ANIMALS. 403 



noses, with high cheek-bones, and small eyes ; and these det'or. 

 inities of nature they endeavour to increase by art : they flatten 

 the nose, and often the whole head of their children, while the 

 bones are yet susceptible of every impression. They paint the 

 body and face of various colours, and consider the hair upon any 

 part of it, except the head, as a deformity which they are careful 

 to eradicate. Their limbs are generally slighter made than those 

 of the Europeans ; and, I am assured, they are far from being 

 so strong. All these savages seem to be cowardly ; they seldom 

 are known to face their enemies in the field, but fall upon them 

 at €in advantage ; and the greatness of their fears serves to increase 

 the rigours of their cruelty. The wants which they often sustain, 

 make them surprisingly patient in adversity : distress, by being 

 grown familiar, becomes less terrible ; so that their patience is less 

 the result of fortitude than of custom. They have all a serious air, 

 although they seldom think ; and, however cruel to their enemies, 

 are kind and just to each other. In short, the customs of savage 

 nations in every country are almost the same ; a wild, indepen- 

 dent, and precarious life, produces a peculiar train of virtues and 

 vices : and patience and hospitality, indolence and rapacity, con- 

 tent and sincerity, are found not less among the natives of 

 America, than all the barbarous nations of the globe. 



The sixth and last variety of the human species, is that of the 

 Europeans, and the nations bordering on them. In this class 

 we may reckon the Georgians, Circassians, and Mingrelians, the 

 inhaljitants of Asia Minor, and the northeni parts of Africa, 

 together with a part of those countries which lie north-west of 

 the Caspian sea. The inhabitants of these countries differ a 

 good deal from each other ; but they generally agree in the co- 

 lour of their bodies, the beauty of their complexions, the large- 

 Tiess of their limbs, and the vigour of their understandings. 

 Those arts which might have had their invention among the 

 other races of mankind, have come to perfection there. In bar- 

 liarous countries the inhabitants go either naked, or are awk- 

 wardly clothed in furs or feathers ; in countries semi-barbarous, 

 the robes are loose and flowing; but here the clothing is less 

 made for show than expedition, and unites, as much as possible, 

 the extremes of ornament and desjjatch. 



To one or other of these classes we may refer the people of 

 every country : and as each nation has been less visited by 



