“pena t~aRTNY naa ea SEE ESE GE IEE i i } scene ep PIE A NEN IACI TATE | Ke A CAROLO DARWIN _ RWIN + if a Kann antl it i ni SO ina _ RESEARCHES INTO THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MANKIND. RESEARCHES INTO THE PHYSICAL HISTORY MANKIND. BY JAMES COWLES PRICHARD, M.D. F.R.S. M.R.I.A. CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, HONORARY FELLOW OF THE KING'S AND QUEEN’S COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS IN IRELAND, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE OF PARIS. THIRD EDITION. ACO) Fae 8 CONTAINING RESEARCHES INTO THE PHYSICAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN RACES. LONDON: SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER, PATERNOSTER ROW 3 AND J. AND A. ARCH, CORNHILL. 1837. LONDON 3; JOSEPH RICKERBY, PRINTER, SHERBOURN-LAN Ec ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. . Page. Genera statement of the inquiries which form the subject Ot the following bopks asses CONG Ae ees BOOK III. RESEARCHES INTO THE PHYSICAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN RACES. CHAPTER I. Preliminary Survey of the Physical Geography of Africa, and of the natural Sub-divisions of that Continent. Section 1. General observations Section 2. Atlantica, the elevated region of Northern PACs dg Gavan ON AE ORO OR see's Section 3. Highlands of Central Africa Section 4. Lowlands of Africa CHAPTER II. Of the original Inhabitants of Atlantica. Section 1. History of the Atlantic nations, elucidated by researches into their language oe 15 ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Page. Section 2. Different branches of the Berber race.—1. Ber- bers of Atlas.—2. Shuluh.—3. Kabyles.— 4. ‘Tuaryk 1. Berbers of the Northern Atlas 2. Shaluh 3. The Kabyles of Algiers and Tunis, and the Berber tribes in the central parts of Alantica ho AY VK) Sos oe CT ee te Section 3. Nations of the Sahara, Tuaryk, and Tibbo.... Secrion 4. Of the population of the African coast, and the States of Barbary Section 5. Physical characters of the Barbary Moors, and the Native tribes of Atlas and the Sahara. . Section 6. Of the Tibbo ..... Section 7. Of the Guanches, or old inhabitants of the Canary Islands Section 8. Of the proof of affinity, founded on resem- blance of language, between different branches of the Atlantic race—Inquiry into the pro- bable relations of this race with others in Africa and in Europe CHAPTER III. General Survey of the Ethnography of Central Africa to Northward of the Equator. Section 1. Geographical limitations—Land of Negroes— Ethiopia SEcTIon 2, General survey of the physical and moral state of the native races in the interior of Africa.. 45 43 CHAPTER IV. Ethnography of Central Africa to the Northward of the Equator continued — Western division— Nations of Senegambia and Guinea. Section 1. Outline of the physical geography of Sene- gambia .. Of the Bambarrans. Seerion 3. Of the Falahs ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Physical character of the Fulahs.... Section 4, Of the inferior races inhabiting the region be- tween the Senegal and Cape Palmas...... Paragraph A. Inbabitants of mountain- ous regions 1. Of the Jallonkas, or Jallunkan, and the Sokko 2. The Kissi 3. Sulima 4. Sangara Paragraph B. Of the nations inhabiting the low countries between the Senegal and the Gambia 1. The Tolofs 2. The Serreres 3. The Serawoolli or Saracolets .. Paragraph C. Of the Negro states on the Gambia, and the native tribes between that river and Cape Palmas - The Feluppes The Papels The Balantes The Bissagos The Biafares or Tolas The Basares and Naloubes .... The Zapes The Bulloms, Susas, manis and Bagoes The Quojas— Folgias—People of Cape Monte, Sanguin, and Settra A100. , aes oss whe wins e's 10. The Kroos or Kroomen Coast from Cape Palmas to the Gold Coast. Section 5. Of the nations inhabiting the Gold Coast and the countries in the interior 1. Inta race . Inta, Fanti, Ashanti 2. Acra race Section 6. Of the Foy race, including the Whidah, Papah, Dahomeh, and several other nations of the ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Slave Coast, and the adjoining inland coun- Tey ata Cee e coerce cece eee ecnsesens Section 7. Natives of Benin and the countries adjacent on the Bights of Benin and Biafra—Races of Ibo, Binin, Moko ... General observations on the physical characters of the nations mentioned in the foregoing chapter, and specimens of their languages. . SECTION 8, CHAPTER V. 96 Ethnography of Central Africa to the Northward of the Equator, continued—Middle Division—Interior of Africa. Section 1. Of the earliest accounts of Sidan Information respecting Negroland, contained in the works of Arabian travellers, Edrisi, Tbn Batata, and Leo Africanus ....... avs Section 2. Further observations on the history of the na- MOH CO SUC eres wn v agains . eee eeese Paragraph 1. Of the nations and pro- vinces contained in Western Sadan.. 2. Eastern Sidan—Of Haisa, and the nations speaking dialects of the Guberi or Hatsa language —— - 3. Empire of Bornt . Vocabulary of the languages of Sadan —— - 4. Of other Negro states no- minally or really dependent on the em- SEctTIon 3. SECTION 4, SECTION 5. 108 109 110 113 ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. ix Page. CHAPTER VI. Ethnograghy of Eastern Africa to the Northward of the Equator —Abyssinian Nations. Section 1, Outline of the physical geography of Abys- SIA SU ee eS ete Paragraph 1. General description .... ._—_——. 2. First level—Plain of the Baharnegash - 3. Second level—Kingdom of Tigre ccccecccccsccccccecevcsseres 4. High Abyssinia — King- dom of Amhara......2.2+-e-eeeeees - 5. Eastern limits of Abyssinia Secrion 2. Enumeration of the different races of people inhabiting the Abyssinian empire........ Paragraph 1. Tigrani, or Abyssins of Palais os rage Gongas and Enareans.... e ACR o's es a eke Section 3. On the physical characters of the Abyssinian 4, o. Gatats. 6 7 Section 4. Inquiry into the history of the Abyssins, and their different races and languages Paragraph 1. Of the Gheez or Ethiopic, the Amharic, and other languages of Abyssinia . - 2. Of the introduction of Ju- daism into Abyssinia ........ eertebery —— - 3. Historical notices of Axum and the Abyssinians - 4, Abyssinians, a colony from Arabia—Historical proofs—Inquiry into the history of the Hamyarite Arabs .. 150 ee 5. Conclusion — Remarks on the physical characters of the Abyssinians 153 Numerals in the Abyssinian languages... 155 ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS, Page. CHAPTER VII. Of several Nations bordering on the Empire of Aby yssinia towards the South and South-east. BEcTiIon( 1, > Of the Gallad stele nba descauinda« SECTION 2. Of the Danakil and Adaiel, and the people of ce Laea by 3g SAE Oo des es coe s 158 Paragraph 1. Account of the Danakil.. 158 es Pyne characters of the Danakil ———-= 3, People of as.) ae . Section 3. Of the Sumali, or Somauli Paragraph 1. Comparative vocabulary of the Samali, Galla and Dandakil lan- SC Me ta it bis pa a aan ate oan Section 4. Of the Shiho and Hazorta race CHAPTER VIII. Of the Races of People bordering on Abyssinia, towards the North and West. Section 1. Of the Shangalla - 2. Of the Shilukh and Fangi—People of Sennaar 165 ~ 3. Of the native races of Bertat, Fertit, Donga, Dar- kulla and other Negro countries lying to the southward of Darfir, Kordofan, and Sennaar 171 CHAPTER IX. Of the Races of People inhabiting Nubia and other countries between Abyssinia and Egypt. Section 1. Of the Bardbra, Berberins or modern Nubians 172 Vocabulary of the Barabra and -Koldagi Nouba dialects .. History of the Barabra nation Section 2. Of the Furians and Fezzaners .. Section 3. Of the eastern Nubians, or Bisharine or Be- jawy race . Paragraph 1. Of the Hadharebe - 2. Of the Bishari ———- 3. Of the Ababdeh ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. On the History of the Ancient Egyptians, and of their Relation to other Races of Men. “Secrion 1, General remarks on the history of the Egyp- tians, and other nations coeval and supposed to have been connected with them Section 2. On the antiquity of the Indians and other Semi- tie Wao) S25 ae AT Ge SOR. Oe tens 3 sist SEctron 3. On the antiquity of the Egyptians ........-- Section 4. History of the Egyptian language and its dialects ...c00.0 ee a) ee eee Section 5. On the relations of the Egyptian language to other known idoms Comparision of the Coptic with the Indo- European and Semitic languages—A frican system of languages .......-++06. cee eas Section 6. Further considerations resulting from the con- tents of the preceding sections—On the di- versity of languages among ancient nations —Conclusion with respect to the relation of the Egyptians to other human races ...... 217 CHAPTER XI. On the Physical History of the Egyptian Race. SECTION 1, General remarks on the physical characters of the Egyptians SECTION Q, Description of the Egyptians left by ancient WYILETS 2. ee cecceeccrecncs gil ss seseenees 228 ~———— 3. Of Mummies ~~~ 4 Remains of painting and sculpture ~———- 5. Of the Copts ~——— 6. Of the Ethiopians ....-eeeeeees sees ig vans 239 ~———- 7. On some peculiarities in the ctl and in the position of the meatus auditorius, in Egyp- tian heads ... A 249 Paragraph 2. Position of the ears ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Page. CHAPTER XII. Of the Arabian Tribes dispersed through the Northern regions of Africa. Section 1. General observations ......+-.-seeeeeeees «+ 252 Section 2. Of the Arabian tribes inhabiting parts of At- lantica and of the Sahara........ ek heee s: coek Section 3. Of the Arabian tribes in Egypt and Nubia.. 259 Paragraph 1. Egyptian Arabs - 2. Nubian Arabs ........ CHAPTER XIII. Of the Native Races of Southern Africa, beyond the Tropic. Section 1, Introductory remarks on the physical geogra- py of Sothern’ Alcs” oso... ee ds esees 265 Paragraph 1. Of the extreme part of Southern Africa . + 265 - 2. Of the eastern parts of Africa, southward of the Equator.... 267 Section 2. Of the races of men inhabiting the ultra-tropi- cal parts of South Africa— Hottentots— Kafirs .... . 270 Paragraph 1. Of the Quaique, or Hot- tentot race—Tribes of Hottentots.... 270 - 2. Of the Kora Hottentots .. 273 ——-——-- 3. Ofthe Namaaqua Hottentots 274 ——_-——-- 4. Of the Saabs or Bushmen 275 - 5. Remarks on the physical characters of the Hottentots Secrion 3. Of the Kafirs : Paragraph 1. General observations on the history of the Kafirs - 2. Of the Amakosah and other Kafirs of the coast of Natal..... occ. eee - 3. Of the Bechaanas Peksul a 4 SDE DOMIOTOS bes eaes 70 BOG - 5. Of the Amazuluh, Zoolahs, or Vatwahs SCS cviewse ce DRE - 6. General remarks on the moral characteristics of the Kafir nation 287 ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Xiil Page. Paragraph 7. Physical characters of the Kafirs and Bechuanas —_—--—_— 8. Of the natives of the coun- try near Dalagoa Bay CHAPTER XIV. Of the Native Races of Southern Africa within the Tropic. Section lI. Section 2. SEcTION 3. “Section 4. Section 5. Section 6. Secrion 7. General observations—Extension of the Kafir race in the inter-tropical parts of South Africa 294 Of the Makia, or Makiana—the Suhaili, and other native races of the coasts of Mosam- bique and Zanzibar Of the nations and countries in the interior of Southern Africa .......seeeeeees Se ve beta UU Of the races inhabiting the western parts of South Africa—Empire of Kongo......-. 306 Paragraph 1. Outline of the physical geo- graphy of this region ..ss.esseeeees 307 - 2. States comprised in the Kongo empire to the northward of the Laire sescoeece - 3. States to the southward of the Zaire....... os 310 Indications of affinity between the languages and races of people in various parts of Southern Africa ..cccceceeacccosececees . 312 Physical characters of the nations of inter- tropical Africa, to the southward of the equator goa Rae N sib wipe 88 Soe 32] On certain anatomical peculiarities of the Hot- tentots. CHAPTER XV. Coneluding Observations on the Physical Characters of the African Nations, on their relation to the Climate of Africa, and on their constancy or liability to Variations. Section 1. Inquiry into the relations between the pheno- mena of variety in the physical characters of the African races and climate and other ex- ternal conditions ... ieiageaer ool ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Page. SEcTION 2. Examination of the question, whether the phy- sical characters of human races are in Africa permanent, or liable to variation—W hat in- stances of such deviation can be proved to HAVE Lee PUR S eens cnt os temesasd avd. oo B40 Section 3. General observations on the intellectual facul- ties of the African nations .............. 346 ING aS aeRO cys pS aes 8 4 Bel x Bh RD Pree oe cen Se REFERENCES TO THE PLATES, rt Prats 1.—The Frontispiece, representing the head of a bishop of Abyssinia, the description of which will be found in pages 139 and 140. Prate 2.—An Edjow Galla, page 158. Prate 3.—Fia. 1. Portrait of a Simaly, page 161. Fie. 2. Portrait of a Sdakiny, page 186. Prarz 4.—Portraits of female Hottentots, facing page 280, where they are described. Prate 5.— Portrait of a Kosah Kafir, page 291. Prats 6.— Portrait of a Negro from Mosambique, exemplifying the physical characters of the races described in pages 321—326. The engraving is taken from the Atlas of M. Péron’s Voyage, aux Terres Australes. RESEARCHES INTO THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MANKIND. INTRODUCTION. General Statement of the Inquiries which form the Subject of the following Books. Ix the preceding part of this work I have endeavoured to derive arguments from many general facts in the history of °rganized beings that might tend to elucidate the relations of different human races to each other. These arguments were principally considerations founded on an extensive Survey of analogies, and their evidence was partly nega- tive, and, in part, of a positive kind. I have endeavoured to show, that no remarkable instance of variety in organiza- tion exists among human races to which a parallel may not be found in many of the inferior tribes; and, in the second Place, that all human races coincide in regard to many parti- Culars, in which tribes of animals, when specifically distinct, are always found to differ. How far I have been successful In illustrating these relations, and whether the facts which have brought forward are sufficient to establish the conclu- Slons which I have drawn, my readers have been enabled to determine. It now remains for me to investigate the nature of Organic diversities in mankind in a different way; and, »Y inquiring into the history of particular tribes, to ascertain, if Possible, how far the characters of these tribes have been Permanent, or in what respects they may have been subject to variations. If it should be found that, within the period of VOL, 11, B A, INTRODUCTION. time to which historical testimony extends, the distinguishing characters of human races have been constant and undeviating, it would become a matter of great difficulty to reconcile this conclusion with the inferences already obtained from other considerations. A difficulty of this nature is indeed, if I mis- take not, experienced by many persons when they advert to the general question which I have undertaken to investigate. It is a very prevalent opinion, that the diversities of human races are permanent and subject to little, if any, change, and whatever reasons may present themselves in favour of the unity of species in mankind, their weight is overbalanced by that consideration. Such doubts cannot be cleared up unless it can be determined whether that opinion is well or ill-founded. In the hope of arriving at some conclusion on this question, I shali now enter on an investigation of the physical history of particular races of men or families of nations. I have already shown, that it is altogether hypothetical to divide mankind, as many have done, into a few particular classes or groupes of nations resembling each other in phy- sical character, and to assume that such groupes constitute races or lineages, the members of which are always allied to each other in descent more nearly than to tribes of different physical peculiarities. I shall avoid all attempts to distribute the human family into different departments upon any con- jectural principle, and shall proceed in a geographical arrange- ment to examine the phenomena which present themselves in the population of different regions of the world. This way of dividing the subject is the only one that is free from all objections on the ground of propriety already pointed out; it has also another advantage of no slight importance. By ar- ranging the facts observed in a geographical order, we have an opportunity of more correctly marking the influence of phy- sical agencies in the developement of varieties im breeds, or in the origination of new or diversified races. But, in order to estimate the extent of these agencies, it is not enough to compare with each other the productions of different climates and the climates themselves, as measured simply by relative distances from the poles or from the equator. Many other elements must be taken into the calculation, if we would form INTRODUCTION. 3 _ ® correct idea of the influence of merely physical conditions. Such conditions are often very different under the same lati- tudes. It was long ago proposed by Lacépdde, in a memoir On the elevations and other local circumstances of different regions, to estimate the influence of these external agents On the nature of organized beings.* The problem appeared to him very complicated, but he undertook, in a work in which he had long been employed, entitled, “ Essai sur ’His- toire des principales Races de l’Espéce Humaine,” to demon- Strate, that “various considerations suggested by him, in Connexion with the inquiry above mentioned, are capable of throwing light on phenomena worthy of the closest attention of naturalists.” It may be questioned whether, at the period When this work was announced, either the history of human Taces, or the physical geography of different countries, was sufficiently advanced to render such an inquiry practicable to any satisfactory result; but much information has been ac- quired in both of these departments of knowledge since the time of Lacépéde, and many questions have been elucidated Which were, at that period, involved in doubt. I shall con- sider this subject nearly in the same points of view in which it was contemplated by the writer above mentioned; and, as investigate the natural history of different races of men, T shall endeavour to ascertain what are the most remarkable features in the physical geography of each region, and what Telations the origin and developement of varieties in families or tribes may bear to all these local conditions. The inquiry above mentioned will comprise the whole range of physical causes and their effects. The influence of moral agencies upon human races is a distinct consideration; these, however, will be found by their importance to deserve an Equal degree of attention. It must be observed, that this investigation referring to the * “ Des hauteurs et des positions correspondantes des principales montagnes du Slobe, et de Pinfluence de ces hauteurs et de ces positions sur les habitations des animaux, par Lacépéde.” Annales du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, tom. ix. p- 303. + [have never heard that such a work actually made its appearance from the hands of M. Lacépade. ie \ \\ i} ; 4 INTRODUCTION. mature of that influence which external circumstances and physical and moral causes exert in the production of varieties, and in modifying the organic qualities of different races of men, is an inquiry of secondary importance in refer- ence to the principal object of this part of my work. The primary question is, whether any and what deviations have actually taken place in the physical characters of particular tribes within the period of time to which the evidence of his- tory reaches back. I shall proceed, in the first instance, to survey the races of men which constitute the population of Africa. This is one of the most important and difficult parts of my subject, and will require the most careful and the fullest investigation. INTO THE PHYSICAL ETHNOGRAPHY pa _ — A: oe) oe) a RESEARCHES AFRICAN RACES. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA, AND OF THE NATURAL SUBDIVISIONS OF THAT CONTINENT. Section 1.—General Observations. EratostuEnes is said to have divided the whole ancient world into two parts, namely, Asia and Europe. He com- prised in one department Africa and Europe, to which day and night return at the same hours and which are only Separated from each other by a narrow sea. If we retain this distribution of the countries anciently known, and add to the two departments thus marked out a third great region including the whole of America, we shall have a triple ‘division of the habitable world, each part of which will comprise all latitudes and climates from the arctic countries to the southern extremities of the three great continents, a | distribution better adapted than any other to the purpose of affording an estimate, by a comparison of pheno- mena, of the influence of local conditions on the nature of organized beings. From Nova Zembla or Spitzbergen we may trace an almost unbroken line through Europe and Africa to a country beyond the southern tropic, and observe the gradations of temperature and their effects on the ficure, colour and organization of human races and of various tribes of animals. A similar field of observation will be afforded by Asia, if we consider that division of the world as comprising all the countries which reach from the Me tf B 4 4 4 — nex > ee 70 omen acne pe 8 ATLANTICA, THE HIGHLANDS Arctic Ocean and the Promontory of the Samoiedes to the extremity of Terra Australis. A third and similar comparison will be furnished in the regions of the new world, which extend from the American Polar Sea to the Land of Fire. The continent of Africa has been considered by some writers on physical geography as consisting of two great mountainous regions or table-lands of very unequal extent and including between them a vast intervening space of lower elevation, which has been compared to the sandy bottom of a wide ocean, laid dry by the retreat of its waters. The great Sahara extends across the whole continent of Africa from Egypt and from the Syrtes, or the low tracts on the Mediterranean which lie to the westward of the Cyre- naica, to the Atlantic shore. An ocean of sand, interspersed with green islands or oases, separates the region of Mount Atlas from the extensive highlands of central Africa, of which the mountains of the Moon form the northern border. The former of these regions is connected by many relations with the continent of Europe. By the narrow Mediterranean, across which the hills of Spain and of Sicily may be seen from the opposite coast, the Atlantic highlands are less completely separated from Europe than by the great Sahara from the central region of Africa. I shall take a brief survey of the principal geographical features of these three divisions of Africa. Section II.— Atlantica, the elevated region of Northern Africa. The oriental geographers, as Professor Ritter has observed, gave the designation of “ Western Island,”—Maghrab insula, —to the elevated countries which in the north-western part of that continent, or beyond the 30th degree of latitude, form the highlands of Northern Africa.* This region in reality * See the admirable work of Professor Ritter, “ Die Erdkunde im Verhiltniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte der Menschen, oder allgemeine vergleichende Geo- graphie, als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und Unterrichts in physikalischen nd oe Wissenschaften.” —Berlin, 1832. A translation of the first volume of this Work has just been published, with additions, by M. M. E. Buret and Ed, Desor, Paris, 1836. OF NORTHERN AFRICA. 9 elevates itself like an island between the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the great ocean of sand which cuts it off towards the south and east. Itis not a chain of mountains but a great j Continuous system of highlands, which, under the denomina- tion of Atlas, extend along the Mediterranean coast, occupy- Ing all the interior of the countries of Tunis, Algiers, and aroco, and reaching on the border of the Atlantic ocean as far southward as the province of Souse and the promontory of Ger, Taking its rise on the eastern side from the gulfs of the two Syrtes it becomes gradually elevated into the Tunisian plains, which, towards the Sahara, spread out into Tanges of precipitous hills, but rise behind Maroco, and towards the shores of the Atlantic, into lofty plains, and throw up in the interior conical hills of prodigious height, Corresponding with the opposite peaks of the Sierra Nevada, between Andalusia and Grenada. The whole of this high- land region separates itself from the rest of Africa, and ap- Proximates in the form and structure, the height and arrange- Ment of its elevated masses to the system of mountains in the Spanish Peninsula, of which, if the narrow strait of the Mediterranean were dried up, it would manifestly form a part. The Atlantic highlands, at their eastern extremity, decline, between the Syrtes and Tunis, into sandy plains. At Ras- Addar, or Cape Bon, the Promontorium Mercurii, the moun- tainous country reaches the coast, and approaches within sight of the heights of Sicily. The south-eastern limit of the pla- teau is formed by the mountain-chains of Ghouriano, and the Black Harfidje or Mons Ater, situated to the southward of Tripoli, branches of which , extending in ranges to the length of a four days’ journey, reach into Fezzan, the country of the Garamantes. The principal subdivisions of this country, founded on its 8°ographical features, are, first, the greater chain of Atlas, or € Mons Lamta of Edrisi, which, according to that geo- Stapher, when traced from the westward, rises above Souse, Not far from the Atlantic ocean, and extends eastward almost to the lesser Syrtis. At Souse, the southern province of Ma- "co, the western extremity of Atlas forms, on the coast of Sa AN NE ee 10 REGION OF NORTHERN AFRICA. the ocean, Cape Ger, the Mons Barca of Polybius, cutting off Lower Souse and Tarudant.* This part of Atlantica is oc- cupied by warlike tribes of Shelahs, some of whom still preserve their independence. From the promontory of Ger, already known in the time of Hanno, begin the low, sandy plains of Sahara: the neighbouring gulf of Agadir is termed by the Arabs, Bab-Soudan, or the Gate of the Country of Blacks. Secondly, the lesser Atlas reaches, according to Strabo, from Cape Kotes, near Gibraltar, parallel to the coast as far as the Syrtis. The lower littoral chain, which is often described as the Lesser Atlas, is but a part of it. The higher lands of the interior, eastward of Algiers, bend towards the south from the chain of Jurjura, and form, in the interior of Tunis, the moun- tains of Wellad-Selim, of Auress, and of Tipasa. To this chain belongs Cape Ceuta, termed, by the Berbers, Jibbel-d’-Zatute, or the Mountam of Monkeys. Thirdly, the Middle Atlas, or the table-land, consists of highlands and ranges of hills in the interior, which run between, and parallel to the greater and lesser Atlantic chains. They form a wide, mountainous region, intersected by valleys and rivers, rising more and more in the form of terrasses towards the higher Atlas, and preserving a temperate climate, which Edrisi reckoned as the finest in the world by its fertility and the greatness of its population. The heights and valleys support vast forests of pine and oak, and the magnificent oleander. The vegetation of the Atlantic region in general bears a near relation to that of southern Europe. The maritime tract of the Algerine country displays nearly the same vegetable forms as the coast of Andalusia and Valencia. The olive, the orange-tree, the arborescent ricinus, the chamzerops humilis, and the date-tree flourish on both sides of the Mediterranean; and, when the warmer sun of northern Africa produces different species, they are gene- rally belonging to the same families as the European tribes.+ * Ritter, Erdkunde, loc. cit. + Flora Atlantica de M. Desfontaines. Voyage dans la Régence d’Alger et De- scription du Pays, &c. Par M. Rozet, Capitaine, &c. Ingénieur-Géographe. Balbi, Abrégé de Géographie. De Candolle, Géographie Botanique, Dict. des Sciences Nat. Even further to the eastward, the hills of the Cyrenaica exhibit a similar ana- logy in their vegetation to the opposite coasts of the Mediterranean; and, in HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. Seotion II1.—Highlands of Central Africa. The mountainous region of central Africa to the southward of Sahara and the countries watered by the Niger still re- mains the “ terra incognita” of the world. The vast space Which intervenes between the Bight of Benin and the coast of Ajan is the only great track of the earth which has never yet been explored by the eyes of civilized men. In the failure of actual knowledge, some writers have endeavoured, by con- Jéctures drawn from other parts of the world in similar geo- Staphical positions, and by the observation of phenomena discovered in the neighbouring lands, to form to themselves an idea of what exists in the unknown centre of Africa, Buffon Imagined that region to contain great longitudinal chains of Mountains, and conjectured their general course and elevation accordance with his theory of the earth. Lacépéde, with much greater pretension to accuracy, attempted to lay down even the number and the particular direction of these mountain- chains, and to ascertain the extent and limit of a great table- land, of which he supposed the interior of the African conti- nent to consist.* According to Lacépéde, the high plateau ex- tends from the 20° of southern latitude to the 10° on this side of the equator ; its length is upwards of 660 leagues, or equal to the breadth of Europe from the port of Brest to the near- €st land in Asia; it is supported by numerous ranges of hills, Situated nearly in the direction of the axis of the plateau, Which, inclined toward the west, forms, with the equator, an angle of nearly 60°; the outline of its configuration is traced by the ereat waters which descend from it on every side. In Some parts it approaches the sea-coast ; in others, its bounda- Nes are environed by vast deserts of sand. These wilder- Egypt, though possessing some peculiar plants, scientific travellers have been Surprised at the want of any striking and characteristic physiognomy distinguish- ing the vegetable tribes of that country. See Ehrenberg & Hemprich, Reisen in Acgypten, Lybien, Nubien, und Dongola, 1 B. 154s. * Mémoire sur le Grand Plateau de l’Intérieare de Afrique. Annales du Mus, d’Hist, Naturelle. Tome vi. Par Lacépéde. 12 HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. nesses, which impede all approach to the centre of Africa, lying between the tropics, and so situated, that the east wind reaches them after traversing the burning plains of Ajan and Zanzibar, are, of all parts of the earth, scorched by the most intolerable heats; by them the table-land is surrounded as by a sea of fire. The central region itself is not a regular con- vex, but a vast aggregate of mountains, consisting of nume- rous parallel chains, whence rivers escape by longitudinal valleys; but the quantity of waters which flow through the channels of the Cuama and the Zaire is so small in propor- tion to a surface 200 leagues in breadth, as to afford strong ground for an opinion, that the interior of Africa contains ereat lakes, ora mediterranean sea, which must be situated be- tween the equator and the 10° of southern latitude. With sin- gular precision, this author proceeds to trace out the direction of rays issuing on every side from the central nucleus; they form nine chains, according to Lacépéde, which proceed to- wards different quarters, and send forth the waters of the Zambesi, the rivers of Zanzibar, those which flow into the straits of Babelmandeb, the Nile, the Niger, the Camaoens, the Zaire, and the rivers of Loanda and Cape Negro. Malte-Brun, whose work is vast in details, but somewhat defective in generalisation, doubts the existence, or at least the continuity, of the system of central mountains, of which Lacépede attempted so ambitiously to describe’ the whole aggregate and the particular parts. A more accurate analysis of the facts really known, and an estimate of probabilities drawn from a careful comparison of these facts with the phe- nomena discoverable in other regions, led Professor Ritter to adopt a modification of Lacépéde’s opinion. According to Ritter, central Africa is a highland region bounded on each side by chains of mountains. The form and structure ascribed to this region may, perhaps, be most easily understood, though Ritter has not happened to select this particular analogy, by comparing it to the Indian peninsula: the wide valley of the Niger and the low, marshy plains of Wangarra and. Baghermi lie before the northern boundary of the plateau, as the valleys of the Jumna and the Ganges skirt the highlands of Hindfistan on the same quarter, and chains of mountains extend on each LOWLANDS OF AFRICA. 13 side of Africa nearly parallel to the eastern and western coasts, along which they direct their course at various distances from the shore towards the southern extremity, as in India the eastern and the western Ghauts descending on each side of the Deccan from high Hindistan towards Cape Comorin, Separate the low countries of Malabar and Coromandel from the hich plain of the Mysore. It is remarked by Ritter, that the high table-land of Africa is traversed by no great river. The Nile and the Joliba are insignificant, when compared with the vast streams which descend from the steppes of central Asia. It must be inferred, either that snow and rain fall in but small quantities in the interior, or that the heights of the central region contain great lakes which absorb the Tunning waters. If the former of these suppositions be cor- tect, it is plain that the elevation of the mountains in this Continent must be much inferior to the height of the great Himmélaya. Section [V.—Lowlands of Africa. The low countries of Africa, which extend along the north- ern margin of the central highlands and reach northward to the borders of Atlas, and, in some parts, to the Mediterranean Coast, are partly fertile valleys or plains watered by streams falling from the mountains, and, in great part, a vast ocean of Sand. The fertile plains are in the immediate vicinity of the Mountain-chains, which supply them with rivers, the sources of vegetation. They are principally the extensive region watered by the Niger, and other streams in the same lati- tude, reaching from east to west across half the continent, and the Biledulgerid, or Land of Dates, which has been com- pared to a verdant zone extending along the southern border of the greater Atlas. Between these fertile tracts, which are its boundaries both on the north and south, the Sahara-bela-ma, or the great Dry Ocean of Africa, stretches from east to west. It is a vast region of sand, traversed by chains of rocky Mountains, a sterile and desolate wilderness, interspersed however by innumerable oases, or islands of verdure, which 14 LOWLANDS OF AFRICA. exist wherever waters spring forth from the soil, and irrigate small surrounding tracts, shaded with groves of palm-trees, and affording places of refuge and safety to caravans, and often to travellers perishing with thirst. The area of this great desert, which is the most extensive, and, at the same time, the most ardent in the world, scorched by the vertical rays of the sun, has been supposed to be equal to the half of Eu- rope, or to twice the space occupied by the Mediterranean sea. The oases are various in extent ; sometimes they are arranged im groupes, or in chains; and the larger ones become, like islands in the ocean, the abodes of fixed mhabitants, the _eradles of tribes and races of men, which, springing from one or from a few original stocks, have acquired, in such insulated retreats, peculiarities of manners and language, and display, even in their physical conformation, the influence of external agencies to which they have been subjected during a long series of generations. In several instances, these distant spots have been places of refuge, where ancient tribes and languages have been preserved from remote periods of antiquity, and many of them keep the names by which they are recognised in the writings of the ancients. Fezzan, the Phazania of Pliny, the abode of the Garamantes, is one of the most con- siderable. Siwah, the oasis of the Ammonians, preserves the remains of the celebrated temple of Ammon. Tuat, Gualata, and Agades, are great oases situated in the remotest parts of the Sahara. CHAPTER II. OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF ATLANTICA. Section 1.—History of the Atlantic Nations, elucidated by researches into their Language. A Race of people divided into many different tribes, and Spread over a vast region in Northern Africa, has its principal, and had probably its most ancient abode, in the mountains of Atlas. The tribes of this race have different denomina- tions in various districts ; the most prevalent name is that of erbers or Berebbers: from them the north of Africa appears to have received the designation of Barbary or Barbaria.* The term as applied to the country now so named is of Modern date, for the Barbary or Berberia of the ancients Was the eastern coast of Africa, including the shores of the Red Sea and the land of the Sum4li, near the port of Bar- . bara. The history of the Berber people, and the tribes allied to them in origin, has only been investigated in recent “mes, and since the value of philological researches has been hown in tracing the origin and affinity of nations. The Berbers, and the tribes allied to them in different parts of rica, are known by their peculiar language, which, notwith- Standing the repeated conquests of Mauretania by foreign na- Hons, has been preserved in remote mountainous tracts, as well 4s in the distant regions of the desert, and which is the only idiom known to the great mass of the people. This probably was the language, as it has been observed by Mr. Hodgson, Which the “ Tyria Bilingues” were obliged to learn in addi- tion to their own mother tongue, the Punic or Phoenician ‘ On the import and origin of this name, and on the circumstances connected with st ° - : . : : Tanslation from one part of Africa to another, involving considerations of some im: : ; Portance in ethnography, the reader will find some remarks in a note at the end of this Book. gS 16 LANGUAGE OF THE ABORIGINES. speech. It was probably the language of all the northern parts of Africa, before the earliest colonies of the Phoenecians were settled on the coast, for we find no traces in history of any subsequent change of great extent in the popula- tion of that region, and although we ought not to place too much reliance on etymologies, which have led to so many absurd conclusions, it is impossible not to allow some weight of evidence to the very successful attempt which has been made to explain in the Berber language many names in the ancient African topography.* In the time of Leo, we have his assurance that it was the language of the north of Africa, and even of many Moorish cities, where it has since become disused, owing to the growing prevalence of the more culti- vated language which intercourse with the dominant race, and the influence of Isl4m must have rendered continually more prevalent. It is only within a few years that it has attracted much attention in Europe, though a dissertation was pub- lished upon it at the beginning of the last century, as an appendix to the Oratio Dominica of Chamberlayne, and a vocabulary of the dialect spoken by the Kabyles, a tribe of the same race in the mountainous country behind Tunis, appeared in the travels of Dr. Shaw. “ This language,” says M. Venture in a learned memoir which was published by the celebrated M. Langlés, “ is spoken from the mountains of Souse, which border the Atlantic Ocean, to those of the Ollelétys, which rise above the plains of Kairoan in the kingdom of Tunis. The same idiom, with a slight difference, is likewise spoken in the isle of Girbéh, at Monastyr, and in the greater number of the villages spread through the Sahara, and among others im those of the tribe * See Mr. Hodgson’s excellent Memoir on the Berber language in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, read October, 1829. In this paper, which contains much valuable information on other subjects connected with the history of the Berbers, it has been shown that a great number of local names have a most appropriate meaning in the idiom of that people. Among them are—Atlas, called by the Berbers merely Adhraar, a mountain ; Thala, the name of a place mentioned by Sallust and still so termed from Thala, a fountain; Ampsaga, by Pliny and Mela, a river in a forest country, from Am-sagar, thudyc 3 Augela, from Agela, wealth; Tipasa, Thapsus, from Thefza, sandy. OF THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF ATLANTICA. 17 ofthe Beni Mozab. The tribes who speak this language have different names : those of the mountains belonging to Maroco are termed Shoulouhhs ;* those who inhabit the plains of that empire, dwelling under tents in the manner of the Arabs, are named Berbers; and those of the mountains belonging to Algiers and Tunis call themselves Cabaylis or Gebalis.”” The latter names, according to M. Langlés, are properly Qabiily, Meaning tribes, and Djebaly, mountaineers. _“ Many travellers,” continues M. Venture, “have already S!ven us some notices of this language, but these have not been sufficient to enable us to form a correct idea of its ex- tent. Dr. Shaw, in his Travels in Barbary; M. Hoést, Danish Consul, in his Account of Maroco; and Mr. Chenier, in his €searches concerning the Arabs, have made some vocabu- laries, which, for the want of correct information in the com- Pilerg, have been scanty and incorrect. “ The basis of the Berber language is only the jargon of @ Savage people. It has no terms for expressing abstract ideas, and is obliged to borrow them from the Arabic. In their idiom, man is not said to be subject to sloth, to death ; he is slothful, he dies. They could not say that a ball has the quality of rotundity, but only that it is round. Their aguage furnishes only concrete terms. to express qualities “8 united to their subjects, and such an idiom is all that is requisite for men obliged by the devastation of the pla coun- tries to live always on mountains, and whom jealousy and Mterest keep in_ perpetual warfare with the neighbouring Mountaineers. “The Berbers use no conjunctions; they denote their Sensations by short and unconnected expressions. All words relating to arts and to religion are borrowed from the Arabic. €y give them a Berber form, by cutting off the initial al and prefixing a ¢, and putting another ¢, or the syllable mit at the end: thus they transform magas into temaqast or éemaqasnit.”’ M. Venture adds, that no alphabetic characters have been 'Scovered to be in use among them except the Arabic, but * Plural of Shilahh, by Mr. Jezreel Jones written Shilha. eOL.. £1. Cc 18 DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE BERBER RACE. that as the greater part of the mountainous region of Atlas has always been inaccessible to the conquerors of Africa, it would not be surprising if books should be found written 42 some peculiar alphabet, if it were possible to traverse, without danger, the recesses of their country. This con- jecture has been in part verified. Among the Tuaryk, who belong to the same race, it appears that the use of letters has long been known: they have a system of alphabetic writing of their own, of which an account was first given by Dr. Oudney in the Journal of Clapperton and Denham. M. Venture first published a tolerably copious specimen of the Berber language, with a grammatical analysis, for which I must refer to his memoir.* I shall add some further observations on the different branches of the Berber race. Suction I].—Different Branches of the Berber Race.— 1. Berbers of Atlas.—2. Shuluh.—3. Kabyles.—4. Tuaryk. 1. Berbers of the Northern Atlas. We have an account of these mountaineers from Mr. Jackson, who says that Atlas is inhabited by more than twenty different tribes, carrying on perpetual warfare against each other, tribe against tribe, and village against village. Hereditary feuds end only in the extermination of whole families. The tribes who live on the snowy mountains of Atlas dwell in caverns from November to April, and their exploits give origin to traditions and legends which terrify the people of the plains. They are very poor, and make plun- dering excursions in quest of the means of supporting life. They are a robust and active people. * Another more copious analysis of the Berber language, drawn up with the assistance of a native instructor, a taleb of the Beni Boojeeah, has been published by Mr. Hodgson, in the memoir above cited, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. There is also a very able treatise on that subject by Mr. W. F. Newman, late Fellow of Balliol, made by the author, without any as- sistance whatever, from a portion of St. Luke’s Gospel, printed in Arabic letters by the Bible Society. Mr. Newman’s Memoir is published in the West of England Literary and Scientific Journal, printed at Bristol. DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE BERBER RACE. 19 The Berbers of the higher Atlas are described by Lem- Priére, who calls them Brebes, as a very athletic strong- featured people, patient and accustomed to hardship and fatigue. He says that they seldom remove far from the spot of their abode ; they shave the fore-part of their heads, but Suffer the hair to grow from the crown as far behind as the neck. Their only covering is a woollen garment without Sleeves, fastened round the waist by a belt. These people, adds Lempriére, differ entirely from the Arabs and Moors, being the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, and in a steat measure independent in their own mountain villages, where they feed cattle and hunt wild beasts.* 2. Shuluh. The mountaineers in the southern parts of Maroco term themselves Schoulouh, the plural of Shelah. They live villages of houses made of stones and mud, with slate roofs, occasionally in tents, and even in caves: they are chiefly untsmen, but cultivate the groundand rear bees. Leo Africanus "eckons them as a part of the same race with the Berbers e the northern Atlas, and, according to M. Venture, their idiom, which they term Amazich or Amazigh, meaning the ‘Noble language, is a cognate dialect of the Berber speech. By Mr. Jackson it was considered as totally different, but evidence has been adduced by Lieutenant Washington, in a Memoir published in the Journals of the Royal Geographical ociety, which seems to prove that M. Venture’s opinion was Well founded. The author has given a vocabulary collected by himself from the mouth of a native Shelab, who had Passed his life in Mount Atlas, which he has compared with the collections of Venture and others. A part of this will be “™serted in the following section collated with specimens of Several other Atlantic dialects. * Lempriére’s Tour to Maroco, p. 171. 20 DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE BERBER RACE. 3. The Kabyles of Algiers and Tunis, and the Berber Tribes in the central parts of Atlantica. The Berbers of the Tunisian and Algerine territories are termed by the inhabitants of the cities Kabyles or Qabaily : they occupy all the hills which form the lesser Atlas, the people of particular hills having the names of Beni-Sala or Beni-Meissera, &c. which mean Children of Sala or Meis- sera. They speak the Berber language, which is termed by them Showiah, and in the interior of the country are quite unacquainted with the Arabic. They live in huts made of the branches of trees and covered with clay, which resemble the magalia of the old Numidians, spread in little groupes over the sides of the mountains, and preserve the grain, the legumes, and other fruits which are the produce of their husbandry, in matmoures, or conical excavations in the ground. They are the most industrious inhabitants of the Barbary States, and besides tillage, work the mines contained in their mountains and obtain lead, iron, and copper.* Of the tribes in the interior behind Tunis in the country of the ancient Getuli we have some recent information from Mr. Hodgson, whose memoir has already been cited ; and in a late publication by M. d’Avezac who has translated an itinerary of Hhaggy Ebn-el-Dyn, which he has published with notes and illustrations.+ According to Hodgson, whose information was obtained from native travellers, and partly from Hhaggy Ebn-el-Dyn, the Berber tribes of the Geetulian region are four, namely, the Mozabies, Biscaries, Wadreagans, and Wurgelans. The Mozabies inhabit an oasis of the Sahara 300 miles to the southward of Algiers: the Biscaries dwell about 200 miles to the south-east of Algiers: Tuggurt, the capital of Wadreag, is * Shaw’s Travels in Barbary. Voyage dans la Régence d’Alger, par M. Rozet, tom. ii. + Etudes de Géographie Critique sur une Partie de lAfrique Septentrionale, par M, d’ Avezac. Paris, 1836. DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE BERBER RACE. 21 about 100 miles to the south-east of the Biscaries and Wurgelah 30 leagues to the south-west of Tuggurt. The Berber lan- Suage is the native idiom of the Mozabies, Wadreagans and Wurgelans. The Biscaries, though of Berber origin, now Speak the Arabic language. The Mozabies, or people of the Wady-Mozib, who name themselves Aith-Emzab, equivalent to Beni-Emzab, are Separated by a trackless desert from the other two tribes who speak the same language, and they are very distinct in moral and physical constitution. Their dialects are but slightly different in pronunciation, but the Aith-Emz4b are Temarkably white, while the other tribes are black. The People of Wadreag, or the Aith-Eregaiah and the Aith- urgelah,* are black, and have woolly hair, flat noses, and thick lips. When Mr. Hodgson first saw a native of Wad- Teag, he was quite surprised to hear him speak Berber. In the city of Tuggurt, the capital of Wadreag, there is a sepa- tate tribe who speak only Arabic, and have light hair and a fair complexion. 4A. Tuaryk. Ihave now to remark a fact of greater importance in the ethnography of Africa than the origin of any particular tribe of mountaineers. I allude to the extension of the same race through all the lowlands of Africa as far as the borders of Sidan, or the great valley of the Niger. The history of the Tuaryk belongs, however, to the next section of this chapter, Szcrion [1].—Noations of the Sahara, Tuaryk, and Tibbo. Leo divides the north of Africa into four regions, which, as he Says, ran parallel to each other from east to west, as longitudinal bands, and extend from Egypt or the Nile to the editerranean. ‘These four regions are termed Barbaria, * Ouergelah, in the orthography of M. d’Avezac. CS pe es te ae DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE BERBER RACE. Numidia, Lybia, and the Land of the Negroes. The second and third of these names are applied in a sense quite different from that in which they were used by the ancients. Bar- baria is Barbary, parallel to the Mediterranean coast; Nu- midia is Biledulgerid, or the Land of Dates, extending to the southward of Barbary and of the chain of Atlas, from the borders of Egypt to the city of Nun upon the Atlantic ocean. The third region, or Lybia, is the Desert termed by the Arabs, Sahara: it extends from the kingdom of Gaoga on the east, to the land of Gualata which borders on the ocean: Beyond this is the Land of Negroes, the southern part of which, says Leo, is unknown to us, but the merchants who come thence continually to the kingdom of Tombutum, have sufficiently described the country to us. ‘ This Land of the Negroes has a mighty river, which, taking the name of the region, is called Niger.” The latter of these regions lies beyond the scope of our present observations: its inhabitants will be considered in a succeeding chapter. The native people of the three former divisions are termed by Leo, “gentes subfusct coloris,” or races of tawny complexion. He describes them as divided into several peoples or tribes, termed respectively Sanhagi, Musmudi, Zeneti, Haoari, and Gumeri. “The tribe of Musmudi inhabit the western part of Mount Atlas, from the province of Hea, to the river of Sernan, or Guadalhabit. They likewise dwell upon the south side of the mountains, and in all the interior plains of that region. The tribe of Gumeri possess certain moun- tains of Barbary, which lie over against the Mediterranean Sea. These two tribes have several habitations by them- selves ; the other three tribes are dispersed confusedly over all Africa; yet they are, as strangers, distinguished from one another by certain properties or tokens. In times past all the aforesaid people had their habitation in tents, or in the open fields; the governors of the country attended their herds and flocks, and individuals employed themselves in manual labour and husbandry. The aforesaid five families, or nations, being divided into hundreds of tribes, use notwithstand- ing, all one kind of language, which is termed by them, Aquel- Amarig, i. e. the noble tongue. The Arabians who inhabit NATIONS OF THE SAHARA. 23 Africa, call it < Lingua Barbara,’ and this is the true and natural language of the Africans, although it has divers words common to it and the Arabic. Indeed all the Gumeri and most of the Haoari speak the Arabic, though corruptly, which, I suppose, first came to pass by the long acquaintance and conversation of the natives with the Ara- bians.” Leo proceeds to give an account of the entrance of Arabian tribes into Africa, where they supplanted the native, Jag Berber inhabitants, driving them out of Barbary, into the inland and comparatively desert regions of Lydia and Nu- midia. There they still continue to dwell or to wander as Nomades, distinguished from other nations by their manners as well as by their Berber language.