300 BIMANA. 



race ; and, as it appears highly probable, only a branch of one widely- 

 extended race, to which all the Negro nations of the empire of Congo 

 belong, as well as many tribes, both on the western and eastern side of 

 Southern Africa. The skull of the Kosah Caffre, though still retaining 

 something of the African character, deviates very considerably from that 

 type, and approaches the form of the European skull, or that of the Indo- 

 Atlantic nations. To the form described by Dr. Knox, as characteristic 

 of the Caffre, the eastern Negroes of Africa appear generally to approxi- 

 mate ; the skulls of the Mozambique blacks, or Makuani, filling up the 

 gradations that may be imagined between the depressed forehead and 

 strongly-marked African countenances of the Ibos, and the well-developed 

 heads and bold and animated physiognomy of the Amakosah and Ama- 

 zulah. The complexion of these tribes presents every variety, from the 

 dark black of the Loango, or Angola Negro, to the olive-brown, or copper 

 colour, of the Bechuana, who inhabit the high plains beyond the tropic. 

 The nature of the hair is one of the most general, as it is one of the most 

 characteristic peculiarities of these nations. Yet even this displays de- 

 viations ; and in some tribes, among whom there is no probable ground 

 for conjecturing diversity, or intermixture of race, the hair is positively 

 stated to be not woolly, but merely curled, or in flowing ringlets of con- 

 siderable length. Many other instances may be collected on a survey of 

 the African races, in which variations of a similar description are proved 

 to have taken place. The more accurate our researches are among the in- 

 digenous population of this region of the world, the less reason do we find 

 for the opinion, that the characteristic qualities of the human races are per- 

 manent and undeviating.* Among the various considerations which confirm 

 this view of the subject, we must not neglect to take into account the 

 conclusions to which we are led by a comparison of the languages of 

 Africa. If, as it would appear highly probable, the various idioms of 

 Africa constitute one family of languages, in which the language of the 

 Caffres and that of the Egyptians are included, this will go far toward 

 the proof of a common origin." The question is one of great difficulty : 

 our facts, after all, are too scanty, our acquaintance with the races of 

 Africa too limited, and our knowledge of the revolutions, migrations, and 

 intermixtures to which, in remote ages, the nations and tribes of this 

 immense Continent have been subjected, too trivial to enable us to come 

 to anything like a positive conclusion. Granting, however, this presumed 

 tendency, in the Negro race, to lose its most striking characteristics, it 

 does not appear, on the contrary, that any well-authenticated instances 



* In all the peculiarities of organization which belong to' the African nations, the Caffres resemble 

 the Negroes : their skulls have, though not in an equal degree, the same characteristics of shape. 

 The extent of development of the upper jaw is, in the Caffre, nearly as great as in the Negro, accord- 

 ing to the testimony of Dr. Knox, who concludes that the Caffres are Negroes of the mountains, or 

 Negroes changed by inhabiting an extra-tropical climate. 



