FEATURES AND SKULLS. 335 



chaud des N(^gres, n'a-t-elle pas dii devenir le caractere 

 propre dc leur figure*?" Unfortunately for these specu- 

 lations, the Negro features occur in numerous tribes spread 

 over a great extent of country, with various climates, and 

 in many instances where the heat is by no means excessive: 

 the character too is permanent, after any number of gene- 

 rations, vrhen the Negroes are taken into otlier climes. 

 Again, the most opposite features occur under similar cli- 

 mates in different parts of the world. There are races with 

 flattened countenances, as well as with narrow and elongated 

 visages, in hot countries. The whole notion is, however, 

 so fanciful and so unphilosophic, that it hardly deserves 

 serious attention ; and I therefore regret to find that the 

 idea is so far countenanced by an instructive writer on this 

 subject, that he speaks of the numerous gnats which annoy 

 the New Hollanders as contributing to the formation of 

 their peculiar physiognomy. 



The custom of carrying the children on the back has been 

 referred to, in order to explain the flat nose and swoln lips 

 of the Negroo In the violent motions required in their 

 hard labour, as in beating or pounding millet, &c., the face 

 of the young one is said to be constantly thumping against 

 the back of the mother. This account is seriously quoted 

 by Blumenbach. 



The testimonies concerning the employment of pressure, 

 in order to flatten the nose, are so numerous and circum- 

 stantial, that we cannot doubt of the attempt being made. 

 It is practised among the Negroes, Hottentots, Brasilians f, 

 Sumatrans J, and South-Sea Islanders § : we have, however, 



* Voyage en Stjrie et Egijpte^ t. i. p. 74. 

 + De Lery, Voyags.en la Terre du BresU ; pp. 98, 265. 



+ Marsden, History of Sumatra ; p. 44. 



§ " The figure of the nose seems to have been an object worthy the atten- 

 tion of the midwives at Otaheite ; and since they are of opinion that a some- 

 what broad flat nose is ornamental, they depress the nose immediately after 

 the birth of the child, and repeat this action upon it while it is still tender." 

 The women of the Hottentots Sfjueeze the noses of their children flat with 

 their thinnb (Kolee, Dsscription of the Cape, of Good Hope; i. 5<J) ; and 



