46'8 CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES 



century, Imve not degenerated in their pliysical constitution 

 from their Arabian progenitors : the sun exerts its full influ* 

 ence on their skin, but their children are just as white as 

 those born in Europe. They are by no means confined to 

 the northern coast, but have penetrated, as the prevalence 

 of the Mahomedan religion attests, deeply into the interior: 

 here they dwell in countries, of which the woolly-haired 

 Negro is the native, but have not acquired, in six centuries 

 of exposure to the same causes, any of his characters. The 

 intelligent and accurate Shaw informs us, that most of 

 the Moorish women would be reckoned handsome even 

 in Europe ; and that the skin of their children is exceed- 

 ingly fair and delicate; and though the boys, by being ex- 

 posed to the sun, soon grow swarthy, yet the girls, who 

 keep more within doors, preserve their beauty till the age 

 of thirty, when they commonly give over child-bearing. 

 " Les Maures," says Poiret, " ne sont pas naturellement 

 noirs, malgr^ le proverbe, et comme le pensent plusieurs 

 ecrivains ; mais ils naissent blancs, et restent blancs toute 

 leur vie, quand leurs travaux neles exposentpas aux ardeurs, 

 du soleil. Dans les villes, les femmes ont une blancheursi 

 eclatante, qu'elles eclipseroient la plupart de nos Euro- 

 peennes; mais les Mauresques montagnardes, sans cessebru- 

 leespar le soleil et presque toujours a moitie nues, devien- 

 nent, meme des I'enfance, d*une couleur brune qui approche 

 beaucoup de celle de la suie*.'' The testimony of Bruce 

 is to the same effect. 



That the swarthiness of the southern Europeans is merely 

 the effect of the sun's action on the individual, whose 

 children are born perfectly white, and continue so unless ex- 

 posed to the operation of the climate, might be easily 

 proved of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the Greeks, Turks, 

 &c. ; but the fact is too well known to render this necessary. 



The Jews exhibit one of the most striking instances of 

 national formation, unaltered by the most various changes. 

 They have been scattered, for ages, over the face of the 

 whole earth; but their peculiar religious opinions and prac- 



* Foy. en Bnrharie^ torn. i. p. .S2 



