412 MAMMALIA. 



Chinese, confined exclusively to their own empire, gives us nothing satisfactory 

 with respect to their neighbours. The affinities of their languages are also too 

 little known to direct us in this labyrinth. 



The languages of the north of the peninsula beyond the Ganges, as well as 

 that of Thibet, are somewhat allied to the Chinese, at least in their mono- 

 syllabic structure, and the people who speak them have features somewhat 

 resembling other Mongoles. The south of this peninsula, however, is inhabited 

 by Malays, whose forms approximate them much nearer to the Indians, whose 

 race and language are extended over all the coasts of the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago. The innumerable little islands of the Southern Ocean are also 

 peopled by a handsome race, nearly allied to the Indians, whose language is 

 very similar to the Malay; in the interior of the largest of these islands, 

 particularly in the wilder portions of it, is another race of men with black 

 complexions, crisped hair, and negro faces, called Alfourous. On the coast of 

 New Guinea, and in the neighbouring islands, we find other negroes, nearly 

 similar to those of the eastern coast of Africa, named Papuas; to the latter 

 are generally referred the people of Van Diemen's Land, while those of New 

 Holland are referred to the Alfourous. 



The Malays and the Papuas are not easily referable to either of the 

 three great races of which we have been speaking ; but can the former be 

 clearly distinguished from their neighbours, the Caucasian Hindoos and the 

 Mongolian Chinese? As for us, we confess we cannot discover any sufficient 

 characteristics in them for that purpose. May not the Papuas be Negroes, 

 which have formerly strayed into the Indian Ocean? We posssess neither 

 figures nor descriptions sufficiently precise to enable us to answer this question. 



The northern inhabitants of both continents, the Samoiedes, the Laplanders, 

 and the Esquimaux, spring, according to some, from the Mongolian race, 

 while others assert that they are mere degenerate offsets from the Scythian and 

 Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. 



We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the races of the 

 eastern continent; still they have no precise nor constant character which can 

 entitle them to be considered as a particular one. Their copper-coloured com- 

 plexion is not sufficient ; their generally black hair and scanty beard would in- 

 duce us to refer them to the Mongoles, if their defined features, projecting nose, 

 large and open eye, did not oppose such a theory, and correspond with the fea- 

 tures of the European. Their languages are as numberless as their tribes, and 

 no demonstrative analogy has as yet been obtained, either with each other, or 

 with those of the Old World. 



