VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



133 



Wallachia, Moldavia, Hungary, and Transylvania. " They have wandered through the world, in every region, and among every people ihey 

 have continued equally unchanged by the lapse of time, the variation of climate, and the force of example. In the neighbourhood of civilized Hfe, 

 thev continue barbarous, and near cities and settled inhabitants, they live in tents and holes in the earth, or wander from place to place like fugitives 

 or vagabonds." The skull of a genuine Gypsy is figured in Blumenb. Dec. Cran. II. II. 



Si/n. 



II. MONGOLIANS. 



Race Mongoliqi/e. — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 82. — Desm. Main. 47. 



La Mongole (in part). — Dum. Zool. .4nal. 7. 



H. ScvTHicus (in part). — Fisch. Syn. Mam. 4. 



Race Jaune, ou Ouvatre. — Virey, Hist. Nat. du G. Hum. I. 457. 



Race Jadne, ou Mongolienne (in part). — Less. Mam. 23. 



Homo Sapiens, vadius, var. /3. — Lui. Gmel. L 2.^ Tat.aki-s. ;3 



Erxl. ]. — VAK. MONGOLICA, Blumenb. Hand, et Abbild. 



The Mongolians may be recognised by their prominent cheek- 

 bones, a flat face, narrow and oblique eyes, straight and black hair, 

 a scanty beard [if we except the Ainoos, or hairy-men of the Kurile 

 Islands], and an olive complexion. They have formed empires in 

 China and .Japan, and sometimes extended their conquests beyond 

 the Great Desert; but their civilization has always remained sta- 

 tionary. 



The geographical station of the Mongolian races commences at 

 the east of the Tartar branch of the Caucasians, and extends to the 

 Pacific Ocean. Some of their branches, still nomadic, roam over 

 the Great Desert, under the names of Calmucks or Kalkas. Three 

 times their ancestors, under Attila, Chingis, and Timoorlane, spread 

 far and wide the terror of their name. The Chinese appear to 

 have been civilized at an earlier period than any other of these 

 races, and indeed we may almost say, than any nation in the world. 

 The Mantchoos, forming a third branch, have recently conquered 

 China, which they still continue to govern. The Japanese, the 

 Coreans, and nearly all the hordes which extend to the north-east of 

 Siberia, under the dominion of the Russians, may be referred to 

 this division, as well as the natives of the Marianne Islands, the 

 Carolinas, and the adjacent islands of that .\rchipelago. If we 

 except some of the Chinese literati, the Mongolian nations are ge- 

 nerally devoted to the different sects of Buddhism, or the religion 

 oP Fo. 



The origin of these races appears [according to the conjectures 

 of some writers] to have been in the mountains of Altai, in the 

 same manner as our White races have been assigned to the Cauca- 

 sian mountains ; but it has not been found possible to follow out 

 with equal ease the [supposed] affiliation of their several branches. 

 The history of these nomadic races is as fugitive as their settle- 

 ments ; and tlie records of the Chinese, confined within the limits 

 of their empire, give but a few short and unconnected notices of the 

 neighbouring nations. 



The affinities of their languages are also too little known to guide 

 us through the labyrinth. The dialects used to the north of the pen- 

 insula beyond the Ganges, as well as in Thibet, bear some relations 

 to the Chinese language, at least in their nature, being in some re- 

 spects monosyllabic, while the nations who speak them are not 

 without some traits of personal resemblance to the other Mon- 

 golians. 



A. HOMO CALMUCCUS.— CALMUCKS, & MONGOLIANS 

 PROPER. 



Syn. Les Calmouques Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 83. 



Icon. Ijlumenb. Dec. Cran. L t. 5. (Skull of a Calmuck); also II. t. 14. 



The languages of the Calmucks or Kalkas, the true Mongolians, and 

 the Booriaits of Lake BaiKal, bear a considerable degree of resemblance 

 to each other, but are wholly distinct from those of the Tartar races, in 

 their vocabularies as well as in the forms of their syntax.' One import- 

 ant circumstance proves them to be allied in some deirree to the dialects 

 of China and Thibet, being the frequent recurrence of monosyllabic words. 

