THE HUMAN SPECIES. 207 



calabashes, one before, the other behind, which buoy 

 them up sufficiently, to admit in them the fish they 

 catch, and stun or kill with a billet. 



The Papuan of Australia is, in many respects, the 

 most sunken of human beings, and is partly mixed with 

 Horafoura tribes, whose presence is indicated by the 

 hair being more drooping and matted, the features less 

 debased, and the limbs more masculine. Some tribes 

 towards the north are even fair, and appear to have a 

 tinge of Malay blood, perhaps imported by the Trepang 

 fishers on the coast. 



If the woolly haired type, in the oriental portion of 

 its distribution, is often of the smallest and ill made 

 proportions, there are instances (perhaps, indeed, of 

 races already somewhat mixed) where they rise to six 

 feet high, and possess powerful frames, as was lately 

 discovered in the interior of Australia. But, in all, 

 where any religious sentiments have been observed, 

 they seem to be imported, or sink into the lowest 

 puerilities. This is also the case in Africa, where the 

 divinities are spectres ; or are reptiles, lizards, insects, 

 birds, or beasts; gods in one season and game in 

 another; or they are wretched little idols they call 

 Fetiche, a word derived from Pet <rara/p0 of Phoa- 

 nician or Egyptian origin ; and, as it evidently means 

 father, shows, that in the first acceptation, was implied 

 veneration for departed tribal or family ancestors, but 

 became degraded to a kind of idolatrous worship, which, 

 in the hands of Negroes, is bestowed upon monkey 

 skulls, bits of bone and rag ; or is a gross scarecrow, 



