant of the real use of the Horse; while, in the arctic
regions, the white woolly race of the Jakoutsk was not deemed
serviceable, except for food.
From the Subaltaic Yuchi, who were the first rulers, they
no doubt learnt the art, and became conquerors, by the sole .
acquisition which changes the relations of every people on
earth accessible to the animal.*
This was certainly subsequent to the oldest Hyperborean
invasion of China ; for, even to this day, that immense region
produces very inferior animals, excepting those bred by the
Caucasian Miao-tze mountaineers.
Yet, under favorable circumstances, and no doubt with
some aid from the Caucasian elements spread through the
masses, they have achieved an homogeneous civilization, as
early, perhaps earlier, than any people of the south and west;
* The Mongolic nations eat horse-flesh. Wild horse-meat, butchered
for the market, is still sold daily in many parts of China.
288
NATURAL HISTORY
and though the reflective powers confer but feeble modes of
reasoning, and often false conclusions, a sort of erratic common
sense has caused them to alight upon moral truths and humane
sentiments, which the most polished nations of Europe acknowl-
edge, but scarcely put in practice. With the conditions of
existence here shown, it is evident that a people, such as the
Chinese in particular, according to their own annals, while re-
siding in the southern flanks of the Khinghan mountains, would
multiply in time, till want of subsistence compelled the masses
to industry, and that, unwarlike and sedentary in the plains,
they would fall beneath the energy of kindred tribes, coming
upon their horses from the bleak north, to commit devastation,
grasp the empire, enslave by mandates, and by an enormous
police, till vanquished by the enervating process of the system,
these too would fall in turn beneath a new horde of invaders.
There were unquestionably more than the two well-known
conquests of China, since the empire included the more
ancient separate sovereignties; and though the fate of rude
conquerors over more civilized nations of homogeneous origin,
is ever to become, in civil administration, the pupils of the
vanquished, the new dominion debases both.
These events are clearly shown in early ages, where the
conquering hordes on the plateau of Thibet come up, or are
first observed stationed on the south-east, as if they emanated
from China; and they speak of great empires, formed in
remote ages, among which that of Orgus or Oloug Khan the
Great, who flourished, it is said, about 657 B. C., should be
mentioned, if indeed his exploits belong to a Mongolic or
beardless people; for he resided in winter near the Sir-Deriah,
or Jaxartes, centuries before the Geta and Sakia Caucasians
came westward by this and the Oxus rivers.
Japan, divided into islands, in part possessed by tribes not
typical, but of anomalous origin, with a colder stormy climate
and soil, often disturbed by the most terrible earthquakes,
presents a more energetic population, which, being free from
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
289
foreign wars, is ever ready to break out in sanguinary rebellion,
not a little fostered by the jealous timidity of the ruling
powers.
On the south of the Chinese empire, vast woody mountain
ranges and abundant rivers constitute wildernesses of vegeta-
tion, thinly inhabited by nations forming several kingdoms,
with an interior but little known. The Mongolic stock is most
numerous on the north-east, the Caucasian type on the west,
and in the interior and the Malay peninsula the Papua popula-
tion still lingers. Power is in the hands of the first; the
denomination of geographical localities the patrimony of the
second; and the third has undoubtedly intermixed and adulter-
ated the blood of both.
By these facts we detect the successive occupiers; — the
Hindoo races invading the aborigines long before they were in
turn made subjects of the beardless conquerors. This process,
we have already shown, has extended onwards through the
Australian and Polynesian islands, with an additional element
of an Arabian, and, later still, of an European amalgamation.
On the north of China, whence the civilized and sedentary
southern people have originally emanated, we find the nomad
nations still tending their herds; consequently, these are the
real typical Hyperboreans, and, accordingly, they possess the
distinctive characters belonging to their origin, in the maxi-
mum of development; — the Manchures, or Tungusian stem,
Mongols, Bashkirs, Kalmucks, Kirguise, Nogai, Usbeks; Tur-
comans being more mixed; and all, in general, misnamed
Tahtars, for that term designates, originally, a mere tribe of
vanquished inhabitants, who were made tributaries by the
earlier Mongolian invaders, on the south of Lake Baikal; and
in process of time it was extended to other nations of depend-
ent states further to the west. The Mongols and Manchures,
in graduated proportions, are, at present, the stall-fed masters
of China, and nearly form the whole real military force of the
empire, consisting entirely of cavalry, probably less than
25
290
NATURAL HISTORY OF
250,000 strong, covering the inert mass of 300,000,000 subjects,
with the aid of 800,000 policemen, denominated infantry, and
an enormous crowd of civilians and satellites, all intended for
internal rule, and incapable of external vigor..
They are, to all appearance, the first who came from the
remote north-east, after the Japanese and Chinese. Of the
Turkish stems, some have acquired a Caucasian form of head,
such as the Osmanlis and the so-called Russian Tahtars, resid-
ing in towns; but the nomadic tribes, the Nogais, Kirguise,
Turkoman, and Jakoutsk, retain the original structure of the
Mongolian form, while the Turks further betray their hybrid
character by the number of Sanscrit words found in the lan-
guage they speak, which, since they were not among the
ancient invaders of India, must have been incorporated on the
north side of the great central mountain systems of Asia, and,
consequently, from a Caucasian people, whose tongue was a
dialect of this great language, proving that it had a national
existence much further to the north than is commonly sur-
mised. The name Turks, Toorkees, may designate mountain
men, for it agrees with their earliest history, as given in the
Chinese annals, according to Klaproth, Abel Remusat, and
others, who assert that they descend from the Hiong-nou, a
people whose capital was Kantcheou, in Tangut, and that they
came down the snowy passes of Tang-nu and the great Altai,
upon the west, probably by the upper Irtish and the affluents
of the Jaxartes. The same annals, however, pretend that
they were seated on the northern flanks of the mountain
ranges, which may refer to their remoter habitation on the
Irtish, but not near the Shensi and Shansi provinces, unless it
was after the Yuchi nations were ejected ; for these were still
opposed to the Mongols, in those very regions; and the abun-
dance of local names now remaining in Thibet shows that Cau-
casians occupied a great portion of the high land plateau to a
late period. It must have taken ages to dislodge tribes, which
we find in subsequent periods making a prodigious resistance;
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
291
and therefore the progress from the high declivities of the Mon-
golian steppes, which they appear to have held at an early
time, to their occupation of the Thian-Shan mountains, may
be admitted to come within two or three centuries before the
Christian era, because Kanishka, a Caucasian (Såkia) prince,
came down and conquered Bactria, only in 120 B. C. It is,
therefore, probable that their most ancient name of Hoei-yu
was changed to Hiong-nou, a century or two later, when the
Caucasian intermixture gave rise to dissension, and their
power was broken by civil wars and Chinese dexterity.
Though circumstances and dates in Chinese records should
not be held more credible than our own western documents of
remote antiquity, they still deserve general belief in the char-
acter of the events they narrate. Here their course is perfectly
natural; and from other sources will be shown, in the sequel,
that this general character is fully sustained in the later ages
here mentioned.
The percussions 'then given to the nations of central High
Asia appear further to be depicted in the figurative, or per-
haps physically true legend, that in the fifth century of our
era the Oxus and Jaxartes dried up for seven years, and the
populations resident on their banks were forced to emigrate for
want of water. The period is coïncident with that vast con-
vulsion when the Hunnic empire suddenly expanded from the
frontiers of China to the mouth of the Rhine; and though not
entirely, perhaps not even chiefly, composed of Mongolian
hordes, as we shall presently show, it certainly embraced, beside
Toorkees, vast legions of Kalmucks, Kirguise, and Bashkirs,
who, in the career of victory, under Attila, spread, till, in the
subsequent dissolution of that power, they could never again
reunite to preserve independence; for when, at a later date,
fresh waves, entirely composed of the Hyperborean stock, swept
them again, in the career of desolation, to the west, Nogais,
Usbeks, and Kalmucks, still more dislocated, settled further on
to the Crimea, from whence, however, the forgot Kalmucks, by
292
NATURAL HISTORY OF
a noble effort to retain their nationality, suddenly departed, in
the last century, and, retracing the steps of their ancestors,
moved eastward in a vast column, fighting their way through
all opposition, till they reached the Chinese frontier in safety.
The western direction of the Hyperborean conquests was
more particularly marked in the reign of Genghiz Khan, in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; of Timur Leng, in the
fourteenth ; and Nadir Shah, in the seventeenth; during which
period, or, rather, from the time of Boleslas the Chaste (1227),
to that of Stanislaus Augustus, a Polish writer enumerates,
with some exaggeration, not less than ninety-one invasions of
Poland coming from the east. Strange, however, 'as it may
appear, none of the foregoing conquerors were themselves
pure Mongols, but by connection they all possessed a portion of
Caucasian blood, through Finnic, Yuchi, or Turkish alliances.
On the north side of the great wall of China, the terms
Kuthais and Kara Kuthais are not clearly designated; they
may apply generally to the Mongolic residents, though it is
evident that the last mentioned refers to a dark race, perhaps
the swarthy Kalmucks. It was from this region that Genghiz -
Khan and his clan first commenced their conquests, which, in
Octai's reign, were divided into several dominions.* It is,
* These conquerors all sprung, directly or indirectly, from the Niron
Cayut, chief family of the Niron tribe of iron miners, smelters, and forg-
ing smiths, or Arkenikom, residing in the sacred district of Kobdo, north-
east of Irmingtan Pcak, part of Altain Niro, situated on the edge of the
Shamoo, or Gobi desert, and not far west from Karakorum, once the
capital of Genghiz Khan. From this point the waters flow, by the river
Selinga, into Lake Baikal, and thence, finally, by the Yenisei, into the
Polar Sea. It was here Pisouka Bahauder, eighth in descent from a child
of light (Nourayon), laid the foundation of the empire which Genghiz
formed. But it must be remarked that the ancestral names of the family
do not indicate so much a Mongolic as a Caucasian Finnic origin. Proba-
bly the inining mountaineers were still of the Yuchi stock, and, as usual
elsewhere, soon became the master tribe over the invaders. In these
mountains are probably the oldest mines in the world. Here the Pipili-
cas (gold-finding ants), of Hindoo lore, may have been Hyperboreau Fins
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
293
however, a remarkable circuinstance, that, excepting in the
ruling families, the unceasing importations of Caucasian female
slaves, victims of inroads, which for a succession of ages swept
the populations of Southern Asia, and the whole of North-
western Europe, independent of similar devastations perpe-
trated by Mongolic nations, at still earlier periods, over the
Yuchi and other Oriental Asiatics, the Caucasian stock should
have left such scanty outward evidence in the masses of the
conquerors. The lower innervation, and consequent deadly
apathy, in the relations of humanity, alone can account for it.
Small as the influence may be in other respects, it has, never-
theless, tended to produce, on the north of the great wall of
China, a Caucasian ratiocination, which the Kara-kuthai, and
all Tahtars evince, in the Islam religious expansion.
Batu Khan, nephew of Genghiz, formed, about 1223, the
celebrated Golden horde in Kiptchack, a state between the
Don, Volga, and Yaik, where, with the habits of various races
of mixed and true Caucasians, an immense caravan trade was
created, and extended to Samarkand and China on the one
side, and on the other came to Astrakan; and thence, by the
Volga, to Cazan and the Baltic, or by the Don to Azoff, or,
lastly, by the Kur and Rion, reached the post where the
Genoese had revived the trade of ancient Colchis, -- a wise
and industrial system, which, while it lasted, conferred such
riches on the government and people, that the resplendent
name above noted was the consequence. But that the evident
advantages of a peaceful policy could not wholly restrain the
habits of rapine, is evident; for it was at this period, 1237,
1241, that Batu, with the Kiptchack or Komans, and Petah
Khan, with the Telebog and Nogai swarms, made those great
inroads upon eastern Europe which nearly depopulated Russia,
Poland, Hungary, and adjacent provinces. But the successes
(the Bergmen and dwarfs of every legend), and their dragon guardians
Caucasian Fins, such as the Niron, who seem at all times to have recog-
nized a dragon for their national standard.
25*
294
NATURAL HISTORY OF
of so many ages at length appear to have blunted the restless
characters of the Mongolic stock, and their habits became
stationary. Pastoral nations, though often conquerors, ever
finish by receding before the steady progress of energetic culti-
vators. It is exemplified, in this case, by the gradual reaction
which sends the Caucasian eastward, to recover the debatable
ground. “After 1800 years of conflict, he has already regained
a great portion of the original seat of the Hyperborean type.
Russia has subdued several nations who have little or no
history; among others, some of real Mongolic descent, and the
Sogha, or Yakutsk, of all men the most hardy, together with
the lofty Tschutski, of pretended American origin, but neither
appearing to be true Mongols. An important consideration
affects the condition of these arctic nations of Asia, namely,
the fast decrease of the Reindeer, both domestic and wild,
threatening, at no distant period, to reduce the already miserable
existence of the people to starvation, where no migration
towards the south 'can offer to improve their lot. The cause
of this privation of almost the only source of comfort, in those
dreary regions, is not yet fully explained, although several
tribes are already totally destitute of their domestic flocks. It
may be here, as in North America, that some law in nature is
operating, in combination with the progress of civilized nations,
to change the character of the high north, and leave it a desert,
with scarcely a human tribe able to subsist on it; indeed, the
only people must, ultimately, be Samoyed, Esquimaux, and
· Lapland fish-eating Hyperboreans; the sole remaining race of
the beardless stock to which we have space to refer.
This people, in both continents, being ever greatly restricted
in food, either at no time acquired the full stature of the type,
or it still retains the original appearance, from which the
nations in better circumstances have passed to more ample
structures. Though diminutive, they possess all the character-
istics of the Mongolic form, so far as they remain unmixed;
but in several instances they have formed unions with the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
295
nearest ejected Caucasian tribes in Eastern Asia, and also, in
extending along the arctic shores to the west. By means of
their snow skates, their Reindeer, and their seal-skin coracles,
they found means to traverse a great space in less time than
other migrators; to cross over ice in winter; to pass the Asiatic
Mediterranean, which, at that period, may not, as yet, have
been totally absorbed; or to cross Behring's Strait, which, how-
ever, they do not seem to have accomplished until ages had
elapsed. In this manner, they came early in contact and com-
mixture with Caucasians, such as the western Yeta tribes, on
the shores of the sea, or those they may have found to the west
of it, about the Ouralian mountains, and formed the Finnic
subtypical stem, on one side, and the Tschudic on the other.
Both these suppositions are strengthened by the appearance of
Finnic words in the Mexican language, and by a similar occur-
rence in the Basque dialect of the Pyrenees, while, on the
plains of the north-west, other facts show how near an intimacy
was established between the ancient Swedes and the Huns,
and between these and the Magyars, who were kindred of the
Turks.
While this stem of the Mongolic type is thus shown to have
spread at a remote period, and to have been mixed in the more
temperate climates of the old continent, it is, in a pure state,
evidently less ancient than the other populations of America;
for it has only been permitted to dwell in regions never occu-
pied, or totally forsaken by them, – that is, the Polar and
north-west coast; and as they were thus not wanted to assist
the necessities of anterior colonists, they have continued to be
regarded as enemies, being still unmercifully slaughtered by
the stern Indian, on all occasions where he can.glut his passion
for bloodshed, under the pretext that all the Esquimaux are
sorcerers.
296
NATURAL HISTORY OF
THE FINNIC, QURALIAN, OR TSCHUDIC SUBTYPICAL STEM,
Appears to have arisen from an interunion of the two great
typical forms of the north ; for its characteristics become prom-
inent in proportion as the respective alliance with one or the
other is predominant; thus, while the Skrict-Finn or Lap-
lander, nearly of pure Hyperborean blood, verges in the same
degree to the Mongole stock, the Finlander is in structure
entirely a Caucasian, though both speak dialects of the same
language - here, as elsewhere, showing the ready predom-
inance of the Caucasian blood. All the nations of this stem
have considerable flexibility of voice, and consequently a great
facility in acquiring the languages of their neighbors and of
strangers; and hence the Sclavonic and Teutonic dialects have
swept away the Finnic in all places where the resident tribes
were not isolated by the nature of their country. In Asia the
Tschutski are of similar origin as the more western Finns,*
and seem to represent the parent stock whence several nations
of America take their source, while they are claimed as the most
ancient miners of the Altai; a character which again recurs
among their kindred of the west. Industrious from necessity,
the scattered, less warlike tribes, with that Mongolic tact for
applying artificial aids in their labor, early found walrus teeth
sufficient to separate portions of meteoric iron or aerolite,
anciently more often found in large masses than at present;
with the aid of stones they learnt to hammer it into tools, and
* Tschutski and Finn are convertible terms in Northern Russia.
Tschudi is the Russian name of Finland, and the true appellation of the
ancient Scythians. Joien were the giant families, or Gothic Finns of the
Germans. There is still a tribe of Tusci remaining among the inhabit-
ants of Circassia ; and if Rauwolf be correct, the Druses of Libanus were
called Trusci. This indicates a portion of the Finnic race to have moved,
at a remote age, through Asia Minor towards Syria, and it may thus have
formed one of the early constituents of the Imilicon cf Palestine. From the
Altaic gold mines to the west they were in all places troglodytes and
miners.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
297 .
subsequently into the celebrated swords of the ancient north.
Horns of the Elk, and antlers of Reindeer, made ready shovels
and pickaxes; and having already a knowledge of meteoric
metal, they soon found, that by digging, ores might be brought
up from beneath the surface. * .
The zone of earth given them as a patrimony being inter-
sected at right angles by many enormous rivers -- by the Ice-
land or German Sea — by the White Sea -- by the still re-
maining portions of the Asiatic Mediterranean - by Behring's
Straits — and unceasing winters causing many sufferings to
migrators on the east and west, they, like all other men, must
have desired to wander to more genial and passable regions;
and accordingly, nations arising from this branch of the Mon-
golic stock; gradually more and more mixed with Caucasians,
can be traced southward, down to the great central range of
mountains, where they were met by the opposite commixture
of swarthy races, while the purest typical form of the bearded
type clung to the line of mountain prolongation, or occupied
parallels along it to the western extremity of Europe. The
commixture of two typical rąces, as before observed, is often
productive of larger growth among individuals, especially
if the northern Caucasian predominate. On the edge where
they encountered the Hyperborean, they mixed with it, perhaps
alternately as subjects or captives, and as masters, until both
were pressed by others, again subdued, or driven forward to
other regions. Several of these, and other nations hereafter
noticed, can be traced back to the Colchian sea-ports, to the
shores of the Meotic estuary and Tauric Chersonesus, where
materials for navigating the great rivers of Scythia first im-
proved their experience to dare the more open sea of the Eux-
ine, ascend the Danube, or pass through the Bosphorus into the
* We find them tenants of Southern Siberia, up to the vicinity of the
Jenissei about Krasnojarsk, where Pallas discovered an iron mine still
retaining stone hammers and brass tools, ascribed by the present Tahtars
to the Tschutski.
298
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Ægean, and ultimately to become intrepid seamen. Though
they possessed some industrial knowledge, destitution, famine,
or other causes, made them fierce savages, often positive can-
nibals. Such, it is likely, were the Cyclopeans, Lestrigons,
Sicanes, and Siculian swarms, which long terrified the more
southern Asiatic emigrants on the shores of the Mediterranean.
But before the historical era, they were already followed by
others (the mining and forging Idæi Dactyli?) and blended
with the first Gomerian people that came westward, and
together with them, finally merged into various Celtic tribes of
Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and occupied the north coast of the
Adriatic, where, rotwithstanding the character they bear with
posterity, they were advancing in the arts of civilization.
Others of a still greater Scythic innervation, it may be
inferred, penetrated by the passes on both shores, along the
western Caucasian chain, and crossing the ridges of Armenia
Minor, came upon the Upper Euphrates, skirted the eastern
flanks of Ammanus, till they reached the Syrian coast; or,
continuing to descend the banks of the great river, formed a
portion of that Scythic element which is constantly traced in
the Hebrew historical records, and repeatedly noticed in the
heroic age of Arabian traditions.
In this way they constituted the chief source of that red-
haired people which is still found in the mountains of Pales-
tine, and is known as the Montefict Arab, and probably formed
the first or primitive Phænician pirates and traders. A tribe
of this people was extant on the Euphrates; under the name of
Rhustumi; others occupied the Arabian islands; and if all
the earliest Scythian tribes were of the same mixed origin, they
were the invaders who ruled in Egypt by the names of Hyksos
and shepherds; the same who were the cause why red-haired*
* The quality of red hair belongs exclusively to northern Asia and Eu-
rope ; beside the Northmen and their descendants, it is still almost wholly
national among several mixed tribes of northern Russia. If Assyria once
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
299
men, and even rufous oxen, were sacrificed, after their expul-
sion, in detestation of their dominion. They may have been
the parent stock of the Beni Koreish, since the Seyads, who in
Asia still pride themselves as descendants of the prophet, stain
their beards to a red color; and, finally, clans are likewise still
found scattered inland of the northern African shores, where
they are taken to be remnants of the Vandals, who were
indeed a branch of the same stem that came round by the west
end of the Mediterranean.
Finnic Scythæ, Rauwolf's Trusci, may have passed to Abys-
sinia with the first Arabian tribes, and influenced the building
of cities of wolf priests, such as was the capital city Tegulet ;
for who but a people of northern origin would have thought of
wolf gods and lupine priests, particularly in Africa, where no
true wolf is as yet proved to exist? for the Ounce of Egyptian
Sycopolis, Siout of the Prænestine Mosaic, surely cannot be
the insignificant Chakal or Canis Anthus.*.
We have omitted to notice another characteristic that marks
the primæval Finnic tribes, namely, their dwellings, which
once were in Europe similar to those of the present Tschutski
of Eastern Asia, and of the North American Indians of the
same stock. They are figured in Catlin's Travels, and still
(
was held by red-haired men, they most assuredly originated from people
beyond the Caspian.
* This worship was well known in the south of Europe, where northern
tribes had penetrated. Finns, Etruscans, or Pelasgians, most likely
instituted the Hirpi, wolf priests, at Soracte, the Luperci at Rome, the
most ancient sacerdotal order in the city. Such, again, were the priests
of Latona at Delphi. They existed at Thebes in Egypt, and were in all
cases funereal ministers. They had, it is probable, mysteries which were
the origin of the power to assume any shape, ascribed 10 the Budas or
blacksmiths of Abyssinia, to the Wehrwolf in Europe and Asia, the
Escolar of Portugal, and of Bassa Jaon, the mysterious smith of the
Basques, the Crewe, Blotmen, sacrificial priests of the northern nations,
who slew human victims; the medicine men, exorcisers of North Amer-
ica, the Shamans of Asia, and even the Druid victimizers, wore wolf-skin
dresses, or at least girdles of that material.
300
NATURAL HISTORY OF
more correctly in those of Prince Maximilian of Wied. In the
west they were named Dan, Den, Tan, Ton, &c., denomina-
tions preserved in Denmark; Danes Tannieres in Belgium;
Tonningen in North Germany. They exist now in Lapland,
and among the Samoyeds ; are the origin of the legends of
the Bergmen, burrowing men, where the forging Alfen dwelt,
who were miners and sword smiths in Asia, Scandinavia, and
Germany, including Carinthia, long the legendary dwelling of
Laurin, brother of the Norwegian Alperich, and the Asiatic
Sinnel, princes of a dwarfish people. Even the garden of
roses, the mysterious retreat, where the dwarf king, with his
subterranean powers, was vanquished by Dietrich of Bern,
the Gothic hero, might perhaps be pointed out in the won-
derful cavern of Adelsberg, * with its mysterious river, not
far from various mines, and particularly that of quicksilver,
about Idria.
Having been checked in a western progress, perhaps by the
still remaining salt marshes, already interspersed with barren
sea sands, in north-western Asia, the Scythic Finns accumu-
lated and grew to nations of variously mixed character, not un-
like those already noticed in south-western Asia and Egypt;
but it was ages later before they developed, and pushed on by
Lake Ladoga to the Baltic. Here, propelling the true Hyper-
boreans, they became Finn-laps, and next, the earlier Scandi-
navian inhabitants, at the same time that they formed also the
Esthonian, Biarmian, Prussian, and other maritime people. On
all these coasts, a certain affinity with, or pressure by, new
* This is close by the elevated Schneeberg. The Laybach is twice
lost in the earth, and again reäppears. The Zirknitz Lake, supplied by
subterranean torrents, suddenly becomes empty, and as rapidly fills again;
where also the mysterious Proteus Anguinus comes up from reservoirs of
everlasting night. The cavern, iwelve miles in length, is adorned with
stalactites, forming halls, corridors, recesses, pillars, obelisks, hangings,
and even forms of animals, so strangely commixed, and of such enormous
proportions, that here the powers of enchantment were naturally believed
to have held their court.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
301
hordes of colonists possessed of Gomerian blood, or at least of
Celto-Scythic traditions and practices, is indicated. It forms
the Celtic element in their composition; and from this source
they acquired, together with a portion of their dialects, those
habits of forming circles of stones and cromlechs, which are
still abundant in Norway, in some parts of north-western Ger-
rnany, and Friesland. They possessed traditions originating
in the north as well as south of High Asia ; legends that recur
again in the Celtic Basque provinces, and even in western,
America.
The small clans, ruled by a patriarchal or family system,
which the earliest documents of the Celtic colonists in Britain ac-
knowledge to have found on the soil, and whose smoky cavern
dwellings may be traced perhaps near Brixham, on the shores
of Torbay, must be referred to that sub-type of the human race;
for not being of the Celtic stock, they could not well be of other
than of Finnic origin. In the generally scattered diffusion of
residence, having abundant supplies of food from the sea, the
lakes, rivers, and forests, small clans, with affinities in dialects,
creeds, and consanguinity, could not find many motives for
hostility. Those savage wars of extermination, rising out of
ambition, or for the possession of favorite localities, most likely
did not occur until greater pressure of new colonies, vastly
augmented populations, increasing cultivation and wealth,
roused cupidity and the spirit of dominion; for, otherwise, the
sudden march of whole nations could not subsequently have
taken place unmolested by neighbors; such, for instance, as
the Gallic, down the Danube, to Greece and Asia Minor ; the
Boian, north-eastward to Bohemia; or the Cymber, from the
coasts of the German Ocean to Italy.
In the east of Europe we find a myrmidon people, again,
no doubt, burrowing ants, like the gold-finding miners of
High Asia, with Thessalian Larissa, subject to the Thraco-
Pelasgian Achilles. Moreover, we find the Helotes, and other
indigenous tribes reduced to slavery by conquering Heleni,
302
NATURAL HISTORY OF
who themselves acknowledged gods of high northern origin, and
venerated nilk-eating Scythæ. What could these tribes be
but Finnic or Gomerian Celts, who, in the east of Europe, as
in the west, were fused into later and more powerful tribes,
with far less resistance than is often shown when kindred na-
tions oppose the pretensions of each other ?* Hence races of
Finnic origin passed, in antiquity, by conquest or mutual con-'
sent, into Celto-Scythæ and Pelasgians, so that in many cases
it is impossible to trace the nations further up than to their
second or third amalgamation. We find this substantiated by
words belonging in common to the Etruscan, Basque, Ligu-
rian, and ancient languages of western Asia : such, for ex-
ample, as Tar, in Tarchon, Brig, in Briga, Larch, in Larissa,
Gur, in Calagurris, Maitagurra, the Durga of the Pyrenees,
&c.; and there are others, in the traditions of tribes that appear
to have been connected by Finnic consanguinity, such as the
Basque Haitor, the most early British Heytor, the first, if not
both, being a denomination of a superior divinity, probably allied
to Thor. There is a still more remarkable coincidence in the
Navarrese and Cantabrian legend of the blue cow, lowing
from the verge of the mountain forest, when national disasters
were at hand, corresponding to the same doctrine anciently
believed in the western parts of the present Hanoverian domin-
ions; while both recall to mind the celebrated Indian mountain
peak of Gho-Karma (the moaning cow), which, if it have a
geographical position at all, must be the same as the seat of
Mahadeo, at the source of the Ganges, also known by the name
of Himavahn. These and other Finnic and Oriental elements,
known to exist in the Basque'as it is now spoken, justify the
claim we make of that ancient race as originally appertaining
to the intermediate stem now under consideration, more. par-
* The river Alpheus bears a Finnic name, for Alf Elf, in Lapland and
Finland, still denotes a torrent, and, it may not be amiss to observe, that
Eric Erk, in Swedo-Finnic, is still a proper name, always considered a
synonym of Hercules. The Heraclidæ in fact were Finnic Goths.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
303
ticularly as among the present inhabitants of France there are
still extant the wrecks of tribes (the Cagots), which, from the
first Celtic invasion to the present time, have never been
acknowledged to form a portion of any, though the vulgar is
willing to believe they are a residue of Arian Goths: which
opinion, even if it were correct, would not much remove them
from a Finnic origin.
We may associate with these, also, the human ossuaries in
the caverns of Guienne, in the vicinity of the river Lot in
Quercy, described in a former article; for they indicate a mode
of disposing of the dead generally more careful than the Cel-
tic; and from the more common absence of the skulls, and
the regular packing of the extremities in layers, an argument
may be drawn to show, that they are second and final deposits
of the departed of a race, whose first mode of preserving them
was to have the bodies sewed up in skins, hung up for a given
period in trees, and then buried, often with a stag's horn by the
side ; a practice long in use among the Finnic and Gothic
nations, and still followed by kindred tribes in both Americas.
These deposits, in the south of central France, have still,
on the mountain above them, the ruins of rectilinear and
curved defensive works, not like those of the Gallic tribes;
and as they are in the vicinity of the Basque territory, it is
likely that a kindred race was the owner of the soil before
they were subdued or expelled by the progressing Celtæ. It is
most probable, that although the Finnic people spread over
Europe, their movement from the east was in general coast-
wise, and from north towards the south ; ascending great rivers
from the sea, and in some cases only forming considerable
communities. Hence, in Europe and the high north, they are,
with scarce an exception, fish-eaters, boatmen; never riders;
and only graziers, not cultivators, in the south, when secure
from the nature of their location ; but even then still substi-
tuting osier and willow branches for many purposes of domes-
tic utility; for such is still the practice among the Basques as
304
NATURAL HISTORY OF
well as the Laplanders. They seem, indeed, scarcely to have
been capable of successful resistance against Celtic invaders,
in their more pure stunted growth; and that their physical
strength was only on a par, and sometimes superior to them,
when they were united with the giant forms of Yeta or Gothic
origin, who no doubt lorded it over them, but certainly had
also protective inclinations. Now tribes of this class, independ-
ent of immediate rulers, are constantly found to accompany the
smaller race, as in the Pyrenees, where the Gascons of low
stature have the stalwart Cantabrians for neighbors and kin-
dred; and, again, where the first mentioned form of man is no
longer traceable in history, the second is readily detected by
names which always have reference to giant statures, as we
have already remarked of the Tyrhenians, &c. So, again, in
the swampy islands (paludes) of ancient Flanders, a small race
seems once to have resided under the early protection of the
Frieslanders, Vuriesen and Huinen, both denoting giants in
the Theotisk dialect of Belgium, as it was spoken in the time
of Charlemagne.*
Huin, pronounced somewhat in English with the sound of
oi in coin, gives Hoin, which immediately reminds the reader
of the name of the Huns, who are now admitted to have been
an Ouralian Finnic people, allied to the Goths, and sweeping
with it, in the train of temporary conquest, several hordes of
Mongolians from the east, whose strange aspect misled, or
suited the vituperative dismay of Anna Comnena, and the
Greek and Roman ecclesiastical writers of the time, who had
little better than abusive epithets to oppose to the conquerors.
* There is an imperfect vocabulary of this form of the old western Teu-
tonic in Olivarius Vredius, Hist. Comitum Flandriæ, together with some
fragments of Solomon's Song, &c., in the same. Two centuries after, it
was nearly similar to the Anglo-Saxon. The present dialect of Flanders
still contains many most ancient Theotisk words disregarded in dictiona-
ries. But the examination of the whole question is well worthy the atten-
tion of English Saxon scholars.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
305
The Ostrogoths were associates of Attila, whose name was held
among them in high honor, for we find it repeated in the list
of Swedish kings. It is conspicuous in the oldest German
Heldenbuch, and the Goths or the Lombards brought it into
Italy, where Azzo and Azzolino, mutations of Atzel, the Teu-
tonic form of the name, are prominent, chiefly among the
Ghibeline nobles, as is naturally to be expected in civil contests
between the northern and Italian races.
