INHABITANTS. 17 



ethnologists have supposed that all the " Children of Ham," from the Berbers to 

 the Hottentots, are descended from one original stock, and that their diverging 

 types are due to gradual adaptation to different environments. But such a 

 hypothesis is unsupported by any proof, and the observer is struck especially by 

 the ethnical contrasts, whether fundamental or derived, which are presented by 

 the various African populations, as he advances from north to south. Even 

 within the strictly I^legro division the anatomy, muscular system, physiognomy, 

 colour, and speech offer as great a diversity of forms as is found amongst the white 

 peoples of Europe or the yellow Asiatics. At the same time the classifications 

 hitherto proposed by anthropologists, and based on physical resemblances or 

 linguistic affinities, are of a purely conventional or provisional character. Numer- 

 ous communities, of which little is known beyond their name, are grouped now in 

 one, now in another division. We seem at times to be lost in the maze of names 

 of tribes and races collected by travellers in the various regions of Africa, and the 

 chaos is often intensified by the reckless use of these names, the same term being 

 applied in one place to two distinct peoples, while in another the same group is 

 indicated on the maps by several different appellations. 



The Mediterranean seaboard differs from the rest of the continent as much in 

 its inhabitants as it does in its geological history, its physical features, its animal 

 and vegetable species. The bidk of the Mauritanian population consists of the 

 so-called Berbers (Imazighen, Imohagh), who apj)roach the European type more 

 closely than the other African races. Amongst them are met several tribes in 

 which blue eyes and fair or light chestnut hair are so common that they have 

 often been wrongly regarded as of European descent. These Berber peoples seem 

 to be allied to the ancient Egyptians. The whole of North Africa and Southern 

 Europe may have even been peopled from one ethnical source in prehistoric times, 

 the populations, like the animal and vegetable species, thus radiating from a 

 common centre. The oases and upland valleys in the Sahara liave also been 

 occupied by the Berbers, some of whose tribes, designated by the name of 

 " Moors," dwell even south of the desert along the right bank of the Senegal. 



Some of the Berber communities, such as the Imohaghs or Tuaregs of 

 Ahaggar, and the Imazighen or Kabyles, that is, " Tribes," and especially those 

 of Morocco, appear to be of pure stock. But in the plains, and still more in the 

 towns, endless crossings have modified the type in a thousand ways, and given rise 

 to half-caste populations bearing a great variety of names. As in Europe 

 ** Moorish" blood still flows in the veins of Andalusians, Murcians, Valentians, 

 and Algarves, so in Africa Phœnicians, Romans, Vandals, Spaniards, Provencals, 

 Italians, Greeks, and Frenchmen have left some traces of their presence, either as 

 slaves or conquerors. 



On the other hand, the dark aborigines of the Sahara and the Negroes 

 imported from the south into every part of Barbary have become diversely inter- 

 mingled with the Berber tribes, while fresh elements have been introduced from 

 the east by the Arabs. Under this term " Arab " were moreover comprised 

 Syrians and Easterns of all kinds, and it has even been extended to a large part of 



2— AF. 



