182 



M A M MALI A. 



Europe ; the Teutonic or Gothic, the parent of the 

 German, the Dutch, the English, the Danish, the 

 Swedish, and other tongues of the north-west ; and 

 the Sclavonian, from which the Polish, Russian, and 

 other tongues of the north-east of Europe, are de- 

 scended. This branch have been generally admitted 

 to stand foremost among the human race, having 

 excelled all others in the arts and sciences, of which 

 they may be said to have been the depositories and 

 guardians for thirty generations. Previous to their 

 arrival in Europe, it was occupied by the Celts toward 

 the north, and the Cantabrians from Africa in the 

 south ; but these branches are now reduced within 

 very narrow limits. The ancient Persians, as well as 

 the Indians, belong to this branch. 



" The Scythian, or Tartar branch, went at 'first 

 toward the north-east, and lived a wandering life in 

 the vast plains of Siberia. From these they often 

 sallied forth, carrying conquest and desolation over 

 great part of Asia. The Huns and Finlanders are 

 hordes of these people, which have strayed in between 

 the Goths and the Sclavonians ; but on their eastern 

 confines they are blended with Mongols, who inhabit 

 next to them in the north of Asia. 



Of the Mongol race the Kalmucks are still nomadic 

 in the deserts. They have at times been powerful 

 in their own country, and their warriors have carried 

 conquest and terror into other countries. In the 

 Japanese and Chinese, and also in some nations in 

 the centre of Asia, these people have often displayed 

 great civilisation and industry, and very delicate 

 execution, though with much peculiarity of taste, in 

 the arts." 



It is not easy to determine when the inhabitants 

 of the south-east of Asia, and of the shores of the 

 greater islands, and also of many of the small and 

 remote ones in the Pacific, had their origin ; and the 

 origin of the negroes of the centre of those islands, 

 and of the extensive islands of Australia, who have 

 perhaps made less progress in civilisation than any 

 others of the human race, is equally obscure. The 

 Malays, or first of these races, who are very adven- 

 turous on the sea, probably found their way from the 

 south-east of Asia. The origin of the Americans is 

 not well understood. In some points of their aspect 

 they bear no inconsiderable resemblance to the Ma- 

 lays, but in others they differ. 



Around the extreme north both of the eastern and 

 western continents, there are diminutive races, which 

 content themselves with the most humble fare, and 

 live in a state of what would appear to us great 

 misery and privation ; their origin has never been 

 clearly ascertained ; and indeed much of what has 

 been said, or can be said, upon the subject of these 

 races, is either purely fanciful or merely tradition. 

 The analogy of language has often been drawn upon 

 as affording a clue to the affinities of the various 

 branches of those races ; but such an analogy is a 

 very treacherous guide in matters of this kind. It is 

 to be borne in mind that only a small portion of the 

 language of any age or nation can be transmitted 

 from generation to generation, unless by means of a 

 written literature pretty copiously distributed among 

 the people. We have evidence of this in the diffi- 

 culty with which the older writings in the English 

 language can now be read ; and if we are to suppose 

 a language to have no stationary means of perma- 

 nence, its changes in the lapse of time would of course 

 be much greater. In every light in which we caii 



view the matter, indeed, the progressive history of 

 the human race is attended with insurmountable 

 difficulties ; and almost the only general conclusion, 

 beyond actually written history, at which we can 

 arrive, is, that the race is substantially and originally 

 one, notwithstanding the various aspects of the tribes 

 and nations of which it is now composed. 



QUADRUMANA. These form the second order in 

 Cuvier's arrangement ; and, as has been already ex- 

 plained at some length, when treating of organs of 

 climbing, the character of the order is that of having 

 all the four extremities prehensile, or capable of laying 

 hold. The prevailing character of the whole race is 

 the facility with which they can grasp, and the next 

 is the power with which they can grasp in proportion 

 to the size of the grasping instrument. We have 

 said so much respecting them in the course of the 

 article already, that it is unnecessary to repeat any 

 of the details. Cuvier divides them into three groups, 

 or sub-orders ; and some of these contain a greater 

 and some a less number of genera. The apes of the 

 old continent form one branch of the first sub-order, 

 and the apes of the new continent another, though in 

 common language the small ones are all known under 

 the common name of monkeys. The remaining groups 

 are the ouistitis and lemurs, of all of which, as well 

 as of the apes, monkeys, and baboons, details will be 

 found in the general articles headed by their names, 

 or in the particular articles referred to in them. The 

 whole of this order are forest animals, inhabiting 

 only the warm parts of the world ; and they cannot 

 be regarded as being in any way useful to man, or 

 advantageous in any place which he cultivates. It 

 is not fully ascertained whether they belong exclu- 

 sively to the present state of things to which, as we 

 have said, man appears altogether to belong ; though 

 it is highly probable that such is the case, as they do 

 not belong to a kind of vegetation corresponding to 

 that which must have existed when the pachyder- 

 matous animals, which are now extinct, were inhabit- 

 ing the earth. No remains of any of them have 

 hitherto, in so far as we are aware, been found in the 

 fossil state, though it is not improbable that some 

 may occur in the collections of rubbish which have 

 been brought together by the rain floods of those 

 countries in which they are at present so nume- 

 rous. Altogether, they are a most useless and even 

 offensive order, though their great powers of motion 

 among the branches, and their ludicrous though rather 

 slight and fancied resemblance to human beings, 

 make them objects of interest to those who look 

 upon natural history as a matter of curiosity rather 

 than of use. 



CARNASSIER. This is the third order, and it is a 

 far more interesting one and far more extended over 

 the world than the second order. The word " car- 

 nassier," though it has very nearly the same meaning 

 as the word carnivora, has not been introduced by 

 Cuvier without some advantage, because it accords 

 better with the common use of language. We asso- 

 ciate the name of a carnivorous animal, or " a beast 

 of prey," with the notion of an animal which, by 

 chase or by stratagem, seizes other warm-blooded 

 animals in the living state, kills them by instruments 

 fitted for the purpose, and eats their flesh ; whereas 

 there are numerous animals, properly included in 

 Cuvier's great order, which do not kill warm-blooded 

 animals ; and there are a few which live in great part 

 upon vegetable matter. 



