52 ANATOMICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND 



racteristics may be demanded from the length of the hair, 

 from its transverse section, the figure of which may vary 

 considerably, from its flexibility or its quantity ; in fact, even 

 from its manner of being placed in the head, the arrangement 

 of which upon the scalp has never been properly studied, and 

 which may, perhaps, vary with the different races of mankind. 

 In fact, human hairs, like that of many mammalia, are not 

 placed at equal distances the one from the other ; they approach 

 each other in little groups. This is especially seen in the nape 

 of the neck, and among the Negro race much more so than 

 among the Europeans. 



This fact, joined to the irregularly prismatic form of the hair 

 in the Negro, is doubtless the origin of the following peculia- 

 rity : when the head of a Negro has been shaved, and the hair 

 begins to grow afresh, one is especially struck with its strange 

 appearance. It is arranged in little tufts about the size of a 

 pea, so that the head, it has been remarked,* resembles no- 

 thing more closely than an old worn-out brush. 



This peculiarity is special to the Negro, and is not found in 

 the north-east of Africa, where the neighbouring population 

 have woolly hair. Among the enumeration of the numberless 

 perfections which a dogmatic Hindu, requires from Buddha, 

 and which Qakhya-Mouni possessed, it is said, ' ' The hair of 

 Buddha shoots forth in little ringlets. "f It is impossible to 

 describe better what happens with the Negro. All this Hin- 

 doo tradition is, besides, a veritable enigma for the anthropo- 

 logist. Why is Buddha depicted with the palms of the hands 

 descending to the knees ?J Why is the mendicant son of a 

 king, born on the banks 'of the Ganges, always represented 

 with the features or characteristics of a Negro, with black 

 skin, and crisped hair ? Nevertheless, Qakhya-Mouni did not 

 belong to these inferior varieties of the human race, of whose 

 existence in the Indian Peninsula we have already spoken ; in 

 that case, he would have been unfit to formulate any doctrine, 

 either moral or philosophic. 



* See Earl, quoted by Crawford, On the Negro Race, etc. (British Associa- 

 tion, 1852, p. 86.) 



f Compare Bornouf, Le Lotus de la bonne loi, p. 562. 

 Compare, idem, ibidem, p. 569. 