* In another passage, Leo terms the five nations designated Gentes subfusci coloris, the people of Zenaga, of Gan- ziga, of Terga, of Leuta, and of Bardeoa. He says they live all after the same manner, that is, without all law and Civility ; he describes their mode of riding upon camels as Singular. For beds they lie upon mats made of sedge and bulrushes. He then proceeds to describe their manner of living as one of incredible hardships. | : Though the different tribes of this people were so well known to Leo, the existence of the Tuaryk, widely as they are spread in northern Africa, must be considered as in Modern times the discovery of M. Hornemann, and the identification of the race with the Berbers of Mount Atlas as that of Mr. Marsden. Previous to the travels of Hornemann it was not known that any other nomadic people existed in the great wilderness of north Africa, except tribes of Ara- bian origin. Hornemann describes two nomadic races dispersed over the vast regions of the Sahara; viz. the Tibbos and the Tuaryk. The Tibbos possess the greater parts of the desert, from the meridian of Fezzan eastward, and the Tuaryk, the _ More extensive region to the westward of the same limit, a8 well as some places nearer to Egypt. It was supposed by Vater and others that the Tibbos speak * J. Leonis Africa, lib. i. p. 6 in the first edition. i 24 NATIONS OF THE SAHARA. a dialect of the language of the Tuaryk, but this opinion appears to be unfounded. A vocabulary collected by Capt. Lyon indicates their language to be entirely distinct. I shall have occasion to return to the consideration of this subject. The Tuaryk are a far more extensive and important nation. Tribes of this race have established themselves at Sokna, in the territory of Fezzan, and further to the eastward at Siwah and Augela, but their principal abode is m the western region — of Sahara from Fezzan to Kashna and Sidan and to the At- lantic ocean. They are the Nomades of all the western parts of northern Africa, and possess all the oases and trading settlements between the states of Mauretania to the north- ward, and the Negro countries in the region of the Niger. They border towards the south on the Negro nations of Bornt, Hatisa, Gaber, and Tombuktié: the countries of the Moza- bies, Engousal, and Ghadames are their northern limits, beyond which they are never found. According to Captain Lyon, the Tuaryk term their lan- guage Ertana. Their designation Tuaryk, properly Tuerga, is the plural of terga, meaning tribe, or horde, as does gabail in Arabic, whence Kabyles. Mr. Hodgson, who has collected much valuable and im- portant information respecting the Tuaryk and the whole Berber nation, assures us that the idiom of the Tuaryk is pure Berber, and that the only difference of speech between the highlanders of Atlas, and the mhabitants of the low countries of Sahara is merely a slight one of pronunciation. This fact has been verified by Mr. Hodgson by personal comunication with inhabitants of many oases and districts in northern Africa, particularly with the people of Dra, Tafilet, Fighiz, Tuat, Tegoraza, Tadeekels, Wurgelah, Ghadames, Djerbi, Gharian, among all of whom the Berber language is radically the same. The physical characters of different tribes of Tuaryk vary, but this part of their history will be considered in another section. POPULATION OF -BARBARY. 25 SECTION IV.—Of the Population of the African Coast and the States of Barbary. It does not appear likely that the aboriginal population of northern Africa ever received such an admixture of foreign Taces as would be capable of effecting any material change In the physical constitution of the people. The early colonies of the Pheenicians appear to have been chiefly trading settlements or stations established for the Purpose of facilitating commerce with the mother country. We are informed, that the Tyrians did not, like the Greeks of Cyrenaica, keep themselves separate from the aborigines, so as to preserve their race and nation unmixed, but intermarried and blended with the native Africans. This seems to imply Comparative fewness of numbers, and that men were the prin- cipal settlers. The object of the Greeks was colonization, that of the Tyrians, as it is probable, only traffic. In one settlement, Indeed, these strangers were so numerous as to preserve their language ; for the Punic, as we know from various consi- erations, and particularly from the well-known passage in Plautus, was nearly pure Phcenician or Hebrew.* Yet, even . the people of Carthage appear to have still spoken, also, the Native language of Africa; for I think it must be in a literal Sense that Virgil calls them “ Tyrios Bilingues.” When Carthage was conquered, the Punic gave way to the oman language. New Carthage was a Roman city, and had, doubtless, a population who spoke Latin in the time of Ter- tullian, Cyprian, and Augustin. Latin was, probably the language of the great towns down to the period of the con- ‘uest of Africa by the Moslemin. The small population of Yemen could never have furnished very numerous armies. The zeal and fury of the invaders : . Notwithstanding the chimerical attempt of Vallancey to turn the Punic scene Into Gaelic, I am sure that no well-informed person can examine Bochart on this Passage, without being convinced that the Punic was pure Hebrew. See Bochart’s fog. Sacra, p. 800; see also the Rev. W. D. Conybeare’s strictures, in a very learned note appended to his adinirable Theological Lectures. a pH SS RS TS aac STI OTD eee re 26 PEOPLE OF BARBARY. made up for their want of numbers ; and, it is probable, that the greater part of the Arabs, who passed into Africa after the conquest, preferred maintaining their former habits of life, and wandering through the plains of Biledulgerid and the Sahara, rather than coop themselves up in towns, and change their manner of existence. This, indeed, appears to have been the case with the Arab tribes who migrated into Africa in the first centuries after the Hegira, as we shall have occasion to observe in a future section of this book. Through the ascendancy of the conquering people, and the influence of Islam, the constant reading of the Koran, and by intercourse with other countries, the Arabic language must soon have become spread much more extensively than the mixture of foreign population. In the time of Leo Afri- canus, as he informs us, all the cities on the African coast— a mari Mediterraneo ad Atlantem usque montem—spoke cor- rupt Arabic. He excepts the kingdom and the city of Maroco, as well as the Numidians of the inland country, viz. those who border on Mauretania and Cesarea. He seems, after- wards, to limit the use of Arabic to the people of Tunis and Tripoli, and the nearly adjoining districts. “Quare qui Tuneto regno et Tripolitano confines sunt Arabicé loquuntur, sed corruptissimé.” The people of Maroco spoke Berber in the time of Leo; the Arabic language has since become the popular idiom there also; not by any subsequent colonization, for there has been no change in the population of the country, but by the influence of other causes above suggested. We may, therefore, consider the population of Barbary as principally consisting of the descendants of the aboriginal Berber race. Section V.—Physical Characters of the Barbary Moors, and of the Native T'ribes of Atlas and the Sahara. The general character of the people of Barbary is well known to Europe. Their figure and stature is nearly the same as those of the southern Europeans, and their com- PHYSICAL CHARACTERS. vii plexion if darker, is only so in proportion to the higher tem- Perature of the countries which they inhabit. It displays, as we shall see, great varieties. Mr. Jackson informs us that the men of Temsena and Showiah are of a strong, robust make, and of a copper colour. € adds, that the women are very beautiful. The women of Fez, according to the same writer, are as fair as European women, but their hair and eyes are always dark. He says that the women of Mequinas are very beau- tiful, and have the red and white complexion of English females, M. Rozet gives the following description of the Moors: “ Tl existe cependant encore un certain nombre de familles, qui n’ont point contracté d’alliances avec des étrangers, et chez lesquelles on retrouve les caractéres de la race primitive. €s hommes sont d’une taille au dessus de la moyenne ; leur démarche est noble et grave; ils ont les cheveux noirs ; 2 peau un peu basanée, mais plutét blanche que brune ; le Visage plein, mais les traits en sont moins bien prononcés que eux des Arabes et des Berbéres. Ils ont généralement le nez @trondé, la bouche moyenne, les yeux trés ouverts mais peu vifs; leurs muscles sont bien prononcés, et ils ont le corps Plutét gros que maigre. Les femmes sont constituées en Proportion des hommes; elles ont presque toutes les cheveux Noirs et des yeux magnifiques; j’en ai va de fort jolies. Elles Ne portent jamais de corsets, et comme l’embonpoint est une Stande beauté aux yeux des Maures, et qu’elles font tous leurs efforts pour en avoir, elles ont le corps mal fait, et sur- tout extrémement large de hanches.” The German travellers M. M. De Spix and Martius were Struck by the singular mixture of races which they observed at Gibraltar, where northern and southern Europeans, as well 4S natives of Africa, are seen collected in crowds, and they ave attempted to point out the distinguishing traits of each People. « Among the natives of northern Africa,” they say, “a Steat many resort hither from Maroco, who sell fruit and fine Sather manufactures in the streets. The fair and sanguine natives of the north, as well as the tawny southern European, distineuish themselves by strikingly different traits both in 28 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS the features of the countenance and in the structure of the body from these foreigners of oriental origin. The physiog- nomy of the Marocans and other Africans, who were seen here, is expressive of firmness of mind and prudence, yet without that look of cunning—verschmitzheit—attributed commonly to the offspring of the Semitic race—rather blended with a pleasing frankness and mental tranquillity—seelenruhe. A high forehead, an oval countenance, large, sparkling—feu- rige—black eyes; shaded by arched, strong eyebrows; a thin, rather long, but not too pointed nose ; rather broad lips, meet- ing in an acute angle; thick, smooth, black hair on the head and in the beard; brownish-yellow complexions, a strong neck ; a powerful and firm structure, both bony and muscular, joined to a stature greater than the middle height, characterize the natives of northern Africa, as they are fre- quently seen in the streets of Gibraltar.” M. Rozet informs us, that the Berbers or Kabyles of the Algerine territory are of middle stature; their complexion is brown, and sometimes nearly black: “ Les Berbéres sont de taille moyenne ; ils ont le teint brun et quelquefois noiratre, les cheveux bruns et lisses, rarement blonds; ils sont tous maigres, mais extr¢mement robustes et nerveux; leur corps eréle est trés bien fait, et leur tournure a une élégance que Yon ne trouve plus que dans les statues antiques. Ils ont la téte plus ronde que les Arabes, les traits du visage plus courts, mais aussi bien prononcés; ces beaux nez aquilins si communs chez ceux-ci sont rares chez les Berbéres; |’expres- sion de leur figure a quelque chose de sauvage et méme de cruel; ils sont extr¢mement actifs et fort intelligens.”’ The physical characters of the different nations in the em- pire of Maroco are described by Lieutenant Washington, who says, that the Arabs are a hardy race, but slightly made, and under the middle size; the girls, when young, pretty; but the women frightfully ugly, owing to exposure and hardships. Their language is the Koreish. The Moors are, generally, a fine-looking race of men; of the middle stature ; disposed to become corpulent ; they have good teeth ; complexions of all shades, owing, as itis supposed, to intermixture with Negroes. “‘ We remarked, that the darker the colour, the finer were OF THE BERBER RACES. 29 the men, and of more determined characters,” The Negroes are not very numerous; a fact which is rather against the Supposition above hinted at. He describes the Shuluh or helahs in the mountains above Maroco, as lively, intelligent, well-formed, athletic men, not tall, without marked features, and with light complexions. A similar difference of complexion, in relation to tempe- Tature, or, at least, to elevation of ground, was observed by r. Shaw among the Kabyles, of the Tunisian country. He Says, that “ the Kabyles, in general, are of a swarthy colour, with dark hair; but those who inhabit the mountains of Au- ress, or Mons Aurasius, though they speak the same language, are of a fair and ruddy complexion, and their hair is of a deep yellow,” We shall have occasion to notice many facts €Xactly parallel to this, which may prevent any hesitation in admitting it, without resorting to the improbable and wholly Sratuitous supposition that the xanthous Berbers of Mount Auress are the remains of the Vandals, who were conquered by Belisarius. I have already stated, from the testimony of Mr. Hodgson, that the tribes, who live seven hundred miles to the southward of Algiers, in the remote parts of Atlantica and towards the desert, differ in physical characters from the northern Berbers. The Aith-Eregaiah and Aith-Ouergelah are black, and have the features and hair of Negroes, though speaking the Berber language. The circumstances which might afford an explana- tion of these facts are unknown to us. The Tuaryk, spread through the Sahara, have been never fully described by travellers. The Tuaryk are said by Hornemann to be a fine, hand- Some race of people, with European features. Horne- Mann’s personal observations were confined to the Tuaryk tribes or nations of Kollouvy and Hhagara. He observes that the western tribes are white, as far as their manner of life and exposure to the sun allows them to be. But the Kol- lonvians are of different colours. Many are black, but they lave jot the features ‘of Negroes. The Hhagara and the Matkara are yellowish, like the Arabs. Near Sondan there are tribes entirely black. It may be remarked, that, if this 30 TRIBES OF THE GREAT DESERT. blackness were owing to intermixture with Negroes, it would be accompanied by assimilation in other physical characters to the Negro race, which is expressly denied.* Captain Denham describes the Tuaryk as a lively people. “Tbe women,’’ he says, “ have a copper complexion; eyes large, black, and rolling; noses plain.” ‘ Two or three had finely-shaped noses of the ancient Egyptians hape.”+ Hair long and shedded, not plaited like the Arab women, nor oiled. It seems, from these accounts, that the nations, whose his- tory we have traced in this chapter, present all varieties of com- plexion, and these variations appear, in some instances at least, to be nearly in relation to the temperature, whether de- pending on elevation of surface or the latitude of the regions in which they display themselves. Szotion VI.—Of the Tibbo. This survey of the nations of northern Africa and of the Sahara would be incomplete without some further notices of the 'Tibbo. The Tibbos extend eastward of Fezzan, along the southern side of the Harfidje and the desert of Augelah, to the vast desert which borders on Egypt to the westward. To the southward of the Tibbos are wandering Arab tribes who pos- sess the desert between them and Borni, and to the west- ward are the Tuaryk of Arba, or Aghades, and of Tagaze. According to Hornemann, the following are the principal tribes of Tibbos :— Ist. Rechdadéh, or Tibbos of the rocks, to the southward and south-east of Fezzan. The towns of Abo and Tibesty belong to them. 2nd. The Febabos, situated about ten days’ jourmey to- wards the south-south-west of Augelah. 3rd. The tribe of Borgou, placed further southward, nearly on the parallel of the southern part of Fezzan. 4th. The tribe of Arno. 5th. The tribe of Bilma, which is the greatest tribe of the * Hornemann’s Travels in Africa. Trad. de M. Langleés, p. 152. + Clapperton and Denham’s Travels in Africa, p. 52. TRIBES OF TIBBO. ST Tibbo nation, and occupies the country between Fezzan and Bornou. 6th. Nomadic Tibbos on the borders of the empire of ornou. The Tibboos are described by Hornemann, who says that they are “ not quite black.” He adds, that their growth is slender ; their limbs are well-turned ; their walk is light and Swift ; their eyes are quick ; their lips thick ; their noses are ot turned up or flattened, and not large; their hair is less curled than that of the Negroes. The Tibbo appear to be a people of peculiar character, Whose whole organization bears the impression of the exter- nal agencies under which they exist, and to which it seems harmoniously adapted. They are black, or of a dark colour, but have not the form of the head that belongs to Negroes. The following account of them is given by Captain Lyon: “The Tibbo females are light and elegant in form; and their graceful costume, quite different from that of the Fez- Zaners, is well put on. They have aquiline noses, fine teeth, and lips formed like those of Europeans: their eyes are ex- Pressive, and their colour is of the brightest black ; there is Something in their walk and erect manner of carrymg them- Selves, which is very striking. Their feet and ankles are de- licately formed, and are not loaded with a mass of brass or ton, but have merely a light anklet of polished silver or Copper sufficient to show their jetty skin to more advantage. ‘hey also wear red slippers. Their hair is plaited on each Side in such a manner as to hang down on the cheeks like @ fan, or rather in the form of a large dog’s ear.” “ The : ibbo women do not, like the Arabs, cover their faces. t hey retain their youthful appearance longer than the latter.” * The principal region of Tibbo is Bilma, in latitude 18%, 19°, Some hundred miles north of Lake Tschad, where they have €en seen by the English travellers who visited Bornou. The Tibbo of this region are described by Clapperton and Den- am, They say that “the women have very pleasing features. The pearly white of their regular teeth is beautifully con- trasted with the glossy blackness of their skin; triangular * Capt. Lyon’s Travels, p. 224—227. 32 TRIBES OF TIBBO. flaps of plaited hair hang down on each side of their faces, streaming with oil.”’ The Gunda Tibboo, further southward, are “ slender, well- made, with sharp, intelligent, copper-coloured faces, large prominent eyes, flat noses, large mouth and teeth, high fore- heads.’’* Sxcrion VII.—Of the Guanches, or old Inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is supposed that the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands, were a branch of the great Lybian, or Atlantic stock. This once flourishing, and if we believe his- torical accounts, happy and innocent race of people, have long since perished, and have left no other remains than their skeletons, which are dispersed among the cabinets and mu- seums in Europe. It has often been conjectured, that the Canary Islands were the vnco. Maxapwy of the ancients, and the site of the fabu- lous gardens of the Hesperides. They seem to be obscurely indicated in the traditions of the early Grecian mythology, but the first occasion in which they are mentioned in history, or in any account that approaches to authenticity, is in the report which was given to Sertorius, on the credit of which we are told by Plutarch that the Roman general was seized with a desire to return to them and live in peace and repose. It is said that when flying from the arms of Sylla, Sertorius met with some seamen but newly-arrived from the Atlantic Islands, which were said to be distant 10,000 furlongs from the coastof Africa. ‘‘ They are called,” says Plutarch, “ the For- tunate Isles. Rain only falls there, as it is said, in moderate showers: the seasons of the year are temperate: and gentle breezes abound, bringing with them soft dews which so enrich the soil, that it bears, untilled, plenty of delicious fruits, and supports its inhabitants, who enjoy an immunity from toil.”’* These islands and the neighbouring seas were explored by King Juba, of whose discoveries the younger Pliny has * Lyon's Travels, p. 38. + Plutarch in Sylla. CANARY ISLANDS. oe given us an account as it appears from Juba’s own descrip- tion ; for this African prince was not only a navigator but a celebrated writer on geography.* The first island, according to Juba, was named Ombrion: it had no vestiges of human habitation, but contained a mountain lake: the second, and | @ small one adjoining, were termed Junonia: the next, called Capraria, abounded in lizards of great size; Nivaria, doubtless Teneriffe, was famed for perpetual snow and fogs; next to it was Canaria, so termed from its containing dogs of huge bulk, of which two were brought to Juba: here were found the remains of dwellings. All these islands abounded in fruits and groves of palm-trees bearing dates and filled with va- Tlous birds and beasts.+ It would appear from this account that the Canary Islands Were but partially, if at all, inhabited in the time of Juba. The modern history of the Canary Islands commences with their accidental discovery in consequence of the shipwreck of 2 French vessel on the coast between the years 1326 and 1334, Expeditions were afterwards made by the Spaniards for the sake of plunder and carrying off slaves, in one of which the king and queen of Lancerote, and seventy of the inha- bitants were taken captive. At the beginning of the fifteenth Century a Norman baron, John de Bétancourt, subdued several of the islands, but Teneriffe was not brought under the yoke “ll ninety-five years afterwards. Here the native people, who termed themselves “ Guanches,”’ made a valiant resistance. The most instructive accounts of the Guanches are to be found in the narratives of some old voyagers who visited the Canary Islands during the time when they were as yet but ‘mperfectly conquered by the Spaniards, and among them we May distinguish the celebrated navigator, Cadamosto, who discovered the Cape de Verd Islands, and an Englishman named Scorey, whose report was printed by Purchas. In the 2 * Juba is termed by Plutarch the best of all royal historians, and by Athenzeus yno Tohupaeoraroc. Besides his “ Commentary on Africa,”’ Juba wrote a Ro- man history, of which the first book is mentioned with commendation by Stepha- nus of Byzantium; an account of Arabia, frequently cited by Pliny ; a work in 'Wo books on the ancient Assyrians, containing extracts from Berosus ; and several treatises on various subjects. He was the son of the Numidian king who fought Against Cesar, + Plinii Hist, Nat. lib. Vi. ¢. 32, VOL, It, pape ane, EE ; ise y AY | ie Ht I i | ‘a tt a ie ie | La bi iG, re IE Hh i ae GUANCHES THE ABORIGINES time of Cadamosto, the population of Canaria Grande amounted to 9000, and that of Teneriffe to 5000 souls. The natives of the latter island are said to have been of great and even gigantic stature. They were people of very simple habits and possessed of few arts, were ignorant of the use of metals, and are said to have ploughed the land by means of the horns of bullocks. They believed in a future state, and worshipped aSupreme Being whom they termed Achuharahan, the author and preserver of all good things. They also be- lieved in a malignant being, termed Guayotta, and placed the abode of the wicked in the burning crater of Teneriffe. They had a solemn institution of marriage, and various moral and social observances.* The practice of embalming bodies and laymg them up in mummy-caves or catacombs, in the sides of mountains, is the most curious circumstance in the history of the Guan- ches; it is at least that which has attracted the greatest atten- tion. The mummies were placed erect upon their feet against the sides of the caves ; chiefs had a staff placed in their hands, and a vessel of milk standing by them. Nicol an English traveller, stated that he had seen 300 of these corpses toge- ther, of which he says that the flesh was dried up, and the bodies as light as parchment. Scorey was assured that in the sepulchre of the kings of Guimar, there was to be seen a skeleton measuring fifteen feet, the skull of which contained eighty teeth. Of late years we have obtained from Golberry, Blumenbach, and De Humboldt, more correct accounts of these * The extermination of this race of people is one of the many fearful tragedies which modern history, the history of Christian nations, presents. It is thus briefly sketched by the Baron De Humboldt. “The Archipelago of the Canaries,’’ he observes, ‘¢ was divided into several small states, hostile to each other. Oftentimes the same island was subject to two inde- pendent princes. The trading nations of Europe, influenced by that hideous policy which they still exercise on the coast of Africa, kept up intestine warfare among the Guanches. One Guanche then became the property of another, who sold him to Europeans. Several who preferred death to slavery killed themselves and their children. What remained of the Guanches perished mostly in 1494, in the terrible pestilence called the Modorra, which was attributed to the quantity of dead bodies left exposed to the air by the Spaniards after the battle of La Laguna. The nation of the Guanches was therefore extinct at the beginning of the sixteenth century. A few old men only were found at Candelaria and Guimar.” OF THE CANARY ISLANDS, 35 mummies, and of the mode employed in preparing them. The bodies were imbued with a sort of turpentine, and dried be- fore a slow fire or in the sun. Their desiccation was so com- plete, that the whole mummies were found to be remarkably light, and Blumenbach informs us that he possesses one which, with its integuments entire, weighs only seven and a half pounds, which is nearly one-third less than the weight of an entire skeleton of the same stature, recently stripped of the Skin and muscular flesh. On opening these mummies, the remains of aromatic plants are discovered, among which the Chenopodium Ambrosioides is said to be constantly present. he corpses are decorated with small laces, on which are hung little disks of baked earth. M. Golberry took much pains to collect information re- -Specting the mode used by the Guanches in preparing their Mummies, and he has described a mummy in his possession, which he selected from among many others still remaiming in his time in the mummy-caves in Teneriffe. Of this he says, the hair was long and black, the skin dry and flexible, of a dark brown colour, the back and breast covered with hair, the belly and breast filled with a kind of grain resembling rice, the body wrapped in bandages of goats’ skin. Blumenbach thought he discovered some resemblance in the Style of ornament between the mummies of the Guanches and those of the Egyptians. Strings of coral beads are found Mm both. But this may be an accidental resemblance, and the use of goats’ skin instead of cloth, and the mode of filling the body and drying it, and all other particulars, differ essen- tially. The incisores are worn down to truncated cones in the mummies of both nations. This may have arisen from their using similar food, or from both nations being in the prac- tice of eating hard grains. We shall find proof hereafter that it was not among the Egyptians, at least, a natural pe- Culiarity. On the whole, proof is wanting of any connexion between the Guanches and the Egyptians. There seems to be sufficient evidence in what remains of the language of the Guanches to prove their descent from the erbers of Atlantica. It is difficult to imagine how such a People as the Berbers or Shiltih, who are not known to have De —— —— aeeeeenearnsee Sees oo pene eee a ee =F SRNR Te RN —————— ee ion - = 36 AFFINITY OF THE GUANCHES TO practised navigation, could find their way from Africa to the Canaries ; but many seas have been traversed by rude and even by savage people under circumstances apparently still more unfavourable: and the first population of many countries, not- withstanding all that has been said to the contrary by some late writers, has certainly been spread along the sea-coasts and across seas, for traversing which the races of men thus dis- persed appear to have been in general but ill provided. Of the analogies discovered in the languages of the Guanches and the Berbers, the following compendious table, given by Ritter, will be a sufficient example. BERBER OR SHULUH. GUANCHES. ..Aenum, Ahemon. Tigot, pl. Titogan. Acoran. SaQuall 2 oe ee. yee ce ete oe Faycayg. Talmogaren Almogaren. Houses Tigamin Tamogitin. Place of punishment ...Tagarer Tagarer. Captain’ Kabira Kabeheira. Mountain Aya, Dyrma, Athraar ....Aya, Dyrma, Thenar. Deep valley Douwaman ............Adeyhaman. Barley Tezezreat, Tomzeen......Tezzezes, Temasen. Wheat (‘Triticum of the Romans.) ; e aeet nent 1He. Palm-tree Taginast =... 0.4 + Sate. Taginaste. A rush basket . Carian Carianas. Green figs Akermuse Powdered barley Ahoren Flour of barley in oil... Azamittan Thikhsi, Ana Tihaxan, Ana. Tamouren Tamacen. § Ano. ¢ Achemen in Gomera. For further information on the history of the Guanches, see Vater, Mithridates, 3. th. 1. abtheil, p. 59 ; Glass’s History of the Canary Islands ; Golberry’s Voyage en Afrique, tom. nS Jackson’s Account of Maroco; Ritter’s Erdkunde, Blumen- bach’s Decad. Cranior 5; Hornemann’s Travels ; Lawrence’s Lectures, p. 346; M. De Humboldt’s Voy. aux Terr. Equin. tom. 1.; M. Bory de St. Vincent’s Hist. des Iles Fortunées. THE ATLANTIC RACE. 37 SEction V III.—Of the Proof of Affinity, founded on re- semblance of Language, between different Branches of the Atlantic Race. Inquiry into the probable Relations of this Race with others in A ffrica and in Europe. I shall, in this section, lay before my readers some speci- Mens of the idioms of different Berber races, illustrative of the affinity discovered between their languages; and to them I shall add, arranged in parallel columns in order to exhibit the whole in one view, similar collections of words from those idioms either in Africa or in Europe, in which it may seem Most probable that resemblance will be found to the Berber Speech, These are, in Europe, the Basque, which, according to historical testimony, was once spoken along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to Sicily; andin Africa, the Tibbo, the Coptic or Egyptian, the Barabra, Berberin or Nubian, and the Amhara or Western Abyssinian language. The languages above mentioned comprise all the African dialects now within reach, to which it seems in any degree Probable that the Berber may have been related. They are Spoken either in.the low countries intervening between the Steat table-lands of Atlaniica and of central Africa; or in the northern and projecting borders of the latter country. Th order to complete the series of bordering languages from fast to west, it would be necessary to add specimens of the dialects of Sadan, or the northern tract of Negroland ; but it 18 hardly within probability, that any extensive relations of affinity will be discovered between the languages of absolute €gro tribes and the Berber idiom, and specimens of these Sidanian dialects will find their place in a succeeding Chapter, so that the reader, who is desirous of doing so, will have an opportunity of collating them with the vocabularies in the present section. It is to be regretted, that several languages, formerly Spoken on the coast of the Mediterranean and in the islands of that inland sea, have become extinct without leaving any vestiges. From these we might otherwise have detected Proofs of the African origin of some European nations. As 38 AFFINITY OF THE ATLANTIC the Berbers found their way, in early times, to the Canary Islands, it is highly probable that they extended themselves also from the northern coast to the islands and European shore of the Mediterranean, which last, in some points, is visible from the coast of Africa. In fact, we have the testi- mony of ancient historians, that several of these islands derived their ancient population from Lybia. In Sardinia, for exam- ple, though that island was conquered at an early period by the Carthaginians, we are informed by ancient writers that the mountainous tracts in the interior remained in the posses- sion of a barbarous people, termed Balari, who were descended from a mixture of Lybians and Iberians. Pausanias, who seems to have taken much pains in investigating the origin of nations, says, that the first inhabitants of both Sardinia and Corsica were Lybians, who, according to an ancient mytho- logical account, arrived from Africa, under one Sardos, a son of the Lybian Hercules.* It seems very probable, that the Ligurians were an African people, for we have no proof of their affinity to any of the nations of Europe, and they are generally distinguished from the Celtic and other continental nations. There is an old account preserved by Thucydides, that the Iberians were driven out of a part of the coast which they had previously inhabited by the Ligurians, who afterwards possessed it. Liguria was on the coast of the Mediterranean, to which a foreign people might arrive from Africa, and the name of Lly-gwyr, meaning in Celtic, “ Men of the Sea-coast,” seems to mark them out as a maritime tribe. The Iberians were a more extensive and numerous people, and very early inhabitants of Europe. There is less probability that they were of Lybian origin; but the subject deserves investigation, which, fortunately, there are the means of instituting, since the Iberian as well as the Lybian language is yet extant. I shall not attempt to engage in this inquiry at length, but confine myself to a few short compa- rative specimens of languages. The first table contains the numerals in the idoms already mentioned. * Pausanias in Phocicis.—Cluver. Germ. Antiq. p. 481. + Thucydides, lib. vi. ¢. 2. Soe ee caeeegeeeeeee aa Se ic) “ays “OLeMTO[OP “os “eT[TUI ‘uopoydera ‘pyuT we zi ° pm im =< Zz ez) = q & °o 2 imal Fh Vitae oa sie Pie t & tit | ie it a) ete i b i ee ie Ee | be iii it i if } | b | rhe Ye iit ip - i if it ul ; a t | ‘Ss ay i ‘i 2 a ue 1 te i | iii e thi y Hi aa S ie ii beh & | + # Hi sate oo ealrenerra ae ce eal ee es : - 54 NEGRO NATIONS. southward of the equator, and especially in parts approach- ing the southern tropic, where we are accustomed to distin- guish the woolly-haired races by the appellation of Kafirs. But the natives of southern Africa will be described as a separate division of African ethnography. At present, I con- fine my survey to the regions of Negroland lying northward of the equator. In the following chapter, I proceed to the native population of Senegambia and Guinea, where the mountain-chains and the highlands of Central Africa advance towards the north-west, and appear to project towards the Atlantic ocean. I shall then survey the inland region or the empires of Sudan or Mohammedan Nigritia, and afterwards the countries bordering on Abyssinia and the Nile and the Indian ocean, which are sometimes comprehended under the vague designation of Ethiopia. CHAPTER IV. ETHNOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL AFRICA TO THE NORTHWARD OF THE EQUATOR CONTINUED—-WESTERN DIVISION—NATIONS OF SENEGAMBIA AND GUINEA. Secrion I,—Ouéline of the Physical Geography of Sene- gambia. Tae mountainous region in which the Senegal and the Gambia take their rise, reaching from the 8thto the 14th degree of northern latitude, forms an appendage to the central high- land of Africa, from which it projects northwards, like a vast Promontory, into the great Sahara. It has been observed by Ritter, that mountains, which, in the intertropical climate, are capable of giving origin to such rivers as the Niger and the Senegal, must have a very considerable elevation. In Africa, Indeed, as well as in Asia, rivers, which convey great masses — of water into low countries, are never known to descend from @ single chain of hills; they have always for their nurseries high plains, which can alone afford a constant supply of abundant streams. It may, therefore, be inferred, that the Steat region of Africa which lies to the northward of the coast of Guinea, and between it and the Sahara, consists, in great Part, of a high table-land. It contains the sources of many tivers, which descend from it on every side. The Senegal, the Gambia, the Rio Grande, the Mesurado, the Rio Nunez, the Sherbro, and other channels, collect the waters of num- berless contributary streams ; some of which, as the Falémé,* the Bafing, the Cocora, the Woollima, and the Nerico, are themselves rivers of considerable width, while the waters Which flow from the same highland towards the east discharge themselves into the Joliba or Niger. The mountains from Which the western rivers descend form asemicircular range from to 10 degrees in extent. At the Cape of Sierra Leone, this * See M. Durand’s description of the Falémé. Voy. au Sénégal, tom. ii. ¢. 7. 56 OUTLINE OF THE PHYSICAL western border approaches within sight of the sea-coast, and there forms the celebrated Sierra of the same name. From that Sierra a great chain of mountains runs towards the north intersected transversely by vast ravines, through which the Gambia and other rivers descend, to take their course through the low countries, and discharge their waters into the Atlantic. The Gambia traverses this chain, and forms the cataracts of Barraconda, after receiving the waters of the Nerico, and it then enters into the wide plains of Pisania.* The Rio Grande penetrates the same barrier a league to the northward of that route which was followed by Watt and Winterbottom, in their journey from Sierra Leone to the high plains of Timba; it forms a cataract one hundred and twenty feet in breadth. Five other navigable rivers between the Rio Grande and the Sierra take their rise from the western decli- vity of the same elevated country. The line formed by this bordering chain of mountains sepa- rates the table-land of Senegambia from the low plain near the sea-coast. Above it, but still on the western side, is the high terrass or mountain-plain of Timba, the abode of the principal body of the widely-dispersed raceof Falahs. The most elevated part of this region has never been traversed; towards the south- . east it is supposed to be continuous with the chain of the Kong, and by it to be connected with the high central moun- tains of Africa. Beyond and above the Filahs are the desert countries of the Jallonka, termed Jallonkadfi. The Félahs themselves occupy the western margin or high lateral region of the table-land of Senegambia which faces the Atlantic, and the Mandingos inhabit the northern border, which is turned towards the desert of Sahara. The high region occupied by the Mandingos is better known than that of the Fadlahs. The information furnished by Mr. Park, and by Mollien and Durand, together with a few no- tices obtained from other sources, has enabled Professor Ritter to point out the situation and probable limits of a long tract of hill-country of two or three different levels, which occupy the northern slope or border of the table-land * Park’s Travels; Durand’s Voy. au Sénégal, tom. i. p. 116, &c. ; Ritter, Erdkunde. + Ritter, Erdkunde, Durand, t. i. p. 242. SSS GEOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. 57 above described. The boundaries of the highest of these levels are more or less distinctly indicated in Mr. Park’s ac-. “ount of his return. As he advanced towards the west, from the interior of Africa, while still in the broad valley of the Viger he perceived, on arriving at Taffara and Jabbi, the first chains of hills belonging to the mountainous region. It is here that the language of the Mandingos was first heard ; the people to the eastward of Jabbi speak the Kalam-Sadan ; the idiom of western Sadan and Tombukté. Further to the Westward, at Bammakoo, the Niger issues from the lowest order of the mountainous country which gives it birth, pre- “ipitating its mighty waters over a rocky basin, and hastening to traverse the vast plain of Lower Sadan. Thence the defile of Kamalia leads upwards and westwards into the country of the Mandingos, who cultivate the high tract of fertile land _“eaching as far towards the west as Worombana, between the igh waters of the N iger and the Senegal. This, according ‘0 historical tradition, is the proper and immemorial abode of the Mandingo race. Above them, towards the south and the West, rise the mountains of J allonkadt, traversed by nume- *OUus rivers, which descend from the heights through valleys and ravines, taking a parallel direction from south to north. The desert of the Jallonka has been described by Park. It Teaches westward tothe river Falémé and to the defiles by Which the Gambia makes its descent into the lower plains. ‘his high region of Jallonkadé gives origin to the great Tiverg of Senegambia near the 10° and 11° of northern lati- ‘ude. The northern slope of Senegambia, if it were prolonged “astward, would fall, as Ritter has observed, nearly in a line With the northern border of Higher Abyssinia. — Another tract of lower elevation than that above described 48 the primitive country of the Mandingos, but still high Above the low plains of Africa, and consisting of hilly coun- ‘tes which surround the alpine tracts, forms the intermediate evel of Park and his commentator, Major Rennell. It be- Sins in the west, with the Negro states of Neola and Tende, “omprehends Satadou and Bondou, Bambouk, Kajaaga, and “sson, descending north-eastward into the more even coun- és of Kaarta and Bambarra. From Woollih, near the 58 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. cataracts of Barraconda, the hills which rise into this terrass are covered with woods and villages. Bondou, a mountain- ous country to the eastward, divides the waters of the Gambia and the Falémé. Thence to the Senegal is the country of Kajaaga, called by the French colonists, Galam. Eastward of Senegal is the kingdom of Kasson. Bambouk, the Land of Gold, is in the midst of this tract; gold is also found in the country of the Mandingos, by whom, as they have de- scended from time to time out of the higher region, the in- termediate districts now described have been, as we shall afterwards observe, either conquered or in part repeopled. Secrion I1.—Of the Mandingos. The Mandingos are a very numerous and powerful race ; they are remarkable among the nations of Africa for their industry and energy of character; and, of genuine Negro tribes, they have, perhaps, manifested the greatest aptitude for mental improvement. The Mandingos are the most zeal- ous and rigid Mohammedans in Africa; they observe all the precepts of Islam, and drink no intoxicating liquors. The mer- chants of this nation, many of whom are marabouts or priests, are men of great enterprize and intelligence: they are often persons of great influence in Northern Africa, and carry on the principal trade in that part of the world. “The Mandingos are said to be active and shrewd merchants, laborious and indus- trious agriculturists, keeping their ground well cultivated, and breeding a good stock of cattle, oxen, sheep, and goats, but no hogs. They are a kind and hospitable people.”’ Such is the description of this nation drawn by the old voyagers, Jobson and Moore, who visited them soon after they first became known to Europeans, and it has been fully confirmed by Golberry, Park, and other recent travellers.* * See Jobson and Moore’s Voyages, in Astle’s Collection of Voyages, vol. ii. p- 265, et seq. I have been assured by Mr. F’. Rankin, whose good sense and acute- ness of observation leave no doubt in my mind of the entire correctness of his assertion, that no person, who has been in the habit of personal intercourse with Mandingos, can entertain the slightest doubt of the equality of intellect between white and black men. OF THE MANDINGOS. 59 The colour of the Mandingos is black, with a mixture of yellow.* Jannequin says, that they are as remarkable for the thickness of their lips and the flatness of their noses as ate the Tolofs and Filahs for handsome features ;+ but M. Golberry declares that the Mandingos resemble, in their Betties, the blacks of India, more. than. those of -Afsiea an Seneral. He says, “their features are regular, their charac- ter Senerous and open, and their manners gentle.” | Their ar ig quite woolly; and, according to Mr. Park, they have More of the Negro character in their countenances than the Olofs, who are said to be the most beautiful, and, at the “ame time, the blackest people in Africa. Major Laing says, “the appearance of the Mandingos is engaging; their fea- tures are regular and open; their persons well formed and ‘omely, averaging a height rather above the common.” M. ‘Urand has given a description of the Mandingos of the Singdom of Barra, which coincides fully with that of Major aing and M. Golberry,§ and other recent travellers. The Andingos exercise, by their trade and colonies, a powerful fluence over all the neighbouring countries. ‘‘ In the states on the Senegal,” as we are informed by M. Durand, “ com- Merce and government are in their hands; the chiefs and men ‘n authority are all Mandingos: they are the only persons . Possessed of information ; all, or nearly all of them can write; *y have public schools, in which their marabouts teach the children to read the Koran; their lessons are written on Small, whitened boards. In all large towns they have an “reditary alkaid, who maintains public order, and a council °F old men. They are more polished than other Negro na- ‘Ons, of a mild character, sensible, and benevolent, the result OF their predilection for commerce, and of the long journeys 2 which they pass much of their time. The careful cultiva- ‘On of their land proves them to be industrious ; their fields te ornamented with palms, bananas, fig-trees ; they keep ey horses, but numerous asses, on which they are accustomed ° perform their journeys.” Mr. Park says, “ Few people Work harder, when occasion requires it, than the Mandingos; in = Golberry, i. 73. + Jannequin’s Voyage in Libya. + Golberry, i. 78. § Durand’s Voyage au Sénégal. 60 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. their wants are supplied, not by the spontaneous productions of nature, but by their own exertions; the labours of the field give them pretty full employment during the rains, and, in the dry season, in the neighbourhood of rivers, they are occupied in fishing. While the men are employed in these pursuits, the women are very diligent in manufacturing cotton cloth, which is coloured with a dye of indigo, mixed with a lye of wood-ashes. The weaving is performed by the men. There are among the Mandingos manufactures of leather and iron. They tan the leather with great skill, and dye it of a red or yellow colour. The iron is obtained from ore reduced in smelting furnaces. The women have the management of domestic affairs; the Negro women are very cheerful and frank in their behaviour; but they are by no means given to intrigue, and instances of conjugal infidelity are of rare oc- currence.” Long before the interior of Senegambia had been explored by Park, Mollien, and other travellers, it had been remarked, that the native region of the Mandingos must be an extensive and populous country. This inference was drawn from the extent of their conquests and of their connexions in the in- terior of Africa to the northward of the line. “ From their mountains,” says M. Golberry, “ the Mandingos descended in numerous tribes, and conquered and colonised Bambouk and the banks of the Gambia, from its sources as far as the sea. On the right bank of the river, these colonies have grown into kingdoms, the most celebrated of which are those of Barra, Kollar, Badibou, and upper and lower Yani: on the left bank, the Mandingo settlements are less numerous and powerful.” M. Golberry has given an account of these conquests, collected from the traditions of the Mandingos, which throws some light upon the history of the African nations. The kingdoms of Barra, of Kollar, and of Badibou, were founded by the first of those Mandingo colonies, which de- scended from the sources of the river, and established them- selves towards its mouth. The Mandingos of the Gambia have preserved the tradition of this event, and relate it in the following manner : OF THE MANDINGOS. 61 “About the commencement of the tenth (five hun- dredth?) year of the Hegira, Amari-Sonko, a celebrated Man- dingo warrior, descended from the interior of Africa at the €ad of more than twenty thousand armed men, and, followed Y @ great number of women and marabouts, ravaged all the Northern coast of the Gambia, and arrived towards the mouth of that river, where he fought many battles with the king of Salum ; he finally remained conqueror of the territories of atra, Kollar, and Badibou.”’ This founder of the earliest Mandingo colonies, which €stablished themselves on the banks of the Gambia, was at nce an intrepid warrior, a good politician, and an able mer- Chant, He rendered himself formidable to the Iolofs, and the Bur-Salum, and compelled this prince to grant him, irre- Yocably, the possession of his conquests, which, at his death , € divided between his three sons. The kingdom of Barra Was given to the eldest, whose descendants still hold the "egal power. The family of the eldest son of Amari-Sonko 'S divided into five branches; and the eldest of each branch Telgns successively. ‘ At the time when I was at Albreda,” Says M. Golberry, “the presumptive heir was a Negro named “onko-Ari, a cousin of the reigning monarch. The king be- os an idiot, Ali Sonko, his uncle, was declared regent of the Kingdom of Barra, which, in 1786, he had governed for seven Years, with the wisdom, energy, and prudence of an enlight- “ned European. He was then sixty-five years of age, tall, Upright, and of majestic stature ; his physiognomy was regu- ar and agreeable, and beamed with intelligence and reflec- Hon, the expression which in general distinguishes the Man- Ngo nation. His countenance was unfurrowed with wrinkles; 18 eyes were large and lively; his mouth, well-formed, was Still ornamented with the finest teeth ; his character was re- Plete with benevolence and energy; in short, everything in this €gro prince displayed superior wisdom. His deportment Was always grave and serious, but still interesting, and even Sometimes lively; he loved Frenchmen, and was sensible to 8€nerous conduct, and disposed to friendship. Extremely Pure in his manners, and a scrupulous observer of the Mo- ‘mmedan religion, the first rays of the morning sun 62 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. found him every day prostrate in his garden, with his face turned towards the east, surrounded by his women, his chil- dren and his slaves, celebrating, with great devotion, the morning prayer.” The following is the account which the Mandingo traditions give of the conquest of Bambouk. M. Golberry says, these traditions are uniformly consistent. Towards the end of the fifth century of the Hegira, or the year 1100 of our era, a Manding warrior, named Abba-Manko, animated by the love of conquest, and zealous for the propa- gation of Islam, quitted his country, attended by 10,000 warriors, and a numerous retinue of marabouts. He ravaged all the countries on the right bank of the Gambia, marched towards Bambouk, whose gold mines were then known, mas- sacred a part of the inhabitants, and compelled the remain- der to adopt the Mohammedan religion, and submit to his authority. This conquering apostle reigned despotically for thirty years, and, previously to his death, divided his king- dom between his three sons. The eldest had Bambouk and its rich mines; the second, Satadou ; and the third, Konkou- dou. The siratik of Bambouk is still highest in rank among the three monarchs; the royal power, as in all the Mandingo states, is limited; the principal affairs of the country are managed by a kind of parliament or national assembly, which is held at the house of the siratik of Bambouk. The Man- dingo states are federal republics. The heads of particular villages have the denomination of Farim, and are almost in- dependent chiefs. The Bamboukian traditions also record an attempt of the Portuguese to conquer their country: these people committed dreadful massacres ; at length, owing to their own imprudence, they were destroyed or finally expelled. A third celebrated epoch in the history of Bambouk is an attempt of the marabouts, or Mohammedan priests, to render themselves masters of the country. This terminated in the complete expulsion of the marabouts, of whom, at present, none are suffered to reside in Bambouk. The people, accord- ing to M. Golberry, have become more ignorant and depraved than the other Mandingos, owing, as he thinks, to the want OF THE MANDINGOS. 63 of their priests. The Mandingo marabouts, he says, are very Strono-minded men. They are subtle, cunning, and artful; ey have in general great influence over the Negroes in Africa. The language of Bambouk is, according to M. Golberry, * corrupt Mandingo, in which a mixture of Falah, Iolof, and even of Moorish and Portuguese words is perceptible. Other writers have drawn a very similar description of the andingo nation, and have given corresponding accounts of their history, though not so accurate and particular as those obtained by M. Golberry. Major Laing, who visited the andingo state, in the Soosoo country, near Sierra Leone, of Which Fouricaria is the chief town, describes them as a very Shrewd and intelligent people, superior to any who inhabit the extent of Western Africa, from the boundaries of Ma- *0co to the southward. He says, that they are not of ancient Tesidence in the country where he found them, having emi- stated not more than a century since from Manding, a Powerful state, near Sego, about seven hundred miles east- Ward of the coast, where abundance of gold is found. The first emigrants settled in the countries near the Gambia, but detached parties found their way gradually farther northward ‘nd southward ; for they are of migratory habits, and traverse Africa for trade or war from Tangiers to Cape Mesurado. Some of the Mandingo colonies must, as it would appear, have been of much older date than the period supposed by aing, and must even have preceded the conversion of the People to Islam ; for there are several nations speaking dia- cts of the Mandingo language, and therefore belonging Probably to the same race, and originally emigrants from the ‘ame region, who are still pagans, and almost savages. These tribes must have separated from the great body of the Man- Ngo nation before Islam and civilization were introduced. he Koorankos furnish one instance of this remark. Though ‘peaking a language closely cognate, and though probably of the same race with the Mandingos, the Koorankos are,as Major aine assures us, still pagans, and bear in their manners a Nearer resemblance to the uncultivated Timman{ than to the Civilized Mandingo. The Kooranko country is of great ex- ‘ent, divided into numerous states, lying between the Bullom, 64 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. Timmani, and Limba countries on the west, and the river Niger and the Kissi territory on the east, in which direction it like- wise extends to an unknown distance towards the Kong mountains, and in the interior behind the Negro states of the Guinea coast.