54 . MAMMALIA— MAN. 



is probable, they derive their origin. In stature they are tall ; the features 

 of their countenance are strongly marked ; their eyes are large and beauti- 

 ful ; their nose is well proportioned ; their lips are thin ; and their teeth are 

 white. Of the inhabitants of Nubia, on the contrary, the nose is flat, the 

 lips are thick and prominent, and the countenance is exceedingly black. 

 These Nubians, as well as the Barbarians, their western neighbors, are a 

 species of negroes, not unlike those of Senegal. 



The first negroes we meet with, are those who live on the south side 

 of Senegal. These people, as well as those who occupy the different terri- 

 tories between Senegal and Gambia, are called Jalofcs. They are all very 

 black, well proportioned, and of a size sufficiently tall. Their features are 

 less harsh than those of the other negroes ; and some of them tliere are, 

 especially among the female sex, whose features are far from irregular. 

 Among them, to be perfectly beautiful the color must be exceedingly black, 

 and exceedingly glossy : their skin, hoAvever, is highly delicate and soft ; 

 and color alone excepted, we find among them women as handsome as in 

 any other country in the world. They are usually very gay, lively, and 

 amorous. 



Father du Tertre says expressly, that, if the negroes are for the most part 

 flat-nosed, it is because the parents crush the noses of their children ; that 

 in the same manner they compress their lips, in order to render them thick- 

 er ; and that of the few who have undergone neither of these operations, 

 the features of the countenance are as comely, the nose is as prominent, 

 and the lips are as delicate as those of the Europeans. It appears, however, 

 that among the negroes in general, thick lips and a nose broad and flat, 

 are gifts from nature, by which was originally introduced, and at length 

 established, their custom of flattening the nose and thickening the lips 

 of such as at their birth discovered a deficiency in these ornaments. Though 

 the negroes of Guinea are in general very healthy, yet they seldom attain 

 what we term old age. 



The negroes in general are a- remarkably innocent and inoffensive people. 

 If properly fed, and unexposed to bad usage, they are contented, joyous and 

 obliging ; and on their very countenances may we read the satisfaction 

 of their souls. If hardly dealt with, on the other hand, their spirits forsake 

 them, and they droop Avith sorrow. 



Mr Kolben, though he has given so minute a description of the Hotten- 

 tots, is strongly of opinion, however, that they are negroes. Like that 

 of the latter, he assures us, that their hair is short, black, frizzled, and 

 woolly ; nor in a single instance did he ever observe it long. 



Though of all the Hottentots, the nose is very flat, and very broad, yet it 

 would not be of that form, did not their mothers, considering a prominent 

 nose as a deformity, think it a duty incumbent upon them to crush it pre- 

 sently after their birth. Their lips are also thick, and their upper lip is 

 particularly so ; their teeth are very white ; their eyebrows are thick ; their 



