458 



approacliing in colour and physiognomy to the ordinary Negro, 

 hut some of them are of a lighter hue, and redder. Colonel 

 Smith's observations on the Kaffir race are favourable to their 

 intelligence and bravery, and some of them display the pecu- 

 liar accumulation of fat over the glutei muscles which is more 

 common among the Hottentots and Bushmen. He also men- 

 tions that the northern tribes try to mitigate the small-pox by 

 inoculating between the eyes. Further testimony seems to es- 

 tablish a near and kindred relation between the languages of 

 South Africa, the idioms of which constitute a particular family of 

 languages, and a singular development of human speech. In one 

 respect these languages are shown to agree with the Coptic — in the 

 law by which they both prefix all modifying particles, while other 

 languages suffix them. 



The author then entered briefly into a description of the Fingoes 

 and Bosjesmen, as given by travellers and natural historians, 

 showing that the latter exhibit the features of the lowest humanity, 

 and are almost allied to the ourang and troglodytes; though Dr 

 Smith's more accurate observations have convinced Dr Prichard 

 that the Bosjesmen are of the same race as the Hottentots, and 

 originally spoke the same language. The oblique foramen at the 

 lower end of the humerus was also noticed as occurring in some of 

 them, as it does in the humeri of the simise, dogs, and wild boar. 

 Observations were made on the physical form and features of the 

 Hottentots, including the form of their noses, cheek-bones, chin, 

 eyes, and teeth, their hair and colour, their nipples and maratnas 

 at different ages, and also the steatopygea of the females. While 

 some consider them a tribe of Mongolians, and allied to the Kal- 

 mucks, others are inclined to think them quite as primitive in their 

 origin as these Asiatics. 



The author concludes : " Notwithstanding the difficulties which 

 ethnographists must meet with in assigning a probable origin 

 and descent to the Kaffir, and especially to the Hottentot tribes, 

 sufficient to induce them to resort to the theory of distinct centres 

 of human, as well as of animal and vegetable creation ; and, not- 

 withstanding all that has been lately advanced on the subject of 

 the unity of the human species, we may safely say with the emi- 

 nent Natural Historian, that no difl^rences, such as those observed 

 among mammiferous animals, are to be found among human 



