212 EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



black, is so striking, that of them, at least, it seems almost 

 necessary to suppose separate origins. Of late years, how- 

 ever, the whole of this question has been subjected to a rigor- 

 ous investigation by a British philosopher, who has been 

 remarkably successful in adducing evidence that the human 

 race might have had one origin, for anything that can be 

 inferred from external peculiarities. 



It appears from this inquiry,( 85 ) that colour and other 

 physiological characters are of a more superficial and acci- 

 dental nature than was at one time supposed. One fact is at 

 the very first extremely startling, that there are nations, such 

 as the inhabitants of Hindostan, apparently one in descent, 

 which nevertheless contain groups of people of almost all 

 shades of colour, and likewise discrepant in other of those 

 important features on which much stress has been laid. 

 Some other facts, which may be stated in brief terms, are 

 scarcely less remarkable. In Africa, there are Negro nations, 

 that is, nations of intensely black complexion, as the Jolofs, 

 Mandingoes, and Kafirs, whose features and limbs are as 

 elegant as those of the best European nations. While we 

 have no proof of Negro races becoming white in the course 

 of generations, the converse may be held as established, for 

 there are Arab and Jewish families of ancient settlement in 

 Northern Africa, who have become as black as the other 

 inhabitants. There are also facts which seem to show the 

 possibility of a natural transition by generation from the 

 black to the white complexion, and from the white to the 

 black. True whites (apart from Albinoes) are not unfre- 

 quently born among the Negroes, and the tendency to this 

 singularity is transmitted in families. There is, at least, one 

 authentic instance of a set of perfectly black children being 

 born to an Arab couple, in whose ancestry no such blood had 

 intermingled. This occurred in the valley of the Jordan, 

 where it is remarkable that the Arab population in general 

 have flatter features, darker skins, and coarser hair, than any 

 other tribes of the same nation. ( 86 ) 



The style of living is ascertained to have a powerful effect 

 in modifying the human figure in the course of generations, 



