DIVISIONS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. xli 



nent, the eyes oblique, and the ears large. The colour of the 

 skin tends to an olive-yellow ; the eyes are dark, the hair is 

 black, straight, and thin, and the beard is scanty or wanting. 

 These, the most striking characteristics of this immense 

 group, distinguish the Mongolians, so called, from all the 

 races of the family termed Caucasian. They have in certain 

 cases been conquerors, formed great empires, and arrived at 

 a considerable degree of stationary civilization ; but they are 

 suspicious of strangers, tenacious of old usages, and have 

 never arrived at distinction in science. They have formed a 

 written language, eminently copious, but rude, inartificial, 

 and wanting in the precision of grammatical construction. 



The term Malay, or Polynesian, has been applied to the 

 inhabitants of the peninsula of Malacca, and the greater 

 part of the inhabitants of Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and other 

 Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, of New Zealand, and 

 the Islands of the South Sea. In this race, or group of 

 races, the head is somewhat narrow, the bones of the face 

 are prominent, the nose is broad, the lips are thick. The 

 colour of the skin varies from a tawny olive to nearly black, 

 and the hair is dark and curled, but not what is termed 

 woolly. These people, however, extending over a vast tract 

 of ocean, and being in certain cases mixed in blood with 

 other races, their characters vary so greatly, that it is impos- 

 sible to reduce them to a common standard. They have the 

 habits of islanders, and are, for the most part, bold, active, 

 and of warm temperaments, but unforgiving, treacherous, 

 and cunning. Within the limits, too, of the region of this 

 group, are tribes altogether distinct in speech, customs, and 

 external characters, and remaining in the savage state. 

 Such are the inland tribes of some of the great islands of 

 the Eastern Seas, and the black inhabitants of the insular 

 continent of New Holland. 



In the great African Continent, the human race presents 

 itself with characters which, like those of the other animal 

 species of the same region, may be said to be peculiar to it. 



