^2S 



NATURE 



[September 24, 1908 



tjiere are verv strong specific differences between tlie Grew 

 and Burclielline zebras met in the neiglibourhood of Lake 

 Barringo, there is a curious approximation not only in 

 marliing but also in the teeth between these two species, 

 which is best accounted for by supposing that it is the 

 outcome of similar environment. It may be said that this 

 approximation may be due to the interbreeding of the two 

 species of zebras in the region where thev overlap. This, 

 in itself a most unlikely contingency from all that is known 

 of the habits of wild species, certainly cannot be alleged 

 in the case of the convergence in type between the asses 

 of South-Western -Asia and the Somali ass, since thev are 

 separated by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. 



Again, the representative of the crocodile family in the 

 Ganges is distinguished by the extreme elongation of the 

 head and jaws, whilst the same elongation of the head is 

 equally characteristic of the representative of the dolphin 

 family found in the same waters. Again, all through the 

 Indian Ocean wherever any family of crabs have become 

 inhabitants of coralline sands its members have long legs. 

 Again, it has long been noticed that in Cutch all the larger 

 animals have a tendency to become a sandy colour, whilst 

 in certain areas of South America insects, no matter to 

 what family they belong, have a tendency to one common 

 aspect. 



It may of course be said that the changes in colour of 

 the horse family, tigers, and insects are for " protective " 

 reasons. But the case of the horse family alone is sufficient 

 to dispose of this objection. The kiang of the Himalaya 

 had no dangerous enemy until man was armed with a 

 rifle. In .Africa the zebras have had only two formidable 

 foes — man and the lion. It is asserted bv the most 

 experienced hunters that the gaudy livery of the zebra 

 makes him conspicuous from afar, whether, he is on the 

 mountain, on the plain, or in the shade of a tree. His 

 brilliant colour therefore really exposes him to man. But 

 it will be said that it is w-ell adapted to conceal him at 

 night, at which time the lion seeks his prey. Yet as the 

 best authorities hold that the lion hunts entirely bv scent, 

 the _ coloration of the zebra affords him no' protection 

 against his inveterate foe. 



I have shown that in horses the colours — such as bay, 

 black, grey, and white — accompany certain well-defined 

 inward qualities. But as black is most certainlv not a 

 prirnitive horse colour, it follows that coat colours may 

 be intimately connected with certain other characteristics 

 quite irrespective of protective colouring. Again, as the 

 variation in the size and shape of the ears and hoofs of 

 the asses and zebras cannot be set down to protective 

 colouring, but must be due to other causes, there is no 

 reason why variations in colour should not be ascribed to 

 similar causes. 



The argument based on the analogy of the horse familv 

 and the tigers, and on that of the natives of the New- 

 World, may be applied to the races of .Africa. Next to the 

 Mediterranean lie the Berbers and their Hamitic congeners, 

 who are regarded as part of the Eurafrican species bv 

 Sergi and his school. But the Berbers are not all of the 

 typical Mediterranean physique. The blonde Berbers of 

 the highlands of Rif in North-West Morocco and of the 

 Atlas have long been well known. In the region lower 

 down and in Western Tunis the occurrence of the xantho- 

 chrous type seems much less frequent, whilst further east 

 it practically disappears. 



It is certain that there was a fair-haired element in 

 Libya long before Rome conquered Carthage or the 

 Vandals had passed into the ken of historv. Callimachus 

 testifies to the existence of blonde Berbers in the third 

 century B.C. We may hold, then, with Sergi and others 

 that the blonde clement in the Berbers is not a survival 

 from invasions of Vandals or Goths, or from Roman 

 colonists, but that they rather owe their fair complexions 

 and light-coloured eyes to the circumstance that thev were 

 cradled in a cool, mountainous region, and not along the 

 low-lying border of the Mediterranean like their dark- 

 coloured relations whose language and customs ■ thev 

 share. ■ ■ '■ ' 



If, then, some of those who speak Hamitic are fair. 

 I^nd have been fair for centuries before Christ, as Sergi 

 himself admits, whilst others are dark, there is no reason 



N'O. 2030, VOL. 78] 



why some of the peoples who spealv Aryan might not l.e 

 darK whilst otliers are blonde. 



