THE CAUCASIAN FAMILY. 7 



jaws projecting, and the chin small. In disposition the negro is joyons, flexible, 

 and indolent ; while the many nations which compose this race present a singular 

 diversity of intellectual character, of which the far extreme is the lowest grade of 

 humanity. 



17. The Negro Family. 



18. The CaflFrarian Family. 



19. The Hottentot Family. 



20. The Oceanic-Negro Family. 



21. The Australian Family. 



22. The Alforian Family. 



1. THE CAUCASIAN FAMILY. 



This family, the type of the Caucasian Race, derives its name from the 

 mountainous region of Caucasus, hetween the Black Sea and the Caspian, a spot to 

 which history and tradition refer the primeval family of man. The spontaneous 

 fertility of this tract has rendered it the hive of many nations, which extending 

 their migrations in every direction, have peopled the finest portions of the earth, 

 and given birth to its fairest inhabitants. On the present occasion we propose to 

 notice the Caucasian family as consisting of three branches, the Caucasian proper, 

 the Persian, and the Pelasgic. 



1. The Caucasians proper are confined to the valleys and mountains of 

 Caucasus. They are extremely numerous, and embrace many primitive tribes 

 which differ in language, yet possess, in common, certain prominent physical 

 characters. Independent of these aboriginal nations, it is said that five great 

 immigrations of foreigners form as many epochs in the history of this country. 

 These nations are the Lesghi, the Ghasazes, the Mongols, the Arabs, and the 

 Tartars. The languages spoken are scarcely inferior in number to the remnants 

 of nations. " There are villages perfectly insulated, each of which is a complete 

 nation, whose language is not in the least comprehended by the people in the next 

 village to them, and is spoken nowhere else."* Hence the observation of Major 

 Rennel, that this remarkable tract, which forms an isthmus between the nations 

 of the north and south, seems to have retained a specimen of each passing tribe 

 from the date of the earliest migration.! 



A few only of the most prominent of these nations will be noticed on the 

 present occasion. 



* Tooke's Russia, II, p. 107. t Freygan, Caucasus, p. 51. 



