VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



1355 



that the people of Delagoa Bay, though 

 of the Kaffre race, as indicated by their 

 language, being degraded by subjugation, 

 approach the people of Guinea in their phy- 

 sical characters. Generally speaking, the Kaf- 

 fres are a people very superior in vigour and 

 capacity to the destitute savages who occupy 

 the insulated regions of Negroland, and how 

 a considerable advance in civilization ; but 

 between the most elevated Kaffre and the 

 most degraded Negro, every possible gradation 

 is presented to us, as we pass northwards and 

 westwards from Kaffraria towards the Guinea 

 coast, so that no line of distinction between 

 them can be founded on physical characters. 

 So, on the eastern side, we pass up until we 

 meet with the same transition. The languages 

 of these people are distinguished by a set of 

 remarkable characters, which have been con- 

 sidered as isolating them from other African 

 tongues. According to Dr. Latham, how- 

 ever, these peculiarities are not so far without 

 precedent elsewhere, as to establish the very 

 decided line of demarcation which some have 

 attempted to draw ; and may be regarded, in 

 fact, as resulting from the fuller development 

 of tendencies, which manifest themselves in 

 other African languages. 



The Hottentot race (including the Bush- 

 man) has, perhaps, so far as regards its phy- 

 sical characters, a better title to be considered 

 as forming a distinct species of the genus 

 Homo than any other ; for not only do these 

 characters present a combination which is not 

 found elsewhere, but that transitional grada- 

 tion is wanting, which usually presents itself 

 wherever there is a continuous population 

 that has long occupied the same locality. The 

 peculiarities of these people have been already 

 noticed separately; the following is a general 

 summary of them. The cranium is Mongoli- 



Fig. 837. 



form and brachycephalic, the cheek-bones pro- 

 minent, the jaws somewhat projecting, the eyes 

 oblique, the nose broad and Hat, the lips thick, 

 the chin long and pointed ; the complexion is 

 a mixture of black with yellow ochre ; the hair 

 grows in little tufts ; the stature is low, and 

 the limbs are slight; the buttocks, however, 

 frequently present a steatomatous accumula- 

 tion. In their cranial characters there is, 

 therefore, an admixture of the Mongolian and 

 the Negro, the former being predominant ; and 

 this resemblance to the people of High Asia 

 is the more remarkable, when it is considered 

 that the physical conditions of the Hottentot 

 country bear a very close correspondence with 

 those of High Asia, the habitation of this 

 people being for the most part on karroos, or 

 elevated terraces and table-lands, over which the 

 vision extends with as piercing a gaze as that 

 of the Mongols. The buttock-hump, or stea- 

 topyga, is not by any means so characteristic 

 of this race as has been imagined ; for, as Mr. 

 Burchell has ascertained, it is only an indi- 

 vidual peculiarity, about as frequent as cor- 

 pulence among European nations ; and it has 

 been met with in other tribes of Southern 

 Africa, as the Makuani of the Mozambique 

 coast. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as 

 affording the least indication of difference of 

 race, but would seem to result from the opera- 

 tion of the same local influences, whatever may 

 be their nature, as produce a similar accumula- 

 tion of fat in the rumps and tails of the sheep 

 inhabiting the same regions. The peculiar 

 relation of the Bushman tribe to the Hottentot 

 race, has been already explained ; among this 

 degraded people, the same general features 

 present themselves as those which have been 

 described as characteristic of the Hottentots 

 (Jigs. 837, 838.), but in stature, vigour, and 

 capacity, they are much inferior. A compari- 



Fig. 838. 



Bushman Female. 



the "Atlas des Mammifercs of MM. Fred. Cuvier and Geoff. St. Hilaire.) 



son of the cranium of a Bushman (fgs. 839, already figured, will clearly indicate that the 

 840, and 841) with the three typical forms pyramidal skull is the one to which this bears 



the greatest resemblance, especially in the 

 * Dahomey and the Dahomans, 1851. shortness of the antero-posterior diameter, as 



