194 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



of European and American Indian admixture, are ex- 

 cited by acquired knowledge, under new circumstances, 

 and therefore capable of a united and reasoned energy. 

 They have mostly lost the peculiar features belonging 

 to the different African parent tribes. Their heads are 

 larger, as is seen also in Dr. Morton's measurements, 

 who, we are inclined to believe, was not aware of the 

 rapid change that takes place in the development of 

 the skull ; though, even in Europe, the difference of size 

 in heads of the educated and uneducated classes, among 

 civilized nations, is no secret to hatters. In this con- 

 dition, colonial born Negroes are often ingenious handi- 

 crafts. We have known a slave cooper, whose owner 

 refused to grant his emancipation for less than 600. 

 They make good masons and joiners ; and excellent 

 steersmen at the wheel and tiller are not uncommon. 



The voice of Negroes is feeble and hoarse in the male 

 sex ; exceedingly high and shrill in females ; the sense 

 of sight is acute ; that of taste sufficiently delicate ; 

 hearing sharp ; with notions of time, but very little of 

 melody ; yet fond of music, and constantly handling 

 instruments of the most imperfect kind, excepting a 

 species of harmonicon, made of slips of bamboo, or of 

 a set of sounding stones ; if it be that these are of their 

 own invention. They have drums and a kind of cas- 

 tanet; but stringed instruments are derived from a 

 Moorish source. Though the physical qualities are well 

 developed, the intellectual are low, in some tribes quite 

 puerile ; yet the moral impulses are not unfrequently of 

 a most noble nature. They offer, therefore, a discordant 



