128 



ORDER BIMANA— GENUS HOMO. 



pleasing expression of countenance. The Men are likewise very hand- 

 some, have good abilities, and might excel in the sciences and useful arts, 

 did not a defective education render them very ignorant and vicious.' 

 There is perhaps no country where libertinism and dissipation prevail to 

 a greater extent than in Georgia. The skull of a Georgian female, who 

 died at Moscow, after having been taken by the Russians in one of their 

 wars with Turkej', is figured by Blumenbach in his Decades of Skulls, 

 and would strike the most careless observer by the noble expansion of 

 its frontal region, and the general symmetry and elegance of its proportions. 

 The Imeritians speak a Georgian dialect. 



In Mingrelia, the women are equally beautiful, but perfidious. When 

 love or hatred happens to be the ruling passion, a Mingrelian female is 

 equal to any action, however atrocious. The men are as remarkable for 

 their immorahty, and theft and assassination are common occurrences. 

 They exchange wives without the slightest scruple, and are not particular 

 as to the degrees of their consanguinity to spouses, which are commonly 

 two or three in number, or to concubines, in general as numerous as 

 their means will allow. Husbands have here but httle jealousy, and 

 a gallant Lothario, when convicted, is compelled to atone for his offence, 

 according to Chardin, by paying a pig to the injured husband ; and it is 

 not uncommon, he adds, for the pig to be eaten together by the three 

 parties interested in the affair. Large families are anxiously desired in 

 this country, for the sordid purpose of selling the miserable progeny as 

 slaves. The master disposes of his servants, the brother of his sister, and 

 the father of his children, without the slightest compunction. On this 

 account slaves are very cheap. Their prices average as follows : — 



Handsome girls, aged from 13 to 18 years 20 crowns. 



Men from 23 to 40 years of age 15 ... 



Married women 12 



Men above 40 years of age 8 to 10 



Children 3 or 4 



The physiognomy of the Abassians is very remarkable, — an oval face, 

 a head very much compressed on the sides, a short chin, large nose, and 

 hair of a deep chestnut colour, form its usual traits. 



The Circassian nobles speak a language peculiar to themselves, and dif- 

 ferent from the vernacular language of their country. They are of a robust 

 make, with a small foot, and strong wrist. The females are delicate, pleas- 

 ing, and graceful in their forms ; their skins white, with black or brown hair. 

 It is chiefly the remarkable cleanliness of their persons which renders 

 them so attractive to Europeans, for they are often surpassed in regularity 

 of form and features by some of the neighbouring tribes. The Lesghian 

 women, in particular, rival them in respect to personal attractions, as well 

 as in courage. The dialects of the latter tribes are very numerous, and 

 have some affinity to the language spoken by the inhabitants of Finland. 

 To this sketch of the more important tribes, belonging to the Proper 

 Caucasian races, we may add, that the medium height of the men is about 

 5 feet 8 inches, their temperament usually sanguineous and bilious.^ Their 

 hair is most commonly black, fine, shining, and very much curled ; the 

 nose straight ; the shape of the face perfectly oval, and the facial angle vary- 

 ing from 85° to 90°. The women are occasionally subject to an excessive 

 rotundity of form. Their mouth is small, their bust most graceful, and 

 skin perfectly white. Their eyebrows, excessively narrow, have been com- 

 pared to the gently-curved filaments of silk. Such are the peculiarities 

 of the Caucasian females, whose beauty is so celebrated in the East. They 

 serve to ornament the harems of the Mahometans from the centre of Asia 

 to the kingdom of Morocco. 3 



(B.) HOMO lAPETICUS.— lAPETANS. 



Si/n, Le Rameau Indien, Germain, et Pelasgique Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 



81 Less. Mam. 24 (in part). 



The Indian, German, and Pelasgian branch is much more widely 

 distributed than the remainder, and became subdivided at an earlier 

 age. We are still able, however, to recognise innumerable affinities 

 among its four principal languages, — the Sanscrit, at present the 

 sacred language of the Hindoos, and the parent of most of the dia- 

 lects of Hindoostan ; the ancient language of the Pelasgi, the com- 

 mon mother of the Greek, the Latin, and several others now extinct, 

 also of all our languages in the South of Europe ; the Gothic, Teu- 

 tonic, or Tudesque, from which are derived the languages of the 

 North and North-west of Europe, such as the German, the Dutch, 

 the English, the Danish, the Swedish, and their dialects ; finally, the 

 languages called the Sclavonian, from which are derived the Russian, 



the Polish, the Bohemian, the Wend, and other dialects of the North- 

 East of Europe. 



