INTRODUCTION. 9 



faces, small eyes, flat noses, and scarce any beard ; 

 that they are square-shouldered, and rather less in 

 stature than the Europeans. These marks are common 

 both to them and the Tartars ; and from thence it may 

 be concluded, that they originally formed one race. 

 With regard to difference of complexion, that must in 

 a great measure depend upon the effect of climate and 

 of food. 



The Japanese bear so strong a resemblance to the 

 Chinese, that we cannot hesitate as to the propriety of 

 ranking them in the same class ; the only difference is, 

 that their complexion is browner, which is occasioned 

 by their living in a more southern clime. Their cus- 

 toms and ceremonies are nearly the same ; their ideas 

 of beauty exactly alike ; and their artificial deformi- 

 ties, of blackening the teeth and bandaging the feet, 

 prove that they originally sprung from the same soil. — 

 The Cochin Chinese, the Siamese, the Tonquinese, 

 and the inhabitants of Aracan, Laos, and Pegu, though 

 all differing from the Chinese, and varying in many in- 

 stances from each other, yet, in essentials, bear so 

 strong a resemblance, that, in former ages, it is to be 

 believed they belonged to the same tribe. 



The third variety in the human species, is that of the 

 Southern Asiatics, the form of whose features and per- 

 sons may easily be distinguished from the Tartar race. 

 They are in general of a slender shape, with long, 

 straight, black hair, often with Roman noses, and re- 

 sembling Europeans in stature and shape, though they 

 differ from them in the colour of their skin. The wo- 

 men are both delicate and cleanly, and frequently ac- 

 custom themselves to the use of the bath ; their colour 

 is olive ; and the men are allowed to be both cowardly 

 and effeminate, which in some degree may be ocea,- 



