RACIAL EFFLUVIUM. 



409 



I am compelled by its high racial significance 

 to offer a few words npon this unpleasant topic. 

 The odour of the "Wasawahili, like that of the 

 negro, is a rank foetor, sui generis, which faintly 

 reminded me of the ammoniacal smell exhaled 

 by low-caste Hindus, popularly called Pariahs. 

 These, however, owe it to external applications, 

 aided by the want of cleanliness. All agree that 

 it is most offensive in the yellow-skinned, and 

 the darkest negroids are therefore preferred for 

 domestic slaves and concubines. It does not 

 depend upon diet. In the Anglo-American 

 States, where blacks live like whites, no diminu- 

 tion of it has been remarked ; nor upon want of 

 washing, — those who bathe are not less nauseous 

 than those who do not. After hard bodily 

 exercise, or during mental emotion, the epiderm 

 exudes a foetid perspiration, oily as that of orange 

 peel: a negro's feet will stain a mat, an oar 

 must be scraped after he has handled it, and a 

 woman has left upon a polished oaken gun- case 

 a hemispherical mark that no scrubbing could 

 remove. This ' Catinga/ as the Brazilians call 

 it, taints the room, infects every part of the body 

 with which it comes in contact, and exerts a 

 curious effect on the white races. A missionary's 

 wife in Zanzibar owned to me that it caused her 



