OF HUMAN VARIETIES. 343 



the solution of the difficult problem, of accounting 

 for the origin of those differences in the several varie- 

 ties into which ethnologists have divided mankind. 

 Among our own acquaintances, under external cir- 

 cumstances, exactly alike, nature produces by the 

 mysterious agency of mental endowments, the pos- 

 sible mothers of families of man, which, under 

 different circumstances of situation and of social 

 education, would ultimately present two nations as 

 distinct in every phenomenon of external appearance 

 as are the most opposed specimens of the Circassian 

 or the negro type. 



The Shoans are certainly not a virtuous people, 

 according to our ideas, and if we are to judge them 

 by the standard of our moral code ; but I positively 

 deny that they are an immodest people, except 

 among those where the dehumanizing influence of 

 Mahomedanism, by degrading woman to the condi- 

 tion of a slave, has engendered the disgusting sen- 

 suality which characterizes the professors of that 

 religion, and even these in Abyssinia are as superior 

 as possible in this respect to the Mahomedans of 

 Arabia and Persia. My opinion as to the modesty 

 of the Shoan women may not perhaps be suffi- 

 ciently understood, to be considered correct ; but it 

 was formed by observing the freedom from all re- 

 straint which they appear to enjoy in their country 

 and among their families. This implies some 

 confidence on the part of the men, and a woman 

 must be modest to the extent that society requires, 



