296 



BIMANA. 



in European and other heads ; the size and breadth of the nasal processes 

 of the superior maxillary bones, and, consequently, the breadth of the alae 

 nasi ; the obliquity of the eyes ; the broad and square contour of the head ; 

 the high cheek-bones, and the pointed chin, giving a triangular form to the 

 lower part of the face, have been also noticed as characters common 

 both to the Mongole and Hottentot ; and Dr. Prichard has drawn up 

 a list of these and other minor points of resemblance, concluding with 

 the observation, that the similarity between the skulls of the two races 

 is accompanied by a similarity of the moral condition, and of the exter- 

 nal circumstances under which, from time immemorial, they have existed. 

 " Both are nomadic races, wandering with their herds through deserts, 

 remarkable for the wide expansion of their surface, their scanty herbage, 

 the dryness of the atmosphere, and almost perpetual drought. Both 

 races feed upon the milk and flesh of their horses, as well as of their oxen. 

 No countries can be more similar than are 

 the vast steppes of Central Asia and the 

 Karroos of Southern Africa." 



The subjoined are figures of the skulls 

 of individuals of various tribes, or people, of 

 the African continent. 



Fig. 218. Skull of a Negro. In this charac- 

 teristic example of the Negro skull, in the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, the following 

 particulars are worthy of notice : The con- 

 tour of the cranium is compressed laterally ; 

 the forehead is narrow and retreating, but 

 tolerably arched ; the superciliary margin, with 

 the glabella, projects boldly ; and the nasal bones, which are broad 

 and flat, seem sunk below the ridge of the frontal bone ; the interorbital 

 space, owing to the breadth of the nasal bones, and of the ascending 

 branch of the maxillary, which advances forward, almost to the level 

 of the bridge of the nose, is very great, the difference, in this 

 point, between the Negro and the Orang, or other Simiae, being con- 

 siderable ; the orifice of the nares is large and broad, and almost 

 quadrate ; the malar bones are greatly developed and advanced, having 

 a deep sulcus before them (in which is the suborbital foramen of 

 the superior maxillary bone), and their anterior angle is deep, pro- 

 minent, and abrupt ; the zygoma is thick, and arched forward ; the 

 external orbital processes are strong and prominent ; the alveolar pro- 

 cesses are long, and very oblique, projecting as in the Orang ; the lower 

 jaw rests flat on a plane surface ; the great foramen of the occipital bone 

 is small, and forms a narrow oval ; the anterior projection of the upper 

 jaw throws the occipital condyles to a greater distance beyond a trans- 



