456 CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES 



kans, and perliaps other tribes, on tbe east; the Yakuts, 

 Samoiedcs, Kirgises, on the west ; the people of Thibet and 

 Bootan on the south; have a similar organization to that of 

 the central tribes. The empires of China and Japan, the 

 islands of Sagalien, Lewchew, uiid Formosa, are peopled by 

 races of analogous physical and moral characters. Short 

 stature, olive-coloured skin, deviating into lighter yellow ; 

 coarse, straight, and perfectly black hair ; broad flat face, 

 high and broad cheek-bones, flat nose, oblique eyes, entire 

 deficiency or smallness of beard, are the common traits of 

 the numerous people spread over this immense portion of the 

 globe. Besides this general agreement of the tribes occu- 

 pying countries so distant and different from each other, it 

 is important to observe that the Samoiedes, Kamschatkans, 

 and others in the colder northern parts, are darker-coloured 

 than the Chinese, Tunquinesc, and Cochin-Chinese, in the 

 warm southern regions. 



" India,'' says Dr. Prichard, "is inhabited by a mixed 

 race, made up of the aborigines, and of others, whom the 

 pursuits of war and conquest have at various times brought 

 there. The religion of Bramah seems to have been intro- 

 duced from the north ; and at later periods vast numbers of 

 the Mongols have entered and conquered the country. 

 These mixtures have effaced the peculiar characters of the 

 original inhabitants ; which we must, therefore, seek for in 

 the islands protected by their situation from such visits. 

 The islands of the Indian sea, as well as those of the Pacific, 

 contain two races of men, diff'ering in many respects. One 

 of these approaches, and in some instances equals, the 

 blackness of the Negro : the hair is curled and woolly, the 

 body slender, the stature short, the disposition barbarous 

 and cruel. The other is more like the Indians of the con- 

 tinent, has a fairer skin, larger limbs and stature, better 

 proportions, and exhibits some marks of humanity and civi- 

 lization. According to Forster, the former, who are abo- 

 rigines, have occupied the middle and mountainous parts 

 of many islands, leaving the coasts and plains to the more 

 recent colonists. They occupy the highest parts of the 

 Moluccas, the Philippines, Formosa, and Borneo ; all New 