* The people are probably Mandingo tribes, who descended from the high countries of Senegambia, at a remote period, towards the south. They have nearly the same dress as the Mohammedan Mandingos, and their language is the same, except in a few words, yet they are by no means so handsome or so intelligent a race. They have the barba- rous custom, so common among the pagan savages of Africa, of filing their teeth to a point, and of tattooing their breasts and backs. They comb their hair or wool into large balls over each temple. In many of their customs, they closely resemble the Timmanis and other nations of the most uncul- tivated class of Africans.} * The territory of Kooranko, according to Major Laing, reaches so far towards the east that the natives of the western level have no notion of its termination, put merely estimate it as beyond the journey of a month. + This comparison is, perhaps, a sufficient proof that the decided superiority of the Mandingo nation is not owing to any original difference from other African tribes, but to the circumstance that they have been long civilized, so far as civili- zation is implied by the profession of Islam, and the zealous observation of its precepts, and adoption of customs which it brings with it. Not far from the Kooranko country, Major Laing entered a village of Mohammedan Mandingos accidentally settled there. The difference between this people and their pagan neighbours is very remarkable. He says, on entering New Ma-boom the eye is immediately struck by the conspicuous change; the small, miserable, dirty huts are supplied by large, circular, conical edifices, studded with ornaments, and sur- rounded by clean, stockaded yards. ‘I entered the town about sun-set; the inhabitants were returning from their daily labours, every individual bearing about ‘him proofs of his industrious occupation: some had been engaged in preparing fields for crops, which the approaching rains were to mature ; others were penning up a few cattle, whose appearance denoted rich pasturage; the last clink of the placksmith’s hammer was sounding; the weaver was measuring the quantity of cloth he had woven during the day, and the gaurange or worker in leather, was tying up his neatly-stained pouches, shoes, knife-scabbards, the work of his handicraft, in a large kotakoo or bag, while the crier of the mosque, with the melancholy call of ‘Allah Akbar,’ uttered at measured intervals, summoned the decorous Mos- lemin to their evening devotions.” It may be proper to add, that Major Laing had experience among these people of the vices as well as the virtues of Moham- medanism: bigotry, fraud, and cruelty were as usual displayed towards a Kafir 5 with him the followers of the Prophet keep no faith, nor do they observe towards him the common precepts of humanity. OF THE BAMBARRANS, Of the Bambarrans. The people of Bambarra, perhaps, afford another example, in addition to that of the Koorankos, of a tribe of the Mandingo Face not yet emerged, at least in part, from the condition of “avages, and partaking in a similar manner of the physical 88 well as moral inferiority generally connected with that State of existence. The people of Bambarra are reckoned by M. Golberry as a fourth race in constituting the population of the French S°vernment of the Senegal; the Iolofs, Filahs, and Man- gos being the three former. Bambarra is an extensive “ountry, situated under the 14° north latitude, about one hun- dred leagues above and to the eastward of Galam. It "eaches for a great space along the Niger or Joliba; its capi- tal is Sego. Mungo Park says, that, after a little practice, “Was able to understand and speak the idiom of Bambarra, Y its affinity to the Mandingo. But, in the eastern parts ee. Bambarra, he found that a different language prevailed, “nd the Mandingo dialect was no longer understood. This "Pears to be the language of Tombuktu. It is probable, at the people of Bambarra are partly of Mandingo origin, Sad in part belonging to the race of Western Stidan, here- Alter to be described. M. Golberry says, that he has had frequent opportunities of becoming acquainted with the Bambarrans, because the greater _ Number of the slaves brought to the French factories of Sene- 8al and Gambia come from Bambarra. According to the “SCription of them afforded by this writer, these blacks of © interior, who, however, are not to be considered as all ‘mbarrans, have, in a high degree, all the characters as- “nibed to the Negro race. “Their colour is not a fine black ; “ir heads are round; their hair woolly and crisped ; their “ountenances heavy and dull; their noses flat, and cheek- “nes prominent; their lips very thick ; and their legs crooked. ‘ “Y are stupid, very superstitious, fatalists beyond all con- “Ption, indolent, but gay and perfectly good-tempered : their a ‘guage is rude and barbarous.” Nt. TT. = ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. Szorron III.—Of the Félahs. On the border’ of the highland of Senegambia, about the sources of the Rio Grande, and on the slope, or terrass, which looks towards the setting sun, and is cooled by the higher currents of air flowing from the Atlantic,* are the elevated plains inhabited by the Filahs. Timbu, their capital, like ancient Rome a military station or centre of conquests, con- tains 9000 inhabitants. It is surrounded, in part, by dry and rocky deserts, and partly by mountain pastures, which feed numerous flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of oxen and horses, unknown in the lower regions. The inhabitants of this alpine country, who differ physically from the natives of the lower region, cultivate their soil with industry ; but such has been their seclusion from the rest of mankind, that the use of the plough is to them still unknown; they forge iron and silver, work skilfully with leather and wood, and fabricate cloth; they have clean and commodious dwellings, and have had mosques and schools in their towns since Islam was introduced among them by marabouts from the Man- dingos. Their armies are victorious over the neighbouring nations, and are said to have extended the dominion of Timbu over forty geographical miles from south to north, and seventy-eight from east to west. The sovereign or the Alma- my of the Fulahs reigns at Timbi. His country, Fouta- diallo, contains other considerable towns, Temby and Laby; the capital of Cacoundy, a district well-cultivated, and pro- ducing abundantly rice, oranges, and maize. Fouta-diallo, or Fouta-jallo, is, however, but a part of the | territory now occupied by the Fiilahs in Africa. They are spread in various tribes over the countries between the Sene- gal and Gambia rivers, and in the region further towards the * At the 10° of north latitude, Watt and Winterbottom found the mornings and evenings cool, the nights cold. The thermometer fell to 11° and to 9° of Fah- renheit, proving a very considerable elevation. It is said, however, that the coldest nights happen when the wind blows from the east. The winds from thé Atlantic are of more even temperatute. Thus the plain of the Fiilahs is pr0- tected on both sides from the heats of a tropical climate. ~ OF THE FULAHS. 67 South, According to M. Golberry, they constitute the most humerous part of the population from the 4° of northern latitude to the Senegal. One of the principal Félah states, and that in which they became known from the earliest period to Europeans, is the kingdom of the Siratik, or Félah sul- tan, on the Senegal, which includes an extensive territory on that river, reaching from the borders of Galam to Fort Podhor and the lake of Cayor.* In this country, the Fali or Pholeys Were visited by Jobson, Le Maire, and the Sieur de Brute, in the seventeenth century, when the court of the Siratik is Said to have displayed much barbaric magnificence. The fertile country of Bondou, near the sources of the Nerico, though subject to the conquering Mandingos, is likewise Chiefly inhabited by Féalahs. The same people occupy a Steat part of Brouka to the eastward of Bambouk, as well = Wasselah, on the higher course of the Niger.}+ In the igh Countries, on the eastern part of Senegambia, there is * Mountainous tract near the source of the Senegal, which “ars the name of Fouladou, or Wilderness of the Filahs. he inhabitants of that country are a wild and savage people, © name which their territory bears would seem to imply, at itis looked upon as the original or proper habitation of the Piilah race. . Major Laing, when in the country of Sfilimana, a warlike Negro State, bordering on Fouta-jallo, was informed by the ards op jellemen of the king, from whom he took much Pains to collect the traditions of the country, that the acqui- Sttion of Fouta-jallo by the Fialahs is an event of not very “emote times. The country where Timbu is situated formed, 88 he was told, a part of Jallonkadou, or the desert of the allonkas, The Falahs obtained, about the beginning of the “ast Century, or soon after the year 1700, permission to settle it from the king of the Silimas, who was then a very . Durand’s Voyage au Sénégal, iom. ii. p. 69. M. Durand says, “ Le ‘roy- mime des Foules ou Poules, qui vient aprés celui de Howal, commence a I’fle 4 ae Sur laquelle est situé le fort de Podor. sty est gouverné par un prince Me Siratick. Le pays est trés peuplé; la terre y est bonne et bien cultivée ; ®8 récoltes y sont abondantes.”’ T Ritter’s Erdkunde; Park’s Appendix, p. 89. F2 68 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. powerful prince. They are said to have come from the north- ward, which may mean either from Fouladou or Fouta-torro, with the design of propagating Islam, and, having settled in a part of Jallonkadou, to have given it the name of Fouta- jallo: they have there become numerous, and have extended their power over the neighbouring countries. This account is difficult to reconcile with the statements of De Barros, who pointed out the mountainous tracts near the source of the Rio Grande as the kingdom of Temala, sovereign of the Foil. Temala reigned there in 1534, and carried on war with Mandi- Mansa, who was, at that time, king of the Mandingos. The staternents obtained by M. Golberry coincide with this rela- tion. He says, that the Falahs have spread themselves from the 4° north latitude to the southern banks of the Senegal, and have founded many colonies, which have arisen into kingdoms. He adds, that, on the northern bank of the Mesu- rado, these Negroes are known under the name of Foules or that of Sousous. They are to be found also under the same name on the mountains in the vicinity of Sierra Leone, on the Sherbro, the Rio Sestos, at Cape Monte, and even at Cape Palmas. To the northward, there is a colony of these Filahs, which, on the borders of the Senegal, have founded a kingdom of Negroes known under the appellation of Foules or Peuls, and who inhabit the banks of the river along an extent of one hundred and thirty leagues. “ But the principal body of the nation,” says M. Golberry, “ under the proper name of Filahs, possess an extensive territory towards the sources of the Rio Grande, under the 10° north latitude, and between the 5° and. 12° east longitude, from the Isle of Ferro.” * In the present state of our information, it cannot be ascer- tained whether the original abode of the Fiélah race was 10 Faladf, on the northern part of the high region of Senegam- bia, or further southward in the mountainous tracts near the Rio Grande. We only know, that they have been settled for some centuries in various tribes in many parts of the ele vated country to the southward of the Senegal. From thencé hordes of the same race have descended from time to timé * Golberry, vol. i. p. 71. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE FULAHS. 69 into the lower region towards the west, where they wander in . the forests of the Bourba-lolof, and likewise towards the east ‘ato the interior of Africa, where they have become powerful under the designation of Felatahs or Falatiya. Physical Characters of the Filahs. The Fiélahs have generally been termed Negroes or Blacks ; ut it has been occasionally intimated that they are of lighter Colour than the neighbouring races. According to Park, the ‘ahs rank themselves among white people, and look upon € other nations as their inferiors. Mr. Park distinguishes °ur kinds of people in the countries which he traversed in 'S first journey in Africa, namely, Mandingos, Feloops, Olofs, and Fiilahs. He says, that the two former have most of what is termed the N egro character. The Iolofs, on the other hand, though in colour jet black, have features like °Se of Europeans. And the Faélahs have small features, and soft, silky hair, without either the thick lips or the crisp Wool common to Negroes. He adds, that they are not black, Ut of a tawny colour, which is lighter and more yellow in “ome states than in others. Dr, Winterbottom, who was physician to the colony of 'erra Leone, assures us that, though the Félahs are less lack than some of their neighbours, their complexion can nly be regarded as an intermediate shade between that of the darkest African and the Moor. He thinks Major Ren- nell’s conjecture, that the Falahs were the Leuceethiopes, or White Ethiopians, placed by Pliny and Ptolemy in North Lftica, scarcely probable. The idea of a nation of white °gtoes in Africa most probably arose from the accidental “servation of Albinos among the black races, which also “Ugeested to the learned Haller the same opinion. Haller "ays, in his Elements of Physiology, “sunt in estuosis illis terrig integrase nationes albe.”’ As a further proof that the Glahs are not so white as it has been supposed, Dr. Winter- Sttom alludes to the fact, that Mr. Watt and his brother, © celebrated travellers to Timba, found that a mulatto had ————— 70 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBiA. resided some years at that town who pretended to the Filahs that he was a white man.* M. Golberry, a very intelligent French traveller, who has communicated much original information respecting the na- tions near the Senegal and Gambia, has given the following description of the Filahs : “ The genuine Félahs,” meaning the Félahs of Timbi and Fouta-jallo, “ are very fine men, robust and courageous. They have a strong mind, and are mysterious and prudent; they understand commerce, and travel, in the capacity of merchants, even to the extent of the Gulf of Guinea: they are formidable to their neighbours. Their women are hand- some and sprightly. The colour of their skin is a kind of reddish black ; their countenances are regular, and their haif is longer and not so woolly as that of the common Negroes; their language is altogether different from that of the nations by whom they are surrounded—it is more elegant and sono- rous.” ‘¢ The tribe of Filahs, which, under the name of Foules of Peuls have peopled the borders of the Senegal between Podhor and Galam, are black, with a tinge of red or copper colour; they are, in general, handsome and well made; the women are handsome, but proud and indolent.” “ All the Foules of the border of the Senegal are zealous Mohammedans. They are intelligent and industrious; but, from their habitual commerce with the Moors of Sahara, they have become savage and cruel, and the French convoys from Galam have more than once experienced their perfidy.’’+ It would appear from this account, that there is much differ- ence between the different tribes of Féilahs, and that some are of a redder hue, and more remote from the Negro characters than others. The genuine Filahs, who are of a dark-red colou!; and of handsome and almost European features, are the natives of Fouta-jallo, in the high region around Timbu. The Peuls of the Senegal are a degenerated race, but they are still distin guished from Negroes by their traits, and particularly by thei! * Winterbottom’s Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Siert Leone, vol. i. p. 185. + Golberry, vol. i. p. 72. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE FULAHS. 71 hair, which is not woolly. These are the people described by Park. I shall add one other account of this people from M. Durand, one of the best informed of African travellers: “Les Foules ont la peau d’un noir peu foncé; ils ne sont ‘ aussi beaux, ni aussi grands, ni aussi bien faits, que les lolofs, “Les Foulahs ont les cheveux soyeux, les traits petits et agréables ; leurs mceurs sont douces et faciles ; ils aiment la Vie pastorale et agricole. Ils se sont répandus dans plusieurs Toyaumes de la céte sur la riviére de Gambie, pour y ¢tre ergers et laboureurs; ils paient un tribut au souverain du Pays of ils se sont établis et ot ils cultivent les terres. _ “Tis gont originaires du royaume de Bondou, situé entre les ‘viéres de Gambie et du Sénégal, pres de Bambouk. Comme hos Auvergnats et nos Limousins, ils sortent par bandes de eur pays, portent leur industrie dans des contrées lointaines, font fortune, et rentrent chez eux pour y jouir du fruit de furs travaux.” shies M. Mollien reports, that the genuine Filahs, or Poules as € terms them, are of a red or copper colour. He thinks the lack Fiilahs, who, as he says, are now by far the most nu- Merous, a mixed race, or mulattoes, originating from inter- Marriages of the red Poules with Negroes. His description of these black Poules does not coincide with such an hypo- thesis, since it appears that the black Poules make no *Pproximation, except in the shade of their complexion, to the characteristics of the Negro races. M. Mollien has related, that a tradition is prevalent on the Senegal, according to which both the Falahs and the Lolofs formerly dwelt in the north of Africa. In that region they Were neighbours, as they are now in Senegambia. Both na- Hons were expelled from their country by the Moors, and obliged to cross the desert, and seek refuge on the southern ank of the Senegal, in countries previously occupied by the Serreres, which they seized and divided between them. the Serreres, according to M. Mollien, are the aboriginal nhabitants of all this part of Africa. Their language is ex- tremely rude, and their manners display a primitive simplicity. ogg NN C—O RR A 72 ETHNOGRAPHY OF SENEGAMBIA. They now possess only some remote districts of the country which belonged to them before the invasion of the Falahs and Iolofs. He thinks the original Félahs were red, and that the present Poules are a mixed people, descended from intermarriages with the Negro nations bordering on the Falah states.* The Iolofs, whose history is by this relation connected with that of the Félahs, are a race of jet-black Negroes. We shall perceive, in a future section, that there are tolerably good grounds for concluding them to be a cognate people with the Serreres. We cannot, therefore, easily admit that they are a race originating from a remote part of the African continent, and from a region where no Negro nations exist. The Félahs themselves have been known, from the first dis- covery of the Senegal, among the most numerous settled in- habitants of the countries lying to the southward of that river. In 1697, when the Sieur de Brie sailed up the Sanaga, he visited Gumel, the capital of the Siratik, situated ten leagues from the river, where he was surprised by the magnificence of - the Falah sovereign. The people at that period were proba- bly as dark in complexion as the race termed Black Poules are at the present day, since we find them always termed Ne- eroes, though it is occasionally intimated that they were fairer than the neighbouring tribes. The queen of Gumel was, according to the Sieur de Brie, of an olive complexion, but had handsome features. All the old writers describe the Fiélahs, who were the subjects of the Siratik, just as their descendants are described by Mollien, Park, and Durand. Of the people of King Temala, in the mountainous country near the sources of the Rio Grande, we have no very particu- lar description, but there is no reason to believe that they differed from the present Filahs of Fonta-jallo. On reviewing all the historical information that we can col- lect respecting the Filahs, we find that there is no ground for the opinion that they emigrated with the Iolofs from north- ern Africa. Both Iolofs and Falahs appear to have been * Mollien, Voyages en Afrique, tom. i. pp. 329, 272; tom. ii. pp. 166, 113, 179, 185. INFERIOR RACES. 73 Very ancient inhabitants of the countries beyond the Sene- Sal, the Falahs of the high mountain-plains, and the Tolofs of the low countries near the sea-coast. Like many other moun- tain tribes in Africa, the Filahs are of much lighter colour than the Negro nations, and have, in other respects, different physical characters: they are more civilized than any other Neighbouring nation, with the exception of the Mandingos. € have no knowledge of any fact connected with the his- tory of the Félahs which indicates them to be of more "ecent origin in the region which they inhabit than any other African race ; their language is peculiar-to themselves, but it May probably be ranked among African languages.* It ap- Pears, that some tribes of Fiélahs are of much lighter colour than others, but the blacker tribes, or the Black Poules, as “tollien terms them, are very different from Negroes; they ave straight hair, and peculiar features; they do not, there- °re, appear to be even the mixed offspring of a Negro stock. seems that the red or copper-coloured Filahs, as those of Cuta-jallo, are natives of more elevated districts than those amilies or tribes of the same race who are of a darker com- Plexion. | Sterron IV.—Of the inferior Races inhabiting the region between the Senegal and Cape Palmas. The region of Africa above defined, including both Sene- S@mbia and Western Guinea, contains many other races of People besides the Mandingos and Falahs, some of which ae scarcely known except by name. I shall not attempt to Make a complete enumeration of them, but shall mention the most remarkable, with the addition of such notices re- Specting their history as I can collect, and think worthy of * By referring to the table of numerals at the end of this chapter, and comparing ““ with the numerals of the nations of the interior of Africa, in the following ves ter, the reader may observe, that the numbers up to ten appear to be in some “ the African idioms original and distinct words, while other nations have only Peated the term for five, adding one, two, three, and four, in order to express the 'gher numbers. These Jast are generally the least cultivated races; the Mandin- =e Se people of Tombukté and Hatisa, belong to the other class. The Falahs clatahs, however, coincide in this particular with the most barbarous. 74 MOUNTAINEERS OF SENEGAMBIA. presenting to my readers, I commence with some nations of the mountainous country in the interior. Paragraph A.—Inhabitants of Mountainous Regions. 1. Of the Jallonkas, or Jallunkan, and the Sokko. The highest part of Senegambia above and behind the western border of that mountainous region occupied by the Filahs, and equally above the northern border, which is the country of the Mandingos, is Jallonkadou, or the Wilderness of the Jallonkas. The Jallonkas appear to be more nearly connected with the Mandingos than with any other known people of Africa. Mr. Park, who traversed the country of the Jallonkas, and visited one of their towns termed Manna, has afforded some brief notices of them. He has likewise given us the nume- rals of the language spoken at Manna, which, as he says, prevails over all the extensive and hilly country termed Jal- lonkadou. These numerals are all nearly identical with those of the Mandingos. Park observes, that some of the words of the Manna speech havea great affinity with the Mandingo, though the nations themselves consider the two languages as distinct. The excellent missionary, Oldendorp, whom I have frequently cited in the first volume of this work, says, that he has conversed with two Mandingos, who described their own country as very extensive, and mentioned among their neighbours the Falah and the Jallunkan ; the latter, a peo- ple of kindred race with the Mandingos themselves,* but having a different language. Oldendorp has given, in his vocabulary, thirteen words, besides ten numerals, of the Jal- lunkan language, nearly all of which are Mandingo words, with some trifling corruption. From these facts it appears probable, that the Jallonkas are a tribe of the Mandingo race, having a peculiar dialect, which, as it has happened in many other similar instances, has been regarded as a distinct idiom. It would appear probable that tribes of the Jallonkas, or other nations of language equally related to that of the * Pin mit ihnen verwandtes Volk. JALLONKA: SULIMAS. 75 Mandingos, and in part pagans, extend eastwards from Jal- lonkadou, perhaps along the chain of the Kong mountains, to the countries behind the Gold Coast. We have from Olden- dorp some accounts of the Sokko or Asokko, a nation bor- dering on the Amina, in the country near that coast. Olden- dorp was acquainted with three individuals of the tribe, who Stated that their country was a seven-weeks’ journey dis- tant from the sea-shore. Their sovereign, who had many Subordinate kings under him, was termed Mansa. They Carry on defensive wars against the Amina, who make kid- Napping incursions into their territory. The language of the Asokko, as far as we can judge from a vocabulary of it given by Oldendorp, compared with another specimen of the idiom of the Jallunkan, or Jallonka, bears to the latter a close affi- nity, as do both of them to the Mandingo.* 2. The Kissi. The Kissi are a people of whom we know nothing, except that they inhabit the country about the sources of the Niger, to the southward of Stilimana and Sangara. 3. Sdlima. The Sitilimas, made known by Major Laing, who visited their capital town in 1822, are a warlike and powerful Negro "ace, inhabiting a mountainous country to the southward of ‘Outa-jallo, and around the sources of the Rokelle. They are among the most civilized of the pagan nations of Africa, and have, probably, derived improvement from their inter- Course with Mohammedans, particularly with the Filahs, With whom they were long closely united, but now wage per- Petual hostilities. For information respecting the Silimas, I must refer my readers to Major Laing, who has drawn a Parallel between them and the ancient Romans, and has col- lected particulars relating to their history from the latter part of the seventeenth century, or the reign of Gesma Fondo, in 1690, who was powerful in higher Senegambia, and waged Wars with the Kissi and Limba people for the captivation of Slaves, which were sold to Mandingo slave-dealers. In the time of his successor, according to Major Laing’s informants, * See Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission der Kvangelischen Brider, p. 281, 291, 333; and Vater, Mithridat. theil iii. p. 169. ce ap eae == SEES 76 SULIMAS: SANGARAS. the Filahs settled in a part of Jallonkadou, which they termed Fouta-jallo. The general characters of the Stlimas are ably described by Major Laing. Their physical structure fits them for enduring the hardships of war, and to support fatigue and privation. They are short and muscular in stature; in average height from five feet six to five feet eight inches. They have been a warlike people from the earliest period of their traditionary history, and preserve: the memory of their exploits in martial songs. They trade with the Sangaras on the one side, and the Mandingos on the other. The Mandingos bring cloth, powder, and beads from the water-side, and the Sangaras slaves from the interior. In domestic occupations, the men and women appear to have changed sexes; the cares of husbandry, except sowing and reaping, are left entirely to the females; the men look after the dairy and milk the cows, while the women build houses and plaster walls; the women act as barbers and sur- geons, while the men sew and wash clothes. Both sexes dress like the Mandingos. When young, the women are often exceedingly beautiful; but hard labour after marriage soon renders them otherwise. Like other Africans, they are passionately fond of music and dancing. They follow their dead to the grave, and commit them to the ground in perfect silence. 4. Sangara. The Sangaras are separated from the Sulimas by the higher course of the Niger, supposed here to flow from south to north. They resemble the Silimas in many respects, and are, perhaps, a tribe of the same race. Like them, they are a bold and active race of mountaineers, and display that superiority which the inhabitants of high countries in Africa generally exhibit in comparison with dwellers in low valleys or plains. Their country is extensive, and rich in pastures and corn and rice-fields. They are divided into petty tribes. They are taller and: better-looking men than the Stlimas, whom they resemble in costume; are famous for the manu- facture of cloth, which is exchanged near Sego for gold. They are armed with bows and spears. PEOPLE OF THE PLAINS: IOLOFS. 77 I now proceed to the nations of the lower countries, begin- ning from the borderers of the Senegal, and proceeding Southwards. Paragraph B.—Of the Nations inhabiting the Low Countries between the Senegal and the Gambia. The native tribes, who inhabit the low countries in the Reighbourhood of the Senegal, differ much both in physical and moral characteristics from the mountain races whose history has already come under our view. The most con- Siderable of these nations of the low countries are the Iolof, lalof, or Whalof. They have been well known as the most Xortherly of all the Negro nations, since the era of the first discoveries of the Portuguese on the west coast of Africa. l. The Iolofs. The Iolofs, when they first became known to the Portu- suese voyagers, occupied the country where they are now found, and were its principal inhabitants. Prince Henry of Ortugal, early in the fifteenth century, is said to have ob- ‘aed from travellers some information respecting the Assan- hagi* of the kingdom of Iolof, on the borders of Guinea; and Denis Fernandez, about 1446, previously to his discovery | Of Cape Verd, passed the country of the Iolofs, who were Separated from the Assanhagi by the Senegal.} The Assan- agi are, doubtless, the Sanhagii of Leo Africanus, mentioned y that traveller as one of the five divisions of the great erber nation. These people were, therefore, the Tuaryk of the northern bank of the Senegal, which is still occupied by Tibes of that nation interspersed among, or intermixed with tabs. In the reign of King John, an Iolof prince, Bemoi, arrived at Lisbon in great state, where he was received mag- hificently, was baptized, and did homage to the Portuguese Monarch.t The province of Iolof was, at that time, said to comprehend the country between the Senegal, or rather the Rio Grande, and the Gambia. The maritime district of the Iolof region is the country of i Portuguese Voyages to the East Indies, Astle’s Collection, vol. i. p. 11. + Ibid, p. 13. + Ibid, p. 19. 78 LOW COUNTRIES OF SENEGAMBIA. Cayor, formerly part of the dominion of the Bourba-lolof, or Iolof emperor, but now a separate state. All the Tolofs were formerly united in one nation, and governed by one chieftain. Different parts of this empire have been dismem- bered, but the Iolof empire yet exists, and some degree of respect is still attached to the ancient title, and the Bourba- Iolof reigns, though obscurely, in the interior, over a con- siderable extent of country little visited by Europeans. From the dismemberment of the empire rose the states of the Sira- tik, which is that of the Filahs or Peuls, Owal or Brak, Bondou, Cayor, Damel, the kingdoms of the Baol, Sin or Barbe-Sin, and Salum or Bur-Salum.* The Iolof nation still occupies, according to M. Golberry, all the country com- prised between the Atlantic and the river Falémé, the west- ern boundary of Bambouk. This limitation comprises a vast region. Mungo Park, who describes the Iolofs as a power- ful, active, warlike people, says, that they occupy the districts southward of the Senegal as far as the Mandingo states bor- dering on the Gambia. These petty kingdoms now occupy all the maritime country between the mouth of the Senegal and the neighbourhood of the Gambia, where the Mandingo states begin. The Iolofs, according to M. Mollien, are tall, have regu- lar features, and an air of dignity. M. Golberry says, that they are remarkable for an air of haughtiness, originating in pride on account of the superiority of their race. They are disposed to social habits and civilization, and are very hospi- table. The probity and kindness of their character identifies them, as M. Golberry thinks, with the “ blameless Ethiopians” of Homer. “ They are always well made,” Golberry affirms, “ their features are regular, and like those of Huropeans, except that their nose is rather round, and their lips thick. They are said to be remarkably handsome, their women beautiful. The complexion of the race is a fine, transparent, deep black ; * Golberry’s Travels in Africa, English Translation, vol. i. p. 259. M. Du- rand gives the same account, more in detail, of the dismemberment of the empire of the Bourbayolof. See Durand’s Voyage au Sénégal, tom. i. p.94, and the Journey of M. Rabault in the Yolof Countries, related in the same work, tom. ii. p. 139, et seq. IOLOFS: SERRERES. — 79 their hair is crisp and woolly. They are cheerful and indo- lent, when they are not roused by necessity to exertion.” The fact that the Iolofs, at a distance from the equator, and hearly under the tropic, are of a deep-black colour, has drawn the following observation from M. Golberry: “ This “ace of Negroes, the most handsome and the finest black of all those dependent upon the government of the Senegal, Proves that the deepest colour does not arise solely from the leat of the climate, nor the being more subjected to the ver- tical rays of the sun, but results from other causes. For the Tolofs are to the north of Nigritia, and the further you re- fede from them, and approach towards the line, the black Colour of the Negroes becomes less and less strong and un- Mhingled.’’ * 2. Of the Serreres. The tradition, which represents the Fiélahs and Iolofs as reign invaders of the country southward of the Senegal, and he Serreres as its original inhabitants, can only be established °t disproved by a comparison of the languages of these races. € Serreres are a people of very simple habits, who wander about with their flocks in the neighbourhood of Cape Verd, and in the borders of countries occupied by the Iolofs, with Whom they formerly carried on perpetual hostilities. Verdun de la Crenne has described them, and has given a vocabulary of their language, of which Professor Vater has extracted a Specimen.} In this there appears to be quite sufficient re- ‘emblance to the idiom of the Iolofs to prove an affinity in the two races. The following words are closely allied : Tolof Words. Serreres’ Words. Brother Quiamegne Quiamenne. Sister Guiguienne Quieguienesse, Ear Noppe Noffe. Tongue Lammegue Delemme, * In another passage, M. Golberry marks out the limits of Iolof more precisely. tis bounded, he says, by the ocean, the banks of the Senegal as far ag Podor, the northern limits of the Fiilah-Peuls, the western banks of the River Falémé, ties @ line from the sources of that river, following the northern banks of the ambia for twenty leagues to the sources of the river of Silima. t See Specimens of the Iolof and Serreres language from Verdun de la Crenne, 2 Vater’s Mithridates, th. iii. p. 160. eae IOLOFS : SERRERES: SARACOLETS. Tolof Words. Serreres’ Words. Heart Col Cod. Skin Derre Dole. Gold Vourousse Vourousse. Silver Caline Caline. Ox Nague Naque. Cow Nagguer Naque reve. Bull Jacque Goch. Cock Sec Sich. Old Maquiette Nagoyie. If the language of the Iolofs is, as it would appear, a dialect cognate with that of the Serreres, the probable infer- ence is, that the former people did not originate from a distant part of Africa. The Iolofs and Serreres were, proba- bly, tribes of the same stock; both of them ancient inhabit- ants of the country where they were found nearly three cen- turies ago by the Portuguese navigators. 3. Of the Serawoolli or Saracolets. The people termed Saracolets by French writers, but who name themselves, according to M. Golberry, Serawoolli, in- habit the country of Galam or Kajaaga. Their language is understood in the kingdoms of Kasson, Kaarta, Ludamar, and the northern part of Bambarra. Park, who makes this observation, describes them as Negroes of a dark brown or bright black complexion. Golberry says, that they are divided into a number of tribes; the independent princes of which have formed among themselves a sort of federal repub- lic for mutual protection, under the king of Galam, who is the chief:* Galam is a place of great resort, and the seat of a principal slave-market in the interior. Their language is said to be very guttural; and it would seem, from Park’s cursory observations, to be a peculiar one, though some of the numerals are Mandingo. Paragraph C.—Of the Negro States on the Gambia, and the Native Tribes between that River and Cape Palmas. The Iolof countries are cut off to the southward by the river Gambia, the banks of which are divided from its mouth * Golberry, i. 272. + Vater, in Mithridates. TRIBES ON THE GAMBIA. 81 to the cataracts of Barraconda where it descends from the highlands, a space of two hundred and fifty leagues, into a Sreat number of petty states or kingdoms, partly belonging to landingo colonies from the upper countries, and partly to Native tribes. M. Durand enumerates eight of these king- doms on each shore of the river, bordering immediately on Its banks, and there are several others a little further removed from them. On the northern, or right bank of the Gambia, ate the states of Barre or Barra, a Mandingo kingdom, reaching also northward along the sea-coast, Guiocanda, Badisson or Badibou, Salum already mentioned, Gniania, Couhan, Gniani, and Ouli; behind these are the Mandingo States, already mentioned, of Kollar, Lower and Upper Yani, ambouk, and, higher up the river than Barraconda, Tenda ‘nd Neola. To the southward of the Gambia are the king- dom of Combo, the empire of Foigni, Geregés, Kiam, Geagra, Gnamena, Kiaconda, Toumana, and Cantor.* We have no exact information respecting the tribes which, esides the Mandingos, constitute respectively the popula- hon of all these states. The inhabitants may be reckoned ®mone civilized Negroes, having been improved more or less Y adopting the customs of the Mohammedan Mandingos, and partly by trade and agriculture. Among the savage tribes of people on the southern side of the Gambia, and from thence to Cape Palmas, the following Nay be enumerated as the most remarkable: . 1. The Feliippes or Feloups. The Feloups are a savage nation, who inhabit forests Near the banks of the Casamanca, and the upper course of the Vintain, a river which falls into the Gambia from the South; their chief town or village has the name of Vintain. Olberry informs us, that their horde consists of sixty or BS Saty villages, situated in woods, from which these savages Scarcely ever emerge ; their number ‘is computed to be about 50,000 persons. The Feloups have a language of their own, Which is said to be very barbarous. They are indolent, sul- “n, and vindictive, their enmities being transmitted to gene- “ Durand’s Voy. au Sénégal, tom. i. c: 6. + Golberry. gat, OL. I. G it 1 | iF i + 14) i i | iE ere i ii ¥ i it | aa ae a RRRRTRO TERR TT 82 NEGRO TRIBES rations; they are likewise grateful and affectionate towards their friends and benefactors.* They go nearly naked, and scarify their faces and bodies: they carry quivers full of pol- soned arrows. In stature they are small and short, but they are strong and agile. Their hair is woolly and curled, but not so short as that of many Negro tribes; they gather it on the top of the head in a knot or tuft, which grows five or 1X inches long, and their beards project many inches from their chins. Their colour is a deep black, and their skins are rough. Their features are regular, and more like those of Hindoos than of Negroes in general.+ 2. To the southward of the Feloups are the habitations of . the Papels, who dwell in the country between the river of St. Domingo and the Rio Geba, behind the Portuguese colony of Cacheo. The Papels are a nation of savages who are always at war with their neighbours and with the Portuguese: they are fierce, cruel, and vindictive; are pagans, and sacrifice dogs to an idol or fetiss, which they term Chine.{ They are said to have dull, gross countenances, and a ferocious appearance.§ The natives of the isle of Bissao, southward of the river of St. Catherine, resemble the Papels, and are probably a branch of that tribe. These people are described by M. Brue, who visited the island. It is divided into nine governments under the Negro king. The people sacrifice dogs, cocks, and fat- tened oxen to their Chine or fetiss. || 8. Southward of the Papels, the isle of Bassi, and the coast opposite, is inhabited by the Balantes, a tribe of fero- cious savages, who exceed the Papels in ugliness: their lan- guage is said to be entirely different from the idioms of their neighbours. They eat rats, which they consider a great deli- cacy.q] 4. The archipelago of the Bissagos is inhabited by Negroes; * Durand, tom. i. .p. 133. + Park’s Travels, p. 63. Golberry, tom. ii. p. 295. * Durand, tom. i. p. 169. § Golberry, tom. i. p. 77. Mollien, tom. ii, p. 259. || Durand, tom. i. p. 212. € Mollien, tom. ii. p. 259. Durand, tom. i. p. 187. NEAR THE GAMBIA. 83 Who are described as pagans, naturally cruel and ferocious. Each island has an independent chief. The Bissagos are tall, Strong, and robust; they feed on fish and the oil and the nels of the palm; they sell to Europeans the rice and legumes which they collect for brandy, of which they are so steedy, that parents sell their children, and children their “ged parents into slavery, in order to obtain the means of in- toxication : suicide is frequent among them. These remarks “pply to the natives of all the islands: the people of each ave some peculiarities ; they are described by M. Brue, Particularly the natives of Cazégat, of whom the following *ecount is given by M. Durand: “ Les femmes et les filles de Cazégat n’ont pour habit qu’une Stande ceinture d’une espéce de frange faite de jonc, et ex- témement épaisse. Elles portent des bracelets de cuivre et ‘tain aux bras et aux jambes, et ne manquent jamais de Totter leur cheveux avec Vhuile de palme, afin de les rendre “Ox, gras, et doux, ce qui est chez elles la plus grande élé- Stace. En général les hommes et les femmes sont de belle taille; ils ont la peau d’un noir si beau qu’elle semble lus- tree, Les traits de leurs visages sont agréables ; ils n’ont ni le Nez écrasé ni les lvres grosses, qui semblent caractéristiques “0 Afrique; ils ont de Vesprit, de adresse, et se rendraient Abiles dans les arts s’ils étaient moins paresseux, et qu’on Pit cultiver leurs heureuses dispositions. Leur caractére, na- “urellement fier, leur rend l’esclavage insupportable, surtout °rs de leur pays; il n’y a rien qu'ils n’entreprennent pour “0 sortir, On ne peut trop prendre de précautions pour éviter Wils ne se révoltent quand on les a embarqués: les femmes “ont aussi rédoubtables que les hommes; si les blancs néeli- Sent la plus petite mésure de sfireté, ils savent en profiter ; ils - égorgent, s’emparent du batiment, le dirigent vers la céte, °U ils échouent ordinairement, et se sauvent a la nage,” 5. On the bank of the Geba, opposite Bissao, dwell the lafares or Iolas, who are the finest race of people on this “ast; their territory reaches in the interior as far as Koli. 6. This place is the frontier of the Basares, a nation who are ©onsidered as cannibals. In the same vicinity are the Naloubes, Who are separated by the Rio Grande from the Biafares. | G2 84 TRIBES BETWEEN THE GAMBIA 7. Between the river Nunez and that of Sierra Leone, there are four other navigable streams, the banks of which are 1n- habited by tribes of Zapes, Foulis, Cocolis, and Nalez. The Zapes are divided into hordes, which bear different names ; these tribes are idolaters, acknowledging one supreme Being; to whom they offer no sort of worship.* 8. The savage tribes of the coast, who are extremely ugly, with coarse and harsh features, with flat noses, and @ dirty, livid colour, are said to be here succeeded by tribes of a different character. “The Bulloms, Tymaneys, and Bagoes,” as M. Golberry states, “ are handsome, and the females beautiful.” After these, he says that the ugly tribes re-appear on the sea-coast.} These nations, of finer growth and better features, would appear to be emigrants from the interior. According to informa- tion obtained by Dr. Winterbottom during his residence in Africa, the whole coast, from Rio Nunez to the island of Sher- bro, was formerly inhabited by two races, the Bagoes to the northern part, and the Bulloms to the southward. The Ba- « goes were expelled from a great part of their country by the Soosoos; and the Bulloms, a people of mild character, were likewise driven out by the Timmanis, a warlike nation from the interior. Still the Bullom language is spoken along the coast as far as Shebar. These four nations have, according to Winterbottom, entirely distinct languages. These nations are all idolaters,t and worship wooden penates or fetisses.§ M. Durand says, that the “ Soosoos or Suzées; as well as the Mandingos, settled im these parts, acknowledge; nominally, the supremacy of the king of the Foolhs, as po- tentate of a great empire, extending from the Gambia t0 Cape Monte. The Bulloms, Timmanis, and Bagoes, admit only the authority of their chiefs. The Purrah, a singulat institution, the nature of which is explained by Durand and by Major Laing, prevails in the countries bordering on the -Roquelle aud the Sherbro. “ Les Bulloms, les Timmanis et les Bagoes sont forts, de bonne mine, et d’un beau noir: leurs * Durand, tom. i. p. 243. + Golberry, tom. i. p. 77. + Winterbottom’s Account of the Colony of Sierra Leone, vol. i. § Durand, tom. i. p. 319. AND CAPE PALMAS. 85 Membres sont droits et nerveux, leurs traits agréables, et leur taille au dessus de la moyenne. On distingue en particulier les Tommanies A leur contenance franche et ingénue ; leurs femmes sont généralement belles. _ “Ties Suzées ont le teint jaune ; leur figure et leur taille sont Inférieures A celles des Tommanies ; ils ont les lévres épaisses, et le nez plus écrasé.” M. Durand observes, that there is so great a difference be- “ween the free black people in these countries and the slaves, In their features, that even an inexperienced eye distinguishes these classes of people immediately. “La dignité et une flerté noble respirent dans toute la personne du noir libre ; Son regard est confiant et assuré; il sent et il annonce ce qu'il vaut. L’esclave au contraire, flétri par la malheur de sa situa- tion, a la démarche servile: il ne parle et ne chemine que &S yeux baissés.”’ Major Laing and Mr. Rankin, who travelled through a Part of their country, represent the Timmanis as a fine, hand- Some people, endowed with excellent natural capabilities.* heir territory extends in length ninety miles, and reaches towards the interior to the limits of the Kooranko. It is divided between four chiefs, and contains towns holding 2500 inhabitants, the women being to the males as three to One.} “ The men are stout, able-bodied, and good-looking, “apable of great fatigue, but timid and cowardly; the women ae said to be uncommonly handsome in their persons, and Pleasing in their address.” _ 9. The coast extending from the Sherbro to Cape Palmas 1S termed the Grain or Pepper Coast. The country behind this coast is occupied by the Quojas ; but this name seems to € used indefinitely, and to include more than one nation. : The Vy-berkoma are said to be the remains of the ancient habitants of Cape Monte. These are probably the nation termed Foy or Puy, whose language is spoken on the coast to the eastward of the Sherbro.t * Laing’s Travels. Rankin’s White Man’s Grave. + The names of the towns have the prefix Wa, those of chiefs Ba, as Ma-boon, a-Simera. Does not this betray some connexion with the south Africans ? + Barbot’s Account of Guinea. Winterbottom, wbi supra. Vater, Mith. th. ili. < : “ : =e ob : 1 reso Ss - We 4 i | b) 86 TRIBES NEAR CAPE PALMAS. The Quoja-berkoma are the true Quojas, who are said to have come from the interior. They border towards the north and east on the Konde-Quojas, or High Quojas, who speak a different language, and also on the Galas, the Hondo, the Curvas, and the Folgias. To this last nation the Quojas are tributary, as the Folgias themselves are dependent on the empire of Manou in the interior.* The country on the coast near the Sherbro and Cape Palmas, contains, according to Hutton, three kingdoms. Immediately after the mouth of the Sherbro is the kingdom of Cape Monte, which extends about one hundred and sixty miles from west to east, and reaches one hundred miles into the interior. Its capital is Couseca, a city which is said to be as large as Ashanti, and to contain 15,000 habitants. The kingdom of Sanguin succeeds to that of Cape Monte, and reaches about fifty miles along the coast. To the eastward of Sanguin, near Cape Palmas, is Settra Kroo, the capital of the people called Kroomen.+ 10. The Kroos or Kroomen live on the coast near to Cape Palmas ; they have a guttural language; are remarkably robust and muscular: they pass their time much in the water, and feed on flesh and rice. pt eee OST fet 8 eS Coast from Cape Palmas to the Gold Coast.. Between Cape Palmas and Cape Trés Puntas, or Three Points, is the Ivory or Tooth Coast. The principal nation m this district are the Quaquas, who have a barbarous, inarticu- late language. The Quaqua blacks are, for the most part, tall, stout, well-shaped men. They file their teeth, which are irregular and crooked, as sharp as awls. They let their nails - grow, and wear their hair long and plaited, daubed with palm- oil and red earth. On meeting, they greet each other with the exclamation, Qua-qua ! whence the name given them by Europeans.t Behind the Ivory Coast, stretching to the north-west of Ashanti, is a great and powerful nation, called the Buntakoos.§ * Barbot, book ii. + Hutton’s Account of the Gold Coast, &c. + Barbot, wbi supra. § Hutton, whi supra. erence cer eg rane oe tea NATIONS OF THE GOLD COAST. ae SEction V.—Of the Nations inhabiting the Gold Coast, and the Countries in the interior. The western boundary of the Gold Coast is either the Cape res Puntas, or it is the River Assini, which falls into the “ea about twenty-five miles west of Apollonia, or thirty west of the river Ancobra. The Gold Coast extends thence to the Rio Volta, its eastern boundary, and is about one hun- dred and eighty miles in length. Until a very recent period, the most correct accounts of this country and its inhabitants Were to be found in the works of missionaries, principally Danes.* Mr. Bowdich’s journey to Ashanti has furnished Some additions to our previous knowledge. _ The country behind the Gold Coast, to a remote distance In the interior, is divided into a number of petty states, which are often at war with each other; at other times subjected to the transient predominance of some fortunate chieftain. The Ing of Ashanti is at present the most powerful sovereign in these parts. : 1. Inta race. One language, divided into a variety of dia- lects, is the mother tongue of most of these nations. The dialect prevalent on the coast is the Fetu or Fanti. This is also called the Amina, from a numerous people in the interior, Whose vernacular speech it is said to be.f The Fanti lan- Suage was formerly supposed to be distinct from the Ashanti, ut they are now known to be cognate dialects.[ “The Ashantee,” says Mr. Bowdich, “ the Fantee, Warsaw, Akim, Ssim, and Aquapim languages, are indisputably dialects of the same root.” Part of the Ahanta nation belong to the Same stock, and the whole of these people class themselves, Without any regard to their modern national distinctions, into Welve tribes or families, which are now indiscriminately Mixed under different sovereigns.§ According to Mr. Bow- dich, there is a large town in the interior termed Inta, further * Professor Vater has collected the statements of Romer, Isert, Oldendorp, and Totten, in the third volume of the Mithridates. ‘ Rémer’s Nachrichten von der Kiste Guinea, Copenhag. 1767, cited by Vater. + Bowdich, Hutton. § Bowdich. So tas nest ig SA St i ETN ss SMB A a em 88 NEGROES OF THE GOLD COAST. from the coast than Ashanti, towards the north-east, whence the whole of these nations report traditionally that they emi- grated. Inta has hitherto been thought, but erroneously, to be identical with Ashanti. Inta is the most remote place from which the diffusion of the Ashanti language can be traced.