48 



COMPLEXION. 



Com- 

 plexion. 



Cochin- 

 chinete. 



Complex- 

 ion i)f the 

 Goths, 

 fielts, and 

 Slavi. 



of this country, are called Mags, and inhabit the chain 

 which separates it from Cambodia. They resemble the 

 Caffres in features and complexion, whereas the present 

 possessors, who came in the 15th century, retain the 

 complexion and features of the Chinese, from whom 

 they are sprung. (Asiatic Annual Register for 1801.) 

 In the West Indies and America, Europeans and Ne- 

 groes were introduced nearly about the same time ; but 

 they each retain their radical and permanent characteris- 

 tics of features and complexion. 



9. Pinkerton, in his Dissertation on the Goths and 

 Scythians, has proved, that the original inhabitants of 

 Europe were Celts ; that the Goths, coming from Asia, 

 pressed there towards the west ; and that the Slavi suc- 

 ceeded the Goths, and occupied the eastern parts of this 

 quarter of the world. Each of these races was distin- 

 guished by peculiarity of features, complexion, and co- 

 lour of eyes and hair, which they still retain in a great- 

 er degree than might have been expected, considering 

 their intermixture : the colorati vultus, * and tort/ crines 

 of the Celts, are much more common among their de- 

 scendants, the Welsh, and the native Irish, than among 

 the Gothic or Slavonic tribes. The characteristics of 

 the Gothic race are frequently and strongly marked by 

 the ancient historians ; to the Germans, the epithets of 

 ccerulea lumina, and Flava cwsaries are applied by Juve- 

 nal, (xiii. 164%) and ccerulei oculi, and rutilce coma, by Ta- 

 citus ; (German, iv.) and Manilius speaks of Jlava Ger- 

 mania, (Astron. lib. iv.) The Gauls, most of whom 

 were a Gothic race, have applied to them, by Livy, the 

 epithet rutilatce coma, (xxxviii. 16.) Virgil also de- 

 scribes their yellow hair, aurea casaries, (viii. 6.59.) and 

 fan- complexion, lactea colla, (lb. 660.) and, in the time 

 of Ammianus Marcellinus, they were distinguished by 

 the same characteristics, candidi pene Galli sunt omnes 

 et rutili, (lib.xvi. § 1. See also Diod. Siculus lib. v. Edit. 

 Stephan, p. 212. and Strabo, lib.vii. p. 290, Edit. Gaus.) 

 The inhabitants of South Britain are desci-ibed by Stra- 

 bo as resembling the Gauls in complexion and eyes, but 

 with hair less yellow ; and the passage of Tacitus is 

 well known, in which he infers the German origin of 

 the Caledonians, on account of their ruti/te corner, (Stra- 

 bo, lib. iv. p. 194. Tacit. Afric. § 11.) The character- 

 istic complexion, hair, and eyes, of the Goths, are still 

 very evident in the Norwegians, Danes, and Icelanders, 

 who have intermingled least with other tribes, f For- 

 ster is of opinion, that the blue eyes and red hair of the 

 Gothic nations of Europe, are to be ascribed to the cir- 

 cumstances of then being " the most early inhabitants 

 of the north, and therefore of their having had more 

 time to become gradually fairer, than the greater part 

 of their neighbouring European tribes ;" (Forster, 273.) 

