94 MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 



races are of one common stock ; although at present they vary in physical 

 characters, to such a degree that, in some, the original type has been alto- 

 gether changed. Those which still inhabit the ancient abodes of the race, 

 and preserve their pastoral nomadic life, present the physiognomy and gene- 

 ral characteristics which appear to have belonged to the original Turkomans; 

 and these are decidedly referrible to the so-called Mongolian type. Before 

 the Mohammedan era, however, the Western Turks or Osmanlis had adopted 

 more settled habits, and had made considerable progress in civilization ; and 

 their adoption of the religion of Islam incited them to still wider extension, 

 and developed that spirit of conquest, which, during the middle ages, dis- 

 played itself with such remarkable vigour. The branches of the race, which. 

 from their long settlement in Europe, have made the greatest progress in 

 civilization, now exhibit in all essential particulars the physical characters of 

 the European model; and these are particularly apparent in the conformation 

 of the skull. In like manner we find that the Ugorian division, which mi- 

 grated towards the northwest at a very early period, planted a colony in 

 Europe, which still tenants the Northern Baltic countries, forming the races 

 of Fins and Lappes. In the time of Tacitus, the Fins were as savage as the 

 Lappes ; but the former, during the succeeding ages, became so far civilized, 

 as to exchange a nomadic life for one of agricultural pursuits, and have gra- 

 dually assimilated with the surrounding people; whilst the Lappes, like the 

 Siberian tribes of the same race, have ever since continued to be barbarous 

 nomades, and have undergone no elevation in physical characters. The same 

 division gave origin to the Magyars or Hungarians ; a warlike and energetic 

 people, unlike their kindred in the North; in whom a long abode in the centre 

 of Europe has, in like manner, developed the more elevated characters, phy- 

 sical and mental, of the European nations. The nations inhabiting the south- 

 eastern portion of Asia, also, appear -to have had their origin in the Mongolian 

 or Central Asiatic stock; although their features and form of skull by no 

 means exhibit its characteristic marks, but present such departures from it as 

 are elsewhere observable in races that are making advances in civilization. 

 Even the great peninsula of Hindostan appears to have been peopled, long 

 previously to the settlement of the present Hindoo race, by tribes of the 

 Central Asiatic stock, so distinguished by its migratory propensities ; and 

 remains of these aborigines are still found in the hilly parts of Northern 

 India, in the Dekhan, and in Ceylon, constituting numerous tribes, which are 

 now for the most part isolated from each other, and which exhibit very dif- 

 ferent degrees of civilization. 



97. According to the usual mode of dividing the Human family, the Ethi- 

 opian or Negro stock is made to include all the nations of Africa, to the 

 southward of the Atlas range. But there is good reason for separating the 

 Hottentots and Bushmen as a distinct race; and for restricting the designation 

 of Negroes to the nations inhabiting the region southward of the Great Desert, 

 as far as the Hottentot country, the inhabitants of the oases of the desert 

 itself being mostly, as already pointed out, of Syro-Arabian origin, although 

 assimilating closely to the Negro race in physical characters. The nations 

 thus*ln geographical proximity with each other, are found to have sufficient 

 affinities of language, to justify the belief in their common origin; and they 

 all present, in a more or less evident degree, the physical peculiarities of the 

 Negro race. But these are far from constituting a sufficient ground for regard- 

 ing the African nations as a distinct race, separated from all other families of 

 men by a broad and definite line of demarcation. Our idea of the Negro 

 character is principally founded upon that division of the people which in- 

 habits the low countries of the Western part of Central Africa, and in which 

 the Negro peculiarities are most strongly marked. There are very few nations 



