33 2 The Realm of Nature CHAP. 



thought. The greater part of Asia is peopled by tribes of 

 the Yellow type of a relatively high civilisation. Except 

 where seafaring has called forth their powers, the people 

 inhabiting the tropical Malay Archipelago are as a rule 

 ignorant and uncivilised, although far above the level of the 

 degraded peoples of the Black type. The Maoris of New 

 Zealand, belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian section, con- 

 trast strongly with the Australian blacks. The American 

 section shows some well-marked differences from the other 

 representatives of the Yellow type. Their coppery com- 

 plexion won for them the name of Red Indians in the days 

 when the first Europeans reached America and believed it 

 to be part of Asia. From the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn 

 the race is, in its essential features, the same, although the 

 degree of civilisation attained varies. In the hot forests of 

 the Amazon they range as tribes of naked savages, as low 

 in the scale as the African blacks. On the northern prairies 

 they form nations of hardy warriors, brave in battle and 

 inconceivably cruel to their captured foes, living by hunting, 

 but scorning work, and rapidly dwindling away before the 

 white settlers. The highest native American civilisation 

 had its seat on the plateau of Mexico and in the Andes 

 valleys ; and although the strongly organised native empires 

 of the Aztecs and the Incas were destroyed by the Spaniards 

 in the sixteenth century the " Indian " element has always 

 remained of importance, and appears now to be rapidly 

 gaining ground in the countries of that region. 



425. White Type. The leading physical peculiarities 

 of this type are a prominent and highly arched forehead, 

 and abundant wavy hair, the cross-section of which is oval. 

 Dark skins, almost approaching those of the Black type, 

 occur in the Hamitic section, but the complexion of the 

 White races is usually fair and ruddy. The White type 

 is the centre of a more numerous group of mankind than 

 either of the others, and intellectually it is the most 

 advanced. Religion has its fullest and purest forms of 

 expression, science has been- studied to best purpose, 

 the fine arts have been raised to the highest perfection 

 amongst them. Enterprise in commerce and valour in war 



