128 
ORDER BIMANA— GENUS HOMO. 
pleasing expression of countenance. The Men are likewise very hand- 
some, have good abilities, and might excel in the sciences and useful arts, 
did not a defective education render them very ignorant and vicious.' 
There is perhaps no country where libertinism and dissipation prevail to 
a greater extent than in Georgia. The skull of a Georgian female, who 
died at Moscow, after having been taken by the Russians in one of their 
wars with Turkey, is figured by Bhimenbach in his Decades ol Skulls, 
and would strike the most careless observer by the noble e-xpansion of 
its frontal region, and the general symmetry and elegance of its proportions. 
The Imeritians speak a Georgian dialect. 
In Mingrelia, the women are equally beautiful, but perfidious. When 
love or hatred happens to be the ruling passion, a Mingrelian female is 
equal to any action, however atrocious. The men are as remarkable for 
their immorality, and theft and assassination are common occurrences. 
They exchange wives without the slightest scruple, and are not particular 
as to the degrees of their consanguinity to spouses, which are commonly 
two or three in number, or to concubines, in general as numerous as 
their means will allow. Husbands have here but little jealousy, and 
a gallant Lothario, when convicted, is compelled to atone for his offence, 
according to Chardin, by paying a pig to the injured husband ; and it is 
not uncommon, he adds, for the pig to be eaten together by the three 
parties interested in the alFair. Large families are anxiously desired in 
this country, for the sordid purpose of selling the miserable progeny as 
slaves. The master disposes of his servants, the brother of his sister, and 
the father of his children, without the slightest compunction. On this 
account slaves are very cheap. Their prices average as follows ; — 
Handsome girls, aged from 13 to 18 years. 20 crowns. 
Men from 25 to 40 years of age 15 ... 
Married women 12 ... 
Men above 40 years of age 8 to 10 
Children 3 or 4 
The physiognomy of the Abassians is very remarkable, — an oval face, 
a head very much compressed on the sides, a short chin, large nose, and 
hair of a deep chestnut colour, form its usual traits. 
The Circassian nobles speak a language peculiar to themselves, and dif- 
ferent from the vernacular language of their country. They are of a robust 
make, with a small foot, and strong wrist. The females are delicate, pleas- 
ing, and graceful in their forms ; their skins'white, with black or brown hair. 
It is chiefly the remarkable cleanliness of their persons which renders 
them so attractive to Europeans, for they are often surpassed in regularity 
of form and features by some of the neighbouring tribes. The Lesghian 
women, in particular, rival them in respect to personal attractions, as well 
as in courage. The dialects of the latter tribes are very numerous, and 
have some affinity to the language spoken by the inhabitants of Finland. 
To this sketch of the more important tribes, belonging to the Proper 
Caucasian races, we may add, that the medium height of the men is about 
5 feet 8 inches, their temperament usually sanguineous and bilious." Their 
hair is most commonly black, fine, shining, and very much curled ; the 
nose straight ; the shape of the face perfectly oval, and the facial angle vary- 
ing from 85° to 90°. The women are occasiotudly subject to an excessive 
rotundity of form. Their mouth is small, their bust most graceful, and 
skin perfectly white. Their eyebrows, excessively narrow, have been com- 
I)ared to the gently-curved filaments of silk. Such are the peculiarities 
of the Caucasian females, whose beauty is so celebrated in the East. They 
serve to ornament the harems of the Mahometans from the centre of Asia 
to the kingdom of Morocco. ^ 
(B.) HOMO lAPETICUS.— lAPETANS. 
Syn. Le Rameau Indien, Gebmain, et Pelasgique. — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 
81. — Less. Mam. 24 (in part). 
The Indian, German, and Pelasgian branch is much more widely 
distributed than the remainder, and became subdivided at an earlier 
age. We are still able, however, to recognise innumerable affinities 
among its four principal languages, — the Sanscrit, at present the 
sacred language of the Hindoos, and the parent of most of tlie dia- 
lects of Hindoostan ; the ancient language of the Pelaagi, tlie com- 
mon mother of tlie Greek, the Latin, and several others now extinct, 
also of all our languages in the South of Europe ; the Gothic, Teu- 
tonic, or Tudesque, from which are derived the languages of the 
North and North-west of Europe, such as the German, the Dutch, 
the English, the Danish, the Swedish, and their dialects ; finally, the 
languages called the Sclavonian, from which are derived tlie Russian, 
the Polish, the Bohemian, the Wend, and other dialects of the North- 
East of Europe. 
