Their most usual drink is mares' milk fermented | though they differ very much from their brutal with millet ground into meal. They all have the progenitors, yet they owe their civilization whol head shaven, except a lock of hair on the top, ly to the mildness of the climate in which they which they let grow sufficiently long to form into reside, and to the peculiar fertility of their soil. tresses on each side of the face. The women, who To this tribe, also, we may refer the Cochin Chiare as ugly as the men, wear their hair, which nese, the Siamese, the Tonquinese, and the inhabthey bind up with bits of copper and other orna- itants of Arracan, Laos, and Pegu, who, though ments of a like nature. The majority of these all differing from the Chinese and each other, nations have no religion, no settled notions of nevertheless have too strong a resemblance not morality, no decency of behaviour. They are to betray their common original. chiefly robbers: and the natives of Dagestan, who live near their more polished neighbours, make a traffic of Tartar slaves who have been stolen, and sell them to the Turks and the Persians. Their chief riches consist in horses, of which perhaps there are more in Tartary than in any other part of the world. The natives are taught by custom to live in the same place with their horses; they are continually employed in managing them, and at last bring them to such great obedience, that the horse seems actually to understand the rider's intention.

To this race of men, also, we must refer the Chinese and the Japanese, however different they seem in their manners and ceremonies. It is the form of the body that we are now principally considering; and there is, between these countries, a surprising resemblance. It is in general allowed that the Chinese have broad faces, small eyes, flat noses, and scarce any beard; that they are broad and square-shouldered, and rather less in stature than Europeans. These are marks common to them and the Tartars, and they may, therefore, be considered as being derived from the same original. "I have observed," says Chardin, "that in all people from the east and the north of the Caspian sea, to the peninsula of Malacca, that the lines of the face, and the formation of the visage, are the same. This has induced me to believe, that all these nations are derived from the same original, however different either their complexion or their manners may appear; for as to the complexion, that proceeds entirely from the climate and the food; and as to the manners, these are generally the result of their different degrees of wealth or power." That they come from one stock, is evident also from this, that the Tartars who settle in China quickly resemble the Chinese; and, on the contrary, the Chinese who settle in Tartary soon assume the figure and the manners of the Tartars.

The Japanese so much resemble the Chinese, that one cannot hesitate to rank them in the same class. They only differ in being rather browner, as they inhabit a more southern climate. They are, in general, described as of a brown complexion, a short stature, a broad flat face, a very little beard, and black hair. Their customs and ceremonies are nearly the same; their ideas of beauty similar; and their artificial deformities of blackening the teeth, and bandaging the feet, entirely alike in both countries. They both, therefore, proceed from the same stock; and al

Another, which makes the third variety in the human species, is that of the southern Asiatics; the form of whose features and persons may be easily distinguished from those of the Tartar races. The nations that inhabit the peninsula of India seem to be the principal stock from whence the inhabitants of the islands that lie scattered in the Indian ocean have been peopled. They are, in general, of a slender shape, with long straight black hair, and often with Roman noses. Thus they resemble the Europeans in stature and features; but greatly differ in colour and habit of body. The Indians are of an olive colour, and, in the more southern parts, quite black; although the word Mogul, in their language, signifies a white man. The women are extremely delicate, and bathe very often; they are of an olive colour, as well as the men: their legs and thighs are long, and their bodies short, which is the opposite to what is seen among the women of Europe. They are, as I am assured, by no means so fruitful as the European women; but they feel the pains of childbirth with much less sensibility, and are generally up and well the day following. In fact, these pains seem greatest in all countries where the women are the most delicate, or the constitution enfeebled by luxury or indolence. The women of savage nations seem, in a great measure, exempt from painful labours; and even the hard-working wives of the peasants among ourselves, have this advantage from a life of industry, that their child-bearing is less painful. Over all India, the children arrive sooner at maturity, than with us of Europe. They often marry and consummate, the husband at ten years old, and the wife at eight; and they frequently have children at that age. However, the women who are mothers so soon, cease bearing before they are arrived at thirty; and at that time they appear wrinkled, and seem marked with all the deformities of age. The Indians have long been remarkable for their cowardice and effeminacy; every conqueror that has attempted the invasion of their country, having succeeded. The warmth of the climate entirely influences their manners; they are slothful, submissive, and luxurious; satisfied with sensual happiness alone, they find no pleasure in thinking; and contented with slavery, they are ready to obey any master. Many tribes among them eat nothing that has life; they are fearful of killing the meanest insect; and have even erected hospitals for the maintenance of all kinds of vermin. The Asiatic