The nations of this powerful and important branch of the Cau- 

 casian race have raised philosophy, the sciences, and the arts, to 

 their present advanced state, and for more than thirty centuries have 

 been the depositors and guardians of human knowledge. 



The ancient Persians have the same origin as the Hindoos, and 

 their descendants at the present day bear the most striking marks 

 of their affinity with the nations of Europe. 



All these nations may be termed Inpetans, not from any fancied descent 

 from .Taphet, son of Noah, but rather from lapetus, the father of Pro- 

 metheus, whose daring exploits are celebrated in the legendary history o 

 remote antiquity. 



Autlax lapeti genus, 

 Ignem fraude mala gentibus intuHt. 



Hor. lib. I. Od. 3. 



This illustrious branch of the Human Race would be justly entitled, 

 from moral and political considerations alone, to occupy the first place 

 in our classification. Some of its subdivisions emulate the Proper 

 Caucasians in personal beauty, and the facial angle approaches nearly 

 to 90°. As in them the face is oval, the forehead open, the nose straight, 

 or nearly so ; the eye-brows more or less arched ; the eye-lashes of 

 medium length ; the mouth middle-sized ; the beard long ; and the 

 ears closely applied to the head. Their hair, generally fine, and even 

 silky, varies from black and deep chestiuit to a blonde, approaching to 

 white. A complexion more or less vivid reheves the excessive paleness 

 of the face, and betrays the passions of the moment by the changes of its 

 colour. This ruddiness may, on the one hand, become degenerate in 

 individuals, who are etiolated by confinement, or, on the other, it may 

 merge into a deep brown when exposed to the excessive heats of a tropi- 

 cal sun. In ever}' part of the globe, the skin of the lapetans preserves 

 its primitive whiteness, when protected from the direct solar rays. 



With the exception of the Indo-Persians, all the nations of this sub- 

 variety are essentially monogamous. Polytheism was their primitive re- 

 ligion, with some vague notions regarding the immortality of the soul. 

 Christianity and its numerous modifications are now professed by nearly all 

 of them excepting the Indo-Persians, who conform themselves to other 

 creeds more congenial to the prejudices of a degraded people. 



Industrious, patriotic, and brave, with a taste for the Sciences, the 

 Fine and Useful Arts — in a word, endowed with talents of the highest 

 order, the lapetan races have produced, without exception, all those 

 great geniuses who have astonished and enlightened the world. 



\. Pelagius. — Pelasgians. 



Syn. Homo Japeticus b. Pelagius — Fisch. Syn. Mam. 2. 



Les Pelages Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 81. 



Race Pelage (Meridionale). — Bory Ess. Zool. I. 114. 



Races Greques et Pelagisues (in part) Malte-Brun, Geog. Unir. 



Etrusco-Pelasge Desmoul. Tab. Hum. 



Icon. Blunienb. Dec. Cran. IV. t. 32. (Skull of a Roman Praetorian 

 Soldier) : VI. t. 31. (Skull of an ancient Greek). 



From the earliest ages, the Pelasgi were divided into two distinct 

 branches, the Proper Pelasgians and the Etruscans. Among the former 

 were included the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Trojans, Thracians, II- 

 lyrians, and the aborigines of Greece. Among the latter we find the 

 native Italian nations. 



Ne.xt to the Proper Caucasians in the beauty of their features, we may 

 observe their models at the present day in the statues of the Jupiter Olym- 

 pus, the Apollo Belviderc, and the Venus de Medicis. The characters are 

 the following; medium height about five feet seven inches; the hair fine, 

 brown or chestnut, rarely blonde, and often of surprising length. The 

 foot is larger and the leg thicker at its base than agrees with our ideas of 

 beauty ; the nose is perfectly straight, and in the same line with the fore- 

 head, without the slightest depression at the point of junction. The 

 eyes, remarkable for their size, have ol'ten been compared to those of an 

 Ox (/3oSff;j.) Their temperament is most commonly sanguineous and 

 bilious. 



Though nearly extinct, or lost among their numerous alliances with 

 the neighbouring races, the traits of the pure Pelasgian race may still 

 be found in a few Roman and Grecian Ladies. They have, however, en- 

 tirely disappeared among the great mass of the people who now inhabit 

 the jEga^an Archipelago, Turkey in Europe, Italy, and Sicily, — regions 

 once the exclusive abodes of this interesting race. To them we owe the 



» Buff. Hist. Nat.— Histoire Naturelle generale et particuliere, Paris, 1750, tome III. p. 433, 434. 



2 Bory Ess. Zool. I. 1)0. 



3 Bory Ess. Zool.— Also, Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. 



Par M. De Buffon. 



