198 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



population of the Australian islands. It is in general 

 greatly intermixed with Hindoo, Mongolic, and Malay 

 blood ; and in comparatively few localities, sufficiently 

 pure to retain the close crisp woolly scalp which is the 

 most decisive criterion of the fact ; for, so soon as, in 

 any warm climate, there is foreign alliance, the wool 

 becomes bushy, and rises into a huge round mop ; and if 

 there be still greater connection, it droops and gradually 

 turns into incipient curls. By this token the amount of 

 adulteration may be traced, independent of the colour 

 of the skin, with perhaps no exceptions, although it is 

 true, that there is in some cases a tendency to variation, 

 in the offspring taking, in one birth, a more decisive 

 maternal character, and perhaps in the next a paternal, 

 even to the extent of modifying the hair, particularly 

 between true Negroes and hard lank-haired South 

 Americans of the Austral-Malay cast of structure. 

 These remarks show, that the earlier Egyptians had 

 only a casual knowledge of the true Negro populations ; 

 for, when these were first noticed, they occupied, it 

 seems, the highlands behind the east coast of Africa ; 

 and the ages they may have nestled in the central 

 regions, without farther progress westward, may be 

 surmised, from the Phoenician navigators, who reached 

 that coast by the Atlantic, not mentioning the presence 

 of real human beings to the south of Cape Blanco, 

 since they brought back to Carthage specimens or skins 

 of the Chimpanzee, which at no time could exist to the 

 north of the great rivers, where alone there are trees 

 and food. The abnormal are pourtrayed on Egyptian 



