1352 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



archal times to that of Moses ; by having served 

 as the depository of the Mosaic dispensation, 

 by which that Monotheism was preserved and 

 organised in the Judaical system; and by 

 having been the centre whence has emanated 

 the fuller light of Christianity, which, in the 

 fulness of time, was exhibited among a people 

 blinded by their own prejudices and self- 

 esteem, to be the regenerator of the nations 

 that as yet knew not God. Scarcely less re- 

 markable is it that the third great Monotheistic 

 system that of Mahommedanism which' is 

 essentially a degraded mixture of Judaism 

 and Christianity, should have developed itself 

 amongst the same people, occupying the place, 

 on the one hand, of its Divine prototypes, and 

 on the other, of the various inferior religions 

 whose professors have been brought under 

 Arab sway, and forced to embrace the dogma 

 of their conquerors. Wherever this last 

 change has taken place, it has obviously been 

 for the better ; and there is no more striking 

 example of it, than the superior condition of 

 the African nations which have been thus 

 brought under Mahomrnedan influence. And 

 it can be scarcely doubted that it is the pur- 

 pose of Divine Providence, thus to spread and 

 to maintain a Monotheistic system, adapted 

 to the capacities of the people who receive it ; 

 until a higher intellectual and moral develop- 

 ment shall render them capable of appreciating 

 the purer light of Christianity. 



The Semitic languages early attained a 

 considerable development ; but the forms it 

 took were not well adapted for further evolu-> 

 tion ; and they present nearly the same type 

 at the present time, as that which is exhibited 

 in the earliest literature which the world pos- 

 sesses : namely, the sacred books of the He- 

 brew nation. Their alphabet was the earliest 

 in the world ; and their writing is peculiar in 

 passing in the direction contrary to that of 

 other languages, namely, from right to left. 

 " Of the several nations," remarks Dr. 

 Prichard *, " who are connected by this com- 

 munity of language, some who were formerly 

 celebrated have become nearly extinct ; while 

 others have spread themselves, either as the 

 exiled followers of a persecuted faith, or as 

 the enduring apostles of a victorious one, over 

 the world, and seem destined, through the 

 energy of their invincible mind, to survive to 

 the end of time. The Syrian race scarcely 

 exists ; their language only survives in some 

 districts on the borders of Kurdistan ; every- 

 where they have been lost under the predomi- 

 nating Arabs. The Homerites in Arabia, if 

 they there exist, are little known ; the Abys- 

 sinian Homerites are the only inhabitants of 

 the province of Tigre, to the eastward of the 

 Tacazze, whose idiom still resembles the an- 

 cient Gheez. The Arabs, who spread Islam 

 by their victories from the Atlantic to the 

 Ganges, and the Jews, who are wanderers 

 over the whole world, are perhaps now more 

 numerous than were even their forefathers." 

 Of the difference in complexion that manifests 



* Natural Histoiy of Man, p. 145. 



itself among the Arabs of Arabia, mention 

 has already been made ; the greatest modifi- 

 cations of the ordinary type present them- 

 selves, however, among the African members 

 of the Semitic group, as will presently appear. 

 III. AFRICAN NATIONS. Of the various 

 nations inhabiting the African continent, those 

 of the Negro type are usually regarded as the 

 most characteristic specimens. But, as Dr. 

 Latham has justly remarked, " no fact is more 

 necessary to be remembered, than the differ- 

 ence between the Negro and African ; a fact 

 which is well verified by reference to the map. 

 Here the true Negro area, occupied by men 

 of the black skin, thick lip, depressed nose, 

 and woolly hair, is exceedingly small; as small 

 in proportion to the rest of the continent, as 

 the area of the district of the stunted Hyper- 

 boreans is in Asia, or that of the Lapps in 

 Europe." When we have separated the 

 region north of the Great Desert, which is 

 mostly occupied by Semitic tribes ; the Great 

 Desert itself, whose scattered population is 

 far from being Negro in many of its features ; 

 the valley of the Nile, at least in its middle 

 and lower portions, including Egypt and Nu- 

 bia, and even Abyssinia ; and the Kaffre and 

 Hottentot areas south of the.equator ; there is 

 only left the western portion of the continent, 

 including the alluvial valleys of the Senegal, 

 the Gambia, and the Niger, with a narrow 

 strip of central Africa, passing eastwards to 

 the alluvial regions of the Upper Nile. Even 

 within this area, the true Negro type of con- 

 formation is by no means universally preva- 

 lent ; for many of the nations which inhabit 

 it must be ranked as sub-typical Negroes. 

 Our idea of the Negro character, in fact, is 

 almost exclusively founded upon that division 

 of the race which inhabits the low countries 

 near the Slave Coast ; such tribes, indolent 

 and degraded in an extreme degree, are dis- 

 tinguished alike by their extreme ugliness, and 

 by their brutal sensuality. The proper Negro 

 character consists in the combination of a 

 prognathous form of skull, with receding fore- 

 head and depressed nose, thick lips, woolly 

 hair, black unctuous skin, and crooked legs ; 

 the facial aspect being such as is represented 

 in figs. 803, 804. Similar characters are met 

 with, again, among the inhabitants of the al- 

 luvial regions around Lake Tchad, in the 

 interior ; and some of the tribes in the 

 lowest lands on the eastern side are but little 

 superior. On the other hand, in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of the typical Negroes, 

 but inhabiting higher levels, and presenting a 

 more advanced civilization, are found a num- 

 ber; of tribes departing from the Negro type 

 in one or more of its distinctive characters. 

 Thus the race of lolofs near the Senegal, and 

 the Guber in the interior of Sudan, have 

 woolly hair and deep black complexions, 

 but fine forms and regular features of the 

 European cast (fig. 831); the high parts 

 of Senegambia, where the temperature is 

 moderate and even cool at times, are inha- 

 bited by Fulahs of a light copper colour; 

 and on nearly the same parallel, but at the 



