324 



BIMANA. 



distinguish, from each other, individuals of the native race, because his eyes 

 are less fixed on the gentle, melancholic, or ferocious expression of the 

 countenance, than on the red, coppery colour, and dark, coarse, glossy, and 



233 



Thayendaneega, a Mohawk chief. 



luminous hair ; so glossy, indeed, that we should believe it to be in a con- 

 stant state of moisture."* 



* The coppery red of.the skin is, however, far from being a constant character. Humboldt himself 

 observes, that " the denomination of copper-coloured men could never have originated, in equinoctial 

 America, to designate the natives." Personal Narrative. Birkbeck remarks, of the natives whom 

 he saw in the western territory of the United States, that " their complexion was various : some 

 are dark, others not so swarthy as myself; but I saw none of the copper colour, which I had imagined 

 to be their universal distinctive mark." Cook states the natives of Nootka Sound to have a colour 

 not very different from that of Europeans, but with a pale dull cast. Molino says, respecting the 

 Chilians, " their complexion, like that of the other American nations, is of a reddish brown, but of a 

 clearer hue, and readily changes to white. A tribe, who dwell in the province of Baroa, are of a clear 

 white and red, without any mixture of the copper colour." Civil Hist, of Chili. 



