PRINCIPAL FAMILIES OF MANKIND. 1049 



posed to be justified by a difference in physical characters, and of which the 

 fallacy has been previously demonstrated. 



1057. The southern portion of the African continent is inhabited by a group 

 of nations which, as already mentioned, recede, more or less decidedly, from 

 the Negro type in physical characters, and which seem connected together by 

 essential community of language, as branches of the stock of which the Kaffres 

 may be considered the stem. In this warlike nomadic people, which inhabit 

 the eastern parts of South Africa, to the northward of the Hottentot country, 

 so great a departure from the ordinary Negro type presents itself, that many 

 travellers have assigned to them a different origin. The degree of this departure, 

 however, varies greatly in the different Kaffre tribes ; for, whilst some of them 

 are black, woolly-headed, and decidedly prognathous, so as obviously to approach 

 the modified Negroes of Congo in general aspect, others recede considerably 

 from the typical prognathous races, both in complexion, features, and form of 

 head, presenting a light-brown color, high forehead, prominent nose, and a tall, 

 robust, well-shaped figure. The thick lips and black frizzled hair are generally 

 retained, however ; but the hair is sometimes of a reddish color, and becomes 

 flowing; and the features may present a European cast. Even among the 

 tribes which depart most widely from the Negro type, however, individuals are 

 found who present a return to it ; and it is interesting to remark that the 

 people of Delagoa Bay, though of the Kaffre race (as indicated by their lan- 

 guage), having been degraded by subjugation, approach the people of the Guinea 

 Coast in their physical characters. In fact, between the most elevated Kaffre 

 and the most degraded Negro, every possible gradation of physical and psychical 

 characters is presented to us, as we pass northwards and westwards from Kaf- 

 fraria towards the Guinea Coast; and we meet with a similar transition, although 

 not carried to so great an extent, as we pass up the eastern coast. The lan- 

 guages of the Kaffres and other allied tribes are distinguished by a set of 

 remarkable characters, which have been considered as isolating them from other 

 African tongues. According to Dr. Latham, however, these peculiarities are 

 not so far without precedent elsewhere, as to establish the very decided line of 

 demarcation which some have attempted to draw ; and may be regarded, in fact, 

 as resulting from the fuller development of tendencies which manifest them- 

 selves in other African languages. 



1058. The Bushmen or Bosjesmen of South Africa are generally regarded as 

 presenting the most degraded and miserable condition of which the human race 

 is capable; and they have been supposed to present resemblances in physical 

 characters to the higher Quadrumana. Yet there is distinct evidence, that this 

 degraded race is but a branch or subdivision of the once extensive nation of 

 Hottentots ; and that its present condition is in great part due to the hardships 

 to which it has been subjected, partly in consequence of European colonization. 

 The Hottentot race differs from all other South African nations, both in language 

 and in physical conformation. The language cannot be shown to possess distinct 

 affinities with any other stock; 1 but in bodily structure there is a remarkable 



1 It is considered by some, that the Hottentot language is a degraded Kaffre, as the 

 Bushman language is a degraded Hottentot; but the Author is informed by Mr. Norris 

 that he sees no valid ground for this assumption, the affinities of the Hottentot language 

 being rather, in his opinion, with the languages of High Asia, although the connecting 

 links are extremely slight. Such as they are, however, they tend to confirm an idea 

 suggested to the Author, some years since, by the marked reproduction of so many Mon- 

 golian characters in the Hottentot race that it is the remnant of a migration from 

 Asia earlier than that in which the great bulk of the African nations have their origin ; 

 and that it has been driven down to the remotest corner of the continent, just as the abo- 

 riginal (Mongolian) population of south-western Europe seems to have been driven back 

 by the Indo-European immigration ($ 1050). 