The early alliance of the Finnic stem with the Gothic nations,
besides the community of proper names, is still more evident in
the mythical list of their progenitors, where the denominations
of Geat and Finn are recognized by all the nations of the
north-west, including the pagan Saxons of the east coast of
England, who, in the poem of Beowulf, denominate themselves
Geats, not Saxons. * On the north of the Baltic, reminiscen-
ces of the juxtaposition of the dwarf and giant races are abun-
dant. Their contests and intermarriages are recorded in sagas,
in several cases recompositions of more ancient documents,
though passing at last into mythi, in a land where Laplanders
still exist; and the conquering race in the southern portion is
even now a stalwart people. What they were in rude antiq-
uity is often historically marked ; and very recently a letter
from Professor Nielson announced to the Royal Academy of
Stockholm the discovery of enormous human bones, accom-
panied by flint arrows, bone spear-heads, and the remains of
horses, stags, elks, and bears.
THE BASQUES.
FROM the foregoing remarks, we believe ourselves justified
to claim the Basque, Esquara, or Vascon people, to be the
most southern of the Finnic stem in Europe. Coming up the
* See the important preface to Beowulf, in the excellent version of the
original, by the learned John H. Kemble, edit. 1837.
26*
306
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Garonne from the sea, it evidently spread towards the western
Pyrenees; for the ancient frontier fastnesses of these tribes are
historically unknown to the north of that river, excepting Cala-
gurris, now St. Lizier, on the Salat, an affluent at no great
distance from the stream where it is but first emerging from
the mountains. The nation extended, on the south of the great
ridge, to the Ebro, where a similar fortress, likewise denomi-
nated Calagurris, now Calahorra, commanded the upper Ebro.
The capital was Pompelo, in the district of the Husia tribe.
Denominations of places and early superstitions indicate a
Finnic western Caucasian origin. In Spain the Cantabrians
were always celebrated for valor, and for arresting the con-
quests of the Moors, after the overthrow of the Goths; per-
haps evincing, by their support, a community of origin, which
they alone possessed beyond the Pyrenees. Aided by these
hardy mountaineers, the Goths resisted the southern invaders,
and in the Asturian mountains formed the little kingdom of
Oviedo, which soon again expanded into that of Leon.' It was
in the defiles of this region, that the Franks, under Charles
Martel, or Charlemagne, are related to have lost their rear
- guard, with Roland, and nearly all the heroes of the French
cycle of romance. They fell at the pass of Roncesvalles —
more, it is said, by the swords of the Asturian mountaineers,
than by the Arabian cavalry, which are not likely to have been
suffered to enter the mountain fastnesses of a small, warlike,
and justly distrustful Christian state. On the north of the
western Pyrenees, the Vascones, though early overlaid by
Celtic tribes, the Tarbelli, and it may be the Venomanni and
Aturi, were nevertheless of the same nation.*
* Consult Surita. Both Quintilian and Prudentius were natives of
Iberian Calagurris; no doubt sprung from Roman colonists.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
307
THE LIGT RIANS OR LLOGRIANS**
In the eastern Pyrenees there was another people equally
foreign to the Celtæ, with affinities which appear to unite it
with the Finnic family; and it was called the Ligurian and
Llogrian (the Llogrwys of the Celtæ); probably originally the
same as the Greek Locrian, which had three tribes in the
mountains of northern Greece, and the colony of Osolean
Locri in Italy. All these came from the north-east of the
Euxine, where they had been neighbors of the Achai. They
had a legend of their first king's son having been rescued
from a wolf by a serpent. Naupactis, the present Lepanto,
was their seaport; but originally they had been savages,
clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and having their wives in
common, like the Vascones. They had names and terms
which were likewise found in the Tyrhenian. Already, before,
the arrival of the Gauls, properly so called, this people having
extended between the Cevennes and the sea-coast, up to the
mountains of Spain, was encountered by other marine tribes,
when, leaving some clans in Corsica, in the Hieres Islands,
and among the Iberian families occupying the water Sycanist
(the lagoons along the coast), they retreated to the Cottian
* They were acknowledged to be Hyperboreans by descent, since
Eschylus makes Prometheus instruct Hercules in the road towards the
garden of the Hesperides : he must pass Caucasus, then encounter the
fierce and innumerable Ligurians, and arrive at a high northern latitude.
His imagery looks like an extract from Finnic sagas, the Calewala, or
Scandinavian Edda. Bailley notices this passage, see Strabo Geogr.
† Not unlikely a Teutonic word, Seckant, border of the sea. This term
would have no meaning, but for the lagoons along the coast, only separ-
ated from the sea by a continuous belt of shingle. Sicani, Sitaceni, and
Siculi, in this case, must mean maritime, coast men, water or sea men,
the same as Cantii, in Britain. Yet these names again came from the
Euxine Bosphorus, and, according to Philistus, cited by Dion. Halic., the
Siculi were of the same race as the Ligures, notwithstanding that Timeús
named them aborigines of Sicily.
308
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Alps, the centre of its national strength, where the present
Piedmont was in its possession. On the side of Italy, the cap-
ital, Ticinum, now Pavia, was in the district of the Levian
tribe, with the Libuans, on the banks of Lake Garda, and the
nation extended to the vicinity of the present Avignon, where
Strabo places the Celto-Ligurians. They long were bold sea-
men, and a brave and industrious people, defending their lib-
erties against Roman encroachment during forty years, before
their last tribe was subdued. They had been early disturbed,
both in the Alps, and on the coast, by Gaļlic invaders, who
absorbed or forced settlements among them. It was from the
Ligurian tribe of Legobriges, about the year B. C. 600, when
the Phænician and Rhodian trade had declined, that the Pho-
cian Euxinos obtained the cession of the port of Marseilles,
by means of Petta, daughter of the chief Nannus. The trans-
action is related with particulars, both by Aristotle and Justin ;
but the fact itself indicates the consanguinity of these tribes
with the Grecian Locri, who were neighbors of the Pho-
cians.
By the eminently marine habits of this people, and their
migrating disposition, they were, it seems, scattered in various
regions; and nowhere, except at the head of the Adriatic and
in the Alps, had national consistency. They were of common
origin with the Istrian, Liburnian, and other tribes, who appear
likewise to have claimed a Colchian descent. Their ships,
from the humblest raft, and the coracle of three and a half ox-
hides, sewed and stretched over a frame-work of willow,
changing 'successively to lintres, logs, longs, Liburnic-biremes,
caracks, caravellas, and finally to ragusas or argosies, were in
general the models of those adopted by other nations, and
Reul was their most ancient guiding star at sea. But, with
the exception of the Liburnians, they were no longer mariners
than the swarming period of their departure from Asia ; for
in subsequent accounts we find them move by land ; and if
they were the same nation as the Llogrwys, or Llogrians, of
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
309
British legend, they had once, at least, a tribe seated on the
Llobregat in Spain, and no doubt were in part the migrators
who, on retiring. northward, crossed the Cevennes to the head
waters of the river Loire (Ligeris), which they decorated with
their own national appellation. Here they were joined by
another, the Illyrian, Venetic, Henyd, Wend, or Gwyned tribe
or association, for it may have originated entirely in the com-
mercial spirit of the more enlightened persons of several tribes,
and even whole clans.
The Illyrian Alps, placed between Pannonia and the Adri-
atic, contain a variety of nations, which, like those of West-
ern Caucasus, might claim to be aboriginal, if they also were
not known to have been colonies, which, in remote ages, came
up the Danube, and were subsequently driven to the mountains,
· while others passed through the Bosphorus from the Black
Sea, or came from Asia Minor, and skirted the coasts of
Greece. Strabo mentions not less than eleven tribes, some of
which we find again on the coasts of Colchis, and others are
now admitted to be Scythian and Finnic. The Veneti, Carnes,
&c, belong to this group.
THE VENETI.
ACCORDING to their national tales, plainly the invention of
later ages, the Italian Veneti pretended to be a colony of Tro-
jan fugitives, under the conduct of Antenor. After they arrived
in the west they warred with Servius Velesus, king of the
Euganeans; and their records hinted at a consanguinity with
the Heneti of Paphlagonia, where they were horsemen and
hired soldiers, and, headed, it is said, by king Pylemenus, they
served Priam in the Trojan war. But they were thriſty deal-
ers, since to them is assigned the introduction of mules in the
markets of Asia Minor. The Greek poets spoke of their coun-
try, situated at the mouth of the Eridanus (the Po), perhaps
also the Rhine, where the Celtæ dwelt; and Virgil was well
310
NATURAL HISTORY OF
acquainted with their legends and assumed descent. Industri-
ous, like modern Armenians, they had successively demanded
the protection of the strongest power near them. At one time
the Ligurians, and subsequently the Romans, took upon them-
selves to defend their interests from Gallic aggression. Their
capital, Padavium, now Padua, probably was one of those neu-
tral marts necessary to barbarous nations; it was older than
Rome, and, in the time of Tiberius, the second city of Italy for
extent and riches.
They were, Herodotus asserts, Illyrians; and Servius names
Enetus, or Wenetus as one of their kings, assigning them to
the same stock as the Liburnians; also the Tauricians, who,
like the Ligurian Taurini, had no doubt a Taurine, or Tor god;
the Vindelicians, still more allied to the tribes of the Baltic,
with the Brennians and Genaunians; all at one time derived
from the northern shores of the Euxine. Beyond the Liburni
and Veneti; the Sigynnæ were the only people known to Hero-
dotus, as far as the Ister (Danube); but as this name in the
Ligurian tongue merely denotes traders (Zigeuner,* pedlers,
tinkers), we may believe that it was a denomination of the
Venetic merchants, who went overland to that river, and thence
traversed Germany to the Baltic, where they had tribes of
kindred origin. Therefore the whole may be claimed as of
Finnic source, collectively originators of the numerous markets
(nationally Ventæ) existing before the extension of the Roman
sway to beyond the Rhine and Danube, like a commercial
net-work over the west of Europe. In Italy the word Forum
was substituted for vent or guent by the Latin nations, while.
they left Venta to be used beyond the Alps. These were what
are now known by the name of Scalæ among the more modern
* It may be remarked, that both the present Armenians and the gypsies
Zincali (Zigeuner of the Germans) have a cranial structure very much
resembling the high northern tribes of Finnic Hyperboreans, and are simi-
larly nomads and soothsayers, sharp in dealing, and ever, like the others,
averse to war.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
311
.
Italians; Markt, Fair, and Kioping, of the Gothic nations.
The existence of these emporia explains how the classical
ancients came so early to be acquainted with the amber coast
of the north ; for, in the third century B. C., Pythias, a Grecian
traveller, and Divo, a Bithynian, at a later date, visited the
present provinces of Pomerania and Prussia ; and though the
work of the first named is lost, quotations remain sufficiently
to establish the attention his narrative must have deserved.*
THE ETRUSCANS.
THERE was, beside the two nations of Upper Italy here
noticed, a people more ancient than either, having in the lan-
guage it spoke roots of Teutonic still more abundant; which,
although it was believed to be derived from two widely sepa-
rated sources, still bore the same import in the designations of
both their names. One, the Rasenic, it was asserted, had pos-
session of the lower Tridentine Alps, when the other (the
Tyrhenic) came up by sea, it is said from Tyrra in Lydia, and,
landing at the mouth of the Po, built Adria or Hadria, on the
margin of the river. The present town stands more than
twenty feet above the original foundations, and ten above that
which existed in the time of the Romans; facts which, taking
the accumulation of the soil near the mouth of the river to
have advanced at an equal rate, would give about 3600 years
* Pythias, quoted by Pliny, flourished about 330 B. C. He visited the
amber coast, and notices the Guttones on the Montonomon estuary (the
Frische Nährung), at one day's journey from the island Abalus (the
present Palmeniken), where amber was cast up by the sea. Divo is men-
tioned as having visited the Baltic in the reign of Augustus; he is quoted
by Jaroslaw, domprobst of Ploezk. There is in Spon even an attempt to
figure Hyperborean hunters, one riding a stag (reindeer) being shown
galloping towards a net. The work of art is from a bas-relief, found at
Etruscan Anxur.
312
NATURAL HISTORY OF
for the arrival of the colony which first commenced the city.
Such a period is consistent with the first arrival of the Celta
in Gaul.
The Semi-Finnic Tyrheni were certainly allied to the
Thraco-Pelasgians, and spoke a dialect not yet clearly ascer-
tained; had at a very early period an alphabet, which,
although primarily also of sixteen letters, neither coincides
with the Cadmean nor with the Roman.* They were in
possession of a growing civilization, such as smelting ores, and
casting in brass effigies and bas-reliefs of divinities and men
(they could even plate them with silver and gold), and made
fictile vases variously colored; whereon, either in consequence
of captured Greeks being among their early slaves, or from
causes .not known, there are found depicted Hellenic Mythi,
often with circumstances not mentioned in the Greek poets,
and yet extending over the whole geographical surface of their
fables, from Palestine and Asia Minor to Sicily, and even to
Gades in Spain. Like the Pelasgians, they built walls of
cities with stones of enormous dimensions, generally in
courses, with more regularity; but, unlike them, they had fre-
quent subterranean passages, or galleries of mines beneath
their cities, the use of which is not yet understood. They
constructed their tombs usually in caves, dug with skill and
considerable beauty, so well concealed and blocked up, that
many have been discovered only in latter times; and these are
found to have been adorned with sculptures and paintings of no
mean artistical merit. The national mythology was.however
totally distinct from the Greek or Roman, and approximated,
or was identical with, that of other Finnic tribes. Such were
the Falsen of Etruria (Falaces), pillar-gods, usually repre-
sented in pairs, once well known to the pagan Scandinavians,
* It appears that the Greek alphabet never contained at one time all the
Etruscan forms, and they continued to write from right to left. It is
probable the early Celts wrote with the same letters.
THE HUMAN SPÉCIES.
313
the Laplanders, and the Finnic Lithuanians, and still found in
the houses of the Tschutski of the north-east of Asia.*
Being brave, and skilled in the arts of life and war, although
they had contests with, and expelled the Kerkopes (by
the name evidently a dwarfish race, which fled to Sicily), it is
evident that they were not numerous during their occupation
of the present Lombardy; for they withdrew to make room for
the Ligurians and Heneti, and were driven off still further by
the Gauls, their strong walled cities being all on the Mediter-
ranean side of Upper Italy. Rome itself was partly an Etrus-
can colony, and owed most of the elements of its greatness to
the institutions and example of that people. It is to be
regretted that these tribes, ruled by independent Lucumons,
wanted national unity when they were strong; for what the
barbarians had begun on the north-west, the Romans fin- -
ished from the south-east, the whole nation being gradually
absorbed by the conquering republic. They were manufac-
turers, merchants, and navigators, till they were worsted by
Greek assailants, coming from Sicily, and by the Phocian
colony of Massilia. Yet it is to the objects of barter which
they themselves, or the friendly Venetic traders, or subse-
quent rival Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, and Gauls, carried
down the Loire, or across the German territory to the Baltic,
that we must refer the bronze effigies, heads of standards (?),
helmets, shields, arms, and even coins, often containing Greek
mythological subjects, but bearing scarcely any tokens of
* See Ossian, Ca-lodin, "Like the pillars of Lodin at Sliva." - Duan
II. Were these perchance also the same as the Finno-Teutonic Alces,
Alkes, Alsen, brethren divinities, with a priest clothed in woman's gar-
ments, and honored, without images, in a wood ? It may nevertheless be
suspected, that elk or stags' horns represented them, as reindeer horns
are still used for idols by Laplanders and Samoyeds. Ailsen, on the
Weser, may have been a local city for them, and the meaning might be
perhaps taken from Elke, each or both. Certainly not Castor and Pollux,
in the classical view of these meteor gods.
† Lucumon, Teutonic Lachman, man of law, jadge.
27
314
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Greek skill; for all these have been found in Gaul, Britain,
the Tyrol, in the waters of the Baltic, and even in the bogs of
Ireland.*
The three nations, Etruscans, Ligurians, and Veneti, called
the river Eridanus, which each, in turn, had possessed, by the
names of Podan, Podines, Podinco (the Po), the terminal par-
ticle being still abundantly found in certain localities of Lap-
land. To these we might join the kindred Illyrian tribes, both
on the Danube and the Adriatic, the pirate Liburni, with their.
fast rowing galleys, the Carni, and other clans, as before shown,
mixed even with the Hellenic race; and all, like the true Finnic
people, with remarkable veneration for the dead, for sorcery,
apparitions, and human sacrifices. But for the present these
circumstances may be passed over, as we shall have occasion
to revert to them in the sequel.
Few vestiges of the Finnic people can now be traced in the
hill and mining regions of middle Europe, excepting perhaps
in the Alpine, where the name of Tschudi is still preserved in
one or more families of some distinction; and to the west, in
the Highlands of Scotland, or in northern Ireland, where the
significant name of the Fion, Fingall, Fingal, represents a
marine tribe, avowedly acquainted with Lochlin, Norway,
Friesland, or more properly, the eastern portion of the Baltic;
* Such is the bronze group, eight inches high, representing the Centaur
Chiron, with young Achilles on his back, in the act of drawing his bow,
and a dog leaping against the fore-leg of the horse part, the whole stand-
ing on a scroll with a ferule, evidently intended to support a lance. It
was found near Sidmouth, much worn by ages of attrition in the wash of
the sea. Again, a winged figure, sounding a trumpet, having one knee
bent, the other resting on a globe, supported by a ferule, eight inches
high, found in the bog of Allen in Ireland. Also numerous specimens of
small brazen two and three horned bulls, ensigns of the Sequani, Taurini,
&c., bas-relief figures of champions, in copper, found in Tyrol, and silver
elastic spiral weighing-scales, with Roman stamp upon them, found in
the Baltic; all, excepting the last, bearing evidence of Etruscan or bar
barian workmanship.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
315
· by its name clearly assuming the mixed origin of Finn and
Gael. It was one marked as miners and sword smiths, person-
ified in the name of Luno, and, moreover, a tribe with Finnic,
not Celtic, religious superstitions. These qualities ally the
Fion closely with the oldest Cymbers of the north-west, who
were themselves Scythian-Celts, which is the same as Finns
of mixed origin with northern Celtæ. *
Further north, from Denmark to the extremities of the
Baltic, Teutonic Finns were spread all along the shores of that
inland sea, perhaps even in Jutland, the best known still
existing either entirely Germanized, or only so in their per-
sonal appearance. In Scandinavia, they were miners from
remote ages, wherever the topography of the land gave assur-
ance that ores were beneath the surface. On the German
side, fishermen, navigators, pirates, and merchants, collectively
known, in a subsequerit period, as Venden, Vandals, Vuidini,
having every appearance of a consanguinity with the Veneti
on the Adriatic, and exchanging, by their means, amber and
peltry with the nations of the south, through the interior of
Germany. The city Wineta, on the west of the Isle of
Usedom, in the subsequently known kingdom of the Obotritæ,
* The Creon dynasty acquired supremacy over the Gaelcoch, or Red-
Haired Celts, in the second century of the Christian era. From the fall
of Galgacus, four generations, Trenmor, Trathal, Comhal, and last Fin-
gal, ruled, when the power appears to have passed to the Maeatæ, or to
the family of Gaul, the more ancient head of the people. During the
Creon dynasty, the conquests of the Romans were first arrested and then
thrown back behind the wall. But whether the name of Fingal be
derived from Vindgael (head of the foreigners), may be questioned,
though all the Gallic nations then in the north were strangers. There
were iron works in Britain before Cæsar's invasion, as is proved by the
chains and fastenings of the fleet he defeated on the coast of Gaul.
The bardic similes still notice the hundred hammers of the furnace,";
"the stream of metal from the furnace,' &c. There is even the shiel.
ing of Glenturret, called Renna Cardich, or the smith's dwelling,
with remains of cinders, scoriæ, and ruins, all evidence of antique iron
works.
316
NATURAL HISTORY OF ·
but now sunk beneath the sea, was the first and greatest
emporium of the north, having paved streets, temples, it is said,
with brazen gates, and a vast population of strangers and
nations of various origin forming the citizens. Wineta, per-
haps the typical Vana-land of mythic sagas, was the parent
community, whence Arkona, Jomsberg, and Jollin originated.
It was the most distant of the Venetic commercial establish-
ments; others being at Venta Allobrogum, now Vienne, on the
Rhone ; Bienne, at the Vendoni Campi, near Zurich ; at Venda,
now Augsburg; Vendobona, now Vienna, on the Danube;
Vannes, on the Loire ; Guines, near Calais, probably also at
Gwent or Vennernare, near Ghent; at Vingium, now Bingen,
on the Rhine; Venta Belgarum, now Winchester, and Venta
Icenorum, Caer Gwent. They extended even to Ireland,
where Ptolemy places the Promontorium Venicinum. They
repeated, in this manner, the commercial policy of the Phæni-
cians, whose name may not be unconnected with the Veneti,
and anticipated, what the Baltic Vandal Lombards again
restored, in the middle ages, under the form of Lombard
streets, in most commercial cities of mediæval Europe. .
They had a commercial intercourse through Russia, and
with the Greek colony at Olbio, on the Borysthenes. It may
even be no chimerical supposition, that it was from the Baltic
cities that the Hyperborean annual donation came to Delos,
which Herodotus and others have noticed. According to
Took, the Permians had a barter trade with the Indo-Persians,
by the Volga and Kamá, to Tscherdyn, on the Kolva, where
they received the goods, and carried them up to Petchora, in
exchange for furs. Thus the presence of Hindoo opinions and
idols may be accounted for, in the poems and antique remains
among the Finnic nations. The entirely foreign commence-
ment of the above-named cities is proved, among other indica-
tions, by their having alone, of all the Baltic nations, temples
for national idols, while other Finns had only sacred hedged
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
317
ocalities for their divinities and religious ceremonies.* As
already stated, there were two distinct races successively
inhabitants of Wineta, and the other neutral trading communi-
ties on the south of the Baltic; the first; composed originally
of true Veneti from the Adriatic, strengthened by Celtæ from
the same quarter, — by Roman outlaws and fugitives, — by
Celto-Scythæ, that reached the north by ascending the Sarma-
tian rivers, and by Yeta or Goths from the Lake of Ladoga,
all cemented together by marriages with Finnic wives, a prac-
tice that commenced at least three centuries before the reign
of Augustus, and which finished by forming the tribes dena-
tionalized by all the immediate people around them into that
power, which, under the name of Vandals and Venden, pene-
trated, about five centuries later, southward to the seat of their
relatives or progenitors.t. A second community formed after
their departure, and retaining only a part of the former popula-
tion, was composed of Finnic Sarmatians still more heteroge-
neous; for the first, arising out of a congregation of merchants,
who had taken wives from the Finn or Sclavonic resident
tribes, formed a homogeneous community, without tribal dis-
tinctions, and assenting to the same pagan divinities; but the
second was an assemblage of clans, which retained their dis-
tinct nationalities, lived in separate quarters, and even distinct
castles, until they rebelled against the authority of the magis-
trates. These people were known to the Huns by the name
of Vuinid Fulce, the same as the Celtic, Wenid Volc, and
Theotisk Wenden Folk, and the acceptation of Wend or Vend
is still retained in the modern Belgic Vent, a man of superior
importance, a wanderer, a travelling merchant. Vend, in
Gaelic, a head or chief; the fusion of the Finnic Yeta with the
* Mone gives detailed notices of the nationality, religion, and institu-
tions of the Finnic nations of the Baltic. See "Geschichte des Heiden-
thums in nordlichen Europa," vol. i.-
+ They first appeared in arms against the Romans, in the reign of M.
Aurelius, A. D. 173.
27* .
318
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Celtic race being perceptible in various recorded names and
events. Thus, in A. D. 563, the Winetans elected for their
king Samo, a pagan Sennonian Gallic merchant, who con-
tinued his reign during thirty-five years. A Finnic Celt, of
great ability, has, during the present generation, again found
an elective throne in the high north. The Boii, a tribe of
Celto-Scythæ, wandered from Gaul to Bohemia, perhaps a pris-
tine home; others resided, according to Lelewel, in Gallicia,
all before the Christian era ; and therefore Gaul was not un-
known to the Vandals when they removed to the south. We
trace the Celtic nationality still further, in the name of Wal-
linische Werder, the locality where Jomsberg, one of the sister
cities, was built; even at Dantzig, the same influence was per-
ceived in the appellation of the river Rodaun. Historically, it
is found in the bond of long-enduring neutrality which the
Winetans, then called Vandals, maintained among themselves,
the Goths, Suevi, and Burgundians, during their offensive wars
against the Roman empire; and their power, in the facility
which Stilicho, a native Vandal, found towards the attainment
of the first honors of the empire, as well as for raising up
enemies against it in his own cause. Political considerations
may bave prevented the Vandal inroad from proceeding beyond
Pannonia towards Italy. The Illyrian Veneti probably bought
off the invaders, and pointed out the greater facility of con-
quests in the south of Gaul and Spain; for, being inſerior in
numbers, and less national than the Goths, as subsequent
events in the peninsula of Spain attest, they were well advised
to pass on, and, when followed, were even then compelled to
retire to Mauritania, where Genseric took Carthage in 439,
and subsequently being called over to Italy, he plundered
Rome in 455, but only to return to Africa. Although, accord-
ing to Witichindus, Wineta was then flourishing on the
Baltic, the Adriatic Veneti began at Venice again to form a
central commercial emporium, and their numbers were soon
so great at Constantinople, that the blue faction in the hippo-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
319
drome, * representing the manufacturing power, wholly in their
hands, gave cause for serious alarm to the government; even
to a degree that ridiculous measures were resorted to, such as
secretly enclosing the effigy of a blue Veneta in the brazen
hoof of the winged group of Bellerophon, in order that by
means of this talisman the Venetic superiority might be coun-
teracted.
· In the Baltic, however, the more recent mixed communities
of Winetans, now first called Aestii, or Ostmen, began to droop
by internal dissension, t and by the revival of trade in the south
of Europe, till the great storm of 809, when the city being par-.
tially submerged, and Jomsberg nearly ruined, broke their power;
and though they made several gallant stands against the pirati-
cal-rapacity of the Northmen, Wineta was sacked by Hemming,
king of the Danes, leaving the wreck of former industry to sur-
vive only until Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, led a cru-
sade against the Sclavonic tribes of the coast, and commenced
their absorption into the German race, leaving the completion
of the task to the zeal of two religious orders of knights, which
effected their conquest in the thirteenth century.
The Finnic races, originally more pacific, industrial, and
sedentary, were often broken through by migratory hordes from
the east; their colonies, towards the south, were isolated or
absorbed, sometimes só changed by intermixture that the lan-
guage became pseudo Gothic or Theotisk. Thus, very an-
ciently, it becomes doubtful whether the Suciones (Swedes) were
of the last mentioned or of the first race; most likely they were
mixed; for Suomi, the proper name of the present Finns, resem-
bles the old Scandinavian appellation.
Of the Sclavonic Finns, Prussian, Livonian, Esthonian, Per-
* Blue was the sacred, and still is the most esteemed color of the Finnic
nations of the north, as well as of the Illyrian Veneti.
† Winni or Wenden, Heneti or southern Wynetæ, Suliones, Slavi, Rossi,
Cambrivii, Circipanni, Rutheni, Greeks, and Jews, began to fortify sep-
arate quarters against or for Christianity.
320
NATURAL HISTORY OF
mean, Lithuanian, and Courlanders, we need not give details,
which are already generalized in Balbi (Atlas Ethnographique),
and reviewed with as much learning as detail in Mone, * who
describes, circumstantially, the national traditions, gods, and
religious worship of the different nations, and, among others, of
the Prussian. It is remarked, that no people of the north was
once so rich in literary monuments; for though a vast quantity
of legends and traditions still exist, there were thirty-one
national chronicles consulted by Hennenberger, all of which
have perished, excepting five, it is supposed by the contempt
of the Teutonic order of knights, and by the neglect of the
kings of Poland, who shared the ancient archives. From the
above, it is clear, that a vein of indigenous civilization had
worked on the Baltic, perhaps drawing its remote source from
Bactria, by commercial Colchis, totally distinct from southern
lore, excepting in the degree which Greek and Roman inter-
course might have afforded, or Jewish wanderers, who early
found favor among the Finnic Tahtars of Western Asia, may
have introduced.
THE FINNS OR SUOMI.
CROSSING the Gulf of Finland, we come to the Suomi, Finne-
lap, or Finn people, still so called, which, however, notwith-
standing the rocky hills, innumerable lakes, and many woods
wherein it lies concealed, the three sealike gulfs which surround
it, and the rigorous winters of that latitude, has still not escaped
perhaps more than half hybridism; for the northern portion
** Geschichte des Heidenthums in nordlichen Europa." The abun-
dance of records and manuscripts was here, no doubt, as elsewhere, the
consequence of national intermixtures. King Vanland, who wedded
Drifva (trade), daughter of old King Snöe, may represent the peaceful
mercantile intercourse with the Venetic cities. Snöe himself gives an
idea of ermines and peltry, or at least of the high latitude where the trade
was carried on.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
321
alone can be considered as typical of the semi-intermixture of
the Hyperborean and Caucasian stocks. It is there alone that
the Lapland tongue finds so much affinity as to amount to a
decided similarity; there the great distinguishing mental char-
acteristic of the whole subtype is observed, in the permanence
and generality of iron mining propensities; the godlike office
of the forging smith, the constant poetical allusion to gold,
silver, and iron, are prominent; and all the sorcery and incan-
tations of the Laplanders, short of their magical drums, even
now in vogue, — practices alike common to the kindred Shamans
of Asia and the Angekoks of Arctic America. Although the
Finnic race repudiates in national pride all consanguinity with
the Laplander, the northern portion almost equally reviles the
southern, because it is less conversant with the old nationali-
ties, and is more generally, if not altogether, tall, straight, and
fair-haired. On examination, we are assured that there is
equal distinctness in the cranial structure between them; but,
as yet, no account of a thoroughly scientific inquiry in this
question appears to have reached middle Europe.
They are, moreover, accused by the Swedes of being more
malevolent, a greater proportion of Finns occurring on the list
of malefactors than of natives of Sweden, when both countries
were under the same crown; and though the linguistic affinities
were described, and the religious dogmas were supposed to be
sufficiently well known, the recent discovery of a Finnic poem,
named the Kalewala, shows that the sources of research in the
north are far from exhausted, and that their harmonious lan-
guage was anciently more polished than has been thought.*
The ancient Finns were, however, mixed with Yeta races at
a very early period; since a peaceful union between them is
* Kalewala, or the adventures of Waina Moina, the god of verse, a
Finnic epic poem, in thirty-two runas, published by Professor Loenroth,
a Finn by nation. There is a French version of it by M. Léouzon le Duc,
1846 ; but it is strange we hear of none in German, though the work is
regarded as perfectly genuine.
322
NATURAL HISTORY OF
V
clearly shown, in the names of Finn, Suen or Suin, that is,
Sweno and Atzel, or Attila, which occur both in the lists of
Swedish kings, Lombard chiefs, and in part among the Ger-
manic gods. The physical Jotun (Yeta)'appear to have been
the giant masters of this people, till they were vanquished by
the Gothic Asi, and driven to live in rocks and caverns, afford-
ing a foundation of that dualism, afterwards mythologically
applied for the national runes, which even do not conceal dislike
to the Asi, and felicitously represent them as destined to be
ultimately vanquished; for the basis of Scandinavian mythic
lore is Finnic.
. Fornjoter, the King, progenitor of the Finnic people, bears
not a proper name, but an appellative of distinction. His altars,
overthrown by Thor, show a system of worship destroyed by the
Asi, but nothing to disprove that the whole did not come from
the east; that region whence their mythological kindred, the
Jotun, are to arrive from, in the ship Nagelfar, at the last day
· of the world's existence.*
Immediately on the north of the Suomi, are the tribes of
Laps, who speak a dialect of the same language, although they
are almost pure Hyperboreans. The somewhat equal inter-
mixture of this race with a Gothic people constitutes the real
basis of the Finnic sub-typical stem, since others, more to the
eastward, with Slavonic, and again with Caucasian Yeta tribes,
produce the same result. Thus, it may be assumed, the Hunnic
power was likewise generated in Asia from eastern Caucasians,
mixed with Hyperboreans; for, when interunion occurs, the
Caucasian type so readily becomes superior, that it is soon
doubtful whether any Mongolic blood can be externally observed
to be present. This is in Asia the case with the fair Ostiaks
of Siberia — the Wotiaks and Tscheremisses — the Mordwines
i and Wogules; and, in a less degree, among the Permeans or
. * The Finns, like the American Savages, bare feasts of the bear hunt,
mystical notions of his origin, and, like them, give him by-names, believ-
ing in his superhuman knowledge.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
323
Syrians of Russia, and even the Ghoorkas of the Himalayas
are accounted Zwergi, or of dwarf race.
