210 VARIETIES OF COLOUR 



differently described, according to the comparison which 

 the observer makes between them and any model in his 

 mind ; or according to the contrast they may present with 

 the lighter, darker, or differently-coloured people, whom he 

 may have recently observed. 



Tlie human skin is dyed with various tints of white, yellow, 

 red, brown, black ; and it exhibits, in degree, every possible 

 intermediate shade between the clear snowy whiteness of 

 the most delicate European female, or of the Albino, and 

 the deep ebony or jet black of a Gold-coast Negress. None 

 of these gradations obtains so universally as to be found in 

 all the individuals of any particular nation, nor is so pe- 

 culiar to any one people, as not to occur occasionally in 

 other widely different ones : we may, however, refer the 

 national varieties of colour, on the whole, with sufficient 

 accuracy, to the five following principal classes : — 



I. White, to which redness of the cheeks is almost wholly 

 confined*; being observed, at all events, very rarely in the 

 other varieties. It is seen in all the European nations, ex- 

 cepting the Laplanders; in the western Asiatics, as the 

 Turks, Georgians, Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians, 

 Persians, &c. ; and in the northern Africans. 



'' It is only," says Humboldt, " in white men, that the 

 instantaneous penetration of the dermoidal system by the 

 blood can take place — that slight change of the colour of 

 the skin, which adds so powerful an expression to the emo- 

 tions of the soul. ' How can those be trusted who know^ 



* Captain Cook observes of the Otaheiteans, " that their natural com- 

 plexion is that kind of clear olive or brunette, which many people in Kurope 

 prefer to the finest white and red. In those who are exposed to the wind 

 and sun, it is considerably deepened; but in others, that live under shelter, 

 especially in the superior class of women, it continues of its native hue, and 

 the skin is most delicately smooth and soft. They have no tint in the cheeks, 

 which we distinguish by the name of colour." Ha wkes worth's Voi)a<res, 

 V. ii. p. 187. 



In the mountaineers of Bootan, whom he saw on the road from Tassi,5u- 

 don to Teshoo-Loomboo, and who seem to possess all the traits of the Mongo" 

 lian race, Cnpt. Turner particularly noticed the ruddiness of their counte- 

 nances. Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, p. 193. 



