BIMANA. 5D 
are generally referred the people of Van-Diemen’s land, and those 
of New Holland to the Alfourous. 
These Malays, and these Papuas are not easily referable to either 
of the three great races of which we have been speaking, but can 
the former be clearly distinguished from their neighbours, the Cau- 
casian Hindoos and the Mongolian Chinese? As for us, we confess 
we cannot discover any sufficient characteristics in them for that 
purpose. Are the Papuas Negroes, which may formerly have strayed 
into the Indian ocean? We possess neither figures nor descriptions 
sufficiently precise to enable us to answer this question. ' 
The northern inhabitants of both continents, the Samoiédes, the 
Laplanders, and the Esquimaux spring, according to some, from the 
Mongolian race, while others assert that they are mere degenerate 
offsets from the Scythian and Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. 
We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the 
races of the eastern continents still, they have no precise nor con- 
stant character which can entitle them to be considered as a par- 
ticular one. Their copper coloured complexion is not sufficient; 
their generally black hair and scanty beard would induce us to 
refer them to the Mongoles, if their defined features, projecting 
nose, large and open eye, did not oppose such a theory, and corres- 
pond with the features of the European. Their languages are as 
numberless as their tribes, and no demonstrative analogy has as yet 
been obtained, either with each other, or with those of the old 
world.(1) 
ORDER I. 
QUADRUMANA. 
Independently of the anatomical details which distinguish 
“it from man, and which have been given, this family differs: 
from our species in a very remarkable way. All the animals 
belonging to it have the toes of the hind feet free and oppo- 
ae 
Coquille, p. 1—113. For the languages of the Asiatics and their affinities, con- 
‘sult the Asia Polyglotta of M. Klaproth. 
‘() See the Voyage de M. de Humboldt, and the dissertations of Vater and 
Mitchill. 
