EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



143 



color, and speaking in general different languages. This 

 has been the case since the commencement of written rec- 

 ord. It is also ascertained that the external peculiari- 

 ties of particular nations do not rapidly change. There is 

 rather a tendency to a persistency of type in all lines of de- 

 scent, insomuch that a subordinate admixture of various 

 type is usually obliterated in a few generations. Numer- 

 ous as the varieties are, they have all been found classifi- 

 able under five leading ones : — 1. The Caucasian, or In- 

 do-European, which extends from India into Europe and 

 Northern Africa ; 2. The Mongolian, which occupies 

 Northern and Eastern Asia; 3. The Malayan, which 

 extends from the Ultra- Gange tic Peninsula into the nume- 

 rous islands of the South Sea and Pacific ; 4. The Negro, 

 chiefly confined to Africa ; 5. The aboriginal American. 

 Each of these is distinguished by certain general features 

 of so marked a kind as to give rise to a supposition that 

 they have had distinct or independent origins. Of these 

 peculiarities, color is the most conspicuous : the Cauca- 

 sians are generally white, the Mongolians yellow, the Ne- 

 groes black, and the Americans red. The opposition of 

 two of these in particular, white and black, is so striking, 

 that of them, at least, it seems almost necessary to sup- 

 pose separate origins. Of late years, however, the whole 

 of this question has been subjected to a rigorous investiga- 

 tion, and it has been successfully shown that the human 

 r ace might have had one origin, for anything that can be 

 inferred from external peculiarities. 



It appears from this inquiry,* that color and other phys- 

 iological characters are of a more superficial and acciden- 

 tal nature than was at one time supposed. One fact is at 

 the very first extremely startling, that there are nations, 

 such as the inhabitants of Hindostan, known to be one in 

 descent, which nevertheless contain groups of people of 

 almost all shades and color, and likewise discrepant in 

 other of those important features on which much stress 

 has been laid. Some other facts, which I may state in brief 

 terms, are scarcely less remarkable. In Africa, there 

 are Negro nations — that is, nations of intensely black 

 complexion, as the Jolofs, Mandingoes, and Kafirs, whose 

 features and limbs are as elegant as those of the best Eu- 

 ropean nations. While we have no proof of Negro races 

 becoming white in the course of generations, the converse 



* See Dr. Prichard's Researches into the Physical History of Man 