(except in the northern extremity, where they | country are almost the same; a wild, indepenresemble the Laplanders) are of a red or copper dent, and precarious life, produces a peculiar colour: and although, in the old world, different train of virtues and vices: and patience and climates produce a variety of complexions and hospitality, indolence and rapacity, content and customs, the natives of the new continent seem sincerity, are found not less among the natives to resemble each other in almost every respect. of America, than all the barbarous nations of the They are all nearly of one colour; all have black globe. thick straight hair, and thin black beards; which, The sixth and last variety of the human species, however, they take care to pluck out by the is that of the Europeans and the nations borderroots. They have, in general, flat noses, with ing on them. In this class we may reckon the high cheek-bones, and small eyes; and these de- Georgians, Circassians, and Mingrelians, the informities of nature they endeavour to increase | habitants of Asia Minor, and the northern parts by art: they flatten the nose, and often the whole of Africa, together with a part of those countries head of their children, while the bones are yet which lie north-west of the Caspian sea. The susceptible of every impression. They paint the inhabitants of these countries differ a good deal body and face of various colours, and consider from each other; but they generally agree in the the hair upon any part of it, except the head, as colour of their bodies, the beauty of their coma deformity which they are careful to eradicate. plexions, the largeness of their limbs, and the Their limbs are generally slighter made than vigour of their understandings. Those arts which those of the Europeans; and, I am assured, they might have had their invention among the other are far from being so strong. All these savages races of mankind, have come to perfection there. seem to be cowardly; they seldom are known to In barbarous countries the inhabitants go either face their enemies in the field, but fall upon them naked, or are awkwardly clothed in furs or feathers; at an advantage; and the greatness of their fears in countries semi-barbarous, the robes are loose serves to increase the rigours of their cruelty. and flowing; but here the clothing is less made The wants which they often sustain, make them for show than expedition, and unites, as much as surprisingly patient in adversity: distress, by possible, the extremes of ornament and despatch. being grown familiar, becomes less terrible; so that their patience is less the result of fortitude than of custom. They have all a serious air, although they seldom think; and, however cruel to their enemies, are kind and just to each other. In short, the customs of savage nations in every States are various in complexion, some dark, some lighter, but he met with no examples of the copper colour among them. The Chilians are of a reddish brown, but clear; and a tribe of the province of Barva are red and white like ourselves. The depressed forehead is a more general characteristic of all the American tribes; some of them, it is true, increase by art this natural peculiarity; but the character is prevalent among those who use no art to exaggerate it. A depressed forehead is always considered beautiful among them: the Aztec gods and heroes were thus represented by the Mexicans, who used no artificial means to flatten the cranium. There is strong reason to believe, especially from the approximation of the two continents, that the American race originates from the north-eastern Asiatics; traces of resemblance in language, strong and physical similarity, and local facilities of emigration, give countenance to this opinion. There seems no just reason for separating the Esquimaux from the American variety, and classing them more particularly under the Mongolian; at least, no reason that would not justify a similar classification of the nations of the whole American continent. They resemble the Americans in general characteristic traits; and, in Terra del Fuego, and on the Mosquito shore, we find people exactly like them. With the physical characters of this arctic race, the late voyages to the Pole have made us tolerably acquainted. They have high cheek-bones, broad foreheads, and small eyes far apart. Their complexion is a dusky yellow, and some individuals are lighter than others, and exhibit some symptoms of red in the cheeks. Their stature is short, the average height of the males not being more than five feet five or six inches. The women are still less.-ED.

To one or other of these classes we may refer the people of every country and as each nation has been less visited by strangers, or has had less commerce with the rest of mankind, we find their persons and their manners more strongly impressed with one or other of the characters mentioned above. On the contrary, in those places where trade has long flourished, or where enemies have made many incursions, the races are usually found blended, and properly fall beneath no one character. Thus, in the islands of the Indian ocean, where trade has been carried on for time immemorial, the inhabitants appear to be a mixture of all the nations upon the earth; white, olive, brown, and black men, are all seen living together in the same city, and propagating a mixed breed, that can be referred to none of the classes into which naturalists have thought proper to divide mankind.