THE HUNS.
THE Huns, originally from Yoguria, being kindred of the
Wogules and Ostiaks, held the region between Tomsk and
Tobolsk, till they moved westward to the confines of Europe.
De Guines and Klaproth differ on their origin more in degree
than fundamentally. They are first noticed in the time of
Augustus, by Dion. Periegetes. In the second century they
occupied the extensive region between the Caspian Sea and the
Borysthenes, having propelled or incorporated the Gepidæ and
the eastern Goths. They advanced in A. D. 375, to beyond the
borders of the Danube, and became the most formidable power
of Asia and Europe ; for, in the fifth century, under Attila, they
had sway from the borders of China to the Rhine, his capital
city being Buda, or Hunnic Ettelvar. They ravaged with
their armies all Germany and the north of France, and pene-
trated to the gates of Rome. At that period most of the
nomad tribes of Asia were in his service; hence the nation
might have been called ferocious and ill-favored; but here also
the Caucasian element had already so greatly influenced the
external form of the Ispans, or higher chiefs, that these were not
inferior to any other privileged races of Europe.* The proper
* The goat face of Attila, with horns and beard, represented on a Latin
medal, together with the assertion that he called himself "Flagellum
Dei,” is mere monkish quibbling upon the names Atzel, Attel, Attalus,
carried to the Hebrew Atzail, a wandering goat; hence in Arabic, Azalin,
Satan. Attila's profile on a coin is shown, with lengthened features, a pair
of wings at the shoulders, and his private symbol ☆ occurs beneath the
figure of a horse on the reverse, so much in the manner of Hindoo Bactrian
art that there can be little doubt of its authenticity. He died in 453. A
coin, given for one of Attila, or Ath-tila, king of Sweden, circa 548, is
more properly applied to the Hunnic sovereign; for he is figured on horse-
back, carrying in his hand the trident or tripula, a real Bactrian weapon;
yet there he is styled Gauta og Suethiot Kongr. See Genswolff runa Kefli;
also profiles of Hyatili princes among coins in Wilson's Aria Antiqua.
324
NATURAL HISTORY OF
names, Balamir, Bleda, Iring, and Atzel, the Lombardy Atzo,
Ailfred, and other words, show the Gothic element pervading
usages and objects of social convenience; and the courts of
their kings, if the old Burgundian (Frankish) legends may be
credited, were as hospitable, as polished, and as splendid, as
those of the Greek and Latin sovereigns of that time. The
Huns subjected or associated the Haiatili, white Huns, Heph-
tal of the Armenians, a partial kindred, with the Yuchi and
Sacai, who came from beyond the Oxus, and were seated in
Meweram and Khawarism, with the capital Gogo, probably Ker-
keng. They invaded Affghanistan, Scinde and Persia, in 428;
but, driven back by Baharam-Ghor, were extended on the north
of the Caspian; but, if the conjecture of Professor Wilson be
admitted, they were still powerful east of the Indus, since they
took and destroyed the vast city of Valhabi, in Gujrat, in the
year 524 of our era.
When the Hunnic empire had declined, we find a large force
of their cavalry under the command of Iliphred and Apsich, in
the service of the Byzantine emperor, forming the left wing of
the army at the battle of Solacon, in the year 586, where
Philippicus defeated the Persians.
Other Finnic nations, debris of the Hunnic empire, such as
the Avares, became predominant in Eastern Europe in the
sixth century. In conjunction with the Lombards, they de-
stroyed the power of the Gepidæ, a tribe of Yeta, who had again
risen to independence, defeated Sigebert, king of the Franks,
and rendered the Bulgarians tributary; but, in the next cen-
tury, revolting under the conduct of Conviat, these in their turn
became puissant, and long held sway in Mæsia, on the south
of the Danube.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
325
THE KHAZARS.
THE Khazars, already mentioned by Armenian writers of the
second century, were a nation both warlike and agricultural;
and, being greatly intermixed with Jewish exiles, they changed
from Budhism to the Mosaic tenets in the seventh century, and
conferred the title of Ilake (king priest) to a Hebrew family,
while the temporal authority continued in the hands of the
Khagan. In 858 they became Christians, but forsook the cross
to please the Chorasmians. They traded largely in peltry
from the north, and in other wares from the south-east of Asia.
Usually the allies of the Greek empire, their dominions ex-
tended from the Sea of Aral to the river Bogue. Their capital
was Baliangar, or Attel, at the mouth of the Volga, and they
having formed a portion of the Hunnic empire, and probably ab-
sorbed the Haiatili, appear to have built cities in Hungary,
doubtless by colonists, or by establishing ventas.
THE HUNGARIANS. *
The Hungarians, or Magyar Toorkees, seem to have issued
from the same Ouralian quarter, and were, with the last men-
tioned, formidable to the Khalifs of Persia, about the close of
the seventh century. By the end of the ninth, they found
. * The Byzantine writers view the Huns and Turks as the same; and,
indeed, the names Huns, Hungarians, Unni Occidentales, Onoguri, Ugri,
Ungri, Ongri, are all the same, or tribes of the same people. The Avari or
Abares may have hrad a greater. Caucasian element in their national
origin. In the whole of the high region west of the Caspian, to the
Euxine and eastern coast of the Mediterranean, as far as the Hellespont,
it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate distinctly the Finnic from the
pure Germanic and Celtic nations. Long before the historic age they
absorbed a Melanic nation, which Herodotus called the Colchian in his
time. The Pelasgi and Dorians were perhaps Lesghi, and tribes that
went into Thynia, from the coast of Thrace, only completed a circle of
emigration round the Euxine.
28
326
themselves established in their present abode, where they
incorporated the remnant of ancient Huns, still left in Panno:
nia. They long ravaged central Europe, until they became
Christians in the eleventh, from which period they have been a
instance where the Finnic stem produces gigantic men; for the
Hungarian grenadiers and the national heydukes are more
generally of great stature than any other nation of Europe.
During the time they resided near the Black Sea, they appear
to have been in close friendship with the Zychi or Circassian
tribes; for they have not only a great external correspondence
of appearance, but the Circassian language, like the old Arme-
nian and the Hungarian, contains a great number of Finnic
words, and the Lesghí-Avares of the same mountains have
many Hunnic proper names still retained among them.
It is probably to these tribes of pure Caucasians, or of
hybrid Finns, that the Gog and Magog giants of antiquity, or
rather the Haiguge and Magiuge of Curds and Persians so
long the terror of south-western Asia, are to be traced; for the
pass of Derbend, on the Caspian, was already, in remote ages,
vainly closed by artificial defences, to keep them from pene-
trating to the south.*
The interunion of Hyperborean with northern Caucasian
races constituting also, in our view, the Ouralian stem of
arctic Asia, it follows, that in this place the Toorkee tribes,
who have the same conformation of the skull as the bearded
stock, should be classed with the Finn or Tschudic group,
although they are known originally to have been Hyperboreans
of the most deformed personal exterior, according to European
notions. They have already been mentioned in the notice of
* Portæ Caspiæ and Pylæ Albaniæ of the classical writers ; Derbend,
gate of security, in Persia; Demir Capi, iron gate of the Turks. The
Chinese wall, the Sassanian lines of Chorassan, and the Roman wall of
Britain, were all constructed to arrest the progress of the same Hyperbo-
reans of mixed origin.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
327
the Mongolian type, to which they were most strictly allied, so
long as they remained unmixed..
THE TURKS.
Thus, the Atrak Turks, more especially the Osmanlis, differ
from the other Toorkees, by their lofty stature, European feat-
ures, abundant beards, and fair complexions, derived from
their original extraction being Caucasian, of Yuchi race, or
from an early intermixture with it, and with the numerous cap-
tives they were for ages incorporating from Kashmere, Affghan-
istan, Persia, Syria, Natolia, Armenia, Greece, and eastern
Europe. Both these conjectures may be true, because the Cau-
casian stock, wherever we find it, contrives to rise into power,
from whatever source it may be drawn, and therefore may in
part have been pure before the nation left eastern Asia,
while the subordinate hordes remained more or less Hyperbo-
rean in character; as, in truth, the normal Toorkees about the
lower Oxus still are. All have, however, a peculiar form of
the posterior portion of the skull, which is less in depth than
the European, and does not appear to be a result of the
tight swathing of the turban. Osmanli Turks are a handsome
race, and their children in particular are beautiful. The
Tschudic Toorkees, moreover, had in ancient times a Sabæan
alphabet, written vertically from right to left, not brought, as
De Sacy appears to believe, from Syria, by early Christian
sects, for in that case it would never have been distorted to a
Chinese mode of placing the lines. It is more likely the real
ancient Bactrian form, one connected with the literature and
science of remote ages, not to be so peremptorily rejected, be-
cause no other proofs of this kind of Runic or Ogham are now
to be found in the region where it flourished; and the Sanscrit,
more perfect, and more extensively dominant, supplanted it,
even in Thibet. At a remote age, they came upon the Taujiks
(original Persians); they subdued or expelled them, and named
328
NATURAL HISTORY OF
their conquest Toorkistan. It is to the Finnic tribes, first pro-
pelled across the Jaxartes by these conquerors, that the dynasty
or the rulers named Afrasiab, so celebrated in Persian tales,
are to be referred, when the names of Iran and Aniran first
began to be distinctive of Persia and Bokhara, while the adja-
cent states, more anciently called Bactria, retained the name of
the capital, Bactra, only in the writings of the west ; for Finnic
Toorkees had called it Zarias, probably Serai, and at one time
it bore the name of Bykum. Afrasiab, whose race was fair-
haired, proves that the stock was not so much Turkish as Fin-
nic; and the same inference applies to Salser and to Ros-
tum; consequently, that the ruling clan of Cabulistan was for a
period of northern race.
Of the Torkee branch the Hiong-nu, according to Abel
Remusat, is the most ancient recorded in history. It once
inhabited Mongolia proper, and possessed a vast empire, which
flourished about three centuries before the Christian era; and
the dissolution of this state was the chief cause of that succes-
sion of barbarian invasions, which, like rolling waves, inces-
santly poured upon the west during several centuries, driving
intermediate nations before them, or brealing through discom-
fited tribes, which, in order to escape, made the most destruc-
tive inroads themselves; often at war with each other, the em-
pire passing to a different tribe, or with the Huns, and other
more strictly Finns, who in turn held temporary dominion.
The Thou Kioei, or Altaic Turks, according to Byzantine his-
torians, formed, in 552, a vast empire, which soon reached from
the Caspian to China, and broke up in 703.' It was Dzabul,
their Kan-Khan, who received the ambassador Zemarkh, sent
by Justin II., in 569, when another embassy from the emperor
of the west was already returning.
The Tchy-le or Thiele, a numerous nation, resided, in the
sixth century, to the east of Lake Balkach, under the names
of Kaoutche and Hoei-he, and from 788 that of Hoei-hou
represent the same people. The Tchy-le, according to Klap-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
329
roth, mustered above 300,000 horsemen, and the. Hoei were
formidable in the eighth century, when they were already
advanced in civilization. The Seldjucks, so named after the
chief adventurer, who enlisted men of different tribes under his
banner, broke into southern Asia in the ninth century, during
the reign of Malek; they overturned the empire of the Khalifs,
formed the states of Iran, Kerman, and Roum or Iconium; and
from the Seldjucks sprung the Osmanlis, the present sovereigns
of Turkey. We might here add those tribes with Circassian
chiefs, the Petchenages, probably identical with the Kanjars.
The Komans and Uzu, united in the eleventh century, who
were known to the Russians by the name of Palowze, and
Chuni by the Hungarians. From the tenth to the twelfth cen-
turies they were the terror of eastern Europe, till in the thir-
teenth they were exterminated by the Mongols.
All these nations, as well as the true Caucasians we are
about to describe, moved into Europe from the distant east, by
routes which, it would appear, were entirely the result of
chance; yet, upon examination, it is found that the great
majority of cases, in whatever geographical locality a prime-
val column sought its permanent abode in the west, there,
also, one wave after another of kindred race subsequently
found its home, notwithstanding ages intervened, and circum-
stances had thrown new obstacles in the way. Perhaps
intermediate points had continued to be occupied by relatives
of both, or records of the success of former colonists had
reached back to their points of departure; or, finally, it was
because there are in geography natural directions of progress
from one region to another, however distant; and that local
conditions impel all migrators, once moving on a given line, to
follow it out to the ultimate destination. These observations
apply entirely in the human movements, from east to west;
mountain chains, deserts, the course of rivers, and even real
obstacles, conspire to produce the same results, while the con-
trary direction is all but impracticable. Intellectual power
28*
330
NATURAL HISTORY OF
alone, where arms have ever failed, brings it back to the east
by the progress of religious truth, of science, and of the reason-
ing of common sense ; thus amply repaying Asia for the innu-
merable rudiments of practical and imaginative life we have
owed her for so many ages.
Having disposed of the Finnic Stem, and shown, in the mix-
ture of the Hyperborean with the Caucasian stocks, the direct
consequence of soon obliterating the external appearance of
hybridism, and perhaps, with somewhat less procreative fertil-
ity, tending to elevate individuals and whole clans to giant
forms, we should now proceed with the true Caucasian or
bearded type, if it were not that, at the commencement of the
division of the primæval stocks, we had noticed, on the south
of the Caucasian, that there was similarly an intermediate stem
formed of the woolly-haired or Negro type, in various states of
commixture with the bearded, where the tokens of degradation,
or of inferiority, passed away with even greater rapidity, but
less durable results; and though the stature remained the
same, the marked difference of color proved the descent from
hybrids, who, like the true Negro type, possess the perceptive
and imaginative faculties in greater proportion than the more
enduring reflective powers; whence the incapacity to advance
beyond a certain limit in reasoning, civilization and empire,
seems to follow.
Taking, therefore this stem, with a view to have in the
sequel only the pure Caucasians to examine, we place here
THE ETHIOPIAN OR MELANIC STEM,
such as it was marked out by the earliest writers of antiquity.
Under this denomination, it is desirable to arrange the
races sprung from a real or an apparent interunion between
the woolly-haired and the bearded types, distinguished by black,
curly, undulating, or lank hair; a sufficient beard, with the feat-
ures of a Caucasian form, partially and often supereminently
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
331
displayed, having the same typical structure, and the color
intensely black, only when local circumstances indicate those
qualities to be so far accidental. It is distinct from the sub-
typical Malay, and the intermediate ramifications derived from
it, by well-marked characteristics, notwithstanding, excepting
where there is reason to believe that the Malay stem is itself
crossed with Indo-Caucasian tribes in the eastern provinces of
India, and in a great part of the southern. Excepting that the
ears, especially of the Malabars, and the upper Egyptians,
stand somewhat higher, and that the legs are proportionably
longer than is the case with either of the types, there are no
very distinct characteristics immediately observable, though the
mouth, lips and nose are full, the hands, fingers and toes
broader and flatter, resembling the Negro form. The African
Ethiop has the hair pendent in heavy close ringlets, and the
black eyes are still larger, and more soft, than the Indian.
Equal intermixture constitutes the usual Mulatto condition;
but, in the east, a much greater infusion of Caucasian blood
does not very evidently. clear the skin. Some of the lank-
haired nations of India, as such bearing signs of more than
semi-white descent, are, nevertheless, among the swarthiest of
the whole. It has even affected old Portuguese colonists, and
the ancient Jewish inhabitants of India ; neither, it must be
confessed, having the least claim to purity of origin, but being
a mixed progeny with low caste natives, themselves, as we
have before stated, descendants of aboriginal Paharias, Bheels,
Nagas, and with only a small admixture of nobler blood. Nev-
ertheless, among these slave and outcast tribes, the chiefs have
high aristocratic features, which are not unfrequent among
their subjects. Whether the mucous membrane of the very
dark tribes of Ethiopians, with lank hair, assumes the same
appearance as that of Negroes, is not, so far as we have been
able to learn, remarked, though, if this condition of melanism
should not exist in them, it would produce a very valid argu-
ment in favor of the assertion that the woolly-haired race is of
332
NATURAL HISTORY
NATURAL HISTORY OF
a distinct origin. There cannot be, however, a doubt that in
the Mulatto state, or half-bred Caucasians, that peculiar struc-
ture of the skin must be in part rernaining, since, in the charac-
ter of the hair, we find it in proportion of the bearded parentage;
the frizzled and mop-like character passes into spiral curls,
then undulates, and, at last, is wholly straight, while, in
descending the scale, the mop becomes crisp, and returns to
that low state of humanity, which, in the warm regions of the
east, was branded with the reproach of being accursed. From
this imputation, indeed, the more physically elevated real
Ethiopians were not exempted. In the Sacred Scriptures,
with perhaps some exceptions, Chna and Egypt were so
branded to the promulgation of the Christian dispensation..
The hatred incurred by the race of Cham or Ham was, indeed,
repeated in the north, by the same pure Caucasian stock,
towards the Hyperborean, if we may take the earliest Finnic
Tschutski to have been the first miners, and, perhaps, the
Tubal Cain of the Pentateuch; for obloquy pursued both,
although for ages they were mixed races, and long the deposi-
tories of the dawnings of civilization, though not the first to
organize human progress.
Races of mixed Caucasians, afterwards known as Joktanites,
Indo-Arabs, and Semitics, descended the west bank of the
Indus, and, from the remotest period, secured the whole Sulei-
manic range, and at this time already fixed upon the culmi-
nating point of Takt-y-Suleiman, .or, rather, Arawati, the
mountain of the dove, or the ship, for their first remove of the
Arkite reminiscence from its original centre.* They left the
purer Papuas scattered westward, or drove them onward till
one of its tribes constituted the Negro races, with a taint of the
* The Arawati and Aryawart mountains are, perhaps, higher up in
Asia, and the real locality of the diluvian record. But the Parveti Mon-
tes of Ptolemy, so named from the Sanscrit Rarvat, a dove, is Suleiman
Koh, 12,831 feet high, still noted for the abundance of different species
of doves.
- THE HUMAN SPECIES.
333
white stock forming the most western branches, such as the
ancient Numidian, and present Caffres and Gallas.. .
In consequence of the deep-rooted hatred of the Caucasian
races towards the typical Negro, we find those frequent allu-
sions to purity of blood in the Arabian clans of the desert. It
is the whole question whereon the poem of Antar hinges; for
color alone is not the cause, since Bedoween tribes are, in
many instances, exceedingly dark, from the Euphrates to the
west coast of Morocco; and the Tarikh Tebry endeavors to
account for it in the legend, which relates how the ancient
Arabians were fair and blue-eyed, but so wicked that they
would not hearken to the prophet Salah. Miraculous omens
had no effect, until, at last, they were converted, in one day,
from white to red, and, in the next, to black. This tale may
be the reminiscence of Scythian inroads and conquest, such as
were effected by the giants of the Pentateuch, who, inferior in
number, were gradually absorbed by the predominant race; and,
though masters (for the master race, in Oriental relations, is,
in general, the only object of record), became, dark in their
descent, and were mostly driven across the Red Sea. The
northern infusion was repeated more than once; and, besides
Egyptian history, we have the Geta and Arabians confounded
by classical writers, as we shall notice in the sequel.
The Cushites* of antiquity, confounded in many cases with
· the Joktanites, correspond, with scarce an exception, to the
Ethiopians, as we here notice them: the regions of Cusha
Dwipa within, and Cusha Dwipa without, of Hindoo geography,
exactly represent Asiatic and African Ethiopia ; and the names
of Itiopiawan and Itiopia, by which the Abyssinians still desig-
* Chus, Cush, Cuth, according to Jacob Bryant and Holwell, is derived
from cushet, a bow; still the chief weapon of all the wild mountain races
of India, the instrument they used to achieve the death of opposing deini-
gods, and, till lately, arming them as the guards of rajahs and princes,
who took them into their service. Goosch, in India, still denotes a
robber.
334
NATURAL HISTORY OF ..
17
nate themselves and their country, notwithstanding all dis-
claimers to the contrary, denote, like the Arabian term Habesh,
for the same state, a mixed people, with perfect correctness, for
they were the first semi-Caucasian invaders of Arabia, Cush-
ites, Semitic races from the Suleimanic range of the western
border of the Indus. Fair tribes, from more northern high
lands of Asia, mixed with Indian Nishadas, or with the local
Nimreks of the soil, were already a very compounded race in
Elam, before they were driven across the Straits of Babelman-
deb.. They had, even then, the elements of science and civili-
zation imparted to them, by the giant invaders of western
Asia, or by Gomerians, high on the Indus; for, to this day,,tra-
ditions, customs, and opinions, prevalent in Abyssinia, bear
evidence to the fact. Later colonists passed, no doubt, the
same straits, for a considerable influx from the west of Asia is
evident in the languages still spoken along the east coast, even
as far as the cape; and the higher development of the Galla
and Caffre tribes can be traced to a partial Semitic intermix--
ture. The basis of civilization must have been communicated
from indigenous progress, already developed in the peninsula
of India, or by the more recent knowledge carried along with
the conquests of pure Caucasians, in the regions of the Ganges,
or in Elam (Persia), by other conquerors, but both appearing
to derive their acquirements from some common source in the
upper valley of the Oxus.
The original formation of the Ethiopian stem appears to
have been in the burning alluvial deposits formed by the Indus,
and along the southern foot of the Himalayas, on the Hel-
mund, the Kabul, in Cashmeer, and the Punjaub, where Cau-
casian tribes, seeking warmer regions, encountered the black
races, and, by conquest and slavery, commenced amalgamation,
which every new wave of invaders conduced to increase. Fur-
ther immigration to the plains of India naturally followed,
through the secondary ranges of the mountain chains, or they
croused over from the high land of Thibet. That the move...
THE HUMAN. SPECIES.
335
ment was, in a great part, from north-west to south-east, is
proved by the presence of Gangarides in the valley of the
Bramaputra, where, in other respects, the foreign element in
the first population was eastern Caucasian or Malay. Who
the bearded tribes were that originally spread over China, was
sufficiently shown in the notice of the Mongolic and Finnic
nations not to be again repeated, although we have, on the
south of Asia, nations similarly constituted, but further debased
by certain Papua intermixtures, and all feel the different influ-
ence of a southern, and, often, a marine climate.
The infusion of northern elements is strikingly proved by
the predominating presence of Sanscrit in all the dialects of
India, although variously debased by forms of speech of indige-
nous origin, Parbatyia, Naja, Dravira, Bheel, Nishada, and
Yadhu, &c., upon which it was ingrafted. As the invaders
came through the gorges of the mountains in successive
swarms, and not always from the same point, they subjugated
not only the black aborigines, but also the mixed tribes of their
former conquerors, leaving only that portion in freedom which
could retreat to inaccessible mountain districts, to recede from
the civilization they might have had before their political ruin,
and either pure or already under the rule of masters not of the
kindred stock. The older invaders seem to have been denomi-
nated Chasas, equivalent to the western term Asi, or Asen, high-
landers, which is also the meaning of Guras. They came, more
particularly, from the southern side of Hindu Koh and Paropa-
misus, in their last debased condition, constituting the Indo-Arab
races, but here almost universally become true Ethiopians and
Cushites, by union with nations still more melanic, and who
formed the great majority of the population. Other mountain
conquerors first came to the south by descending the passes of
Thibet, leading to the high basin of Cashmeer, where the name
of the capital being Nagara before it became Caspatyrus, sup-
poses the population to have been Naga, and of the same stock
with that of the lower Indus, where the name was likewise
336
NATURAL HISTORY OF
given to a city, á Heliopolis, as Strabo asserts, where the
snake worship was then, as it still is, in existence in Cutch.*
This 'very degrading worship was not inconsistent with the
idolatrous sacrifice to the giant divinity Muhishan, whose
statues have a serpent wound about the loins, and whose
legend is of so ancient and peculiar a character, that he may
be regarded as a solar god among the aboriginal tribes, he
alone riding his war buffalo in battle against Durga, and,
therefore, the supreme type of indigenous power before the
.horse was known in the peninsula of India. That this
divinity was, by Hindu, Arab, or. Cushite invention, converted
to Kali, is evident by the similarity of Moloch, in Syria, with
both; and, by the retreat of Mahades, another form of the same,
to the mountains of Kylas, when in danger from the assaults
of Ravan, is shown that his worship was not then admitted in
southern India.
Notwithstanding the repeated contradictions and dualisms
of all the Indian mythological compositions, there are to be
found shadowy pictures of historical events in the great San-
scrit poems still extant; for although even the oldest were
written many ages after the transactions to which they refer,
probably by men who had no circumstantial traditions, and
were more imbued with the marvellous and imaginative to
form mythological themes, according to poetical formulæ, than
* Cutch and Gujrat may both be connected with the Cuthite. race, and
fit localities for, migrators by sea ; for from Diu, in Cutch, Gama
despatched the open boat that conveyed the intelligence of his arrival in
India. It went round the cape, and arrived safe at Lisbon. Nearchus
went from Kurrachee.
† We have before mentioned the figure of a Rajah riding his war-ox,
and the almost Ethiopian Caffres of Africa mounted on them, to a recent
period. It is probable that Hannibal derived from his Ethiop Numidian
companions the celebrated stratagem, when, by means of oxen with com-
bustibles burning on their horns, he puzzled the Romans, and extricated
himself from a difficult position. It may be remarked, that the Black
Mühishan is opposed to Durga a divinity of the invading mountaineers.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
337
to draw up historical documents; still there are casual glimpses
of facts, fixing certain geographical data, and a general current
of events, which reveals many truths, though the dates, the
persons, and circumstances, may be nearly all fabulous.
Among the Sanscrit poems, beside the Puranas, there are the
Mahabarata and the Ramayana, particularly available to form
approximate notions on the earliest history of India, and the
composition of nations it still contains. Though the substance
of the first is said to be fifteen, and of the second thirteen
centuries older than the Christian era, it will be safer to con-
sider both as referring to events at least as ancient, while the
poetical views of the compositions, exclusive of episodes, such
as the deluge, &c., are evidently centuries later, and in all
cases refer to dates subsequent to the first invasions of the
Caucasian Man, though not to the total subjection of the
Indian peninsula to his conquests. We take the Ramayana to
be the later, in point of composition, in the form it now appears,
as shadowing forth the remotest known conditions which
affected the two typical stocks in southern Asia. The subject
matter is so grand and exciting, that Valmiki's 24,000 slokas,
or distiches, are not the only though the most complete elabo-
to Vyazudavu, and three or four more, of which that by Bod-
hyana is said to be replete with splendid passages. All relate
to the actions of Rama, the hero divinity belonging to the first
known dynasty of the kings of Oude, at a time when it does
not appear that the other sovereignties of the peninsula were,
as yet, in possession of the conquering bearded races. The
Nishada, Vidantha, Naga states, the kingdom of Kapila, at
Hurdwar, on the Ganges, &c., were in the hands of indigenous
tribes, and Lanka Dwipa was the abode of demons.* Some,
* We have not had access to Ward's History of the Hindoos, and,
therefore, cannot judge of the view which that learned scholar takes of
thc primæval period. It is, however, a subject of regret, that not moro
Sanscrit documents have been published, and that what is before tbe pub-
29
NATURAL HISTORY OF
like the Rana of the Jaitwar tribe, claiming to be descended
from the monkey hero Hanuman, and pretending to have a
prolongation of the spine in proof of the fact, shows at least that
certain families, of whatever origin they may be derived, still
wish to pass for descendants of aboriginal tribes. In the north-
west of India, and east of Persia, Shombho, Nishombho, Muhi-
shan, Tarika, Durga, and Ravan of Ceylon, are indigenous
giants of tradition, in all probability personifications of states,
and of repeated wars by Papua tribes against invaders from
the high mountains. The persevering nature of the contest
may be gathered from the circumstance, that although all were
for many ages, ruled by chiefs of mixed origin, their final sub-
jugation was not accomplished till the Mahommedan conquest.
In the usual dualism of mythology and history, we find
Rama, the son of Budha, and grandson of Meru, child of the
sun, abiding in his holy mountain, west of Kaubul, probably
Indo-Koosh.* Bali-Rama, the hero son of Desaratha, or of a
tribe so denominated, being accompanied by Jumont (bears),
Hanuman, monkeys and other wild beasts constituting his
army, came down the Cabul river, across the Indus and Pun-
jaub, established or found already formed the kingdom of
Ayodhya, now Oude. He with his brother Krishna vanquish
Jara Sandha, king of Bahar. In these wars, the wild beasts,
with the bear, evidently' represent tribes from the high cold
regions, while Hanuman, with his monkey army, are the aborig-
inal race of the Vindhaya chain and lower districts, probably
lic must be sought in many volumes, scattered through the literature of
Europe.
* Mythologically, the holy mountain may be Dhawalagiri, the highest
mountain in the world, and in sight of the northern border of Oude, in
which case the Gogra, or more likely the gorge of the Gunduk, in long.
88, may have been the route followed from Thibet by Rama. The pass is
still frequented ; but one was more certainly from the north-west, and then,
with a tribe from Balk, the march was necessarily by the passes of Kohi-
baba. Yet the Hindo-Mongoli dialect shows that at least a conquering
people came down Himalaya, by the pass of the Goomty.
THE HUMAN 9
339
SPECIES:
Bheels; for Bhil, the god or native prince of this people, slew
Krishna with an arrow; and in another mythus likewise killed
Heri, one of the Påndoo brethren. Defeated or expelled his
conquest, Bali-Rama is related to have been an exile from
Oude, wandering with his wife Sita, who, being carried off by
the giant Ravan, king of Lanka, originated the war with the
Rakhshasas, cannibal giants, in Ceylon. After great opposi-
tion, the insular defence is surmounted by the bridge which
Hanuman makes of mountains to unite the island to the con-
tinent; and although Rama himself is at one time captured by
the Cauravas, the hero divinity and Sita are both released,
Ravan slain, and the powers he ruled destroyed. There is in
this mythus a religious war indicated, as well as a war of
races; the victory is evidently indecisive, since the conqueror
returns to northern India, and afterwards reigns in Oude. In
this great and brilliant poem is the first notice of the people of
Balkh, in Transoxiana, under the name of Bahlikas. They
are represented as a kind of fairy philosophers, residing in the
holy mountain, or sacred centre of religion; still bearing a cer-
tain resemblance to the revered and wise Scythians of the
Greek poets.
In the second period we have no longer wars of entirely dis..
tinct human stems, or at most with only the partial adhesions
of the Naga races to the invaders; they became wars of inva-
sion upon predecessors, or intestine conflicts among tribes
equally mixed: The Mahabarata mythologizes the worldly
interests of these nations into religious struggles between the
Pandoos and Kurus or Cauravas, the children of the moon and
the sun; which may be interpreted by the Celtic, or followers
of a lunar arlite doctrine, opposed to the semitic or solar wor-
ship, which belonged more probably to the people of the south.
The Pandoo brethren appear to be Gomerian Celtæ, sons of
Pandu and of Coonti, a princess of Mathura, sister of Heri and
Baldiva, the Indian Hercules. Coonti had, by several gods,
Yudistra, Bhima, Arjoon, Nycula, and Sydiva, all clearly his:
340
NATURAL HISTORY OF
torical heroes or tribes, enveloped in mythological and allegori-
cal forms; but the mythological circumstances being a parallel
of the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, they are necessarily older
than the ages of Bali-Rama, or of the Pandoo brethren.* They
are all importations from Balkh, modified in each region by
local ingredients. The historical Pandoos are first placed
geographically beneath Cashmere, in the hill country north of
Lahore, or, as others relate, the Pandian Raij was on the bor-
ders of the Jumna, with a tribe named Bahikas among them;
after their migration and wars in the south, they are established
in the Gomerian Celtic state, the present Carnatic, with Madura
for its capital. It is in this vicinity that frequent cromlechs,
locally denominated Pandoo Coolies, are to be found; and they
exist likewise near Bombay, where the caverns of Salsette, like
those of Elora (Yeroola), confirm that the Pandya tribes, like
Rama, originally came from beyond the Indus, and carried on
a religious war of conquest against nations who had a solar
worship. That they penetrated to Ceylon, may be surmised
from several striking coincidences in the oldest legends of the
island, when compared with the ancient western tales ascribed
by Welsh poets to the Druids. The significant prefix, Tre or
Ter, joined to towns and places, is even now as frequent on the
main land, and in the islands, as it is in the Celtic provinces
of Britain or France.t If Krishna, the blackener, a designa-
* It may be observed that the Pandoos are children of the watery ele.
· ment. Coonti is a native of the locality where the Indian deluge took
place ; Heri and Baldiva are solar personages, and the land of their birth
is still marked by numerous cromlechs.
