208 



NATURAL HISTORY OF 



set up under a canopy of straw. The Negro has shown 

 always a great propensity to incantation and sorcery ; 

 has recourse to protective amulets, which he calls 

 Grisgris ; and positive impostures are both "believed in 

 and practised by the male part, without an attempt at 

 reflection ; although, in other respects, he can be a 

 mimic and does not want craft in the mysteries of 

 huckstering or of small dealing, which all classes are 

 inclined to. These propensities can be traced to the 

 extent of a kind of caravan trade, and the frequentation 

 of sacred or at least neutral marts, scalas, or ventas, 

 where dealers assemble at stated periods within the 

 precincts of Nigritia, for elsewhere the lawless ferocity 

 of slave-making Caucasians has rendered the practice 

 impossible to the Negro race. All these opinions and 

 customs are, however, perfectly in harmony with the 

 oriental development of the woolly haired tribes ; with 

 their primaeval passage even through Egypt and the 

 desert, which most recent discovery shows to be still, 

 in parts, not entirely barren ; although, as Dr. Hoskins 

 has proved, increasingly desolate. 



The Horafouras or Alforees of the Australasian islands, 

 are, we believe, the first and most ancient abnormal 

 race of Papuan origin, tinged sufficiently with Malay 

 blood, to possess the energy and malignant ferocity of 

 that people ; while they have the colour and the great 

 mop-formed hair, which results from an interunion thus 

 formed, and having greater mental development, their 

 social progress is more advanced. They possessed 

 already, in remote antiquity, the means of marine 



