326 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAET II. 



children (Bruce) . Cruel punishments by mutilation are com- 

 mon, the mode of warfare is barbarous, and the victor cuts off 

 the genitals from the conquered, without killing him, to carry 

 them off as trophies. 1 Diseases are ascribed to witchcraft and 

 possession, and are healed by exorcism. 2 The Guanches, 

 though a half-civilized people, made human sacrifices in the six- 

 teenth century. In some of their islands (Lancerote and For- 

 taventura) there existed a kind of polyandry, which permitted 

 a woman to have three husbands, whilst monogamy prevailed in 

 the other islands. They seem not less distinguished by their 

 indolence, for, though islanders, they have never built ships or 

 boats. 3 The inhabitants of the island Sokotra, now Moham- 

 medans, formerly Jacobite Christians, belong to the Arabian 

 stock. They possess scarcely a boat fit for the coasting 

 trade, denoting, as Guillain justly observes, 4 a mental ob- 

 tuseness and apathy not met with in the most isolated is- 

 lands of Polynesia; and yet this condition has continued for 

 centuries. De Barras 5 says of them, that they live in caves 

 and ravines, and, like most of the Abyssinians, with whom he 

 classifies them, are clothed in undressed skins. The Arabs in 

 Nubia never think of bodily efforts so long as they have anything 

 to subsist upon, and prefer to live in misery than labour to im- 

 prove their condition. 6 Thieving and ingratitude form the chief 

 features in the character of the Arabs of the north-east coast 

 of Africa. 7 The Egyptians are equally deficient in the power to 

 execute a work by themselves ; yet they are fit for all kinds of 

 work, but they must be driven to it by the stick ; they can 

 do everything under the superintendence of those they fear. 

 If, then, in the presence of these facts, we hear the indolence 

 of the Negroes spoken of as a peculiarity of the race, which 

 can only be overcome by the whip, we oppose to it the instance 



1 Bruce, "Eeise zum Entd. d. Quellen des Nil," iii, 284, 1790; Eochet 

 d'Hericourt, " Seconde Voyage," p. 187, 1846 ; Brehm, iii, p. 234. 



2 Johnston, loc. cit., ii, p. 328 ; Salt, " Voyage to Abyssinia," p. 422, 1814 ; 

 Harris, " Highlands of Ethiopia," ii, pp. 157, 190, 2nd edit., 1844. 



3 Berthelot, in " Mem. de la Soc. Ethnol.," i, pp. 121, 155, 185, 210. 



4 " Documents sur 1'hist.la geog. et le comm.de 1'Afr.or.," ii, pp. 1, 360, 1856. 



5 " Geschichte der Entdeck. der Portugiesen," ii, p. 12 ; iii, p. 112, 1821. 



6 Hoskins, " Travels in Ethiopia," p. 259, 1835. 



7 Werne, " Feldzug v. Sennaar nach Taka," pp. 121, 126, 1851. 



