COMPLEXION. 



47 



justified in concluding, that the subsequent disappear- 

 ance of these characteristics was owing not to the cli- 

 mate, but to other causes; but there are grounds for be- 

 lieving that the Egyptian characteristics of the Colchi 

 continued unchanged long after the time of Herodotus. 

 Bochart, in his Sacred Geography, cites passages from 

 St Jerome and Sophronius, in which Colchis is called 

 the second Ethiopia ; and the last author, in his life of 

 St Andrew, says that there were Ethiopians near the 

 mouths of the Apsarus, and on the banks of the Phasis; 

 that is, in the very country of the Colchi. (Bochart, 

 Geog. Sac. lib. iv. cap. 31. p. 286.) 



2. The black complexion extends much farther to the 

 north, on the west side of Africa, than on the east : the 

 inhabitants of Fezzan, in latitude 27° 48' are black, 

 whereas the Egyptians in the same latitude are brown 

 or olive ; on the east side of Africa, we must go to the 

 latitude of 15° N. before we trace the line between the 

 Arabs and the blacks. The Abyssinians are of a dark olive 

 colour, with long hair ; yet the adjoining people, and the 

 people under the same latitude on the west side of Africa, 

 are negroes. This difference of complexion and hair in the 

 Abyssinians has generally been ascribed to their living 

 under a more temperate climate than the negroes, 

 though the latitude is the same ; but their great resem- 

 blance to the Arabians, and the direct testimony of his- 

 torians, proves that they are descended from that peo- 

 ple ; and, as Gibbon remarks, " the Arab cast of fea- 

 tures and complexion which has continued 3400 years 

 in the colony of Abyssinia, will justify the suspicion, 

 that race as well as climate must have contributed to 

 form the negroes of the adjacent and similar regions." 

 {Gibbon, vii. 341.) If we trace the inhabitants of the 

 east coast of Africa still farther to the south than Abys- 

 sinia, we shall detect, by their features and complexion, 

 the Arabian conquerors ; while the races, which they 

 expelled, may be equally clearly traced in the districts 

 into which they were compelled to remove. The dif- 

 ference between the Hottentots and Caffres has been al- 

 ready noticed : — the latter undoubtedly were originally 

 natives of the warmer parts of Africa ; and have been 

 driven to the neighbourhood of the Cape by the pres- 

 sure of the Arabians and other more powerful people. 

 In the time of Vasco de Gama, about the end of the 

 15th century, the Caffres were found in Terra de Na- 

 tal ; and before that period they seem to have inhabited 

 the coasts of Africa still farther to the north. {Ancient 

 Accounts o ( India and China by two Mahommedan Tra- 

 vellers translated by Renaudot, p. 162 — 164. 



3. Procopius mentions a race of people far within the 

 desert of Lybia, not black-skinned like the Moors, but 

 of very fair bodies and yellow hair : these have gene- 

 rally been supposed to be descendants of the Vandals; 

 but had they been so, Procopius, who lived soon after 

 the passage of the Vandals from Spain into Africa, 

 would probably have mentioned their origin. What- 

 ever, however, was the origin, or the time of their set- 

 tlement, they were found by Dr Shaw, in the very spot 

 where Procopius places them, on the " mountains of 

 Auress, with their yellow hair and their fair and ruddy 

 complexion. (Procop. Bell. Vand. xi. c. 13. Shaw's 

 Travels, p. 120. 



4. Herodotus fixes the boundaries of the Libyans 

 and Ethiopians near the Niger, about Cassona; and 

 nearly the same line may yet be drawn in this part of 



Africa, between the fairer and darker complexioned na- 

 tives. The Arabians, under the name of Moors, en- 

 tered this part of Africa about the seventh century ; 

 and though in many places separated from the negroes, 

 merely by the Senegal, and in other places inhabiting 

 the very same regions, they are still distinct in com- 

 plexion and features. 



5. The description which ancient writers give us of 

 the Huns, evidently proves that they belonged to the 

 Mongolian variety. Their original seat was an ex- 

 tensive tract of country, immediately on the north side 

 of the great wall of China. About one hundred years 

 after Christ, they emigrated in two great divisions, one 

 of which settled in the fruitful plains of Sogdiana, on 

 the eastern side of the Caspian. This division obtained 

 the name of the white Huns, from the change in their 

 complexions. This change Gibbon is disposed to at- 

 tribute to the mildness of the climate in which they 

 took up their abode ; but as their emigration was from 

 a colder to a comparatively warm climate, the change 

 in then - complexion and features must be ascribed ra- 

 ther to their intermixture with the inhabitants of the 

 country in which they settled, probably with the Greeks 

 of Sogdiana. t 



6. Colonel Symes, in his embassy to Ava, landed on 

 the Andaman Islands. The natives he describes as " a 

 degenerate race of Negroes, with woolly hair, flat noses, 

 and thick lips ; their eyes are small and red, and their 

 skins of a deep soot black." From this description it 

 is evident that they resemble the natives of the interior 

 parts of the Philippine islands ; and we should have no- 

 ticed the fact under a former head, had there not been 

 proof of their unchanged complexion and features for 

 nine centuries. The Mahommedan travellers of the ninth 

 century, whose account has been published by Renaudot, 

 describe the inhabitants of Andaman exactly as Colonel 

 Symes does ; " their complexion is black, their hair 

 frizzled :" so that they not only differ radically from the 

 inhabitants of the adjacent islands of Nicobar and the 

 continent, but have undergone no alteration in this long 

 period of time. (Symes' Embassy to Ava, p. 7. 4to. edit. 

 Asiatic Researches, iv. 385. Renaudot, p. 4.) 



7. That singular race of people, the Gipseys, made 

 their appearance in Hungary and Bohemia, according 

 to Grellman, about the year 1417 ; and reached as far 

 west as England, about a century afterwards. This 

 author is of opinion that they came originally from the 

 East Indies. Wherever they are found in Europe, they 

 exhibit the same complexion, and colour of eyes and 

 hah ; nor, in the course of four centuries, do they ap- 

 pear to have lost, in the smallest degree, their original 

 and primitive colour. (Grellman, Hist. Versuch ueber 

 die Liegenner.) The same remark may be applied to 

 the Jews ; wherever they have preserved themselves un- 

 mixed, they exhibit a striking uniformity of complexion 

 and features, in all the various countries of Asia, Africa, 

 and Europe, in which they are found. 



8. Foster remarks, that " the Dutch who have been 

 settled at the Cape of Good Hope, during an uninter- 

 rupted course of 120 years, have constantly remained 

 fair, and similar to Europeans in every respect, though 

 many of the Boors live almost in the same manner as 

 their neighbours the Hottentots." (Foster's Observa- 

 tions, p. 271, 272.) And Chapman, in a narrative of a 

 voyage to Cochinchina, informs us, that the aborigines 



Cow- 

 plexion. 



Complex- 

 ion of the 

 Huns. 



Complex- 

 ion of the 

 inhabitants 

 of the An. 

 daman 

 Isles. 



Complex- 

 ion of the 

 Gipseys. 



Complex- 

 ion of the 

 Dutch at 

 tlie Cape 

 of Good 

 Hope. 



-\- It is probable that the Mantchoo Tartars of China, who are represented as having fair and florid complexions, light blue eyes, 

 >.nd brown hair, are descended from the white Huns. 



