48 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



complexion of the inhabitants varies from brown to nearly black. Their figure is 

 short and robust, and in physiognomy they resemble the Chinese, yet are much 

 uglier. They profess the religion of Budha. Their literature is, for the most part, 

 metrical, consisting of songs and romances ; a fact which corresponds with their 

 moral character, for they are represented to be a lively, inquisitive race, volatile, 

 impatient and irascible. They are greatly inferior to the Chinese, and have made 

 but little progress in the useful arts.^ Besides the Burmese, the kingdom of Ava 

 contains, especially towards the north, many wild tribes of people who have no 

 seeming affinity with the dominant population, and who are said not even to be 

 Budhists, and to speak dialects and perhaps languages of their own.f 



The Aracanese are much the most uncultivated and barbarous people of this 

 family. They are accustomed to flatten the heads of their children by means of 

 a plate of lead, applied soon after birth, and they slit and distend their ears to a 

 frightful degree. 



The Siamese present strong analogies to the Burmans. The following 

 graphic description, from the pen of my friend Dr. Ruschenberger, will convey 

 an accurate idea of these people. "Their average height, according to the 

 measure of Mr. Crawford, is five feet two inches, which I suspect to be near the 

 truth, from the few to whom I have applied the rule. The lower limbs are 

 stout and well formed ; the body is long, and hence the figure is not graceful. 

 The shoulders are broad, and the muscles of the chest are well developed. The 

 neck is short and the head is in fair proportion. The hands are large, and the 

 complexion of a dark olive, but not jetty. Among females of the higher classes, 

 who pass their time mostly within the harem of their lords, the skin is of a very 

 much lighter hue ; in some instances it might be described as a very dark brunette. 

 The forehead is narrow at the superior part, the face, between the cheek bones 

 broad, and the chin is, again, narrow, so that the whole contour is rather lozenge- 

 shaped than oval. The eyes are remarkable, for the upper lid being extended 

 below the under one, at the corner next to the nose, but it is not elongated like 

 that organ in the Chinese or Tartar races. The eyes are dark, or black, and the 

 white is dirty, or of a yellowish tint. The nostrils are broad, but the nose is not 

 flattened, like that of the African. The mouth is not well formed, the lips 

 projecting slightly ; and it is always disfigured, according to our notions of beauty, 

 by the universal and disgusting habit of chewing arecanut. The hair is jet black, 

 renitent, and coarse, almost bristly, and is worn in a tuft on the top of the head, 



* Crawford, Ava, &c., p. 372. f Ibid, p. 470. 



