BIMANA. ' 55 



are generally referred the people of Van-Diemen's land, and those 

 of New Holland to the Alfourous. 



These Malays, and these Papuas are not easily referable to either 

 of the three great races of which we have been speaking, but can 

 the former be clearly distinguished from their neighbours, the Cau- 

 casian Hindoos and the Mongolian Chinese ? As for us, we confess 

 we cannot discover any sufficient characteristics in them for that 

 purpose. Are the Papuas Negroes, which may formerly have strayed 

 into the Indian ocean ? We possess neither figures nor descriptions 

 sufficiently precise to enable us to answer this question. 



The northern inhabitants of both continents, the Samoiedes, the 

 Laplanders, and the Esquimaux spring, according to some, from the 

 Mongolian race, while others assert that they are mere degenerate 

 offsets from the Scythian and Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. 



We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the 

 races of the eastern continent^ still, they have no precise nor con- 

 stant character which can entitle them to be considered as a par- 

 ticular one. Their copper coloured complexion is not sufficient; 

 their generally black hair and scanty beard would induce us to 

 refer them to the Mongoles, if their defined features, projecting 

 nose, large and open eye, did not oppose such a theory, and corres- 

 pond with the features of the European. Their languages are as 

 numberless as their tribes, and no demonstrative analogy has as yet 

 been obtained, either with each other, or with those of the old 

 world. (1) 



ORDER 11. 

 QUADRUMANA. 



Independently of the anatomical details which distinguish 

 it from man, and which have been given, this family differs 

 from our species in a very remarkable way. All the animals 

 belonging to it have the toes of the hind feet free and oppo- 



Coquille, p. 1 113. For the languages of tlie Asiatics and their affinities, con- 

 sult the Asia Polyglotta of M. Klaproth. 



(1) See the Voyage de M. de Humboldt, and the dissertations of Vater and 

 Mitchill. 



