THE HUMAN SPECIES. 887 



The women of Circassia are beautiful, probably the most 

 beautiful, in features and complexion, of the whole earth. 

 They have, often, light hair and blue eyes, tall, graceful, and 

 erect forms, with straight or slightly aquiline noses, well formed 

 lips, and beautiful teeth ; while the men justly pride themselves 

 on their broad shoulders, slender waists, expressive features, 

 stalwart height, and martial gait. Indeed, this inherent superi- 

 ority of form is so dominant, that the unceasing practice which 

 the Osmanli Turks have of purchasing female slaves of this 

 race, has caused them to have become, from the most ill-shaped 

 and wretched-looking of barbarian Mongolcs, a people that 

 can now dispute the palm of beauty with the handsomest of 

 Europe. 



For, and with these nations, commencing in Central Asia, 

 Kaufirs, Affghans, Georgians, Circassians, Cossacks, tribes of 

 Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and the Gothic people of the north, 

 on to the west of Europe, there are ever sympathetic feelings, 

 an enduring interest, independent of religious motives, political 

 considerations, cr commercial purposes. In England, espec- 

 ially, we feel for them more than curiosity, travel among 

 them, overlook or palliate their barbarism ; nay, so strong and 

 deep is the inclination, that among British captives made dur- 

 ing the disastrous winter months in Cabul, most spoke highly 

 of the urbanity they had experienced ; several of the softer sex 

 felt unwilling to be released ; and some, it is said, actually 

 escaped from those who were to restore them to their homes. 

 Nothing but original consanguinity could reproduce such effects. 

 To that cause alone we must ascribe the long duration of a 

 Macedonian monarchy subsisting for so many generations 

 among the most warlike people in existence ; and, in more 

 modern times, that the fierce bigotry of Islamism has not oblit- 

 erated that tendency ; for, beyond this line of consanguinity, 

 the Tahtar race, now in possession of Thibet and Bokhara, or 

 the Arab on the south, never excite similar affections, nor feel 

 themselves yearning for approximation. 