* It may therefore be concluded, that all the nations on the Gold Coast which have been enumerated are of one race, which may be termed, for the sake of distinction, the Inta race; that name including the Inta, Fanti, Ashanti, and all those tribes who speak dialects of the same language. The Negroes of this coast are thus described by Barbot: “The blacks in this part of Guinea are generally well- limbed and proportioned, being neither of the biggest nor of the lowest size and stature; they have good oval faces, spark- ling eyes, small ears, and their eyebrows lofty and thick ; their mouths not too large; curious, clean, white, and well- ranged teeth ; fresh, red lips, not so thick and hanging down as those of Angola, nor their noses so broad. For the most part they have long curled hair, sometimes reaching down to their shoulders, and not so very coarse as theirs at Angola ; and very little beards before they are thirty years of age. The elderly men wear their beards pretty long. They have com- monly broad shoulders, and have large arms, thick hands, long fingers, as are their nails, and hooked; small bellies, long lees, broad large feet with long toes; strong waists, and very little hair about their bodies. Their skin, though but indifferent black, is always sleek and smooth. Their stomach is naturally hot, capable of digesting the hardest meat, and even raw entrails of fowls, which many of them will eat very ereedily. They take particular care to wash their whole bodies morning and evening; and anoint them all over with palm-oil, which they reckon wholesome, and that it preserves them from vermin, which they are naturally apt to breed. * Ibid. Romer, however, places a nation of Crepees contiguous to the Ashantis, and separated from them by the Rio Volta, and these he supposes to extend behind the Slave country in the interior. The reader will find these statements respecting the languages of the Gold Coast nations fally established by the vocabularies at the end of Bowdich’s Mission to Ashanti, by Hutton’s Mission to the same place, and by the authorities cited by Professor Vater. RACE OF INTA. 89 In short, they are, for the most part, well-set, handsome men their outward appearance, but inwardly very vicious. “As for their natural parts, they are, for the most part, - men of sense and wit enough; of a sharp, ready apprehen- “lon, and an excellent memory, beyond what is easy to ima- sine; for, though they can neither read nor write, they are always regular in the greatest hurry of business and trade, and seldom in confusion. On the other hand, they are ex- tremely slothful, and idle to such a degree, that nothing ut the utmost necessity can induce them to take pains; Yery little concerned in misfortunes, so that it is hard to per- Celve any change in them, either in prosperity or adversity, Which, among Europeans, is reckoned magnanimity ; but *Mong them some will have it pass for stupidity.” * “The black women are straight and of moderate stature, Pretty plump; having small round heads; sparkling eyes, for the most part high noses, somewhat hooked, long curling ar, little mouths, very fine, well-set, white teeth, full necks, and handsome breasts. They are very sharp and witty, and Very talkative.” + This description is evidently intended to apply to the nations of the Fetu or Fanti race, who are the general inhabitants of the Gold Coast. The Ashantis are said to be distinguishable fom them in their persons as well as in their carriage. They “te of blacker hue, more agile than the Negroes of the coast, and generally of better make.{ tr. Bowdich says, “ The men of Ashantee are very well Made, but not so muscular as the Fantees ; their countenances - frequently aquiline. The women also are generally hand- ‘Somer than those of Fantee, but it is only among the higher °rders that beauty is to be found, and among them, free from all labour or hardship, I have not only seen the finest figures, ‘ut in many instances regular Grecian features, with bril- ‘ant eyes, set rather obliquely in the head.” He adds, that € features in this class of females appeared to be Indian "ather than African. They are selected from the handsomest Slaves or captives.§ * Barbot, book iii. chap. 18. + Tb. + Isert apud Mithridat. p. 228. § Bowdich, p. 318. 90 RACE OF INTA: OF ACRA. Mr. Hutton has given nearly the same comparative estimate of the persons of the Fantis and Ashantis. 2. Acra race. The people of Acra, near Christianburg? though surrounded by tribes of the Inta nation, are a dis- tinct race, having a language of their own and peculiar man- ners. Acra was a powerful state until it was conquered by the people of Aquambo, when many of them fled to Little Popo, and founded a new state on the Slave Coast. The Mountain Negroes of Adampi speak the language of Acra. The people of Acra practise circumcision—wtriusque sexs —which is elsewhere, in these countries, unknown. The pe culiar language and customs of these people, their situatio? on the coast, surrounded by people of the Inta race, indicate them to be the remains of a more ancient people, who — probably possessed these countries before the Fantis emi- grated from the interior. The following is a description of the persons of these Ne- eroes, chiefly, as it seems, applicable to the race of Acra, by Isert, the Danish traveller: “ Almost all the Negroes are of a good stature, and the Acr@ Negroes have remarkably fine features. The contour of the face, indeed, among the generality of these people, is differ ent from that of Europeans; but, at the same time, faces are found among them, which, excepting the black colour, would in Europe be considered as beautiful. Commonly, however they have something apish. The cheek-bones and chin pro- ject very much, and the bones of the nose are smaller thap among Europeans. This last circumstance has probably given rise to the assertion, that the Negro women. flatten the noses of their children as soon as they are born. But noses may be seen among some of them as much elevated and 2° regular as those of Europeans. Their hair is woolly, curled, and black ; but sometimes red. When continually combed, it may be brought to the length of half a yard; but it neve? can be kept smooth.”’ * * P, E. Isert, Reis na Guinea; Dordrecht, 1790: translated in Philos. Mag: vol. iii, p. 144. RACE OF FOY, OR DAHOMEH. 91 Szcr:on VI.—Of the Foy Race, including the Whidah, Pa- pah, Dahomeh, and several other Nations of the Slave Coast, and the adjoining inland Country. That part of Guinea which lies to the eastward of the Gold Coast and the Rio Volta is termed the Slave Coast. It is of indefinite extent towards the east. It obviously derives its Name from the fact, that this part of Guinea was long the prin- “Ipal seat of that diabolical traffic which our legislature, after Maintaining for centuries its lawfulness, has, through the towing influence of Christianity on public opinion, at length Proscribed. A long tract of this coast, reaching from the Mouth of the Volta to the neighbourhood of Badagry, as Well as a wide country in the interior, is inhabited by several Nations, who belong to one race, and speak, for the most part, lalects of the same language, and resemble each other in Person, manners, and habits. They occupy nearly the whole “ountry which extends from the Volta to the narrow strip of “and belonging to the inland kingdom of Yarriba, and reach- ‘ng down to the sea at Badagry. The people of Koto, near the limits of the Gold Coast, Speak the language of Acra, which is different from that of the Slave Coast, as do likewise the people of Little Popo or 2paw, which was founded by fugitives from Acra, driven out of their country by the Aquamboes in 1680. These are to © Considered as foreign colonies on the Slave Coast. he most powerful nation on the Slave Coast was formerly the people of Great Ardrah, and, it is said, that the other States were tributary to them; their principal rivals were the hidahs, a warlike nation on the coast, whose country was °elebrated by all voyagers for its beauty and fertility, and the Steat number of its villages and inhabitants. Great Popo, ® the westward of Whidah, was another flourishing state, “util all these countries were depopulated by the Dahomans, * People farther in the interior, who speak a dialect of the ‘Nguage of Great Ardrah; the Mahas are another nation to Ty. westward of Dahomeh, who have also the same speech. he Dahomans were formerly called Foys, and inhabited a 92 RACE OF FOY, country called Fouin, on the north-eastern part of their pre- sent country. Their conquests began about the year 1625, and early in the last century they overran and depopulated Ardrah and Whidah, and possessed themselves of the whole region. Until that period they were unknown to Europeans. Dahomeh is reckoned by the people of Yarriba, together with Maha and Badagry, among the provinces dependant upon oF tributary to the king of Eyeo or Katunga, who is sovereigi of Yarriba.* Whether this subjection is nominal, or more than pretended, it seems that the king of Dahomeh is a despot over the people of his own country. It has been observed that the Dahomans present a singular mixture of barba- rism and civilization, of cruelty and of noble sentiments. They are grave, dignified, generous, and hospitable towards strangers. Their firmness and magnanimity has been com- pared to that of the old Spartans, but what the law was in La- cedeemon such is the will of the sovereign in Dahomeh. For him they live, for him they die in battle; his orders are obeyed with a blind and fanatical obedience. All newly-born children belong to the king, as the offspring of a flock to the proprietary of the soil. Children are taken from thei? parents and receive a kind of public education. The natives of Dahomeh recognise in their chief a divine right to disposé of their persons and lives according to his unrestrained will. Yearly, he sprinkles with human blood the tombs of his an- cestors. It is treason to pretend that the king of Dahomeb ig mortal like other men; that he eats, drinks, and sleeps. The king has a monopoly of all the women of his empire: @ subject can only obtain a wife by the bounty of his sovereig}, to conciliate which he must make a largess of 20,000 cowrles; and, in conformity with the ancient African custom, must be- sides roll himself in the dust before the gate of the royal palace. The fetiss or tutelar god of the Dahomans is a tiger: to the Europeans who questioned them on the reason of this choice, they replied, “‘ we must be content with him: that bet- ter God who has given so many good things to the white men has not yet revealed himself to us.” During the first half of the last century the Dahomans were a brave and wal * Clapperton’s Journey to Soccatoo, &c. Lander’s Travels. s OR DAHOMEH. $3 like people. Their king was accompanied by a guard of Ama- “Ons as valiant as the men. Gouadja-Troudo, the great Da- loman conqueror, overran Whidah, Ardrah, Torri, Didouma, and Ajirah. His name is consecrated, his subjects swear by it. € died in 1731: his descendants have sunk into obscurity.* The specimens of the languages spoken in this part of Africa, as yet obtained, are very scanty and imperfect; and, With respect to the affinity of some of the nations, we are obliged to rely on the statements of travellers. We have the testimony of Norris, a well-informed writer, that the lan- Suage of the kingdom of Dahomeh, is the dialect of the former kingdom of Great Ardrah, which extended from the 10 Volta to Lagos, and it has been shown by Vater to be *xtremely probable, and next to certain, from the relation of ~€s Marchais in the Allgemeine Historie der Reisen, that the \diom of Ardrah was identical with that of Whidah.{ These May be considered as the five principal countries of the slave “oast. The missionary Oldendorp has given some notices of two nations, termed Atje and Watje, who have nearly thesame ‘guage, inhabiting the interior, and having for neighbours the Sokko, the Kassenti, and the Amina. Their dialects, in the Specimens given by Oldendorp,§ have a great affinity with that of the Papaas mentioned by the same writer. All these ave been compared by Vater with a short vocabulary of the hidah language given by Labat; and there seems to be no oom for doubt that they belong to one speech. The Papaas, *Ccording to Oldendorp, are the people likewise termed Popos, aNd these indications of their affinity with the Whidahs are “onfirmed by the fact that, in the West Indies, slaves from Vhidah, who are distinguished everywhere by their tallness f statu re, and their activity, are generally termed Papaws.|| To the kingdom of Papaa, Oldendorp was informed that the tribe called Fong or Affong belong, as well as the Apas- %* Leyd en’s Historical Account of Discoveries in Africa, enlarged by Murray, Edinburgh, 1817. Ritter, Exdkunde, th. i. Hochafrika, 4 absch. §. 15. Dalzel’s ist. of an Expedition to Dahomey. + Dalzel, ubi supra. + Mithridates, th, iii. S Oldendorp, Geschichte der Missionen. Vater, Mithrid, th. iii, 205. ll Mithridates, th. iii. ee ae a I ee TR a a Re See 94 RACE OF DAHOMEH. sti, Nagoo, and Arrada, whom the Fong have subdued. The Fong of Oldendorp appear to be the Foy or Fouin of Dalzel, — names which, according to that writer, belong to the Daho- man people, and to their ancient country.* Dalzel informs us, that there is another powerful nation to the north-eastward of Dahomeh, who have occasionally over- run that country with numerous armies of cavalry. They are termed, according to him, Ayoes or Okyou. He conjectures them to be the Gago of Leo Africanus. Eyeo or Yarriba is well known to lie in the same direction with respect to Da- homeh. Its inhabitants are probably the Ayoes of Dalzel. In their persons the Whidahs are described, and the de- scription seems to apply equally to all the nations of this race, as generally tall, well-made, straight, and robust. Their complexion is black, but not so jet and glossy as that of the people on the Gold Coast, and still less so than that of the Negroes on the Senegal and Gambia. They excel all other Negroes in industry and vigilance.”+ The whole coast of Guinea is remarkably flat and low, and the country continues to have little elevation to a great dis- tance in the interior. At the meridian of Whidah the flat and sandy plain, intersected only by rivers and morasses, displays no perceptible character for the space of one hun- dred and fifty miles from the shore of the Bight of Benin. Norris could obtain no account of chains of hills even beyond that region: the surface of the land consisted everywhere of vast savannahs, interspersed with groupes of palm-trees: the soil is fertile and well cultivated.t Suction VII.—WNatives of Benin, and the countries adja- cent on the Bights of Benin and Biafra. Races of Ibo, Binin, Moko. We have less information respecting the native people of Benin and the extensive line of coast from the river Benin or Formosa to the rivers of Calabar, and thence southward to the mouth of the Gaboon, than respecting the inhabitants of most other parts of the African coast. * Qldendorp, p. 282. + Modern Universal History. + Ritter, Erdkunde Hochafrika. « IBOS, MOKOS, BININ. 95 This coast is everywhere low, and confined either by sandy “serts or morasses; the interior is in many places elevated. nthe 4° of northern latitude, between the river Camarones oe whe. Rio del Rey, a highland region, termed by the Paniards Alta Tierra de Ambosi, has been compared, by Voyagerg, in respect to height, to the mountain of Teneriffe. he hilly country from which the river Gaboon issues, at the distance of a few days’ journey from the sea-coast, is sup- Posed by Ritter to be a part of the same highland tract. Behind Calabar the country is inhabited by a stout hardy Face of Negroes, termed, as Barbot says, the Hackhous Blacks, : The slaves sold at Calabar, brought from the inland coun- tries, are, according to the same writer, in general tall men, Ut weak and faint by reason of their ill food, which is yams at best. « Great numbers are exported from that river, ten Ships sometimes loading at a time.” Barbot gives a tragical *ccount of the fate of these unfortunate beings. He says, Whoever carries slaves from New Calabar river to the West Indies had need to pray for a good passage. All the ships that loaded slaves with the Albion frigate, lost, some half, “thers two-thirds of them before they reached Barbadoes ; “Od such as were then alive died there as soon as landed, or else turned to a very bad market ; which, as he concludes, in € tone of a slave-dealer, occasioned a loss of above 60 per “ent. of the capital. The evil was chiefly occasioned by the Want of proper food and water to subsist the slaves, as well *S other ill-management.” The inland country above the coast is inhabited by the 20es or Ibos, a people well known by name in the Eng- 'sh colonies. The territory of the Eboes is more elevated ‘an the maritime tracts, but is thickly wooded. They have “en described by Mr. Oldfield, in a late memoir on the (eases of the natives of the banks of the Niger. He says that they are a fine race of people, and very superior to elr neighbours who occupy the country of lower level, Ich borders on the sea.” They are tall and robust, cap- © of enduring great fatigue, frequently paddling large “ahoes for forty-eight hours without taking food. Their diet > oou,08o OF 30 yea Avur SST, eur of eur 903,eur Bp TUL VYT. eur ooTTeur ou oUt 21, TeUt dof ew Bx .0 ‘VaIuaVva ayy Ajxvou oxe ys1y 01y) ot], aapus ONTOUT BYYel OYTOU oxIoUL eel SECTIPY ooysny ooysere oo¥o ooyep ooysoru sapue gs ba | "XMONUOL ‘Teumor suojteddeyg ureydeg wos ore speroumu eqreA OUT, ‘F ‘OINJVIOT [BIUSIO JO speuUy 91]} WlOIy aTqQe} puodes oY} pure ‘svoury moa ore spesoUINU AMOUIOG OUT, *S ‘oary jo Areqny ay} Suepng udoseq jo asensury] ey) jo uautpeds v proye osoyy, *S[PAVL, $,Jopuery utozy ore “Woy YIM pozepoo ‘speiowimnu esnezy oy, ‘svoury pue aynqerN Woy “EET 's “HT “Uy “soyeprlayTy, oy} ur sayeA Aq vests ‘euysey pue nusy jo stereumu oy} sv outes ‘oANVIOW] [BUSIO JO s[euuy oy} WoIZ ov Joqny pus vUYsey jo spetowmMuU oy, °s “UBPNG UrI}s9 AA JO WIOIPI oy} Io “OSenSury teSang oy} Jo syooTeIp oy Ayydutexe Aoy,y, “IpSuvsueg Jo oaneu ev Joyjo oy} pue nyynquiog, yw dn iYySnorq suo ‘saoiSeNT OM} JO SYNOU oY} WOT UMOP Uaye} atom AOY,T, ‘AINyBIOII'T [eIUOTIO Jo sfeuu oy} Woy ore rpSuesueg pur NIYNQUIO.y, Jo spersumu oy, *T —!S9dINOS SUTMOT[OF OY} ULOAT o1e sTeoUINU dAOGe OY, aornp (‘1W) ueereyoe MOqeys BULUIOS yeopeys vuruo0s euUOS eLIey sno} sora yonqg yepoys eyeeq opooy oxj00q Moq Rep “ESN’ FT TL niqeys euLos eAepeys Bulos eUlOS eIIe} eoyey cere as Da epprys Iq nppng nyyN urq eeu nyyo yedep “10qD) ‘euysey “NVGNS NYALSVL TOMBYSuUBIEM BYSURICM ey Surye-puryo-19me [QFB-FULP-19AB none essed eyed oft Py nse Tyee ef-Surye ey-surye oye yoje pee eyzsurye ‘rpsuesueg “NIyNqQuIEy, "NVGQS NYALSAM 114 OTHER STATES IN THE q 4. Of other Negro states nominally or really dependent on the empire of Bornt, viz. Mobba or Bergf, Begharmeh, and Borgho. Several states in the interior of Africa of considerable ex- tent are said to be dependent on Born, and the people of some of them are reported to be colonies of Bornoui. To the eastward of Bornt is the region of Mobba, termed also Bergui or Dar Szaleih: to the south-eastward of Lake Tschad is Begharmeh : to the south-westward of Borné and due southward of Haisa is the cluster of states termed Borgho. All of these are said to have owed allegiance to Bornu. Burckhardt and Seetzen have contributed information re- specting Mobba and Begharmeh. 1. “ Berga,” says Burckhardt, “is the most important country next to Darfir and Bornd, in Eastern Sadan. It is divided into many provinces. Wara is the capital, or perhaps the principal state, the sultan of which has rendered himself master of many neighbouring countries, among which is Baghermeh or Baghirmah.” A more detailed account of the region of Mobba was obtained by Dr. Seetzen from some intelligent natives of that country, with whom he conversed at Cairo. This was published by Baron Von Zach, in the Monathliche Correspondenz, from which I shall extract a few particulars. Seetzen obtained his information from two natives of Mobba, named Hassan and Abdallah. According to these persons, Mobba, termed by the Arabs Dar Szaleih, and by the inhabitants of Darfar, Berg, 1s governed by a sultan, who is subject to the more powerful sul- tan of Bornt. Bornt is distant from Mobba a journey of sixty days. Three days’ journey westward of Mobba is 4 great river, broader than the Nile, which flows from south to north. Hassan described the course of pilgrimage from Mob- ba towards Mecca ; mentioned deserts of fifteen days, termed Dir Kuh, which he traversed before arriving at Kordofan, the sultan of which resided in the town of Ibbéjid (Obéid.) Thence he passed the Bahr-el-Abiad in small boats kept by the Negro Shilikh, who are naked and pagan savages Mobba or Dar Szaleih lies to the south-eastward of Bornt. INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 115 Hassan gave a particular account of the plants, animals, and Mineral productions of Mobba. The inhabitants, according: to J, are chiefly Negroes, who are all Moslemin: there are ikewise many Arabs. The language of which Hassan gave t. Seetzen a specimen is spoken through the whole country : there are besides, other languages, of which the following are the Names: Kadschenjah, Upderrak, Alth, Mingén, Mara- iy Massalit, Szongér, Kaka, Dadschu, Bandalah, Masmajah, ~Jorga, Dembe, Malanga, Mimi, Kornboih, Dschellaba, Go- uk, Kabka and Garranguk. Hassan likewise gave an account of the conquest of Begharmeh, by the sultan of Mobba, who Was incited to the undertaking by the sovereign of Bornt.* 2. Begharmeh is a country of considerable extent, subject 60 the sultan of Wara and Mobba. Its inhabitants are said to be the cotton-manufacturers of Sadan. Several different ‘Rguages are spoken in this kingdom. 3. Borgho or Borgoo is a confederacy or cluster of states to the southwestward of Borné. We might be tempted to Magine that this reduplication of almost the same name “Mong the dependencies of Bornt has arisen from inaccuracy 'N the accounts obtained by travellers ; but if this be the fact We have no means of correcting the error. The western Bor- S20 has been traversed by Clapperton, and was twice visited Y Lander. The eastern is only known from the preceding “counts given by native Africans. Szcrron IITl.—Of the People of Borgho and Yarriba. To the southward of Hatisa, and between that country and - Mountains of Kong, is the empire so termed, or the assem- lage of N egro states distinguished by the name of Borgho. By lapperton we are informed that the chain of Kong rises in the rgho country, which is behind Ashanti and Dahomeh, and “a thence in a direction E.S. E. through Borgho, Yarriba, ‘ Laboo, ito Benin, the chain being about eighty miles Teadth, and in altitude two thousand five hundred feet. Nother mountain-chain, which is perhaps a branch of the Ong, passes through Yarriba, Yarn, Zamfra, Guari, and Szeg, » * Monathliche Corresp. Februar. 1810. V2 116 BORGHO AND Borgho is said to be bounded on the south by Yarriba, and on the north by a large country termed Gourma, which the natives of Borgho assert to be inhabited by naked savages; but the Mohammedans, by civilized people. Borgho 1s di- vided into petty states ; Niki, Khiama, Wawa, and Boussa, the last situated on the Niger. The people have few cattle but plenty of corn, yams and other esculent plants. Their re- ligion is Paganism, but they offer no human sacrifices. The people of Boussa eat monkies, dogs, cats, rats, fish and mut- ton ;* the latter only after sacrifices. The towns in Borgho are populous. Niki is said to be the superior state in the empire, though this dignity appears to be disputed, and is sometimes claimed by Boussa. Khiama, the capital of an in- ferior province, may contain, as Clapperton mforms us ac- cording to a moderate estimate, 30,000 people. Wawa is sup- posed to contain 20,000. The kingdom of Yarriba or Eyeo, supposed by some to be the Gago of Leo Africanus, is situated to the southward of Borgho.+ It extends from about the 10th degree of north latitude to within a short distance of the sea-coast, occupy ing a space between Dahomeh and Benin, from which last country it is separated by the Niger or Quorra. Dahomeh, Maha, and Badagry are considered as tributaries to Yarniba, of which Eyeo, or Katunga, is the principal town. Captain Clapperton repeatedly assures us, that the people of Yarriba speak the same language as the natives of Borgho§ We thus trace a connexion between the great empires 1? * Clapperton says, that he was with the sultan of Boussa, when his breakfast was brought in, which consisted of a large water-rat with the skin on, rice, &c. + Eyeo or Yarriba in situation agrees nearly with the Gago of Leo, which is placed by that writer four hundred miles to the southward of Tombukté. But Le? reckons Gago among the countries where the language of Tombuktti is spoke™ while Kano, which lies between these two countries belongs to the Gubery family ° nations. The language of Yarriba has no affinity to either of the Sudanian idiom* + Clapperton’s Second Exped. p. 56. § Clapperton, p. 95. In p. 105 he says, “ The language of the people of Boussa is the same as that of the other states of Borgoo, and appears to be a dia- lect of the Yarriba, but the Houssa language is understood by all classes, even bY the Cumbrie.”” At the end of this chapter the reader will find a vocabulary con taining specimens of the three principal languages of Siidan, viz. Tombukté, Gabe and Born4, compared with each other and with the idiom of Borgho and Yarrib® and with that of Mobba or Berg, which are all entirely distinct. YARRIBA : STATES OF BORGHO. 117 the interior of Africa or Sidan, with the countries on the oast. For Borgho is considered as an ancient dependency of Born, and Yarriba extends to Badagry, which borders n the sea of Benin. According to Lander, the king of Niki is styled, by way of distinction or eminence, the sultan of Borgho. His empire ‘Includes the following states: Niki, Bury, Khiama, Sandero, Kingka, Korokoo, Loogoo, and Funda. Boussa and Wawa ate said by Lander to be no part of the empire of Borgho, ut to form a separate country, where a different language is Spoken and different manners prevail. It seems, on the whole, that the domain termed Borgho, is one of very uncertaim ex- tent, and the relations of the tribes inhabiting this and the heighbouring countries are very little known. We have to Tegret the negligence so common among English travellers ™ collecting vocabularies, in aid of researches into ethno- staphy, It seems that the Niger or Quorra forms the eastern boun- dary of Borgho and the country supposed to be connected With it. On the opposite side of this river are the several States of Youri, Nyffé or Tappa, Jacoba and Funda. The ‘nhabitants of these countries appear to be Negroes similar a description to those of Borgho and Yarriba. Clapper- ton assures us, that the language of the people of Coulfu, Which is the principal town in Nyffé, is a dialect of the Yarribean language.* It is therefore highly probable that the people of Nyflé, and perhaps of other countries tothe “astward of the Quorra, are, as well as the Yarribean people, of the same race as the natives of Borgho. The people of Nyffé are in part Pagans, of the same reli- S'0n as the Yarribeans. The figures on their houses are the ‘ame, viz. the lizard, crocodile, tortoise and boa serpent. hey sacrifice once a-year a black bull, a black dog, anda lack sheep, on a hill in one of the southern provinces. any of the people of Nyffé, and a great proportion of those of Borgho, have embraced Islfm. € are informed by Lander, that the people of Boussa, Which he terms the principal state of Borgho, together with * Clapperton, p. 142. 118 CUMBRI: NATIVE PEOPLE OF those of its sister provinces, Youri, Wawa, and Khiama, de- rive their origin from Bornd. Lander says that the natives of these states preserve a tradition that the whole country was colonized originally from Bornu, which opinion all classes implicitly believe. He adds that, like the Carthaginians of old, the people of Borgho send annually presents by way of acknowledgment to their ancient country. This account is in some degree confirmed by the fact no- ticed both by Clapperton and Lander, that the Borgho peo- ple are not the aborigines of the country which they now inhabit. Remains of the ancient inhabitants are the Cumbrie people, a race of outcasts who are now driven into the moun- tains and forests, or have taken refuge in the islands of the Nile. The Cumbrie are described by Lander as a harmless, stupid race, of simple habits, who are treated with contempt by their neighbours and sold mto slavery. Clapperton was informed by the sultan of Boussa, that the first people who inhabited that country were the Cumbrie ; that his ancestors and the people of Boussa and Niki, came into Borgho a long time ago from Bornt; and that the sul- tans of Niki, Yarriba, Khiama, Wawa and Youri, pay tribute to Bornt.* He says, that the language of Boussa and the Borgho states differs only as a dialect from that of Yarriba. He thus describes the Cumbrie: “ They are a lazy, harmless race of Negroes, inhabiting the villages in the woods near the Quorra in the states Boussa, Youri, and Wawa. They plant corn and yams, and keep a few sheep and goats. They are nearly naked, rather tall, more stupid-looking than wild. Their language differs from that of the surrounding inhabit- ants.” In the province of Katongkora in Youri, the people of Wazo and Rajadawa, walled towns containing from six thousand to seven thousand inhabitants, are all Pagan Cumbrie. Clap- perton says, they are a fine, active, clean-looking people ; and in this part of the country the men and women are gaily dressed. It does not appear that they differ in physical cha- racters from the other inhabitants of Borgho, although it is * Clapperton, p. 103. | BORGHO AND YARRIBA. 119 evident that they form a distinct, and in many respects, a Peculiar race, Several Negro states are mentioned by late travellers in the countries bordering on Borgho and Yarriba, and to the Northward of Benin, as Jacoba and Adamowa; but whether the inhabitants are of the Yarribean and Borgho race or be- Chg to distinct nations we are not informed. : Physical Characters of the Natives of Borgho and Yarriba. ‘The people of Borgho and Yarriba speak the same lan- Stage, though with some differences of dialect; they may therefore be considered as forming one race. Clapperton assures us, that the general appearance of the arribeans had less of the characteristic features of the Negro than any other African people he had seen: their lips are less thick, and their noses more inclined to the aquiline shape than ose of other Negroes. The same writer describes the sultan of Boussa as a finely-formed man, with a high forehead, “‘rge eyes, Roman nose; his chin covered with about an Mch and a half of beard. Lander says, that his features were More like the European than those of a Negro. He was Struck with the regularity of features, elegance of form, and pressive dignity of manners and appearance in the sable Monarch Khiama.* The men of Wawa are, according to Lander, in most in- Stances, tall and well-formed, and the women handsome, ‘aving: far ereater pretensions to beauty than the natives of arriba or Khiama. _ The same writer informs us, in the account of his second Journey, that many of the women of Larro, in Yarriba, are of a bright copper-colour, and that great numbers of the popu- “tion of that town are fairer than mulattoes. Mr. Lander says that the people of Borgho are more cleanly han their neighbours of Yarriba, and would be more hand- Some if they had not weak eyes. That part which in the “Yes of others is perfectly white, is in theirs of a smoky yel- °w. Clapperton makes the same observation of the people of * Clapperton’s Second Exped. p. 57. — a == 120 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS Nyffé. Lander says, when a Borgho man approaches the king, he stretches himself on the earth, and lies kissing the ground, and covering his head with sand or dust. This is exactly what Leo Africanus related that he had seen done by some of the natives of Sadan. Section IV.—WNotices of the Physical Characters of the native Races of Sadan. We have but few and imperfect accounts of the physical characteristics of the different Negro nations in the interio! of the African continent. The people of Born are described in the notices collected by Hornemann, whose account has been confirmed by late writers, as Negroes of a coarse and stout make. The men 10 Born, as in some of the eastern countries of the same great region of the world, prefer for their wives the largest females The race of Bornt is of blacker colour and of Negro features more strongly characterised than that of Hatsa or Afnu. The Gubery or Hatsa race are described by travellers a® much more handsome in their features than the people of Borni. Hornemann informs us that they are “ Negroes, but not quite black: they are the most intelligent nation in the interior of Africa: they are distinguished by an interesting countenance; their noses are small and not flattened ; and their figure is not so disagreeable as that of the Negroes of Guinea: they are much devoted to pleasure, to dancing and singing.” . Abdallah, a native of Guber, whose account of his country and other parts of Africa, is cited by the author of a memoll! already alluded to, is described as having the true Negr? features and colour, but a very intelligent, prepossessing coun” tenance.* Mr. Jackson informs us, that the people of Hatisa are acute intelligent and industrious. “They possess a peculiarly ope” and noble countenance, having prominent noses and expres” sive black eyes.” He adds, that “a young girl of Hatsa, of * Annals of Oriental Literature, p. 537. SS SON aT et os a OF THE NATIVES OF SUDAN. ~ 121 °Xquisite beauty, was sold at Marocco when he was there for four hundred ducats, the usual price of a female Negro “ing one hundred.* According to the same writer the people of Wangara have very large mouths, thick lips, broad flat noses, and heavy “yes. Wangara or Guangara is described in the extracts ftom Leo Africanus, It adjoins Borni, and it is probable that the People belong rather to the Bornouy than the Hatisa race. Dr. Seetzen derived his information respecting Mobba from Wo natives of that country named Abdallah and Hassan, Whose persons he has described. Abdallah had a broad flat N0se and an uneven complexion, perhaps from small-pox, Which often rages severely among the Negroes. In his mental aculties he appeared to be by no means inferior to Europeans. @ssan, who was Abdallah’s countryman, was a man of very mld and gentle disposition, and displayed great sincerity and °ve of truth. His colour was black, but not quite of so dark 4 shade as in many Negroes, his nose less broad and flat, and his lips not so much turned out. He was of middle stature, nd thin, and had a scanty and short beard. He had left 's home with thirty-two of his countrymen, for the pilgrim- “8e of Mecca and Medina, without a para of money, with Snly a garment of white cotton cloth manufacture of his own “ountry, and a knapsack on his head.+ Section V.—Of the Falatiya or Felatahs. Scattered hordes of a race different in many respects from © genuine N egroes, have long been spread through many “ountries, very far to the northward and eastward of the ; Jackson, ubi supra. M. Rozet declares that there are many Negresses in oy — country, whither they have ue doubtless brought from the inte- hin Sadan, and very probably from Haisa, who pa as a Jet-black colour, but ss ad Roman countenances: ‘‘ Elles ont le nez aquilin, les lévres peu pronon- > €S yeux grands, et le front découvert.”’? He adds, that he has seen several men th 0 ©xactly similar features. See M. Rozet’s Voyage dans la Régence d’Alger, ‘om. ii, p. 140, oo Nachrichten v. d. Negerlande, in F. Yon. Zach’s Monathl. Corresp. »p.14l, £22 HISTORY OF THE FELATAH Fulah states, living for the most part in forests and desert places, in small companies, and feeding flocks and dwelling in temporary huts. These people are partly Moslemin and m part Pagans: the former term themselves Phalatiya Arabs. They are, however, not Arabs, but a race of peculiar lan- guage and features. The discovery that they are a great ra- mification of the Fulah race, was made by the celebrated phi- lologer, Professor Vater. The indefatigable Seetzen is well known, during his abode in Cairo, to have made it his busi- ness to collect specimens of the languages of Africa from the pilgrims who passed through that city in their way to the holy places in Yemen, as well as from slaves and other persons, together with whatever notices he could obtain of countries in the interior. The communications of Seetzen with Baron Von Zach were partly published by that distinguished person in his periodical work, entitled ‘ Monathliche Correspondenz, and partly put into the hands of Professor Vater. Among the specimens of languages collected by Seetzen, was @ vocabulary given to him by a native of Ader, a country of the Felatahs, in which Soccatoo is situated. On com- paring this with the vocabulary of the Ffilah language in Barbot’s Description of Guinea, Vater discovered with sur- prise that the two vocabularies belong to the same language- Professor Vater published Seetzen’s collection of Felatah words, which amounted to a considerable vocabulary, in the first number of the ‘“Konigsberger Archivs fur Philosophie, Theologie, Sprachkunde, und Geschichte.” Several years afterwards Captain Clapperton’s journey to Soccutoo, the capital of the Felatah sultan, afforded full and satisfactory assurance of the facts which Vater had so long before asserted. Clapperton collected, during his last and unfortunate jour- ney, notices which throw much light. on the history of the Felatah race. According to information obtained by this in- telligent and enterprising traveller, the Felatahs wandered out originally from the country of Melli,* under which term * It is an interesting fact that Melli is the name of one of the kingdoms me” tioned by Leo Africanus. RACE IN SUDAN. 123 they include the Falah states in Senegambia, Foota-Torro, °ota~Bonda or Bondou, and Foota-Diallo. The wandering ‘elatahs, like the Falah hordes in the borders of the Tolofs, ‘ved, as we have observed, in forests, and fed cattle. They ‘Spersed themselves over the greater part of Sadan, and “ng everywhere disregarded and despised, their numbers Were unknown. Many hordes still continued to be Pagans, but those who had embraced Islam became devotees and zealots Y their religion: they performed the pilgrimage to Mecca ; any also visited the cities in Barbary. They increased an intelligence, but never formed themselves into a nation, "ntil a revolution took place in their habits and character, Parallel in ‘many respects to the change induced among © Arabs at the first outbreaking of the Mohammedan “tthusiasm. The author of this revolution was a Felatah lek, named Othman, commonly termed Danfodio, who “quired all the learning of the Arabs in Africa, and suc- “eded in persuading his countrymen that he was a prophet. Qving laid this foundation of his power he came out of the Woods of Ader or Tadela, and built a town in the province of Uber, where the Felatahs gathered round him. Being ex- Pelled by the people of Guber, Danfodio with his Felatah followers returned to Ader, and built a town which they Called Soccatoo. To the people of his race, who flocked to 'm from different countries, he gave different chiefs, telling “tm to go and conquer in the name of God and the prophet, Who had given the Felatahs the lands and all the riches of the Kafirs. Each chief bore a white flag: the Felatahs were ® Wear white robes, emblems of their purity ; and their war- “'Y was to be Allah Akbar. Their confidence in the super- *atural power of their chief inspired them with valour. They “nquered Kano without a blow, overran Gidber, and killed © sultan: they subdued afterwards the whole of Hatsa With Cubbe, Youri, and a part of Nyffé: they attacked Borni °D the east, and Yarriba on the west, of which they con- Lered a part, and once entered the capital city Eyeo or atunea, Danfodio was an object of terror among all the “to nations in the interior. Some years before his death, *nfodio became religiously mad; but until that time his 124 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS government was well regulated. At his death, in the year of the Hegira, 1232, (1816,) Gaber, Zamfra, a part of Kashna and Zegzeg threw off the yoke of the Felatahs; but the present chieftain of Soccatoo, Mohammed Bello, has suc ceeded in reducing a great part of the country under his dominion. Similar accounts of the progress of the Felatahs were given to Mr. Lander, who, in his passage through different Neg?? states, has collected many additional particulars relative 1° the conquests and dispersion of that people. He says that the Felatahs in former times never resided in towns, but wat dered with their flocks and herds, in small companies. “ They stole into Haisa’”’ imperceptibly, and were at length so nu merous in that country as to be enabled to form a powerful combination for its conquest, and the establishment of thei own empire of Soccatoo.* Most of the Felatahs are Moslemi), but many hordes are still Pagans: both Clapperton and Lander declare that these are precisely the same people iD other respects, that they have exactly the same languag® and the same features and complexion. Lander says that they have been dispersed over the Borgho territory from time immemorial. The Felatahs in Borgho maintain no intel course with people of their own kindred in Hafisa, where they are the dominant race, nor have they the slightest ide@ or tradition of their origin. They are generally termed Fou- lanie, and speak, as Lander says, the same language, a0 follow the same pursuits as the Fulahs near Sierra Leone. We have not obtained much additional information as to the physical history of the Felatah or Fiilah race from thé English travellers who have met with them in the interior of Sudan. Captain Clapperton says merely, that all the Fe latah hordes which he met with between Boussa and the sea, had the same features and colour. “Their complexio? is as fair as that of the lower class of Portuguese and Sp@ niards.” All variations from this he attributes to intermis ture of race with the Negroes. If we were to form our opi nion from this account, we should suppose the principal body * Lander’s First Journey, vol. i. p. 25. OF THE FELATAHS IN SUDAN. 125 ete! Belaiah! natioin-to be merely a tribe of Mulattoes. ut they are very differently described by other writers who have had opportunities of observing them. By Mr. Lander they are said to bear a near resemblance to the red or cop- Per-coloured Kafirs of Southern Africa; a resemblance so Strong, that on it the writer, who had previously been *Monest the Kafirs near Graham’s Town, was led to found * opinion which he confidently expresses, that the Kafirs and the Felatahs are the same race.* The description given by M. M. Golberry and Mollien, of the ed Poules, is the most accurate account that we have yet ob- tained of the physical characters of this race.: On reference to this description there seems to be no doubt that the Fiélah ®t Felatah race may be reckoned with propriety among the frican tribes whose physical character differs from the Uropean as well as from the Negro, and constitutes them a third class of nations distinct from both. ‘To this class we Shall have occasion to refer many of the native races of Ethio- Pla or Eastern Africa. T shall conclude this chapter and the survey of the nations f the Western and Middle divisions of Africa, with a short Omparative vocabulary of the principal families of languages ready mentioned; the materials of which are taken from © collections of Oldendorp, Seetzen, Vater, Mrs. Kilham, lapperton, Lander, and the vocabularies given in the An- Nals of Oriental Literature. The five first families of lan- Slages, the idioms of Senegambia and Guinea, are nearly the Same as those of which the numerals were inserted at the end Of the fourth chapter, and the analogy in other parts of the Yocabulary bears out the relation there observed between the “tmerals in the several dialects. The five languages of the terior are those belonging to the nations mentioned in the Present chapter. It may be seen that they are all perfectly “Istinct. Thus we may infer that the races of men inhabit- De the three principal divisions of Sudan, as well as those . Foe : : : He describes the Felatahs of Borgho as differing little either in features or C : : “our from the Negroes, but as having much longer hair, which they weave on th sides of the head into queus, and tie under the chin. eS eer rea = 126 TABLE OF LANGUAGES. of Mobba or Bergi, and the Western Borgho and Yarriba are distinct, and constitute so many separate families of na- tions. The vocabulary marked Eyeo, is taken from a small publi- cation on that language by the Rev. J. Raban, published by the Church Missionary Society. This language is apparently identical with the Yarribean, of which the vocabulary is from Clapperton. ‘ook £ ‘diopuap[O 0} Surproooe ‘urorpr sexsueyy ay} ut “pIlyo Jog prom oy} st ouutuoyytg |. Apoyeredas uaAIs ueeq Apeorye aAvy soSenSury JO SUOISTATp Om asx Jo sperowunu oy, y @-W10 liq-O I-un-yo oMei-1 ed-n9-0 3una-o toad euiqo weuoyo om.e19 edoofe oou.o | aaa Pee j Yslog nia viey Afpue ykssom AjoSuoyselp Afpry Suduny Aunouoz qoluour yAe whee © ieee ¢ “eq qo oysnou Asue nouvy yoqAys ted eoy Auedk TuRqe 2}-8} Wey wey vuns [eq-wnp ney nuog nue end eyn nes 1ey eyen = BuRqn naef rysyeur eyeul =‘B}e1oys ejon vues By ne “NG Ulo}sey equey 1iey ouoU osunqg eureyef = igmn 1ey npusy 110 UepNng udoisa Ay "LO1wajquy ay) Lo uDpngy U2 saovy podroursd ay) fo sobonbuvT—z 2 110 OM-O TW-O nu-urT asso Aa ef-1 eq-qeq eae soumo = yen Aassiyeye 901.10 eye dip-1w nu oy-e O[ 1u9 eye eulnueUr qneult nfuew 99} josu—s e1ue OO eyo i-1u eyo eq-30 ISI ouu euu B}-8-on I-eu B8y-I-on Ipuony euo 8=— hue oqq] eyou dij-out nut ony-eul oyu eueu esueU ueUu eu O[-Un-oUr Ipuey unosu iow urUIg ol] {S OIUI-o1U oj-e ye} 1-ou 1z0} na-ed-ef nu-eu nu-ns 1A-Suns suns I-an-o evdtg O[-B onoise oye qepry ma hoy es-UL = nS-UT ef-o uvU-8 IYS}-1U BU-oW BIp-aut enajoqge Bisoq equiliog eN-ei-n unNseqo v-In-o yuey ws-UI nis-ur e-if-o en-nf-1ur 1}-Tur 1u-o es-On wNyoye Viseqeq equinieqo ~e-ni-ns IumMsogo v-In-o nueysy "ZIA SBQUT d¥-B-Joq B-d} if-ues 1f-any B-3U QJ-eJ —- 1q-AB-Ip eu-1f oawWw-oy Iqun} es-1y ad-ns nsng aafoq! asuat}t ogsunyyI eu ejunnfteunewo nu-nf nAsqou eo1ey —- ET 9} uvyunyer oreq ye} Suis Suny equi BJU {SuIpsuip ns-nw O[-OT O-ley I~] I} oSurpueyy eyku = JeSuessny 1904 euur eqeq vpseq + oqqep - nN] e-suou yeqeayy o-sun-of 1 BJ-[-1 [BSUOSSBABY ap1oy Iu-ou Bq-Eq ope}ne oqap IN-af I-dueu “yepngy *s]D9TRIGG pue “puvry *.1998 AA "oIL 400.7 ‘peayy ‘seqjopy = “aye *PITYO ‘uBuUro AA "Ue “IBIG ="uooWT = =*ung sasensuery jo sorry ‘peungy pup nigupbauay burstsdulo? DILL F? Ul2]SA4f —~'T ~ HOLVAOW AHL TO GUVMHLUON ‘VOIMApP TWHLNAQ AnNv NYDLSAAA HO SHYVAYNVT AO AYVIAAVIOA AAILVAVANOD ABYSSINIAN RACES. CHAPTER VI. ETHNOGRAPHY OF EASTERN AFRICA TO THE NORTHWARD OF THE EQUATOR—ABYSSINIAN NATIONS. Suction I.—— Outline of the Physical Geography of Abyssinia. 4 1. General description. I nave observed that an elevated region containing the sources of the Niger and the Senegal extends in the wester? part of Africa to the northward of that line which traverses the continent from east to west, and separates the mountainous wilderness of the centre from the level countries of Sahara and Sidan. A similar phenomenon displays itself in the eastern side of the same continent: around the source of the great eastern branch of the Nile, a high country, which has been compared by Humboldt to the lofty plain of Quito, ad- vances many degrees to the northward of the same traversing chain. Abyssinia, according to Tellez, is called by its inha- bitants “ Alberegran,” or the Lofty Plain, by which epithet they contrast it with the low countries surrounding it on al- most every side. It is compared by the Abyssins to the flowet of the “ denguelet,”’ which displays a magnificent corolla, en- vironed by thorns, an allusion to the many barbarous tribes who inhabit the circumjacent vallies and low plains. To the southward of the country thus described, the high plain of Narea, or Enarea, reaches still further in the same direction, and serves like a stem to connect Habesh itself with the still more lofty mountains of Kafta, and the great elevated regio? of Central Africa. The high country, continuous with the plains of Narea, reaches, according to the information ob- tained by Tellez and by Brown, nearly seven degrees 12 breadth, from the sources of the Bahr-el-Abiad to those of the river Zebi, supposed to be the original stream of the Qui limance, a river flowing southward into the Indian Ocean. DESCRIPTION OF ABYSSINIA. 129 On the northern border of Narea is Gonea, the residence of the bonero or sultan. On the lofty mountains of Kaffa, the native country of the Coffee-tree, snow is said to “le; the inhabitants, according to Mr. Bruce, are fairer in “omplexion than the natives of Sicily and Naples. “The ingdom of Narea,” says Mr. Bruce, “ stands like a fortified Place in the midst of a plain. The people of Narea, as Well as those of Kaffa, are Christians: they are surrounded °n every side by hordes of Galla and other pagan savages, Who Wage against them perpetual conflicts. The highlands of Abyssinia, properly so termed, reach from the southern Provinces of Shoa or Efat which are not far distant from Marea under the ninth degree, to Tscherkin and Wal- dubba under the fifteenth of northern latitude, where they Make a sudden and often precipitous descent into the low vtests occupied by Shangalla Negroes. From east to west “Y extend over nine degrees of longitude. Rising at the “teep border or terrass of Taranta from the low tract along ‘e Arabian Gulf, they reach to the mountains of Fazoclo, yre and Touggoula, which overhang the low, sandy deserts °f Sennaar and the valleys of Kordofan.* ~Y @ minute and elaborate analysis of the information Stine by Tellez and other Jesuits, and by MM. Bruce and alt, Professor Ritter has shown that the high country of abesh consists of three terrasses, or distinct table-lands, Which rise one above another, and of which the several grades "T ascents offer themselves in succession to the traveller who “dvances from the shore of the Red Sea. ‘k2. 1st Level. Plain of the Baharnegash. After traversing the low and arid plain of Samhara, inha- ited by the black Dandkil and Dumboeta, the traveller “Scends the heights of Taranta and enters upon the first of ese terrasses, which is the country of the Baharnegash, the *Sush or sultan of the maritime part of Habesh. Here the “Sbect of nature is observed to change. The acacias and mi- a] ay, der Ostseite, VOL. 11, : K teres = = = SSERRERSEEEECSETUaniean === am ge es ee SS S M . Ritter, Erdkunde, 1 Theil. s. 168. 3r. Abschnitt, Nordrand von Hochafrika 130 OUTLINE OF THE PHYSICAL mosas, characteristic of the burning sands of Nubia and the shores of the Red Sea, disappear, and give place to forests of tamarinds, which cover a surface diversified by hills. The herds of elephants, and the antelopes and numerous mone keys which abound in the woods below these heights, are n° longer seen in the plains above, where the singular kolquall, reaching the height of forty feet, reddens the forests with its crimson fruit, and, together with the thorny kantoutffa, gives a new character to the still arid region. Here Mr. Salt found, in the month of March, the air of the plain hot and dry, and the beds of the rivers without water. In this plain is situated Dixam. q 3. 2nd Level. Kingdom of Tigre. Above the country which submits to the Baharnegash, at- other ascent leads into the plains of Tigré, which formerly contained the kingdom of Axum. Tigré abounds in pasturages yields in the year two harvests of wheat, of teff, and of mais; produces cotton, of which the people of Adowa make theit dress; and here the orange, the citron, and the banané imported by the Portuguese flourish only in gardens. At @ somewhat greater height, but situated within this region, ar the plains of Enderta and of Giralta, containing Chelicut and Antalow, principal cities of Abyssinia. The kingdom of Tigre comprehends the provinces of Abyssinia westward of the Ta- cazze, of which the principal are Tigré and Shire towards the north, Woggerat and Enderta, and the mountainous region® of Lasta and Samen towards the south. q 4. High Abyssinia. Kingdom of Amhara. The lofty hill of Lamalmon was supposed by the Port euese to be higher than the Alps and Pyrenees, but from it the mountains of Samen appear more elevated. These mou” tains, of which Amba-Hai appears to be the highest summits form with Lamalmon and the mountains of Lasta, a long but not continuous chain, running from north-east to south-west and separating the high land of Tigré from the still mor elevated or Alpine country of the higher Habesh or the king” a es GEOGRAPHY OF ABYSSINIA. i dom of Amhara. The mountains of Lasta afford an almost ‘™penetrable barrier. There are only two passes across them which are practicable.* The deep valley of the Tacazze, the ancient boundary of Tigré, flows along the feet of these Mountains on the north-eastern side. Amhara is a name now given to the whole kingdom of Which Gondar is the capital, and where the Amharic lan- Stage is spoken, eastward of the Tacazze. Proper Amhara is 2 Mountainous province of that name, to the south-east, in the centre of which was Tegulat, the ancient capital of the “Mpire and at one period the centre of the civilization of byssinia. This province is now in the possession of the alla, a barbarous people, who have overcome all the south- “tn parts of Habesh. The present kingdom of Amhara is the heart of Abyssinia, the abode of the emperor or negush. It contains the upper “ourse of the Nile, the valley of Dembea and Lake Tzana, Rear which is the royal city of Gondar, and likewise the high "gion of Gojam, which is stated by Bruce to be at least two Miles above the level of the sea.{ To the kingdom of Am- ara belong the provinces of Begemder, Menna, Belassen, _, “mbea, Gojam, and Damot. Those of Shoa and Effat, which '© further towards the south, were long ago dismembered *om the empire of the N egush. This highest region of Habesh abounds with Alpine pas- Wages and well cultivated plaims, and is watered by abund- ant Yivulets. The climate is an almost perpetual spring, inter- "Upted only by tropical rains, which fall tempestuously : ‘intry snows as well as the droughts of summer are almost “Oknown. Mr. Bruce says that it never snows in Abyssinia. ". Gobat, the missionary, found snow in the higher regions, Ut it probably does not remain on the ground, and must be Tare occurrence. The mean elevation of this plain is esti- jaited at eight thousand feet. The country is said to be ex- remely healthy, and Ludolf declares, on the testimony of bas Gregorius, that the natives often exceed their hun- tedth year. Little, as Ritter observes, is known of the . : x Salt’s Travels in Abyssinia. ++ Ritter, 1 Th. 3. Abschn. + See Lord Valentia’s Travels, vol, iii. p. 642. 652. 