+ Compare the Ceylonese legends in Upham, with the Celtic lale of
Iseult and Tristrem, where the dog with three different colored spots, red,
blue, and green, represents the candidate for orders in hardic druidism ;
and the five colors of the Hibernian are similarly typified by dogs in the
mystical language of the initialed. We name, hore a few localities, bcar-
ing the prefix ter, tre, tir ; Travancore State, Terepuney, Teruwalla, Tri-
vandrum, on the west coast; Trichindoor, Tirun, Tiripauramun, Teroomun-
galum, Teruchooly, Terumboor, Tripatoor, Teruvunpette, Trinchinopoly,
Tirnivalur, Tranquebar, Trinchingode, Tircoiloor, Triomalle, Tirovady,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
341
tion of the sun, likewise connected with the Pandoo mythus,
have a historical basis, approximating, though probably still
earlier than 1350 years before our era, it marks the period of
the Helio-Arkite superaddition to the most ancient northern
Caucasian system of a trinal supreme godhead, the Indian
Trimurthi,* one not unknown to the Celtæ of western Europe,
but where it succeeded the Helio-Arkite doctrines, or combined
with them, as was also the case in India, where Vishnou is the
Arkite savior, and belongs to a mythus more appropriately
ascribed to Gomerian Pandoos than to any other race east of
the Indus. To them also may belong the Gomerian practice
of wives becoming common to a whole family of males, such
as still obtains in the mountain parts of the peninsula, in the
Suleimanic range, west of the Indus, in Hindu Koh. It was,
in a more refined form, a dogma of the Hebrews, was not
unknown to the Britons, and put in practice by the Pandoos.
In this view, the Pandoo invasion of the lower peninsula
appears certainly to be more remote than four centuries B. C.,
and precedes even the ten assigned to it by the great authority
of Professor Wilson ; for, in that case, the Gomerian Celtæ of
the west would have reached their destination long before the
arrival of their kindred in the south; a region so much nearer
to the common point of departure. Were either of the above
admitted, it would subvert the natural connection evidently
existing between the east and west, and leave the source of a
variety of ideas, opinions, and usages, common to them, totally
inexplicable. They extend even-to Abyssinia, where the death-
wail, and many other usages, are similar to the Irish, and both
are unquestionably derived from the far east. If the westward
migration of these Hindoo Ethiop tribes were traced to its
origin, we might reſer one of them as a likely consequence of
Tripasson, Trivelore, to Trivalore, on the north of Madras, all in the
Carnatic, and Trincomallee, Tricoville, Tirrach, &c., in Ceylon.
* The same as Triemathur, on the north, Pendoran of the British, and
even Taregatanga of the Peruvians.
29*
342
NATURAL HISTORY OF
the severe civil war wherein a part of the Pandoos were
worsted. Colonel Todd, in his Rajahstan, points out the plains
of Caggar and Surawati, where the decisive conflicts took place,
when the fifty-six Yadhu tribes were at length broken, and
departed with Ardjoon and Bhima to unknown regions. We
find, in other mythical tales, the Asuras or Ashurs* eminently
religious and virtuous, according to the doctrines of the Vedas,
and therefore invincible, even by their gods, till the jealousy of
Vishnou suggests the expedient of preaching, in the form of
Budha, tenets still more humane; which, being adopted by the
Asuras, causes them to fall from the true religion; thence
become liable to defeat, and accordingly they are vanquished;
that is, the Brahman interest caused a religious war against
the Budha doctrines, admitted to be more humane than the
Vedanta ; a fact well known to be historical, though here
clothed in a mythic garb. Although the Asuras cannot be
mistaken for Assyrians, they may, nevertheless, have been
original Hasaures, Asii or Arii, the Indo-Germans of history;
for these have figured in northern India for many ages, some-
times being taken for Indo-Scythians, at others for Hyatili;
and it was probably this last swarm of invaders which de-
stroyed the city of Valhabi in Gujrat, about the year 524 of
our era. The ravages of conquest, ended in this latter case,
were of temporary influence. The Rajpoots and Catties
(Cuthæi), who were themselves only predecessors of the Indo-
Scythæ in the north-west of India, recovered their power on
the east side of the Indus, and still show the blood of High
Asia in their stature and color, even to the extent of gray eyes
and light-colored hair, observable in some families; though, in
general, they have high Arab or rather Hebrew features. Per-
* Here the Asi are admitted to be wise and virtuous. They came from
the same region as the Bablika priesthood ; were terrible in war, typified
by their monster heads, and were, perhaps, the Arai or Mahratta colonists,
The Asuras were sons of Diti, wife of Kasyapa ; which again gives a
mountain origin to these Titans.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
343
i
haps the Sixth Avatar, where it is related that Vishnou, in the
form of Parasha Rama, destroyed the Chetrie, Xeterie, or
warrior caste, may signify that the Arkite Pandoo States were
able to defeat the Rajpoots in their endeavors to penetrate into
southern India. ..
Soon after the period of Alexander's invasion, further dis-
locations took place; a portion of the Cuthai (Cathai), however,
remained, but the Malli, it seems, were already driven to the
southern Ghauts, probably by Arachosian or Affghan conquer-
ors, who, for many ages, held sway from the sources of the
Cophis or Cabul river, across the Indus, to the Hyphasis or
Sutlej, and caused the Indian empire to be regarded as extend-
ing westward to the confines of Persia. Most of the tribes,
whose names occur in the histories of Alexander, and that can
now be deciphered in Indian geography, are no longer in the
plains, but form clans in the mountains.
The variously mixed races from the north-west and north-
east, with the aboriginal Papua tribes, can be traced by the
deepening color of their skins towards the south, and by the
greater remains of true. Papua features, taking into account
anomalies of circumstances. It is so, likewise, with the influx
of Sanscrit; becoming less prominent in the south, where Pali
prevails, and it is also marked by the Brahmanic system of
religion, the Vedanta creed becoming more and more modified
by other idolatries, and by the Budha doctrines taking refuge
in Ceylon, where it appears to have incorporated a whole native
demonolatry. This last religious institution was, with its Naga
worship, no doubt, established during the period when the
peninsula of India was still in the power of the Papua tribes,
and was sufficiently exciting to have been carried westward,
not only by migrating Negroes, but also by the Ethiopic Stem,
by Mongols, and even Gomerians, in their progress to Europe.
India being at that early period a scene of conflict, the invaders
found sovereignties either already established, or formed them
by degrees, as their irruptions became permanent. In the
344
NATURAL HISTORY OF
north-east, the Euro-Caucasians established on the left of the
Ganges the state of Tirhut; Canya Cubja occupied the upper
parts of the river. Sereswati, the present Punjaub and Utkala
contained the greater part of Bengal. On the south and west
there arose Gujara, Rushtra, or Gujrat, Patala on the Lower
Indus, with other kingdoms already named. Khandeish, fur-
ther to the south, Mura, or kingdom of Mahrustra, now Mah-
ratta State, subdued, perhaps, by Arii or Arai, in the centre,
with the Dekhan and Kanara, on the extreme point of the
peninsula. But sanguinary and protracted wars alone permit-
ted the white races to become dominant and to effect a gradual
intermixture.
Wars, producing total subjugation, by one race over another,
bear the character of extermination ; they necessitate the weaker
party to seek safety in flight and migration : nor is the result
very different where the races are already partially intermixed,
for then a ruling caste, descended from the last victors, is driven
to the same course, or to total loss of all supremacy, unless the
chances of the conflict are sufficiently chequered to cause the ear.
lier and later invaders to coalesce by compromise. Now, if the
Pandoo heroes, with Ardjoon and Bhima at their head, departed
after the defeat of the Yadhu tribes, there is little doubt that
the direction of their retreat was westward, and constituted
one of those migrations of the Asiatic Ethiop race, which was
afterwards conspicuous in southern Persia, as a portion of the
so-called Indo-Arabs, who were ultimately driven from Yemen,
and passed to Abyssinia, or formed the Cushite people of Afri-
can Ethiopia.* Tribes of this class were most assuredly the
* If Nimrod, as is asserted, was a Cuthite king, ruling from the first
in Assyria, the Babel which preceded Babylon was a city of Ethiopians,
with Caucasian or Finnic rulers, probably the Gaurs, who seem to be ideu-
tical with the Gordei, who may still be represented by the Coords of the
present day. Nineveh, &c., were capitals of northern districts, but the
resident population, between the Tigris and Euphrates, was Ethiopian ;
since Mesopotamia, now Djezirat, was encompassed by the river. This cir-
cumstance, and the swarthy Colchians of Herodotus, gives the northern
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
345
element which formed the Aurite population of Upper Egypt,
for they still retain peculiarities of structure observed in the
present Malabars.* Others, less swarthy, were colonists of
Lower Egypt, constituting the Misr population, of whose
progress we have already adduced proofs, by the plants and
animals which they could not have possessed, but by depart-
ing originally from High Asia, and, subsequently, from the
vicinity of the upper Indus; and the further progress they
made is likewise to be traced by the symbolical lions in their
sculptures being invariably maneless; a character which marks
the variety of that formidable animal existing only in the
southern portions of ancient Sindh, Persia and Arabia ; while
the typical species, if the symbol had been adopted from the
African, would most assuredly have been figured with a huge
mane.
Some hordes had preceded them across the Nile, to form
a portion of the Mauritanian and Nubian populations, which,
we have already shown, were in part driven by the Arabs, at
a later period, across the Sahara, to commix with the Negroes
on the Gambia, and are now Poulas, Jaloffs, and Mandingos.
Others departing by sea, probably from Ceylon, reached as far
as Madagascar, where they found already the Ompizee canni-
bals, while they formed themselves the tribes of black Malgash
Voalzis, Ondeva of the present time. These were followed
by Semitic clans of Indo-Arabs, whose kindred we have seen
in the Australian Islands, and who, on the shores of eastern
Africa, commenced, under the names of Joasmees and Jacal-
vas, the same profession of pirates. These, in common with
the Habesh, influenced the whole of the south with opinions
limit of the Ethiopian extension, that is, as far as the boundaries of the
date tree and the habitation of the ostrich.
* Among others the large eyes and long legs, which may be the origin
of the legend of the Macroceli, Tala-gangha, a tribe of ancient India ;
but we think the present Catties of Kutch are descended from conquering
Cathai of High Asia, giving the naine, and forming the master tribe of
the original Papua Aurites along the coast.
346
NATURAL HISTORY OF
and parts of speech; and they modified the characteristic dis-
tinctions of the Negro people within contact, as is evident in
the Caffre and Galla nations.
There remain now only a few more remarks to make on the
Ethiopic tribes in primæval Arachosia, Aria, and Syria, simi-
larly originating in commixture between Arab or Melanic Cau-
casians and Papua races. They are traceable by the denomi-
nations of Nimreks, Dombuks, and Kakasiah - the black
brethren of ancient legends: and the antiquity of occupation
in Western Asia is attēsted by the same documents ; for these
races are stated in Arabian lore to be pre-Adamite, and the
localities they held at one time are perhaps marked by the resi-
dence of the black giant, Sukrage, one of the seventy-two Sul-
tauns who reigned in Kaf before Argenk, another giant of
tradition. Kaf,* an Arabian name for the great central table
land of Asia, is here referred to a particular locality, perhaps
the chain of Demavend, or one of the several peaks bearing,
the name of Alburs, or, rather, Kohi-Baba, where Argenk’s.
palace is described to have been adorned with statues of mon-
sters, endowed with reason, “such as existed in former crea-
tions." There were pictures upon the walls relating to those
* Neither Kondemir nor Mirkhond are the inventors of these traditions ;
for Kaf was, in Arabian lore, a mountain, "enclosed like a ring surround-
ing a finger," and "the sun rose and set from Kaf to Kaf.” It denotes
the high land of Asia. The Sakrat binge of the world is Himalaya, and
was the region wherein the deeve hird Simurg or Simorganka tells Temu-
rab he had served forty Sultauns, his predecessors, and had seen the crea-
tion renewed seven times. Kaf, when particularized in the Shah Nameh,
is evidently Kolibaba, which, with its two passes, was best known among
the elevated peaks on the western front of the great plateau ; and there it
appears Zohauk is likewise fabled to have had his fastness, though another
of the name is placed in the middle of Lake Zurrah.
The number of seventy-two Sultauns, compared with the forty Solimans,
indicate the priority of residence in easternmost Persia to have been on
the side of the sable races. According to Arabian notions of geography,
Kohi-Kaf is situated between the habitations of Iran and Ginnistan.
" Taric Tebri." See also “d'Herbelot, in voce Soliman ben Daoud."
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
347
times, poetical embellishments in the legend, which, since the
late discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh, show that the narra-
tions are drawn from buildings adorned with Andro-Sphinxes,
Sirens, and Taurine monsters, similar to those of Persepolis.
The locality may even be much more towards the north and
east, since a sculptured sphinx has been discovered about the
Altaic gold mines, and similar objects are frequent in the
ruins of ancient cities about the river Amour, in Chinese Tar-
tary. The name of Temendoun, a giant with one hundred
arms, defeated by Kayomurs, first king of Persia, but who
escaped and fled to Oman, in Arabia; one more, named An-
thalous (Antæus), with a thousand arms, who was captured
and sentenced to death by Soliman Ben Hakki, who could
never accomplish his decree, indicate that they are reminis-
cences of ancient legends, notwithstanding the evident plagia-
risms from Greek fables and Hindoo relations, and that the
color, the direction of the flight, and the indestructible charac-
ter of these enemies, whose many arms imply the strength of
their forces, and the region and antiquity of their occurrence.
They are, moreover, countenanced by others, such as the ante-
diluvian sovereigns Mahabad, "Father of mankind;" Biurasp,
“King before, the flood;" and Gilshah, “The first man;"
all mythical records of the first Caucasian invasions from the
high lands, and the wars they waged upon the black popula-
tions in possession of the land. If the relation of Herodotus
can be admitted, they were in his time not quite extinct in Col-
chis. The evidence of their blood remains marked in the
present Bedoueen Arabs; it was unquestionable in the race of
Ham in Chaldea and Syria; in the Ethiopia of southern Per-
sia, Persis, Chusistan, and Susiana ; in Arabia Deserta, from
the southern coasts of the Indus to the Straits of Bab-el-Man-
deb, and in Upper Egypt to Nubia and Cordofan.
The Shah Nameh furnishes traces of their wars with the
Iranians, and Asiatic Ethiopians are historically noticed in the
time of Xerxes. The whole region, from Hindostan to Lybia,
348
NATURAL HISTORY. OF
was anciently, and even is now by Orientals, frequently denomi-
nated India. Like their ancestors, the population still forms
a mixed race, having in general ruling families of a white
origin; sometimes named Getæ (Goths), Germanii of Kerman-
shah. Strabo (lib. vii.) makes Pyrebestas (Abu Rebbia) rule
the Getæ. Ammianus calls Arabia the desert of the Getæ ;
and the Beni-Ghour (children of the swamp) are still regarded
as a fair race, descended from that stock.
• It is in this territory, and adjoining Egypt, that in the ear-
liest antiquity a very considerable civilization is detected,
because the confluence of nations moving westward obliged
concentration at the isthmus, in order to reach the lower Nile,
and in this manner they became .conversant with each other's
discoveries in the arts of life, and saw the dawn of commerce
opening by the mariners of Sidon.
... Whether the Imilikon, or Amalekites, were of the same
mixed stem, does not clearly appear; but that the Phænicians,
Punes, Fynes, so far as the master tribes are concerned, were
Finns, is exceedingly probable, since a red-haired race neces-
sarily must have come from the northern parts of Asia ; and
if the language they spoke was in the historical era almost a
pure Hebrew, the cause is easily discovered, since a white com-
munity, of no great strength, had gradually increased to a
series of cities, whereof the vast superiority of inhabitants were
Semitics and southern strangers, who, from the period of the
first conquest of Phænicia, acquired political power; whereas,
until then, they had perhaps only possessed a certain preëmi-
nence in the refinements of civilization. The Phænician power
was long settled before the arrival of the Hebrews in Pales-
tine, and it was not regarded by them in the same light as the
upland tribes of Canaan, since political and commercial alli-
conditions which could not have been maintained if the Punic
race had not been of a very distinct origin from the Canaan-
ite.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
349
EGYPT.
If the isthmus of the Red Sea was already closed on the
Mediterranean side, when the first human population came to
the western shores of Asia, it may be assumed that the delta
of the Nile was not yet so consolidated as to offer any firm
footing beyond the sands on the beach; while the marshy
fens within them were, as yet, only beginning to form the pres-
ent lower province. Gradually the valley was occupied, from
the head of the first bifurcation of the river, up to the cataracts,
by a population of very distinct origin, cemented together by
causes not now accessible to investigation ; for here three
nations, at least, adopted the same system of civilization, and
ainalgamated together from different sources of migration,
elaborating a state religion, and peculiar social institutions,
whatever difference there might be else in tribal speech and
local doctrines. The oldest of these nations had been pushed
up the river by succeeding immigrations, and was of true
Ethiopic character, Indo-Arab, deb or black, and since known
by the names of Aurites, or Abarites. It was apparently com-
posed of tribes expelled the coast of Malabar, and distinguished
by the more elevated position of the ears, by large dark eyes,
strong curly hair, long legs, thick lips, and very swarthy color:
the second, a brown race, with lank hair, were the Misr, or
Mestrai (Misraim of antiquity), said to have been led by Masr;
but all these names indicate a mixed race, which both were;
and the third, governed by a fairer high-featured tribe of real
Caucasians, were most likely the last comers, and in part a
privileged body of conquerors; they were, collectively, the
Gouptas, Koptos, said to have followed the mythological
Menes,* who first nestled in the marshes of the delta, and
* Menes, the same as Manu, who binds the ark to the peak of Hima-
yahn ; and Meru, whose holy mountain was west of Cabul, near Bamean,
and ancestor of Rama; but it may be a name for Joktan.
30
350
NATURAL HISTORY OF
most likely came by sea from Asia Minor. They obtained
and kept the ruling power, the Pharaonic crown and priest-
hood, for ages, in their hands, although they were neither the
authors of the civilization, nor of the religious doctrines of the
land. The enormous army, with excessive privileges, main-
tained by the state, and forces often called in from abroad,
warrant this opinion. The conjecture is strengthened by the
prohibition the government gave to all marine enterprise on
the, Red Sea, and the early and long continuance of suprem-
acy it exercised over Syria; and, finally, by the reminiscence
of hostilities in High Asia, which prompted the greatest of the
Egyptian kings to make repeated inroads as far as Bactria,
though ever with ephemeral results. At length the sceptre
passed from them to the Cushites, who, in time, were again
subdued by new hordes of High Asia; while the Cushite nation
secured the coast of Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt, up to the
Port of Aphrodite; this was the Ethiopia of Africa, Thosh, or
Etaush, and Kush, still called Kish in the country. Both the
Cushite and Aurite people had Caucasian or white chiefs, since,
even at this day, Dongola women are prized, because they are
comparatively fair. Leaders, like the expelled Pandoos, led
them, by coasting, till they crossed over from the Arabian side
to the Egyptian. Coming from the Indus, the Aurites ascended
still higher, to the head of the Red Sea, as we are expressly
told by Syncellus. They passed by the Wadi Sendeli, still
named Derb-Tuarikh, and thence spread from Memphis to
Thebes; for, had they been mere wanderers through deserts,
their gods, in after ages, would not have been invariably placed
in boats, nor would there have been, annually, a festival, when
these idols were sent from below to visit others up the river, in
splendid barges.* The origin of such a ceremony could only
* Diluvian records abound with all the Caucasian and cognate races.
There are, probably, more than one hundred fabulous legends, religious
and mythical, where the patriarch and his family are designated under
different names, circumstances, and localities. Even in Palestinians iscre
THE HUMAN SPECIÉS.
351
be derived from a commemoration of their first landing, or
their original departure from the east, confounded with a
diluvian tradition; notwithstanding, that record is so deep
rooted, that, even to this day, in Arabia, the Arabs do not call
out an army, where many tribes are collected, without bearing
at the head of it a reminiscence of the ark, in the shape of a
wooden frame, placed on the back of a strong camel, and
adorned with ostrich feathers, which they call Merkeb (the
ship).
The styles of sculpture, architecture, and excavation, not-
withstanding the remote period of their origin, have more
affinity to the Bactrian Hindoo than to any other colossal,
ponderous detail; such as a compound of what remains of
Nineveh and the earliest cavern temples would produce,
showing traces of the natural development of art, when work-
ing upon the same kind of materials with similar means. The
statues retain the normal pillar form in all; but the parts of
architectural combination advanced beyond mere excavation,
as it still was in the most ancient cavern temples of India ; not
so complete and less appropriate than the Egyptian, indicating
an older date, though it was wielded in both regions by sacer-
dotal supremacies over great populations. The system of wor-
ship in Egypt was likewise allied to the Indian, though both,
no doubt, had their revolutions, innovations, and successive
incorporations of foreign elements. British sepoys, forming
part of the expedition that was to coöperate with General Sir
Ralph Abercrombie in the re-conquest of Egypt, no sooner
entered the ancient temples in the valley of the Nile, than
they asserted their own divinities were discovered on the
walls, and worshipped them accordingly. They even pointed
were four or five, all greatly distorted from the true narrative in the Pen-
tateuch. One or other of these Indian migrators revived the Neel of
India in the Nile of Africa ; for, unless the notion had begun in Egypt,
all antiquity, to the time of Alexander, would not have been led to believe
that the African stream had its source in India.
352
NATURAL HISTORY OF
out the Cresvaminam, or Brahmin distinguishing cord, as like-
wise a decoration of the painted divinities.
Few traces of Aramean or Japetian languages are percepti-
ble in the constituents of the ancient Egyptian and modern
Copthic. The Hebrew and Arabic are comparatively of recent
introduction. Originally the Egyptian form was monosyllabic,
essentially different from both, though the Canaanite nations
of the same stock spoke a dialect of Chaldee, which in itself
appears to be an evanescent tongue, and might have been pre-
ceded in Syria by a different form, as it was subsequently suc-
ceeded by others, since geographical localities of ancient Pales-
tine were constantly indicated by two very different denomina-
tions. The Egyptian, no doubt, consisted of a sacred dialect;
one which was used in all written documents, sacred and legal,
while very diverging forms of speech belonged to different parts
of the kingdom. There was, particularly, one in the Delta,
another in Upper Egypt, and most likely the Cuthic above the
cataracts. Uch and Pharaoth, the most ancient words for king,
may nevertheless be both epithets, the first denoting high,
eminent;* and the second, a mutation of Phre or Phra, recurs
in the Pelhevic proper names of ancient Persia, where it desig-
nates command or leadership; while in Egypt the same word
seems to have been appropriated to the sun, to exaltation and
beauty, in which sense it is equivalent to the Theotisk Frai,
Norsk Fager, handsome. Goshen or Goshan, in Egypt, and
Gauzan in Mesopotamia, do not denote a temple of the sun,
but literally the cow-land, the cattle-country.
name of Rab, since in Hebrew it was called Rahab. For ages
it gave shelter to pirates and roving clans, which, when they
had remained fixed during a certain period, had no means of
* Uch. See Manetho. It may be remarked, that there was a tribe of
Uchii east of Persis proper, and that it was, according to Volateranus,
from among this people the gypsey tribes first came forth. Uchii were,
therefore, Highlanders.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
353
1
résuming their marine course of life, because wood för raſts
and vessels was always scarce or wanting, the tall reeds and
rushes suffering none except the palm-tree to flourish. This
was the cause, it may be believed, why the Kapthorim, after
leaving Kapthor or Cappadocia, wandering onwards by Rhodes,
Crete, and Cyprus, till they rested for a period in the Tanitic
arm of the Nile, were obliged to migrate by land to Palestine.
There were also the Sinim and Phænicians in the western
arm, and Greek adventurers on the bank near Damietta ;
others, most likely, were absorbed in the Egyptian people, or
passed onward to the west. Several of these tribes are, by
classical authorities, placed in connection with the Hyper:
boreans, or rather the Finnic races, a branch of which may
have been the Hyksos (or Shepherds), with the more proba-
bility, as the earliest Armenian language is known to have
contained a great proportion of words belonging to that stem of
nations, and the Armenian people were styled Haikos or Haik
wearers, which is the same as Hyksos. They are even made
to be the same as the Cathai, Beni Kous, who may have been
the Kufa of High Asia opposed to Sesostris, the fair-haired
nation of the ancient Arabian records, and the present
Nesearies of the hills; so early were the invasions from the
north-east towards Egypt, and so confused become nations
when the ruling tribe and the masses are of different typical
forms.
Above the Egyptian races, the Nubian, Nuba, or swarthy
Cushite people, were fixed at a remote age, though Syncellus
and their own traditions represent them to be colonists from
the banks of the Indus; and the claim is countenanced by the
local names of Kutch, Gujerat, Cattywar, provinces on the
east side of the present delta of the river; and the circum-
stance, that the Abyssinian kings were, and still are, styled
Nagas, while in the most ancient kingdoms of the delta of the
Indus or Neel, denominated Patala, the Naga or Serpent was
D
30*
354
NATURAL HISTORY OF
and formed a great power in Arabia Felix, till the present
Arabians compelled them to cross the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
They returned, however, more than once, to hold dominion
in Yemen, carrying the first coffee-plant with them from
Africa, and continuing to hold up the commercial prosperity of
the country to the time of the Hegira. Since the decline of
the Abyssinian empire, subordinate kings still retain the
ancient title; such, for instance, as that of Bahar Negash, or
king of the plain, &c.* The Nubian people are of the same
origin, mixed with Arabs of the Rebiah tribe about Ibrim, and
more pure from thence to Tinareh in the hills. It was from
this region (Etaush) that queens, denominated Candace, became
historical personages;t and the case of the eunuch baptized
by the apostle Philip, shows that the Hebrew Scriptures were
studied before the advent, even as far up as Abyssinia, and
that persons of the progeny of Ham came up to Jerusalem to
worship.
To trust solely in the linguistic character of nations, where
slavery, polygamy, and where barter and violence alike daily
interchange crowds of captives, is at best unsafe ; all unwritten
dialects, and even permanent nationality, become dubious;
consequently manners are greatly varied with the circum-
stances of existence.
* Apophis, supposed to be the Pharaoh visited by Abraham, may have
Python. If he were the Apophis slain by Horus, we would have an
approximate date for the known system of Egyptian religion.
Ť Candace does not appear to have been a proper name, but a title, per-
haps a mutation of Khan or Kong. In that case, Thosh or Taush would
denote tusk. Etaush, the land of ivory, which would again indicate the
ruling power to have originated in a northern or high mountain race of
conquerors.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
355
THE ATLANTICS OR BERBERS.
On the north of Africa many wanderers landed from the sea,
and migrators from the valley of the Nile were pushed onwards
over the Nubian high land.
THE NUMIDIANS.
One of these seems to have reached that region rather
late, if they already possessed horses at the time of their
arrival and were the Numidians of Roman history, cele-
brated for the small and active horses which the warriors
rode without saddle or bridle, guiding them with a rod,
or at best with a rope passed round the lower jaw. But
we take them to have been a distinct and later invasion,
and sufficiently evanescent to have passed away into Negro
tribes, since the supremacy of the Arabians became estab-
lished.
THE AMAZIGH,
Or Berbers, properly so called, extending from the Nile to
the Atlantic, are now, under the name of Shelluhs, most
numerous in the glens of Atlas, where they occupy villages in
the south and east of Morocco, with habits not totally lawless
nor inhospitable. But several of the tribes differ greatly from
them, such as the Errifi of the province of Rif, who are among
the most ferocious of human beings, and the Kabyles, Koubals,
tribes speaking the Showiah language, which is believed to
contain a considerable quantity of Numidian roots. There
are other Berber tribes, that are miners, and manufacturers of
gun-powder, gun-barrels, knives, black soap, &c. These are
again referred to the Numidian people, passing gradually
356
NATURAL HISTORY OF
into the Poulah and Jaloffs, who, alone among the Negroes,
have horses and camels.
THE SUAKIM.
· East and south of the Nile this great stem seems to pass
into Suakim troglodytes, who are referred to the ancient
Kahtan Arabs, black by blood, which, if it be correctly viewed,
the filiation of this branch of the Ethiopian stem is marked
out from beyond the Indus to the west coast of Morocco.
To the troglodyte race belong the Ababde, mistaken for Arabs,
though they have the Negro mouth and color, occupying a
great space between the Red Sea and the Nile. They are
conductors of caravans from Sennaar, and spoken of with
approbation.
The Gomera, a relic of an almost extinct and unknown
people, still occupy a portion of the district of Rif in Morocco,
living in harmony with the Shelluhs, and possibly descended
from those marine Celts, who, in early ages, came down the
coasts of Africa, where they left the cairns, peulvans, and
cromlechs, which the Romans at more than one place called
Philænian altars, particularly those found near Cyrene, and on
the salt lake ; and there is another, distinguished by the name
of El-Uted (the Peg), still existing on the Aguache river, in
Barbary. It is perhaps also this tribe of Gomera who speak a
Celtic dialect, said to be still intelligible to Welsh seamen, and
asserted to be likewise understood on the south-west coast of
Spain and Portugal. They are graziers; and it may be
observed, that, in Sanscrit, Gomed denotes an ox; Gomera, in
this case, like Gwalla in Asia, and Galla in Africa, being
denominations for oxman, neatherd.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
357
THE TUARIKHS.
THOUGH both the Tibboos and Tuarikhs are nearly pure
Caucasians, we notice them here on account of the remote
antiquity they claim, and the thrifty character they bear; the
last mentioned, in particular, are habitually engaged in
marauding to make slaves for sale, or in commercial transac-
tions at annual fairs, and conducting caravans to the nations
of Soudan, Bornou, and Timbuctoo. The language they
speak is not Arabic, is as yet little known, the natives assert-
ing it to be the most ancient in the world. If the Roman
Numidians still retain a national existence, it is perhaps
among these tribes that they should be sought. The Tibboos,
residing in the middle of Negro tribes, between Fez and Bor-
nou, are partly nomads, hospitable and moderate beyond all
other tenants of the desert.
We may place here the gypsy tribes, the Zingari, Zigeuner
of Germany, Bohemians of the French, Karashu of Kurdistan,
who, notwithstanding they speak a dialect of Hindoostan, and
betray by their color a positive intermixture with Papua blood,
have nevertheless the crania of Asiatic Finns, and are known
to have dwelt among the southernmost tribes of that stem
before they came towards the west. As they may have
detected Finnic words in the Cophtic, since Klaproth discovered
several in the ancient language of Egypt, there is some reason
for the claim set up by these roving families for affinity with a
Nilotic population, since they have a similar right to that of
Persia and Bokhara, and kindred tribes are among the wan-
derers of Northern Africa. They are, indeed, first observed to
have traversed portions of Southern Tahtary. Some visited
Armenia, Syria, and Egypt; and others, about the year 1400,
passed onwards through Poland to Bohemia, and finally
extended to England and Spain.
We have hitherto shown how typical and aberrant races of
358
NATURAL HISTORY OF
inan have evidently proceeded eccentrically from the vicinity
of the table land of High Asia, so far as the proceeding can be
traced by geographical necessities, which in most cases have
operated like positive laws, and are corroborated by history
when hurnan scripta have recorded the facts. Let us now see
how the saine conditions of Man's primæval swarming can be
career is so much better known than that of the preceding
races.
THE BEARDED, INTERMEDIATE, OR CAUCASIAN TYPE,
Is so named, because neither of the two other typical
forms is distinguished by a well-grown beard. Intermediate
form is applicable with reference to the boreal and tropical
position of the other types. The appellation of Caucasian
remains likewise appropriate, when understood to apply to the
Indian or true Caucasus, or Imaus of the ancients, for by these
names the region of Hindu-Koosh and the vicinity must be
understood; and it is to that locality careful examination ulti-
mately traces the first habitation of at least the white races of
sufficiently correct, is still not quite admissible for the whole,
since the color varies from pure white down to melanisin
nearly as deep as a genuine Negro. Albinism is frequent;
* Caucasus of Western Asia is a name transferred with many others
from the central region of the old continent. It seems to be derived from
Koh-Cas, or Hindu-Koh, and includes, besides that region, also Paropa-
missus, Emodus Imaus, or Western Himalaya, with numerous and
elevated peaks, and the high lands of the Arii or Asii. Kohi-Baba, the
apparently highest point of the whole, appears to be the local Kaf of
Arabian tradition.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
359
and both the phenomena of an entire horny skin and of total
hirsuteness seem to belong exclusively to the bearded type.
