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364 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS I. MAMMALIA. 
indigenous inhabitants of Madagascar, the shores of New Guinea, the 
islands of New Britain, New Ireland, and many others, also of Van Die- 
men’s Land; and Hottentotus (//omo J/ottentotus, Bory), the Bush and 
other Hottentots, which, it may be remarked, have not a few analogies with 
the nomadic Mongoles. The last appear to have been much reduced and 
encroached on, till a remnant only is left near the south coast of Africa, just 
as the Celts are now confined to the extreme west of Europe. 
6. I. Polynesius, Fischer (77. Australaricus, Bory).— The Alfourous, 
the lowest in the scale of human beings, comprising the inland inhabitants 
of the Malay Peninsular, the islands of the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, New 
Guinea, New Holland, &e. 
Tne Caucastan Race (Homo Japeticus, Bory). 
This variety, to which we belong, is distinguished by the beauty of the 
oval which forms the head; and it is this one which has given rise to the 
most civilized nations — to those which have generally held the rest in sub- 
jection. It varies in complexion and in the color of the hair. 
The name Caucasian, says Cuvier, has been affixed to the race from 
which we descend, because tradition and the filiation of nations seem to 
refer its origin to that group of mountains situate between the Caspian and 
Black Seas, whence it has apparently extended by radiating all around. 
The nations of the Caucasus, or the Circassians and Georgians, are even 
now considered as the handsomest on earth. The principal ramifications of 
this race may be distinguished by the analogies of language. The Arme- 
nian or Syrian branch, spreading southward, produced the Assyrians, the 
Chaldeans, the hitherto untamable Arabs, who, after Mahomet, expected to 
become masters of the world; thie Phoenicians, the Jews, the Abyssinians, 
which were Arabian colonies, and most probably the Egyptians. It is from 
this branch, always inclined to mysticism, that have sprung the most widely- 
extended forms of religion. Science and literature have sometimes flourished 
among its nations, but always in a strange disguise and figurative style. 
The Indian, German, and Pelasgie branch is much more extended, and 
was much earlier divided, notwithstanding which the most numerous aflini- 
ties have been recognized between its four principal languages — the Sanscrit, 
the present sacred language of the Hindoos, and the parent of the greater 
number of the dialects of Hindostan; the ancient language of the Pelasgi, 
common parent of the Greek, Latin, many tongues that are extinct, and of 
all those of the south of Europe; the Gothic, or Teutonic, from which are 
derived the languages of the north and north-west of Europe, such as the 
German, Dutch, English, Danish, Swedish, and their dialects ; and finally, 
the Sclavyonian, from which are descended those of the north-east, the Prus- 
