BIMANA. 45 



and that of the Chinese, confined exclusively to their own empire, gives 

 us nothing satisfactory with respect to their neighbours. The affinities of 

 their languages are also too little known to direct us in this labyrinth. 



The languages of the north of the Peninsula beyond the Ganges, as well 

 as that of Thibet, are somewhat allied to the Chinese, at least in their 

 monosyllabic structure, and the people who speak them have features 

 somewhat resembling other Mongoles. The south of this Peninsula, how- 

 ever, is inhabited by Malays, v.'hose forms approximate them much nearer 

 to the Indians, whose race and language are extended over all the coasts 

 of the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The innumerable little islands 

 of the southern ocean are also peopled by a handsome race, nearly allied 

 to the Indians, whose language is very similar to the Malay ; in the inte- 

 rior of the largest of these islands, particularly in the wilder portions of it, 

 is another race of men with black complexions, crisped hair, and negro 

 faces, called Alfourous. On the coast of New Guinea, and in the neigh- 

 bouring islands, we find other negroes, nearly similar to those of the east- 

 ern coast of Africa, named Papuas * ; to the latter, are generally referred 

 the people of Van-Diemen's land, and those of New Holland to the 

 Alfourous. 



These Malays, and these Papuas are not easily referable to either of 

 the three great races of which we have been speaking; but, can the former 

 be clearly distinguished from their neighbours, the Caucasian Hindoos and 

 the Mongolian Chinese? As for us, we confess we cannot discover any 

 sufficient characteristics in them for that purpose. Are the Papuas ne- 

 groes, which may formerly have strayed into the Indian ocean ? We pos- 

 sess neither figures nor descriptions sufficiently precise to enable us to 

 answer this question. 



The northern inhabitants of both continents, the Samoiedes, the Lap- 

 landers, and the Esquimaux, spring, according to some, from the Mongo- 

 lian race, while others assert that they are mere degenerate offsets from 

 the Scythian and Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. 



We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the races 

 of the eastern continent ; still, they have no precise or constant character 

 which can entitle them to be considered as a particular one. Their cop- 

 per-coloured complexion is not sufficient ; their generally black hair and 

 scanty beard would induce us to refer them to the Mongoles, if their de- 

 fined features, projecting nose, large and open eye, did not oppose such a 

 theory, and correspond with the features of the European. Their lan- 

 guages are as numberless as their tribes, and no demonstrative analogy 

 has as yet been obtained, either with each other, or with those of the old 

 world -|~, 



* With respect to the various nations of the Indian and Pacific oceans, see the 

 dissertation of Messrs. Lesson and Garnet in the Zoologie du Voyage de la Coquille, 

 p. 1 — 113. For the languages of the Asiatics and their affinities, consult the Asia 

 Polyglotta of M. Klaproth. 



t See the Voyage de M. de Humboldt, and the dissertations of Vater and Mitcliill. 