The Berbers and their Hamitic congeners shade off on 

 the south into other peoples, but this is not altogether due 

 to interrnarriage, as is commonly held, for it is moie 

 probably to be explained as due in a large part to climatic 

 conditions. The Bantus, who are said to have originated 

 in the Galla country and to have spread thence, are now 

 regarded by the chief authorities as the result of an inter 

 mixture of Hamitcs and Negroes. But, on the grounds 

 I have already stated, it is more rational to regard theni 

 as having been evolved in the area lying between tht 

 Hamitic peoples on the north and the Negroes on the. 

 south, just as we have corresponding types of the horse 

 family in Nubia and Abyssinia and in the equatorial 

 regions. The same hypothesis also explains the e.xistence 

 of those cattle-keeping tribes which lie west of the Nile 

 stretching across Northern Nigeria, who border on the 

 Berbers, but yet differ from them, and border also on the 

 Negroes, but differ from them likewise. South of these 

 tribes come the Negroes, the true children of the equator. 

 The Bantu is able to live in elevated equatorial areas, 

 and he has burst his way down to the subtropical and I 

 temperate parts of South -Africa, where he especially 

 flourishes in the highl.inds, thus showing that his race was 

 originally evolved under similar conditions. The Bantu 

 found in the South the Hottentots, who are especially 

 distinguished by steatopygy, a feature which has led some 

 to identify them with the primitive steatopygous race sup- 

 posed to have once lived in Southern Europe, Malta, and 

 North Africa, and to have left evidence of their character- 

 istic in their representations of themselves. But, granting 

 that such a race once lived in North -Africa and Southern 

 Europe, there is really no more reason for supposing that 

 they and the Hottentots formed one and the same race 

 than there is for assuming that Daniell's quagga, which 

 w-as practically a bay horse, was proximately akin to the 

 bay horse of North -Africa. The occurrence of steatopygy 

 in two areas so wide apart is not due to an ethnical migra- 

 tion, but rather to similar climatic conditions producing 

 similar characteristics. 



-As some anthropologists so commonly explain the origin 

 of races such as the Bantus by intermarriage, it may be 

 well to see whether intermarriage between two races, one 

 of which is an invader, is likely to produce a permanent 

 effect upon the general physique of a whole community. 

 I have shown elsewhere that the many invasions of fair- 

 haired races into the three southern peninsulas of Europe 

 and into the -iEgean islands have left no permanent trace 

 on the population. It is a matter of common knowledge 

 that the offspring of British and native parents in India 

 have a constant tendency to die out. The same undoubtedly 

 holds true for the offspring of British soldiers serving in 

 Egypt, the Soudan, and West -Africa. The native race 

 always reasserts itself. In .America the Spanish blood has 

 died out, or is dying out, everywhere except in the 

 temperate regions of Chile, Quito, and -Argentina, where 

 the descendants of the Spanish settlers thrive in a climate 

 very analogous to that of Spain. In the Southern States 

 of North America the whites cannot flourish, and only 

 just manage to survive. On the other hand, the de- 

 scendants of the Negro slaves imported into Brazil, the 

 West Indies, and the Southern States of North .America 

 thrive and multiply with extraordinary vigour, a fact 

 doubtless due to their race having been evolved under 

 similar conditions in equatorial Africa. 



Even from the evidence already to hand there is high 

 probability that intermarriage can do little to form a new 

 race unless the parents on both sides are of races evolved 

 in similar environments. 



I have already pointed out that although the fair-haired 

 race of Upper Europe has age .after age kept pouring 

 over the Alps into Italy and the other southern peninsulas, 

 and have constantly intermixed WNth the indigenous popula- 

 tions, it is only in the upper part of Italy that the blonde 

 race is able to hold its own. In Italy the xanthochrous 

 race in ancient times, as to-day, had its maximum along 

 the -Alps, and gradually dwindled towards the south until 

 the melanochrous race stood practically alone in the lower 

 part of the peninsula. So too in the Balkan, whilst the 



