227 



and when only a small arm of a river, or a 

 group of hills, separates their habitations, The 

 less numerous are the tribes; the more the in- 

 termarriages, repeated for ages, between the 

 same families, tend to fix a certain equality of 

 conformation, an organic type, which may be 

 called national*. This type is preserved under 

 the government of the Missions formed by a 

 single horde. The isolated state is the same, 

 and marriages are contracted only between the 

 inhabitants of the same hamlet. Those ties of 

 blood, which unite almost a whole nation, are 

 indicated in a simple manner in the language 

 of the Indians born in the Mission, or by those, 

 who, taken from the woods, have learned Spa- 

 nish. To designate the individuals, who be- 

 long to the same tribe, they employ the words 

 mis parientes, my relations. 



These causes, which depend only on the iso- 

 lated state, and the effects of which are found 

 among the Jews of Europe, among the different 

 casts of India, and among mountaineer nations 

 in general, are connected with causes hitherto 

 neglected. I have observed elsewhere, that it 

 is intellectual culture which contributes most 

 to diversify the features. Barbarous nations have 



* Nullis aliis aliarum nationum connubiis infecta, propria 

 et sincera, et tantum sui similis gens. Unde habitus quoque < 

 corporum, quamquam in tanto hominum numero, idem omni- 

 bus. Tac,, Germ.,c. 4. 



q2 . 



