BiM.VMA.- 



-JIAJIJIALU.- 



-BlMANA. 



11 



colder or more mountainous regions, yet there are many 

 important instances that may be adduced in opposition 

 to tlie universal application of this rule : the most north- 

 ern tribes are usually of dark complusions, and the 

 natives of Australia and Van Diemen's Land are darker 

 tlian many tropical nations. The varieties of domestic 

 animals, which are so numerous and often so remark- 

 aide, have been produced, for the most part, by the 

 artificial variation of the conditions of their existence ; 

 and where they are due to climatal influences, it must 

 be borne in mind that the creatures have been in a 

 manner forcibly transplanted to their new abodes, which 

 they would, in all probability, never have reached but 

 by the instrumentality of man. With the human sub- 

 ject the case is different ; his organization adapts him 

 for existence in all parts of the world where he can 

 find the necessary supplies of food : with this restric- 

 tion, no region is too hot or too cold for him, and this 

 does not merely apply to the indigenous races of each 

 district, for the individuals of most races can live and 

 thrive in the districts originally belonging to other 

 tribes; and in this case, as far as we know, the pos- 

 terity of the new comers retains the characters of 

 its original progenitors. This is remarkably shown 

 in the present day in the United States of America, 

 where the native American, the European, and the 

 Xegro, have now lived and propagated under the same 

 conditions of climate for many years, without losing 

 their original characters. Thus the difficulties are 

 nearly equally great on both sides, and we only partially 

 get rid of them by assuming that a multiplicity of indi- 

 viduals of the human species may have been originally 

 created, and that the gradual intensification of the 

 personal characteristics of these individuals in their 

 descendants by constant intermarriage within the same 

 families, may have given rise to the varieties which are 

 now met with. Otherwise, if production from a single 

 original pair be necessary for the establishment of the 

 unity of the human species, we are forced to admit for 

 it a much greater antiquity of origin than is usually 

 supposed; for we know from ancient Egyptian pictures 

 that, in the Mosaic period, the physical characteristics 

 of the Hebrews, Copts, and Negroes were as strongly 

 marked as in the present day ; and it is impossible to 

 suppose that such important modifications of one and 

 the same type would have been produced by climatal 

 influences in the period intervening in our chronology 

 between the epochs of Noah and Moses, and that in 

 the present day we should find difterent races still 

 retaining their essential characteristics, after dwelling 

 together for many ages in the same region. Moreover, 

 not to mention the chronologies of the Chinese and 

 Brahmins, which appear to run into the opposite 

 extreme to our own, we may refer to the statement of 

 Professor Lepsius, that the chronology of the Egyptians 

 may be traced up to the year 3900 B.C., and that the 

 fourth dynasty, including the builders of the chief pyra- 

 mids, commenced in the year 3430 B.C. He adds that 

 " a thousand years at least, and probably still more, 

 must be conjectured for the gradual growth of a civili- 

 zation which had been completed, and had in part 

 begun to degenerate at least 3430 years before our 

 era." — (See Lepsius in Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. ii.) 



Sir. Leonard Horner, also, in his boring through the 

 sediment of the Nile at Memphis, found a fragment of 

 pottery at a depth of thirty-nine feet from the surface ; 

 and as it appears from unquestionable data that, during 

 the last 3215 years, the average amount of sediment 

 deposited has been three and a half inches in a century, 

 this fragment is regarded by Mr. Horner as a proof of 

 the existence of man more than 13,370 years ago — 

 " of man, moreover, in a state of civilization, so far, at 

 least, as to be able to fashion clay into vessels, and to 

 know how to harden them by the action of a strong 

 heat." — [Proceedimjs of Royal Society: 1858.) Per- 

 haps the most probable conclusion at which we can 

 arrive from the consi<lcration of all this evidence is, 

 that the whole human popidation of the globe belongs 

 to a single species, modified by climatal and other 

 influences, extending over a period of years so long 

 tliat our authentic historical data relate only to a small 

 portion of it. 



As might be expected from the short reference 

 already made to the innumerable shades of difference 

 presented by different tribes of mankind, and the insen- 

 sible blending of the one into the other, the discrimi- 

 nation of the principal varieties of the human species 

 is by no means an easy task ; and we accordingly find 

 that nearly every writer on this intricate subject enter- 

 tains pecidiar views as to the affinities of particular 

 tribes, or even as to the number of primary varieties 

 which it is necessar}' to admit. Thus, Cuvier refers all 

 the varied forms of mankind to three, Bhimenbach to 

 five, Pritchard to seven, and Pickering and Latham to 

 eleven leading varieties. It is principally by the con- 

 sideration of the structure of the languages that the 

 number of varieties has been so greatly increased by 

 the last-named writers. In their chief physical charac- 

 ters most of the tribes of mankind ma}' be conveniently 

 refeiTcd to the five sections proposed by Bhimenbach. 

 These are the Caucasian or Iranian, the MonyoUan 

 or Turanian, the Malayan, the Ethio^iian, and the 

 American varieties. 



1. Caucasians or Iranians. — This variety includes 

 all those nations which have made the greatest progress 

 in civilization. Their colour depends principally upon 

 the country inhabited by them, the skin in those dwell- 

 ing in temperate zones being white, more or less tinged 

 with pirdv in different parts by the blood shining through 

 it ; whil.st in the nations of warmer climates the colour 

 gradually becomes darker, and finally almost black. 

 The hair exhibits similar, and, to a certain extent, cor- 

 responding variations in colour ; in temperate climates 

 it presents every shade from red and j'ellowish-brown 

 to black, whilst in the darker races of hot countries the 

 last-named colour predominates ; but in all cases the 

 hair is straight or simply curled, but never crisp arid 

 woolly in appearance. The face is oval, and the fore- 

 head high, the facial angle approacliing a right angle ; 

 the eyes are straiglit ; the nose is usually narrow anj 

 prominent, and the lips are moderately full. The great 

 Caucasian variety extends from Hindostan througii 

 Persia and the Caucasus to Europe, of which the 

 greater part of the inhabitants belong to it ; it also 

 includes the nations inhabiting Arabia, Syria, and the 

 northern and north-eastern parts of Africa. The latter, 