 but this remark is not well founded; we have seen that 



blue eyes and red hair were characteristic of the Gauls, 

 Germans, and Britons, in the time of the Romans ; and 

 they were also characteristic of other Gothic tribes in 

 much more southern latitudes. About 270 years be- 

 fore Christ, a tribe of German Gauls founded the king- 

 dom of Galatia in Asia Minor, and it is this tribe to 

 whom Livy, in the passage already quoted, applies the 

 epithet rutilatw coma;. The description of the Alani, 

 given by Ammianus Marcellinus, is a still more decisive 

 proof that the fair complexion and flaxen hair of the 

 Goths, are not attributable to the influence of a north- 

 ern climate, but distinguished them in their native 

 southern country. The Alani inhabited the plains be- 

 tween the Volga and the Tanais ; and Ammianus Mar- 

 cellinus says, they were almost all tall and fair, with 

 hair inclining to yellow ; Gibbon, indeed, ascribes the 

 fairness of their complexion and hair to the mixture of 

 Sarmatic and German blood ; but we have the express 

 testimony of Ammianus, Nicophorus Gregoras, and 

 Xiphilin, that the Massageta- and the Alani were the 

 same people, and the Massageta? were undoubtedly a. 

 pure Gothic tribe. X 



The Slavi, who came last into Europe, were distin- 

 guished by a brownish complexion, dark eyes, black or 

 brown hair, and, in general, red bushy beards ; and 

 these marks they retain in the different climates of Po- 

 land, Bohemia, Russia, and Dalmatia. 



Thus we perceive that the distinguishing complex- 

 ions, hair and eyes, of the Celts, Goths, and Slavi, are, 

 at the present time, nearly as well marked as they were 

 in the time of the Romans, and that a change of cli- 

 mate has not essentially altered them. In traversing 

 Europe, we pass from the Celtic tribes to the Gothic, 

 and from the Gothic to the Slavoni, without experi- 

 encing any change of climate ; and we find the compa- 

 ratively dark-complexioned Celts and Slavi, in the High- 

 lands of Scotland, and in the latitude of Petersburgh, 

 while the blue-eyed, and comparatively fair-haired 

 Goths, are found in the south of Germany. § 



As, therefore, the dark-complexioned varieties of man- 

 kind are found near the Poles; — as people of the same 

 complexion are found over the whole continent of Ame- 

 rica, under all its various climates ; as there are nume- 

 rous instances of comparative fairness of complexion 

 under the heat of a burning climate ; as radical diffe- 

 rences of complexion are found in the same regions, and 

 even among the same people ; and as there are nume- 

 rous instances where the original complexion has re- 

 mained permanent, notwithstanding it has been expo- 

 sed to a change of climate for centuries, it may fairly 

 be inferred that the characteristic complexions of the 

 different varieties of the human race are not the result 

 of climate. 



Com- 

 plexiou. 



* That colorati means dark- complexion is evident from this epithet being applied by Virgil to the Ethiopians, (iv. 239. and to 

 the Indians. Albinoranus also applies it to the latter, coloratos postqvara devicimus Indos. — Eleg. xi. line 57. 



+ Volney says, travellers who go from Normandy to Denmark are struck with the resemblance between the natives of the two 

 oountries. 



X Ammian. Marcell. xxxi. 2. Gibbon, iv. 373. Nicephorus Gregoras, lib. vi. </e alanis ; and Xiphinus in Hadriano. Pliny also 



reckons the Alani among the Scythic or Gothic nations Lib. iv. cap. 12. From the description which this author and Solinus, 



(who indeed is a mere abridger of Pliny,) gives of the Albani of Asiatic Scythia, Pinkerton infers that they were also a Gothic 

 tribe, but as they are described as having white hair from their youth, reddish eyes, (glauca uculorum ucie, a pueritia statim canos,} 

 and as seeing better by night than by day, they were probably a species of Albinos. Besides, Pliny only says, there were some 

 such people in Albania, not that all the inhabitants were of this description.— Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 2. 



§ This general remark must be taken as liable to many exceptions, as, in every country in Europe, the intermixture of races has 

 heen very great and influential; but it is substantially true, that the Celtic, Gothic, and Slavonic races may still easily be recognized, 

 and distinguished in Europe, whether they inhabit the warmer or colder latitudes : that climate will not account for the difference 

 of their complexion since some of each tribe are found nearly in the same climate, and the extreme variation of climate in no case is 

 great, and since before they settled in their present climates, they had the same distinguishing characteristics of complexion, hair 

 swid eyes, as they new possess. 



