476 ON THE CRANIOLOGY OF THE BUSHMEN. 



opposed to a morphological explanation. But, when we come 

 further to consider the structure and composition of the various 

 segments of the orbital ring in these races, we find combined with 

 this physiologically explicable similarity a very considerable mor- 

 phological difference. This is constituted by the conformation of 

 the nasals, which in the Bushman form invariably an all but level 

 plane between the nasal processes of the maxillaries, and contribute, 

 being narrow, but a small factor to the interocular space, which, 

 when the soft parts are in situ, appears disproportionately wide as 

 compared with the same area in other races. In Mongols, Eskimos, 

 and Australians the nasals very ordinarily form a more or less 

 elevated arch, and they are not by any means so narrow as they 

 are almost always in the Bushman race. In this latter these bones 

 not rarely lose not only their characteristic arch-shape but also 

 their individuality, and anchylose with each other mesially. It is, 

 however, right to add that nasals of the Bushman type are not 

 rarely, though by no means invariably, to be found in Negro and 

 Caff re crania. 



As regards the yellow hue of the skin, the likeness to the 

 Mongolian races proper is perhaps less disputable, but with the 

 skin we are bound to consider the hair, the peculiarities of which, 

 as seen in the Bushman, are as different from those seen in the 

 Mongolian variety of mankind as it is possible for two varieties of 

 human hair from the same area to be. 'The thinnest and flattest hair 

 is that of the Bosjesmans, Papuans, and Negroes ; the most cylin- 

 drical being that of Polynesians, Malays, Siamese, Japanese and 

 Americans. Europeans are between the two.' Such are the micro- 

 scopic characters of the hair in the several great divisions of our 

 species according to Topinard ( f Anthropology; ' translated in 

 'Library of Contemporary Science' by Dr. Bartley), and it is 

 needless to contrast the spirally contorted and tufted dark hair 

 of the Hottentot or Bushman with the coarse wire-drawn straight 

 black hair of the Mongolian or Eskimo. It is curious, however, if 

 indeed not otherwise significant, that the Central African * Bush- 

 men,' if so we may call them, of Ashango, occasionally bury their 

 dead in a temporarily diverted stream-course, much as was done in 

 the case of Attila, and, according to Mr. Wood, 1. c, ' in various 

 parts of the world from the earliest known time.' 



The Bushman race, as is well known, have strong proclivities in 



