142 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



individuals among a thousand. 1 Similar feats are related of 

 the Negroes in the Colonies, especially on the occasions of the 

 wars with the Maroons ; yet these performances, in which it is 

 questionable whether sight or smell play the chief part, are, 

 according to what has been stated above, not so extraordinary 

 that they must be attributed to a peculiar gift, nor do they 

 occur in Africa more frequently than elsewhere. B. Edwards 3 

 asserts,that the smell and taste of the Negro are dull, but sight 

 and hearing acute. Labat 3 says, on the other hand, that 

 Negroes detect snakes by smell. That their other senses are 

 very acute is confirmed by Dallas. 4 The children of the natives 

 of Bonny are said to remain blind for ten days after birth. 5 

 That the ear is well developed is proved by his love for music, 

 united to a good perception of rhythm and time ; his capacity 

 for the perception of melody is said to be less. 6 The music of 

 the Negroes is certainly often not much more than a horrid 

 noise : still a musical ear cannot be denied to them, as the flute 

 and horn music in Ashantee, the music of the Mandingoes, 

 especially in Kuranko, also that in Benin and Dahomey, is 

 described as agreeable and harmonious. In Dahomey they un- 

 derstand how to employ thirds, fifths, and the full chord in mu- 

 sic. 7 We must also bear in mind, that a great portion of the 

 popular music in the United States comes from the Negroes, 8 

 and that slaves hire themselves of their masters to gain 

 money as musicians. Negro melodies are inserted in Bush. 9 

 If the Maroon Negroes in Jamaica have a particular horn- sig- 

 nal for calling any individual, 10 there is a still more extended 

 use made of musical signals on the Cameroons. Information 



1 Eussegger, " Eeise," ii, pp. 2, 151. 



2 " Proceedings of the Governor of Jamaica in regard to the Maroon 

 Negroes," p. 39, 1796. 



3 " Voy. aux lies de i'Amerique," ii, p. 35. 



4 " Gesch. der Maronen-Neger auf Jamaica," p. 149, 1805. 



5 Froschel, in " Monatsb. der Ges. f. Erdk. N. Folge," vi, p. 108. 



6 Hamilton Smith, " Nat. hist, of the hum. spec.," 1848. 



- 7 Bowdich, " Mission nach Aschanti," 1820 ; Dupuy, ' ' Journal of resid. in 

 Ashantee," p. 106, 1824 ; Hecquard, " E. an. d. k. v. West. Afr.," p. 121, 1854 ; 

 Laing, " Voy. dans le Timmani, Kouranko," p. 187, 1826 ; Bosnian, " Viaggio 

 in Guinea," iii, p. 278, Ven. 1752; Dalzel, "Gesch. v. Dahomey," p. 34, 1799. 



Pickering, " The races of man," p. 185, 1849. 



" Wanderungen zw. Hudson u. Mississ.," i, p. 254. 



10 Dallas, Inc. cit, 