Of all the colours by which mankind is diversified, it is easy to perceive, that ours is not only the most beautiful to the eye, but the most advantageous. The fair complexion seems, if I may so express it, as a transparent covering to the soul; all the variations of the passions, every expression of joy or sorrow, flows to the cheek, and, without language, marks the mind. In the slightest change of health also the colour of the European face is the most exact index, and often teaches us to prevent those disorders that we do not as yet perceive; not but that the African black, and the Asiatic olive complexions, admit of their alterations also; but these are neither so distinct, nor so visible, as with us; and in some

8 See Supplementary Note A, p. 239.

countries the colour of the visage is never found | lying higher, and consequently being colder; or to change; but the face continues in the same settled shade in shame and in sickness, in anger and despair.

from the natives bathing oftener, and leading a more civilized life. In general, it may be asserted, that as we approach the line, we find the inhabitants of each country grow browner, until the colour deepens into perfect blackness. Thus, taking our standard from the whitest race of people, and beginning with our own country, which, I believe, bids fairest for the pre-eminence, we shall find the French, who are more southern, a slight shade deeper than we; going farther down, the Spaniards are browner than the French; the inhabitants of Fez darker than they; and the natives of Negroland the darkest of all. In what manner the sun produces this effect, and how the same luminary which whitens wax and linen, should darken the human complexion, is not easy to conceive. Sir Thomas Brown first supposed, that a mucous substance, which had something of a vitriolic quality, settled under the reticular membrane, and grew darker with heat. Others have supposed that the blackness lay in the epidermis, or scarf-skin, which was burnt up like leather. But nothing has been satisfactorily discovered upon the subject; it is sufficient that we are assured of the fact; and that we have no doubt of the sun's tinging the complexion in proportion to its vicinity.9

But we are not to suppose that the sun is the only cause of darkening the skin; the wind, extreme cold, hard labour, or coarse and sparing

The colour, therefore, most natural to man, ought to be that which is most becoming; and it is found, that, in all regions, the children are born fair, or at least red, and that they grow more black, or tawny, as they advance in age. It should seem, consequently, that man is naturally white; since the same causes that darken the complexion in infants, may have originally operated, in slower degrees, in blackening whole nations. We could, therefore, readily account for the blackness of different nations, did we not see the Americans, who live under the line, as well as the natives of Negroland, of a red colour, and but a very small shade darker than the natives of the northern latitudes, in the same continent. For this reason, some have sought for other causes of blackness than the climate; and have endeavoured to prove that the blacks are a race of people bred from one man, who was marked with accidental blackness. This, however, is but mere ungrounded conjecture: and, although the Americans are not so dark as the negroes, yet we must still continue in the ancient opinion, that the deepness of the colour proceeds from the excessive heat of the climate. For if we compare the heats of Africa with those of America, we shall find they bear no proportion to each other. In America, all that part of the continent, which | nourishment, are all found to contribute to this lies under the line, is cool and pleasant, either shaded by mountains, or refreshed by breezes from the sea. But in Africa, the wide tract of country that lies under the line is very extensive, and the soil sandy; the reflection of the sun, therefore, from so large a surface of earth, is almost intolerable; and it is not to be wondered at, that the inhabitants should bear, in their looks, the marks of the inhospitable climate. In America the country is but thinly inhabited; and the more torrid tracts are generally left desert by the inhabitants; for which reason they are not so deeply tinged by the beams of the sun. But in Africa the whole face of the country is ful-red ochre, and anointing them with the fat of ly peopled; and the natives are obliged to endure their situation, without a power of migration. It is there, consequently, that they are in a manner tied down to feel all the severity of the heat; and their complexions take the darkest hue they are capable of receiving. We need not, therefore, have recourse to any imaginary propagation, from persons accidentally black, since the climate is a cause obvious and sufficient to produce the effect. In fact, if we examine the complexion of different countries, we shall find them darken in proportion to the heat of their climate; and the shades gradually to deepen as they approach the line. Some nations, indeed, may be found not so much tinged by the sun as others, although they lie nearer the line. But this ever proceeds from some accidental causes; either from the country

effect. We find the peasants of every country, who are most exposed to the weather, a shade darker than the higher ranks of people. The savage inhabitants of all places are exposed still more, and therefore contract a still deeper hue; and this will account for the tawny colour of the North American Indians. Although they live in a climate the same, or even more northerly than ours, yet they are found to be of complexions very different from those of Europe. But it must be considered, that they live continually exposed to the sun; that they use many methods to darken their skins by art, painting them with

bears. Had they taken for a succession of several generations, the same precautions to brighten their colour that an European does, it is very probable that they would in time come to have similar complexions, and perhaps, dispute the prize of beauty.

The extremity of cold is not less productive of a tawny complexion than that of heat. The natives of the arctic circle, as was observed, are all brown; and those that lie most to the north are almost entirely black. In this manner both extremes are unfavourable to the human form and colour, and the same effects are produced under the poles that are found at the line.