 The Calmuck language is highly poetical, abounding in romances and 

 epic compositions of considerable beauty. 



The Calmuck is of a middle stature, with the internal angles of the eye 



directed downwards towards the nose, the eye-brows black and narrow, the 

 interior ends of the arches low, the nose flat and broad at the point, the 

 cheek-bones prominent, the head and face verj' round. Their complexion 

 is a biownish-yellow, diliering in intensity according to the sexes and in- 

 dividuals. The acuteness of their senses is much celebrated, but not 

 more so than their ugliness, which is described by travellers as being 

 something terrible. The men shave their heads, with the exception of 

 a small tuft, which is allowed to grow sufi5ciently long to form a lock of 

 considerable length on either side of the face. Tiie women allow their 

 hair to hang in two braids over the shoulders, but without shaving any 

 part of the head. 



The proper Mongolians have thick lips, short chins, scanty beards, 

 large and prominent ears, flat noses, and oblique eyes, nearly resembling 

 those of the true Calmucks. Their language is but little known. Poly- 

 gamy, though permitted by law, is among them, as in other places, rather 

 uncommon. The religion of all these benighted tribes is that of the Dalai 

 Lama, in which the people are held under the entire subjection of priests 

 and jugglers. 



B. HO.MO SINICUS CHINESE. 



Syn. Les Chinois. — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 83. 



H. ScviHicus '3. SiNic::s Fisch. Syn Mam. 5. 



H. SiNicus.— Bury, Ess. Zool. I. 249. 



IxDO-SiNiQUE. — Desmoul. Tab. 

 Icvn. Blumt-nb. Dec. Cran III. t 23 V. t. 44. (Skulls of Chinese). 



Chi.n'ESE.. — Grift'.^ .•inim. King. (Head ofa fur-dealer). 



Under the general term Chinese we shall include the inhabitants of 

 China Proper, Corea, Tonquin, Thibet, Cochin-China, Siam, and the 

 natives of the Birmese Empire. The Japanese, also, may probably be 

 referred to this head, until a more minute acquaintance with their lan- 

 guage and history shall fully establish thejr claim to a distinct subdivi- 

 sion. 



Of these nations, the Birmese and Siamese are the tallest, being com- 

 monly from five feet six inches to about five feet nine inches in height. 

 Thi'v strikingly exhibit the ordinary features common to all the Mongo- 

 lian races, such as prominent cheek-bones, with oblique and narrow eyes; 

 they also have scanty beards. Their ears are very broad, and project 

 outwards, so as to be entirely visible in front. On the beautiful porce- 

 lain wares of China and Japan, their physical traits are often depicted 

 with precision. The intensity of their complexions varies in the several 

 races, being darker among the Cochin-Chinese and Siamese, and brown- 

 olive among the Tonquinese. Their hair, which has nearly the coarse- 

 ness of horse-hair, grows within an inch of the eyebrows. The Chinese 

 ladies of rank, confined to their abodes by the barbarous treatment which 

 their feet undergo in early youth, as well as by the forms of etiquette, 

 often exhibit an etiolated appearance corresponding to that of our Euro- 

 pean ladies ; yet there is always something about them, to use the words 

 of M. Bory, which forcibly recalls the idea of suet. In general, the 

 Chinese races have an oily skin, a yellowish-green complexion, passing 

 towards a brown, according to climate, and even becoming dark below the 

 '20th parallel of north latitude, from their alliances with the Malay races. 

 It is however remarkable, that the most northern Chinese have the dark- 

 est complexions of the whole. 



The greater number of the races of Chinese descent have the utmost 

 horror of intermarrying with strangers, whom indeed they generally re- 

 gard with aversion. To preserve themselves from the aggressions of fo- 

 reigners, they constructed their celebrated wall, which serves to protect 

 the northern frontier of their empire. Agriculture forms their chief 



' Bergmann, Noraadische Streifereinen unter den Kalmuken, I. p. 125. (Fide Malte-Brun). 

 ' Griff. Anim. Kino — The Animal Kingdom. By Edward Griffith, and others. London. 1827. 

 34 



