VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



129 



introduction of the Cereal plants, the cultivation of the Olive, and they 

 appear to have first domesticated the Bull. Having received the know- 

 ledge of letters and the art of writing from the Phoenicians, belonging to 

 the Aramean race, their first poets became their historians, and phi- 

 losophy, born on the banks of the Nile, was developed by the genius of 

 a Socrates, an Aristotle, or a Cicero. Attached to their native soil, the 

 Pelasgians seldom ventured upon maritime expeditions, except when 

 impelled by views of ambition or self-defence. The mighty empires of 

 Greece and Rome were the results of their genius and enterprise. 



Among their descendants at the present day we may include the mo- 

 dern Greeks, who speak the Romaika language ; the Albanians or Schy- 

 petars, whose dialect exhibits some traces of a Celtic origin ; the Walla- 

 chians or Roumouni, partly blended with the Sclavonians ; and perhaps 

 also the great Celto-Latin nations, whose languages, such as the Italian, 

 Frencli, Spanish, and Provencal, though partly of Celtic origin, are now 

 the principal vernacular languages of the south of Europe. 



2. Germanicus. — Germans. 

 Syn. Raue Gothico-Germaniqite.— Malte-Brun, Geog. Univ. 

 Race Germanique (Borkale). — Bory Ess. Zool. I. 129. 



This is the tallest of all the lapetan races, its medium height being 

 from five feet ten inches to five feet eleven inches, and men are some- 

 times found of six feet and a half in height. Their temperament is 

 usually lymphatic ; the complexion often animated ; the skin of a dazzling 

 whiteness, sometimes approaching to albinism; the eyes usually blue ;' 

 the hair very fine, straight, of a guiden blonde, and becoming grey only 

 at a very advanced age. Their frames are well-proportioned, the tissues 

 soft, and overloaded with fat. The men are robust, brave, accustomed 

 to fatigue, but often passiona'ely fond of fermented liquors. The women 

 are tall, of strong make, fine complexion, and of remarkable embonpoint. 

 " La phipart," says Col. Bory de Saint-Vincent, " rep.indent une odeur 

 qu' il est difficile de qualifier, mais qui rappelle celle de la cliair des ani- 

 maux fraichement depeces ; elles sont rarem^nt nu'iilos .ivant seize a dix 

 sept ans, passent pour avoir certaines voies fort larges, accouchent con- 

 sequemment avec plus de facilite que les femmes de la race Celtique, et 

 n' ont en general que pen de ce qui, chez ces dernieres, garnit en abon- 

 dance certaines parties du corps que doivent cacher les ajustemens." 



Two great brandies of Germans, the Teutonic and Sclavnnian, became 

 distinguished at a remote age. 



a. Teiito.nicus. — Teutonic Races. 



Syn. Var. Teuto.ne.— Bory Ess. Zool. I. 132. 



H. Japeticus d. Germanicus Fisch. Syn. Mam. 2. 



The Teutonic races exhibit the German physical characters already 

 enumerated in their greatest purity. Naturally gay, and of a jovial tem- 

 per, they are fond of good cheer and spiritous liquors. With much 

 frankness and loyalty, they are brave, warlike, capable of executing the 

 most daring enterprises, determined enemies to slavery, and very punc- 

 tilious as to points of honour. To them we owe the practice of duelling ; 

 and their females have always enjoyed the highest degree of influence and 

 consideration. 



Under the name of Cimbri, the Teutonic race penetrated into Scan- 

 dinavia ; and the Suenones, afterwards the Goths, who descended towards 

 the south of Europe, upon the feeble remnants of the Roman empire, 

 have left in Gaul, Italy, and Spain, numerous traces of their invasions. 

 Other tribes under the names of Saxons, Danes, and Normans, ravaged 

 the coasts of the British Isles and Gaul, then inhabited by Celts and 

 Romans, and even extended their incursions to the territories of Italy 

 and Greece, where they formed permanent settlements. Further to the 

 north they became the Borucsi, and under the name of Norwegians and 

 Swedes, extended their domains to Iceland, Norway, and the regions of 

 the Arctic circle. Of their modern languages, we need only particu- 

 larize the Enghsh, the German, the Dutch, the Flemish, the Swensk 

 or Swedish, Dansk or Danish, the Frieslandic, Icelandic, Norse, Dalska, 

 and the innumerable Germanic dialects of central Europe. 



The love of liberty has always been a ruling passion among the Teu- 

 tonic races, and this feeling has extended alike to their political and re- 

 ligious institutions. " Their opinions were not blindly received from 

 priests, nor was their liberty of action fettered by chiefs."^ Nearly all the 



nations of Teutonic origin profess the doctrines of the Reformed Church 

 as being more congenial to the freedom of their opinions. The Anglo- 

 American colonists, and their descendants, preserve undiminished the 

 haughty and unyielding spirit of their Saxon ancestors. 



li. SlaVONICHS. — SCLAVONIAN RaCES. 