It being to the form under consideration that the tribes class
that have peopled Europe and Western Asia almost exclu-
sively, its typical characters are easily ascertained. The
·beard is neither villous nor woolly, but spreading over the lips,
chin, and the whole of the nether jaw. It fringes the sides of
the face up to the temples, and is crisp, curly, or undulating,
but never quite straight or lank, as in the Mongolian. The
skull is larger than in the other forms; it is oblong, rounded,
with the cerebral portion more developed, containing from 75
to 109 cubic inches; the facial angle is more vertical, rising
from 75 degrees to nearly 90. The face is oval, the eyes
large, open, horizontal, the pupils passing from hazel or brown,
on one hand, to dark, néarly black, and on the other to deep
blue, gray, light blue, and even greenish (pink-colored pupils
occur only in extreme cases of albinism); the hair is abundant
on the head, curly, waving, or lank, varying in shades of colors
from very deep brown to auburn, xanthous, and fiery red, usu-
ally corresponding, but not always, to the beard and eyebrows,
and sometimes from infancy marked with gray, which, in
advancing life, in both sexes, is sure to come on, till the whole
is turned white. In general, the hair harmonizes with the
complexion, which varies, in the white races, from sallow to
ruddy and fair. Health has its influence on the color of the
. skin, in all races; but in the fair the cheeks are frequently
colored; the typical races have the mouth small, the teeth set
vertically, the lips not tumid, and more delicately graceful in
outline; the nose is more prominent, and the wings less spread
than in the other forms of man; nor is the nether jaw so angu-
lar. The forehead is broad, often high, the occipital part less
developed, and the arch of the cranium less solid.
Man of the bearded type attains the highest standard, is, in
general, above the middle size, and in symmetry excels all the
others : the arms are in better proportion, the hands more beau.
360
NATURAL HISTORY OF
tifully shaped, and the feet and toes more delicate, and more
obliqucly arranged. His movements are more decisive of pur-
pose, more graceful; the poise of his head places the counte-
nance vertically to the horizon.* The shoulders are ample,
the chest broad, the ribs firm, and the loins well turned; the
thighs, and, in particular, the calves of the legs, symmetrical;
the whole frame constructed for the endurance of every kind of
toil, being protected in some measure with a partial growth of
hair, which is scarcely traceable in the other types excepting
on the chest. Thus he is constructed with physical powers
equal to his intellectual organization, fitted to sustain protracted
thought, — continuous attention, alike excited by an activity
of disposition stimulating his brain, which is larger and more
fully developed in the anterior portion than in any other form
of Man. In the mere animal senses of sight, hearing, feeling,
smell, and tasting, the social position of civilized nations may
render them, in part, less quick, because they are less called
into activity; but the Kaufir mountaineer of Hindu-Koosh, and
the Arab wanderer, are, no doubt, equal, if not superior, to the
acutest perception of Negro, American, or any other wild race
in the world. Again, the Caucasian form of Man combines,
above the rest, strength of limb with activity of motion,
enabling it to endure the greatest vicissitudes of temperature
in all climates, — to emigrate, colonize, and multiply in them,
* A weighı being placed on the head, such as when a Dutch milk-maid
skates lo market, the leavy pail is so poised upon a kind of pad, that it
bears equally on the dome of the cranium ; so, also, is water carried by
the abnormal Egyptian peasantry. In both, the weight rests on the per-
pendicular axis of the body, through the centre of the skull; whereas, in
the Negro, weight on the head is always poised nearer the forehead, and,
consequently, the chin is clevated. With the Mongolian and American,
the strain appears to be downward, the muscles of the neck being rigid.
Weight is carried, not on the shoulders, like a Caucusian, nor on the
head, like the woolly-haired races, but by a strap pressing against the
forehead and passing to the back. Truē Caucasians trust to the shoulders
and loins.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
361
with the sole exception of the positive extremes. His longevity
is more generally protracted, even in the midst of the enervating
habits of high civilization; his solid fibre gives a reasoned self-
possession and daring in vicissitudes, arising from the passions,
from accident, or from the elements; and his reflective powers
find expedients to brave danger with self-possession and
impunity.
The moral and intellectual character we find to be in unison
with his structure : the reasoning powers outstripping the mere
process of comparing sensations, and showing, in volition, more
elevated thought, more reasoning, justice, and humanity: he
alone of the races of mankind has produced examples of free
and popular institutions, and his physical characteristics have
maintained them in social life. By means of his logical intel-
lect, he has arrived at ideas requisite for the acquisition of
abstract truths; resorting to actual experiment, he fixed bases
whereon to build demonstrable inſerences, when the positive
facts are not otherwise shown; he invented simple arbitrary
characters to represent words and musical sounds, and a few
signs which, nevertheless, denote, in their relative positions,
all the possible combinations of numbers and quantity; he has
measured tiine and distance, making the sideral bodies uner-
ring guides to mark locality and give nautical direction; he
has ascended to the skies, descended into the deep, and
mastered the powers of lightning. By mechanical researches
the bearded man has assuaged human toil, multiplied the
results of industry, and created a velocity of locomotion superior
to the flight of birds. By his chemical discoveries he has
modified bodily pain, and produced numberless discoveries
useful in medicine, in arts and manufactures. He has found
a sound and connected system of the sciences in general, and
acquired a critical literature, while, for more than three thou-
sand years, he has been the principal possessor of all human
knowledge, and the assertor of fixed laws. He has instituted
all the great religious systems in the world, and to his stock
31
362
NATURAL HISTORY OF
has been vouchsafed the glory and the conditions of revela-
tion.
The Caucasian type alone continues in rapid development,
covering with nations every congenial latitude, and portending,
at no distant era, to bear rule in every region, if not by physi-
cal superiority, at least by that dominion which religion,
science, and enterprise confer. Constituting, as we here show,
the most important, the most elevated, and highly organized
type of Man, it becomes interesting to search out the original
seat where geographical as well as historical and legendary
evidence attest it was cradled, and whence, under the con-
ditions of existence which now surround it, fair induction
shows the great races of this stock commenced to radiate in all
directions.
Egyptian antiquity, when not claiming priority of social
existence for itself, often pointed to the regions of Habesh, or
high African Ethiopia, and sometimes to the north, for the seat
of gods and demigods, because both were the intermediate
stations of the progenitor tribes. The Hellenic nations, when
they searched for their own aboriginal source, a part of their
ignorant vanity, sought them in the farthest north, beyond the
dominions of Thrace, and knew of moral Lactophagi, of gods
and sages, among the Hyperboreans, which could be no nearer
than the Borysthenes or Dnieper. Ionia and Western Asia
claimed those sources of nationality for the high lands beyond
the Euphrates, or for Armenia, where the language was partly
Finnic, and further north-east on the Oxus, where the forms
of speech were still more Hyperborean. Even Delos had three
priestesses, natives of the distant north; and Olen, a high
priest, whose name is so thoroughly Finnic as to be still com-
mon in Scandinavia. But modern research, without rejecting
these facts, has shown that they lead, always, to regions still
further east, Hindu-Koosh, Cabul, and the Suleimanic range,
high lands, probably designated, in a general form, by the
Sanscrit name of Ariavartha, — the high, the holy land of the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
363
Hindoós, whence all the conquering races of the type first
brought their heroes, demigods, and legislators; the whole,
both of the south and the east, ultimately pointing to Thibet as
the cradle of the Caucasian Man.
At the western extremity of the Himalaya chain, beneath
the plateau of Thibet, is situated the bàsin of Cashmere, sur-
rounded on all sides by lofty mountains, and peaks covered
with lasting snow. From this region flow four or five con-
siderable affluents, which give its principal importance to the
Indus. Where this great stream, by the natives called the
Sind and Neelab, breaks from the north through the mountain
gorge, commences Hindu-Koh, the real Caucasus and Imaus
elevated that the greater portion is covered with permanent
snow. The central mountain system is overlooked by the peak
of Hindu-Koh, the culminating point, though others, like
Kooner, to the east, and Kohi-Baba, at the western extremity,
rise, one more than 15,000, and the other to 18,000 feet above
the sea. From the vicinity of the last, the region is bounded
on the north by the first feeders of the Oxus, forming another
Punjaub, and on the south by the river Cabul, which, passing
the foot of the Kohi-Baba (the special Kaf of oriental fiction),
flows eastward to the Indus, forming one of the richest valleys
in the world for every species of cultivation. Further south,
beyond the peaks of Suffeed Koh, commence spurs or prolonga-
tions, passing nearly at right angles from the main chain.
One, the most western, lower than the other, is the Ghiljee,
and the other, more elevated, forming the occidental side of
the valley of the Indus, soon rises to a chain, which contains,
further south, the peak of the Dove, where, at a remote period,
it was already fabled that the ark rested, according to the
legends of Northern India. It is not less than 12,000 feet in
elevation, and now known by the appellation of Takt-y-
From Hindu-Koosh, a lofty chain; now known by the name
364
NATURAL HISTORY OF
of Ghoor, continues westward, and is said to have been more
particularly the Parvati Montes, or ancient Paropamissus of
Ptolemy. Further on, we find another Takt-y-Soleimaun, as
well as a third at Och, on the Syr-Deriah, or Jaxartes. All
Arabic names in central Asia are, however, of recent imposition.
Then we have the Caspian range, leading on to the second, or
interpontine Caucasus of western writers. Towards the east,
Hindu-Koosh abuts on the Belor ridges, which turn northward,
and first present the high table land of Pamere, termed the
back-bone of the world. Pooshtu Kur, the most prominent
peak in the new direction of the chain, sends forth, from its
broad glacier, the grand source of the Oxus, Jeyhoon or Amou,
which flows to the west and north ; and further on, where the
Gakchal mountains curve from north to east, joining the Mous-
sour and Thianchan chains, continued fronts of elevated gla-
ciers pass on, in a north-eastern direction, till they subside in
the Gobi Desert. From the glacier of Moustach issues the
Jaxartes, flowing on to the Sea of Aral. From longitude 70 to
80 east, there are only three practicable passes to the west;
all, further eastward, as well as the river, are turned to the
north. From the nucleus of Irin Khabirgan, above the sources
of the Ile river, east of the city Ili, passes a subordinate chain
of high lands, leaving Lake Balkach to the west, and soon
after (about lat. 49), turning likewise to the north and east,
joins the little Altai, and constitutes a second table land, till it
is united with the clustering ranges about Lake Bailal. We
need not pursue this description further eastward, but confine
our observations, by stating that from the east to the south-
west a cross range, under various names, separates the Gobi
Desert from the plains of Thibet, a great part of which is still
geographically unknown, though here, also, as on the west of
the great table land, rivers of considerable size, among which
another Ile and the Kachgar Yarkiang terminate in lakes, or
are absorbed in the sands, having frequently, in their upper
courses, fertile vales and habitable glens.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
365
It is on and around the regions here slightly traced out, that
it becomes evident the filiations of the bearded stock should
not be viewed solely through the medium of disjointed texts of
ancient writers, far removed from the localities, but where they
first began; for, in order to form a fair estimate of realities, it
is important to study the local geography, and to become
thoroughly conversant with the science of what is technically
denominated reading the ground, — that is, of grasping the
conditions of every topographical and geographical fact; of
appreciating the consequences attendant on residing or migrating
across, up, or down; the current of streams; of toiling through
snow-clad regions, turning a long range, or finding an approach
to mountain passes, through marshes and forests, straits by
sea, and straits on land; of migrations to be accomplished, not
by hunters, but by tribes who have their families and property
to carry with them, and must be able to find food in their
progress. In opening thus the book of nature, and learning
how realities should be dealt with, there remain many other
considerations to be kept in view, such as climate and seasons,
periods of frost, of ice, or of drought and monsoon winds. Still
more, in order to trace the march of ancient nations, it is
requisite to search for marks attesting man's handywork, in
evidence of his passage; for troglodyte habitations, sepulchral
ruins, and piles of stones, tell also, and more forcibly, of by-
gone ages, than texts of mere individual authority; nay, they
often disprove them, and invalidate remote chronology. In
proportion as we may interpret rightly these documents of
nature and time, we shall understand human doings in the
infancy of society; and when we also call to our aid the relig-
ious doctrines, the ancient poetical records, and the laws and
legends of a people, we shall find, in general, sufficient data to
arrive at epochs in time often more trustworthy than the pre-
cise years affixed to events, obtained by reckoning backwards
certain astronomical facts, or reigns of kings, which chronolo-
gists themselves find means to advance or retard, in order to
31*
366
NATURAL HISTORY OF
make them applicable to a favorite theory. Our conclusions
we shall rarely find at variance with linguistic relations, when
these are fairly tested by circumstances. Here we endeavor to
trace Man back from known conditions to others anterior to
them, but which must of necessity have been in his career,
though it may be that they occurred some centuries sooner or
later. It is in this manner we find the reasons for assuming
that the Caucasian stock, traced up to the earliest period, was
nestling in or above the glens of Hindu-Koosh and the neigh-
boring mountain ranges; for there we find it already distin-
guished in two or three well marked varieties of color, the
swarthy and the fair, and subdivided in several secondary
shades, each having homogeneous features, limbs, and intellect-
ual capacities. We can even point out the particular geo-
graphical localities which several must have occupied; and
from what has been stated already in the remarks on the
Hindu-Papua tribes, and again on the Caucaso-Mongole or
Finnic races, the gradual passage of one typical form to the
intermediate. We have, in the remarks upon these subtypical
tribes, had occasion to point out the evident possession of
Thibet, of parts of China and Mongolia, by the bearded race ;
and that they are noticed in early Chinese authorities, by the
names of Kinto-Moey and Yuchi; and still in part are occupiers
of the more inaccessible mountains of the interior, bearing the
contemptuous appellations of Miau-tze and Mou-laou. Even
western geographers were not entirely ignorant of this fact,
since by them Gangarides are placed on the Brahmaputra ;
and the antique presence of Sanscrit, that most extensive of all
languages, is attested, by innumerable denominations, far
beyond these regions, since we find them pervading the
greater part of Thibet and Indo-China.
As the predominant external character, and the correspond-
ing intellectual tendencies of the Caucasian Man are found to
assimilate with the other two typical stocks in proportion as
they approach geographically to, and mix with them, the inter-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
367
mediate Ethiopic on the south, and Finnic on the north,
have, next to their points of contact, shades of dark-skinned
or fair races, partaking of these characters in degree only
according to that vicinity; and thence we must look for the
normal point of the type where the influence of the other two
is, or at least primevally was, least accessible. This geograph-
ical point belongs emphatically to Hindu-Koosh, extending
eastward up to the Pamere, and westward through Armenia,
and the occidental Caucasus to Greece and Italy, notwithstand-
ing the progress which, since the historical ages, the Mongolic
diffusion has made in Northern Asia, following a similar
extension of the true. Caucasians towards the west, after an
interval of some ages.
Of the three varieties of color and temperament most dis-
tinctly marked in the Caucasian type, the first is characterized
by brown complexions and dark eyes and hair, very symmetri-
cal proportions, a round-domed skull, and an intelligence most
vividly imaginative. The temperament sensual, the vindic-
tive passions active, the perceptive faculties quick, and the
physical energies demanding mental excitement more than
reason for exertion. Such are the ardent nations of the south.
Opposed to them in form and disposition are the tribes of the
north: with a loftier stature, a fair, often a ruddy skin, xan-
thous hair, rather ponderous limbs, a squarer skull, and coarser
features; they have little comparative vivacity, but are
endowed with the faculty of thought and reason less under the
control of petulant desires ; more reflective, and therefore more
continuously attached to conclusions once formed; slow, but
patient in perseverance; and brave, without requiring the
stimulus of enthusiasm. They are sincere and single-minded;
but addicted to gluttony and drunkenness. Between these
two we find the typical root still more essentially mountaineer
in habit, with clear complexions, light brown, auburn, light or
dark hair. It has the skull formed almost like the southern
stem, but broader in the forehead. By nature and locality
- 368
NATURAL HISTORY OF
possessed of the highest endowments of the other two, except-
ing perhaps the quality of reasoned patience; it is imaginative,
poetical, inventive, artful, eloquent, valiant, and indefatigable.
It has been the master stem from all antiquity; and, in par-
ticular, that ambitious race, which is distinguished by high
features, has ever been the conquering, the imperious form,
that commands in battle and rules in peace, wherever it is
found mixed in the social life of nations. Although beauty,
valor, and logical capacity, may not by any means be denied
the more vertical profiles, yet mathematical, linguistic, and
experimental science belony more permanently to the less
admired lines of features. It is by the exercise of these facul-
ties, tempered with forbearance, that the resolute tenacity of
the last mentioned maintains its ground, and the public will
obtain modifications of the arbitrary canons which the others
have imposed.
It is the Caucasian Man, who, in all regions and times, has
been the sole depositor of religion. The Papua and Negro
races of antiquity do not appear to have possessed creeds at
any period deserving to be classed with reasoned allegorical
dogmas; they were merely absurd injunctions to commit
revolting bloodshed. Even when palliated, remodelled, and
systematized by the influence of Caucasian rulers, they con-
tinued more to degrade the masters than to elevate the van-
quished. Of the Mongolians, we know that the mythological
Foh, the Budhas, Fologes, Soloktais, and Siakas, or Sakias,
of China and Japan, were appropriated Hindu-Caucasians,
Yuchi, or Asiatic Finns. The bearded races alone had pos-
session of a true reminiscence of the diluvian cataclysis, and
transmitted it by their colonies to every part of the earth,
mutilated, altered, and debased, but still always discernible,
notwithstanding that in time the high plains of Asia had first
instituted a Sabæan worship, and subsequently implanted it
upon the Arkite creed, confounding the patriarch navigator
with the sun, typifying the deluge in the form of a dragon or
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
369
vast sea-serpent, and converting the ship or ark into a living
organ of preservation and reproduction : thus was substance
afforded for interminable legends, names, and dogmas, which,
in one or more forms, spread all around, reached the furthest
west, originated the repetition of ancient names for new local-
ities, new sites of Paradise, new rivers of Eden, new moun-
tains of the Descent, in the succession of migrations, and when
time had fixed fresh centres of national existence.* In this
manner, while the Semitic nations recalled the memory of
their primeval social abode in the Babel of Babylon, the
Egyptians saw their Arkite city at Thebes, or Theba ; the
Persian Arii found the city of the gods in Pasargade, where
the huge palace was again an ark; the Hindoos pointed to
Kasi, now Benares; and the western Teutonic nations to.
Asgard, near the mouth of the Don; while, by the very radia-
tion of these localities, there is reason to believe, what tradition
confirms, that-the original locality was high up the course of
the Oxus, if, indeed, it was not actually within the mountains
of Hindu-Koosh, or Bokhara, significantly denominated the
High Land of God.
The great mental activity stimulating all the races of this
type to physical exertion, has caused the earliest ages to be re-
plete with their wars and conquests. First, probably, they were
* The root, Ar, in Arach, Araxes, Arachosia, Arbela, Arch, Ararat,
Arawati, Aarhorn, Aar, and Ra, rivers, ever implies rushing, soaring, as
in the Circassian a peak, in Pelbevic a roaring stream, and in Sanscrit
denominations abounding in High Asia always connected with mountain
and high land : hence we find it often in connection with the physical local-
ities, where Eden and the four rivers of Paradise, as well as the diluvian
event, are placed by the traditions of nations. Indian pundits have
pointed out Lake Manasa, 17,000 feet above the sea, as the sacred centre
whence the four rivers of Paradise, the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, and
Sita, are erroneously asserted to proceed. But each nation long located
in a region has found a sacred centre, and the required rivers, at no great
distance from home. There are at least twenty of them between Thibet
and Snowdon.
370
NATURAL HISTORY OF
directed against the less pugnacious black nations, and then
against each other, striving not only for the choice of regions
to inhabit for the possession of pasturage and rivers, but to
dictate opinions on all questions of human interest; and as the
conquerors of one moment were the vanquished of the next, all
the tribes, particularly of the west, are exceedingly intermixed;
in physical and mental appearance bearing evidence to the fact.
It is still more a result of the long continued practice common
to all, of buying, selling and capturing human beings for
slaves, --- the Britons, the Gauls, the Saxons, Germans, Rus-
sians, and Hebrews; all the nations of Western Asia, the
ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Carthaginians; pagans and
Christians, all shared for ages the abominable traffic. The
dark-haired nations of the south were choice in searching for
fair slaves from the north; the fair preferred more swarthy,
and gave great prices for blacks from Africa. Constantinople
abounded in Sclavonic captives and children, purchased by
Jews; the debtor and the prisoner of war were sold, and Ver-
dun was long celebrated for its traffic in emasculated victims.
Hence the fair, the xanthous, the brown and black complex-
ioned, are mixed in every nation.
With regard to the facilities of proceeding by land from the
Indus and from central Asia to the west, there is in every
direction the difficulty to be encountered of a deficiency
of water, and consequently of verdure to subsist cattle. There
are extensive deserts of absolute sand, and the coast-line along
the Persian Gulf seems never to have been practicable.
Beginning from the mouth of the Indus, the first route passing
to the west, by Kurrachee, crossed the Luchee Hills to Bam-
bacia, Faura, now Puhra, traversed the Gedrosian mountain
chain, and led to ancient Pasargada (Persagarda) and Per-
sepolis. It was by this line Alexander the Great returned
with his forces to Persia. The second was by, the Gundara
Pass, through the desert to Lake Aria, whence again it bent
southward to Persepolis; .this was the route of Craterus with a
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
371
Macedonian corps. A third avenue still leads through the
Bolan Pass to the Etymander or Helmund, and Lake Aria,
now Zurrah, whence there is a caravan route by Yezd, through
the Great Arian Desert, of above fifty days' journey, for loaded
camels to Ispahan. Another passes to the north from Dooshak,
near the above lake, by Furrah, to Herat, Meshed, to the
Atrack River, and Asterabad. But the fourth of these lines is
the great and most ancient route of migration, not so much to
the Indus, as from the high table land of Thibet to the Oxus,
in remote periods apparently much more available than at
present, for the inland sea of Western Asia had not yet
entirely shrunk into the Caspian and Aral, and the rivers now
lost in sand, or wholly dried. up, were still flowing to that
Mediterranean. It became the high road from Kachgar by
Ota, across the Bolor range, through Karatighin to Bactra, or
Balkh, was the great outlet from Hindu-Koosh down the Oxus,
or along the flanks of Paropamisus to the west, and by the
troglodyte city of Bamean, entered the two passes of Kohi-
Baba, by Cabul, and Jalalabad (Nagara), to the Indus. The
other great line is through the Kiptchak and Gakchal chains,
by the Kaksou and Terek passes, leading north-west to Och or
Takti Soliman, on the Jaxartes; it is a caravan route, still in
use to Orenburg, in Russia.
THE SEMITIC RACES.
It was along these avenues that the moving colonists
descended, both from the plateau of Thibet, and from Hindu-
Koosh. We have seen how they penetrated to India; how
among other nations the Arab and Indoo Arab formed the prin-
cipal basis of the Ethiopian stem, till the whole of the original
nations, as Egyptians, Cushites, and Habesh, notwithstanding
that more northern, and even fair-haired tribes were merged
in them, were finally driven across the Red Sea into Africa.
Thus we have noticed how Caucasian characteristics deepen
372
NATURAL HISTORY OF
into Papua Negroes, in proportion to their intermixture
towards the tropics, or brighten as they pass on to the border
of this first distribution ; for, on the line of contact, the conquer-
ing race has nearly retained iis whole integrity, whilst on the
north of that line, a melanic shade in the skin, with very dark
eyes, and black curly hair, leaves in the first, and perhaps
oldest civilized nations, an evidence of some pollution with
their vanquished slaves, and makes the question of local
hybridism incontestable ; for, notwithstanding the distinction
drawn by the nations themselves, the facts remain unaltered. :
And we shall now proceed to notice a second wave of more
pure Caucasian Arabians, who left but slender record of their
predecessors, and became united with the rejected descendants
of the family of Heber. They appear to have been herdsmen
of the southern desert, wandering with their goats and sheep,
perhaps with carnels, onwards towards the west, beneath the
Gedrosian high lands, till they crossed the Shat-ul-Arab.
THE ARABS.
· The original tribes of Arabia, already in possession of the
land at the time of the departure of Israel, were of the same
race as some of the first invaders of India. They mixed with
the Papuas, and formed the Ethiopian stem, which possessed
the peninsula of Arabia, as far eastward as the lower
Euphrates, expanding more and more over the desert of Syria,
where the true Bedoween, the swarthy Ænese clans, chiefly
resided; but here they were encountered by the giant race
from the north-east, who reached Syria or Shams, and soon
appear to have established themselves as masters among them,
in like manner as they effected the same revolution in Egypt,
and Palestine or Canaan; continuing to press southward, they
mixed with the possessors of Yemen, retaining, in some cases
only, a separate nationality; such, for example, as the Rus-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
373
tumi, the Phænicians, and the Getæ. Internat onal wars, and
the usual decrease of the fair-skinned master race in climates
of tropical heat, caused several tribes to be lost, such as those
of Ad, Thamud, Jades, and Tasm, which, being of the more
northern portion, were chiefly affected by these causes, and
subsequently were vanquished by the Cuthites of Yemen, or
were absorbed; and their fate is the subject of sundry marvel-
lous legends in the Tarikh Tebri.
At present there remain the Arab-el-Arabah, forming two
stems, claiming Kahtan for common parent. They are per-
haps the Hadoram and Tarah of Moses; but it is not to them
that Arabia is indebted for celebrity. Affiliated races produced
it. The Mostarabi, or Ishmaelites of the Hejas, claim the
honor, and assume a superior nobility of blood, as descendants
from Abraham. They are the fabricators of the Kaba, and the
distorted legends concerning the patriarchs. In that vocation
it seems the Koreish have been chiefly engaged, although the
affinity they have with the descendants of Ishmael is doubtful;
it being believed that they were originally Edomites, that is,
a red-haired people. In this vicinity, among the Edomite cities,
there was Erech, Raphia, or Rekem, near Mons Casius and
Larissa, Larsh near Gaza, both bearing evidently names con-
nected with a Scythic dialect, and repeated wherever Pelasgian
nations were spread, from Asia Minor to the Danube ; equally
common to Celto-Scythic possessions, as the names of Lorch,
Lorach, Lorca, Lara, and Larch, abound in Spain and Southern
Germany.* Towards the mouth of the Euphrates, however,
in the vicinity of scriptural Bosra, the Arabian Zobeir was
inhabited by the Orchani, a colony, it appears, of Indo-
Ethiopians, who, Pliny says, promulgated “a tertia Chaldæo-
rum doctrina." They had acquirements in astronomy and
.
* Even Nineveh is termed Larissa by Xenophon, and as the eastern-
most of the thirteen places so named by the ancients. Most of these were
of Pelasgian origin.
32
374
NATURAL HISTORY OF
still breed white asses, as of old, and appear themselves like
low caste Hindoos. Of this ancient capital there are still vis-
ible fragments of pillars, &c.; and it may be remarked that
Zobeir is more likely derived from a Sanscrit or Scythic root,
denoting sorcery, than from an Arab chief of that name, who is
said to have fallen near this place, when Ayesha, widow of
Mahommed, was defeated 'by Ali, in the year 656 of our era.
Another source of the Arabian people was derived from the
Jewish clans, which, after the massacre in Persia, had re-
tired to the desert, and become formidable by their numbers
and warlike propensities. They had apostatized, and united
with the followers of Mahommed, and greatly strengthened
his forces, notwithstanding that other clans of Hebrews, who
retained the faith of their fathers, were expelled by him.
Long before that period they had been forced to disperse, in
consequence of the successful inroad of a Roman army under
CElius Gallus, who is said to have burst the colossal stone em-
bankment raised to sustain the waters of the Mareb, a very
extensive reservoir, serving to irrigate a great district of land.
The event is known by the name of the deluge of El Maureb;
for when the waters escaped, the whole cultivated surface was
swept away, and the wretchedness it produced was among the
original causes of the subsequent expansion of the Arabian
power, because forced emigrations led colonies beyond the
Shat-ul-Arab, perhaps, even then, so far to the east as the bank
of the Indus, producing constant hostilities against the Par-
thians, while other tribes, pressed to the borders of Kourdistan,
equally embroiled them with the Byzantine Romans, at a
period when the Arabian horse first began to acquire its supe-
rior qualities. Ages before that time the Phænician traders,
who were masters in the Persian Gulf and the islands of Bah-
rein, had no doubt stimulated the Arabs' love of adventure, and
from pirates turned their attention to legitimate trade, ulti-
mately becoming the successors of the parents of commercial
industry. They traded as they had roved to Madagascar, and
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
375
in the monsoons reached not only the marts of India, but, it
appears, penetrated by their own efforts, or in connection with
a remote navigating system in the South Seas, to the ports of
China. For ages the southern portion of Arabia was possessed
by Phænicians and Cuthites: the last mentioned, after they
had been driven across the Red Sea to Africa, returned, and
again swayed the commercial provinces by their authority ;
quished, not by the power of the true Arabians, but by the
affiliated tribes of Mostarabi, who, with the Koran in hand,
rallied all parties in a career of unexampled victory, extin-
guishing in their progress languages, nations, traditions, and
history, to the wall of China, and to the Pyrenees.
Notwithstanding the vicissitudes and intermixture of races,
the aspect of the present typical Arabs is a light sinewy struc-
ture, with great capacity of endurance, a swarthy complexion,
. with high lengthened features, black curly locks, and a bril-
liant dark eye, full of malignant fire. Though not exempt
from subjugation, they have survived conquests, because no
victorious nation has ever thought the desert a possession
worth acquiring.
With the national convulsions the language of Arabia has
likewise changed. Ancient Arabic is not only a dead lan-
guage, but the character and alphabet are equally lost, though
it is supposed to have had two dialects, the Hamjar and Kore-
ish, and that certain words and forms of speech in the Axumite
tongue of Abyssinia are remains of it.
THE HEBREWS.
THOUGH of all the nations of antiquity this people is best known,
and clearly depicted in the most authentic records, the conclu-
sions of the comment on the text are by no means free from
original stem, nor the inference that this people, so far as
376
NATURAL HISTORY OF
regards its subsequent alliances and interunions, had the right
to call itself pure or unmixed. All the tribes descended from
Abraham and Lot were of high land descent, migrating
through Armenia; clearly in part of a fair rufous stem, gray-
eyed, and auburn hair. Evidence of the fact is repeatedly
traced in history and in tradition. The manifestation is still
positively marked in many Oriental Israelites; and in Morocco,
a region least liable to that kind of adulteration, the women in
particular being to this day generally gray-eyed. The family
of Heber was, therefore, not Chaldean nor Assyrian. It came
from the East, and might be of the same stem as that which
subsequently invaded the Suleimanic range, west of the Indus,
for here was an early national centre, whence colonies pene-
trated to India, where Hebrew congeners may now be believed
borders of Indo-China, may be the present Mugs, for all of
these have the peculiar Hebrew aspect and conformation ; have
even rites and customs similar to that people, as well as tra-
ditions and reminiscences, which now assume the aspect of
actual descent from the lost tribes of Israel.* These facts
establish an affinity too positive for utter rejection. Although
we will not carry the conditions of Hebrew consanguinity
the race embraced alliances which should include the three
great typical forms; first, by connection with the rufous stem,
through the Asiatic Finn tribes, who were the Scythian con-
querors, at one time in Armenia, and again for ages resident
in northern Egypt and Palestine; and in the second, by the long
* The assertion that these Affghans expelled a nation of Kaaſirs or idol-
aters since the Hegira, is more unlikely than that they themselves are
converted idolaters; for mountain tribes are not expelled by passing
conquerors who have themselves Jewish rites. It is more likely that
original consanguinity carried Jewish fugitives among them, whose
books and wondrous history caused the whole clan to adopt them as their
own.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
377
unrestrained alliances with the real Egyptian people, as well
as with Canaanites during the administration of the Judges;
and at a later period with Babylonians, Greeks and Romans.
A most ancient assimilation of the Hebrew people, if not an
actual origin among tribes located near the Gomerian source,
is indicated by the exiled tribes having shown a greater ten-
dency to mix and assimilate with the Finnic Scythians on the
north than with the Arabs on the south; notwithstanding that
their language was more positively allied to it than to the
Celtic or any Finnic dialect. In the north alone, the ancient
Israelite race found honor and power, as was proved by the
military energy they displayed against the Persians, noticed in.
an earlier part of this volume, and again in their connection
with and titular dignity among the Khazars.; it is even now
shown in the respect bestowed upon the Karaite Jews of the
Crimea. These views are strengthened by the beautiful spher-
ical cranium of the Jews, as fine as the Arabian or Circassian ;
by their profiles still predominantly aquiline ; by the frequent
recurrence of gray.eyes, xanthous hair; and by a sturdy struc-
ture, less Arabian than Celtic, yet on the whole retaining an
Asiatic and peculiar aspect seldom adorned with beauty.
