CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE NEGRO IN GENERAL THE BANTU NEGROES, 



a. THE NEGRO IN GENERAL. 



FOR the purposes of this chapter we shall accept the term Negro as the name of the dark, 

 frizzly- or woolly-haired peoples who occupy most of Africa, from the Sahara to the Cape. Their 

 range is interrupted by the scattered groups of pygmies in the Equatorial region and the 

 Bushmen in South-western Africa, and by immigrant tribes of other races who occupy North- 

 eastern Africa and extend southward along the coast to and beyond the Equator. 



The main physical features of the Negro are his dark-coloured skin, woolly hair, and longp 

 massive skull, with receding forehead and projecting jaws. The colour is not black, as is so 

 often stated; for the blackest Africans are some Soudanese tribes, who are hybrids, and the 

 Somali, who are not Negroes at all. The predominant colour is dark brown, varying from dark 

 copper-coloured to yellowish brown or dark reddish brown. The colour in the same individual 

 varies from time to time, according to his condition of health, and as a rule it darkens with 

 age, new-born children being quite light in colour. The hair is generally short; in transverse 

 section it is elliptical and not circular, so that it naturally coils into short curls; it thus- 

 appears woolly or frizzled. In most tribes the hair is very short, but in others it grows to 

 considerable length, and is twisted 

 into very elaborate designs. The 

 hair on the lower part of the face 

 is inconspicuous; the beard is 

 sparse or absent, and the moustache 

 represented by a few hairs above 

 the corners of the mouth. The 

 skull and head characters are very 

 typical of the Negroes, though 

 they vary greatly, owing to the 

 influence of intermarriage with 

 other races. The skull as a whole 

 is massive, and the bones are 

 firmly fused together, so that the 

 sutures between them are in- 

 distinct. The skull is long and 

 broadest at the back; the forehead 

 receding; the nose is broad-based 

 and the nostrils are widely open, 

 so that it appears wide and flat. 

 The body is well built, and the 

 height averages about 5 feet 

 6 inches. The proportions of the 

 limbs vary with the mode of life 



Photo by Mr. 11. E. Fiipp. 



OVA-HERERO WOMEN. 



37 



