BIMANA. 



which the cranium and the osseous framework generally are moulded :* 

 for, though differences have been noticed, still no broad line of separa- 

 tion can be seized upon, indicating, as in the Mongole tribes, the exist- 

 ence of a distinct type or model. Nevertheless, the gradations of this 

 type, from the perfect and true model, as it is exemplified in the 

 Georgian, Circassian, or Greek, to the semi-barbarous Russ or rude Scla- 

 vonian, are not to be overlooked. It is, therefore, rather an assumption 

 than a demonstration, that the nations and tribes in question have 

 branched out from one stock, or that they are of the same type. Soem- 

 merring observes, that there are no well-marked differences between 

 the German, Swiss, French, Swedish, and Russian skulls, except that 

 the orbits are more contracted in the Russian, according to the exam- 

 ples in his collection (a peculiarity delineated, also, in the figure of 

 the skull of a Pole, in the Decades of Blumenbach) : still, as Law- 

 rence well remarks, the discovery of no striking difference between the 

 skulls of the Caucasian nations, from a comparison of casual specimens 

 of the crania of the various nations, does not authorize the conclusion 

 that no differences really exist ; and, he adds, " my friend, Mr. G. Lewis, 

 whose quickness in distinguishing forms, and whose readiness and accu- 

 racy in portraying them to the very life, are well known, observed, in 

 a tour through France and Germany, that the lower and anterior part of 

 the cranium is larger in the French, the upper and anterior in the Ger- 

 mans, and that the upper and posterior region is larger in the former 

 than in the latter. He was always struck with the very fine form of 

 the skull in Italians, which coincides completely with what I have seen 

 of them in this country." Every nation, moreover, has its peculiar 

 cast of features : indeed, if we attend only to the natives of the 

 British Islands, distinctions between the Scotch, the Irish, the Angle, 

 and the families of Norman lineage, are clearly recognisable.-)- But 



* " From the mountains of Himalaya to the Indian Ocean, including the whole of Hindoostan and 

 the Deccan, as well as Persia and Arabia, and from the Ganges in the east, to the borders of the 

 Alantic, comprising the north '.of Africa and the whole of Europe, a similar configuration of body 

 prevails amongst all the inhabitants, with some few exceptions. Of this, the Greeks seem to afford 

 the most perfect model ; in which, however, they scarcely exceed the type displayed, as belonging to 

 the ancient Persians, by the sculptures of Persepolis. Complexion does not enter among the cha- 

 racters of this type, since it is of all shades, from the white and florid colour of the northern Euro- 

 peans to the jet black of many tribes in Lybia and southward of Mount Atlas. In many races the 

 type has degenerated : the ancient Celts appear, for example, to .have had by no means the same 

 development of the head as the Greeks, and the Indians display some differences in the configura- 

 tion of the skull." Prichard, Hist. Phys. Mank. i. p. 262. 



t High cheek-bones, small, deeply-set, grey eyes, a large lower jaw, and a prominent chin, cha- 

 racterize the physiognomy of the, shrewd, intelligent Scot. In the Irish, the face is broad, the 

 cheek-bones project laterally, the nose is more or less depressed, and the eyes are small and light. An 

 aquiline nose, thin lips, dark eyes, and a tall but slender figure, indicate the descent from a boasted 

 line of Norman ancestry. In the peasantry, especially of our midland counties, the Anglo-Saxon type 

 prevails : an athletic form, blue eyes, light hair, and an open expression of countenance, proclaim 

 the Angle : in the midland counties, where the dialect has not lost its original breadth, and still re- 

 tains the Anglo-Saxon words in purity, children of the peasantry may be seen, before toil has worn 

 them, which will call to mind the words of Gregory, (( Non Angli, sed angeli." 