All the foregoing conditions taken together tend to show
that the Hebrew race and language were not paternally of a
Semitic origin, but that both resulted from the region where the
first family came to settle among strangers; and the mixed
alliances, in the earlier period of the tribal history, contracted
with Egyptians, Canaanites, Arabs, Babylonians, and even
Phænicians, affected it, till in the end they adopted Greek and
Roman names. The males of a race cannot alone maintain its
purity, and where polygamy exists, the other sex' must neces-
sarily change it almost entirely.
In China, Cochin-China, and Malabar, Jews now exist in
families, according to the most trustworthy account, ever since
they were expelled Persia, in the year of Christ 508. There
are in the last-named region black Jews, probably a mixed race
32*
378
NATURAL HISTORY OF
of proselytes of low caste. Though an older people, the Sulei-
manic Affghans pretend to be descendants of the first captivity;
there is still a clan of them known as the Beni Khaibe in Arabia ;
and the Falishas of Abyssinia, according to Bruce, are a tribe
of Jews; finally, the white race of Zafi-Ibrim, in Madagascar,
claim Abraham for their progenitor. The handsomest of the
whole nation are asserted to be the Babylonians of Meso-
potamia; and it used to be from among them that the prince
of the captivity, now the wretched representative of the
ancient kings, was and still is selected by the Turkish govern-
ment.
In all lands they are, as of old, a stiff-necked race, most reso-
lutely attached to their institutions, ever since the Christian
dispensation was promulgated. It is difficult to decide whether
their own obstinacy of character, or the unceasing injustice of
mankind, have been other than agents, mutually acting upon
each other, to produce that permanent manifestation in their
forms and opinions which separates them from human society,
as it were, by a lasting miracle ; still the persecuted Jew bears
on his front the tokens of mental power, in his make the attri-
butes of physical strength, and in his heart the feelings of
mercy and charity, which all the vices acquired by degradation,
or natural to his temperament, cannot efface; for since a more
humane treatment is afforded to the race, constant examples
of good, benevolent and liberal actions embellish their conduct,
even more than in the feudal ages their learning and research
illustrated their mental capacities.
THE BABYLONIANS, CHALDEES, AND ASSYRIANS.
The nations now to be considered, though differing among
themselves, were evidently all of one family, obscurely traceable
to eastern Armenia and Atropatene, whence, as they spoke
dialects of Semitic languages, it is evident that, like the Arabs,
they had come originally from the high lands in the east.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
379
They were, moreover, advanced in civilization, had solar and
astronomical religions, with legends of Fish-men legislators,
whose persons and doctrines revealed a diluvian reminiscence,
distorted into Indian forms. In their record, the first disper-
sion of mankind was transposed from the high table land of Asia
to the new centre of their own locality, in the plains of Shinar.
Shinar may be a repetition of the name of Djeen; and the
Bab, that is, Ghaut, Gate, or Pass, was, perhaps, transferred to
the collateral signification of a tower.*
For the pyramidal temple of Belus, still visible among the
ruins of historical Babylon, has more than one counterpart in
Persia, little inferior in magnitude : that particularly of Bara-
dan, situated on the mountain-chain, near the upper Diala,
almost south of Lake Van, is remarkable. The remains are
of disintegrated brick; and the summit 170 feet high, or only
28 feet less; but it is 600 feet in base, or 100 more than Birs
Nimrood,t near the Euphrates. The Babylonian unquestiona-
bly had four towers at the angles of the summit, and a broad
terrace on one of its faces, with probably a central space
between the towers for fire worship. It had walled enclos-
ures, perhaps colossal lions, at the entrances; all which seem
to have been common with other structures of the same kind,
and notably in the Budh temples of Suka in Java, where every
one of the foregoing particularities exists. ·
* Bab, Baby, in the most ancient sense, a giant. Baby in Egyptian,
Typhon, Taifune. It might be conjectured that the pass, or, at least, one
of the principal gorges for descending from the plateau of Thibet, across
the Bolor range, upon the sources of the Oxus, was originally meant; for
at the foot of this commence the glens which lead to Bamian and to
Balkh ; and the summit is close to Kashgar, near Behesh-Kend; in Ori-
ental legend a city of paradise, seated in a verdant region, on the Chi-
nese side of the summit.
+ Birs Nimrood, the temple of Belus, and the temple of Nebuchadnez-
zar, are the same ruins. The name of " Tower of Babel” is originally
a rabbinical inference. There are many other applications of scriptural
localities and names in the south-west of Asia, made at random by the
Arabs, who, like most other Semitic nations, having lost their own tradi-
380
NATURAL HISTORY OF
If the Chaldeans had been established in a great kingdom
when Abraham entered Canaan, it is unlikely that the Elamite
Arabs would be sufficiently strong to make alliances with other
princes, and undertake invasions to so great a distance as the
vicinity of Jerusalem; and in the Egyptian historical paintings
of the conquests of Sesostris, and of Thothmes II. and III., all
of which appear to have been directed to the valley of the Oxus,
that in these transactions there should be no acknowledged
representations of Babylonians, or Chaldeans, either as allies
or enemies. They first appear as prisoners captured by Tir-
haka; whence it seems that either the Egyptian conquerors
never proceeded so far east as the Euphrates, or that the Baby-
lonian empire did not, at so early a date (that is, in or about
the reign of Cushan-rishathaim), embrace the upper course of
that river, or of the Tigris.* Regarded as a' race, they were
unquestionably pure Caucasians of the black-haired tribes; and
so closely allied to the subsequent Persians, that no distinction
can be made between them, as they are represented in the bas
reliefs of Persepolis and those of Nineveh, lately brought to
light. They have the same ample beards, and abundant curly
locks, similarly trimmed. The sculptures represent the same
symbolical monsters, the same.cuneiform letters, the same cos-
tume, the same system of architecture, and the same school of
design in sculpture -- as if little or no alteration or progress
tions and history, frame new legends out of the Scriptures; and what
the Rabbins only misplaced, they distorted to suit their particular
national vanities.
* These colored delineations contain, however, a series of nations, most
assuredly representing tribes of high-featured Caucasians, and the more
vertical profiles of the midland colonies, which can be traced from Indo-
Koosh to Asia Minor and Greece. There are fair-haired people, with a
blue round spot upon the forehead, like a tribal, or caste mark. They
are the Rebo, with ox-bide mantles, and tattooed skins, Cyclopians of
High Armenia ; and some wear crosses, perhaps Budh amulets ; and the
Rot-n-no, a giant race, with red beards, chariots, horses, elephants, bears,
and manufactures in metals; or people of the giant races, Scythæ or
Finns:
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
381
had taken place in the national civilizations, between the
periods of splendor in Nineveh and the downfall of Persep-
olis. *
THE GAURS AND PERSIANS.
WHETHER the Chaldeans, or Chasdim of the Hebrews, were
only hordes of robbers at the time they are placed by geogra-
phers in Arabia Petræa, or whether they were a distinct people
from the learned caste of Chaldees at Babylon, is not quite
clear, though in either case they must still be regarded as
mountaineers before they were established in Babylonia. The
physical characters of the Assyrians, and their locality, alike
attest that they, the same, or a kindred race, were also moun-
taineers, who had migrated, by marching along the flank of the
Caspian chain, till they established themselves in eastern Ar-
menia'; but whether they were allied to the Karduchi, Kurds
of the present time, does not appear, although, in Persian tra-
dition, the Gaurs were the first conquerors of Aria or Iran.
The name, again, indicates mountaineers or giants; and the
region whence they departed was no doubt Paropamisus, or
the Gordii Montes. In that case, they passed most likely by
the Helmund to Lake Zurra, and spreading over Aria, they
* The sculplurcs of Nimrood, now in the British Museum, indicate a
more ancient, though not an essentially different period. Or Bactra we
have no minute knowledge, though, from the still existing practice in
Cabul, palaces under ground were no doubt likewise constructed there,
where the climate is still more severe; and the similarity of condition
with Nineveh is proved from the fact, that it was at the siege of Bactra
Ninus himself died. His ambitious wife, Semiramis, succeeded him,
and was the conqueror of the Omool Belaut, or "mother of cities," once
the capital of Kai Kaus, when it was named Sarias, or Sariaspa? Future
research at Echalana, that is, about the present Hamadan, and on the
sites of other primeral cities of Upper Asia, will, no doubt, reproduce
subterranean habitations like those of Nimrood, and reveal conditions of
art more perfect in the older than in the subsequent periods.
382
NATURAL HISTORY OF
were ultimately driven forward to the present Kurdistan, prob-
ably by the Persians, who in their turn had been tenants of
Bactria ; for all the traditionary events of the first dynasty are
referred to the time when they were expelled by the Ou-sun,
fair-haired tribes from Thibet, or by Massagetæ from the north.*
They, too, had traversed the Paropamisus, and, following the
Helmund, had crossed the Arian Desert to the hills of Susiana,
where they absorbed the Elamite bowmen; located their sacred
centre at Persagarda, and, further west, built Persepolis,t where
the great empire of Persia properly commenced. The city
and palace were constructed according to a system of architec-
ture already long established at Zariaspa or Bactra, or in con-
formity with one common to the whole vast region of Nineveh,
Babylon, and High Asia. The ancient Parsi language shows,
however, a certain affinity with the Assyrian through the Pel-
hevi, introduced by the Medes, and an adopted civilization, in
the use of a cuneiform alphabet. This character continued to
be used for inscriptions after the overthrow of Darius, and was
revived during the Parthian sway, although another dialect,
namely the Zend, was spoken — a fact which attests the pres-
ence of a further Sanscrit element, approaching still nearer
to the early Gothic of the west, and a tongue even now in
part mixed up with the Poushtoo, used by the Affghans.
The Belooches and Poushtoo Affghans, the Kurds of Kurdis-
tan, the Loures, the modern Persians, and the Ossetes of Cir-
cassia, are all branches of this great stem, which, in ancient
and in more recent ages, has held dominion over Egypt, and
produced some men of great military celebrity (such as Saladin
* The Ou-Sun, and Kian-Kuen, or Kakas of Chinese writers, were,
according to Klaproth, fair-haired races within the western borders of the
high land chains. The Massagetæ, first known on the outside of the same
table land, gradually moved down to the north-west, and were for a period
stationary on the south and east of Lake Aral. They were all Geta tribes,
or clans, with Finnic intermixture.
* If indeed Persepolis, Pasargada, and Persagarda, are not the same.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
383
the Great); geometricians; and in particular, poets of lasting
reputation.
THE TYPICAL CAUCASIANS.
We now come to the typical Caucasian family, which em-
braces the greatest celebral development in width and depth,
combined with the highest form of beauty, strength, and
power of endurance, coupled with a nervous system less
swayed by impulse. In this group are found the most per-
'fect notions of the ideal beautiful, of relative proportion in
art and in literature, of logic and of the mathematical sci-
ences in general. The skull, though somewhat lower in the
dome, is broader in proportion than the Arab and the Hebrew,
more developed at the forehead, making that line more con-
tinuously vertical down the nose, which, in the finer specimens,
is not aquiline, but straight. The complexion is clear brown,
with mostly dark-brown hair, passing to auburn, generally
straight, the beard full, the chest ample and deep, the loins
small, the gait erect, and the tread martial. It is here that
female beauty is possessed of the highest human loveliness,
grace, and delicacy; and the manly character attains the most
majestic and venerable aspect.
est glens of Hindu-Koosh, the real Imaus and Caucasus of
antiquity. In that region, or possibly still higher, in the most
elevated portion of ancient Turan, the Cassio-regio of Thibet,
primeval point of departure; for there, in a verdant fruitful
region, a Behesh, or Paradise, according to Iranian nations,
is placed Ardukend, Ordukend, still more anciently Arthur-
keind, and now known as Behetseh Keng or Keind. It has
still ruins of arched avenues, the work of ancient kings, and
the locality is on the caravan road, on the north side of the
plateau of Pamere, eastward, going by Cashgar to China ; and
384
NATURAL HISTORY OF
westward, down the Bolor range to Hindu-Koosh and Balkh.
In these mountain ridges the Kaufir of the present time retains
the full vigor, independence, and beauty of his earliest pro-
genitors, notwithstanding that he is hunted like a wild beast
by Moslem half-bred tribes, and debarred all access to more
civilized nations. His similarity to the ancient Greek nations
is so striking, that it was believed the hardy mountaineers
were a relic of a Macedonian army left in the country; nor
was the supposition a wild fancy, since dynasties of Greek
princes have ruled in Bactria, and in Candahar for several
centuries after the memorable invasion of Alexander the Great.
THE KAUFIRS, OR MAMOGES. *
Kaus.contentos not even ttle knon
It is in the fertile glens of lofty ridges of pine forest, forming
a portion of Hindu-Koosh and Beloot Tauch, that this people
resides, though as yet little known. The true national denomi-
nation of it is not even certain, and instead we are obliged to
rest contented with the Mahommedan vituperative term of
Kaufirs, or infidels, which the Affghans use to designate idola-
ters. They divide them into Speen, or white, and Seeapush,
or Tor Kaufirs, merely because one is habitually clothed in ..
white cotton, and the other in black goat-skins. The people is
divided into a multitude of independent clans, living peaceably
together, but in unceasing war with the Moslem, much like the
Montenegrins in Europe, who carry on an exterminating con-
test with the Turks. The Speen Kauſirs, having Little Thi-
bet on the north, Ladauk east, the Punjaub south, and Poushtoo
west, have to guard themselves only on the side of the four
passes leading from the Punjaub, one from the Affghan side on
the west, and two from the north, there being none on the east.
* Of the four original tribes, the Mamoges alone retained the primitive
manners; the Camoze, Hilar, and Silar, becoming Mahommedans, and
· mixing with other Islamized nations.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
385
By the direction of these, migrations had easy communication
from Thibet, and towards Cabul, or down the Oxus as well as
the Indus. The Seeapush appear to be still more remote, and
may extend to Cashmere. These tribes are remains of a con-
siderable people, among whom were the original Cashmerians,
and a great part of the inhabitants of Badalshaun and Cabul,
as far south as the Deggaun tribes, and on the southern face
of the higher ridges of Himalaya, extending eastward to an
unknown distance; for, at the sources of the Jumna and Bun-
derpoosh, clans of Bisharees are blue-eyed, and often have red
hair; but nearly the whole of these, being subjected by Mos-
lem conquerors, have lost their pristine individuality of national
character, though among the Affghan tribes of Cabul, in par-
ticular, it is still not unfrequent to observe heads and figures
that might serve for models to sculptors who would portray a
Jupiter, or a Mars, according to the refined idealism of the
ancient Greeks.
The Kaufirs have the face oval, the brows well arched, and
the nose and mouth even more refined than the Greek. They
are moreover, still fairer, generally with lighter hair and gray
eyes. They defend their fastnesses, whither they have retired
since the Mahommedan conquest in 742 of the Hegira, with
obstinate valor, attaching certain privileges to him who slays
an Affghan. They still retain a rude idol stone, denominated
Irmtan, representing Imra, Dagun or God, the Supreme Being,
having besides inferior divinities, evidently borrowed from other
nations, chiefly from India. They shave the hair, excepting a
tuft in the middle, which, when it is plaited, is exactly similar
to the older statues of Horus, when he is holding the Egyp-
tian hoe, and recurs again on a coin of Comana, where Per-
seus is so figured, and again on one of ancient Tauris. It is
the glib of the ancient Irish. The Kaufirs sit on stools, and
do not squat like other Asiatics. They are vehement dancers,
and a kind people.
Blending with the nearest black-haired tribes, the Mamoges
33
386
NATURAL HISTORY OF
may be considered to have formed the ancient Persians, and
with the fair-haired on the north, produced the handsome tribes
of the earliest Goths; for immediately towards the west the line
of migration through Cabul is found interrupted by invaders
from both sides, and history is full of the contests which very
different nations have maintained in that region. There are
even now found, upon this line, remaining tribes of Persians,
Usbeks, Toorkees, Mokrees, Reekas, Kalmucks, Arabs, Kir-
guise, Hindoos, Punjaubees, Cashmerians and Lesghis, which
last are among those most nearly allied to the primeval stock;
for, after traversing the space disturbed by migrating collisions,
chiefly Turkoman, we find these and the Circassians, Abas-
sians, Georgians, Albanians, &c., likewise refugees, in the
highest glens of the Caspian Caucasus; and, in remote ages,
there is no doubt that some of them once extended along the
southern coast of the Caspian and Georgia, onwards to the
Borysthenes, and through Asia Minor to the mountains of
Thessaly and Greece.
THE CIRCASSIAN AND GEORGIAN TRIBES OF THE CASPIAN
CAUCASUS.
WHILE others, coming more from the north, with, as it
appears, a portion of Finnic blood in their veins, held posses-
sion of the plains on the Kouban and the Don,* these extended
westward, in the Crimea, and along the shores of the Euxine,
until they were in part swept onwards, and partly driven back
to take shelter in the fastnesses they now. hold. The Don
Cossacks are of the same stem, for although all the tribes are,
in various proportions, of mixed origin, the typical form is
always evident.
* Although the banks of the Borysthenes are known to have been suc-
cessively inhabited by Alans, Goths, Geti, Cumans, Polowtses, and Rox-
olani, the antiquities known to have been the work of Circassians are still
found scattered through the country.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
387
The women of Circassia are beautiful, probably the most
beautiful, in features and complexion, of the whole earth.
They have, often, light hair and blue eyes, tall, graceful, and
erect forms, with straight or slightly aquiline noses, well formed
lips, and beautiful teeth ; while the men justly pride themselves
on their broad shoulders, slender waists, expressive features,
stalwart height, and martial gait. Indeed, this inherent superi-
ority of form is so dominant, that the unceasing practice which
the Osmanli Turks have of purchasing female slaves of this
race, has caused them to have become, from the most ill-shaped
and wretched-looking of barbarian Mongoles, a people that
can now dispute the palm of beauty with the handsomest of
Europe.
For, and with these nations, commencing in Central Asia,
Kaufirs, Affghans, Georgians, Circassians, Cossacks, tribes of
Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and the Gothic people of the north,
on to the west of Europe, there are ever sympathetic feelings,
an enduring interest, independent of religious motives, political
considerations, or commercial purposes. In England, espec-
ially, we feel for them more than curiosity, travel among
thern, overlook or palliate their barbarism; nay, so strong and
deep is the inclination, that among British captives made dur-
ing the disastrous winter months in Cabul, most spoke highly
of the urbanity they had experienced; several of the softer sex
felt unwilling to be released ; and some, it is said, actually
escaped from those who were to restore them to their homes.
Nothing but original consanguinity could reproduce such effects.
To that cause alone we must ascribe the long duration of a
Macedonian monarchy subsisting for so many generations
among the most warlike people in existence; and, in more
modern times, that the fierce bigotry of Islamism has not oblit-
erated that tendency; for, beyond this line of consanguinity,
the Tahtar race, now in possession of Thibet and Bokhara, or
the Arab on the south, never excite similar affections, nor feel
themselves yearning for approximation.
388
NATURAL HISTORY OF
UDV
THE PELASGIAN, DORIAN, AND HELLENIC TRIBES.
ALTHOUGH Ionia or Asia Minor was visited from the most
early period by nations coming from the east, some by a north-
ern, and others by a southern route, we may regard the popu-
lation in general as emanating from the foregoing, and in
particular the Pelasgian and the Dorian tribes, which, how-
.ever, may have been mixed with a proportion of Getic clans,
such as the Phrygian undoubtedly were.
It is likely that the Carians were similarly of a mixed origin
of the same source, as they were remarkable for the hoarse
guttural language they spoke, and the resolute determination
they evinced in the defence of their country. As colonists
they had brought with them elements of civilization more
advanced than the Grecian of the same era, and science in
the art of war that made them more than respected by the
Egyptian power, which, indeed, had warred with them, but
appears to have preferred to have them as allies. They seem
to have possessed the whole valley of the Meander long after
the adjoining tribes had been driven onwards, probably because
the volcanic territory at the sources of the river afforded sites
for strongholds which guarded the passes. They and the
Lycians had connections with the Leuco Syri, as well as with
the Greek Pelasgians; and some such remote affinity may
have been the basis of the claim to consanguinity, which, ages
after, appears to have been allowed between the Hebrews and
the Spartans, as is attested by Josephus.
Among the expelled nations, the Hellenes may have been
the foremost who crossed the Bosphorus, and made conquesis
of the possessions then held by a Finnic, or Illyrian race,
which, as myrmidons and helots, we have already noticed ; for
that these were in anterior possession of the soil is attested by
their subjugation, and by the name of the river Alpheus, evi-
dently derived from the Finnic Alf, a mountain torrent.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
389
The Hellenic tribes could not have been long in the land
before the great swarming commenced on the seas and coasts
of Eastern Europe. Besides the Cyclopeans, who left walls
of their work from Van in Persia vřestward to Sicily, and the
means, Etruscans, and Colchians, wandered along the shores,
from beneath the high lands of the present Abassia, or came
under Ionian Taurus to the Mediterranean, all similarly bent
upon forcing a landed possession for themselves, and subsist-
ing meantime as sea-roving pirates. The names of the Cen-
taurs and Lapitha indicate confusion in the Greek reminis-
cences; for, although they explained the first to have been
horsemen, it is more likely that they were ox-riders, such as
have been already mentioned in Africa and India, and that their
name has passed to a second invasion of real cavalry.
But the Thraco-Pelasgians, the Heraclidæ, and Achæi,
seem to have been Celto Scythæ, that is, likewise of Illyrian
or Geto Finnic affinity, belonging to the giant races, who, as
far as regards the two first mentioned, came round from the
Kouban and Don, along the shores of the Euxine, and then
sought.conquests towards the south, as all the more northern
nations were impelled to undertake. On their own national
origin, the accounts by Greek writers are confused and contra-
dictory regarding the sources and movements of the different
tribes of the nation ; and vanity claims aboriginal possession
where they were only early conquerors. They commemorate
Pelasgian and Dorian invasions coming from the north, while
they do not seem to acknowledge that the anterior Hellenic col-
onists were, like the myrmidons and other tribes, a vanquished
people, who may have had Finnic consanguinities. The pres-
ence of tribes from the Asia Minor region is shown in the
Cretan colonies settled in Greece, and in the Cretan people
themselves, who could not have reached that island more
conveniently than by crossing from Caria, by Rhodes and
33*
390
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Carpathos; for even the maritime shore of Caria was called
Doria.
Notwithstanding that polished Greece claimed to be in the
centre of the world, and assumed for itself the discovery of
almost every element of knowledge and civilization, it had a
secret pride in the pretence that the Cadmeans and Thebans
were colonies from Egypt; and it may be conceded, that in the
wanderings of the parent clans of those denominations, they
had been to the south so far, as to remain for a period in the
then unclaimed marshes of the Delta, or had resided some
time on the coast of Palestine or Syria, which was on many
occasions considered as a portion of Egypt. But on the banks
of the Nile no civil war, historically known, brought vanquished
fugitives to the north ; they fied to Abyssinia, or westward
towards Cyrene. No true Egyptian was ever known to travel
northward, though Greek students and philosophers constantly
went in' search of knowledge to the regions of the Nile, or
eastward even to the Indus. The slight resemblance of the
Greek Theban rites with those of Egyptian Thebes was more
likely a consequence of Hellenic importation; and the Cad-
mean Python worship was derived from the same source as
the Colchian and the Celtic, that is, came direct from the east.
The alphabet was totally distinct, and the language of Cadmus,
if not Semitic, was allied to Sanscrit.
The Pelasgi, more properly so called, had resided on the
coast of Asia Minor. If we take a Celto Scythic dialect to
have been in use among them, the tribal names of Cranai in
Hellas, as well as that of Cieropidæ, might have reference to
their migratory life in boats, while the general appellation
may have indicated the character they assumed of heroes or
champions, it being alike traceable in the Pelhevi, Pelwan, and
the Celtic Pulvan, although, if the denomination had a more
Gothic root, the Pelasgi would merely denote skin-clad Asi,
nearly the same signification as that of Seeapush Kaufir, and
peltry-wearing heroes — a term in later ages applied to the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
391
Goths themselves. The Achæi, though they claimed to be of
the Pelasgian family, and the oldest of Greek colonists in Eu-
rope, came from the Mæotic estuary near Colchis. They
were, as the name indicates, serpent worshippers, or builders of
Dracontia, like the Cadmeans, the Colchians, and other nations
of Asia Minor.
THE TIRYNTHIANS.
THE Tirynthians, referred to the Cyclopean race, seem to
have been a still more early clan of the Pelasgian family ;
and it may be remarked that a fair-haired nation, with a blue
round tribal spot painted between the eyebrows, is represented
on Egyptian monuments, wearing mantles of peltry, appar-
ently cow hides -- a costume which corroborates the meaning
of Pelasgians; but as they wear ostrich feathers in the hair,
it is evident that these figures refer to clans who had forced
their way to the south of the mountain chains; and, if they do
not represent giant tribes of Palestine, that they possessed ter-
ritory in Mesopotamia, and belonged to that Teutonic race
which mixed early with the Arabs before noticed. These
observations are not opposed by the actions of the legendary
Hercules at Tiryns. The Heraclidæ were of the same Pelas-
gian stem; and if the name be a mutation of Erck, Erk, they
may be fairly referred to the Giant Finns, whose tribes consti-
tuted the Tyrhenians, the Raseni, and the subsequent conquer-
ors of the north-west of Europe.
The Ionian name is of later introduction in Greece ; it was
probably before known in Asia Minor, although, if we trust
Greek pretensions, they carried it from Europe to Asia. The
European Greeks had, however, anteriorly been known by the
name of Ægialeans, or coasters, which is an evident proof that
at first they only occupied the sea coast, and, consequently, that
they had come by water, and not across the Danube, through
Thessaly. Among these, the Cretan colony led by Rhadaman-
thus, whose name indicates a Getic origin, had settled in Bæo-
392
NATURAL HISTORY OF
tia. Tiryns itself was the abode of fishermen, and Argos was
built by Cyclopeans, notwithstanding that Euripides calls it
Pelasgian. This last name appears to be more generical than
the other, and to have superseded it, though it is not improba-
ble that the Cyclopeans were likewise a distinct tribe of the
family which was soon driven forward to Sicily, where we
have already pointed out that they appear to have been con-
nected with the Finns of High Asia, in their quality of miners
and metallurgists. In connection with the kindred Siculi,
they had settlements on the coast of Italy, and with the Sicani,
another clan of the same stock, had penetrated to Liguria and
Spain. In Greece, the Pelasgians appear to have constituted
the chief portion of the historical dominant population. They
were most numerous in Thessaly. The Perhæbians, Caucones,
Dolopians, Athamanes, the Helli, and Graii, on the west coast
of Epirus, were Pelasgi. The Pæonian and the Cecropian
Athenians were of the same stock. In the peninsula they
were known by the names of Argives, Achaians, and Arca-
dians. They built more than one Argos; and if the name of
Larissa is to be taken as a sure indication of their presence, they
would be found extended from Nineveh to the confines of Egypt,
Spain, and Southern Germany. There were Pelasgians in
Crete, and the western tribes of the race had Finnic affinities
in Upper Italy, not less than at least a partial community of
opinions and speech with the Celtic and Scytho Celtic nations.
In Syria they may have constructed the enormous ramparts
of Tortosa with stones, some of which are not less than thirty
feet in length, by ten or twelve in thickness, and at so remote
a date that the place is named, in Genesis, by the designation
of Arpad, or Arvedi, (chap. x.)
Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, being all to the north of
Greece properly so called, and west of the Bosphorus, nations
' moving to the south came across the Danube, from Dacia, as
well as from Asia Minor, without the route of their movement
being known in Greece. Many came westward in fleets of
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
393
canoes, from the Euxine and the coasts of Asia Minor, by
Rhodes, Carpathos, Casos, and Crete, and therefore they became
greatly mixed by the captives they made in piratical wars, as
well as by peaceful alliances. The noble typical races that
had come direct from the east, had been broken in upon dur-
ing the march by northern and by southern wanderers, and
forced to deviate from the line of progress by deserts, inland
seas, and chains of mountains. Still the characteristic supe-
riority of aspect remained, even to the furthest marine colo-
nies they carried to eastern Italy, and to Massilia in Gaul ;
and their intermixture was a further cause of the high civili-
zation they soon attained; for national prejudices broke down
by communion with other tribes, and the bigotry of conflicting
superstitions, unable to establish particular supremacy for one,
adopted a general amalgamation of the whole. Hyperborean
gods and Egyptian gods were blended. The recondite sym-
bols, pregnant with meaning in the east, became west of the
Hellespont mere fables and physical personifications, attractive
to a people petulant with a luxuriant fancy, and so elegant in
poetical worship, that it passed to other and more gross condi-
tions of society, such as the northern Africans and the Ro-
mans; it spread among Celtæ, Iberians, and Getæ ; all striving
to recognize their own divinities in the disguised physicalities
that came thus recommended from a polished people.
THE ROMANS.
The western Pelasgians, sometimes considered as the
descendants of two great colonies coming from Thessaly and
Arcadia, penetrated very early to Italy, a land which looms on
the horizon from the heights of Acroceraunus. In both coun-
tries we detect the same names of tribes and places, such as
Chaones, Elysinians, Siceles, Acheron, Dodona, Pandoria, &c.;
and if we judge the affinity of nations by their mode of build-
ing with huge stones, even the Etruscans were in part of this
394
NATURAL HISTORY OF
stock, the rest being Illyrian or Finnic, as we have already
noticed. The Pelasgian element, no doubt, furnished the basis
of all the arts and legends, which we find they possessed in
an ensinent degree; and the huge stone-built ramparts of
many cities in Italy, as well as Epirus, Greece, Crete, and
Asia Minor, attest the work of kindred civilization. Among
these, Rome itself was a frontier fortress in the Campania, not
improbably known by a name equivalent to Valentia, before it
received the present denomination, which, it may be observed,
means the same thing in one of the dialects spoken among
the Latin tribes. Valentia was probably derived from the
same root as Valum and the Teutonic Walle. The Pelasgians
left also colonies at Norba, and among the Volsci, Hernici,
Marsi, and Sabini, tribes having all names and characteristics
of a Getic infusion in their dialects, and indications which
show, like the first named in particular, affinity with the Belgic
Gauls, chiefly with the Volsci, Tectosages, and Arecomici.
The word Volsci, Velkee, Wilci, Teutonic Volke, is generical
for people; and the different tribes had each a particular desig-
nation. That of Italy was known by the appellation of Aurunci,
from Awe, the Vale, or open country; and the two others, as
above, had names' equally resolvable into Teutonic meanings.
Nor is this singular, since Teutames is the oldest known hero
of the Pelasgian race who ruled on the coast of Caria; and
Hera, a goddess revered at Samos, may denote simply the
Lady, and be the same as Hertha, Ertha, or Orsiloche, in Tau-
ris. There are the names of Circe (Kirke), and Falaces, the
double divinity and pillar gods of a great number of nations;
with many others, all derived from Getic, or Teutonic
dialects. The Romans, properly speaking, did not com-
pose a homogeneous race. They were, still more than the
Greek . people, a compound of many tribes, it is true, more or
less remotely allied, but still concentrated on the Tiber from
distant quarters, the result of distinct colonies and successive
arrivals. Among these, the so-called Trojan basis of the
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
395
Roman population is not more authentic than that of Ante-
nor on the coast of the Adriatic, though popular legends are
seldom without some basis of truth ; and that Asia Minor con-
tributed several tribes of migrators to different parts of Italy,
can scarcely be disputed.
Of all the Roman nobility, the Julian family alone was con-
sidered to be of indigenous origin; the rest were Pelasgi,
Etruscans, Sabines, Siculi, and others from the hills, whose
parentage is unknown. Although they were mixed with fair-
haired tribes, the aspect, profile, and structure of the Roman,
has greater resemblance to the Persic aquiline-featured race
than to a Celto Scythic type, notwithstanding that the Arabian
name for the people, probably derived from the appearance of
the majority of the foreign garrisons in the eastern en pire, in
general composed of northern levies, was Beni Asfar, that is,
fair-haired, “as of Esau.” If any relics of the Roman physi-
ognomy be now traceable within the boundaries of the once
mighty state, they must be sought among the mob population
of the city beyond the Tiber, known as the Transteverini; for
they still bear the animal square-built form, observable in the
statues of ancient Romans, with the aquiline features and deep-
set eyes, bespeaking power and daring. Elsewhere they have
vanished, and they never can have been numerically prominent
where there was more of a class population than a real nation-
ality; Rome, during the degradation of the empire, becoming
a city of foreigners, and the older civic inhabitants scattered
over every part of the empire, in search of lucrative office, or
possessing all excepting the military, which was exclusively in
the hands of strangers. The true Romans had therefore disap-
peared before the state itself was extinguished, and, even in
Constantinople, scarcely a family of Roman descent appears
prominent during the eastern empire.