712. ms 132 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. Alpine vegetation of Habesh, for most of the plants consi- dered as constituting the Abyssinian Flora belong to the lower regions. The oranges and citrons, and the sugar-cane® of which Ludolf speaks as abounding in Abyssinia, are not found in the highlands, where, on the other hand, wheat and teff produce rich harvests. The most characteristic plant of the higher region is the ensefe, a palmiform plant, the banana of Abyssinia. The plains afford pasturage to numerous herds of oxen and horses. The open tracts are infested by immumer- able troops of hyenas, which venture even into the streets of Gondar. q 5. Eastern Limits of Abyssinia. The high region of Amhara, or rather the province of Dem- bea breaks off towards the north-east, by a mountainous de scent into the plains of Sennaar and Lower Ethiopia. Several precipitous defiles lead the traveller into the lower country: In the two principal of these, Tscherkin and Girana are the limits beyond which camels never ascend towards the heights. On the outskirts of the highlands and at their feet, are the vast forests of Waldubba and of Walkayt, abounding with troops of monkeys, elephants, buffaloes, and wild boars. The human inhabitants of these tracts and of the adjoining forests and likewise of the valleys of the Tacazze and the Angrab, are Shangalla Negroes, who in several parts environ the hill- country of Abyssinia.” Suction II. — Enumeration of the different Races of People inhabiting the Abyssinian Empire. Several different races inhabit the old empire of the ne gush, or Abyssinian sovereign, who are commonly included * Ritter, wbi supra. See Bruce’s striking and graphical description of this cou?” try and its productions, in the fourth volume of his Travels. Bruce, returni0s through Sennaar, descended the hill-country by way of the defile of Tscherki0 M. Poncet entered Abyssinia from Sennaar, and ascended by the pass of Girav@ See Ritter’s Erdkunde, theil i. on Africa. The preceding outline is chiefly a short abstract from Ritter’s elaborate account of the physical geography of this part 0 Africa. ABYSSINIAN RACES. 133 Under the name of Habesh or Abyssins. They are clearly distinguished from each other by their languages, but resem- le more or less both in manners and in physical character. There are other races different from the Abyssins in these "espects, who inhabit the borders and outskirts of the em- Pire, connected with its history, and sometimes partly sub- J€cted to its dominion. I shall now enumerate the former, and shall, in a future section, proceed to the latter class. 7 1. Tigrani, or Abyssins of Tigré. These are the inhabitants of the kingdom of Tigré already described, or Abyssinia to the eastward of the Tacazze or As- taboras, They speak a language which has been termed by - Tellez and Ludolf ‘ lingua Tigrana.’ The kingdom of Tigré Nearly coincides in extent with the old kingdom of Axum; ®n the history of which, and of the Geez or old Ethiopic language, I shall, in the sequel, make some remarks. { 2. The Amharas. _ The Amharas have been for ages the dominant people ™ Abyssinia; the genuine Amhara are considered as a higher and nobler caste, as the military and royal tribe. Their ori- Sinal country is supposed to be the province of Amhara, to- Wards the south-east of Abyssinia: here at least was the “apital of the empire, when the sceptre of the negush passed Yom Axum to the remote Shoa. The Amharic language, ‘OWever, now extends over all the eastern parts of Abys- _ Shia, including various provinces, some of which appear to ave had vernacular languages of their own. 1 3. Agows. There are two tribes bearing this appellation who speak ifferent languages, and inhabit different parts of Abyssinia : °y are the Agows of Damot, one of the most extensive of © southern provinces, where they are settled upon the “Ources and banks of the Nile; and the Agows of Lasta or “Chera, who, according to Mr. Bruce, are Troglodytes, living m Caverns, and paying the same adoration to the Tacazze 134 RACES OF PEOPLE which those of Damot pay to the Nile. According to Bruce their appelation is Ag-oha, or Shepherds of the River ; and the fact of their bearing the same name is no proof of kin- dred origin. Mr. Salt terms the last-mentioned tribe Agow® | of the Tacazze. He says that the country inhabited by them extends from Lasta to the borders of Shire; from which it appears that they reach nearly through the whole of Abys- sinia, occupying the banks of the river, and dwelling betwee? Tigré and Amhara. From a vocabulary of their language which Mr. Salt has given, we discover that they are a dis- tinct race from the Tigrani, as well as from the Amhara. They scarcely differ from the other Abyssinians in physical character, except that the Agows are, according to Salt, “ on the whole a stouter race, and in general not so active in their habits.” Mr. Salt says, that they were converted to Christi- anity in the seventeenth century, and are very strict in their devotions. The people of each village assemble before the doors of their chiefs at the earliest dawn, and recite their prayers in a rude chorus. q 4. The Falasha. The Falasha are a people whose present condition suggests many curious inquiries, and the investigation of whose his- tory may hereafter throw light on that of the Abyssinians and of their literature and ecclesiastical antiquities. Bruce has given an account of their traditions which are evidently in a great measure fabulous. They are all Jews as to reli- gion, and probably were such before the era of the conver- sion of the Abyssins to Christianity ; and the fact that they have in use among them the Gheez version of the Old Tes tament affords, in Mr. Bruce’s opinion, a strong argument that that version existed in Abyssinia before the time of Fru- mentius, who is believed by Ludolf to have been the author of it as well as of the version of the New Testament i# use among the Abyssins.* The Falasha derive their origit * Ludolf says that they have among them the Hebrew Bible, but he weak- ens his testimony, or rather that of his informant, probably Gregorius, by add- ing that they use among themselves a corrupt Talmudic dialect. The Falash4 language, of which Mr. Bruce has given specimens, and in which he brought with pce pee eee eee SSS INHABITING ABYSSINIA. 135 from Palestine, but their language, which is said to have no affinity with the Hebrew, seems fully to refute this preten- Slon.* According to Bruce the Falasha were very powerful at the era of the conversion of the Abyssins to Christianity. hey were formerly a caste of potters and tile-makers in the ©w country of Dembea, until, owing to religious animosities, and becoming weakened in long wars, they were driven out thence, and took refuge in rugged and almost inaccessible tocks, in the high ridge called the mountains of Samen, where they live under princes of their own, bearing Hebrew names, and pay tribute to the negush. Mr. Bruce found, on his return from Gondar, a detached tribe of the Falasha, termed Kimmout, who had been con- - Yerted to Christianity, but retained the customs and language of their kindred. They lived separately in a hill country to the north-east of Gondar. It is probable that the Falasha ‘nd Agows were at one period the principal inhabitants of the south-eastern parts of Abyssinia. J 5. Gafats. The Gafats are another tribe of people in Abyssinia, having ig language of their own, and living on the southern banks of the Nile, near Damot. According to Mr. Bruce, they have always been pagans, if their own tradition is correct, and Partakers with their neighbours, the Agows, in the worship of the Nile.t 7 6. Gongas and Enareans. The people of the province of Gonga, according to Ludolf, “onstitute a sixth Abyssinian nation. They have a language distinct from all those above enumerated, but the same with , that spoken by the people of Narea or Enarea, to the south- Ward of Habesh. The Enareans have long been Christians. him @ version of the Canticles, is now well known to be quite alien from the He- brew language. See Ludolf’s Histor. /Ethiop. lib. i. c. 14. : Vater, Mithridates, th. iii. + Bruce’s Travels, vol. iv. + Bruce's Travels, vol. i. p. 402. 136 RACES OF PEOPLE. This country, according to Ludolf, was conquered by the negush, Melek Seghed, and the king was converted.* They resemble the Abyssins, and were reported by Gregorius to be the finest race of people as well as the most virtuous among them, or in their vicinity. 7. Ludolf enumerates the people of Camba, a kingdom oF province to the eastward of Narea, among the natives of Abyssinia who have peculiar languages. He says that there are eight principal tongues in the empire of Habesh, but among them he mentions those of the Galla and the Shan- kala or Shangalla, who do not properly belong to the number of genuine Abyssinian races. We do not as yet know whether all the above-mentioned idioms are really distinct languages, or, what is more proba- ble, only dialectic varieties of a much smaller number of mother-tongues. We are assured by Ludolf, that the king- doms or provinces near to Amhara have languages which are akin to the Amharic but differ widely as dialects. Be- gember has a peculiar dialect. In Angot, Efat, Gojam, and Shoa, one and the same dialect prevails. Ludolf seems to suppose the language of Gafat to be a very remote dialect of the Amharic, but he says that the idiom of Dembea is entirely a distinct language, both from the Amharic and Tigrana. It may be the language of the Falasha, who were formerly very numerous in Dembea. In a following section I shall make some remarks on the relations of the Abyssinian languages to each other and to the old Gheez or Ethiopic. Sscrion III. — On the Physical Characters of the Abyssinia” Races. The principal nations of Abyssinia, namely, those who in- habit the highlands, the Shangalla tribes who live in the low forest countries and chiefly beyond the limits of the empire being obviously excluded, bear a general resemblance t? each other in physical characters, and may be said to have; in common, a national physiognomy. Considerable varieties of features and complexion have been remarked between in- * Hist. Abyss. lib. i. c. 3. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE ABYSSINS. 137 dividuals, and in particular families ; but no traveller in Abys- Sinia has reported that the people of Tigré are distinguished Y any remarkable traits from the natives of Amhara, and We are expressly assured by Mr. Salt, that the Agows very Nuch resemble the other Abyssinians, under which name he evidently comprises both the races above mentioned, attri- uting to them a common character. y this national character of conformation the Abyssins 8e associated with that class of African nations which I “Ve proposed to denominate by the term Ethiopian, as dis- “inguishing them from Negroes. The distinction has indeed already been established by Baron Larrey, Dr. Ruppell, - de Chabrol, and others. Some of these writers include in © same department the Abyssinians, the native Egyptians, ®id the Barbra, separating them by a broad line from the “groes, and by almost as broad a line from the Arabs and 'ropeans. The Egyptians, or Copts, who form one branch °F this stock, have, according to Larrey, a “yellow dusky “omplexion, like that of the Abyssins. Their countenance 'S full without being puffed; their eyes are beautiful, clear, “mond-shaped, languishing ; their cheek-bones are project- ‘hg; their noses nearly straight, rounded at the point; their NOstrilg dilated ; mouth of moderate size; their lips thick ; eir teeth white, regular, and scarcely projecting; their “ard and hair black and crisp.”* In all these characters - Egyptians, according to Larrey, agree with the Abys- ‘Ils, and are distinguished from the Negroes. “ En effet Négres Africains ont les dents plus larges, plus avan- “es, les arcades alvéolaires plus étendues et plus prononcées, £8 levreg plus épaisses, renversées, et la bouche plus fendue: "S ont aussi les pommettes moins saillantes, les joues plus Petites, et les yeux plus ternes et plus ronds, et leurs cheveux Sont lanugineux.” With this description he contrasts that of © Abyssins, who are distinguished by large eyes and a 3 : ° vi “Les Qobtes ont un ton de peau jaunatre et fumeux comme les Abyssins ; leur Sage est amand plein, sans étre bouffé; leurs yeux sont beaux, limpides, coupés en ©, et dun régard languissant: les pommettes sont saillantes ; le nez est “Sque droit, arrondi 4 son sommet ; les narines sont dilatées ; la bouche moyenne ; €paisses ; les dents blanches, symmetriques, et peu saillantes; la barbe cheveux noirs et crépus.”—Description de l’ Egypte. 138 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS fine expression of countenance, the inner corner of the ey displaying a slight curve; the cheek-bones are more promi nent, and form, with the marked and acute angle of the jaw and the comer of the mouth, a more regular triangle ;* the lips are thick without being turned out, as in the Negroes 5 and the teeth are well formed, regular and less projecting} the alveolar edges are less extensive: the complexion 0 Abyssins is the colour of copper. “ These characters,” say$ M. Larrey, “are common, with slight shades of difference, to the Abyssinians and the Copts. They are likewise re cognised in the statues of the ancient Egyptians, and abové all in the Sphinx, as well as several of the Egyptian mut mies. “ Pour vérifier ces faits,’”’ he continues: “j’ai recueilli un certain nombre de crénes dans plusieurs cimetiéres des Qobtes, dont la démolition avoit eté necesité par les travau* publics.} Je les ai comparés avec ceux des autres races, sur- tout avec ceux de quelques Abyssins et Ethiopiens, et je me suis convaincu que ces deux espéces de cranes présel- tent 4 peu-prés les mémes formes.” He says, that the mum my-heads found at Saqqarah, displayed precisely the samé character, viz. the prominence of the cheek-bones, and of the zygomatic arches, the peculiar shape of the nasal fosse, and the comparatively slight projection in the alveolar edge when compared with the corresponding structure in the Negro skull. M. de Chabrol in describmg the Copts, says that they have decidedly an African character of physiognomy, which, as he thinks, establishes the conclusion that they are indi genous inhabitants of Egypt, and identifies them with the ancient inhabitants. “On peut admettre que leur race a 8” se conserver pure de tout mélange avec les Grecs, puisqu is II be n’ont entre eux aucun trait de ressemblance.”{ This Africa® * © Tes joues forment avec les angles prononcés de la machoire et de la pouch? un triangle plus régulier.” + Notice sur la conformation physique des Egyptiens, et des différentes races qui habitent Egypte, par M. le Baron Larrey. Description de l’Egypte, Brat Moderne, tom. ii. + Essai sur les meeurs des habitans modernes de lEgypte, par M. de Chabrol- Description de ’Egypte. Etat Modeme, tom. ii. part. 2, p. 361. OF THE ABYSSINIANS. 139 Physioonomy is evidently the character of countenance termed thiopian, and not that of the Negro. Dr. Riippell has likewise described the Ethiopian charac- ter of countenance and bodily conformation as peculiar and ‘stinet from the type both of the Arabian and the Negro. © describes this character as more especially belonging to the Bardbra or Berberins, among whom he resided ; but he Bays, that it is common to them with the Ababdeh and the : Ishari, and in part with the Abyssinians. This type, accord- SS toiDr, Ruppell, bears a striking resemblance to the cha- "acter of the ancient Egyptians and Nubians, as displayed by Statues and sculptures in the temples and sepulchral excava- 'ons along the course of the Nile.* I shall have occasion to “te Dr, Riippell’s observations on this subject more fully When J proceed to describe the Barabra. In the former edition of this work I selected the portrait of the learned Abyssinian monk, Abbas Gregorius, the friend “nd instructor of Ludolf, which was drawn from the life by a Sand, and engraved by Heiss, in 1691, and which had ©en alluded to by Blumenbach in his “ Beytraege,” as a spe- “Men of the Abyssinian physiognomy.+ Ludolf informs us, at Gregorius was of a genuine Amharic family, of the race byssinian nobility, born in a town in the province of Mahara, + He says, “ juste stature. et subnigri coloris erat ; “apillog crispos ut ceteri Aithiopes, sed vultum liberaliorem habebat,” There is something of the African type in the ‘Untenance of Gregorius, though scarcely approaching the “gto character. But the portrait of the Abyssinian bishop, “Ogtaved in the second tome of the modern division of the “‘Plendid French work on Egypt, affords a better exemplifi- Eaton of the Ethiopian physiognomy. A copy of it forms ‘ frontispiece of the present volume. In this may be ob- * Reissen in Nabein Kordofan, &c. Von Dr. Edward Ruppell. Beytriige zen Naturgeschichte, p. 87. + Gregorins said of himself—‘‘ Genus meum, 6 dilecte mi! ne videatur tibi ZEthiopici, Principes, Duces, Presides, et consiliarii Regis thiopiz, qui ad officia promovent et inde deponunt, et imperant nomine Jobi Ludolfi Commentar. ad proem. Hist, :thiop. 140 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS served the full anterior projection of the cheek-bone and the thick lips, and somewhat puffed features described by Larrey There is little hair or beard, but what there is is crisp in 4P” pearance, and resembles that of Gregorius. Ludolf mentions the hair of Gregorius as if it were the woolly hair of the Negro, but he probably meant to describe that kind of tor tuous and frizzled hair which is nearly intermediate betwee? the straight and flowing hair of many Europeans and Asiatics and the wool, so termed, of the genuine Negro, and which 15 found so frequently among some of the South Sea islandet® and the natives of Madagascar. The portrait, however, repr@™ sents something very like wool; and we are assured by Nav thaniel Pearce, the companion of Mr. Salt, who knew the Abyssinians well, that some of them have hair almost woolly: Mr. Salt himself, in describing the Abyssinians whom he first saw at Massowah, on his journey to Tigré, says that they were stout, robust people, with short, and almost woolly hair.* The complexion of the Abyssinian varies considerably. Mr. Pearce thus describes Tecla Georgis, the negush or emper of Habesh, the descendant and representative of the ancient imperial race. “ He has large eyes, a Roman nose, not much beard, and a very manly and expressive countenance, though he iva ereat coward. He has a dark shining skin, which is very sin gular, as his father and mother were very fair for Abyss” nians: his brother also was very fair, while he, the younges! son, is as dark as mahogany. The ras, Welleta Selasse, used to remark, ‘ Black without and black within.’ ”’+ Pearce particularly describes the Abyssinians. He say®; “they vary much in their colour, some being very blacks with nearly straight hair, others copper-coloured, with halt not so straight, some much fairer, with almost woolly hats and some of the same complexion, but straight-haired- * Salt’s Narrative, in Lord Valentia’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 460. + It is singular that such an expression should be used among such a peop the Abyssinians. Abbas Gregorius, on the contrary, reported that the Abyssinia” admire their blackness, and consider it the most beautiful complexion. Ludo adds, “ Sunt qui scribunt Diabolum ab /Ethiopibus album pingi.” Je 25 OF THE ABYSSINIANS. 141 Pearse was under the same impression as many other travel- “ts, who attribute all varieties to mixture of breed ; and he Says that “in the towns of Abyssinia you may find women, the Mothers of five, six, or more children, the father of one aving been an Amhara, of another an Agow, of another a ‘Stan, and of a fourth a Galla.” But this affords no expla- Nation of the phenomenon, unless it could be shown that “races who thus intermixed display, when separately consi- “red, some remarkable differences of physical character. © Agows, the Amhara, and. the Tigrans are all similar “aces, and we shall find that the Galla do not belong to a ‘erent family of mankind. Intermixtures with Shangalla oF real Negroes seem here out of the question, since all tra- Vellerg declare that they are a separate people, and in no de- See intermixed with the Abyssinians. It would appear then at the diversities which display themselves are in a great | Measure simple variations in the breed, originating among © Abyssinian, as similar variations, but in somewhat less “gree, are continually springing up in other countries where © external agencies of climate, temperature and situation _p © More uniform than they are in Abyssinia. he Abyssins, in a general point of view, are reckoned °ng black races. Niebuhr thus classified them, and even © Arabians so consider them. It is observed by the editor Pearce’s Travels, that in the History of Arabia Felix, m lected from various Arabian authors, by Schultens, there "Te several accounts of the conquest of that country by the one ar am w¥ssinians, and the epithets applied to them are—_. Jdgw— acks, which Schultens translates “ AKthiopes,” and “ Peo- © with crisp hair”’—crispé tortilique coma. One of their Princes also, suing to the emperor of Persia, entreats him to “lve out “ those crows” who are hateful to his countrymen. Udolf Says that he was informed by Gregorius, that the “tldren of the Abyssins were not born black, but very red ; i j stn a short time they turn black. Burckhardt says, at the Abyssinian women are the most beautiful of all black vatten, The Jesuit Tellez, says of them, “ As cores ordina- = S sam preta, baga, azeytonada, he a que ellos mays esti- am ; Outros sayem vermelhos, alguns sam brancos, mas he pl 142 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS. hum branco exangue y sem nenhuna eraca.” Their ordi- nary colours are black, brown, and olive, and this is what they most esteem. Others are red —vermillion ! Other white, but their whiteness is exsangueous and without any beauty.” A question which here presents itself is, whether diffe rences of complexion exist among the Abyssinians bearing any relation to climate or the elevation of countries. The low and hot tracts which extend round Abyssinia to the west and north-west, covered with forests, and containing the plants and animals of tropical climates, are inhabited as we have already observed, by Shangaila Negroes. To the eastward the low countries are occupied by Hazorta or Shiho> who are almost equally black, though not woolly-haired like the Negroes. The physical characters of these races will bé described in a following section. Dixan, although situated at a considerable elevation abové - the coast, is a comparatively low region, governed by the Baharnegash. Mr. Salt informs us that the people here até of very dark hue, few of them having any claim to the term © copper-colowred, which Mr. Bruce bestowed on them. This remark Mr. Salt expressly applies to the inhabitants of al the lower parts of Abyssinia which he had traversed pre viously to his arrival at Dixan.* Father Tellez reported that the natives of the high regio? of Narea or Enarea are allowed by the Abyssinians them selves to excel all the other people of the empire, as well i0 physical as in moral qualities. Mr. Bruce declares “ that the Nareans of the high country are the lightest in cod” plexion of any people in Abyssinia.” He adds, that “ thos? who live by the borders of the marshes below are perfect blacks, and have the features and wool of Negroes, where®® all the people in the high country of Narea, and still mo!’ so in the stupendous mountains of Kaffa, are not so dark as Neapolitans or Sicilians.” Bruce makes a parallel obser¥® tion respecting the tribes of Galla, who will be described ” the sequel. * Lord Valentia’s Travels, vol. ii. é + P. Tellez, cited by Ludolf. + Bruce’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 313. NATIONS AND LANGUAGES 143 I shall leave my readers to draw their own inferences from these facts. SEotion IV.—Observations on the History of the Abys- sinians, and their different Races and Languages. T 1. Of the Gheez, or Ethiopic, the Amharic and the other languages of Abyssinia. __ lt is well known that the Gheez or Ethiopic language, the 'diom of the so termed Ethiopic version of the Scriptures, “Nd the other books which constitute the literature of Abys- Sinia, is a Semitic dialect akin to the Arabic and Hebrew. €re is no reason to doubt, that the people for whose use "se books were written, and whose vernacular language Was the Gheez, were a Semitic race. How, and at what “Ta the highlands of Abyssinia came to be inhabited by ® Semitic people, and what relation the modern Abyssinians “ar to the family of nations, of which that people were a fanch, are questions of too much importance in African “thnography to be passed by without examination. heez was the language of Axum, and the subjects of the Xumite sovereign at the period of their conversion to Chris- ‘anity, Frumentius, the apostle of Abyssinia, was consecrated ‘shop by Athanasius of Alexandria, and began the work of ~Shverting the Abyssins to the Christian faith soon after the 835th year of our era. It may be concluded that there was Mt that period a flourishing and powerful kingdom in Habesh, * People being of Semitic origin. he genuine Gheez is now extant merely as a dead lan- Stage, consecrated to literature and religious uses; it is no "8ger the national idiom of Abyssinia; the revolution in -Xsequence of which it ceased to be such, is clearly traced 'N the annals of the empire, which up to that period, and Perhaps for some time beyond it, are generally thought wor- Y Of credit. om he old royal family which reigned at Axum, at the era © Conversion of the people, was, several hundred years 144 HISTORY OF ABYSSINIA. after that event, supplanted by a new dynasty of princes, who in the historical books are termed the Zagean family. At the period of this revolution, one infant of the ancient race is said to have been preserved from the massacre which destroyed the rest. This child, conveyed to the distant province of Xoa or Shoa preserved the lineage of the ancient emperors. When the Zagean house failed at Axum, the government of the em pire was removed to Shoa, about A. D. 1300, where the dé scendants of the old emperors are said to have been restored to their full-sovereignty, and there the first Portuguese missio?- aries at their arrival found the seat of the Abyssinian m0- narchy. Shoa isa southern province in the Amharic country; and the Amharic language thenceforward became the “ Lesa? Negush” or royal idiom of Abyssinia.* The government being no longer in Tigré, Gheez, which was the ancient vel nacular tongue of that province ceased to be cultivated ; it was from that period preserved only in books and used for ecclesiastical purposes. tf The modern language of Tigré has thus been for five ceD” turies a merely oral dialect. It could not fail to be modified by time and accidents. We are, however, informed by Ludolf, that the Gheez was formerly the vernacular language of Ti eré, and that, although the dialect of that province has wu? dergone corruptions in the lapse of time, yet the commo? idiom of the inhabitants is still near to the ancient speech Ludolf assures us that the people of other districts in Abys* sinia consider the Tigrani as speaking the Gheez language? and that, when they have any doubt about the meaning of @ word in their Ethiopic books, they always have recourse 0 . man of Tigré for explanation as if the Gheez was his native and peculiar idiom. * Ludolf, Prefat. Grammatice Ling. Amharice, item Ludolf, Hist. AEthioP’ See also Bruce’s Abyssinian Annals. + Some writers have considered this supposed preservation of the old royal far mily of Abyssinia as a fable, and the revolution which occasioned. the removal ® the government to Shoa, asa real conquest of the Axumite empireby the Amhara The result in either case was a change of the seat of government, whence ensué the adoption of a new national language and the abandonment of the old one; a the subsequent predominance of a new race. + Ludolf, Comment. in Hist, Auth. AMHARIC LANGUAGE. 145 The Amharic, or modern Abyssinian, has been the language of the court and nobles of the empire since the period above Noted. It is spoken through a great part of Abyssinia. The Amharic is nota dialect of the Gheez or Ethiopic, as some have imagined, but a language fundamentally distinct. Of this any person may be convinced who examines the grammar and dictionary of the Amharic compiled by Ludolf with the ®sSistance of Gregorius, and appended to the dictionary ‘nd grammar of the Ethiopic.* It is immediately evident that the Amharic has adopted from the Gheez a great num- ‘t of words, especially such as are connected with religion ‘nd the advancement of arts and civilization. A great num- er of grammatical forms, as a part of the verbal inflections and of the pronominal suffixes connected with them, have | Ikewise been adopted by the Amharas from the dialect of © more improved Axumites, and the state of the Amharic inguage might almost be compared in this respect to that of © Algerine Berber or Showiah, which, as Mr. Newman . "8 proved, in an admirable and elaborate analysis of that ‘fiom, to be so engrafted with grammatical forms borrowed Tom the Arabic, that it might easily be mistaken, as it as indeed been, for a Semitic dialect. The Berber, as M. “nture and Mr. Newman have fully proved, is essentially "Md in the most original part of its vocabulary an idiom “ntirely distinct and devoid of any relation to the Semitic or any other known language. This last remark may be “Pplied with equal truth to the Amharic. It is probably an ancient African language, and the original idiom of the ; ‘ abitants of the south-eastern provinces of Abyssinia.+- Satharchides, in his account of countries bordering on the ed Sea, terms the idiom of the Troglodytes of Ethiopia aS The Kanagac AéEvc—the language of Camra, or as some _¢ Kanudoa AzEtc, the Camara language. The people © Spoke that language were, according to Agatharchides, % de Grammatica Lingue Amharice, que vernacula est Habessinorum, autore i. Udolfo, Fransofurt. ad Mon. 1698, and Lexicon Amharico-Latinum ab e0- Wag a Same observation as to the distinctness of the Amharic from the Ethiopic © by Vater. See Mithrid. Th. iii. gatharchides de Rubro Mari. POL, ‘rz. Se SS a 146 ABYSSINIAN LANGUAGES. absolute savages. It is said that they lived in caves, upon 4 coagulated mixture of blood and milk. They practised cil- cumcision, like the Egyptians. It is probable, that they were the ancestors of the more civilized Amh4ra.* The dialects of the Agows, according to Bruce, have some affinity to that of the Falashas. The comparisons of thesé languages which have as yet been made, leave this assertiol subject to some doubt. There are, however, some slight indi- cations of resemblance in a short vocabulary of the idiom of the Gafats, the Falasha, the Agows of Tchera and those of Damot, collected by Professor Vater.+ These nations are perhaps the original inhabitants of the south-western parts of Abyssinia. The people of Gonga, who speak the language of Enarea, belong to the region still further towards the south- The Falasha probably became civilized and were converted to Judaism at an early period. Though their name is said mean “ Evwiles’’ in the Amharic, it does not appear’ that they ever inhabited, since the period when they formed a distinct nation or clan, any country beyond the limits of Abyssinia. The languages of all these nations are essentially distinct from the Gheez and every other Semitic dialect. Therefor® any inquiries that may be set on foot respecting the affinity of the Abyssinians with nations of Semitic origin, have referenc® only to the people of Tigré, or the ancient kingdom of Axu® q 2. Of the introduction of Judaism into Abyssinia. By some writers the early diffusion of Judaism in Aby® sinia and the neighbouring countries has been considered an important circumstance in the history of that empire, and it has been connected with the introduction of a Semitic la guage into the kingdom of Axum. There seems, however; . be no relation between the two events, as the following cone siderations will render sufficiently manifest. Judaism appears to have been spread extensively in Ayabi@ and the adjoining countries, before the introduction of Chris tianity, and from that era till the propagation of Islam. The people of Yemen, including the Homerites or the tribe of Ha™ yar, were divided between the religion of the Sabians and if * Hudson, Geog. Min. i. p. 46. + Mithridat. Th. tii. JUDAISM OF ABYSSINIA. ; 147 daism in the age of Mohammed, and it would appear that many. Of the Arabian tribes had entirely adopted the faith and ordi- Rances of the Hebrews. Judaism seems also to have reached byssinia and to have taken a deep root in that country ; °t we cannot otherwise account for its extension over remote Provinces, where it still subsists. ‘The introduction of J udaism Must have been previous to the conversion of the people Y Frumentius; for Christianity, when once planted, soon °urished, and it had so wide and early an extension, that in the time of Cosmas Indico-pleustes, Abyssinia, or at least the ‘Ngdom of Axum, was filled with churches and monasteries. ut it cannot have been by the spread of Jews and Judaism that the Semitic race and language gained their reception and Prevalence in Tigré. It was indeed among the southern or Western people of Abyssinia, that the religion of the Hebrews is Chiefly known to have prevailed. It was preserverl long by the alashas, about Lake Dembea and in the mountains of Samen, Where, on the Jews’ Rock, so termed, princes named Gideon ‘nd Esther still govern a tribe of people who profess Judaism. © Falasha, as I have already said, have a distinct idiom of elr Own, unconnected with the Semitic languages, and they “ve always been a separate race from the Agaazi, or the people of the Axumite kingdom. Moreover we have proofs to which I “all presently refer, that Judaism did not prevail in Tigré, ot was not at least the religion of Axum at the era of the “‘ntroduction of Christianity. The Axumites appear to have “en at that period Gentiles, and to have worshipped the 80ds of the Greeks and Egyptians. ltis very probable that Judaism was introduced into Abys- “hia, particularly the western provinces, through the medium Ethiopia and the kingdom of Meroé and Napata. That “Suntry, for some time before and after the Christian era, is “td to have been governed by queens who bore the name of andace, A princess of this name is mentioned in the time of Wustus, whose armies subdued her territory. Another ndace, if not the same, is named in the Acts of the Apos- "S$ and it appears that among her subjects Judaism was ot Unknown. We learn from various sources of information, ae 148 HISTORY OF AXUM that the arts and polytheism of the Egyptians were also spread through the kingdom of Candace. Egypt at that time contained a great number of Jews, and it is probable that both Judaism and the Egyptian idolatry were spread from thence by way of Ethiopia and the Nile into the differ- ent provinces of Abyssinia. Perhaps the latter was predo- minant at Axum, while Judaism prevailed chiefly im the west. { 3. Historical notices of Axum and the Abyssinians. Few notices are to be found of Axum and the Abyssinians previous to the conversion of the people by Frumentius- Strabo has given us the sum of the information collected by Agatharchides and Artemidorus respecting Ethiopia and the neighbouring countries.* These writers were well acquainted with the kingdom of Meroe, but give no account of the empire of Axum. The Axumite kingdom is for the first time distinctly mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, which was composed, according to Dr. Vincent’s opinion, about the tenth year of Nero. In this work “ Axomite” is termed a metropolis and royal city, and is said to have been a principal place in the transport of ivory to the Red Sea. The sovereign of the neighbouring country was, according to the Periplus, named Zoskales: he is said to have been a wise prince, and ac ~ quainted with the Greek language. A considerable trade with Egypt and with Adali, was carried on in his dom- nions, which appear to have been very extensive.- After this period we find occasional and not very infrequent notices © the Axumite kingdom.{ Ptolemy, in his fourth book, mentions Meroé, which as he says forms an island, being bounded to the westward by the Nile, and toward the east by the Astaboras, or Atbar which forms a confluence with the Astapus or Mareb. He afterwards proceeds to enumerate the inland cities remo! * Strabon. Geog. lib. 17. Diodor. Bibliothec. lib. 3. + Arriani. Peripl. Mar. Eryth. apud Hudson, tom. i. + Vopiscus, in the life of Aurelian, mentions Axumites among the barbaria® captives who followed his triumph. AND THE ABYSSINIANS. 149 from the rivers, and among these names Auxoume, in which he Says there is a palace or. royal residence.* Stephanus of yzantium likewise mentions “ Axumites :”’ so he terms the Metropolis of the Ethiopians.+ The most authentic document relating to the kingdom of byssinia in early times, is the inscription discovered by tr. Salt, on an obelisk at Axum. It is in Greek, and was made, doubtless, by Greek or Egyptian artists. It bears the Name of Aeizana, a sovereign of Abyssinia, during whose reign, but at a later period, it is supposed that Christianity Was introduced. It appears from this inscription that the Mes of Axum claimed in that age an extensive sovereignty °ver many nations, among whom are mentioned the Home- Nites or the Arabs of Hamyar. It appears also that the reli- Sion of Axum was the Gentilism of the Greeks, and not Judaism. Aeizana is styled the son of Mars, and gifts are Mentioned as devoted to the God of War. We have little information on which reliance can be placed "especting the Abyssinian or Axumite kingdom in earlier times, The chronicle of Axum, or the Tarik Negushti, con- "Wins in the Gheez or Ethiopic language the history of a long “eries of kings said to have reigned at Axum from a period of "emote antiquity. It begins with a mythical Serpent “Arwe,” “Om whom the first dynasty descended. They were followed Y a new line descended from Solomon and the queen of heba. This document is evidently, in the early parts, a mere Nonkish legend. It is proved to be unworthy of credit by © discovery of Mr. Salt, that the princes of Axum were Previously to their conversion to Christianity, not Jews as the Chronicle declares, but worshippers of Mars and the Gentile Sods of Egypt. Beyond the above-mentioned period, researches into the “htiquity of Abyssinia have uncertain results. The circum- ‘tances which gave rise to the establishment of a Semitic “olony, of a people so far civilized and possessing the arts of Sculpture and architecture, acquainted with the use of letters hd the Greek language, and worshipping the gods of clas- b Claud. Ptolem. Geog. lib. iv. cap. 8. + Steph. Byzant. voce. Axumites. iis ieee ABYSSINIANS DESCENDED sical mythology amid the Troglodytes of Ethiopia, are likely to remain enveloped in obscurity. q 5. Abyssinians, a colony from Arabia.—Historical proofs — —TInquiry into the History of the Hamyarite Arabs. It was supposed by Ludolf and by Professor Murray, that the kingdom of Abyssinia was founded by a colony of Ara- bians. This opinion receives some support from a passage of Uranius, an ancient writer on the geography of Arabia, wh? has been cited by Eustathius, by Stephanus of Byzantium, and by Tzetzes. Uranius placed a people whom he termed A€aonvot or Abaseni on the coast of Arabia next to the Sabeans, and reported that in their country myrrh and frank- incense were produced.* — The supposition that the Abyssins are a people of Ara- bian origin has been strongly opposed by Mr. Salt, whos¢ opinion has been adopted by a writer of no less authority tha? Professor Ritter. Mr. Salt has pointed out a variety of pat ticulars in the customs and habits of the Abyssins, which display a nearer resemblance to the manners of the ancient Hebrews than to those of the modern Arabs. The Aby* sinians appear to retain, in many respects, the ancient character of the Israelitish people and even recal the state of society which existed among the nations of Palestine before their primitive and nomadic habits had become modi fied by conquest or by the institutions of the Mosaic law: On this argument, supported by many striking facts, it ha* been contended by Mr. Salt, that the Abyssinians are an a cient people of Ethiopia, of kindred origin with the Arabs 2° well as with the Hebrews, but not immediately derived from the population of Yemen or of any part of the Arabian peninsula. If we allow their full weight to all the arguments brought forward by Mr. Salt and others in opposition to the opinio? of Ludolf, they afford no proof that Abyssinia was not colo- nized from Arabia, which indeed affords the only possible way of ingress to a Semitic people into this part of Africa Although the Abyssins may resemble the ancient Hebrew® in many particulars more nearly than the Arabs of mo * Stephan. Byzant. voce A€aonvot. FROM THE HAMYARITE ARABS. 151 dern times, it may still be supposed that in all these respects their manners,and customs are equally like those of the an- Client Arabs, the children of Midian or of Amalek, or the sons of the East in the time of Job. If we were better acquainted with the history and character of the Homerites, or the Arabs of Hamyar, some centuries before the Christian era, it is ex- tremely probable that we should discover among them proofs of near affinity to the Axumites. Hamyar, in the southern region of the Yemen, is nearly in the situation where Ura- ius placed the Abaseni. It has the nearest local relations to Abyssinia. The Homerites are mentioned in the inscription of Axum, among the nations subdued by the sovereign of that city ; but this must have been by subsequent conquest or in- vasions made by the Axumites in the land of their proge- Uitors. Ptolemy places the Homerites in the southern part of Arabia, between the promontory of Posidium forming the Narrow strait of the Red Sea—ra oréva tne epv0oac Haracone ~and the “ Regio Adramitarum” or Hadramaut,* and men- “ons in their coast a place termed “ Arabize emporium,” sup- Posed to be Aden. The capital of the Hamyarites, accord- Ing to M. Marcel, was Difar, near Sana’a, the ancient capital of Yemen.+ They profess to derive their name and descent from Hemyar, son of Saba, great grandson of Kahtan,{ the Joktau of the Toldoth Beni Noach. The Kahtanite Arabs are, as this learned writer observes, a distinct race from the Koreish, who are descended from Ishmael. He says, that they were at first Pagans or Sabeans, then became Jews, after- Wards Christians, and lastly, Mohammedans. These two Arabian nations are said to have had different languages, but \tis most probable that the diversity in their idioms amounted Snly to variation of dialect. According to Sale, the Hamya- "tie dialect spoken by the Kahtanite Arabs approached more Nearly to the Syriac than the idiom of the Koreish or Ish- “ Claud. Ptolem. Geograph. lib. vi. p. 153. + Memoire sur les Inscriptions Koufiques recueillies en Egypte, par J. J. Marcel, Descr. de VEgypte. Etat Moderne, tom. i. p. 525. + Marcel wi supra. See also the genealogical tables of the Arabs in the Pre- face to Sale’s Koran. Hemyar stands in the genealogy of Kahtan, as the son of ‘Abd Shems, surnamed Saba. i ) t in Vik i" | It » 8% SS = ATR —meaning in Arabic ‘Come death !’ which Europeans have corrupted into Hadhramaut. 186 EASTERN NUBIANS. It would appear from this account that Burckhardt sup- posed the Hadharebe, Adareb, or rather the Suakiny to be, not a distinct tribe of the Bisharine race, but a people mixed up from different branches of that stock, and deriving their name from a few Arabian settlers who had soon become assi- milated to the great body of the population. He says “that they have exactly the same features, language and dress as the Nubian Bedouins :* their favourite dress leaves the upper part of the body almost naked. If to it be added a hand- some pair of sandals, two or three large amulets hanging over the left elbow, a sword and korbadj in the hands, the thick and bushy hair white with grease, and a large wooden skewer sticking in it, to scratch the head with, the whole will afford a tolerable picture of a Stakiny Bedouin. “ The Saakiny have in general,’ as Burckhardt says, “handsome and expressive features, with thin and very short beards. Their colour is of the darkest brown, approaching to black, but they have nothing of the Negro character of coun- tenance. They are a remarkably stout and muscular race.’ @ 2. The Bishari. The country of the Bishari reaches from the northern frontier of Abyssinia, along the course of the river Mareb, which flows through the northern forests of the Shangalla, abounding with elephants, to the Belad-el-Taka and At- bara, where dwell the Hadendoa and the Hammadab, said to be the strongest tribes of the Bisharine race.{ Tribes of the Bishari reach northward as far as Gebel-el-Ottaby in the latitude of Derr, where the Nile, after its great western bend turns back towards the Red Sea; they occupy all the hilly country upon the Nile from Sennaar to Dar Berber and to the * The Bishari are Bedouins, i. e. Nomadic tribes of Nubia. I suppose these are meant. , + Burckhardt’s Travels in Nubia, p. 439. Ihave inserted the figure of a Siiak- iny Bedouin from a drawing of Mr. Salt’s, given in Lord Valentia’s Travels, agree- ing exactly with the above description by Burckhardt, It will serve for a speci- men of the physical characters of the Bisharine race. $ Ritter’s Erdkunde.—Burckhardt’s Nubia, 369. Burckhardt says, “ the Haden- doa Bedouins, the only inhabitants of Taka seen by me, evidently belong to the same nation as the Bisharein and all the Eastern Nubians, with whom they have the same features, language and characteristic manners.” HADHAREBE AND BISHARI. 187 Red Sea; consequently the territory of the ancient Blem- myes.* The possession of many tracts of this mountainous country is disputed with them by the Ababdeh, their neigh- bours towards the north, with whom they are allied by lan- guage and descent, as they are with the Adareb towards the south. The mountain of Offa, at fifteen days’ journey from Assouan, is, according to Burckhardt, the chief seat of the Bishari, where ruins are said to exist. The Bishari are described by Burckhardt: “ The mhospit- able character of the Bisharein would alone prove them to be a true African race, were this not put beyond all doubt by their language.” They are divided into a great number _ of small tribes. They rarely descend from their mountains into the valley of the Nile. They winter among the moun- tains near the Red Sea, for the sake of pastures for their flocks of sheep and camels, which are all their riches. They sometimes make plundering expeditions as far as Sennaar and Dongola. Their chief occupation is collecting the leaves of senna, and hunting ostriches in the desert. The physical character of the Bishari, according to Ruppell, resembles that of the Barabra. Burckhardt says “the Bisha- rein of Atbara, like their brethren, are a handsome and bold race of people; they go constantly armed, and are seldom free from quarrels. Their dress, or rather undress, was everywhere the same, consisting only of a dammour shirt, worn by both men and women. I thought the latter remark—_ ably handsome; they were of a dark brown complexion, with beautiful eyes and fine teeth; their persons were slender and elegant.” ees The Bishari were likewise described by Hamilton, who visited a tribe of them in the country above Egypt, where they are the guides across the wilderness, and among moun- tains: “the better sort ride on dromedaries: they are a shrewd, intelligent people, active, of small stature, and pre- possessing countenance: some with a cast of the Negro; others with a very fine profile.” This sort of variety in phy- slocnomy is observed by almost every traveller among the * Strabon. lib. 17. c. i.. Mémoire sur les Blémyes, Quatremére. Mem. sur Egypte, Ritter’s Erdkunde. 188 EASTERN NUBIANS. African people in the eastern parts of the continent, from Kaffirland to Nubia and Egypt. ‘ Their complexion is nearly black: their women are reported to be handsome. When we asked them if they were accustomed to eat live flesh, they denied it, but spoke with pleasure of the luxury of opening the veins of a dromedary or a sheep and drinking the warm blood.” The author suggests the idea that a si- milar practice, prevalent among the ancient Hebrews, was the object of a prohibition in Deuteronomy, ch. xii. ver. 23. According to Macrizi, the Bishari and the Ababdeh occupy the country of the Bejas or Boujas, who were a powerful and numerous people in the middle ages, when they were at least partially converted to Christianity. The Bejas were a nomadic people, who were in possession of the gold, silver, and emerald mines of the Desert. Macrizi described the Bejas as living under tents of hair: he says, “ their colour is darker than that of the Habesh: they have the manners of Arabs: they have no towns, no villages, no fields. Their provisions are carried to them from Egypt and Habesh, and Nouba. They were formerly idolatrous, and then took the Islam. They are hospitable and charitable people; they are divided into tribes and_ branches, every one of which has its chief. They are pastors, and live entirely on flesh and milk.”* The Bishari and Ababdeh are descended, according to Ma- crizi, from the Bejas, intermixed with Arabs. The Bishari however, as well as the Ababdeh, appear from their general character and languages to be a genuine African race, and if there is any mixture of Arabian blood in their stock, it is pro- bably in small proportion. The Arabian language, which has so generally diffused itself among the barbarous nations who have adopted Islam, has produced little or no effect on the speech of the Bishari. The name of Bejas was unknown to the ancients, but a peo- ple termed Blemmyes are described by Strabo, Dionysius Peri- egetes, and Stephanus, as occupying the country of the Bejas. By Vopiscus they are mentioned as a powerful nation in the * Extracts from Macrizi, by Burckhardt. BEJAS—ABABDEH. 189 reign of Ptolemy, whose army advanced into their territory, and brought captives to Rome. They were afterwards so troublesome to the Romans that Diocletian, as we have seen from Procopius, engaged the Nobate of Libya, to abandon their own country and settle on the Nile, in the country of the Barabra, for the protection of the Roman frontier. M. Quatremére and Professor Ritter have collected all that the ancient writers have recorded respecting the Blemmyes, and leave no room for doubt that they are the same race afterwards termed Bejas, and more recently known as Bi- shari and Ababdeh.+ 3. The Ababdeh. The Ababdeh occupy the country to the northward of the Bishari, viz. from the parallel of Deir to the frontiers of Egypt, and in the eastern desert as far northward as Kosseir. They were scarcely known previously to the French expedi- tion to Egypt. They conduct the caravans to Sennaar, as they formerly led those from Kenne to Kosseir until they were dispossessed by the Maazgou and Ataouy Arabs. Their habits resemble those of the Bishari, whose language they are said to speak. They are all Bedouins and are described as very cruel and perfidious. They wander about and carry out of their country as traders, its native productions, natron, alum, gums, and senna, on their dromedaries. On the bor- ders of Egypt they have been confounded with Arabs. The earliest description of the Ababdeh was given by M. Du Bois- Aymé a member of Napoleon’s Egyptian Commission : “‘ Les Abibdeh sont un tribu nomade qui habite les mon- tagnes situées 4 V’orient du Nil au sud de la vallée de Qogeyr. “ Les Ababdeh different entierement par leurs mceurs, leur langage, leur costume, leur constitution physique des tribus Arabes qui, comme eux, occupent les déserts qui environnent Egypte. Les Arabes sont blancs, se rasent la téte, sont vétus. Les Ababdeh sont noirs, mais leurs traits ont beau- coup de ressemblance avec ceux des Européens. IIs ont les * See M. Quatremére’s excellent work on Coptic Literature, and Professor Ritter’s Erdkunde. 190 EASTERN NUBIANS. cheveux naturellement bouclés, mais point laineux. Ils les portent longs et ne se couvrent jamais la téte. Ils n’ont pour tout vétement qu’un morceau de toile, qu’ils attachent au- dessus des hanches, et qui ne passe pas le milieu du corps. Ils enduissent tout le corps de graisse.*” The Ababdeh were described by Belzoni, who visited one of their tribes in the Eastern Desert. He says, “They extend from the neighbourhood of Suez to the country inhabited by the Bisharein, on the coast of the Red Sea, below the latitude of 23°. They live among solitary rocks and deserts, and feed chiefly on dhourra. They are all nearly naked, badly made, and of small stature. They have fine eyes, particularly the women, as far as we could see, of those that came to the wells. The married women are covered, the rest uncovered. Their head-dresses are very curious. Some are proud of having their hair long enough to reach below their ears, and then formed into curls, which are so entangled and matted with grease that it cannot be combed.”’ He adds, that “as their hair is very crisp, their heads remain dressed for a long time; and that they may not derange their coéffure, when their heads itch, they have a piece of wood, something like a pack- ing-needle, with which they scratch themselves with great ease without disordermg their head-dress.” ““ Their com- plexions are naturally of a dark chocolate; their hair quite black; their teeth fine and white, protuberant and very large.” Some additional notices were given of the Ababdeh in the Memoirs of the Geographical Society,+ by Mr. Wilkinson. The author distinguishes the Ababdeh from the Maazy, whom he terms Arabs, bordering on them to the northward. The Ababdeh are said to be much more powerful and numerous. “ Some of them have moved northward into this desert, be- yond Gebel Dokhan, with their families and flocks: but they seem a very quiet people, and have more simplicity of man- * Memoire sur les ville de Qoceyr et les environs, et sur les peuples Nomades qui habitant cette partie de lancienne Troglodytique, par M. Du Bois-Aymé, Membre de la Commission des Sciences et des Arts de VEgypte. Description de VEgypte. Etat Moderne, tom. i. p. 193. + Vol. ii. p. 37, on the Eastern Desert of Upper Egypt. ABABDEH. 191 ners than their northern neighbours; their arms are chiefly spears, long knives, swords, and some guns; with these last, however, the Ma4zy being much better furnished. They have long bushy hair like the Nubians, which forms a most dis- tinguishing mark between the two tribes ; the others wear the cap and turban.” HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS. CHAPTER X. HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.—INQUIRY INTO THEIR RELATION TO OTHER RACES OF MEN. Srction I.