272 THE AFRICANS. 



Timbuctoo, Caillie', who first returned from it, Denham, 

 Clapperton, Lander, and Barth. 



The original inhabitants of Africa were the Hotten- 

 tots or Bushmen, a dwarfish race who have rest) ess, 

 rambling, ape-like eyes, a click in their speech, and 

 bodies which are the wonder of anatomists. They are 

 now found only on the South African platform, or 

 perhaps here and there on the platform of the Congo. 

 They have been driven southward by the negroes, as the 

 Esquimaux in America were driven north by the Bed 

 Indians, and the Finns in Europe by the Celtic tribes, 

 while the negroes themselves have yielded in some 

 parts of Africa to Asiatic tribes, as the Celts in Gaul 

 and Britain yielded to the Germans. 



These negroes are sometimes of so deep a brown, 

 that the skin appears to be quite black ; some- 

 times their skin is as light as a mulatto's : the aver- 

 age tint is a rich deep bronze. Their eyes are dark, 

 though blue eyes are occasionally seen ; their hair is 

 black, though sometimes of a rusty red, and is always 

 of a woolly texture. To this rule there are no ex- 

 ceptions ; it is the one constant character, the one in- 

 fallible sign by which the race may be detected. 

 Their lips are not invariably thick ; their noses are 

 frequently well formed. In physical appearance they 

 differ widely from one another. The inhabitants of 

 the swamps, the dark forests, and the mountains, are 

 fiat-nosed, long-armed, thin-calved, with mouths like 

 muzzles, broad splay feet, and projecting heels. It 

 was for the most part from this class that the American 

 slave markets were supplied ; the negroes of the States 

 and the West Indies represent the African in the same 

 manner as the people of the Pontine marshes represent 

 the inhabitants of Italy. The negroes of South Africa 