396
NATURAL HISTORY OF
THE CELTIC NATIONS,
OFTEN designated by the appellation of Gomerians, may be
regarded as amongst the very earliest migrators that left the
high lands of central Asia, and moved not only in tribes towards
the west, but likewise, as we have before shown, penetrated to
the extremity of India ; and if we accept as theirs the monu-
mental structures, composed of very large stones, placed in a
particular form, such as are exemplified by what are known
in Europe by the term Druidical, they certainly visited the
South Seas and the coasts of China, and penetrated to North
America. By what inducement they became a nautical peo-
ple in the east, and under what denominations they were
known in Austral Asia, are questions probably beyond the
attainment of research. It is, however, rather singular that
the tribal appellation of Gal is common to many clans of Aus-
tralian savages; and Galla is still more extensively spread in
the east of tropical Africa. In the peninsula of India, we have
pointed out the Pandoos of remotest antiquity, with their crom-
lechs, and an Arkite worship evinced in their genealogy; and,
towards the west, we have them often greatly mixed with other
races, in Armenia, Circassia, Asia Minor, Ancient Greece, the
Bosphorus of Thrace, Sarmatia on the Baltic, in Scandinavia,
on the Danube, in Friesland, in Britain, Gaul, Italy, Spain, and
· Northern Africa. They are thus known by distinctive names,
Celto Scythæ, Celto Cimmerians, Cymbers, Belgæ, Vulci, or
Volsci, Centomanni, Celtiberii, Gallaici, Gallati, Galli, Galli
Comati, Galli Cisalpini, Britanni, Caledonii, Ikurii, Hiberni,
with an infinite variety of tribal distinctions, and names of sub-
ordinate clans. Collectively, they have been named Gome-
rians, perhaps without sufficient reason, though we retain the
distinction, so far as relates to tribes of this family anciently
resident in the south and west of Asia ; but as there are nu-
merous indications that among the first migratory tribes por-
tions, such as the Cimmerii and Cymbri, directed their course
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
397
to the north-west, and mixed, to a great extent, with Finnic
and Getic nations; we are desirous of distinguishing them
from all others, collectively, as Celto Scythæ, or Celto Finnic,
and more distinctly, by substituting one or the other of the
above names. Their probable movement down the Oxus, and
passage to the Qural mountains, and thence by Russia, Poland,
the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Denmark, into Friesland and Bel-
gium, has already been partially noticed ; and taking the so-
called Celtic mode of erecting monuments, altars, and tombs,
with huge stones, on the surface of the earth, or hidden in
cairns and barrows, as proof of their presence, we have in
more than one place pointed out that they must have been sea-
men on more than one occasion, have traversed great portions
of the South Seas, and left the evidence of their toils on the
coasts of China as well as America.* That these massive
structures are not the chance-work of races of unallied nations,
is plain, from the fact, that among nearly one hundred and fifty
cromlechs, logging-stones, masses of unwrought rock, cleared
away to constitute them into colossal idols, circles of stones,
parallellitha' of linear or curve-linear ranges of -upright stones,
single maen stones, mysterious caves for worship or initiation,
shealings, &c., the greater part whereof we possess drawings,
we find that they are placed more or less in certain territorial
regions, where they form groups or lines leading from one to
another. Thus, in particular, those bearing the character of
cromlechs pass down the west side of the Indus to the sea ;
then divide, one line eastward, following the coast to the Coim-
batoor as befu, a noticed, and further on to China and the islands
of the Pacific; while the other, forming two branches, one
follows the mountain chain to the Caspian, the other by the
Helmund, through the desert of Iran to Persepolis, and up the
Tigris, till it meets the first on the high land of Armenia, where
* In the atlas of Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard there are some delinea-
tions of these seeming Celtic structures in the South Seas not before
noticed.
34
398
NATURAL HISTORY OF
they become directly referable to Cyclopean and other Celto
Finnic tribes, and pass from both coasts of Asia Minor' along
the two shores of the Mediterranean, up the west coast of
Spain, and by the Alps and Cevennes down the Loire to the
sea, where both unite again, and then skirt the ocean towards
the north, cross over into Britain, the final extension ending in
Norway.* With the exception of a few.observed in the Uni-
ted States, no monuments of this class are detected in any
other direction. If we now inquire froni whence the construc-
tors of these peculiar monuments originated, it is clear, that
tracing them back to the points whence, they branch off, and
then further up to the ultimate limit where they are found,
though even then there may be traces of them not as yet dis-
covered, we have a proximate solution that they commence
either beyond the crest of the central high land of Asia, or at
least that they are to be found about the Indus, before that
stream escapes to the open plain ; that is, again, about Hindu-
Koosh, and in the vicinity of certain significant local names,
such as Penghir (Pen-y-ghir), Carura, &c., bearing Celtic
meanings. It is the region west of high Kashgar, north-west
of Cashmere, the vicinity of the first known station of the
Pandoos, or Pandei. It is near the first great central sacred
troglodyte city, Bamean (Adrepsa), and not far to the north
from the first commencement and divergences of the character-
istic cromlechs; for it is along the southern flank of the Paro-
pamisus that they pass on northward to Armenia, while another
descends the Indus to the sea, and thence branches both eastward
and to the interior of Southern Persia. From this vicinity we
find also that the oldest pagan diluvian legends have radiated;t
* We have thought it right to repeat a part of what had already been
stated on this head, because here, in particular, it connects the various
tribes of this common family.
† Compare the third Avatar, where Prithivi complains to Vishnou,
with Davies' " Celtic Researches." Appendix, "Preiddeu," "Anmon."
Still more, No. 12, of ditto, page 563, where some lines appear to be
Etruscan.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
399
for those of America, of the South Seas, of Tahtary, and
of the north and west of the old continent, are all cognizant
of the Dragon formula, the Dragon fish, the serpent devour-
ing the sun, the moon, and the woman, type of reproductive
animal nature, by which the mysterious doctrine is con-
veyed.
We find the legends of an Eden, a city of the gods, an
oasis of bliss, with its four rivers, equally mystified and dis-
torted, from the Brahmaputra to Ireland, and a succession of
Ararats, from the Himalaya chain to Snowdon.* From India
to the German Ocean, there are at least eleven, with a series
of subordinate localities, more or less complete, assimilated to
the narrative of the Pentateuch, in proportion as the Hebrew
Scriptures had been accessible, and in particular among the
Arab nations, rekindled by the spreading of the Koran. In
point of date, it is known, that both in Italy and Britain 'the
Celts were possessed of the soil beſore their husbandry was
acquainted with either barley or wheat corn; acorns were the
sole farinaceous food then known. Greek and Latin classics
relate the travels of Ceres, and lessons of Triptolemus, as
well .as Welsh poets the first introduction of cerealia in
Britain.
Enough has been said in former pages respecting the move-
ments of the most eastern branch of these colonists; their wars,
* Pagan tradition scarcely separates the creation from the diluvian
legends; paradise from their cities of the gods and primeval abode of
mán; their umbilicus, or navel of the world, from the mountains of God,
of the descent, of the deluge and the ship; a locality usually made the
centre of the world, according to the position of each nation asserting that
doctrine, and accordingly by each surrounded with sacred rivers and hal-
lowed localities, without therefore being in the least scrupulous about
geographical truth or much coincidence of opinion. Scriptural commen-
tators on the geographical relations of : Assyria and Persia with the high
lands of Asia; have generally sought the easternmost in Armenia instead
of Baciria, though profane history and research agree in the fact, that
these two regions have been in constant relations of war, trade, migration,
and conquest.
400
OF
NATURAL HISTORY 1
probably of several ages' duration in the peninsula of India, and
of others still more remote in date, who appear to have reached
the south-east coast of China, and traversed a great portion of
the Pacific. There were others whose early presence in
Africa is detected by a variety of customs among the Abys-
sinian and even Caffre nations, which we have likewise no
further occasion to mention. Of the tribes of Shelluhs in
Morocco, whose Showiah dialect is asserted to retain many
Celtic words, it is not requisite to say more than what has
already been stated, excepting that the existence of cromlechs
and maen stones along the coast, such as the Romans noticed
by the names of Philæenian altars, and the ancients likewise
attest to have existed on the island of Cadiz, or Gades, in
Spain, are of themselves sufficient proof of a primeval coast-
ing progress along the African shore, which, leaving colonies
in Mauritania, now, it may be, mixed with Shelluh tribes,
turned northward, marking its progress in Portugal by the
usual monuments, and by the name of Portugal itself, as well
as that of Gallicia (land of the Gallaici), where they came in
contact with the Finns or Finno-Celts, from the north, whose
progress we have already mentioned.
We now come to the march of the main body of the Celtee,
from their first departure, divided into two great columns,
one directing its course to the north ward of west, and the
other appearing to have followed the southern flanks of the
great mountain chain, through Armenia and Asia Minor, to
Europe. It is this movement westward, of successive tribes of
the family, which has commonly been designated as the Gome-
rian. Josephus first made this application to the race in ques-
tion from the tenth chapter of Genesis. We may retain the
name, without entering into the truth of the Jewish historian's
derivation; particularly when restricting the meaning to the
portion of this great stem which passed through Middle Asia;
because the word may be construed to imply mountaineers in
one set of cognate languages, and in another it may be derived,
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
401
with little mutation, from Guomo, Homo, which was doubtless
in use among the Pelasgians, a somewhat kindred nation, that
passed and dwelt along the same line of migration.* It sig-
nifies merely man or men, the common appellation of a multi-
tude of ancient tribes in Scythic dialects, or those which we
take to be offspring of that common tongue of High Asia, the
Sanscrit, before it became a polished vehicle of knowledge in
the centre of the ancient world.
If the tribes which followed the most southern route, such,
for example, as that by the Helmund, towards the region where
Persepolis and Susa were afterwards built, had black eyes and
curly hair, like every race that came in contact with the Ethi-
opian stem; those which followed the course more directly
west, along the flank of the mountains, where their monu-
ments are still visible, were more probably a blue-eyed people,
with brown hair, and full muscular structure; nationally
graziers (gwallah), and possessing that basis of traditions
which they afterwards carried with them to Gaul and Britain.
In a pure state, or already in commixture with tribes of Finnic
origin, we find them in Armenia; tribes reckoned among the
giant conquerors, penetrating into Syria and Arabia, and the
main columns possessing Colchis and Asia Minor, where the
rivers Sangarius and Gallus (Halys), with other remote Celtic
denominations, attest that they once resided. If the Milesians
have a true claim to Celtic consanguinity, they penetrated to
the: Borysthenes, and built Olbio, where the sturgeon fishery,
corn husbandry, and weaving fine cloths from hemp, had
formed a flourishing community in the time of Herodotus, or
B. C. 460. But this date is several ages posterior to the first
* There are other derivations, or the same, reversing the meaning, as
is constantly the case in cognate languages, such as the Celtic Combe, a
valley, and Teutonic Kam, a crest; for in both we may have the radical
meaning of Cumraeg, Cymbri, Cumbers, Cumbrians, Cambrians, Cam-
brivii, Cambresians, Kumbers, Kempers, Kempenners, Kennermers,
Cimmerians, &c. See also Cuma, in many localities. — Steph. Byzant.
34*,
402
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Celtic irruption across the Taurine Alps in Italy; since that
event preceded the conquests of the Gauls, B. C. about 600,
when they established themselves in the Cisalpine territory, an
event which was said to be the consequence of over population
already accumulated in Transalpine Gaul, and therefore at
least many generations after their first arrival. Over popula-
tion certainly could not well have been the true cause of
expatriation; for several whole tribes of Belgæ, and the Allo-
brogi, had not yet relinquished the north of the Rhine and
Danube. Now these denominations in Theotisk had only two
meanings; Volke, as before said, denoting a people, in contra-
distinction to Geschlecht and Stam, which were applied to
homogeneous clans or tribes; and Gela, Gaul, Gael, by the
Celtic nations always understood to designate strangers,
foreigners, because most probably they also were partly mixed
tribes; the same originally as those who were known by the
collective appellations of Belgæ, Centomanni, Celtomanni, &c.,
and only bore the general epithet of Gauls among the Celtæ
properly so called. This appellation was pronounced by them.
selves and the Teutonic race, Wael, Welsh, Velsche, only a
dialectical variation from Wilci (wolves). If the Gelas of the
Caspian coast were of the same sten, we have a geographical
indication that the Celto Scythic, or perhaps Celto Finnic
tribes, extended so far towards the north-east as the Araxes;
and though the Phrygian, Gallæ, the emasculated priesthood
of the Syrian Goddess, renowned for circular dances and
choral songs, may not have been Gallic by race, the presump-
tion is, that they, or the institutions they observed, came from
the banks of the above named Phrygian rivers, where the
whole region was at one time Celtic. To that quarter a Gallic
army from the west, having ravaged Greece, was,gages after,
again invited, and there the forces, so far from wearing out in
á short period, as armies invariably do on all other occasions,
they multiplied to a nation, which was still flourishing at the
commencement of the Christian era, under the name of Gala-
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
403
tians. Though mutilation was not practised by the Western
Celta who followed Druidical institutions, the vociferation of
the many epithets of Hu, and the spinning dance " in graceful
extravagance,” according to Taliesin, was well known to them;
they had even the ecstatic visions of the Syrian Galli, perhaps
the very same as the Howling Dervishes, who repeat the
ninety-nine perfections of Allah, and their brethren, the twirl-
ing fanatics of the mosque of Ayoub, who perform the like
dances, and fall into similar fits of frenzy and exhaustion.
A multitude of other coincidences can be traced relating
to the highest developed religious system of the Cellæ in
Western Europe, the more perfect, probably, because, through
Phænician agency, the dogmas of Palestine and Syria had
been carried westward rapidly, and more unbroken, by nautical
colonists. No doubt an intercourse of consanguinity continued
to exist between both, since the Galatians had returned east-
ward and established themselves a second time in a focus of
their ancient possessions, where there were around them inter-
minable denominations of places bestowed by their ancestors;
and it is likely a proportion of the population still recognized
them as relatives. The southern clans, having, in their most
early communion with Indo-Arab neighbors, acquired that
dialect which might be termed Celto Semitic, probably pos-
sessed the most recondite lore of Western Asia, reduced to a
homogeneous system. It was that which abounded in Hebrew
or Syriac terms: proceeding by sea, it carried the traditions
and philosophy of the east to the coasts of Great Britain,
destined to be set up first as indigenous; later, to accept
numerous grafts from the same quarter, brought by Punic
traders; and, finally, to prepare the west to accept the tidings
of the Gospel without that resolutę opposition which Greek
and Roman civilization so long opposed to Christianity. The
Celto Semitic race is still distinctly marked in Spain, Corn-
wall, and Wales, by a more spare make, black curly hair, very
dark eyes, and brown complexions, frequently set off with
404
NATURAL HISTORY OF
bright red lips. It is a spirited race, gifted with the highest
imaginative power, serious, thoughtful, religious, obstinate,
attached to its own nationalities, and, though in many cases
proved to have been a marine people, nowhere really fond of a
sea life. Such are the true Cymraeg, the Siluri of Tacitus,
abounding in Wales : 'in Cornwall they are ofttimes named
Cadisians, from a legend that their ancestors came from the
coast of Spain; and local names indicate the antique presence
of Punic and Hebrew colonists and mining speculators, who
understood the value of the Cornish ores so well, that, to the
age of King Henry III., Jews still were the parties that farmed
the right of stream working and mining from the crown. · It
is probable that the Hibernian Coomary, sea-dogs, or seals,
likewise connected with legends of Gallican origin, and the so-
called Milesians, belong to the same stock, notwithstanding
that their remote ancestors may have resided on the northern
shore of the Euxine, as before stated. The name may even be
traced as far as Bactria, among the present Rajpoots, celebrated
in the Rhamayana for their horses; and Khomen still reside at
the Bay of Cambogia in Siam.
In Gaul the brown-haired tribes prevail, though dark-eyed
families are exceedingly abundant, and the whole are inter-
mixed with Finns, Alans, Goths; Burgundians, and Franks,
who, nevertheless, though they were mostly nations of real
horsemen, have never been enabled to make the Celtic people
either in Italy, Gaul, or Catalonia, more than transitorily
addicted to a cavalry life, or formidable for their squad-
rons, notwithstanding that the antique institution of the tri-
marchesia,* and the Gallic Alæ in the Roman service, seem
to prove the contrary; at all times this species of renown was
due only through the Belgic, Allemannic, and Frankish influ-
* Or three horsemen combined ; Tri-march-cesec, a master and two
attendants, according to Pausanias ; but if there was but one horse and
two foot soldiers, the institution was bad. We must allow that the
Polish lancers and the Spahis were once formed upon this principle.
THE HUMAN 14
405
SPECIES.
ence in the national manners. The characteristic temperament
was ever stimulated by momentary objects, unsteady, factious,
often frivolous, always brave, witty, and improvident. This
great stem of nations could never permanently arrest the
teady progress of the Teutonic and Getic tribes, which
?dually forced them westward, then mixed with them,
wecame a privileged class of rulers, or adulterated the Celtic
blood and language; such were the Gallic, the first and second
Belgic tribes, the Centomanni, the Boii, the Allobroges, and
lastly the Cymber or Friesonic, which were nearly pure Ger-
mans. The intermixture, in proportion as it increased, gave.
firmness, and those enduring qualities which finally arrested
the pressure of the Getic races, and they resembled them in
person and in language, as is proved by the Franks, the Si-
cambers and Frankonians, or east Franks on the German side
of the Rhine, and by the Saxons and Northmen in the British
Islands. After they had been subjugated by the Romans, the
Danube and the Rhine were both wrested from them by these
amalgamated tribes; they sank before the Vandals, the Goths,
the Burgundians, the Franks, the Saxons, and the Northmen,
in every quarter except the Highlands of Scotland and a por-
tion of Ireland. These, with Wales, a small part of French
Bretagne, and the Alpine Vaudois, are now the sole portions
of the race which still retain the pride of their nationality,
their ancient language, and their traditions. .
That they all came from the east is perhaps sufficiently
shown. We have pointed out the routes followed by the migra.
tory columns, and their stations in Armenia and Western
Asia; their early blending with Finnic or Ural-Altaic tribes,
probably on the Caspian coast, constituting a portion of the
Illyrian branch of Eastern Europe. They seem still to retain
possession of a portion of territory on the Danube, under the
name of Wallachians (for the claim of that people to an Italian
or Roman origin is no other than that the Italians are denom-
inated Velches by the Southern Allemannic and Sclavonic
406
NATURAL HISTORY OF
nations), though by that name they acknowledge themselves
actually to belong to the Celtic family. They may be the
Celtæ which Alexander found on the Ister, according to
Arrian, and be the Triballi of Roman history. Further on wo
observed that wảndering tribe, the Boii; in the present Bavaria
the same which once occupied Bohemia, and left two colonie
in Gaul, whereof one, seated at the Teste de Buch, near the
ized into Captal de Buch, Jean de Grailly, the last of the
family, who was, in the reign of Edward III., the fifth Knight
of the Garter, at the foundation of the order. This very title
of Buch, their tribal name of Bougers, and their silent wood-
land manners, attest that they were not pure Celts, but, like
other fair-haired Boii of the north, Belgæ or Semi-Germans.*
Besides the possession of Bohemia, Celtic tribes long held
Galicia in Spain; others, from the Tauric Chersonesus, passed
up the rivers and swamps of Sarmatian Galicia and the
Baltic, where they came in contact with Illyrian or Finnic
Veneti. Passing over to Sweden and Norway, they built up
the usual monuments of their presence, and left some portion
of their dogmas to the first conquering Getæ; thence they
edged down by the Cymbric Chersonesus, along the west
coast of Germany, and began to force their way into Northern
Gaul, at least one century before the Roman conquest. They
dislodged the first Belgæ, who, not finding space for habitation
on the Continent, formed the two well known irruptions into
Britain. They extended themselves along the southern coast,
reached the British Channel, and passed over to Ireland,
where they formed the Firbolg tribes, who, at a later period,
encountered the Finnic Celts in the northern portion of the
island. Taking the Irish Firbolg to be descended from the
* In the letters of St. Paulinus, addressed to the poet Ausonius, there
are some details of the manners of these Boii. At present they are col-
lectors of rosin in the pine forests of that sandy region, and characteristi-
cally possess a breed of vigorous feral horses."
TYTY
THE HUMAN SPECIES. -
407
.
first Belgic branch (that which was expelled by the second
Belgæ, who secured for themselves the sea-coast and the valley
of the Rhine), we may regard them as the purest Celtæ now
remaining. They still much resemble the Vaudois, the Illyrian
Lombards, and the Walloon population, even more than that
of Lower Brittany. The Irish are in form athletic, rather spare
and wiry; the forehead is narrow, and the head itself is elon-
gated'; the nose and mouth large, and the cheek-bones high.
The features are father harsh; and in character they are fiery,
brave, generous in their impulses, and very patient of fatigue.
Intellectually considered, they are acute, witty, ingenious, but
beset with the sense of drollery more than of the true and use-
ful; they are deficient in sobriety of thought and breadth of
understanding; they consequently want more excitement for
action and enduring reflecting power than the Getic family of
nations seems to require,': The Finnic Celtæ were the first
northern marine wanderers, who, having attained the Scottish
and Irish coasts, constituted the Gael Coch, or red-haired stran-
gers of Scandinavian origin, and first taught the pursuing Geta
-in part their kindred -- to follow them to the south, under
the name of Northmen and Ostmen.
The Cymbers were perhaps the last colony from the north
B. C. 108, penetrated to Spain, and, in alliance with Teutonic
tribes, they were at length vanquished in the plains of Italy,
after they had destroyed several consular armies.* In Britain,
as already stated, there were a greater diversity of races than
is commonly admitted, besides a nameless population of sav-
ages, probably Finnic, in possession of the coast when the
Celtæ first landed. There were among these, and protected
by the Hedui, the Veneti (Henyd) and Ligurians (Llogrwys),
* They routed, between B. C. 302 and 307, the armies of Papyrius, of
Silanus, of Cassius Longinus, and of Cæpio and Mallius, who were loaded
with the Celtic treasures of Tolosa, once plundered by the Gauls at
Grecian Delphos.
408
NATURAL HISTORY OF
whó, we have shown, had, through their Illyrian origin, like-
wise Finnic affinities; the purer Celtæ, such as the Morini and
the nautical clans coming from the coast of Spain, and the
Belga of Semi-Teutonic origin, such as the Cantii and others
occupying the east coast of Britain. The intercommunication
of knowledge and civilization among tribes, who, in different
parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, had been in contact with
nations far more advanced in the arts of life, some perhaps,
with little delay, passing west in their coracles the whole dis-
tance from the regions of Phænicia and Carthage to Britain,
brought dogmas, such as the religious and moral dicta of the
Druids attest. They had, no doubt, possession of rudiments of
literature and reminiscences of science, and, reaching a home
rich in mines, not only became miners and metallurgists--as
more than one line of their progenitors had been in the east
and in Spain --- but, stimulated by the example of the Etruscans
in the arts of smelting ores, they must have accelerated the
progress of development, which inroads. of new hordes, the
tendency to intestine factions and open war, too often, and, in
the end, too fatally arrested.
This imprudent irritability of temperament caused the Celtic
races, notwithstanding their military prowess, to be ever sub-
dued and ruled by strangers, both in Asia and Eastern Europe,
in Gaul and Britain. Without reference to the universally
known facts in history, we may add one or two more not so
commonly noticed. It was the Veņeto-British fleet, defeated
by Cæsar's navy, off the mouth of the Seine, which produced
the Roman invasion.* The struggles between the Christian
municipal towns of foreign colonists left by the Romans, and
the Pagan Reguli of native race, brought in the Caledonians
and then the Saxons. So, again, the force of 12,000 Britons
under Prothamus (Pritham ?), which crossed over to Gaul in
* It was more likely a fleet of Gallic and British Veneti united, who
fought D. Brutus in Quiberon Bay, in order to recover Vannes, Blavet,
and Hennebon, all Henyd, or Venetic towns.
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
: 409
457 to support the Emperor (Marjoriam ?), stripped the island
of its trained defenders, at the time the great Saxon invasion
was in progress ;* and, lastly, we find the name of Sawel ben
Uchel, with his supporters, probably Belgæ, taking part with
, the Saxons in the overthrow of their own race.
Language and religious doctrines were likewise different in
the three great national divisions of the. Celtæ. In the north,
the name of Druids, or rather Drotne, was a title of civil
authority, perhaps even more than religious; the Belgæ had no
Druids, but Seghers, speakers (sacerdotes of Tacitus); nor was
the order known in Cisalpine Gaul, nor in the Iberian posses-
sions of the race. Druidism seems to have been evolved on
the banks of the Loire, and acquired the higher doctrines in
the mining districts of Britain, by intercourse with the Phæni.
cian traders, until it was ready to accept a modified Christian-
ity, like that Aurelius Ambrosius entertained, when he assumed
the civil and military authority, with the office of chief Druid
and that of Christian Bishop!
Though the French nation of the present time is in its vast
majority of Celtic origin, there remain only the Bas Bretons
who claim something of a pure descent. The Waldenses of
the Alps are less distinct. The south-eastern Irish have a just
claim to a Belgic origin, and the Cymraeg of Wales to a true
southern Celtic parentage; while the Gael of the Scottish
Highlands are probably Finnic Celts, who resided in Erin, till
they were obliged to retire before the superior numbers of the
Fir-bolg.
* This expedition may have given rise to the fabulous wars of Arthur
on the continent. Prothamus is mentioned by Jornandes, Freculphus, and
Sigebert of Gembloux.
+ It may be remarled here, that several Celtic terms are referred to
Theotisk sources, because they belong to the Celto-Cymber and Belgic
tribes, who, as Cæsar asserts, spoke a distinct language ; and the roman-
ized names of divinities prove to have been invariably of Teutonic, not
Gallic origin, from the Rhine to beyond the Scheldt.
35
410
NATURAL HISTORY OF
C
THE GETÆ OR GOTHIC NATIONS.
At length we attain the concluding family of nations. It is
that stem, which, though later in reaching the Western Ocean,
and, like the rest of the tribes that peopled Europe, though
compelled to forsake High Asia, and quit the east, was des-
tined nevertheless to hold dominion in Chinese Tahtary, ages
after the other Caucasian nations had been expelled or exter-
minated by the Mongoles. They likewise were early invaders
of India, and are no doubt of the number of those which the
Egyptian kings Remses and Thothmes, and the Assyrian
Ninus, vainly endeavored permanently to subjugate, notwith-
standing that they had the organized masses of great empires
at their coinmand, and the invaded mountaineers could not
retreat towards the east. This stem of nations was, as it still
is, the tall, fair, light, or red-haired portion of the Caucasian
type, including the giant races of historical tradition. [ć ven-
tured, in the remotest ages, in small clans, or by mere families,
to penetrate far among the dark-haired nations, unsupported by
numbers, and trusting solely to their fortitude and valor. The
Mongolic, the Ural Altaic Finns, and the Indo Arab nations,
have at all times acted by the weight of overwhelming num-
bers, therein differing from the fair-haired tribes of mixed and
of pure Caucasians, whose cool energy and self-reliance not
only takes little account of numbers, but actually is the cause
of small sovereignties, and even permanent republics, remain-
ing independent to this day. We have in more than one place
pointed out families, and clans of this great stem, assuming the
absolute mastery of swarthy and of dark-haired nations, or
becoming in a collective form the nobility, the privileged class,
wherever they resided. An element of this kind, either in
part Finnic, or purely Getic, blended in the earliest population
of Greece, probably before the formation of the kingdom of
Argos, eighteen centuries before the Christian era. The Her-
THE HUMAN .
SPÉCIES.
aclidæ were of the fair-haired stock, and so was Theseus, and
indeed most of the demigod heroes of Greece; at least that
opinion in tradition is equivalent to an admission of the fact
that the northern race prevailed among the Hellenes before
their historical era. They came from Thrace, from Asia
Minor; and, in the quality of marine swarmers down the
Euxine, occupied portions of the coast, or passed on to the
Mediterranean, to the Adriatic, Gaul, and Spain, where the
fabulous Gerion is again represented to have been a fair-haired
giant.* All these legends have a singular alliance in consist-
ent uniformity, reaching to Egypt, and going round and beyond
the Mediterranean Sea. Under the names of Scythians and
Tauranians, we, find, in Asiatic history, that they were dreaded
by all southern nations, even to a single individual coming
amongst them. Kindred nations of this stem reached Europe
without distinct accounts of their origin and progress; but the
movements of others, at later periods, substantiated by Chinese
writers, by Indian documents, and by Greek and Latin authors,
who record their arrival in the west, attest that they all came
from the same region, in Mongolia, Thibet, and the lakes of
Central Asia. Being coerced by the pressure of the beardless
stock behind, they forced a passage towards Europe through
innurnerable fields of slaughter, and swarmed during a period
commencing probably twelve centuries B. C., perhaps when the
great inland sea was already much contracted, and the rivers
in their way were not yet so greatly absorbed in sand as they
are now.
We observe, in fact, that already at the time of the first
Celtic expansion in Gaul, when tribes of that race recrossed the
* In Asia Minor they appear to have constituted the Lydian, Pelasgian,
and Carian nations; and Tyrhenian or Torubian, and Phænician, further
on, were probably more Finnic, but all allied, as is shown by Hesiod and
Herodotus, in Lydian records ; and Ovid, quoting a Naxian legend, where
trihes are personified, the Tyrhenian theſt of the god Bacchus, indicates
that these pirate rovers carried the vine to Italy.
412
NATURAL HISTORY OF
Rhine, 600 years B. C., that Semi-Teutones or Getic tribes,
such as thè Boii, were among them, and that the movement
was occasioned by fresh pressure of similar tribes coming
down the north-west coast of Germany — tribes that could not
be expatriated by any other than enemies of purer Getic race,
who were themselves pressed by more of the same, further in
the north-east. We have prominent, on the scene of action,
the same names of nations, from the high lands of Mongolia to
the German Ocean. They continue to roll onwards in waves,
retaining their first appellations, till four centuries A. C. In
Tahtar, and Chinese and European Chinese annals, they are
distinguished by the names of Kinto Moey, Yuchi, and Yetæ,
Getæ, Scythe, Guti, Guttones, Jotun, Goths, Massagetæ, &c.,
until they become known by more tribal denominations, such
as Gothi, Germani, Teutones, Xacas, Sacas, Sakya, Sacæ :
at later periods we find Sueiones, Suevi, Burgundi; and at
length they are followed by Sclavonic tribes, which always
bear some impression of Ural Altaic consanguinity, notwith-
standing that in part they are descended from Sacas, who,
repulsed by Indian forces, fell back upon Persia, and brought
with them. Hindoo mythological notions, that extended among
kindred nations, and reached Scandinavia.
According to Chinese annalists, when Foh appeared, B. C.
1027, - Yuchi were already established in Bactria, along the
Sihoon or Jaxartes river, and they had possessed, or still were
masters of, the great basin around Lake Balkach; the first station
west of the central mountain chain, provided that the Siberian
region, in remote times called Geta or Yeta, be not still more
ancient, and reveal the original meaning of Get, bright, corrus-
cating, the same as Sibir, and our silver, which seems to be the
Russian or Sclavonic translation of Yet.
The Chinese Yuchi, and more proper names of Yeta and
Getæ, collectively taken, denoted the whole family of fair-
haired tribes, including those which were foremost in the
movement towards the west, and were partially intermixed
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
with the Celtic tribes of the north, forming the Cyınler or
Cimmerian people before mentioned. Similar interunions
affected the Gallic or fair-haired Gaul tribes; the Boii, the
Volsci, the Britons of the east coast, the Vuinidi; the Wilci,
northern or second Belgæ,* &c.; but it may be doubted
whether the Allemanni, Allobrogi, Centomanni, Geremanni,
Teutones, and Frisones, were of the same races, pure Getæ, or
with perhaps some Finnic intermixture. That they were
nearly allied; is evident from their tribal names, notwithstand-
ing that the Romans confounded them with the Gauls,
because, in the time of Marius, it was thought to be the
greater honor to vanquish then, and they were encountered
on the west side of the Rhine. In Britain, the former were
the Gwyddel Coch, or Ywerdon, the red Gael of Ireland,
probably the Dalriads noticed in the third century again, of the
same nation as the yellow-haired Britons, taller than the
Italian race, seen at Rome by Strabo, and still distinguished
by the bard of Malcolm III., in 1057. These no doubt were
the Celto Scythæ of earlier antiquity, little if at all to be
divided from the Finnic Celts, but more distinct from the
Getic tribes, who are often noticed in antiquity, as milk-eating
and western Scythæ, residing between the Danube and the
Tanais or Don, at the time the eastern Getæ, or Massagetæ,
the Sakas and Sarmatæ, were on the plains northward of the
Caspian, and along the Oxus and Jaxartes, up to High Asia,
and the Yuchi (Yueichi) were still in the present Mongolia.
