THE YELLOW RACES. 517 



these strange mixtures, from the Aleutian (Chaille-Long-Bey) to the 

 Turk himself (Varat). 



As to the Japanese, the immense anthropological collection (54 skele- 

 tons, 403 skulls, 27 pelves, etc.), sent to the Museum by M. Steenackers, 

 shows the superabundant multiplicity of their various sources. It can 

 hereafter no longer be doubted that the population of the Archipelago 

 of the Eising Sun is connected by bonds of kinship with its neighbors 

 on the Yellow Continent. But it is also becoming more and more cer- 

 tain, that some southern elements have played a very important part 

 in their history as a nation. The Malays (to adopt a very general term), 

 whose fleets ravaged the coasts of Tsiampa as late as the eighth cen- 

 tury, had at times previous to that a powerful influence on the northern 

 islands, and have left behind them numerous traces of their interven- 

 tion. I shall take pleasure in seeing the ingenious and varied argu- 

 ments brought to light by which M. Metchnikoff supports the very 

 precise views which he has formed on that subject. 



One last national element, which has remained very modest in its 

 influence, because it was driven out with a kind of repugnance, by the 

 Japanese, is the Ai'no, the hairy race of Kuriles, of Sakhalin, and of 

 Yeso. I have told you what little I knew of these singular islanders, 

 whom for the moment I am utterly unable to classify. The Ai'nos are, 

 on an average, akin to the Chinese by their cephalic index, and I have 

 provisionally placed them between the Chinese and the Eskimo, whilst 

 most readily admitting that this classification is altogether provisional 

 only. 



Of the different branches of the yellow trunk, whose general physiog- 

 nomy I have placed before you, those that could be gathered together 

 in a tolerably homogeneous group without doing much mischief, have 

 thus been passed in review. There remain to us to be studied a cer- 

 tain number of others, more or less irregular, and who, since Blumen- 

 bach, have been generally set apart under the names of the Malay 

 branch and the American branch. This year's course of lectures will 

 be devoted to the examination of documents of all kinds relating to 

 these two branches. 



We shall pass in review, successively, the material referring to the 

 Korean and the Japanese races, considered in the light of intermediaries 

 between those of the Asiatic Continent and those of the large islands 

 which are dependent on them. Next we shall approach the facts which 

 have reference to Malay land and its ethnological connections, Mada- 

 gascar on one side, Polynesia and Micronesia on the other. This first 

 series of studies will bring us to Easter. After vacation we shall begin 

 the study of the races of the New World, which will occupy the whole 

 remainder of the course. 



