350 Voyage Scientifique en Moree. 



rent differences, especially as the observations can only be made on a 

 comparatively small number of individuals. 



The case is different with the species of Nubia, which is probably 

 identical with that of Senegal. Tbe skin is spotted, and the ears are 

 longer than in the northern race. 



We are now favoured with a curious observation suggested by this 

 peculiarity in the ears of the Nubian species. We are told that the 

 elongation is common, not only to the quadrupeds which inhabit the 

 vicinity of the Zahara, or great desert, but to man also, and that the 

 Bedouins, who belong to it, have the conch of the ear singularly long, 

 differing from that in other races. We confess we were a little 

 startled at the intelligence. Our first idea was, whether, if the be- 

 ing born about the Zahara imparted such a peculiarity, the sojourning 

 some time in the vicinity might not be followed by some elongation of 

 the same part. Not finding, however, that this was the case, and 

 knowing that the Moorish Spaniards, whose ancestors came from the 

 region in question, have remarkably small ears, unless, indeed, that pro- 

 ceeded from their being removed from the locality, our thoughts then 

 turned very naturally to our old acquaintance Pan, and the Fauns with 

 their auricular appendages. According to this theory, instead of be- 

 ing natives of Mount Taygetus and Arcadia, their pedigree ought ra- 

 ther to be Numidian or Mauritanian. We wish the Commission had 

 discussed the subject in the part of their work which is dedicated to 

 the ancient animals of the Peloponnesus ; and we strongly recommend 

 the consideration of it to that portion of the Parisian savans, who 

 devote many sittings to the affinities of the genus homo with some of 

 the quadrumana. It might afford an interesting variety to these lec- 

 tures, of which the auditory begin very naturally to complain. 



This fact, if established, might be of considerable use in assisting 

 the reform now carrying on so resolutely in the Ottoman dominions. 

 It is known to those who have been in the East, or have attended to 

 their peculiar method of conducting a government, that the common 

 mode of announcing a victory, before the introduction of gazettes and 

 bulletins, which are now coming into use, was by the arrival of Tartars 

 or couriers with sacks full of the ears of the vanquished, which were 

 pickled in salt. The heads, which ought to have been sent, being too 

 heavy for transport, this lighter substitute was found. Now it has 

 happened not unfrequently, that, in a scarcity of the article, — or from 

 the battle being of the nature of those in Spain, where it is difficult 

 to say which party is the conqueror, or rather who has lost the least, 

 excepting in ammunition and shoe-leather, — that a habit has prevailed 



