DISTRIBUTION OF MAN. 61 



l.Vcibly the decoction of the bark of a tree, possibly the ' rosamala' of commerce."* The other that 

 the hair of the ^Vfrican spreads over the whok; surface of the head, while that of the Papuan grows 

 in small tufts, each of which is separate from the rest. But there are African tribes, the Hot- 

 tentots and Bushmen, for example, which have the hair growing in this same tufty fashion ; 

 and I see that M. Du Chaillu observed the same thing in the pigmy race, which he met with in 

 his last expedition into the interior of West Africa — a race which may possibly be a tribe of the 

 Bushman variety of the African race. Such distinctions, moreover, even although well founded, 

 are only of minor significance, and point to a distinction of tribes, not of races. 



So far as physical character goes then, the Papuans and Africans are clearly allied. How far the 

 languages are so is a point which is not yet settled, but in one respect they certainly have an afEnity. 

 Some of the African tribes make a peculiar clucking noise in their speech. This is a much more 

 remarkable character than those who have not heard it have any idea of. I remember on one occasion 

 dining in company with some missionaries destined for CafErland, one of whom was a Caifir who had 

 been brought to this country in early youth, and had been educated as a divinity student in order to go 

 back as a missionary to his native land. He gave us examples of the Caffir language, talking in his 

 native tongue, and the clucking was so like the drawing of corks and poui-rng liquid out of a bottle, 

 that on one of the English missionaries who was to accompany him sa}dng that he meant to take lessons 

 from him in the language in his cabin on the way out, one of the guests cautioned him that the sound 

 of so many corks being drawn would destroy their character for temperance with the rest of the 

 passengers. 



But this clucking would appear to be a character of the language of some of the Oriental as well 

 as the African black tribes. Mr. Earl, in speaking of the North Australians who have a certain 

 affinity to the Papuans, says : — "In the Croker Island dialect a cluck occasionally occurs in the middle 

 of a word, which is effected by strildng the tongue against the roof of the mouth. "t This illustra- 

 tion shows that there are grounds for looking for proof of relationship between the African and 

 the Oriental negroes in their linguistic affinities as well as in their physical attributes. I do 

 not in any way go along with the bold conjecture hazarded by Professor Agassiz that "the lan- 

 guages of different races of men were neither more different nor more similar than the sounds 

 characteristic of animals of the same genus, and their analogy can no more be fully accoimted 

 for on any hj-pothesis of transmission or tradition than in the case of birds of the same genus 

 uttering similar notes in Europe and in America." J On the contrary, I think that the structure 

 and roots of language preserve decided evidence of the intellect of man, and furnish valuable 

 aid in tracing the affinities of nations. 



To meet the reqiiirements of the hypothesis of a common origin for the languages of the African 

 negro. Oriental negro, and Australian, it is only necessary that the radical structure of all the 

 languages should be the same ; the languages themselves may be widely different and whoUy 

 imintelligible to the different tribes. A few remote connexions with the main staple of the 

 language are probablj- all that could be expected, in countries so long and so widely separated ; 

 but each country, according to the hj'pothesis, should have one t\^c to itself, and each shoidd, in 



♦"Ethnographical Library," vol. i. "The Native t Earl, op. cit, p. 222. 



Races of the Indian Archipelago— Papuans," by George 1 Aoassiz, in " Proceed. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci- 



Wransou Eakl. Loudon, 1863. P. 47. ences," voL iii. p. 7. 1857. 



