86 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



hair, especially towards the end, "a mean between the wool of the Negro and the long stiff hair of 

 the American.'' This bushy mass is combed out from the head so as to be between two and three 

 feet in diameter, like that of the Papuas of New Guinea.* 



The most remarkable mixture of the Indian and Negro races, is perhaps that described by Mr. 

 Stevenson as seen by him in the republic of Colombia. " The natives of Esmeraldas, Rio Verde and 

 Atacames," says he, "are all Zambos, apparently a mixture of Negroes and Indians; indeed the oral 

 tradition of their origin is, that a ship having Negroes on board arrived on the coast, and having 

 murdered a great number of the male Indians, kept their widows and daughters and laid the founda- 

 tion of the present race.'' He describes these Esmeraldenos as "tall and rather slender, of a lightish 

 black color, different from that called copper color; have soft curly hair, large eyes, nose rather flat, 

 and thick lips, possessing more of the Negro than the Indian."! Dr. M'Culloh does not admit the 

 asserted Negro origin of these people; but it so much resembles that of the black Charibs of St. 

 Vincent, as to leave httle doubt on the subject. Mr. T. R. Peale, who was some time among the 

 Esmeraldenos, has assured me that so far as his personal observation goes they are a decided mixture 

 of Negro and Indian blood. It has been thought by some that these are the very "blackamoors" 

 described by Peter Martyr as having been seen by Balboa ;t a point which, at this distance of time, is 

 not readily decided. 



17. THE NEGRO FAMILY. 



The term Ethiopian is in common use to designate the Negro, yet very 

 improperly, inasmuch as the name Ethiopia was applied by the ancients not only 

 to certain parts of eastern Africa, including Nubia and Abyssinia, but also to 

 southern India ; and it was moreover applied to any country whose inhabitants 

 were of a very dark complexion. § "The Greeks," says Sir William Jones, "called 

 all the southern nations of the world by the common appellation of Ethiopians, 

 thus using Ethiop and Indian as convertible terms."|| It is obvious, therefore, 

 that the term Ethiopian, as applied by Blumenbach and others to the Negro 

 nations collectively, is vague if not inadmissible. 



The Negro Family^ in the present instance, embraces all the proper Negro 

 nations near and south of Mount Atlas and Abyssinia to the country inhabited by 

 the Gaffers and Hottentots. The more northern tribes, as we have already 

 intimated, present various mixed features derived from their proximity to the 

 Caucasian nations in their vicinity. "The people of El-wah," says Browne, "are 



* Spix and Martius, Trav. in Brazil, I, p. 324. 



t Trav. in South Amer. II, p. 387. % M'Culloh, Researches, p. 2Q. 



§ Russell, Nubiu and Abyssinia, Introd. p. 19.— Heeren, Anc. Nations of Africa, I, p. 295.— 

 " Ethiopia, though a vague name, was applied to that country lying beyond the Cataracts, which in 

 the Scriptures and in the Egyptian language, is called Cush.^' 



II Legh. Jour, in Egypt, p. 89. 



