600 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



striking here than in our own country. Two observations," he elsewhere observes, " struck 

 me forcibly ; first, that the deep bronze is more naturally agreeable to the human eye 

 than the fair skins of Europe, since we are not displeased with it even in the first instance, 

 while it is well-known that to them a fair complexion gives the idea of ill health, and of 

 that sort of deformity which, in our eyes, belongs to an albino*" The same class 

 includes the swarthy Spaniards, and the inhabitants of southern Europe in general, who 

 have dark hair, with the melanic complexion only strongly dilute, which characterises the 

 olive, copper coloured, and negro nations. In the xanthous or light-haired variety, who 

 have commonly grey or azure blue eyes, combined with a fair complexion, which acquires 

 a ruddy instead of a bronze tinge on exposure to heat, some whole tribes in the temper- 

 ately cold regions of Europe and Asia are included. Red or yellow hair and blue eyes 

 peculiarly characterised the old Gothic races according to the testimony of Tacitus, and 

 are prevalent among their descendants at present. But examples of the xanthous variety 

 present themselves in every dark-haired race, and we gather from Homer, that it was 

 not uncommon among the Greeks of his time to find a melanic family. " The Jews, like 

 the Arabs," says Prichard, " are generally a black-haired race ; but I have seen many Jews 

 with light hair and beards, and blue eyes ; and in some parts of Germany, the Jews are 

 remarkable for red bushy beards. Many of the Russians are light-haired, though the 

 mass of the Slavonian race is of the melanous variety. The Laplanders are generally of a 

 dark complexion, but the Finns, Mordouines, and Votiaks, who are allied to them in race, 

 are xanthous. Many of the northern Tungusians, or Mantschu Tartars, are of the 

 xanthous variety, though the majority of this nation are black-haired." Even among the 

 more swarthy races of the melanic class, as the Negros of Senegal, examples of fair- 

 haired individuals, with the corresponding complexions, occur ; and the native stock of 

 Egypt supplies similar instances, as appears from the -light brown hair of some of the 

 mummies. The leucous or white variety includes no entire race of people-, but 

 occasionally albinos, with perfectly white hair and skin, and red or pink eyes, appear in 

 all countries ; among the xanthous tribes of Europe, the copper-coloured nations of 

 America, and the pure blacks of Africa. The "phrase, white Negros, though a literal 

 contradiction, exactly expresses the physical fact a white individual of a black stock. 

 In some instances, pure white and black children have mingled in the same family, the 

 offspring of black parents. 



The springing up of individuals, distinguished from their parents, and from the 

 particular race in general to which they belong, by a different complexion, evidenced by 

 the occurrence of albinos, and the more frequent grafting of a xanthous variety upon a 

 melanic stock, or the reverse, renders the presumption strong, that those diversities of 

 colour which discriminate nations from each other, are mere varieties of a species, due to 

 local causes, which, though they evade our scrutiny, certainly operate to an inferior 

 extent, and yet with an analogical effect in families at present. The difference in the 

 cases is chiefly one of degree and of duration ; but this presents no difficulty when we 

 consider, that strongly marked varieties of colour have been introduced among animals of 

 the same species, and have become permanent from which a similar phenomenon may reason- 

 ably be inferred, in relation to the human race. " In the Mysore there are three varieties 

 of colour in the sheep ; they are red, black, and white, and these are not distinct breeds. 

 The ass of the Carnatic presents singular varieties of colour ; some are of the usual ash- 

 colour, while others are almost black, in which case the cross on the shoulders disappears. 

 Milk-white asses are also to be found, but they are rare. These are not distinct species, 

 for black individuals have sometimes ash-coloured colts, and vice versa. Some remarkable 

 facts are mentioned by Azara with reference to the colour of horses and oxen in Paraguay. 

 It is well known that both these races have run wild in South America, and the climate 



