1838.] 



the European and Orang-Oatavg. 



189 



small, and the most depraved of all the negro tribes, as they have been 

 morally, and thence physically, debased by intercourse with the 

 whites,— those on the coast, and their descendants in slavery. 



" These characters are, the skin black ; the hair black and woolly ; 

 the skull compressed laterally : the forehead low, depressed, slanting, 

 and narrow ; the cavity of the cranium smaller, and reduced both in 

 its circumference and in its transverse diameters ; the eyes prominent ; 

 great development of the face, and projection towards its lower part ; 

 the cheekbones prominent ; the jav/s narrow ; the superior incisor 

 teeth oblique ; the chin retracted ; the nose broad, thick, and flat ; 

 the lips, particularly the upper one, thick and projecting. This is the 

 countenance of the Mozambique and Guinea negroes, bat it is not the 

 feature of the natives of the high lands of Africa. The trath of this 

 assertion is fully attested by the latest African travellers. "Winterbot- 

 tom says of the tribes ofTimmanuand Soosoo negroes, in the mountain- 

 ous districts of Sierra Leone : ' The sloping contracted forehead, small 

 eyes, depressed nose, thick lips, and projecting jaws, with which the 

 African is usually caricatured, are by no means constant traits ; on the 

 contrary, every gradation of countenance may be met with, from the 

 disgusting picture too commonly drawn of them, to the finest set of 

 European features.' 



" Tuckey says the same of the JdaPis or Oualafs ; Meredith of the 

 Fantees ; Adams and Bowdich of the Ashantees, the Dahomeys, and 

 the negroes of the banks of the river Chamba : they have good fea- 

 tures, neither broad nor fiat noses, nor thick lips. The Mandingos on 

 |he banks of the rivers Gambia, Joliba, the higher Senegal, and Niger, 

 as also the Foulahs or Fullahs, and Fellatahs in the interior of Africa 

 in Bondu, Timboctoo, Housan, Sudan, Bornoo, and Kaschna, vary but 

 little, according to Mungo Park, Denham, and Clapperton, excepting 

 in colour, from the Europeans. Their skin is not so black as that of 

 the negroes on the coast of Guinea, and their black hair is not so wool- 

 ly, but long, soft, and silky. They have neither broad flat noses, thick 

 lips, nor prominent cheekbones ; sloping contracted forehead, nor a 

 skull compressed from both sides, which most naturalists consider as 

 the universal characteristics of a negro. Most of them have well-form- 

 ed skulls, long faces, handsome, even Roman or acquiline noses, thin 

 lips, and agreeable features. The negresses of these nations are as 

 ! finely formed as the men, and are, with the exception of their colour, 



as handsome as European women. 



" Somerville, Barrow, Lichtenstein, andBurchell, have shown that the 

 Caffres and Bachapins, orEetchuanas, have the same form of skull, and 