—General Remarks on the History of the Egyp- tians and other Nations coeval and supposed to have been connected with them. Tue banks and estuaries of rivers affording secure havens on the sea, and the means of communication with mland coun- tries, have been at all times the principal centres of popula- tion. The cradles or nurseries of the first nations appear to have been extensive plains or valleys traversed by navigable channels and irrigated by perennial and fertilizing streams. Three such regions were scenes of the most ancient cultiva- tion of the human race, of the first foundation of cities, of the earliest political institutions, and of the vention of arts which embellish human life. In one of these, the Semitic nations exchanged the simple habits of wandering shepherds for the splendour and luxury of Nineveh and Babylon. In another an Indo-European or Japetic people brought to its perfection the most elaborate of human dialects, destined to become in later ages under different modifications the mother- tongue of the nations of Europe. In a third, the land of Ham, watered by the Nile, were invented hieroglyphic litera- ture and the arts for which Egypt was celebrated in the ear- liest ages of history. Two of these nations, widely separated from each other by an ocean which was scarcely navigated in early times, and, on the continent, by the whole region occupied by the Se- mitic tribes, are yet found to display numerous and striking phenomena of resemblance in their manners, their supersti- tions, and in the entire system of their social and political institutions. The Egyptians and Indians have often been com- HISTORY OF .THE EGYPTIANS. 193 pared. The same religious and philosophical dogmas were common to both nations. Both believed the emanation of souls which animate men, animals, planets, rivers, all parts of the universe from a primitive source, their predestined trans- migration through various orders of being and their ultimate refusion into the divinity. Both nations adorned and exhibited these common principles in a similar manner and under similar emblematical representations. The system of religious ob- servances, the superstitious veneration of animals, of the elements of material nature and of the heavenly bodies, cor- responded among both nations. Social regulations, the divi- sions and subdivisions of hereditary castes, the distribution of offices among them, the privileges and restrictions of different orders in the community bore, in both regions, a striking and even surprising analogy. Human nature as- sumes similar aspects under similar conditions, and this un- doubted fact will sufficiently account for broad outlines of resemblance between nations which have existed without in- tercourse in countries situated alike with respect to climate and local circumstances. But no person who fully considers the intimate relation and almost exact parallelism that has been traced between the Egyptians and the Hindoos, will be perfectly satisfied with such a solution in that particular exam- ple. So many arbitrary combinations and arrangements as the social and political institutions of Egypt and of India ‘display, so remarkable a congruity in nearly all the philoso- phical or speculative dogmas and in the external representa- tions and superstitious observances adopted by these two nations, can hardly be imagined to have resulted from the mere influence of external conditions in any two regions of the earth, or to have existed, otherwise than as the conse- quence of intercourse or communication. We cannot refuse to admit a community of origin to the mental culture of the Indians and Egyptians, but there are various considerations which render this concession more difficult than on first adverting to the subject it appears to be, and which oblige us in admitting it to carry back our view to very remote ages. In order to perceive the truth and all the bearings of this observation, it will be requisite to consi- Bc CR BME 8 0 194 ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIAN der what period of antiquity history allows to the three great nations above enumerated, and to what age we must refer the origin of that resemblance and parallelism which the comparison of two of them displays. Meee Il.—Of the Antiquity of the Indian and me Semitic Nations. It was known to the ancients that a learned caste among the Indians devoted themselves to philosophical pursuits, and that the system of nature formed in part the subject of their specu- lations.* When, in modern times, the European conquerors of India began to obtain some knowledge of the literature of the Brahmans, it was understood that the latter were in. pos- session of ancient works on astronomy, containing a series of observations which reached back into very remote periods of antiquity, and by means of which, connected with the events of Indian history, the existence of the Hindoos as a civilized and learned people could be traced by authentic records in ages long preceding the earliest dates from which the chronology of other nations is supposed to commence.+ These pre- tensions, until their real extent and nature were better known, obtained some distinguished patrons among European philo- sophers. The celebrated M. Bailly entertained a favourable opinion of them, and Professor Playfair was their persevering advocate. But the real bearings of the question were not well understood until Mr. Bentley’s Analysis of the Hindu System of Astronomy appeared in the Asiatic Researches. By this writer the principles were explained on which the calcula- tions contained in the Indian works on astronomy were ac- tually formed, and the cloud which had overhung the ancient history of the East was effectually dispelled. The great astro- nomical work on which the claims of the Hindoos were sup- posed in Europe to have their principal support, was the celebrated treatise, entitled Sirya Siddhanta. This book, ac- * Strabon. Geog. lib. xv. p. 713. + On the Hind& Systems of Astronomy, and their connexion with History im ancient and modern times, by T. Bentley, Esq. Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. AND SEMITIC NATIONS. 195 cording to the notions of the Brahmans, was dictated by divine inspiration more than 2,164,899 years ago. The astro- nomical system contained in it is entitled the Varaha Calpa. It is, according to Mr. Bentley, the newest of three similar compilations, now generally known in India. It has been clearly demonstrated by. the same writer, that the Surya Siddhanta was composed between seven and eight centuries ago. The most ancient of the three systems above mentioned, termed the Brahma Calpa was invented by Brahma Gupta, nearly thirteen centuries from the present time. But the origin of astronomical science and of chronology among the Hindoos is not reduced by Mr. Bentley within so re- cent a date as the period assigned for the invention of these sys- tems. He admits that they have preserved astronomical works more ancient than the three treatises above mentioned. Among these is the compilation of Parasara, who by the position of the colures recorded by him, is ascertained to have lived about 1200 years before the Christian era. In the time of Para- sara, however, Indian astronomers had very imperfect know- ledge; they could not determine the times of conjunctions and oppositions of the sun and moon for six years together with correctness, owing to their erroneous estimate of the lunation, nor is any mention made in their works of the days of the week or of the twelve signs, which seem to have been introduced into the Indian astronomy at a much later period. By a careful examination of the older systems of chronology, and a comparison of them with the poetical his- tory contained in the Piranas, it has been proved by Mr. Bentley that the earliest period from which the history of the Hindoos, as deduced entirely from their own literature, may be considered to commence, is about twenty-two centuries before the Christian era.* This conclusion is obtained in part from two of the most ancient Hindoo systems now known, which in early times were applied to purposes of chronology; they are contained in the astronomical work entitled Graha Munjari. In the first of the two systems mentioned in this work the Calpa or “ annus magnus,’ a con- * See Remarks on the principal eras and dates of the ancient Hindis. Asiatic oz Research es, vol. v. 196 ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIAN jectural period adopted by astronomers to facilitate their method of calculation, is subdivided into a given number of | yugs or ages in such a manner that the Cali Yug of the cycle* last completed, ended 707 years before the historical era of Vicramaditya, or 764 years before Christ. Therefore The satya yug or golden age, began before Christ 3164 The tréta yug, or silver age The dwapar yug, or brazen age Theyeak-yug) orirow age: sila eee 1004 And ended Making in all 2400 years. “ During the first period of 960 years, called the golden age, the Hindi had no real history, the whole being fabulous except what relates to the flood, which is allegorically re- presented by the fish incarnation.” “With the second period, or silver age, the Hindu em- pire commences under the Solar and Lunar dynasties ; and from Budha, the son of Séma, the first of the lunar line, they reckon about fifty reigns down to the end of the Dwapar, which make, at an average, twenty-four years to a reign.” It therefore appears that the heroic age of India, the period at which the children of the Sun and Moon are said to have begun to reign over mortal men, commenced, according to the Indian history, about twenty-two centuries before the Christian era. The famous war of the Mahabharat is dated eleven centuries before the same epoch. This calculation of the antiquity of the Hindoos, founded on the remains of their astronomy, coincides with the most satisfactory conclusions respecting the date of their sacred books, and the oldest relics of Hindoo literature. In the admirable analysis of the Vedas, inserted by Mr. Colebrooke in the eighth volume of the Asiatic Researches, we are informed that the different portions of these ancient Indian scriptures were composed at different times. The - exact period at which they were compiled, or that in which * The present Cali Yug is the fourth age of the sixty-seventh Maha Yug of the seventh Manwantara, contained in the Calpa of 2,400,000, which consists of four- teen Manwantaras=2,399,040-+(1 satya yug=960 years.) 12 AND SEMITIC NATIONS. _, p 197 the greater part was actually written, cannot be determined from any date yet obtained, but Mr. Colebrooke is of opinion that some parts of these writings, and those especially which contain prayers recited at the ceremonies termed Yajnya are as old as the calendar, which purports to have been framed for the regulation of such rites. This calendar from the posi- tions of the solstitial points indicated by it, is proved, accord- onstructed in aAr>Ler 17 ing to the same eminent writer, to have been c the fourteenth century before the Christian era. It has like- wise been shown from another passage of the Vedas, that the correspondence of seasons with months as there stated agrees with the same position of the cardinal points. These data afford the means of estimating the real anti- quity of the Sanskrit language and literature. The ancient, dialect of the Vedas, and especially that of the three first of these books is, according to Mr. Colebrooke, extremely diffi-\ cult and obscure. It is rather to be considered as the parent | of the more polished and refined idiom, the classical Sans- | krit, than the same language properly so termed.* : It is unnecessary to go into any details in regard to the antiquity of the Semitic nations, but it will be worth while to remark a circumstance which brings the history of these nations in the earliest times into near relation with that of the Hindoos. We have observed that the chronology of India commences like the mythical history of the Egyptians and many other nations, with dynasties said to have been the im- mediate offspring of the Sun and Moon. The Solarand Lunar races, the first mortal rulers, began their reign according to the old Hindoo chronology of Parasara, in the tréta yug or silver age. From the preceding period of 960 years, the golden age of the Hindoos, by them called the satya yug, the only record that exists 1s the remarkable history of the flood, allegorically represented by the fable of Satyavrata and the incarnation of Vishnu in the Fish Avatar. In the ancient ow whether this ancient Indian dialect, the * It would be very interesting to kn alogies to the sister languages, the idiom of the Vedas, displays many nearer an Meeso-gothic, Greek and Latin, than the later Sanskrit. A remarkable instance has been noticed by M. A. W. de Schlegel in his preface to Mr. Haymann’s Ger- man translation of my work on Egyptian Mythology. 198 ANTIQUITY OF THE historical fragments of the Assyrian or Babylonian history belonging to the Semitic race, the Hindoo fable has a close parallel in the story of Xisuthrus and his flood, and the fish- god Oannes. I am aware that some critics, and particularly Eichhorn, have considered the fragments of Berosus pre- served by Josephus, Abydenus and Alexander Polyhistor to be spurious,* but it is highly improbable that such a coin- cidence should arise from chance, and the Parana gives strong testimony to the genuineness of the Chaldean story, which approaches somewhat more nearly to the Scriptural account of the Noachian deluge. This agreement is sufficient to con- nect without the least mixture of doubt the history of the Semitic and Indian races, both of which commence or rather recommence with these remarkable accounts of the same event. Both of these nations deduce their origin, according to ancient historical accounts preserved separately among them, and handed down through totally different channels of tradition, from parents who are said to have survived an other- wise universal destruction. The circumstance that the Semitic nations, as well as the most anciently civilized of the Indo-European race, commence their history or genealogy with this narrative common to both im its leading facts as well as in its fabulous embellishments, is the more important as the languages of the two races are distinct and belong to two great branches of human idioms. To this consideration I shall again have occasion to advert. Sreotion IIL.—Of the Antiquity of the Egyptians. The records of the Egyptians carry us back nearly to the same period as do those of the Hindoos when reduced to their original state, for the commencement of monarchy and the origin of historical documents. Previously to the reigns of kings, as recorded in the beginning of the Egyptian annals, we find the reigns of Vulcan and the Sun, and other elements of material nature personified. 'To these succeeded heroes and * Eichhorn, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, Theil. i. EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. 199 demigods, who were their offspring, as among the Hindoos, and they are followed by kings of mortal birth, the reign of the first king being evidently the initial period of all his- tory. But this era has been variously stated. The Egyptian annals of Manetho appear to assume a period of prodigious antiquity for the commencement of his series of thirty dy- nasties. The hypothesis that Egypt contained many inde- pendent kingdoms, and that several of these dynasties ruled simultaneously over different states, assumed hypothetically by Marsham and others for the sake of reducing the dura- tion of the Egyptian state, is contrary to all historical tradi- tion respecting this country; but I have endeavoured to show that Manetho’s Chronicle was constructed, perhaps by mus- take, from the combination into one whole of many different records or tables of kings, which, though apparently succes~ sive, can be shown by internal evidence to contain repetitions of the same series. By a comparison of Manetho’s work with the Theban table of Eratosthenes, we find satisfactory data for fixing the origin of the Egyptian monarchy as de- duced from these documents in the twenty-fourth century before our era. It would be too far from my present subject of inquiry to recapitulate the arguments from which this con- clusion has been deduced, and I must refer my readers, if any of them: should wish to examine it, to my analysis of the remains of Egyptian chronology. Pee We thus trace, nearly to the same period, the existence of two nations, bearing in their moral characteristics, and in the fact that they have similar religions and ‘civil institutions, marks of an ancient relationship which can hardly be mis- taken. Many circumstances would lead us to presume that an early aflinity or connexion in origin and descent existed between the Egyptians and the Indians. Before we can pro- ceed further into this inquiry, it will be necessary to advert to the history of the Egyptian language. 200 HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIAN Section 1V.—History of the Egyptian Language and its , Dialects. It would be superfluous to enter into long details on the Egyptian language, but the history of this language is so asso- ciated with that of the race and with their relations to other families of mankind, that I must not pass it by without touch- ing upon some of the principal questions which have refer- ence to it. Doubts have been thrown out in former times respecting the antiquity of the Coptic and its relation to the idiom of the old Egyptians. Vossius and Hardouin regarded the Coptic as a corrupt mixture of Greek, Arabic and other lan- guages, having little in common with the idiom spoken by the subjects of the Pharaohs. These doubts, which arose from ignorance of the subject, were refuted by Renaudot, and Jablonski. M. Quatremére, in his learned work on the history of Coptic literature, has observed, that although Greek was the idiom of Alexandria and of foreigners residing in Egypt during the Ptolemaic age, it is yet proved by the triliteral inscription of Rosetta and by the testimony of Plu- tarch, that the native population of Egypt continued for the most part ignorant of Greek, and still preserved their native speech. That this was likewise the case under the Roman domination, and even after the conversion of the people to Christianity, might be inferred from the circumstance that it was found necessary to form the Coptic and Sahidic versions of the Sacred Scriptures. The fact is otherwise placed be- yond all doubt, by various testimonies contained in the lives of saints and famous ecclesiastics of the Egyptian church, who are expressly said to have been ignorant of the Greek language, though devoted to study and religion, and some of them versed in theological controversies. * * Many of these testimonies have been cited by M. Quatremére : among others that relating to Macarius, an Egyptian bishop, who accompanied Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria, to the council of Chalcedon. The patriarch was asked what he meant to do with his dumb companion, with whom, as he could only speak the Egyptian language, the heretics could hold no converse. This statement has been cited by M. Quatremére from a Coptic MS. in the Vatican, LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTs. 201 The native Copts who have written grammars of their lan- guage in Arabic, among whom Athanasius, bishop of Kus, is particularly mentioned, distinguish three Egyptian dialects which they term respectively the Bahiric —-C_syp—-=y— meaning the Memphitic or that commonly termed Coptic, the Sahidic—c_¢s—ax.0— and the Bashmuric, —C_Spyeig— The last is said, by the writers above mentioned, to have little or nothing in common with the two former, but to be per- fectly distinct from them, even in the roots of verbs and nouns. The learned Father Georgi, who has written a his- tory of Egyptian dialects, observes, that the Memphitic was the dialect first, and for a long time only, known to European scholars.} It is the idiom commonly termed Coptic, though that epithet properly includes all the cognate dialects.t The first work printed in this idiom was a single sheet containing the three first chapters of St. Matthew’s gospel, edited at Ox- ford, by Thomas Marshall, in 1689. The Upper Egyptian or Sahidic dialect was so little known even to Wilkins, that in the preface to his edition of the Memphitic New Testament he termed it “ lingua prorsus ignota” By means of Lacroze, Scholtz, Tuki, and particularly through the numerous Sahi- dic fragments of the Nanian and Borgian Libraries, the Sahidic dialect, in which the greater part both of the Old and the New Testament is still extant, in various fragments, became better known in Europe. Various opinions have been main- tained by learned men as to the relative antiquity of the Mem- phitic and Sahidic dialects. Georgi considers the Memphitic containing an eulogium on Macarius by Dioscorus. It appears also that the Acts of the Martyrs published by Father Combefis, were originally written in the Egyp- tian, and translated into the Greek language. Quatremére, P- 14. * J, D. Michaelis Neue Orientalische und Exegetische Bibliothek. Achter Theil. s. 215. + Fragment Evangelii, S. Johann. Graco-Coptico-Thebaicum seculi iv. Addi- tamentum ex vetustissimis membranis lectionum evangelicarum divine Missz, &c. ex Veliterno Museo Borgiano—opera et studio F, Aug. Anton. Georgii, Erem. Aug.—Rom. 1789. + The term Coptic is equivalent to Egyptian. The etymology of this name is uncertain. Some derive it from Coptos, though there is nothing to connect the de- signation of the Egyptian race with that city. Others think it a corrupt contrac- tion of Aigyptos. A more probable etymology than this derives it from Jaco- bites—Iakxwirar. The Egyptians were so termed as belonging to the Jacobite heresy. 202 HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIAN to be the most ancient, chiefly because the old Egyptian names of gods, men, and cities, preserved by Herodotus, Manetho, and others, have a Memphitic rather than a Sahidic ter- mination. Such are the names of Osiris, Busiris, Memphis. Even in Thebes wiowpic appears to have been the Egyp- tian term for a man ;* this is in Coptic pi-romi. The ending in 1 (for the sigma is a Greek addition) is peculiar to the Memphitic dialect: in the Sahidic it would be in zu. In the charte papyracee likewise of the Borgian Museum, which were probably written in the third century, and which have oeen illustrated by M. M. Schow, all the terminations of names are Memphitic. The Theban or Sahidic dialect appears, ac- cording to Georgi, to have been formed ata later period than the time of Herodotus. There is no trace of it in antiquity, ex- cept perhaps an inscription on the pillar of Memnon, made in the fifteenth year of the Emperor Hadrian’s reign, which gives the name of the month “ Kovax,” in Sahidic, instead of the Memphitic word yotax. This dialect was much softer than the Memphitic, had none of the harder aspirations, and was more intermixed with Greek words, a veryremarkable circumstance, as Michaelis has observed, since it would have appeared pro- bable that in Lower Egypt, near Alexandria, a greater pro- portion of Greek would have passed into the language of the native population, and because Eutychius and others declare that Greek was little known in Upper Egypt and, since the schism of the Monophysites, had been scarcely used even in religious rites. Michaelis explains the fact, that the Sahidic contains more of Greek than the Memphitic dialect, from a consideration very satisfactory, but such as would not occur to superficial thmkers. The Memphitic dialect, even before the Grecian conquest and the powerful influence of the Grecian language upon the Coptic, had become far more cultivated and developed than the Theban dialect, and therefore required less augmentation from the idiom of foreigners ; and the Theban dialect being both poorer, and having been at a later period reduced to writing, was likely to require and receive a more ample interpolation of Greek words. The same circumstances account for the softer pronun- * Herodotus, lib. ii, c. 144, and Larcher’s note. LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS. 903 ciation of this dialect, which is destitute of the harsh sounds corresponding with the Hebrew cheth.* It is only of late that any knowledge has been obtained of a third Egyptian dialect, of which a relic is preserved in a curious fragment of a version of the New Testament contained in the Borgian Museum. This fragment comprises a part of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in a dialect which has many peculiarities distinguishing it from both the others. A comparison of the three dialects has been made with accuracy by Georgi. The newly-discovered idiom is intermediate be- tween the Sahidic and the Memphitic, but more nearly allied. by the greater softness of its pronunciation to the latter. Like the Sahidic it changes the Memphitic chei into an h, the and o into.a; and the ¢ into A, writing wiAwpe for the Mem- phitic wiowut, aman. There is no doubt that this variety of the Egyptian speech is a peculiar dialect, and it is worthy of observation that the version of the New Testament, of which parts are extant in it, were made, as Michaelis has proved from internal evidence, not from the Sahidic, but immediately from the Greek. To the inquiry, what was the native country of this newly- discovered dialect ? where was it spoken? Georgi has given an ingenious, though by no means a satisfactory reply. He thinks with Cardinal Borgia, the learned proprietor of the Museum where it was preserved, that the biblical fragment which has led to so curious a discovery is in the language of the Ammonians, who, according to Herodotus, were a min~ eled colony of Egyptians and Ethiopians, and spoke a dialect _ mixed up from the idioms of both these nations. The Egyp- tian part of this language was the Memphitic, according to Georgi, which, as he thinks, was the only dialect spoken in Egypt in the time of Herodotus: he conjectures that the Ethiopian part was the Sahidic, understanding by Ethiopian not the dialects of the modern nations near Egypt, but the old Ethiopian which, as he infers, though incorrectly, from an observation of the same historian,{ bore a near affinity to the Egyptian language. It is, however, very improbable that the * Michaelis, whi supra. + Lib. ii. c. 42. + Herod. lib. iii. c. 19. Herodotus only says that some of the Ichthyophagi of Elephantine understood the Ethiopian language. 204 HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIAN old Ethiopian language was so closely allied to the Egyptian as is the Sahidic dialect to the Coptic ; this however is Georgi’s hypothesis. The Ammonians of Herodotus were the inha- bitants of the Oasis of Augila, containing the temple of Jupiter Ammon, who under Justinian were, as Procopius asserts, converted from the worship of Ammon and of Alexander to the Christian religion, and obtained a bishop, who was present at the great assembly of the Christian church in 553, in Constantinople. Since the new converts must have stood in need of a version of the Scriptures into their language, it is probable that one was actually made, and the third Egyptian version, which is a translation indepen- dent of the others, and taken immediately from the Greek original, may have been that of which the fragments have come to light. M. Georgi is less specious in his attempt to show that this so termed Ammonian dialect is the same as the Psamyrian or the Bashmuric of the Coptic writers. There is, indeed, a city of Bashmur mentioned by Abulfeda in the lesser Delta, but this seems here to be out of the question. Indeed the accurate D’ Anville writes the name Bashmout. This name rather agrees with the Coptic w-ca-unp and applies to a country resembling that termed by Strabo wepai, meaning the region to the westward of the Nile. Here, according to Elmacin, lived the Bashmurians or Psamyrii who, by a na- tive writer cited by Renaudot, are said to have revolted against the khalif Abdolmalek, and to have allied themselves with the neighbouring Negro tribes. ‘To Michaelis this hypo- thesis of Georgi appears extremely improbable, because the Psamyrians of Elmacin were a people unlikely to have spoken any cognate dialect of the Coptic.* Their language is de- scribed as differing essentially from both of the Egyptian dialects. The third dialect of the Borgian manuscripts, wherever it may have been spoken, is, on the other hand, but a slight modification of the Sahidic. Professor Miinter, of Copenhagen, considered it indeed as differing from that idiom only in an accidental variation of orthography.+ It continues, * Michaelis N. Orient. Biblioth. Th. viii. + M. Frid. Miinteri Commentatio de indole Vers. N. T. Sahidice. Accedunt fragm. Epist. Paulli ad Tim. ex membranis Sahidic. Mus. Borgian Velitris. Hafn. 1789. Michaelis, N. Or. Bibl. Th. vii. See also Th. iii. N. 66. LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS. 208 however, to be termed, after Georgi’s improbable supposition, Bashmuric, in the latest and most accurate works on Coptic literature. . The remains of Coptic and Sahidic can only be considered as representing the Egyptian language during a compara- tively short period of its history. Both of these dialects have long been extinct. The Sahidic appears to have been in use in the time of Macrizi, in the ninth century of the Hegira, but in the early part of the twelfth century of our era, the Coptic had ceased to be intelligible to the people of the mid- dle region of Egypt. It survived however among a few per- sons, and the last old man who had learnt ‘t as his mother- tongue, is said to have died in 1633. It is probable that the extant relics of the Egyptian dialects belong, for the most part, to a somewhat early period of Christianity. The dates of the Coptic and Sahidic version have been computed with some variety of opinion.* The celebrated David Wilkins, who was the editor of the Coptic New Testament published by the University of Oxford in 1716, supposed. the Coptic ver- sion to have already been in existence about the year of our Lord 271. His principal argument is founded on the account of the ascetic Antonius or St. Anthony, who lived about that time, and who, though ignorant of Greek, is known to have read the New Testament. This reason appeared to the edi- tors of the Acta Eruditorum and to Michaelis unsatisfactory it only proves that there existed in Egypt, at that time, an Egyptian version of the Scriptures ; and Michaelis was 1- clined to believe that this perhaps older version was the Sa- hidic. A confirmation of this conjecture is the fact that epistles are mentioned by St. Jerome as written by St. An- thony to the churches of Egypt, im the Egyptian language, and that some fragments of epistles ascribed to St. Anthony, have been published by Mingarelli which are actually in the Sahidic dialect.}+ According to P. Georgi, with whom * At asynod of Jacobite patriarchs held at Alexandria between 1130 and 1140, it was ordained that the Symbolum Fidei and the Oratio Dominica should be ex- plained to the people in their vernacular tongue; the Coptic formule having be- come, as it would appear, unintelligible. Vater, Mith. iii. 78. : + Quatremére, Litt. Egypte-—M ingarelli or Dom. Johann. Aloysius Minga- 206 HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIAN Michaelis coincides, there probably existed a version of the Scriptures in the language of Upper Egypt, at the beginning of the third century. In the year 202 there were, as Euse- bius declares, many martyrs in the Thebaid under the em- peror Severus, and it is probable that they read the Scriptures. It is certain that a version of the Psalms and of several books of Scripture existed in the time of Pachomius, in 303. He is said to have received these books from the old hermit Pa- leemon.* Whether any relic of Coptic or Sahidic writing will ever be discovered origmating from a period anterior to these dates, is very uncertain, for we cannot trace any continuity between the old Egyptian and the Coptic literature. Writing is well known to have been practised in the old Egyptian style, under the Ptolemies, and even under the Roman government.+ As long as there were priests of the old religion, and literature was in their hands, the use of hieroglyphics was probably continued, together with that of the enchorial letters which were their re- presentatives. The Coptic alphabet, which is well known to be a modification of the Greek, is supposed to have been intro- duced by Christians, and it is very probable that it was in- vented to facilitate the translation and the reading of the Sa- ered Scriptures in the vernacular dialects of Egypt. But though Coptic literature has a short period of exist- ence, with respect to the time of its production and cessation, it is extremely valuable, not only for the purposes of biblical criticism, for which it has chiefly been studied, but because it certainly preserves to our investigation the genuine language of the most singular people of the ancient world. The at- tempts made formerly by Jablonski, to determine, by means of Coptic etymologies, the meaning of Egyptian names in the table of Theban kings by Eratosthenes, and to ascer- tain from their designations, the characters and attributes of rellius, published some remains of Egyptian MSS., discovered in the Nanian Li- brary at Venice, in 1785. An account of his work is given by Michaelis in the fourth part ofhis “ Orientalische und Exegetesche Bibliothek. art. 66. * Michaelis Neue Orient. und Exeget. Bibl. Th. xvii. p. 224. + An Egyptian inscription is mentioned by Julius Capitolinus to have been engraven on the tomb of the emperor Gordian, who died, according to Tillemont, A. D. 244, Jul. Capitol. Hist. August. Script. Quatremeére, wbi supra. LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS. 207 Egyptian gods, have perhaps not been remarkably success- ful, and the degree to which the Coptic language may be found really useful in deciphering inscriptions, has not as yet been finally decided. Yet there is no room for doubt, that Coptic is the ancient Egyptian language. It must doubtless have undergone modification in successive ages, and especially through the effect of the conquests which Egypt underwent, and the introduction, at different periods, of foreign manners. Yet it is essentially the same language which was spoken in Egypt before the time of Moses and of Joseph. Coptic words are to be traced in the works of authors, both Hebrew and Greek of every age. A consider- able number have been recognised even in the Book of Genesis,* in which they appear not as Hebrew but as foreign words, used in relation to the productions and local pecu- liarities of Egypt. Szction V.—Comparison of the Egyptian Language with other Idioms. We have seen that the coéval and separate existence of three languages or families of languages, namely the Indo- European, the Semitic and the Egyptian, is to be traced by authentic accounts in the earliest ages from which contem- porary records are preserved. It is probable that a compa- rison of these languages with each other will throw light on the relations of the several tribes to which they belonged, and on the early history of mankind. This subject has inci- dentally engaged the attention of some writers, but few or none have gone fully into the investigation. A treatise by the Abbé Barthélemy entitled “ Reflexions générales sur les rapports des Langues Egyptienne, Phénicienne et Grecque” which appeared in the “ Memoires de Académie des In- scriptions,” was written before comparative philology had been much explored, and while some of the principal Indo- Germanic languages were as yet unknown to European scho- lars. Professor Vater is, if I am not mistaken, the only writer *® See Michaelis Orient. und Exeg. Bibl. Theil. i. p. 199. 208 COPTIC AND INDIAN LANGUAGES. who has compared the Indian dialects in which we should chiefly expect to find some traces of affinity with the Coptic. The examination of a considerable number of words afforded him, as he says, no positive result.* The Coptic contains a ereat number of Greek words, but these are manifestly ac- quired, and not originally Egyptian. As the principal re- mains of Coptic literature, at least those chiefly and almost exclusively studied by European scholars, are translations from the Greek Scriptures, it is obviously-the more probable that a considerable number of Greek words connected with religion and with thoughts and habits foreign to the Egyptians would be introduced. A very cursory inspection of the Cop- tic lexicon is quite sufficient to convince any competent judge, that the native and original vocabulary of the Coptic speech is entirely diverse from that of the Indo-European dialects. Some idea may be formed of the extent of this diversity by inspecting even the short series of Egyptian words inserted in the comparative table at the end of the second chapter of this volume. It may there be observed that, except a few analo- gies in the numerals which may be traced among all the nations bordering on the Mediterranean, all the remainder of the Egyptian vocabulary is totally unlike that of any European dialect. There is even a perceptible difference be- tween the Coptic and the European idioms in the manner of combination of consonants and vowels and in the structure and form of words. For example, the concurrence of liquid and sibilant consonants is very frequent in the Coptic, very rare in the Indo-European idioms. ) * P, Vater found the following words in Coptic and Indian dialects more or less resembling : Coptic. Sanskrit and other Indian dialects. aula aala avd} mau ma mother alou bala boy kas kikasa bone khre chorak | food sit shede to lie I know that many coincidences of this description might be found, on a com- parison of the Coptic with European vocabularies, but they are too remote to afford proof of affinity between these languages and the Coptic. LANGUAGE AND ITS DIALECTS. 209° A somewhat different result has been obtained by a com- parison of the Coptic and Semitic languages. . . The Egyptians are known to have lived so many ages in proximity and in continual intercourse with the Hebrews and Pheenicians, and with the nomadic tribes of the Semitic stock, that it would be singular and contrary to probable expecta- tion, if there were found no marks of this connexion in the idioms of the two races. In fact there are many words com- mon to the Coptic and the Semitic dialects. The only diffi- culty is to determine whether these words were adopted by one nation from the other, or were a part of the original stock of words or of the native vocabulary of either race. A com- parison of the Hebrew and Arabic with the Coptic, has been made by many philologers. Wilkins has collected a great num- ber of words which have more or less of analogy in these lan- guages.* Forster and Tychsen have pursued the same investi- gation. The comparative vocabularies which these writers have assembled, have been carefully scrutinized by Vater, who, after omitting all those words in which the analogy ap- peared to him deceptive and merely fancied, or at most doubtful and uncertain, selected nearly the following series, the com- ponent terms of which appear manifestly related in the dif- erent languages compared. COPTIC, SEMITIC. MEANING. iarou yor. Heb. river tlom thaelm. Heb. fork thalam. Arab. kash kash moschi mashai. Arab. sifi shif. Arab. smi sama. Arab. to hear. soure sir. Heb. forsh faras. Heb. ili ayil. Heb. } reed, stubble to walk sword. aKoy thorn spread a ram shemshi shtzeh shorsher khmom shmash, Syr. shtah. Syr. sharshar. Arab. khmom. Heb. and Arab. to serve street to destroy heat, sc. fervere to fly not. Sahed. nad. Heb. * See Wilkins’s Dissertation on the Coptic language, appended to Chamber- _ layne’s Oratio Dominica. See a very curious and able paper by Dr. Loewe, in the Asiatic Journal, in defence of this opinion, and the attempt to identify by the most ingenious etymo- logical conjectures the Egyptian with the Hebrew. The license of dissecting words and conjecturing the meaning of their etymons being conceded, any other known language might easily be brought to give similar results. VOL 11, ig 210 RELATION OF THE EGYPTIAN If any of the preceding instances of resemblance might be attributed to accident, that. explanation could hardly be thought applicable to the following :— Numerals. COPTIC. SEMITIC. MEANING. snau shénai. Heb. two shemoun shemonah. Heb. eight Pronouns. anuk anokhi. Heb. ego antu* antha, Arab tu To these must be added the suffix possessive pronouns appended to nouns, in Coptic, 1, K, N or EN, for meus, tuus, noster, and the pronominal terminations 1 and tT1, marking the first personal singular, and aN, the first person plural in the present tense of verbs, nearly identical with the ‘corre- sponding suffixes in Hebrew. These traits of resemblance have the greater weight, as the words which are similar are, some of them at least, of a kind not frequently borrowed from one language by an- other. There are, however, instances, though they are infre- quent, in which a poor language, the idiom of an uncultivated tribe, has adopted pronouns and pronominal suffixes from the dialect of a conquering or neighbouring and more civil- ized people.+ Many persons who have not made Coptic an object of close attention, have been struck by these instances of resemblance between it and the Hebrew in particular words, and have, without hesitation, set it down for a dialect of the Semitic * Tt has been observed by Vater, that the inference resulting from this coinci- dence in the second pronoun, is weakened by the fact that anru has correlatives, and the syllable an or ANT is common to most of the personal and possessive pro- nouns in Coptic, as ANTOF he, ANTOS she, ANTOU they. The probable inference from this fact seems to be, not that there is no relationship between the Semitic and the Coptic pronouns which resemble each other, but that the Hebrew has borrowed from the Coptic those forms which are similar in the two languages, without bor- rowing their correlatives. In fact the pronouns in the eastern Semitic dialects are more remote from the Coptic. _ + The Berber language which is very remote from the Arabic, in the great mass of its vocabulary and in its entire nature, has borrowed the pronominal termina- tions of verbs from it. This has been clearly proved in Mr. F. Newman’s excel- lent analysis of the Berber language already cited, TO THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES. a language. On the other hand, all the most celebrated scho- lars in Coptic literature have pronounced that language to be entirely distinct, and to have nothing in common with the Oriental idioms so termed, except a few words borrowed from the Hebrew or Arabic. Among these writers are Jablonski and Lacroze, by far the most learned men in the language and literature of the Copts, who have yet lived. Michaelis also, whose extensive knowledge of the Oriental languages and high reputation for general learning must give great weight to his opinion, has adverted to this question on seve- ral occasions in reviews and analyses of various works in his Orientalische und Exegetische Bibliothek. In his account of the works of Hofprediger Scholtz, on subjects connected with Coptic literature, he declares that “the assertions of those who have claimed the Coptic as a member of the Se- mitic family of languages, have arisen purely from ignorance, or an extremely superficial acquaintance with the Coptic, and indicate that the writers in question have begun their studies where they ought to have concluded them, viz. with the etymology or the analysis of words, a most difficult in- quiry, and one which requires the most cautious and clear- sighted investigation. Hence have arisen the attempts to illustrate Coptic from Hebrew, and Hebrew from Coptic, as well as the speculations of those who have hoped to explain from hoth of them the Etruscan”’ “while every person competent to form an opinion, knows that the Coptic and the Hebrew have not the slightest original affinity, and that although some words occur in the former which resemble Semitic vocables, they are to be attributed to the influence which the proximity and intercourse of Semitic nations has exercised on the idiom of the native Egyptians.” Professor Vater, who has entered at some length into an examination of this question, after exhibiting the analogies in particular words, which have been traced between the Se- mitic and Coptic, allows that they can neither be accidental coincidences nor susceptible of explanation by reference to the intercourse of Arabs with Egyptians, in times succeeding the Mohammedan conquest. Yet he concludes, without he- sitation, that “ the supposition of a common origin or ofa family Pp 2 ye RELATIONS OF THE EGYPTIAN relation between these languages, cannot be supported. Be- sides the objections arising from the difference of gramma- tical structure, it is observed by Vater that any person who only opens a Coptic lexicon, finds everywhere not only whole pages of words which cannot be forced by the most inge- nious etymologist into any resemblance to Semitic vocables, but numerous roots, which, like the Coptic 1 to go, EN to carry, ss to drink, scur to measure, are by their nature strikingly different from the character of the verbal roots in the Hebrew and Arabic.”* It is well known that the Semitic languages are distin- guished in a most decided manner from all others, by the nature of their primitive words, and by the whole system of their grammatical structure. The verbal roots,+ most fre- quently dissyllabic, simple in the third person of the prete- rite, are susceptible of peculiar modifications, the position of pronouns either before or after the root giving rise to the va- riations of tense, of which there are only two. A second cha- racter which distinguishes these languages is, that they have nothing analogous to auxiliary verbs, which either disjoined or in composition, perform in the European idioms so important a part in the system of verbal conjugation. These traits, to which may be added the incapability of composition, or of form- ing new words by the combination of two or more simple ones, and the want of any inflection of termination answering to the cases of nouns, separate the Semitic ata wide interval from the Indo-European idioms. In both these classes of languages, however, the greater part of the modifications of which words are susceptible, affect the terminations. By these the numbers and genders are distinguished in nouns, and for the most part in verbs. * Mithridates, Th. iii. p. 75. + The primitive words are, as every one knows, for the most part triliteral— sometimes, especially in Arabic, quadriliteral verbal roots. The triliteral form may perhaps appear to be more extensively prevalent than it really is, owing to the artifice of grammarians, and their attempt to maintain uniformity, and to reduce exceptions under the general rule. Still that this in reality is the nature of Semitic roots in ao degree which forms a broad line of distinction between them and the primitive words of other languages, must, I apprehend, be conceded. In the Indo-European languages in general a great proportion of the verbal roots, in Sanskrit all of them are monosyllabic. On the Semitic, compare Michaelis, Orientalische und Exe- getische Bibliothek, Num. 16, and Ewald’s Heb. Grammar, translated by Mr- Nicholson, § 15. TO OTHER AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 21D The Coptic language differs from both the preceding in many of' these particulars. Its words are susceptible of but few modifications except by means of prefixes and infixes. In this, and in almost every other peculiarity of grammatical structure, the Coptic recedes from the character of the Asiatic and European languages, and associates itself with several of the native idioms of Africa. : The distinction both of gender and number im Coptic nouns is by means of prefixes or articles, both definite and indefi- nite, of which there are singular and plural, masculine and feminine forms, the nouns themselves being indeclinable. Precisely similar are the modifications of nouns in other African idioms. Inthe language of the Kafirs, for example, not only the cases but thenumbers and genders of nouns are formed entirely by prefixes, analogous to articles. The prefixes vary according to number, gender and case, while the nouns re- main unaltered except by a merely euphonic change of the initial letters. Thus, in Coptic, from sheri, a son, comes the plu- ral nen-sheri, the sons, from sori, accusation, han-sori, accusa-~ tions. Analogous to this we have in the Kafir ama marking the plural, as amakosah the plural of kosah, amahashe the plural of ihashe, insana the plural of wsana. The Kafir has a great variety of similar prefixes; they are equally numerous in the language of Kongo, in which, as in the Coptic and the Kafir, the genders, numbers, and cases of nouns are almost solely distinguished by similar prefixes.* — The Coptic verbs, unlike the Semitic, have @ great variety of inflections by mood and tense: they have five distinct moods, a present tense, four preterites, and three future tenses, all marked by distinct inflections. These inflections, contrary to what happens in the Indo-European languages, are almost entirely produced by changes in the prefixes, the root of the verb remaining at the end of the word quite unaltered. The prefixes are sometimes blended with auxiliary * These prefixes, in the African languages, the Coptic and Ss aioe 501 something more than articles. They are formative prefixes, essential parts of words of which they determine and particularise the meaning, like the system of nouns endings in Sanskrit. Compare Tattam’s Coptic Grammar, p. 12.3 Boyce’s Gram- mar of the Kafir language, Graham's Town, 1834, p. 4; Vater's Eater oan Brusciotti a Vetralla’s Work on the Congo language, Rom. 1659; Mitbridat. ill. p. 211. ee ai RELATIONS OF THE EGYPTIAN verbs, the use of which is almost entirely unknown in the Semitic. In all these respects the Coptic stands distinguished from the principal idioms of Kurope and Asia. In the same parts of grammatical structure a most remark- able accordance will be found to subsist between the Egyp- tian language, and the idioms of several other African nations. In the Amharic, although the system of verbal conjuga- tion has been evidently modified by the long predominant influence of the Gheez or Ethiopic, yet striking instances re- main of the tendency to inflection by means of prefixes. A similar observation is applicable to the grammatical forms of the Berber language. Passive verbs are formed in the Amharic by the syllable ta merely prefixed to the whole verb, and two forms of active conjugations are produced by the prefixes a’ and ASE, which give the meaning ‘‘ to do or cause to be done.””* But the languages of Southern Africa are unaffected by any influence derived from the Gheez, Arabic, or any other Semitic speech, and in these we trace more decidedly, the principles of structure above alluded to. Grandpré, Brusciotti and some other writers have given short and imperfect accounts of the grammatical construction of the idioms spoken in the empire of Kongo; from which Professor Vater published extracts in the third volume of the Mithridates. There is besides a grammar and dictionary of the Banda dialect spoken in Cassanga, which is nearly re- lated to those of Kongo and Kakongo, compiled by a Catholic missionary named Cannecattim, of the contents of which we have some information from Mr. Bowdich. A tolerably copious grammar of the Amakosah Kafir has likewise been published at Graham’s Town by the Wesleyan missionaries settled there. With the aid of these materials it would be no difficult matter to institute a comparison of all the languages here mentioned. I shall not attempt to enter into a full ex- amination of this subject. A cursory survey of the materials which are in my hands is sufficient to convince any person that many essential characters of affinity exist between the most remote dialects of these nations, as, for example, be- * Ludolfi Grammatica Lingue Amharic, que vernacula est Habessinorum. Frankfurt, 1618, pp. 14 and 16. Mithridat. iii. 112. See a note on the Berber verbs at the end of this book. TO OTHER AFRICAN LANGUAGES, 215 tween the languages spoken in the empire of Kongo and that of the Amakosah, the most southern tribe of Kafirs. It is stated by Cannecattim, that the principal characters of the Banda language, the Jagas’ dialect of the Kongo speech, is that the inflections of nouns and verbs in number, voice, tense and person are distinguished by prefixes instead of ter- minations: it would seem that the mutations of words in general affect their beginnings and leave the roots and end- ings unaltered. This peculiarity belongs to other dialects of the same mother-tongue, as may be seen in Vater’s remarks on the idioms of Loango and Kakongo, of Kongo and An- gola.* It is remarkable that the same law of grammatical construction prevails likewise in the Kafir language, namely, in the dialect of the Amakosah. This may be seen in the specimen of a Kafir conjugation of verbs, given by Mr. Thompson in an Appendix to his Travels in South Africa, and it is proved. by the following general remarks on the structure of this language in the Kafir grammar by the Wesleyan mis- sionary, Mr. Boyce. “The Kafir language is distinguished by one peculiarity which immediately strikes a student whose views of lan- guage have been formed upon the examples afforded by the inflected languages of ancient and modern Europe. With the exception of a change of termination in the ablative case of the noun, and five changes of which the verb is susceptible in its principal tenses, the whole business of declension, con- jugation, &e. is carried on by prefixes, and by the changes which take place in the initial letters or syllables of words subjected to grammatical government.” + ; From what has been said in the preceding pages, the reader may have perceived that these observations are applicable nearly in the same extent to the Coptic or Egyptian language. The distinctions of gender and number and case in ROURES are entirely produced by prefixes, the nouns themselves being indeclinable and subject to no modification in their endings. In like manner the inflections of verbs by mood and tense, which are very numerous in the Coptic, are all effected by * Mithridat. iii. a 212—220. 