This appears to have been that period when the great conflict
of the typical races was at its height, in Northern Central
Asia ; for the Chinese were then building the Great Wall
(B. C. 223) to exclude these valiant tribes from their southern
states, and the Persian monarchs were equally anxious to pre-
vent them penetrating to the south, since they also had raised
* The Esauítes, or Italian Edomites of Gorio, who built Norba, Alba,
and other Cyclopean cities in Lower Etruria and Latium, were a fair.
haired race, most likely Etruscans, speaking an Oscan dialect.
35*
414
NATURAL HISTORY OF
a great wall, or continuous lines of defence, from Bactria to
the Caspian, a rampart like the Kizil Alan, most likely older
than the accession of the Sassanian dynasty; since further
west, the wall between the two seas, passing from Derbend
(Porta portarum, Portæ Caspiæ) to the Euxine, appears also to
be more ancient than historical record.
The Yuei-chi, the last Caucasian race that left the north
central high land of Asia, being pressed by the Mongolians, or
by Huns from the north-east (about 200 B. C.), were compelled
to quit Chensi, and fell upon the Sai, or Sakas, who, retreat-
ing, divided into two great masses, whereof the first directed
its course towards the west, and the other, not quite so numer-
ous, fell back upon Southern Thibet, and thence came down
upon the Greek Bactrian state (B. C. 90), then ruled by Mith-
ridates. They had, at the same time, similar conflicts with
the Parthians, whose king, Artaban, they slew. They gave
an asylum to Sanotrokes, and restored him to power (B. C.
'76). From Bactria they crossed the Paropamisus, and sub-
dued another Greek sovereignty in Affghanistan, on the south
side of the chain. Passing onwards, they formed a province.
of Scinde; but, in an attempt to penetrate further eastward,
they were routed by. Vikra-maditya, king of Avanti (B. C.
56). If not from an earlier invasion, it was, at the latest, in
consequence of this deſeat, that the recoiling Scythæ were
supplied with the Hindoo religious elements, which some of
the tribes, migrating westward, have evidently mixed up with
Celtic and Finnic legends in the north of Europe. We do
not, for example, find the Asii, here called Lazi, to have pos-
sessed the doctrines recorded in the Edda. When, according
to the Chinese annals, they were opposing the Tatzin or the
Romans, in their endeavors to open a trade with China, for
which purpose, being hindered on land, they sent an ambassa-
dor by sea to the Celestial Empire, in the reign of a sovereign
denominated “ Anton,” ¿. e., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
While they were still residing on the Caspian, and when they
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
415
(
began to form a strong community on the banks of the Borys-
thenes, Thorgitaus, their chief divinity, is not represented with
characters suited to the high northern latitude, where Thor and
Woden are afterwards made to operate in a manner congenial
with the climate. If the city Asgard, once existing near Azof,
at the mouth of the Don, was the representative of the first
abode commemorated in the north, then the Asii possessed at
that point an intermediate resting-place, so that from their first
known station within the high table land of Asia, above the
southern sources of the Jaxartes, they moved gradually to the
south through Sogdiana, across the Paropamisus, and then
westward, to the three stations already indicated, before they
or a clan of this people again returned to the north, probably
by ascending the Borysthenes, and halting some time about the
lake of Ladoga, made that water a sacred centre, until they
migrated to Scandinavia.
The Getæ, found by Ovid occupying the west coast of the
Euxine, were then already a century in moving onwards
towards the north-west of Europe, taking again the great
rivers of the present Poland to reach the Baltic. With the
Thuringians and Saxons, or Sacasunen, among them, they
forced their way to the German Ocean; dislodging the Cym-
bers, excepting remnants that clung to the swamps, and the
then submerging islands of the deltas formed by the great :
rivers which discharge their waters into the German Ocean.
They were most likely the subsequent Friesen and Sicambers,
or Water Cymbers, who, with other tribes of so-called Ger-
mani, formed the posterior offensive confederacy of the Franks
(Freye-Anke); among these the clan of Merovingians (Meer-
vingen), notwithstanding that the site they inhabited is
pointed out to have been on the Merwe in Holland, seems
nevertheless to indicate a clan of sea-rovers, whose first intel-
ligible historical chief, Pharamund (Vaaremund), or com-
mander of the navigation, had performed some great exploit in:
the then fresh career of distant marine expeditions, such as
416
NATURAL HISTORY OF
that of plundering and ravaging the coasts of Africa and
Spain. They and their chief may perhaps refer to the remark-
able escape of the Frankish exiled prisoners, who, in A. D.
280, seized upon shipping on the coasts of the Euxine, and
forced their way homeward, plundering Syracuse and the
coasts of Gaul and Spain, until they reached the mouth of the
Rhine in safety, and loaded with booty. This event may be
the basis of the mystical legend of the Bristly Bull monster,
which rose out of the sea, and became the parent of the Bor-
stigen, Meringauen, or Meeringen; for it explains how a
daring, rich, and victorious body of Celto Scythæ and Finni
of the west, being moulded into one united companionship by
misfortune and by success, replete with the experience of their
adventurous achievement, and possessed of captive wives and
slaves from highly civilized nations, should have grasped power
at home, and given that settled purpose of conquest to these
restless tribes, which, until then, had been only known as the
mere maraudings of pirates.
By the departure of the Franks, eastward and across the
Rhine, and of the Saxons and Angles to Britain, room was
made for other tribes, who either wanted space on the spot, or
were daily pressing onwards through the swamps and forests
of Poland and Russia. We shall not relate the great influx
of them before and with the Huns, and of numerous Finnic
western Goths were the most conspicuous. Like several
others, they had struck upon the shores of the southern Baltic,
and then found they must turn to the south. They or similar
migratory bands compelled Alans, Vandals, Burgundians, &c.,
to precede or to follow them, and to produce that remarkable
cross migration from north to south, which caused the intimate
mixture of the fair and dark-haired races in middle and south-
ern Europe, and in the end effected that thorough civilization
of the whole, on principles of progression, continuing to
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
417
develop science with daily increasing rapidity, and tending
shortly to embrace the whole earth.
Though many of the parent races of nations now remaining
were without letters, or were possessed of valuable elements
of knowledge in a very circumscribed degree, there existed
among them all, at a period much earlier than is often allowed,
a method of embodying (it is true, commonly under symbolical
expressions) records of national belief, manners, and events,
which give occasional light, sufficient to rectify the scanty
data of the later classical writers, and the documents contained
in the acts of the earlier ages of Christianity. These most
ancient national legends are poems, in various forms, and
often in some part religious. They are reports, such as Virgil
knew, and interwove in his Æneid, concerning the tribes of
Latium, and Strabo asserts were possessed by the Iberians.
They were recitals committed to memory, like the Homeric
poems, preserved from one generation to another by repetition,
with an exactness, all things considered, wonderfully perma-
nent. Thus the Gael of the Scottish Highlands, and northern
Irish, have recorded the poems of Ossian, now thoroughly
proved to be genuine. Such are the thirty cantos of the
Finnic Kalewalla, lately brought to light, the numerous Scan-
dinavian Sagas, and the two Eddas. Even the British Celtic
legends of Arthur, the Mabinogion, and the poems of Taliesin
and Aneurim, have now likewise established their degree of
authenticity, as well as the first part of the Arabic Antar.
Among the Teutonic tribes, the staves of the Gehugende,
according to Jahn, marked on wood, in Runic letters, con-
tained the tribal reminiscences, whence the earliest monkish
annalists have drawn a great part of their first historical mate-
rials. The Heldenbuch, and Niebelungen-noth, were most
likely preserved by their help. The last mentioned may,
however, be of Franco-Theotisk origin, since' four or six pages;
in the Flemish language, of the twelfth century, have been
lately discovered at Ghent.,
418
NATURAL HISTORY OF
It is to be regretted that many stores of early information
have been neglected. The list of classical (Greek and Latin,
writers which have perished since the thirteenth century is
sufficiently extensive. That of indigenous chronicles, annals,
and legends, especially in the north of Europe, since the same
period, is even more considerable. Some few may yet remain
unknown; and though the general history of events may not
be greatly impaired, we still have to deplore the loss of much
that concerns the nationality, the manners, opinions, and tra-
ditions of our remoter ancestors, which, after all, are quite as
valuable, nay, even more so, than the commemoration of crime
and barbarity which has been preserved. Of the class we
mean, there are still a few remaining, which, although they be
distorted by ill-directed zeal,-by imposture, and by ignorance,
furnish curious hints in their way. Such, for example, is the
song of the Lombards, also known as that of the Ost and
West Friesen or Frisons, found by Mr. Bonstetten, at Copen-
hagen. In the Land-urbar, or Costumier of the Bernese
Swiss, there is likewise a legendary record of the fair-haired
tribes of Ober-Hasli, Schwytz, Gessenay, and Bellegarde,
printed as early as 1507, by Etterlin, in the chronicles of
Lucerne. The Song of Hasli, of about one hundred and
eighty stanzas, relates the migration of these clans, their
battles, and their arrival near the Brochenberg, where they
built Schwytz; and, it appears, they fought in the cause of
Arcadius and Honorius, about the year 387.
Here we terminate this inquiry into the origin and filiation
of the races of Man, — a subject, zoologically viewed, we
thought more novel, than to repeat what has already been said
by other writers, and especially by Dr. Prichard, with his
accustomed industry and learning.
As for us, we are compelled, for want of space, to abstain
from entering into many important particulars, which would be
THE HUMAN SPECIES.
419
more necessary for the elucidation of the general theory now
advanced, if readers were not now very commonly well
informed on most of the points brought here under considera-
tion. Want of space compelled us, from the beginning, to
mass our superabundant materials into groups, which on
many occasions may appear too much generalized, and on
others marked with repetitions, which sometimes we thought
requisite to refresh the memory of the reader. The-basis of
the questions chiefly investigated was laid in a series of lec-
tures on the same subject, read to the Plymouth Institution,
between the years 1832 and 1837. The materials were exclu-
sively sought for in scientific researches and profane history ;
and the successive discoveries and conclusions of other writers
since that period, have, in general, strongly supported the
main points of our own convictions, to which we attach no
further personal importance than what continued research
will disprove, or in due time assent to, when the basis of seva : '
eral conclusions offered in these pages will have acquired more
ample notoriety and consequent solidity.
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APPENDIX,
It was intended, when the foregoing work was first in progress, to
have thrown into an Appendix such additional observations as might be
thought important, or that had escaped notice in their proper places, and
to add to them the discoveries which might have become known during
the progress of publication; but finding the text already greatly to exceed
the usual limits of the single volume allowed for the discussion of the
questions we have had to consider, the objects to have come under notice
were reluctantly abandoned, or confined to the smallest space.
Thus, on the article Indus, pp. 107–111, recent discoveries of more than
one ancient bed of the river have been made considerably further to the
eastward than what were known, and the conjectures respecting the origi-
nal course of the river to the sea, in the Gulf of Cutch, are strengthened.
Respecting the abrasion of the west coast of India, pp. 109, 110, might
be mentioned Calicut, the capital city at the time of the Portuguese con-
quest, but now sunk beneath the sea.
With regard to the various levels between the Caspian Sea, the uplands
of Russia, and Poland, pp. 120—124, we may remark, that the fall of the
rivers opening in the Volga is 110 feet, those that are affluents to the Neva
fall 445 feet, making a total of 555 ; now, adding this total to the surface
of the Caspian, there appears to be only 200 feet remaining for the culmi-
nating ground at the sources of the Volga ; but if these are estimated on
36
422
APPENDIX.
measurement based in error, and we make the elevation to be about 700
feet at the highlands of Vologda, still taking the lowest level between the
Euxine and the Baltic to be in a line of latitude 58, the waters of the two
were of no dissimilar height, while the Gulf of Bothnia was still an open
strait, and the northern portion of the Old Continent had not as yet com-
menced rising. It appears that Norwegian Lapland has risen 1800 feet
in the last 1200 years.
At page 129, note, we should have added that even the byssus of the
pinna was not destroyed.
Pages 142–3. The volcanic disturbances of the Red Sea were again in
operation in the last or in the present year (1847), when a new island rose
above the surface in the southern portion. The French survey, for a
canal between Suez and Lake Mensaleh, recently published, likewise
countenances the opinion that the Isthmus was originally open.
Page 151. Among others, is the tale of Moshup, the giant spirit, who
resided at Nop, now Martha's Vineyard, at a time when the currents ran
differently, and ice used to pack about Nantucket shoals. But better
evidence is found in the researches of Mr. Lyell, who considers the south-
eastern portion of the United States, about Savannah, to be subsiding,
while Canada, and latterly Nova Scotia, are shown to be rising, probably
in the same ratio as the Arctic regions on the Old Continent.
Page 155. The human bones first discovered in England were in fissures
of lime rock: they went to mend the highway, and no investigation by
competent persons took place until long after. A similar fate attended
the discovery of a completely fossilized human, body at Gibraltar, in 1748.
The fact is related in a manuscript note, inserted in a copy of the disser-
tation on the antiquity of the earth, by the Rev. James Douglass, read at :
the Royal Society, May 12, 1785. The volume belonged to the late Rev.
Vyvyan Arundel, while he was still at Exeter College, Oxford, and the
note, signed J. W., is written on paper, by the water-mark indicating
about the year 1790. In substance it relates that while the writer was
himself at Gibraltar, some miners employed to blow up rocks, for the
purpose of raising batteries, about fifty feet above the level of the sea, on
APPENDIX.
423
the higher ground, near the Old Mole, discovered an appearance of a
human body, which -- impatient because the officer to whom notice was
sent of the object did not come to witness it — they blew up. It was
reported to have been eight' feet and a half long. Several of the pieces
were taken up, and among them part of a thigh bone, “with flesh, and
I thought an appearance of veins, all in a state of perfect petrifaction, as
hard as marble itself; and in the solid part of the same stone a sea shell."
It is evident, that if this body was fossilized by the infusion of stalactite
matter, it must still have been of most remote antiquity.
Pages 156--161. We refer to Mr. Lyell's account of the human remains
brought from South America, where, among others, he notices a skull,
taken from among a great number of other remains, out of a sandstone
rock, now overgrown with very large trees, in the vicinity of Santas, in
Brazil. He avows an opinion that the locality may have been an Indian
burying-ground, which subsequently sank beneath the level of the sea,
and then was hove up again. Now, if this theory be admitted, and it is
coupled with the growth of large trees above the deposit, to what period
can it be assigned, when we reflect, that the bones of pachyderms, and of
a more recent period ?
Page 419. With regard to the Slavi, which might have been noticed as
the last migrating nation that came from the East to Europe, they were
omitted, because no detail could be given even of the little that is known
immediate predecessors, the Goths, that no other sensible difference is
observable between them, than that they have even a still greater pre-
dominance of Sanscrit roots in their language, and that there are other
been in part to the south of the Caspian. An instance of the highest
intellectual development, in the frontal form of the head, is given in the
Plates.
IMPORTANT
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC WORKS
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Dr. BUCKLAND, at a meeting of the British Association, said he had never been so much aston-
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GUYOT’S WORKS.
THE EARTH AND MAN: Lectures on COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL
GEOGRAPHY, in its relation to the Ilistury of Mankind. By Prof. ARNOLD GUYOT.
Translated from the French, by Prof. C. C. FELTON, with numerous Illustrations.
Lighth thousand. 12mo, cloth, 1,25.
From Prof. Louis Agnissiz, of [larvard University.
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From George S. Millard. Esq., Oj* Boston
Professor Gayot's Lectures are marked by learning, ability, and taste. His bold and comprehcn.
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North American Review.
The grand idea of the work is happily expressed by the aut cor, where he calls it the geographical
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to the production of the work under review. Sometimes we feel as if we were studying a treatise on
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The work is one of high merit, exhibiting a wide range of knowledge, great research, and a philo-
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give new views to all of man's relation to the globe le inhabits. - Silliman's Journal.
COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY;
or, the Study of the Earth and its inhabitants. A series of graduated courses for the use
of Schools. By ARNOLD GUYOT, author of " Earth and Man,”.etc...
The series hereby announced will consist of three courses, adapted to the capacity of three different
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: years. The third is to be used as a scientific manual in Academics and Colleges.
vided into two parts, one on purely Physical Geography, the other for Eth-
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GUYOT'S MURAL MAPS; a Series of elegant Colored Maps, projected
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MAP OF THE WORLD, - Now ready.
MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, - Now ready.
MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA, - Nearly ready.
MAP. OF GEOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS, – Now ready.
* Other Maps of the Series are in proparation.
VALUABLE SCIENTIFIC WORKS.
PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY: touching the Structure, Development,
Dietribution, and Natural Arrangement of the Races of Animals, living and extinct.
With numerous Illustrations. For the Use of Schools and Colleges. Part I., COMPARA-
TIVE PHYSIOLOGY. By LOUIS AGASSIZ and AUGUSTUS A. GOULD. Revised
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This York places us in possession of information half a century in advance of all our elenientary
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JAMES HALL.
A work enanating from so liigh a source hardly requires commendation to give it currency. The
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The work may safely be recommended as the best book of the kind in our language. - Christian
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it. - Scientific Americano
17
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PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY, PART II. Systematic Zoology, in
which the Principles of Classification are applied, and the principal Groups of Animals
are briefly characterized. With numerous Illustrations. 12mo, in preparation.
THE ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY; adapted to Schools and Colleges,
with nunierous Illustrations. By J. R. LOOMIS, late Professor of Chemistry and Geology
in Waterville College. 12mo, cloth, 1,00.
After a thorough examination of the work, wc feel convinced that in all the requirenients of a text
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desirous to become acquainted with its terms and principles, with the Icasi consumption of time and
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of our remarks to the test of his judgment and experience. – M. B. ANDERSON, Pres. of Rochester
University.
This is just such a work as is needed for our schools. It contains a systematic statement of the
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- Watchman and Reflector.
This volume scems to be just the book now required on geology. It will acquire rapidly a circula-.
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bany Journal
It gives a clear and scientific, yet simple, analysis of the main features of the science. It seems, in
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while it is vastly better than any thing which was used in college in our time. In all these capacities
e particularly and cordially recommend it. --Congregationalist, Lostor
V A LUABLE WORK.
CYCLOPÆDIA OF ANECDOTES OF LITERATURE AND THE
FINE ARTS. ' Containing a copious and choice selection of anccdotes of tho various
forins of Literature, of the Arts, of Architecture, Engravings, Music, Poetry, Painting,
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This is unquestionably the choicest collection of anecdotes ever published. It contains three thout-
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CHAMBERS'S WORKS.
CHAMBERS'S CYCLOPEDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. A
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I concur in the foregoing opinion of Mr. Prescott. – EDWARD EVERETT.
A popular work, indispensable to the library of a student of English literature. – DR. WAYLAND.
We hail with peculiar pleasure the appearance of this work. - North American Review.
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Welcome! more than welcome! It was our good fortune some months ago to obtain a glance at this
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N. l. Recorder,
67 The American edition of this valuable work is coriched by the addition of fine steel and mezzo-
tint engravings of the heads of SILAKSPEARE, ADDISOX, BYRON ; a full length portrait of DR. JOIIN-
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CHAMBERS'S MISCELLANY OF USEFUL AND ENTERTAIN-
ING KNOWLEDGE. Edited by WILLIAN CHAMBERS. With Elegant Illustrative
Engravings. Ten volumes, 16mo, cloth, 7,00.
This work has been highly recommended by distinguished individuals, as admirably adapted to
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It would be difficult to find any miscellany superior or eveu equal to it; it richly deserves the cpi-
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GEORGE B. Emerson, Esq., CHAIRMAN BOSTON SCHOOL BOOK COMITTEE.
I am gratified to have an opportunity to be instrumental in circulating “Chambers's Miscellany"
among the schools for which I am supcriuteudent.–J. J, CLUTE, Town. Sup. Oj Casilcton, N.Y.
I am fully satisfied that it is one of the best scrics in our common school libraries now in circula-
tion. – S. T. HLANCE, Town Sup. of Macedon, T'ayne Co., Y.Y.
The trustces liave examined the “Miscellany," and are well plcascd with it. I have engaged thic
books to every district that has library money. - MILES CHAFFEE, Town Sup. Of Concord. N. 1.
I am not acquainted with any similar collection in the English linguage that can compare with it
for purposes of instruction or amusement. I should rujoice to see that set of books in every house in
our country. - Rev. JOHN O. CHOULES D. D.
The information contained in this work is surprisingly grent; and for the fireside, and the young,
particularly, it cannot fail to prove a most valuable and entertaining companion. - V. 1. Evangelist.
It is an adinirable conipilation, distinguished by the good testc which has been shown in all the pub-
lications of the Messrs. Chambers. It unites the useful ond entertaining.-- N. Y, Com. Adv.
WORKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS.
A TREATISE ON BIBLICAL CRITICISMS; Exhibiting a Syste
matic View of that Science. By SAMUEL DAVIESON, D.D., of the University of Halle
Author of " Ecclcsiastical Polity of the New Testament," " Introduction to the New
Testament," " Sacred Hermeneutics Developed and Applied. A new Revised and En-
larged Edition, in two elegant octavo volumos, cloth, 5,00.
These volumes contain a statement of the sources of criticism, such as the MSS. of the Hebrew Biz
blc and Greek Testament, thic principal versions of both, quotations froin them in early writers, par-
allels, and also the internal cvidence on which critics rely for obtaining a pure text. A history of tho
texts of the Old and New Testaments, with a description of the Hebrew and Greek languages in
which the Scriptures are written. An examination of the most important passages whose readings
are disputed.
Every thing, in short, is discussed, which properly belongs to the criticism of the text, comprehend-
ing all that comes under the title of General Introduction in Introductions to the Old and New Tes-
taments.
HISTORY OF PALESTINE, from the Patriarchal Age to the Present
Time; with Introductory Chapters on the Geography and Natural History of the Coun-
try, and on the Customs and Institutions of the Hebrews. By JOHN KITTO, D.D.,
Author of “Scripture Daily Readings," • Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature," &C. With
upwards of two lundred Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, 1,25.
A very full compendium of the geography and history of Palestine, from the carliest cra mentioned
in Scripture to the present day; not merely a dry record of boundaries, and the succession of rulers,
but an intelligible account of the agriculture, liabits of lifc, literature, science, and art, with the re-
ligious, political, and judicial institutions of the inhabitants of the Holy Land in all ages. The de
scriptive portions of the work are increased in value by numerous wood cuts. A more useful and
instructive book has rarely been published. - N. 1. Commercial.
Whoever will read this book till he has possessed himself thoroughly of its contents, vill, we ven-
ture to say, read the Bible with fur more intelligence and satisfaction during all the rest of his life. —
Puritan Recorder.
Beyond all dispute, this is the best historical compendium of the Holy Land, from the days of
Abraham to those of the late Pasha of Egypt, Michemet Ali. - Edinburgh Review.
In the numerous notices and reviews thc work has been strongly recommended, as not only ad-
mirably adapted to the family, but also as a text book for Suibuth and weck day schools.
CRUDENS CONDENSED CONCORDANCE ; a New and Complete
Concordance to the Holy Scriptures. By ALEXANDER CRUDEN. Revised and Rc-
cdited by the Rev. DAVID KING, LL. D. Tenth thousand. Octavo, cloth backs, 1,25
This work is printed from English plates, and is a full and fair copy of all that is valuable as a Con-
cordance in Cruden's larger work, in two volumes, which costs five dollars, while this edition is fur-
nished at one dollar and twenty-five cents! The principal variation from thc larger book consists in
the exclusion of the Biblc Dictionary, (which has always been an incumbrance) the condensation of
the quotations of Scripturc, arranged under their most obvious lieads, which, while it diminishics the
bulk of the work, greatly facilitates the finding of any required passage. .
We have, in this edition of Cruden, thic best made better! That is, the present is better adapted to
thic purposes of a concordancc, by the crasure of superfluous references, the omission of unnecessary
explanations, and the contraction of quotations, etc. It is better as a manual, and better adapted by
its price, to the means of many who need and ought to possess such a work, than the former large and
expensive cdition. — Puritan Rccorder.
The present edition, in being relieved of some things which contributed to render all former oncs
111necessarily cumbrous, without adding to the substantial value of the work, becomes an excccdingly
clicap book. – Albany Argus.
All in the incomparable work of Crudcn that is essential to a Concordance is presented in a volumo
much reduced both in size and pricc. -- Watchman and Reflector.
Next to the Bible itself, every family should have a concordance. No person can study the Scrip.
tures to advantage without onc. Cruden's is the best. – Baptist Record.
THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES.
So Classified and Arranged as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas, and Assist
in Literary Composition. By PETER MARK ROGET, late Secretary of the Royal
Society, and author of the Bridgewater Treatise,” etc. Revised and En-
larged; with a LIST OF FOREIGN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS most frequently
occurring in works of general Literature, Defined in English, by BARNAS
SCARS, D.D., Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, assisted by
several Literary Gentlemen. 12mo, cloth. $1.50.
19 A work of great merit, admirably adapted as a text-book for schools and colleges, and ot
hich importance to every American scholar. Among the numerous commendations received
from the press, in all directions, the publishers would call attention to the following:
We are glad to see the Thesaurus of English Words republished in this country. It is a most
valuable work, giving the results of many years' labor, in an attempt to classify and arrange the
Trorils of the English tongue, so as to facilitate the practice of composition. The purpose of an
ordinary dictionary is to explain the meaning of words, while the object of this Thesaurus is to
colate all the words by which any given idea may be expressed. - Putnan's Monthly.
This volume offers the student of English composition the results of great labor in the form
of a rich and copious vocabulary. We would commend the work to those who have charge of
academies and high schools, and to all students. - Christian Observer.
This is a novel publication, and is the first and only one of the kind ever issued in which
words and phrases of our language are classified, not according to the sound of their orthog-
raphy, but strictly according to their signification. It will become an invaluable aid in the
communication of our thoughts, whether spoken or written, and hence, as a means of improve-
ment, we can recommend it as a work of rare and excellent qualities. — Scientific American.
A work of great utility. It will give a writer the word he wants, when that word is on the
tip of his tongue, but altogether beyond his reach. - N. Y. Times.
It is more complete than the English work, which has attained a just celebrity. It is intended
to supply, with respect to the English language, a desideratum hitherto unsupplied in any
language, nainely, a collection of the words it contains, and of the idiomatic combinations
peculiar to it, arranged, not in alphabctical order, as they are in a dictionary, but according to
the ideas which they express. The purpose of a dictionary is simply to explain the meaning
of words — the word being given, to find its signification, or the idea it is intended to convey.
The object almed at licre is exactly the converse of this: the idea being given, to find the word
or words by which that idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed. For this purp. jc, the words
and phrases of the language are here classed, not according to their sound or their orthography,
but strictly according to their signification. -- New York Evening Mirror.
An invaluable companion to persons engaged in literary labors. To persons who are not
familiar with foreign tongues, the catalogue of foreign words and phrases most current in mod-
ern literature, which the American cditor has appended, will be very useful. — Presbyterian.
It casts the whole English language into groups of words and terms, arranged in such a man.
ner that the student of English composition, when embarrassed by the poverty of his vocabu-
lary, may supply himself immediately, on consulting it, with the precise term for which he has
occasion. - New York Evening Post.
This is a work not merely of extraordinary, but of peculiar value. We woull gladly praise it,
If anything could add to the consideration held out by the title-page. No one who speaks or
writes for the public need be urged to study Roget's Thesaurus. - Star of the West.
Every writer and speaker ought to possess hinself at once of this manual. It is far from
being a micre dull, dead string of synonymes, but it is enlivened and vivified by the classifying
and crystallizing power of genuine philosophy. We have put it on our table as a permanent
fixture, as near our left hand as the Bible is to our right. - Congregationulist.
This book is one of the most valuable we ever examined. It supplies a want long acknowl-
edged by the best writers, and supplies it completely, - Portland Advertiser.
One of the most efficient aids to composition that research, industry and scholarship, have
ever produced. Its object is to supply the writer or speaker with the most felicitous terms
for expressing an idea that may be vaguely floating on his mind; and, indeed, through the
pecullar manner of arrangement, ideas themselves may be expanded or modified by reference to
Mr. Roget's alucidations. - Aloton, N. Y.
WORKS JUST PUBLISHED.
THE BETTER LAND; or, TIE BELIEVER'S JOURNEY AND FUTURE HOME. By
REV. A. C. THOMPSON. 12mo, cloth. 85 cents.
CONTEXTS. - The Pilgrimage _Clusters of Eschol - Wayınarks - Gumpses of the Land -
The Passage The Recognition of friends -- The Heavenly Banquet - Children in Heaven
Society of Angels - Society of the Saviour - Heavenly Honor and Riches No Tears in Ileaven
-Iloliness of leavez-Activity in Heaven - Resurrection Body-- Perpetuity of Bliss in Heaven.
A most charming and instructive book for all now journeying to the “Better Land," and eg.
pecially to those who have friends already entered upon its eternal joys.
CHRISTIANITY VIEWED IN ITS LEADING ASPECTS. By the REV. A. L.
Pr. Foote, author of "Incidents in the Life of our Saviour," etc. 16mo, cl.
MEMOIRS OF A GRANDMOTHER. By a Lady of Massachusetts. 16mo,
cloth. 50 cents.
"My path lies in a valley which I have sought to adorn with flowers. Shadows from the bills
cover it, but I make my owu sunshine."
The little volume is gracefully and beautifully written. - Journal.
Not unworthy the genius of a Dickens. - Transcript.
HOURS WITH EUROPEAN CELEBRITIES. By the Rey. WILLIAN B.
SPRAGUE, D. D. 1200, cloth. In press.
The author of this work visited Europe in 1828 and in 1836, under circumstances which
afforded him an opportunity of making the acquaintance, by personal interviews, of a large
number of the most distinguished men and women of that continent; and in his preface bo
says, “It was my uniform custom, after every such interview, to take copious memoranda of
the conversation, including an account of the individual's appearance and manners ; in short,
defining, as well as I could, the whole impression which bis physical, intellectual and moral
man had made upon me.” From the memoranda thus made, the material for the present
Instructive and exceedingly interesting volume is derived. Besides these “pen and ink"
sketches, the work contains the novel attraction of a fac-simile of the signature of each of the
persons introduced.
THE AIMWELL STORIES.
A series of volumes illustrative of youthful character, and combining instruction with amuse-
ment.' By WALTER AYMWELL, author of “The Boy's Own Guide," "The Boy's Book of Morals
and Manners,” &c. With numerous Dlustrations.
The first two volumes of the series, now ready, are ---
OSCAR; or, THE BOY VEO HAD HIS OWN WAY, 16mo, cloth, gilt. 63 cents.
CLINTON ; or, BOY-LIFE IN THE COUNTRY. 16mo, cloth, gilt. 63 cents.
Dar Each volume will be complete and independent of itself, but the series will be con-
nected by a partial identity of character, localities, &C.
THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. A NEW EDITION. With a SUPPLEDIENTARY
DIALOGUE, in which the author's reviewers are reviowed. 12mo, cloth. $1.
This masterly production, which has excited so much interest in this country and in Europe,
will now have an increased attraction in the addition of the Supplernent, in which the author's
reviewers are triumphantly reviewed.
The Supplement will be furnished separate to those who have the original work:
INFLUENCE OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE UPON INTELLECTUAL
EDUCATION. By WILLIAM WHEJELL, D.D., of Trinity College, Cambridge,
Eng., and the alleged author of " Plurality of Worlds." 16mo, cloth. 25 cts.
TIE LANDING AT CAPE ANNE; or, THE CHARTER OF THE FIRST PERMA-
NENT COLONY ON TAL TERRITORY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COMPANY. NOT
discovered and first published from the ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT, with an in
quiry into its authority, and a HISTORY OF THE COLONY, 1624–1628. Roger
Conant Governor, By JOHN WINGATE THORNTON. 8vo, cloth. $1.50.
This is a curious and exceedingly valuable historical document.
A volume of great interest and importance. -- Dvening Traveller.
A rare contribution to the early history of New England. - Mercantins Journal
Mercantile Journal

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