Syn. Var. Sclavone Bory Ess. Zool. I. 1.35. 



H. Japeticus e Si.AVONicus. — Fisch. Syn. Mam. 3. 



Race Sclavonne. — Malte-Brun, Geog. Univ. 

 Icon. Blumenb. Dec. Cran. III. t. 22. (Skull of a Lithuanian.) 



The traits and manners of the genuine Sclavon an are still forcibly 

 impressed upon the Muscovite Russians, the Polanders, Lithuanians, 

 and Bohemians. With eyes commonly brown, and the colour of the 

 hair rather dark, their cheek-bones are somewhat prominent, the nose 

 often slightly turned upwards, their eyes piercing, their voice strong 

 and coarse. They are in general of an elevated stature, sometimes 

 middle-sized; their step is masculine, and their temperament usually bilious 

 or lymphatic. Capable of enduring the greatest fatigue, hospitable, and 

 brave, they are, at the same time, ignorant, idle, and cunning. The 

 women do not receive the same high consideration and respect as among 

 the Teutonic races, and they have still preserved that habit of sitting with 

 crossed legs, indicative of an Asiatic origin. Indeed, to use the words of 

 Gibbon, "they seem to unite the manners of tlie Asiatic barbarians with 

 the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabitants of Europe." 3 



Some of their tribes, such as the Cossacks, maintain at the present 

 day the same habits of plunder as the Scythians their neighbours, 

 with whom they are daily becoming more and more blended. For a 

 long time the wandering Bohemians of Western Em-ope have preserved 

 the predatory habits as well as the language of their Sclavonian ances- 

 tors. A branch of the same race, emigrating into the regions occupied 

 almost exclusively by the Teutonic tribes, has established itself on the 

 Elbe, where it still maintains unaltered the characteristics of the genuine 

 Sclavonian, in the little state of Bohemia. 



The two great branches of Germans, with a few tribes of genuine 

 Scythians, though really of Oriental origin, are celebrated in tlie history of 

 the middle ages as the Northern nations, and as such, became the scourge 

 of tile Roman Empire. Scandinavia, so long censured as the great 

 " Northern hive,"* lias been fully " vindicated" of the ch.arge bj- a modern 

 writer. 



3. I.-kDO-PERsiCLS. — Indo-Persians. 



Les anciens Perses et les Indiens Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 82. 



A certain degree of resemblance in the physical traits of the Persians 

 and Indians, the vicinity of their geographical stations, and, above all, the 

 remarkable affinity, which the Sanscrit and the Zend bear to each other, 

 and to the Greek, the Latin, the Teutonic, the Gothic, and the Ice- 

 landic, both in their roots and inflexions,'' have led us to place the Hin- 

 doos and Medo- Persians as subordinate branches of the lapetan races. 



«. Indicus Hindoo Races. 



Syn. H. Indicds — Fisch. Syn. Mam. .3 Bory Ess. Zool. I. 225. 



Indoues Desmoul. Tab. — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 81. 



Icon. Blumenb. Dec. Cran. VI. bZ. (Skull of a young Bengalese Indian.) 



The Hindoos, or descendants of the ancient Indians,' though now 

 mingled with many foreign races, occupy the finest and most exten- 

 sive regions of the vast peninsula extending to the south of the Himalayan 

 mountains. In respect to stature, they are very considerably below the 

 average, being about five feet six inches. The traits of their physiognomy 

 most forcibly resemble those of the other lapetans, and we should almost 

 be led to place them in the same subdivision as the Germans, were it not for 

 their colour, which is a very dark yellow, tending towards a bronze, and 

 always with a slight ohve tinge. The nose is aquiline, and never flat ; 

 the mouth of middle size, with the teeth placed vertically in the gum; the 

 lips thin and coloured ; the chin round, and usually marked with a slight 

 dimple ; while the skin betrays, by its sudden paleness, the emotions of the 

 individual. The eyes are large and round, with a yellowish cornea; the 

 eye-lashes very long ; the eye-brows narrow and arched ; the hair straight, 

 long, and very black ; the ears well made, and of medium length ; the 

 beard scanty. Their legs and feet are extremely elegant, especially among 

 the women. The latter aie very short in the body, and elongated in the 



^ Tacitus (De Moribus Germanorum, Sec. 4.) notices the strong family likeness of the Ancient Germans. 



* Sir James Mackintosh's History of England, vol. 1, c. 1, in Dr Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia. 

 3 Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. 42. 



* The " Officina Gentium," and *' Vagina Nationum" of Jornandes, c. 4. The opinion that the Goths were of Scandinavian origin has been too hastily adopted by 

 Gibbon and Montesquieu. 



^ Adelung's Mithridates, and Klaproth's Asia Polyglotta, passim. Also, Paul de St Bartholome Dissert, de Antiq. et Affin. Linguarum Zend., Sanscr., et German 

 (fide Malte-Brun). 



' M. Broc arranges the Hindoos, with great impropriety, among the Mongolians, with whom they have little affinity, excepting in colour. 

 33 