1 Kafir Grammar, p- 3- 216 RELATIONS OF THE EGYPTIAN means of prefixed syllables, the root of the verb being insus- ceptible of any change. In the formation likewise of verbal nouns and derivatives, and in nouns expressing relations, the Coptic makes an ex- tensive use of prefixes ; and this observation is of the greatest importance to my present purpose, as it is equally applicable to the Kafir, and probably to other African languages. All such modifications as the European languages express by terminations added to verbs are denoted in the Coptic by these prefixes. Thus the prefix map indicates abstracts, REF is equivalent to our ER in maker or to or in orator, the prefix JIN to ION in creation; sa indicates habit, as ax in mendax, scHA intensity; RAM, is a national prefix, as Ram-cHIMI, an Egyptian, from Cuymr, Egypt.* In like manner, as we are assured by Mr. Boyce, by prefixes to the verbal root, with sometimes a slight change in termination, the Kafir language forms nouns verbal, abstract, concrete, which, though never heard before, would be immediately understood by an individual who knew the meaning of the verbs from which they were derived. Thus in Kafir from hamba, to walk, comes, wumhamli, a walker; from dwmka, beware, cave, comes ubu-lumku, wisdom or caution, umlumki or ilumko, a wise man. ) Resources are not yet in existence for instituting a general comparison of the languages of Africa. Many years will probably elapse before it will be possible to produce such an analysis of these languages, investigated in their gramma- tical structure, as it is desirable to possess, or even to compare them by extensive collections of well-arranged vocabularies after the manner of Klaproth’s Asia Polyglotta. Sufficient data however are extant, and I trust that I have adduced evidence to render it extremely probable that a principle of analogy in structure prevails extensively among the native idioms of Africa. They are probably allied, not in the man- ner or degree in which Semitic or Indo-European idioms re- semble each other, but by strong analogies in their general principles of structure, which may be compared to those dis- * Vater. iii. s. 89. + Kafir Grammar, p. 3. TO OTHER AFRICAN LANGUAGES. 917 coverable between the individual members of two other great classes of languages, by no means connected among themselves by whatis called family relation. 1 allude to the monosyllabic and the polysynthetic languages, the former prevalent in Eastern Asia, the latter throughout the vast regions of the New World. If we have sufficient evidence for constituting such a class of dialects under the title of African languages, we have likewise reason—and it is equal in degree—for associating in this class the language of the ancient Egyptians.* Sucrron. V1.—Further Considerations resulting from the contents of the preceding Sections.—On the Diversity of Languages among ancient Nations.—Conclusion as to the Relation of the Egyptians to other Human Races. The almost entire diversity of language which distinguishes the Egyptians from the nations of Asia, renders it extremely difficult, upon any probable supposition, to explain the marks of intimate relation which in so many other respects appeat to connect the ancient dwellers on the Nile with the im- memorial inhabitants of India. There are many persons who will be disposed to get rid of all difficulties connected with this inquiry, by denying or explaining in a summary way the phenomena from which they result. On recognising the fact, that the Egyptian and Indian languages are wholly unconnected, they will con- clude at once that there was no intimate relation in ancient times between the nations themselves. They will attribute to merely accidental coincidence, or to the effects resulting from similar local circumstances or external conditions, all * An extensive field of inquiry is opened by the observation pea traces exist among the most distant African nations of ancient peers with the Egyp- tians. I shall not venture to do more than to call the attention of my readers to this suggestion. The traces of animal worship, the belief in metempsychosis, rvances recorded by travellers among the Kafirs, as well as among tribes in the western parts of many instances to be attributed circumcision and a variety of obse the native people of Madagascar, Africa, are too extensively diffused, and occur In too to accidental coincidence. ne tee tat ee a I EI me eran eS ee ee ee OE 218 RELATIONS OF THE the phenomena of resemblance which have been discovered between the customs and manners, the religion, institutions and traditions of the two races. I have already adverted to this view of the subject, and shall not repeat what I have be- fore said. I shall now only express my conviction, that such of my readers as will take the pains to consider the evidence of relationship or near connexion in all the most striking charac- ters which identify or distinguish nations, language alone excepted, as they will find it stated in my work on Egyptian mythology, which is in fact a comparison of the Egyptians and Hindoos under various points of view, will acquiesce in the belief that the phenomena surveyed are fully sufficient to establish the conclusion deduced from them. They will allow that a common origin, if not of the races themselves, at least of the mental culture characteristic of both of them has been proved, and that the people of India and of Egypt de- rived from one source the first principles of all their peculiarities of thought and action, of their religious and social observances and civil and political institutions, that these principles had even been developed to a considerable extent before the na- tions themselves were entirely cut off from communication with each other, or with a common centre. If this be ad- mitted, as it will be, if I am not mistaken, by those who found their opinions on the facts of the case, we shall be led to one of two conclusions, either that the marks of resemblance between the Egyptians and the Hindoos result from some close relation in the first ages of the world, or that it has en- sued from some partial colonization of one country from another, not sufficiently extensive to produce any effect on the vernacular language of either, but yet capable of assimi- lating the people in other respects. | If we consider the historical evidence or the historical possi- bility of such an event as this last hypothesis assumes , great dif- ficulties present themselves. Colonization of Egypt from India or of India from Egypt is equally denied by the history of all known times. It has been conjectured* that the persecution * By Athanasius Kircher. The conjecture of this learned Jesuit has been es poused and advocated by Dr, F, Buchanan, Asiat. Res. vol. iv. EGYPTIANS TO THE HINDOOS. 919 which the priests and idolaters of Egypt underwent during the tyranny of Cambyses, may have given occasion to the abandon- ment of their country by a considerable number of the hierar- chical caste, and that the emigrants took refuge in India, whither they transplanted the arts and customs and the religious tenets of their African progenitors. But such a migration is rendered improbable by the fact that the Egyptians had no maritime knowledge or practice of navigation before the era in question. It has indeed been fully proved by Dr. Vincent, that in ages prior to the discovery of the monsoon by Hippalus, no direct intercourse existed by sea between Egypt and India.* Had any number of persons, flying from Egypt in the reign of Cambyses, endeavoured to take refuge in India, they could only reach that country by coasting along the shores of Per- sia and other parts subject to the despot whom they are sup- posed to have been anxious to escape. But what is more conclusive against this, or any other hypothesis which assumes ‘that the East was colonized from Egypt, is the consideration that if any great number of the priests or of the cultivated part of the Egyptian people had reached India, they would doubtless have carried with them and have introduced into that country their hieroglyphics, their peculiar literature and arts, and some traces could not fail to be discoverable of their lan- guage. Nor can the Hindoos be imagined to have founded a colony in Egypt, which some have thought more probable than any considerable movement in the opposite direction, without introducing their Vedas and their alphabetic writing. Of colonization from either quarter and in either direction we could scarcely fail to discover some vestiges in the arts and customs, and in the literature of either country, a6 well as in the intermixture of language, or the preservation at least of that peculiar to either race, as a learned or sacerdotal idiom. The deeply learned and ph in the preface which he has ilosophical A. W. Von Schlegel, prefixed to M. Haymann’s Ger- man translation of my work on Egyptian Mythology, after admitting the general conclusion which it was my object by * Dr. Vincent’s Voyage of Nearchus. 220 RELATIONS OF THE that work to establish, adverts to the possible ways of ac- counting for the facts, and touches upon the hypothesis of a colony from India settled in early times in the land of the Pharaohs. The historical fact, that Buddhism was actually planted in the more eastern and northern countries of Asia by emigrant Brahmans, seems to him scarcely in point, chiefly because Buddhism, engrafted upon the system of the Brah- mans, belongs to a comparatively late period of the world. “ But it is a matter of certainty that before the emigration of the Buddhists from India, a colony of Brahmans had settled upon the isle of Java, and had brought the previously savage inhabitants to a high degree of culture. It appears from the law-book of Menu, that the ancient Indians were not so disin- clined, and such strangers to navigation as it is often supposed. On the other hand, it is not to be doubted that the Pheeni- cians early carried on trade by sea with the Indians, and brought Indian wares to the Egyptians. If Sesostris the Great really penetrated to India upon his adventurous cam- paigns, as Champollion, supported by his explanation of the Egyptian monuments, imagines, he might have brought back from thence Brahmans as prisoners. But these possibilities of foreign influence do not reach back far enough into past ages, if we give only half as much credence as Plato gave, to the declarations of the Egyptian priests on the very ancient pre- servation of their religion. Without adopting Plato’s opinion respecting the period from which the Egyptian hierarchy liad existed, and from which ° the nation may be supposed to have assumed its peculiar cha- racter, we are at liberty to carry back the era of connexion or intercourse between the Egyptians and the Hindoos to a very remote age. In the instances of colonization pointed out by M. de Schlegel, the phenomena before adverted to, as the traces likely to have preserved evidence of such an event, are actually found to have accompanied it. In the northern and eastern countries where the Buddhists have es- tablished themselves the Pali language and the peculiar litera- - ture connected with the ceremonial of their religion, point out clearly their Indian origin. And in Java copies of the ancient Indian scriptures, or of sacred compositions connected with EGYPTIANS TO THE HINDOOS. ot Indian mythology, such as pieces of the Mahabharata, pre- serve the most palpable proofs of colonization from Hindts- tan or the Dekhan. The language of the Javanese people has likewise undergone most extensive modifications from intermixture with that of their conquerors, or of the tribe who brought them to adopt the Indian culture. Nothing of this description is to be traced in Egypt, and we must therefore attribute results of so different a kind to a different cause. It would appear that the traits of intimate connexion which are discovered on comparing the Indians and Egyptians, are to be attributed rather to some near relationship which sub- sisted between these nations in the first ages of the world, than to a partial colonization of one country from another in later times ; and we might be justified in inferring an original identity of race, if this conclusion was not opposed by the di- versity of language. It seems vain to attempt by means of historical or philo- logical researches to lift up the veil which conceals the ori- ginal condition of nations and the revolutions of human society in the first ages of the world. Having traced the existence of the Hindoos and the Egyptians as separate nations into those early times in which the light of history is but a feeble dawning, it would be the most cautious and perhaps the most philosophical course to abstain from any conjecture as to their mutual relation beyond this period, or from any attempt to penetrate into the nature of causes of which we only know the distant results. But the minds of most persons are ‘so constituted as, in the impossibility of arriving at certain truth, to prefer a probable hypothesis to the alternative of ac- quiescing in absolute ignorance. In some suggestions which I shall venture to make before I take leave of my present subject, I shall aim at nothing more than from events known to discover what is the most probable opinion as to their antecedents, the latter belonging to times and circumstances which are beyond the limits of certain knowledge. It may be observed as a general fact, that languages appear to have become more permanent as we come down towards later times. During the last ten, or perhaps the last fifteen ooe HISTORY OF LANGUAGES centuries, they have undergone few alterations except through the effect of conquest, or the intermixture of nations. Thus the Bretons who emigrated from this island to the shores of Armorica, in the fifth century, are still easily intelligible to the natives of Wales: the Bretonne language scarcely differs from the Welsh, except in a slight intermixture of the one dialect with French and of the other with English words. In like manner the Scots, who emigrated from the north of Ireland to Argyleshire, at a somewhat earlier period, can still converse with the natives of Ireland. The Greek now spoken at Athens may be termed the same language as the Greek, if not of the time of Pericles at least as that of Constantine Pale- ologus: it is indeed corrupt, but still retains in part the same inflections and the same vocabulary. Languages by inter- mixture of nations become disintegrated ; they lose a part of their grammatical modification. By lapse of time many in- flexions are lost, as the German languages have entirely lost the passive voice in verbs, which may be traced distinctly in the Mceso-gothic.* In the meantime no new forms of human speech are produced: no new varieties of inflection expres- sive of the modifications of ideas by changes in the endings or the initial syllables of words are ever attempted: parti- cles and auxiliaries are inserted to imply the want of obso- lete inflections. Formations of language and the developement of grammatical systems have long ceased. As in geology, we now only witness the disintegration, of what the first ages produced. How different was the habit of the human mind with regard to language in the age when the Sanskrit, the Greek, the Latin and the Mceso-gothic idioms were developed from one common original! If we examine the system of verbs in these languages, we find the same laws of gramma- tical inflection, and the same principles of developement and modification, (as the use of “guna” and the reduplication of syllables,) adopted in all of them, but giving rise by the va- rious ways in which they are exercised, as if by common con- sent and on a preconcerted plan, to the diversities which distin- guish the grammatical systems of these four languages from * Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik. IN THE FIRST AGES. 293 each other. Perhaps nearly a similar instance of variety m the developement of common principles of formation may be traced in the sister languages of the Finnish family: the relation between the Finnish and the Hungarian may be compared to that between the Greek and Latin and Sanskrit. A later and more restricted method of variation, hardly extending to the origination of new, but only modity- ing old or common forms, has been exercised in the develope- ment of what may be considered as principal dialects, rather than sister-languages. Such were the changes which gave rise to the diversity between the Erse or Gaélic, and the British or Welsh languages, and that between the two great branches of the Germanic family, which the German gram- marians distinguish as Cimbric or Western and the Teutonic or Suevian branch, a diversity which many have considered as too great to have been produced since the era when the Ger- man race settled in the northern region, which they had occupied some centuries before the Christian era. Such dia- lects as I now allude to must be distinguished from modem dialects, of which the French and Italian may be examples. The differences between modern cognate dialects consist im the different degrees to which the forms of the old languages have been broken down, as in the comparison of French and Italian verbs, or in the different proportions in which they have been corrupted by intermixture with foreign languages. . We find in comparing modern dialects nothing like the de- velopement of new forms, or the origination of new inflexions. Nothing of this kmd can be traced when we examine and compare the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romance, and Provencal dialects. The developement of new gt ammatical forms is indeed but feebly displayed in the comparison of ancient dialects, such as the Welsh and Gaélic, or the old dia- lects of the Germanic tongue, the Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon, and High German. We must go back to the era when the sister- languages of the Indo-European family separated from each other, in order to find a free and copious developement of new forms of speech from common elements. At that time lan- guages were varied without corruption or intermixture with foreign idioms, according to rules purposely framed and 234 HISTORY OF LANGUAGES steadily pursued, rules partly founded on euphony and a preference of particular sounds and modes of enunciation, which are various in different languages ; some, for example, substituting almost everywhere gutturals for sibilants, and others labials or dentals in the place of both; partly, and perhaps chiefly, by the design of expressing as many modifi- cations as possible of the original idea by mere variety of ~ beginning, ending, or by inserted consonants or syllables. We may perhaps refer with probability the formation of cognate dialects, such as the ancient dialects of the Celtic and Germanic languages, to the first millenium before the Christian era. I allude to the period at which these dialects branched off from their respective parent languages. The era at which those languages themselves, I mean cognate or | sister-languages, acquired their mutual difference, at | which, for example, the Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and Mcso- gothic were developed from a common original, must have a much earlier date. It must be referred at latest to the se- cond millenium, reckoning backwards from the Christian era, and to the early part of that period. In the thousand years which preceded the origin of these languages, it may be conjectured that the propensity to va- riation, or the diversifying tendency, was in still greater ac- tivity, and that it may have given tise not only to the developement of kindred idioms, but to the formation of es- sentially distinct languages, such as the Semitic and Indo- European stems. p This last supposition would be a probable one, and some- what better than a merely gratuitous conjecture, if nothing more could be advanced in its favour than the general consi- derations already adverted to. But I think we may find some historical evidence in its support. I shall, however, at present mention only one argument, founded indeed on a fact to which I have already had occasion to allude. The Semitic nations and those of the Indo-European stock have preserved one common history or tradition, which un- equivocally connects them in origin and descent, and this tradition has been handed down, not in one but in several channels among the tribes of each stock. The Hindoos, as CONCLUSION. 225 I have already observed, derive their descent according to their own mythical history, which is not less genuine history be- causeit comes down to usinthe proper style of remote antiquity, from a patriarch who survived an otherwise universal deluge. The Babylonians had the same legend, but slightly varied ; so slightly as to leave no doubt as to the connexion of the two stories, or of the derivation of both from the strikingly dif- ferent yet originally identical history of the Noachian deluge. Thus two Semitic nations trace their descent from the same stock and from the same patriarch from whom the uniform tra- dition and the received mythological history of the Hindoos deduce the origin of that race. The Hindoos are not the only Indo-European people who have preserved this tradition. To trace it further among these andamong other nations in various parts of the world, would lead me much too far from my pre- sent subject. It is sufficient for my purpose to remark that the Hebrews, and the Chaldeans, and the Hindoos, whose archives will be allowed to reach with much greater cer- tainty, and in a much more tangible and intelligible form into the early ages of the world, than those which any other nation can exhibit, give this declaration of their common origin. Yet, having thus originated from a common source, we findthem, at the end of a thousand years, separate nations, speaking languages scarcely less diverse than is that of either race, when compared with the idiom of the Egyptians.* If my readers are willing to allow a sufficient weight to these considerations, and I think they cannot refuse to do so with- out rejecting in a mass all the historical tradition of the pri- meval world, it will be evident that no insuperable difficulty will remain in accounting for the near connexion in manners, customs, religion, and other characteristics, of those branches of mankind which have preserved indications of early con- nexion or affinity, though separated into distinct nations at a * [have purposely avoided all reference to the biblical account of the confusion of languages, about which so much dispute has taken place. For my own part I find no difficulty in admitting such an event as supernatural in an age when so many events must have happened which were out of the present course of nature. But may not the habit of language-making, if I may use such an expression, which we trace in its active working in the first ages, and which afterwards ceased for ever to exist or operate, sufficiently account for the diversification of human idioms ? VOL, Il. Q 226 CONCLUSION. period of the world which preceded the discrimination of lan- guages. To express this argument in a few words, if the Goths, the Hindoos, the Greeks and Latins, originally speak- ing one language, had so far diversified their speechas they must be allowed to have done fifteen centuries before the Christian era, the diversifying process within nearly an equal period of time may have given rise to differences even so great as those which exist between the Semitic and Indian languages. That such was the fact we have the historical proof above cited. But ifso great a diversity in language as this, was really brought about, no difference of human idioms will afford. proof of original diversity of race, and the Egyptians and Hindoos may have had common ancestors from whom they derived their characteristic traits of resemblance. PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE EGYPTIANS. 927 CHAPTER XI. ON THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIAN RACE. Szction I.— General Remarks on the physical Characters of the Egyptians. We must now direct our attention to a subject more closely related to the ethnography of one quarter of the world, than the inquiries to which the preceding chapter has been devoted, though these are not unconnected with the history and origin of the African nations. To what physical department of mankind the Egyptian race belonged has often been a matter of discussion. If we were to form an opinion of the old Egyptians from the accounts left us by Herodotus and other ancient writers, who say that the Egyptians were ‘ ooAdrpry ee—peh ayy poec—mpoxetor — “‘ woolly-haired blacks, with projecting lips,” we should enter- tain no doubt they were perfect Negroes. But neither the Copts, their descendants, nor the Egyptian mummies, of which so many thousands are yet extant as unquestionable witnesses, allow this supposition to be maintained. If, as it appears, the Egyptians were not Negroes properly so termed, we are not thence entitled to deny the fact of their 23 ee euinity with the Ethiopians, who are proclaimed by the voice of all antiquity to have been a black and a genuine African race. We have seen proofs that the N ube or Barabra, who now occupy the country of the old Ethiopians, belonged originally to the class of African nations termed Nouba, whe are Negroes of a particular class ; and the same causes, what- ever they may have been, which transmuted the Nouba into the modern Berberins, may have produced a corresponding effect on the more ancient inhabitants of the same regions. Q 2 228 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE But it is not my business to indulge conjectures, and I shall hasten to lay before my readers such positive information as I can collect on various points connected with the physical history of these nations. Section II.—Descriptions of the Egyptians, left by an- cient Writers. I have observed, that if we had no other data than the description left by the Greeks of the personal traits of the Egyptians, we should certainly conclude that they were Negroes. There is a well-known passage of Herodotus, from which no reader would fail to draw this inference. The authority of this historian is of the more weight, as he had travelled in Egypt and was therefore well acquainted, from his own observation, with the appearance of the people ; and it is well known that he is in general very accurate and faithful in re- lating the facts and describing the objects which fell under his personal observation. In his account of the people of Colchis, he says that they were a colony of Egyptians, and supports his opinion by this argument, that they were “ je- Aayxeoec Kal ovAdrptyec,”’ or, black in complexion and woolly- haired.* These are exactly the words used in the description of undoubted Negroes. Herodotus in another place alludes to the dark complexion of the Egyptians, as if it was very strongly marked, and in- deed, as if they were quite black. After relating the fable of the foundation of the Dodonzan oracle by a black pigeon, which had fled from Thebes in Egypt, and uttered prophecies * The same Colchians are mentioned by Pindar in the fourth Pythian ode as being black, with the epithet ceXawwwaec: tc Paow O Ewer év- HrVvOor, évOa Kedat- vorecor Kédyoucr biay pigay, Ainra rap’ abt On which passage the scholiast observes, that the Colchians were black, and that their dusky hue was attributed to their descent from the Egyptians, who were of the same complexion, v. 376. EGYPTIANS, BY ANCIENT WRITERS. pie from the beech-tree at Dodona, he adds a conjecture re- He supposes the oracle ptive from the Thebaid, specting the true meaning of the story. to have been instituted by a female ca enigmatically described as a bird, and subjoins, that “ by representing the bird as black they marked that the woman was an Egyptian.” * Some other writers have expressed thems terms. /Eschylus, in the Supplices, mentions t Egyptian bark, as seen from an eminence on person who espies them concludes them to be E from their black complexion. elves in similar he crew of the the shore; the oyptians, “ gpérovot 0 dvdpec vyior peday xiporc yuioust NevKEdY de wWeTAWpaTwY idsiv.” * <¢ 'The sailors too I marked, Conspicuous in white robes their sable limbs.” There are other passages in ancient writers in which the Egyptians are mentioned as a swarthy people, which might with equal propriety be applied to a perfect black or to a brown or dusky Nubian. We have in one of the dialogues of Lucian a ludicrous de- scription of a young Egyptian, who was represented as be- longing to the crew of a trading vessel at the Pireeus. It 1s said of him that, “ besides being black, he had projecting lips, and was very slender in the legs, and that his hair and the curls bushed up behind, marked him to be a slave.”’} This description of the hair, however, might rather apply to frizzled and bushy curls, like those worn, as I have al- ready shown, by the Barabra and Bishari, than to the eee heads of Negroes. Mr. Legh says, in describing the Barabra near Syene, that their hair is frizzled at the sides, and stiff- ened out with grease, resembling the sort of coeffure on the head of the sphinx. He adds, that the make of their limbs * Herod. lib. ii. + Aaschylus in Suppl. He applies the same epithet to them again: mid Zarrevoavr’ 0 EMLTUXEl KOTMs wodEi pedayXiey oby oTpaTy’ ae ia + Lucian. Navigatio seu Vota. The original words are: ‘* Ouro¢ ce, mpoe Te uErddyxowc eivar, Kai modxerdc EOTe dé kai New Fi Kopn O& Kai éc rouTiow 6 WASKAPOS FVVETTEAPEVOE O eivat. 7: Ln cep Toc dyay Toty oKedoly, ? a dK ehevOeody Gyno AVTOY 230 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE resembles that of the Negroes.* In Egyptian paintings, parti- cularly in the representations of agricultural scenes at Eleithias described by Mr. Hamilton, the hair has a very similar ap- pearance.* From comparing these accounts, some of which were writ- ten by persons who had travelled in Egypt, and whose testi- mony is not likely to have been biassed in any respect, we must conclude that the subjects of the Pharaohs had something in their physical character approximating to that of the Negro. They were evidently much darker in colour than the Greeks, since the same term is applied to their complexion which usually designated that of African blacks: they must have had hair frizzled, either by nature or art, thick or projecting lips, and slender limbs. But there are some considerations which would induce hesitation in ascribing to the Egyptians the entire Negro character, even if we had no other data than the accounts left by old writers. In the first place, as it has been remarked by Mr. Brown, we do not find the dif- ference of aspect between the Egyptians and other nations of antiquity so decidedly stated, or that it produced, on strangers, so strong an impression as it would have done if they had resembled the people of Gumea. Even when inter- marriages are mentioned between Egyptians and foreigners, which happens occasionally in history, we find no comment such as the great disparity of aspect between white and black persons might probably suggest. Another circumstance to which attention has not been given is the fact that, in the climate of Egypt no real Negroes exist as native inhabitants. I shall not assume prematurely any opinion respecting the nature of that relation which appears to subsist between the physical characters of the Negro and the inter-tropical climate, but it is a matter of fact, that no part of Africa situated in the latitude of Egypt is the native country of a genuine Negro race. Two or three other testimonies may be found which set this matter in a clearer light, and seem to prove, indepen- dently of all other data, of which however we shall collect many, that the Egyptians, though of very dusky or em- * Legh’s Travels in Egypt, p. 98. + Hamilton’s Agyptiaca, p. 97. EGYPTIANS, BY ANCIENT WRITERS. 231 browned complexion, were not really black ; and secondly, that considerable difference existed among them, some being much lighter than others. Ammianus Marcellinus says “ Aigypti plerique, sub- fusculi sunt et atrati, magisque mestiores, gracilenti et aridi.” By saying that Egyptians for the most part are of a brownish or somewhat brown colour, and of a tanned or blackened hue, the writer shows that this was not the case equally, at least, with all of them ; and the expres- sion subfusculi and atrati, are very different from igri or atri. A curious document has lately come to light, which con- firms these remarks. It has been already adverted to by Pro- fessors Heeren, and K. Ottfried Muller.* Two old Egyptian commercial contracts are extant: the facsimile of one is at Berlin, and the original of the other at Paris. Of these an interpretation has been given by Professor Boeckh and by M. H. S. Martin. Both of these belong to the Ptolemaic period, but the names of the persons mentioned indicate them to be native Egyptians. The persons interested in the contracts are described according to their external appearance and. colour. In the Berlin document the seller, who is named Pamonthes, is termed peAayypws, and the buyer, pedtx pos, which may be rendered “ofa black,” or perhaps “a dark brown colour,” and “ yellow or honey-coloured.” The same epithet is given to the buyer, who is named Osarreres, in the Parisian manuscript. The shape of the nose and features are also stated, but not in such terms as to give any idea of the Negro physiognomy. From these expressions we may infer that considerable diversity of figure and complexion existed among the Egyp- tians. Some persons were apparently of much darker com- plexion than others. Still there is nothing that gives real support to the opinion, which some writers} have been in- * Heeren, Ideen, ii. 2. (1826.) Abschn- 1. Ansicht des Landes und Volkes, Eng- lish Translation, vol. ii. c. 2. K. O- Muller, Handbuch der Archaologie und Kunst. Breslau, 1830, s. 219. Anhang- Die Ungriechischen Volker. + M. A. de Humboldt speaks of the white race of Egyptians, as if it were well known that there was such a race distinct from the rest of the community. So wor tee 232 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE clined to adopt, that there were different races of people in the same country, and all included under the common na- tional designation of Egyptians. It is probable that in Egypt, as elsewhere, the higher classes were fairer than the common people ; but this is a conclusion derived rather from analogy* of other nations, than known as a matter of fact in respect to the Egyptians themselves. Section I1I.—Of Mummies. We have an authentic source of information respecting the physical characters of the Egyptian race, in the innumerable mummies in which the mortal remains of that people are preserved. It may be remarked, that Egyptian mummies belong to various ages. At what time the practice of embalming was first adopted we have no information ;_ but it appears to have been in use in the time of the patriarch Joseph. It con- tinued even after Christianity was established, and was not obsolete in the time of St. Augustin. The interval between these periods, according to Dr. Russell’s computation of scripture chronology, is about twenty-two centuries. Mr. Lawrence has collected a variety of facts and statements telative to the form of the head in the mummies deposited in the museums in several countries, or described by anatomical writers. He observes that in the mummies of females seen by Denon, in those from the Theban catacombs, described and figured in the great French work on Egypt, and in several skulls and casts in the possession of Dr. Leach, the osteologi- cal character is entirely European, and he adduces the testi- mony of Cuvier to the same effect. M. Cuvier declares that he has examined, either at Paris or in other parts of Europe, more than fifty heads of mum- * Professor K. Ottfried Muller has drawn this conclusion rather more strongly, as it appears to me, than is warranted by positive information on the subject, Handbuch der Archiologie. locis cit. + Blumenbach, Beytrige zur Naturgeschichte, s. 124. There is.a memoir by Walch, in the third volume of the Commentaries of the Royal Society of Gottingen, on Christian Mummies. + Lectures on the Natural History of Man. EGYPTIANS : MUMMIES. mies, and that not one of them presented the characters either of the Negro or the Hottentot. He concludes that the Egyptians belonged to the same race of men as the Europeans ; that their cranium and brain was equally voluminous. with exception a cette ours; “qu’en un mot, ils ne faisoient pas loi cruelle qui semble avoir condamné a une éternelle inferiorité les races & crane déprimé et comprimé.’”* We may observe that M. Cuvier’s idea or definition of the Negro is plainly restricted to black men who have very nar- row and compressed skulls. This will exclude not only the Egyptians, but a very great number of the black and woolly-haired natives of Africa, who have expanded foreheads and well-formed features. The skulls of Egyptian mummies have the oval figure which prevails among the Indo-Atlantic nations; but there are some instances in which this form varies, and approximates, in a slight degree, towards the African. There is an Egyptian skull in the museum of the College of Surgeons which, in weight and density, resembles the heavy skulls of some Guinea Negroes. Its form is Euro- pean, except that the alveolar-edge of the upper jaw is rather more prominent than usual. This, with a corresponding struc- ture of the softparts, might have given to the countenance much of the Negro character. Soemmerring has described the heads of four mummies examined by him: two of them differed in no respect from European skulls: the third, as he says, Tepre- sented the African form, in having the space marked out by the insertion of the temporal muscle more extensive than in European heads.{ Blumenbach has published engravings of * * ° Extraits @’Observations sur le Cadavre d’une Femme connue sous le nom de la Venus Hottentotte. Par M. G. Cuvier, Mem. du Muséum d’Hist. Nat. Nothing can be more vague and conjectural than Baron Cuvier’s notices of, African ethnography. He not only considers the limitations of races as much more strongly and permanently defined than they really are, but makes the most singular mistakes in grouping and identifying tribes. He represents the Bushmen as an entirely distinct race from the Hottentots, and separates them even in geographical position 5 and he identifies the former with the Galla, a people as unlike to them in every re- spect as are the Carribees to the Australians. + “ Formam Africanam, alte progrediente ves representat.”? But he adds—‘ Vertex non est compressus, neque ossa faciei ro- bustiora sunt ossibus Europzorum.”’—Soemmerring de Corp. Hum. Fabrica. tigio insitionis musculi temporalis, 234 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE three Egyptian skulls in his Decades Craniorum. One of these differs, as he observes, widely from the skulls of Ne- groes of Guinea, but has something of the Ethiopian cha- racter and resembles the portrait of Abbas Gregorius. Another so nearly resembles the cranium of an Indian from Bengal that no material difference can be perceived between them. I have already cited, when treating on the comparative density of crania belonging to different races of men, a re- markable passage of Herodotus, which has been thought to prove that the skulls of the ancient Egyptians had in general a greater density than those of the Asiatics.* Herodotus says, that after the battle fought by the army of Cambyses with the Egyptians, the bones of those who had fallen were separated into two distinct heaps: he observes that the skulls of the Persians were so soft as to be easily broken by a pebble: those of the Kgyptians had much greater firmness and density. Nor was this a singular fact. He observed the same circum- stance on examining the bones of those who had fallen at Pa- premis, under the son of Darius, in fighting against an Egyp- tian army commanded by Inarus. An opinion was long ago expressed by Dr. Shaw that the skulls of the Egyptians are more dense and massive than those of Europeans.j The fact is, however, by no means constant. There are great varieties in the proportional weight of these crania: some are very light, and this is also true respecting some of the skulls of Negroes. The hair in Egyptian mummies is never woolly like that of Negroes of Guinea. In several mummies which I have had an opportunity of examining, it is remarkably fine, and dis- posed to be curled and frizzled. Ina plate contained in the “ Description de |’Egypte,” representing a painting found at Rilithyia, numerous human figures are seen. It is remarked * Vol. i. p. 283.—I beg to refer the reader to the paragraph here cited in the first volume of this work, where it has been shown that although there is no con- stant difference between different races of men in the particular alluded to, yet that a greater density of the skull is frequent among Negroes. It may be considered as one of the characters of the African races, subject, like others, to variation. + Shaw’s Travels, p.377. See Blumenbach, Decades Craniorum, i. p. 14. EGYPTIANS: PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE. es that their hair is black and frizzled : “les cheveux sont noirs et frisés, sans étre laineux comme ceux des Négres.” This account agrees with the appearance of the hair in mummies. Sometimes long-flowing ringlets have been found, and even periwigs, or ornamental head-dresses of hair, artificially plaited and fixed upon the head.* Szcrion [V.—Remains of Painting and Sculpture. The remains of painting and sculpture afford information on the external characters, in addition to that which mummies present us in regard to the crania and the osteology of the Egyptian race. If we may form an idea of the complexion of the Egyptians from the numerous paintings found in their temples and in splendidly decorated tombs, in some of which the colours are known to be preserved in avery fresh state, we must conclude that this people were of a red-copper, or light chocolate colour, and that they resembled the reddest of the Falah and Kafir tribes now existing in Africa. This colour may be seen in the numerous plates in the Description de VEgypte, and in the coloured figures given by Belzoni. A similar complexion is represented on the heads of the cases made of the sycamore- _ wood, which answer the purpose of sarcophagi, and in almost all Egyptian figures. This red colour is evidently intended to represent the complexion of the people, and is not put on in the want ofa lighter paint, or flesh-colour, for when the limbs or bodies are represented as seen through a thin veil, the tint used resembles the complexion of Europeans. ‘The same shade might have been generally adopted if a darker one had not been preferred, as more truly representing the national seas: plexion of the Egyptian race.+ Female figures are sometimes distinguished by a yellow or tawny colour. The features of the Egyptians are likewise represented in * M. Cailliaud (Voyages a Meroé et au Fleuve Blanc, tom. i. p. 258) describes remains found at Syout, to which there were masses of false hair—méches de che- veux postiches, enforme de.tours, &¢. ‘++ See Belzoni’s Travels, p. 239. 936 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE their paintings and sculptures, which display in general a very remarkable and peculiar physiognomy or type of countenance and bodily conformation. Denon has thus recorded the im- pression produced on him by these representations :— “In delineating the character of the human figure, the Egyptians, being unaccustomed to borrow from other nations, could only copy from their own figure, which is rather delicate than strong. The female forms, however, resembled the figures of beautiful women of the present day, round and. voluptuous ; a small nose, the eyes long, half shut, and turned up at the outer angle, like those of all persons whose sight is habitually fatigued by the burning heat ofthe sun, or the dazzling white- ness of snow ; the cheeks round and rather thick ; the lips full ; the mouth large, but cheerful and smiling; displaying, in short, the African character, of which the Negro is the exag- gerated picture, though perhaps the original type.”* No writer has taken greater pains in this investigation than Blumenbach, who has examined many mummies, and has in several works expressed his opinion respecting the physical characters of the Egyptians, founded on this inspection, and on a study of the remains of ancient art. Blumenbach has been led to the conclusion that De Pauu, Winckelmann, and D’Hancarville, were mistaken in ascribing to the Egyptian monuments one common character of physiognomy. In Blu- menbach’s opinion, there are three varieties in the physiognomy _ expressed in paintings and sculptures, or three principal types to which individual figures, though with more or less of de- viation, may be reduced—these are the Ethiopian, the Indian and the Berberine. “The first,” according to this writer, “ co- incides with the descriptions given of the Egyptians by the ancients. Itis chiefly distinguished by prominent maxilla, turgid lips, a broad, flat nose, and protruding eye-balls.” The second is considerably different from the first: its cha- racters are—“ a long narrow nose, long and thin eye-lids, which turn upwards from the bridge of the nose towards the temples, ears placed high on the head, a short and thin bodily structure, and very long shanks.” As a specimen of this * Denon’s Travels in Egypt, translated by Aikin, EGYPTIANS: COPTS. aoe form he mentions the painted female figure on the back of the sarcophagus of Captain Letheuilly’s mummy, which he con- siders as decidedly resembling the Hindoos. “ The third sort of Egyptian figures partakes something of both the former. It is characterised by a peculiar turgid habit, flabby cheeks, a p form of body.” short chin, large prominent eyes, and a plum This is the type most generally followed in Egyptian paint- ings. It is supposed to represent the ordinary form of the Egyptians, and what may be termed their peculiar national physiognomy. It is thought by Blumenbach to approach very nearly to the form of the Barabra or Berberins.* Section V.—Of the Copts. The Copts are believed, on apparently sufficient grounds, to be the representatives and nearly genuine descendants of the old Egyptians, whose physical characteristics they may be supposed to have inherited. Egypt has indeed undergone many conquests, and from each may have received additions to its former stock of inhabitants. But the diversities of manners and religion have prevented any considerable inter- mixture of these different tribes of its population ; and the best- informed travellers, particularly some of the French scientific men who accompanied Napoleon, have clearly recognised m that country several distinctraces, which havenot approximated in the least towards a common standard, but still remain as diverse in their physical character as in their moral disposition and habits. During the period of the Ptolemaic and Roman * See Blumenbach’s account of an examination of several mummies, in Phi- losophical Transactions, 1794. See also the learned treatise on mummies in his ‘¢ Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte.”’ In the plates of the great French work, “ Description de l’Fgypte,” are many strikingly peculiar representations which may be supposed to exemplify the national countenance of Egyptians, and most of its varieties. In tom, i. plate 16, there are several figures showing the red Egyptian complexion, particularly figure 2. In pl. 27, fig. 1, are two sitting figures, with Negro characters. In tom. ii. pl. 47, fig. 12, is a countenance with the full cheeks and characteristic expression of the Egyptians. Pl. 94, fig. 2, is an excellent specimen. 3” 238 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE and Byzantine domination, Egypt received a considerable number of Greek and Roman colonists ; but the European set- tlers were probably confined mostly to the Delta, and a few Grecian or Roman cities. That the Egyptian race remained nearly unaltered in the interior and remote parts of the country, may be inferred from the preservation of their language, which was extant in its three dialects, with a slight admixture of Greek words, until the era of the conquest of Egypt by the Moslemin; and subsequently to that event, the Christian population has been preserved, by obvious causes, from in- termixture with strangers. Among the modern Copts many travellers have remarked a certain approximation to the Negro. Volney says that they have a yellowish, dusky complexion, neither resembling the Grecian nor Arabian. He adds, “that they have a puffed visage, swoln eyes, flat nose, and thick lips, and bear much resemblance to Mulattoes.” I have al- ready cited Baron Larrey’s description of the Copts, the prin- cipal traits of which are a full countenance, a long aperture of the eye-lids—“ coupés en amande’’—projecting cheek-bones, dilated nostrils, thick lips, and hair and beard black and crisp. M. Pugnet, an intelligent physician, and an imgenious and discriminating writer, has made an attempt to distinguish the Copts, or Qoubtes, as he terms them, into two divisions, those whose ancestry has been intermixed and partly of Greek and Latin descent, and a class of purely Egyptian origin. He says that nothing is more strikmg than the contrast between the small and meager Arabs and the large and fine stature of the Qoubtes. “A Vextérieur chétif et misérable des pre- mieres, ceux-ci opposent un air de majesté et de puissance ; a la rudesse de leurs traits, une affabilité soutenue ; 4 leur abord inquiet et soucieux, une figure trés épanouie.” This descrip- tion applies to both classes of the Coptic race: the following, to those who are supposed to be the unmixed descendants of the old Pharaonic Egyptians: “‘ Les Egyptiens sont en général d’une taille au dessus de la moyenne, leurs formes se prononcent vigoureusement, la couleur de leur peau est d’un rouge obscur; ils ont le front large, le menton arrondi, les joues médiocrement pleines, le nez droit, les ailes nasales fortement sinueses, les yeux EGYPTIANS : COPTS. 939 grands et bruns, la bouche peu fendue, les lévres grosses, les dens blanches, les oreilles hautes et trés détachées ; enfin, les sourcils et la barbe extremement noirs.” M. Denon says he was struck with the resemblance of the Copts to the old Egyptian sculptures, characterized by “flat foreheads, eyes half-closed, and raised up at the angles ; high cheek-hones; a broad, flat nose, very short; @ large, flattened mouth, placed at a considerable distance from the nose; thick lips; little beard; a shapeless body, crooked legs, without any expression in the contour; and long, flat. feet.” Mr. Ledyard, whose testimony is of the more value, had no theory to support, says, ‘“ I suspect the Copts to have been the origin of the Negro race; the nose and lips corres- pond with those of the Negro. The hair, whenever I can see it among the people here (the Copts) is curled ; not like that of the Negroes, but like the Mulattoes.’”* It seems that the complexion of the Copts is liable to consi- derable variations. Though it must be true, as M. Larrey as- serts in the passage above cited, that the Copts are generally of adusky and yellowish colour, like the Abyssins, yet we as he are assured by Mr. Belzoni that some of them are nearly as fair as Europeans. + Some peculiarities have been observed in the teeth, and in the position of the ears in Egyptian heads, which I shall mention separately in a note. Section VI.—Of the Ethiopians. The fame of Ethiopia, though eclipsed in late periods by the greater splendour of Egypt, reaches back almost equally far into the ages of remote antiquity. Ata time when even Italy and Sicily were nearly unknown, the Ethiopians, as Heeren has: observed, were celebrated in the poetry of the * : : ts of the African Association. * Ledyard’s Observations, in the Reports of the African Associatior + Belzoni’s Travels, p. 239. LEE EN aT Eee — 240 ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS, Greeks,* and a well-known passage in the Iliad seems locally to connect the history of the Grecian gods with that region of Africa.+ But such a connexion with Ethiopia is, as we might expect, much more manifest in the mythology of Egypt. The Egyptians and Ethiopians had similar religious institutions: they had not merely observances which bore a striking analogy, but had even common festivals and cere- monies. The Ethiopians are said first to have established the pomps or processions termed “ zavnyupac.”’ The gods of the Egyptians were worshipped, as we are assured, by Herodotus from the earliest times in Ethiopia.t The processions in which the sacred images were, according to that writer, con- veyed up the Nile to visit their Ethiopian temples, appear to have been connected with an annual festival celebrated at Meroe in Ethiopia, where the gods were supposed to descend from heaven and feast at the table of the Sun. This Ethio- pian fable and the corresponding Egyptian and Ethiopian festival, are supposed by Diodorus and Eustathius to have been alluded to by Homer, in the passage often cited from the Iliad.§ History connects, almost as far as it reaches back, the Egyptian and Ethiopian nations. “ Notices of Ethiopian wars and of intercourse with Ethiopia occur frequently,” says Heeren, “ in the earliest annals of the Egyptian priests.” The earliest seats of royalty in Egypt were in the Thebaid, at Diospolis, and Thinis ; even one of the first of Manetho’s dynas- ties is a series of princes of Elephantine. Here, on the borders of Ethiopia, said to be the part of Egypt that first became peopled, were the earliest foundations of the empire of the Pharaohs, destined in after ages to shine with so much splen- dour in countries which were perhaps not yet habitable. * Heeren’s Ideen uber die Politik, den Verkehr und der Handel der vornehm- sten Volker der alten Wet, Theil ii. Ritter, Erdkunde, Th. i. 3. Abschnitt, § 11. + Iliad. ». £ Herod. lib. ii, Diodor Biblioth. 