SX) KISTORV OF 



it frequently happens that a river, or a mountain, divides 

 two barbarous tribes that are unlike each other in manners, cus- 

 toms, features, and complexion. But these differences, how- 

 ever perceivable, do not form such distinctions as come within 

 a general picture of the varieties of mankind. Custom, accident, 

 or fashion, may produce considerable alterations in neighbouring 

 nations ; their being derived from ancestors of a different climate, 

 or complexion, may contribute to make accidental distinctions, 

 which every day grow less ; and it may be said, that two neigh- 

 bouring nations, how unlike soever at first, will assimilate by 

 degrees ; and by long continuance, the difference between them 

 will at last become almost imperceptible. It is not, therefore, 

 between contiguous nations we are to look for any strong marked 

 varieties in the human species ; it is by comparing the inhabi- 

 tants of opposite climates and distant countries ; those who live 

 within the polar circles, with those beneath the equator ; those 

 that live on one side of the globe, with those that occupy 

 the other. 



Of all animals,, the differences between mankind are the 

 smallest. Of the lower races of creatures, the changes are so 

 great as often entirely to disguise the natural animal, and to dis- 

 tort, or to disfigure, its shape. But the chief differences in man 

 are rather taken from the tincture of his skin than the variety of 

 his figure : as in all climates he preserves his erect deportment, 

 and the marked superiority of his form. If we look round the 



another race of men, with crisped hair, black complexion, negro countenance, 

 and barbarous beyond measure. Those that are most known have received 

 the name of Papuas, and it may be applied as a general denomination to 

 them all. 



It is not very easy to refer either the Malays, or the Papuas, to any one 

 of the three grand varieties of mankind already Jescribed. It is a question, 

 however, whether the former people can be accurately distinguished from 

 their neighbours on either side ; the Caucasian Hindoos on the one, and the 

 Mongolian Chinese ou the other. We scarcely find in them characteristics 

 sufficiently striking for this purpose. Again, are the Papuas Negroes, who, 

 in remote periods, may have lost their way upon tJie Indian ocean ? We 

 have neither figures nor descriptions sufficiently clear to reply to this 

 question. 



The natives of the nortli of both continents, the Samoiedes, the Laplanders, 

 and the Esquimaux, spring, according to some authorities, from the Mongo. 

 lian race. According to others, they are only degenerate off-shoots froi.l 

 the Scytliian branch of the Caucasian variety- 



