VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



1351 



any other race, the primitive condition of 

 human speech. In their mode of life, they 

 present the phenomenon of a civilization which 

 has attained a considerable degree of develop- 

 ment, remaining stationary through a very 

 long period of time, and isolating itself as jea- 

 lously as possible from the general current of 

 progress. In passing from China towards 

 India, there is a gradual transition in physical 

 and mental characters, between the Chinese 

 and the Hindoo ; thus the Burmese have 

 more hair and beard, more prominent features, 

 and darker complexions, than the Siamese and 

 Chinese ; and the darkness in complexion in- 

 creases towards the confines of Bengal. There 

 is, therefore, no such abrupt transition, as shall 

 make it difficult to admit the Seriform origin 

 of the bulk of the Hindoo population, if fur- 

 ther investigation of their language should 

 render this connection as probable as it has 

 already been shown to be in the case of the in- 

 habitants of the Dekhan and Ceylon. 2. The 

 Turanian stock, including the proper Mongo- 

 lians of High Asia, the Tungusians, the Turks, 

 and the Ugrians. Among these, the con- 

 formity in physical characters is extremely 

 close, the only exception being in the case of 

 the offsets which have migrated into Europe, 

 and which have undergone transformation (as 

 explained at p. 1327.) into the Caucasian type 

 (Jig.8l5etseq.). The languages of these people 

 are not monosyllabic, but have not undergone 

 any high development ; and they are spoken 

 with very little variation over extensive areas. 

 The general character of the country inhabited 

 by this group is remarkably uniform, being a 

 series of high table-lands or steppes, well 

 adapted for maintaining a nomadic pastoral 

 population. Such is the general habit of these 

 people, and such it has been from our earliest 

 knowledge of them. The Tungusians, how- 

 ever, advance to the Polar Sea, and adopt a 

 manner of life more resembling that of the 

 proper Hyperborean races. 3. The Peninsular 

 Mongolidce, inhabiting the islands and penin- 

 sulas of the north-eastern coast of Asia, such 

 as Korea, Japan, and Kamschatka. These 

 are all Mongol in their conformation, but dif- 

 fer from the preceding in the character of 

 their languages, which seem to be, in some 

 cases, extremely prVj/-syllabic, always showing 

 a strong tendency to agglutination, and thus 

 showing a transition to the American languages, 

 in which this peculiarity presents its highest 

 development. These tribes are separated from 

 each other, however, by considerable breaks 

 in geographical continuity; some of them lying 

 within the Arctic circle, and others as far 

 south as 26 N. L. And they are not less 

 distant in the two extremes of their social de- 

 velopment, one section of the group partaking 

 of the civilization of China, and another ex- 

 hibiting the rudeness of the Samoied. This 

 group is obviously not a typical, but a transi- 

 tional one. 4. Hyperborean Mongolidce, in- 

 habiting the borders of the Icy Sea, especially 

 in the neighbourhood of the courses of the 

 large rivers, and subsisting especially by fishing 

 and fur-hunting. The area which they occupy 



is not continuous ; the principal tribes, known 

 as the Samoiedes, the Yeniseians, and the Yu- 

 kahiri, being separated from each other by the 

 advance of the Northern Ugrians and Tungu- 

 sians. Their conformation is Mongolian ; but 

 their growth is stunted, and their complexion 

 swarthy; and they bear a very close resem- 

 blance to the Laplanders and Esquimaux. It 

 is probable that they will he united when their 

 languages shall have been more fully studied, 

 either with the Turanian or with the Penin- 

 sular stocks. 



Turning now to the Syro- Arabian or Semitic 

 nations, which occupy a considerable area in 

 the south-western part of Asia, we encounter 

 a very different type of physical conformation, 

 and a group of languages which is peculiar 

 alike in its structure and in its vocabulary. 

 Generally speaking, the people of this race ex- 

 hibit a remarkable symmetry of form, and per- 

 fection of cranial organisation (fig. 830) ; and it 



Fig. 830. 



Arab of the Guard of the Imaun of Muscat. (From 

 a portrait taken by an officer of L'Artemise.) 



was remarked by Baron Larrey, who had ample 

 opportunities for observation during the Egyp- 

 tian expedition, that experience has proved 

 to him that their psychical character is con- 

 formable to this high standard, a great aptitude 

 for intellectual activity being combined with 

 extraordinary acuteness in the use of the or- 

 gans of sense. There can be no doubt what- 

 ever, that the Semitic races have exerted a 

 most important influence on the civilization 

 of the world ; and this not merely by their 

 own early progress in the arts of life (as shown 

 by the extraordinary history of the Assyrian 

 and Babylonian empires, on which so much 

 new light has recently been cast) ; but also 

 by having afforded the channel through which 

 Monotheism was transmitted from the patri- 



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