1004 OF THE BRANCHES OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 



only throughout the ancient domain of the Syro- Arabian nations, but also 

 in Northern Africa. In the opinion of Baron Larrey, who had ample oppor- 

 tunities for observation, the skulls of the Arabian race furnish, at present, 

 the most complete type of the human head ; and he considered the remain- 

 der of the physical frame as equally distinguished by its superiority to that 

 of other races of men. The different tribes of Arabs present very great 

 diversities of color, which are generally found to coincide with variations ill 

 climate. Thus the Shegya Arabs, and others living on the low countries 

 bordering on the Nile, are of a dark-brown or even black hue; but even 

 when quite jetty, they are distinguished from the Negro races by the bright- 

 ness of their complexions, by the length and straightness of their hair, and 

 by the regularity of their features. The same may be said of the wander- 

 ing Arabs of Northern Africa; but the influence of climate and circum- 

 stances is still more strongly marked in some of the tribes long settled in 

 that region, whose descent may be traced to a distinct branch of the Syro- 

 Arabian stock, namely, the Berber, to which belong the Kabyles of Algiers 

 and Tunis, the Tuaryks of Sahara, and the Guanches or ancient population 

 of the .Canary Isles. Amongst these tribes, whose affinity is indisputably 

 traceable through their very remarkable language, every gradation may be 

 seen, from the intense blackness of the Negro skin, to the more swarthy hue 

 of the inhabitants of the South of Europe. It is remarkable that some of 

 the Tuaryk inhabitants of particular Oases in the great desert, who are 

 almost as insulated from communication with other races as are the inhabit- 

 ants of islands in a wide ocean, have hair and features that approach those 

 of the Negroes ; although they speak the Berber language with such purity 

 as to forbid the idea of the introduction of these characters by an intermix- 

 ture of races. The Jeivs, who are the only remnants now existing of the 

 once-powerful Phoenician tribe, and who are now dispersed through nearly 

 every country on the face of the earth, present a similar diversity ; having 

 gradually assimilated in physical characters to the nations among which they 

 have so long resided ( 830). 



849. The second primary division of the Human family, according to the 

 arrangement of Blumenbach, is that commonly termed Mongolian. The 

 real Mongols, however, constitute but a single and not very considerable 

 member of the group of nations accepted under this designation ; which is, 

 therefore, by no means an appropriate one. The original seat of these races 

 appears to have been the great central elevated plain of Asia, in which all 

 the great rivers of that continent have their sources, whatever may be their 

 subsequent direction. Taken as a whole, this division is characterized by 

 the pyramidal form of the skull, whose antero-posterior diameter scarcely ex- 

 ceeds the parietal, and by the broad, flat face and prominent cheek-bones; 

 by the flattening of the nose, which is neither arched nor aquiline ; by the 

 eyes being drawn upwards at their outer angle ; by the xanthous or olive 

 complexion, which sometimes becomes fair, but frequently swarthy; by the 

 scantiness and straightness of the hair, and deficiency of beard ; and by low- 

 ness of stature. These characters, however, are exhibited in a prominent 

 degree only in the more typical members of the group, especially those in- 

 habiting Northern and Central Asia; and may become so greatly modified, 

 as to cease altogether to be recognizable. Such a modification has been re- 

 markably effected in the case of a part of the Turkish people, now so exten- 

 sively distributed. All the most learned writers on Asiatic history are 

 agreed in opinion, that the Turkish 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 altogether changed. Those which still inhabit 

 the ancient abodes of the race, and preserve their pastoral nomadic life, pre- 