With regard to the stature of different coun

9 See Supplementary Note B, p. 240.

tries, that seems chiefly to result from the nature | sion they are taught to assume; and Nature, in of the food, and the quantity of the supply. Not a course of ages, shapes itself to the constraint, but that the severity of heat or cold may, in and assumes hereditary deformity. We find nosome measure, diminish the growth, and produce thing more common in births, than for children a dwarfishness of make. But, in general, the to inherit sometimes even the accidental deformifood is the great agent in producing this effect; ties of their parents. We have many instances where that is supplied in large quantities, and of squinting in the father, which he received where its quality is wholesome and nutrimen- from fright or habit, communicated to the offtal, the inhabitants are generally seen above spring; and I myself have seen a child distinctly the ordinary stature. On the contrary, where it marked with a scar, similar to one the father had is afforded in a sparing quantity, or very coarse, received in battle. In this manner accidental deand void of nourishment in its kind, the inhab- formities may become natural ones; and by assiitants degenerate, and sink below the ordinary duity may be continued, and even increased, size of mankind. In this respect they resemble through successive generations. From this, thereother animals, whose bodies, by proper feeding, fore, may have arisen the small eyes and long may be greatly augmented. An ox, on the fertile ears of the Tartar and Chinese nations. From plains of India, grows to a size four times as large hence originally may have come the flat noses of as the diminutive animal of the same kind bred the blacks, and the flat heads of the American in the Alps. The horses bred in the plains are Indians.11 larger than those of the mountain. So it is with man; the inhabitants of the valley are usually found taller than those of the hill: the natives of the Highlands of Scotland, for instance, are short, broad, and hardy; those of the Lowlands are tall and shapely. The inhabitants of Greenland, who live upon dried fish and seals, are less than those of Gambia or Senegal, where nature supplies them with vegetable and animal abundance.10

In this slight survey, therefore, I think we may see that all the variations in the human figure, as far as they differ from our own, are produced either by the rigour of the climate, the bad quality or the scantiness of the provisions, or by the savage customs of the country. They are actual marks of the degeneracy in the human form; and we may consider the European figure and colour as standards to which to refer all other varieties, and with which to compare them. In

The form of the face seems rather to be the result of custom. Nations who have long consid-proportion as the Tartar or American approaches ered some artificial deformity as beautiful, who have industriously lessened the feet or flattened the nose, by degrees begin to receive the impres

10 In Europe the human stature varies from 4 to 6 feet. Individuals of six feet, and some inches, are not uncommon. In the Caucasian variety there are no strongly marked national deviations from the ordinary stature. In some parts of Switzerland and Sweden, the natives are rather distinguished for height. The Latin writers have remarked the stature of the ancient Germans; it is probable that they did not exceed the modern Germans in this particular. The Americans exhibit greater varieties in stature than the Europeans. The Peruvians are generally low, but well-proportioned. The people of Terra del Fuego are small and ugly; so are the tribes of Nookta-sound. The Chaymas of South America are short, while the Payaguas, the Guayquilits, and the Caribbees are almost gigantic. Many of the Canadian tribes are very tall. The accounts of travellers respecting the Patagonians have been various and contradictory; from a careful comparison of statements, we conclude the average height of this nation to be from 5 feet 10 inches, to 6 feet. Similar differences occur in the Ethiopian variety. groes generally correspond in stature with Europeans; the Hottentots are usually smaller than other Africans, and the Bushmen are remarkably short. The Kaffers are distinguished for their stature, and the muscularity and symmetry of their figures. The Mongolians are generally shorter in stature than ourselves; but considerable varieties are found among them. The Chinese and Japanese are about our own size. The Calmucks, Burats, &c. are shorter. The people of Loo Choo are a diminutive race; 5 feet 2 inches, being. the limit of their average height. The Laplanders, Samoiedes, Greenlanders, and Esquimaux are all short.-ED.

The ne

nearer to European beauty, we consider the race as less degenerated; in proportion as he differs more widely, he has made greater deviation from his original form.

That we have all sprung from one common parent, we are taught both by reason and religion to believe; and we have good reason also to think that the Europeans resemble him more than any of the rest of his children. However, it must not be concealed that the olive-coloured Asiatic, and even the jet-black negro, claim this honour of hereditary resemblance; and assert that white men are mere deviations from original perfection. Odd as this opinion may seem, they have Linnæus, the celebrated naturalist, on their side; who supposes man a native of the tropical climates, and only a sojourner more to the north. But not to enter into a controversy upon a matter of very remote speculation, I think one argument alone will suffice to prove the contrary, and show that the white man is the original source from whence the other varieties have sprung. We have frequently seen white children produced from black parents, but have never seen a black offspring the production of two whites. From hence which mankind naturally tends: for, as in the we may conclude, that whiteness is the colour to tulip, the parent stock is known by all the artificial varieties breaking into it; so in man, that colour must be original which never alters, and to which all the rest are accidentally seen to change.

11 See Supplementary Note C, p. 242.