68 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



they shave themselves, of which w^e have seen examples in the missions of the 

 Capuchins of Caripe, w^here the Indian sextons wish to resemble the monks their 

 masters. But many individuals are born entirely without beard, or have no hair 

 on their bodies. M. de Galeano, in his last expedition to the Straits of Magellan, 

 informs us that there are many old men among the Patagonians with beards, 

 though they are short and by no means bushy. On comparing this assertion with 

 the facts collected by Marchaud, Mears, and especially by Volney in the northern 

 temperate zone, we are tempted to believe that the Indians have more and more 

 beard in proportion to their distance from the equator."* Mr. Schoolcraft 

 mentions beards as common among the Potowatomies, and alludes to a very old 

 man of that tribe "whose long, descending gray beard would not disgrace a 

 Nazarite."t 



A copper-colored skin has been assumed by most writers as a characteristic 

 distinction of the Americans, who have hence been called the copper-colored race. 

 The investigations of Dr. M'Culloh satisfactorily prove that this designation is 

 wholly inapplicable to the Americans as a race, and that it is more characteristic 

 of some other and very remote nations.J The error has obviously arisen from the 

 habitual use, among many tribes, of red paint to a brown skin, which occasions a 

 coppery hue. Humboldt declares that the denomination of copper-colored men 

 could never have originated in the equinoctial regions to designate the Americans : 

 and I can further testify that among the individuals of many diflferent tribes that 

 have come under my observation, I have never seen a copper-colored man. " We 

 consider, therefore," says Dr. M'Culloh, " that the color of the American Indians 

 in general is brown, diiSering in intensity with various tribes, according to various 

 localities; but that it is almost impossible to say what that brown color principally 

 resembles. The cinnamon is, in my apprehension, the nearest approach to it, 

 though still too inaccurate for general comparison. "§ I fully coincide in opinion 

 with Dr. M'Culloh ; and believe, with him, that no epithet derivable from the 

 color of the skin, so correctly designates the Americans collectively as that of the 

 Brown Race. Although the Americans thus possess a pervading and characteristic 

 complexion, there are occasional and very remarkable deviations, including all the 

 tints from a decided white to an unequivocally black skin. This fact maybe 

 sufficiently illustrated by the following examples. Among the fair tribes of the 

 Upper Orinoco, Humboldt makes especial mention of the Guahariboes, the 



* Polit. Essay, B. IT, chap. 6. t Trav. in Valley of the Miss. p. 317. 



X Researches, p. 16, &c. § Ibid. p. 18. 



