238 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



or is a gross scarecrow, set up under a canopy of straw. The 

 Negro has shown always a great propensity to incantation and 

 sorcery; has recourse to protective amulets, which he calls 

 Grisgris ; and positive impostures are both believed in and 

 practised by the male part, without an attempt at reflection; 

 although, in other respects, he can be a mimic — and docs not 

 want craft in the mysteries of huckstering, or of small dealing, 

 which all classes are inclined to. These propensities can be 

 traced to the extent of a kind of caravan trade, and the fre- 

 quentation of sacred, or, at least, neutral marts, scalas, or ven- 

 tas, where dealers assemble at stated periods within the precincts 

 of Nigritia, for elsewhere the lawless ferocity of slave-making 

 Caucasians has rendered the practice impossible to the Negro 

 race. All these opinions and customs are, however, perfectly 

 in harmony with the oriental development of the woolly-haired 

 tribes; with their primaeval passage even through Egypt and 

 the desert, which most recent discovery shows to be still, in 

 parts, not entirely barren ; although, as Dr. Hoskins has proved, 

 increasingly desolate. 



The Horafouras, or Alforees of the Australasian islands, 

 are, we believe, the first and most ancient abnormal race of 

 Papuan origin, tinged sufficiently with Malay blood to possess 

 the energy and malignant ferocity of that people ; while they 

 have the color and the great mop-formed hair, which result 

 from an interunion thus formed, and, having greater mental 

 development, their social progress is more advanced. They 

 possessed already, in remote antiquity, the means of marine 

 venture, which causes their descendants to be found singly, or 

 partially mixed with Caucasian blood, on most of the South 

 Sea islands. 



They appear to have been the leaders of that generally pre- 

 vailing fashion among those tribes, of tattooing the skin not 

 only of the face, but nearly of every part of the body; distinctly 

 marking, by means of raised lines and figures, the family clan 

 of every individual so adorned. 



