18 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



difFerent explanation; and is supposed plainly to indicate those languages in which 

 it is displayed, however they may differ in some respects, to have sprung from a 

 common original. This analogy has been remarked more especially between the 

 Sanscrit, or the ancient language of India, and the Greek, Latin and German."* 



Without undervaluing these philological analogies, I am disposed to believe, 

 with Humboldt, that we shall never be able to trace the afiliation of nations by a 

 mere comparison of languages ; for this, after all, is but one of many clews by 

 which that great problem is to be solved. Dr. Prichard himself admits that 

 Europe was inhabited by " a more ancient people," before the Asiatics made their 

 appearance; and although the language of the former was modified by this 

 intercommunication, there is no satisfactory evidence that the physical character 

 of these primitive people sustained any obvious change by the gradual immigration 

 of the intruders from Asia. Dr. Prichard places the Celtic tribes among the 

 Indo-Europeans; while Sir William Betham, as we have seen, judging also from 

 similarity of language, pronounces the Celts to be of the Phenician branch of 

 Arabians. With these discrepancies before us, we may inquire whether the term 

 Indo-European is not more applicable to certain languages of Europe, than to the 

 inhabitants themselves ? 



4. THE ARABIAN FAMILY. 



The physical conformation of the Arabs proper is not very unlike that of 

 their neighbors the Circassians, although, especially in the women, it possesses 

 much less of the beautiful. Their skin is generally sallow, but is never black in 

 the unmixed race; and in those whose rank permits them to avoid exposure to the 

 sun, the complexion is a light and clear brunette. The Arab face is a somewhat 

 elongated oval, with a delicately pointed chin, and a high forehead. Their eyes 

 are large, dark and full of vivacity; their eyebrows are finely arched; the nose is 

 narrow and gently aquiline, the lips thin, and the mouth small and expressive. 

 Such at least is the appearance of the higher classes; but from these there is 

 every grade of exterior feature until, in the Arab of the desert, the traveller sees 

 all that is ferocious and repugnant in human nature. The Arabs in general are 

 below the middle stature ; their persons are spare and often meagre, and yet they 

 possess an extraordinary vigilance and activity. 



* Piiys. Hist, of Man, I, p. 491. 