The nations of this powerful and important branch of the Cau- 
casian race have raised philosophy, the sciences, and the arts, to 
their present advanced state, and for more than thirty centuries have 
been the depositors and guardians of human knowledge. 
The ancient Persians have the same origin as the Hindoos, and 
their descendants at the present day bear the most striking marks 
of their affinity with the nations of Europe. 
All these nations may be termed lapetans, not from any fancied descent 
from Japhet, son of Noah, but rather from lapetus, the father of Pro- 
metheus, whose daring exjiloits are celebrated in the legendary history o 
remote antiquity. 
Audax lapcti genus, 
Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit. 
Hor. lib. 1. Od. 3. 
This illustrious branch of the Human Race would be justly entitled, 
from moral and political considerations alone, to occupy the first place 
in our classification. Some of its subdivisions emulate the Proper 
Caucasians in personal beauty, and the facial angle approaches nearly 
to 90°. As in them the face is oval, the forehead open, the nose straight, 
or nearl)' so ; the eye-brows more or less arched ; the eye-lashes of 
medium length ; the mouth middle-sized ; the beard long ; and the 
ears closely applied to the head. Their hair, generally fine, and even 
silky, varies from black and deep chestnut to a blonde, approaching to 
white. A complexion more or less vivid relieves the excessive paleness 
of the face, and betrays the passions of the moment by the changes of its 
colour. This ruddiness may, on the one hand, become degenerate in 
individuals, who are etiolated by confinement, or, on the other, it may 
merge into a deep brown when exposed to the excessive heats of a tropi- 
cal sun. In every part of the globe, the skin of the lapetans preserves 
its primitive whiteness, when protected from tlie direct solar rays. 
With the exception of tlie Indo-Persians, all the nations of this sub- 
variety are essentially monogamous. Polytheism was their primitive re- 
ligion, with some vague notions regarding the immortality of the soul. 
Christianity and its numerous modifications are now professed by nearly all 
of them excepting the Indo-Persiaus, who conform tliemsclves to other 
creeds more congenial to the prejudices of a degraded people. 
Industrious, jiatriotic, and brave, with a taste for the Sciences, the 
Fine and Useful Arts — in a word, endowed with talents of the highest 
order, the lapetan races have produced, without exception, all those 
great geniuses who liave astonished and enlightened the world. 
1. Pelagius. — Pelasgians. 
Syn. Homo jAPEXiens b. Pelagius Fisch. Syn. Mam. 2. 
Les Pelages Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 81. 
Race P£lage (Mebidionale). — Bory Ess. Zool. I. 114. 
Races Greques et Pelagiques (in part). — Malte-Brun, Geog. Univ. 
Etbusco-Pklasge Desmoul. Tab. Hum. 
Icon. Blunicnb. Dec. Cran. IV. t. 32. (Skull of a Roman Prretorian 
Soldier) ; VI. t. 51. (Skull of an ancient Greek). 
From the earliest ages, the Pelasgi were divided into two distinct 
branches, the Proper Pelasgians and the Etruscans. Among the forniet 
were included the Phrygians, Lydians. Carians, Trojans, Thracians, Il- 
lyrians, and the aborigines of Greece. Among the latter we find the 
native Italian nations. 
Next to the Proper Cancasian.s in the beauty of their features, we may 
observe their models at the present day in the statues of the Jupiter Oly"’' 
pus, the Apollo Belvidere, and the Venus de Medicis. The characters aic 
the following ; medium height about five feet seven inches j the hair 
brown or chestnut, rarely blonde, and often of surprising length. 1 
foot is larger and the leg thicker at its base than agrees with our ideas 
beauty; the nose is perfectly straight, and in the same line with the fort 
hc.id, without the slightest depression at the point of junction. ' 
eyes, remarkable for their size, have ol'ten been compared to those o a 
Ox (iSoavr/j.) Their temperament is most commonly sanguineous a" 
bilious. .^ 1 , 
Though nearly extinct, or lost among their numerous alliances 
the neighbouring races, the traits of the pure Pelasgian race may s 
be found in a few Roman and Grecian Ladies. They have, however, 
tirely disappeared among the great mass of the people who now in ^ 
the iEgman Archipelago, Turkey in Europe, Italy, and Sicily, 
once the exclusive abodes of this interesting race. To them we owe 
> Burr. Hist. Nat Histoire Naturelle generale et particuliere, Paris, IT.'iO, tome HI. p. 433, 434. Par M. De Buffon. 
" Bory Ess. Zool. I. 110. 
3 Bory Ess. Zool Also, Sir R, K. Porter’s Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. 
