CHAPTER XXVIII 



ANTHROPOLOGY: PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF 

 NATIVES; CLOTHING; DISEASES; INDUSTRIES 



THE pictures of the various men and women in this book 

 belonging to the indigenous races of Liberia will serve 

 to give a general i.npression of the physical appearance of 

 these people, and the relationship which their bodily proportions 

 bear to other Negro types. The best-looking men and women 

 belong to the Mandingo stock, which, however, as will be 

 seen from the sketch given of the history of this race, is a 

 somewhat mixed type, displaying varying proportions ot inter- 

 mixture with the Caucasian species from across the Niger. The 

 average man or woman of Liberia, however, might very well 

 pass current as a native of Uganda, of the Swahili coast, of 

 Nyasaland, Ashanti, or Old Calabar. The Mandingos present 

 a striking resemblance (for example) to the Zanzibaris of the 

 East Coast of Africa, who are formed of a very similar 

 amalgam of Negro and Semitic or Hamitic blood. The nearest 

 approach to a distinct indigenous race in Liberia is presented 

 by the Kru and Kpwesi peoples, though even these occasionally 

 exhibit types that must be due to some ancient or modern 

 intermixture. Where they are purest in blood, the Krumen 

 and Kpwesis belong to the short-legged section of the Negro 

 race. 



The present writer is gradually coming to the conclusion 

 that after the Bushmen and 1 lottentot groups are accounted 



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