266 VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD, 



proof that the colour of the hair depends on that of the skin 

 is afforded by the spotted Africans, in whom the hairs grovv- 

 i'lig out of a white patch on the head are white *. 



The principal differences of the hair may be brought 

 under the four following heads : — 



1. Brownish, deviating into yellow (flaxen) or red on 

 one side, and black on the other; copious, soft, long, and 

 forming more or less distinct ringlets or undulations. It is 

 seen in the temperate climates of Europe, and its light 

 shades formerly attracted particular notice in the ancient 

 Germans. The thin-skinned Albino has the softest and 

 most colourless hair : in the Germanic race it is also very 

 soft and light-coloured ; and red hair is usually found in 

 conjunction with a thin and soft skin. The Celtic and 

 Sclavonic races, which make up the chief population of 

 Europe, the eastern Asiatics, and northern Africans, have 

 generally, with a rather thicker and darker skin, stronger, 

 black, or dark brown, and more or less curling hair. 



The lighter and darker kinds of hair will grow to very 

 considerable lengths in Europeans, when not cut f. 



2. Black, strong, straight, and thin in the Mongolian 

 and American varieties. The greater part of the head is 

 shaved by the Chinese ; the portion of hair which they 

 leave, often reaches the ground. The same remark holds 

 good of the Americans |. 



3. Black, softer, dense, copious, and curled ; in most of 

 the South Sea Islanders. 



4. Black and crisp, so as generally to be called woolly ; 



* Blu-»ienbach Abbildungen N. H. Gegenstdnde, No. 21. White on the 

 regular Gradation, &c.; p. 145. 



f White mentions an Italian lady, in whom the hair trailed on the 

 ground when she stood upright : the same observation may be made of the 

 Greek women. A Prussian soldier had it long enough to reach the ground ; 

 and in an English lady it was six feet long. On the regular Gradation^ 

 p. 93-4. 



t Mr. Hearne says, that the Nortli American savages leave a single lock 

 on the head; and that he saw some, nearly six feet high, in whom, when let 

 down, it would trail on <he ground, as they walked. Journey to the Frozen 

 Ocean, p. 305, note. 