3. § Herod. lib. iii. Strabo declares that the people of Meroé worshipped Hercules, Pan and Isis, besides other barbarous gods, Geog. lib. xvii. HGYPTO-ETHIOPIAN RACE. 241 The Ethiopians possessed in the time of Diodorus many of the arts of Egypt. They practised writing in hieroglyphics, and their characters were those of the Egyptians ; they even claimed the discovery of the art: both nations embalmed their bodies; the Ethiopians prepared mummies similar to _ those of the Egyptians. They had the same castes and poli- tical divisions, and Ethiopia was governed by a hierarchy which appears to have been even more predominant and ex- clusive in its sway than that of the Egyptians. That the Egyptians and Ethiopians were people of the same race, and in earlier times almost nationally identified, there can be lit- tle room for doubt. In the Toldoth Beni-Noach, Cush and Mizraim are brothers, which in the style of ancient genealog indicated the consanguinity of the races so termed. Cush is always rendered by the Septuagint Aifiorec and Mizraim Atyuarwt. The historical traditions of the two nations, when compared, lead to the same result. The Ethiopians, accord- ing to Diodorus, pretended that the Egyptians were a colony of Ethiopians ; on the other hand, the Egyptians claimed the honour of having first colonised Ethiopia, both nations, as it would appear, agreeing in the admission of a common ori- ginal. Thus far we proceed upon tolerably clear grounds. The indications are sufficient, which identify these nations. But if we attempt to penetrate further into the obscure subject of Kthivpian history, and to form any estimate of the antiquity | of this people in comparison with the Egyptians, there is only - one resource of which we can avail ourselves. I allude to re- searches into the topography of the countries on the upper Nile, and the remains of architecture and sculpture which have been discovered by late travellers in that region. Mr. Bruce related, that on his return from Abyssinia through Nubia, he found remains of sculpture, resembling those of the Egyptian style, in countries far above Egypt, and particularly near the confluence of the Nile and the Asta- boras, but little regard was paid to his statement. Burckhardt however left no room for doubt of the fact, that the country now called Nubia, and anciently Ethiopia, contains in various places extensive ruins, the remains of a people who once pos- VOL. Ti. R 242 ETHIOPIAN KINGDOMS sessed and practised the architectural arts of the Egyp- _tians. Belzoni was the first modern traveller who personally explored and described these remains, to a considerable ex- tent, in the region of Nubia which is in immediate contiguity to Egypt. The pyramids and sculptures in the higher course of the Nile have been examined, more or less com- pletely, by writers of later date, by Waddington, Cailliaud, Light, Hoskins and Riippell. By some of these writers the relics of ancient architecture in Nubia have been thought to display a character more ar- chaic or simply primitive than even those of Egypt. The fact that the temples of Ibsambul are excavated in the earth ra- ther than raised above the surface of the soil, the huge and gigantic forms which their sculptured images display, and the comparison of these ancient subterranean temples with the mythologically sculptured caves of Elephanta near Bombay and of Ellora in the Dekhan, referred by general consent to an ancient period in the history of the East, give some further support to the most exaggerated opinion respecting the anti- quity of the Nubian remains. But in order to form a tolerably correct idea of the nature of these remains, and the countries in which they have been discovered, we must adopt the division proposed by Professor K. Ottfried Muller, and consider separately those belonging to the ancient kingdom of Meroé near the confluence of the Nile and the Astaborus, which Muller terms Upper Nubia, and the antiquities of Lower Nubia, the region of the Nile imme- diately above Syene the southern limit of Egypt. 1. Lower Nubia is considered as extending from Assouan as far southward as Solib, near the limit of Succot and Mahass. It is separated from Meroé, or Upper Nubia, by a vast distance, which, measured along the course of the Nile, is searcely less than 200 geographical miles, and through all this tract no relics of antiquity have been discovered. On the other hand, from the isle of Elephantine to Solib, the narrow valley of the Nile contains imnumerable remains of temples and various monuments of sculpture and architec- ture in the finest style of Egyptian antiquity. The rus of Parembole in the isle of Beremrem near Debod, those of Taphis ON THE NILE. 943 at Tafa, of Talmis at Kalabsche, the great cavern-temple at Tulzis with colossal figures at Gyrshe, the ruins of Pselkis at Dakke, Corte, the Hierosycaminon at Mahar- raka, the temples and rows of sphinxes at Wady Sebua, re- mains at Hamada, Hasseya, Derr; Ibsambul with its two cavern-temples and colossal images, one of them supposed to be a monument in honour of the great Rhamses,—ruins in Wady Halfa, Semne, Aamara, and the temple of Solib, with reliefs of the second Amenophis :—all these, and similar re- mains of lesser note, present themselves in succession, at very short intervals, to the traveller who ascends the course of the Nile. From Solib, as I have before observed, ruins in this style cease to be discoverable; for a great space nothing that resembles the architecture of the Egyptians has been seen. 2. Upper Nubia was the site of the ancient kingdom of Me- roe; the northern extremity of the island, or peninsula so termed, lies between the confluence of the Astaboras or Atbara with the Nile. Here near Shendy, about the seven- teenth degree of north latitude, are vast ruins near the Nile of forty-three pyramids at Gurkab, and not less than eighty at Assur. These are supposed to be near the site of the ancient city of Meroé. Southward from Shendy are the ruins of Me- zaurah, supposed by Heeren to have been the seat of an oracle, and Naga, a temple of Ammon, with avenues of rams. To the northward of Meroé are extensive ruins of similar architec- ture, or Jebel Barkal near Dongola, and at Merawe, the site of the ancient Napata, a residence of the queens who bore the name of Candace. It has been observed by Muller that the remains of architec- ture and of sculpture in Upper Nubia display in no instance the severe and simple style which is typical of remote an- tiquity, and of which the character 1s 80 strongly im- pressed on all the monuments of Upper Egypt. All the relics of pyramids and temples in this region of Nubia indi- cate plainly a late and degraded state of the Egyptian arts. The frequent recurrence of female figures in those sculp- tures representing queens, who, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by ‘a royal consort, are seen performing the solemn acts of religion and military government, leave scarcely ne 244 UPPER AND LOWER any room for doubt that all these representations, and the temples 1 in which they are displayed, belong to the age of Ethi- opian queens, when successive princesses bearing the name of Candace ruled over Meroé, and had their residence at Napata, in the ruins of which place these historical sculptures have been discovered. The period of this dynasty of queens, one of whom was visited by the armies of Augustus and another is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, extended from the Macedonian times down to nearly 400 years after the Chris- tian era. A circumstance which tends strongly to confirm this opi- nion respecting the period of history to which the remains found in Upper Nubia belong, is the fact that the Egyptian arts of architecture and sculpture are known to have been spread nearly in the same ages through other African coun- tries in a southerly direction from Egypt. The remains found at Axum in Abyssinia, consisting of obelisks and inscriptions, belong to the fourth century of the Christian era: they dis- play indeed no hieroglyphics, nor anything that can be con- sidered as a trace of remote antiquity. Similar remains, and of the same period, have been found by voyagers on the Red Sea, at the port of Azab, and even at Adulis. The remains of Lower Nubia are of a widely different cha- racter. They are closely associated in the style of sculp- ture, in the architectural type which they display and in the character of their hieroglyphic inscriptions and temple orna- ments, with the most splendid and perfect architecture of Thebes or Diospolis. Every thing connects them historically in the closest manner with the second or middle period of the Egyptian monarchy, when, after the calamities undergone during centuries of invasion by the nomadic nations, the ings dom of the Pharaohs rose to new power and dignity. It is probable, and indeed historically recorded, that the sovereigns of the hundred-gated Thebes, held at least temporary and oc- casional sway over part of Ethiopia. “The circumstance that the temples found at Ibsambul, and other parts of Lower Nu- bia, have so frequently the character of grottoes or excava- tions, rather than of erections on the surface of the ground, is sufficiently explamed, as Muller remarks, by the narrowness NUBIA OR ETHIOPIA. 945 in many places of the Nile valley, which leaves not sufficient space for buildings of a different sort, and the incomplete state in which many of these Nubian temples have been found, may be referred with great probability to the uncertain, and often fluctuating relations of the Egyptian monarchy with Ethiopia.” On a review of this subject it appears that the researches which have been made in the countries above Egypt, are far from bringing any new proof of the superior antiquity of the Ethiopian people, when compared with the Egyptians. There is nothing which goes back beyond the middle period of the Egyptian monarchy. Even that is more ancient, however, than the Homeric times, and such a degree of antiquity will suffice for giving to Ethiopia a place in the early poetry of the Greeks. That the Egyptians and Ethiopians were kindred tribes, or branches of one ancient stock, the earliest known position of which is almost between the two countries, or at least in the southern region of Egypt, while the middle and lower tracts were perhaps, as Herodotus intimates, yet scarcely habit- able, or at least but little inhabited, still remains an histo- rical fact. It may be doubted whether those original found- ers of the throne of the Pharaohs, who dwelt near Thebes and Elephantine, might more properly be termed Egyptians or Ethiopians. In their physical characters the natives of that region of the Nile valley were probably of much darker colour, and might be termed black when compared with the paler and redder inhabitants of middle and lower Egypt. Some travellers have thought that they discovered a memorial of this fact, in some singular representations in the temples of Upper Egypt. Several of these are groupes of figures, OF single figures, some of which are painted red, and others black. The red figures have been supposed by Hamilton and others who have described them, to be meant for Egyptians, and the black for Ethiopians. In some instances the groupes of black figures represent captives or slaves, and they are led in procession, tied with chains or bonds. But in many places it is manifest that these paintings were designed to typify or commemorate the relation which the black caste bore to the red. Both sets of figures have the Egyptian costume and the 246 RELATION OF THE EGYPTIANS habits of priests ; the black figures are represented as confer- ring on the red the instruments and symbols of the sacerdotal office. “ This singular representation,” says Mr. Hamilton, “‘ which is often repeated in all the Egyptian temples, but only here at Phile and at Elephantine with this distinction of colour, may very naturally be supposed to commemorate the transmission of religious fables and social institutions from the dark Ethiopians to the comparatively fair Egyp- tian.” It consists of three priests: two of them with black faces and hands, are represented as pouring from two jars strings of alternate sceptres of Osiris and eruces ansate, over the head of another whose face is red. There are other paint- ings which seem to be nearly to the same purport. In the temple of Phile, the sculptures frequently depict two persons adorned equally with the characters and symbols of Osiris, and two persons answering to those of Isis; but in both cases one is invariably much older than the other, and appears to be the superior divinity. Mr. Hamilton conjectures, that such figures represent the communication of religious rites from Ethiopia to Egypt, and the inferiority of the Egyptian Osiris. In these delineations there is a very marked and po- sitive distinction between the black figures and those of fairer complexion ; the former are most frequently conferring the symbols of divinity and sovereignty on the latter. Besides these representations described by Hamilton, there are others of a much more unequivocal kind which are fre- quently repeated, and of which many specimens may be seen in the beautiful plates of the « Description de l’Egypte.” I cannot introduce a detailed account of the latter in this place, but must refer my readers for particulars to the work now cited, as well as M. Pugnet’s treatise, to which I have before referred. It is impossible to mistake the idea which is intended to be conveyed. It is nothing else than this, that the Egyptians were connected by kindred with the Ethiopians, and that the red tribe were descended from, or uniformly be- gotten by, the black people.* * Description de Egypte, tom. ii. pl. 86. 92. 84. In pl. 92, the parent is red, but a ola is added, stating, that the original figure is black, AND ETHIOPIANS. 247 I attach no importance to these conjectures, but have thought it worth while to take notice of the representations on which they are founded, and which have excited so much curiosity in persons who have surveyed them. The only con- clusion which I would venture to draw from all that [ have been able to collect on the history of the Ethiopians, is, that they formed with the Egyptians, originally one people. This appears to be the general result of all the traditions of both nations, and of all the mythical as well as emblematical re- presentations which have reference to the subject. As for the physical characters of the Ethiopians of Meroe, we have few or no very accurate accounts. Such notices, how- ever, as we can collect, agree in representing them as black, as indeed are all the present inhabitants of the same country. The latter cannot be considered as the descendants of the old Ethiopians. The Nubians or Barabra, who occupy the greater part of the Nilotic Ethiopia, are, as we have seen from abundant historical evidence, the descendants of a nation brought from the western Oasis, after the country above Egypt had been desolated by long wars, to take possession of it, and form a barrier against other barbarous assailants of the Roman limits. These are not the descendants of the Ethiopians, nor is there any evidence whatever to be found in support of a conjecture lately thrown out, that the Ethiopians were the same people with the Bejas of the eastern desert and the coast of the Arabian Gulf. The language of the latter na- M. Pugnet, who first noticed particularly figures of this description, has the fol- lowing observation : “ Quoique je ne vueille me livrer ici 4 aucune conjectur (celle des Egyptiens) je crois dévoir rétracer un tableau, que m’a offert un des tombeaux des Rois, Bab-el-melouk—Stant plures virorum effigies, 4 quibus plane ostendit pictor gigni homines é terra. Qui gignuntur, colore rubro sunt, parentes nigerrimi. Ce langage hieroglyphique n’exprime-t-il pas Ce que pensaient les an- ciens, quel’homme rouge est né de Vhomme noir? L’homme noir est certainement un Ethiopien, et ? Egyptien s'est peint toutes parts sous la couleur rougedtre qu'il retient encore aujourd’hui. On voit ailleurs des groupes de l'une et de J’autre pee ; Pos reat couleur, rendre au méme hommage 3 des divinités noirs, mais bientét les hommes 4 9 oN 0 oe ee rouges se séparent des autres pour sé rendre, non loin d’eux, aupres @ une divinite qui leur ressernble. Ailleurs, enfin, ou reconnait l’ Heliotrapéze décrite par Homere: des hommes rouges transportent leurs dieux sur les confins des hommes noirs, et y célébrent un festin commun.” (Appergu du Sayd, p. 44. Mémoires sur les Fievres pestilentielles par M. Pugnet, Paris. e sur leur origine : viz. we 2 Se 248 RELATION OF THE EGYPTIANS tion has no resemblance to the Egyptian, We can only learn what were the physical characters of the Ethiopians, from the accounts which the ancient writers have left respecting them. Herodotus reports the Macrobii Aithiopes, in whose coun- try was the table of the sun, to have had the largest and the most handsome persons of all nations. This description of their bulk and stature agrees with the accounts given of the Shildkh on the higher parts of the Nile. The Ethiopians can- not have been ancestors of the Shilakh, whose abode in this region of Africa has been only of three centuries in duration, but it is remarkable that nations succeeding each other as occupants of the same country appear so often to acquire similar characters of person. We find no accurate description of the Ethiopians of Meroé earlier than that given by Ptolemy. A remarkable passage of this writer gives us incidentally some information. In discuss~ ing the different methods of determining the position of paral- lels of latitude, Ptolemy observes, that we may be guided, when other resources fail, by observing the natural productions of particular countries. Thus we do not find, as he says, that immediately under the tropic men have the colour of Ethio- plans, nor are there elephants and rhinoceroseg in that lati- tude. “ For some distance beyond the tropic, the native ' people are only of a moderately dark colour, as are those who live thirty schceni beyond Syene. But in the country about Meroé, the people are quite black, and for the first begin to be complete Ethiopians,* and here elephants -and other strange animals are found.” It seems probable from the use of the term “ Aethiopes,” as distinguishing the native race of intertropical climates, that Ptolemy meant by it to describe Negroes. The Ethiopians, properly so termed, are always distin- guished in the Hebrew Scriptures by the national name of Cush, and the Septuagint always translate Cush by Aubiozec, — Ethiopians. These interpreters, as they resided in Egypt, must have known the people whom they have so designated. * Ey 6¢ roic wepi Mepdny rérouc, ion kaTaKdpwe sici pédavec Ta ypopara, kai mpwruc Aidiorwec akparo, kai ro TOY éhepavruy Kal rd rei Tapadozotipwy , ate * * lowy yévoc tmiviperat.—Cl. Ptolem. Geog. lib. i. c. 9 AND ETHIOPIANS. 949 Hence a passage in the prophet Jeremiah, which seems to have been a Hebrew proverb, affords sufficient proof that the genuine Ethiopians were a black people :—“ Can the leopard change his spots, or the Cush his ski n?” Szction VII.—On some peculiarities in the Teeth, and in the position of the Meatus Auditorius, in Egyptian Heads. Blumenbach has repeatedly observed a peculiarity in the teeth of Egyptian mummies. ‘The incisores are thick and round; not, as usual, flattened into edges, but resembling truncated cones; the cuspidati are not pointed, but broad and flat on the masticating surface, like the neighbouring bicuspides. This seems to be a very frequent character of the teeth in mummies. It is doubtless attributable m part to mechanical attrition, depending on the nature of the food which the teeth were constantly employed in masticating. Blumenbach thinks this not altogether sufficient to explain the peculiarity, and imagines it to depend in part on a natural variety.* Mr Lawrence says that he has examined the teeth in several Egyptian mummies, and although he found them to have this peculiarity, he was convinced that it was accidental, and not arising from any natural difference. In several heads of mummies which I have had opportunities of inspecting, the same appearance displayed itself. The incisores have ap- peared worn to mere stumps, which are thick and round, and are mere truncated cones. Although it seemed most easy to account for this appearance by attributing it to the nature of the food used by the Egyp- tians, and supposing that their teeth were worn away by mas- ticating a hard material, yet the generality of its occurrence in Egyptian mummies, and its rarity in other races are remark-~- * Blumenbach says, the Egyptian teeth differ widely from those of nations who file them away. ‘* Aber von eben diesen durch die Kunst abgeschliffenen Zahnen unterscheiden sich jene an den gedachten Mumien schon auf den ersten Blick, be- sonders durch die auffallende Stirke und Dicke des Theils der Kronen, der nach den Alveolen gekehrt ist.”—‘‘ auch von den Zihnen, deren Kronen beym kauen t worden. Daher ich doch immer noch eher vermuthe, des nahrungsmittel abgenuz e Nationaleigenheit im Bau selbst dabey dass bey jenen alten Aegyptern anch ein mit zum Grunde liegen mag.’ Beylrage, P- 100. KF s ag et . SEEN Soest ac ee ee 250 PECULIARITIES IN THE able, and afford some probability to Blumenbach’s conjec- ture, that this peculiarity depended upon some natural variety in the teeth of the Egyptian race. A constant uniformity in the structure and arrangement of the teeth, is an important particular in the identification of species, and if any human race were found to deviate materially in its dentition from the rest of mankind, the fact would give rise to a strong suspicion of a real specific diversity. On this ground it is a matter of some interest to determine the question above ad- verted to, respecting the teeth of the Egyptians. The most satisfactory method of obtaining information on this point, is by inspecting the mummies of children. This appears scarcely to have been done until an opportunity occurred some years since at the Bristol Institution, when two young mummies* were examined, containing the remains of children whose death had occurred between the third and fourth year, be- tween the completion and loosening of the first set of teeth. In an account of this examination by Mr. Estlin, it is stated ; that “in one of the mummies all the first set, consisting of twenty teeth were cut, and the rudiments of the second may be seen under the gums. All the teeth prove to be precisely similar to those of other children under five years of age. Each jaw contained, with the exception of one tooth which had dropped out, the usual number of incisores, cuspidati and molares, and all of these had precisely the form of the teeth of European children of the same age. This examina- tion leaves no room for doubt that the particular appearance of the teeth so often noticed in the mummies of adult Egyp- tians, must have depended on the nature of their food, un- less, which seems not very probable, it was produced by filing, or some analogous practice.” { 2. Position of the Ears. [t was long ago observed by Winkelmann, that the ears are invariably placed much higher in Egyptian statues, than _ “ These mummies were carefully examined by Mr. Richard Smith, Mr. Estlin, and myself, and an account of the inspection was drawn up by Mr. Estlin, the Philosophical Society annexed to the Bristol Institution. for TEETH AND THE EARS OF THE EGYPTIANS. oo in those of the Greeks; but the circumstance was attri- buted to a capricious custom in the artists of Egypt. The fact has lately attracted greater notice. M. Dureau de la Malle, in examining the Egyptian remains collected in the Museum of Turin, was particularly struck by this peculiarity in the statues of Egyptian kings and gods. It happened that six mummies recently imported from Upper Egypt, came under examination at the period of M. de la Malle’s visit, and afforded him an opportunity of ascertaining whether the ear and the meatus auditorius are really placed higher in the heads of Egyptians than in those belonging to other races of men. In the skulls of these mummies, as well as in many others brought from the same country, although the facial angle was not different from that of European heads, the meatus auditorius, instead of being situated in the same plane with the basis of the nose, was found by M. de la Malle to be exactly on a level with the centre of the eye ! The head was also much depressed in the region of the temples, and the vertex elevated; the difference in this particular between European and Egyptian skulls being not less than from one inch and a half to two inches. According to M. de la Malle this peculiarity is still to be found in the Copts, and he cites as a specimen, Elias Boctor, a Copt from Upper Egypt, who has resided twenty years in Paris, as.a teacher of Arabic. In this person, the high position of the ears is remarkable, and gives them the appearance of two little horns. The Jews are said by this writer to partake in some degree of the same cha- racter.* The osteological characteristic ascribed by M. Dureau de la Malle, has been recently considered by M. Dubreuil, who has described the heads of two mummies in a memoir presented to the Academy of Sciences. In these skulls the peculiarity in question was wanting, and M. Flou- rens, who read a report on the same memoir, makes a similar observation respecting the Egyptian heads in the Museum of Paris. It must be concluded that this is by no means a con- stant character. to Egyptian skulls Révue Encyclopédique. Medical and Surgical Journal, July 14, 1832. ARABIAN TRIBES IN CHAPTER XII. OF THE ARABIAN TRIBES DISPERSED THROUGH THE NORTHERN REGIONS OF AFRICA. Section 1.—General Observations. Tur survey of African ethnography, with reference to the regions which lie on the northern side of the equator, would be incomplete without some notice of the Arabian tribes who have now for many centuries inhabited various countries in Atlantica and the Sahara, as well asa great part of the Nu- bian desert. The immigration of Arabians into Africa is generally consi- dered to have commenced after the Hegira, and the conquest of Egypt and Lybia by the Mohammedans ; but there is reason to believe that the same people, or tribes nearly allied to them in origin, had begun to direct their movements towards the same quarter from much earlier times. M. Malte-Brun has strongly censured that ‘ Orientalisme,” or propensity to deduce the origin of all nations from the East, in which, as he thought, writers on ethnography have caprici- ously indulged. It must be admitted that no class of writers have raised theories more chimerical, or on more slender foundations, than many of those who have employed them- selves in tracing the origin of nations ; but without inquiring how far they are justly liable to censure on the ground above indicated, or adverting to the general question which regards the eastern origin of mankind, I shall venture to remark that early historical records testify the frequency of migrations into Africa rather than in a contrary direction. We have few and scarcely authentic hints of any ancient settlements of Africans in Europe or Asia. Danaus and his daughters, Cecrops and THE NORTH OF AFRICA. 253 the Cecropide, the black pigeons or the African priestesses of Dodona, belong to mythology; and the woolly-haired colony of Sesostris, at Colchis, to obscure and doubtful tradi- tion. The most ancient relic of archeology properly so termed, and the oldest ethnographical work extant, by at least one thousand years, is the Toldoth Beni-Nvoach, em- bodied in the Book of Genesis. On this work we have two elaborate commentaries by Bochart* and Michaélis,+ the latter of whom treats it merely as a compendium of the his- torical and geographical information that could be collected at the time of its composition. In this ancient document three great divisions of African races are expressly derived from the family of Noah, viz. the Mizraim, or Egyptians ; the Leha- bim, supposed to be Lybians; and the Cush. Whether under this last name, which in the time of the LX X. was equivalent to Ethiopian, the stock or ancestry of the Negro nations are included, I shall not at present inquire. The migratory movements of Semitic tribes into Africa ap- pear thus to have preceded the first dawning of history. The oldest account expressly recording such a migration is Mane- tho’s narrative of the invasion of Egypt by the Arabian Shep- herds. It appears to me clear, and I have endeavoured to prove, that Manetho connects the exode of the Beni-Israel with the departure of the Shepherds: but even before the age of Abra- ham, Egypt must have been already opened to the inwander- ings of nomadic people from Asia, otherwise the patriarch - with his horde could not have passed so easily to the resi- dence of an Egyptian sovereign, who, though styled Pharaoh, may have been one of the Shepherd-kings of Egypt, or a native prince reigning under their sway. ‘The establishment or restoration of a powerful monarchy in Egypt arrested, for a long course of time, the immigratory movement into Africa in the same direction; but the Asiatic language and the literature of the Axumites prove that a similar impulse still continued in action where not resisted. For a short period in a much later age the kings of Abyssinia held a doubtful as- * Sam. Bocharti Geographia Sacra. + Specimen Geographie Hebreorum Extere. Auctore J. D. Michaélis. 4to- Goétting. 254 ARABIAN TRIBES IN: cendancy over a part of Arabia; but this domination of a black people over Asiatics was a fact so unusual, and pro- duced so strong an impression,* that this seems to have been the principal incitement to that reaction which not only re- pelled the encroachment of Africans on Asia, but spread the arms and the dominion of the Arabs over a great part of the civilized world. There is no doubt that many Mohammedan nations in Africa pretend to an Arabian origin, whose ancestry is either purely African or but slightly mingled with Asiatic blood ; but it is also well established, that in the first centuries after the propagation of Islam, parts of many Arabian tribes really migrated. Some of them kept their stock unmingled with that of the Africans, while others became blended, and lost, in a great measure, their distinctive characters. There are no documents extant, at least there are none easily accessible in this country, which would suffice for an enumeration of the Arabian tribes who have migrated from the Hedjaz, and for their subsequent history ; nor, if I could procure the means of drawing up such a catalogue, would it be interesting to the majority of my readers, or within the scope of my present work. [shall confine myself to a brief notice of the most extensive Arabian races in Africa, of which T shall collect such particulars as may tend to illustrate their physical history. Section If.—Of the Arabian Tribes inhabiting Parts of Atlantica and of the Sahara. The various tribes of Arabs who are spread over the wide re- gion of Mauritania and the Sahara are enumerated by Leo Afri- canus under three heads, according to their genealogy. These three principal divisons are termed Cachin, Hillel, and Machil.+ “The Cachin are subdivided into three nations, or tribes, Etheg, Sumait, and Sahid. The most noble and famous Arabs are of the family of Etheg, to whom Almansor gave the regions of Duccala and Tedlis. They can furnish,” says Leo, “ at any * See passages cited above in page 141. + T. Leo Afric. lib. i. p. 12. THE NORTH OF AFRICA, 255 time, a hundred thousand warriors, chiefly cavalry. The Arabs termed Sumait occupy the Lybian desert opposite Tripoli ; they levy eighty thousand warriors, chiefly infantry. The Sahid inhabit Lybia, near Guargala, and partly dwell in Fez, and upon Mount Atlas. The other two great divisions, Hillel and Machil, are supposed to be Ismaylites and Kahtanites. The Hillel, or Hélal, include the Benihemir, or Beni-Amer,* who inhabit Tremezin and Oran, the Muslim, or Moslemin, near Cape Bojador, and the tribe Hl-Hharitz. The Machil, or Maghylah, comprehend a great number of small tribes spread through the deserts—the Sebayn, oF Aoulad-Aby- Seba, the Delemyn, or Aoulad-Deleym, or Wadelims, in the neighbourhood of Cape Blanc, the tribe ElLOuadayal or Ludaya, in possession of Oulatah and Ouadan and the Barbousch.” . According to M. d’Avesac, who has taken much pains to trace the names of these tribes in the Arabian Genealogies, and to correct them when faulty, in which attempt he has de- pended a good deal upon conjecture and the resources of his own ingenuity—the races of Arabs above enumerated are all of pure blood. They are supposed to have emigrated from the East in the first ages after the Hegira. The dialect which they speak is a peculiar one, and is termed the Western or Maghrebin Arabic. Besides the tribes of pure blood already enumerated, there are others of mixed breed, blended more or less with the Tou- aryk, or native Berber people, who are confounded under the name of Ssanhaga, or Zanaga. The principal of these are the Terarzah, or Trarzas ; Beraknah, or Bracknas ; Douysch, or Doviches. Many of the TerArzah inhabit the deserts to the northward of the Senegal : to the Ber&knah belong the Moors of Ludamar, known to Mungo Park, and the Gégébah, among whom M. Caillié lived. In the groupe of Douysch are many tribes, as the Houlahs, or Bouseif; the Kountahs ; and the’ Zaoust, who live near Araouan. They are spread over the deserts northward of the Niger and the Senegal from the At- lantic to Hatisa and Kashna: their country forms a zone, OF * Helal and Amer are among the descendants of Adnan, the Arabian patriarch of the Ishmaelite family. See Sale’s Arabian Genealogies. 256 ARABIAN TRIBES IN long frontier, which separates the genuine Arabs of the desert from the country of the Negroes, and which is only broken in some places by the districts belonging to the Tfaryk.* The best description which I have found of the moral and physical characters of the Moors of the Desert is in the work of M. Durand} on the borders of the Senegal; from this I shall extract some particulars :— “ They are distributed,” says M. Durand, “ in tribes more or less considerable, independent of one another, and having each its chief. Hach tribe is divided into hordes, and each horde encamps in the district best able to furnish pasturage for their cattle, so that an entire tribe is never assembled at the same place. “ In the interior of the desert live the tribes of Ouadelims, Labdesseba, Laroussye, Chélus, Tucanois, Ouadelis, Ged- ingouma, Tafanou, Ludamar, and many others.t The two first are the most formidable: they carry on their robberies at the very gates of Maroco, and the Emperor is afraid of them. They are composed of large, well-made, strong, and vigorous men. They have generally bristly hair, long beards, large dropping ears, and nails as long as claws: they make a formidable weapon of them, of which they make use in their wars with their neighbours. The Ouadelims especially, more fierce, more arrogant, more warlike, and more given to pil- lage than others, spread terror and dismay wherever they go: they are, however, like all other Moors, deficient in courage when they have not a marked superiority. “These people live under tents, which they transport at their wish. They are of a round form, and terminate ina cone: they are covered with a stuff of goat-skin, so well made and compact that the water never penetrates it: the women manufacture this material. “The women are besides charged with the household con- cerns: they prepare the millet, cook the victuals, carry the * M. W@Avesac, cited by M. Balbi, Géographie, p. 887. See also his work before cited, on the Geography of Northern Africa. + Voyage au Sénégal. Par M. Durand. + M. Durand has included among the Moors some tribes who are reckoned by M. d’Avesac to belong to the class of Arabian tribes of pure blood. His description probably refers chiefly to the Moors bordering on the Senegal. THE NORTH OF AFRICA. yoy water, and take care of the cattle and horses, which always live under the same tent. Those who are rich have Negro slaves, by whom they are served ; but without being exempted from waiting upon their husbands. Nothing is more arrogant than a Moor towards his wife, and nothing more humble than the wife in the presence of her husband. “ The women raise the stakes of the tents when they change their camps, they load and unload the camels, and when the husband mounts on horseback the wife holds the stirrup : they are not admitted to their husbands’ repasts, but retire until they call them to give them the remains. “The women are in some manner the property of their hus- bands: a Moor does not marry until he has the means of buy- ing a wife. “On account of the preference which the Moors give to beauties of great bulk, the women early take the greatest care to attain that quality. Every morning they eat an enor- mous quantity of couscous, and drink several bowls of goats’ milk. Young girls are obliged to take this nourishment whe- ther they have an appetite or not; and when they refuse it, blows are employed to force them to obey. This violence happily occasions neither disease nor indigestion, but on the contrary, a degree of “embonpoint” results from it, which passes for perfection in the eyes of the Moors. “ The boys are better treated. They generally teach them to read and write Arabic. As soon as they are able to work they are respected by the Moorish women, even by their mothers, who no longer eat with them.” * The Arabs of pure blood, or those who are supposed sd have preserved their race unmixed with the Berber, Taaryk, and other African nations, have been more recently described by M. Rozet, a scientific officer connected with the late ex- pedition sent out for the conquest of Algiers. lowin is an abstract of the most interesting particulars in his account. “The Arabs inhabiting the regency of Algiers may be the cultivators of the soil, who live The following divided into two classes ; * Durand, Voyage au Sénégal, tom. i. VOL. II. 258 ARABIAN TRIBES in houses or cabins; and the Nomadic or Bedouin Arabs, who dwell in tents, without confining themselves to any par- ticular country. They are, however, the same people, speak- ing the same language, with greater or less purity, but differ- ing much in habits. : “The cabins of the agricultural Arabs are made with branches of trees or reeds, which are seldom plastered over with mud ; they are thatched with reeds, or the leaves of the date-palm. Their huts are never solitary, but in groupes of ten or twelve, and sometimes even forty, forming small vil- lages always surrounded by hedges of cactus, to which they give the name of dascars. We often find among these cabins, houses ordinarily inhabited by the shieks or nobles of the tribe: there are also mosques constructed of lime and sand, but. they are generally merely cabins, somewhat larger than those by which they are surrounded. “Rach family generally possesses two cabins, one for themselves and the other for the cattle. The whole furniture of an Arab hut consists of a few baked earthen pots for dressing the food, and milking the cows; sheep-skins, or mats of rush stretched upon the ground, which serve them for beds; some bottles of goats’ or sheeps’-skin for keeping water, and for carrying milk to the town: and an earthen lamp: there are, besides, their agricultural tools, a frame for weaving wool, made of pieces of wood and of reeds, a distaff, and spindle ; and lastly, a mill to grind their corn, composed of two stones, which go one within another, and which are turned with the hand. “The tents of the Bedouin or Nomadic Arabs, are gene- rally made of a black and white stuff, composed of wool and the hair of the camel. The piece of stuff, which is very large, is placed upon poles of wood, by means of which they give it the form of a triangular prism: it covers a space of four metres in length, by two or three in breadth, which serves for a family, composed often of a man, three or four women, and five or six children: they lie upon mats or skins. In the neighbourhood of Algiers, the tents of the Bedouins are placed according to their own choice; and collected together in number from ten to twenty ; but among the nomadic tribes IN ATLANTICA. 259 who live under the authority of a shiek, the tents of each tribe are disposed in a circle, and form what the Arabs eall a douwar; the empty space in the midst is for their cattle by night. In each tribe there is a tent which serves for a mosque, and in which the men meet at the hour of prayer. The Arab tents are formed so that the air may circulate freely: which renders them very fresh during the summer. When we were encamped in the peninsula of Sydi-Efroud), ee were all covered with mud; they were thus hermetically close, so that it was impossible to remain in them during the heat of the day. In the summer, the Bedouis lie under the tents, or round them, and their cattle stay without ; but in the winter they put them under cover, and those families who only possess one tent, le with their cows and sheep, which keep them warm during the night. There are some very large tents, made of several pieces of stuff, m which they can shelter numerous herds of cattle.” The physical characters of the Arabs of pure blood are thus described by M. Rozet : “ The Arabs are generally large men; they are well made, and sufficiently plump, without being fat or thin; they have black hair, open foreheads, lively eyes, a well-formed mouth and nose, an oval countenance with long features: their skin is brown, sometimes olive; I have seen many as black as Ne- groes, but preserving all the other characteristics of the Arab race. There isno more difference between the men and women than among other people: the women would be easily pau nised at first sight, by those who have seen the men. The Arabs are courageous and fierce: they behead their COMT quered enemies; but they seldom exercise cruelties towards them, as do the Berbers and Moors.” * Sxction II].—Ofthe Arabian Tribes in Egypt and Nubia. In Egypt the Arabs of the upper country from Esneh to Asstian are descended, according to Burckhardt, from the great tribe of Djaafereh. T he Fellahs, or peasantry inhabit- * Rozet, Voy. dans la Régence d’ Alger. Se ne 260 ARABIAN TRIBES ing the parts of Egypt northward of Benisodef are partly Maghrabyn, that is, descended from Arab tribes of the western desert, and in part Arabs immediately from the peninsula.* I have already observed that several districts in the valley of the Nile above Egypt are inhabited partly by Arabs, and in part by the Barabra. Those races, according to the infor- mation we obtain from Dr. Ruppell, do not intermarry, but live in separate villages, and keep their families distinct. In some divisions of the province of Dongola, as in that of Wady Araba, the people are exclusively Arabs, and speak only the language of their original country.; They claim a pure de- scent from the tribe of Alekati. According to Burckhardt, the Arabian tribes of Nubia are descended from Bedouins, who entered the country soon after the promulgation of Islam. The tribes of Djowabereh—sysJg>—and El Ghar- byeh—aa, yx)!—the latter being a part of the great tribe of Zenatyeh—34,;—took possession of the country from Asstian to Wady Halfa. The Arabs of Nubia, meaning the kingdom of Dongola, are descended from these tribes, and from a branch of the Koreish who settled at Mahass, and from a few sheriffs who took their abode in the Batn-el-Hadjar. In the districts on the Nile which lie immediately to the southward of Wady Halfa and the kingdom of Dongola the population is more simply of Arabian extraction, than be- tween that country and Egypt. The Arabs on the Nile speak as pure Arabic, according to Burckhardt, as their kindred in the Hedjaz. Damer is a great centre of Mohammedan learn- ing, whither the youth are sent from the surrounding countries for instruction in reading the Koran and in the doctrine of Islam. It is governed by a sort of hierarchy. Shendi is the central position of several Arab tribes, who have settled in Upper Nubia. The principal of them are the Nimrab, Nayfab, and the Djadalein, who are still chiefly Be- douins.§ * Burckhardt’s Travels in Egypt and Nubia. ++ Riippell’s Reisen in Nubien, Kordofan, &c. p. !1. } Burckhardt, wbi supra, Ritter, Erdkunde, wbi supra. 3 Burckhardt, p. 279. SETTLED IN EGYPT. 961 To the tribe of Djaalein belong the remarkable nation of Sheygya or Shakieh Arabs, whose manners and character have been described by Mr. Waddington, Dr. Ruppell and other travellers in Ethiopia. After this brief indication of the division of Arabian tribes, who have colonised the countries on the Nile, I shall add some notices of the habits and physical characters of the most remarkable of them. { 1. Egyptian Arabs. Volney divides the Egyptian Arabs into three classes, the - first are the Fellahs, or husbandmen, the posterity, he says, of the Arabs who emigrated from the peninsula after the con- quest of Egypt by Amrou, in 640. They still retain the fea- tures of their ancestors, but are taller and stronger. In ge- neral they reach five feet four inches, and many five feet six or seven inches. Their skin, tinged by the sun, is almost black. They have oval heads, prominent foreheads, large but not aquiline noses, and well-shaped mouths. They are the greater part of the Egyptian peasantry. The second class of Arabs are Maghrabyns, or settlers from Mauritania. They are very numerous in the Sayd, where they live in villages by themselves; they likewise are Fellahs. The third class are Bedouins of the desert or wandering tribes.* A more particular account of the physical characters of the Arabian people in Egypt is to be found in the work of M. Pugnet, which I have cited in a former chapter. I shall extract the following observations in the author’s own words. “ La taille des Arabes est de cinq pieds deux a poe pouces. Leurs membres secs, leur peau enfumée, et luregu- larité de leurs traits, les font assez ressortir entre tous les ha-~ bitans de Egypte. Ils ont, la plupart, le front ae yeux petits et enfoncés, le nez droit et aigu, oe plates et sillonnées, les lévres minces, et un aspect Seg “Rien de plus frappant que le contraste qui regne entre eux * Volney’s Travels in Egypt and Syria. + Mémoires sur les Fiévres pestilentielles eC physique et médical du Sayd. Par Pugnet, aux Premier Consul. 4 Lyon. An x- t insidieuses du Levant avec un Apergu médecin de larmée d’Egypte, dédiés 262 ARABIAN TRIBES et les Qoubtes.. Autant les Arabes sont petits et maigres, autant les Qoubtes sont gros et grands. A l’extérieur chetif et misérable des premiers, ceux-ci opposent un air de majesté et de puissance; a la rudesse de leurs traits, un affabilité soutenne ; a leur abord inquiet et soucieuse, une figure tres épanouie; au teint rembruni de leur peau, une teinte faible- ment jaunatre : en un mot, on voit dans les Qoubtes un fond Egyptien qu’ennoblit et décore la gravité Romaine temperée par l’urbanité Grecque.”’ q 2. Nubian Arabs. Dr. Ruppell has drawn an accurate portrait of the Arabs of Nubia in general. He says that the descendants of Arabs who have immigrated into this part of Africa keep themselves a separate race, seldom intermarrying with the natives; and that they inherit in part the physiognomy of their ancestors. A somewhat prominent forehead, separated by a notch from the beautifully curved nose, a well-proportioned mouth, with small and never spreading lips; lively, deep-set eyes ; a rounded chin, covered with a tolerably strong beard ; hair little or not at all curled ; stature rather above the middle height ; and occasionally a clearer colour of the skin—eine mitunter hellere Hautfarbe— appear to constitute the prominent physiognomy of this race of people. Like that of their ancestors, their chief occupation is keeping cattle, and their abode isin movable tents. From an unknown period the Arabian inhabitants of the province of Shakieh have abandoned this restless life, and in later times some Arab races in the province of Dongola have occupied settled habitations, and carry on agriculture by means of water-wheels for irrigation. Riuppell confirms the account of Burckhardt ecae the origin of the Shakieh Arabs. He says the Shakieh declare themselves to be a branch of the Bedouin tribe of Djahelin, or Djaalein, which formerly migrated from the Hedjaz into Nubia, and of which the principal mass settled at Schendi. They are at present all cultivators of the land, and speak ex- clusively the language of their ancestors. The inhabitants of Dar Shakieh form, in the proper sense of the word, an aristo- SETTLED IN NUBIA. 263 edge the authority of a Melek, eratical republic: they acknowl who resided at Meroé * at the chosen from among themselves, era of the Turkish invasion, but who was only a leader in battle. The same writer gives the following particular description ofthe Arabs of DarShakieh: “1 found them in their dispo- sition hospitable and obliging, and these good qualities are uniformly ascribed to them. for their bravery: they are cratic love of freedom of their forefathers. Shiek, dwelt in a fortified castle, continua neighbour’s power ; but I was assured that this private warfare immediately disappeared in times of common danger. With regard to the features of the Shakieh Arabs I refer to what [ have said in general upon the Bedouin races who have im- migrated into this part of Africa. Since the Shakieh possess a great number of slaves, upon whom all the house and field labour is imposed, their women live in the day-time under the shade of their dwellings in pleasing idleness : this may be among the causes why their colour is a yellowish brown, whilst the Dongolawi, living further towards the north, and other Barabra, are nearly brown-black. A peculiar beauty of the Shakieh women consists in their large, lively eyes, the lashes of which they blacken with powder of anti- mony, partly for fashion’s sake and partly for health. ‘The fine ladies also cover their lips with it. Some of their Shieks, or political chiefs, are learned Fakirs ; that is, they make a regular study of the laws of the Mahommedan religion: for this end they generally betake themselves in their youth to the schools at Damer. I have heard of one only who went so far as Cairo to study; but I have not found any who have per- formed the pilgrimage to Mecca from religious zeal. The ne- cessary expenses are probably a hinderance. These Fakirs, governing with worldly power, study the appearance of regular habits; they renounce the enjoyment of the busa-drink, and punctually perform all the appointed religious ceremonies ; In war these Arabs are famed. also characterised by the aristo- Fach Patrician, or lly jealous of his * By Meroe, Dr. Riippell means Merawé, supposed by himself and M. Cailliaud to be the Meroé of the ancients. ee - ~ = seen ee wr ee — —— Se an a en SS —— os —— 264 SHEYGYA ARABS. they are also accustomed to shave their heads, and to encircle them with a cloth in the form of a turban.’”’* Mr. Waddington has described the Sheygya Arabs—so he terms the Shakieh of Riippell. He says that Melek Chowes —Rippell calls him Melek Chaus—the chief of Merawe, was “a fat, lively, good-tempered man, and very fair for a Sheygya, who are in general jet-black.” “The Sheygya,” he adds, “as already mentioned, are black—a clear, glossy, jet-black, which appeared to my then unprejudiced eyes to be the finest colour that could be selected for a human being. They are distinguished in every respect from Negroes—by the brightness of their colour; by their hair, and the regularity of their features ; by the mild and dewy lustre of their eyes ; and by the softness of their touch, in which last respect they yield not to Europeans.’’+ Mr. Waddington repeats his observations on this race of people, whose personal traits appeared to him very remarkable. As their physical characteristics were the object of his especial attention, we must give him credit for accuracy in this particular. It appears on the whole, from the testimony of various un- prejudiced writers, that the race of Arabs has undergone con- siderable modifications of their physical character, and that in Africa, although in many places their countenances still re- tain more or less of their primitive type, they have become a people of greater stature, stouter form, and more regular fea- tures, than the inhabitants of the peninsula. Their complexion has also varied, and, according to Mr. Waddington and Dr. Riippell and M. Rozet, there are black people in Africa among the genuine descendants of Arabians. * Riuppell’s Reisen, p. 65. + Waddington’s Journal to some parts of Ethiopia, p. 122. SOUTHERN AFRICA. CHAPTER XIII. OF THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA, BEYOND THE TROPIC. ee Szotion I.—Jntroductory Remarks on the Physical Geo- graphy of Southern Africa. Unper the designation of Southern Africa, I mean to in- clude all that part of the African continent that lies to the southward of the equator. I have observed that some of the races of people already enumerated among the inhabitants of Northern Africa, as the SimAli and the Galla, extend gouth- ward as far as the river Juba, which flows into the Indian Ocean. Beyond this point the eastern part of the continent 1s inhabited by nations of different languages and physical cha- racters, and we begin to trace the proofs of connexion rather with the southern than the northern stems. The mouth of the river Juba, which is called Zebee in the interior, lies just under the equinoctial line. On the western coast the series of Negro nations inhabiting the long maritime tract of Guinea are lost sight of when we reach the gulf of Benin and Biafra ; and of the adjoining country lying immediately under the equator, we have little information. New races of people are found on the first points of coast that are known, after it has taken a direction towards the south: we thus commence, on both sides of the continent, a new investigation. We shall find it most convenient to pursue, in tracing the connexion of tribes in the southern part of the African continent, a direc- tion contrary to that hitherto followed, proceeding from the south towards the north. 1. Of the extreme part of South Africa. y said to terminate in a point. South Africa is commonl Nothing can be more erroneous than this notion. We might, as Professor Ritter has observed, with equal reason term the 266 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY western coast of Spain, between Cape Finisterre and St. Vin- cent, the extreme point of Europe. Africa presents, towards the south pole and the southern ocean, a front extending one. hundred and thirty geographical miles from east to west, with a deviation of only fourteen miles towards the north. This line is included between the Cape of Good Hope and Algoa Bay. The region of Africa, of which this line is the southern boundary, is traversed by chains of mountains running from east to west, and marking the limits of three successive steps or terrasses of different elevation. The whole structure of the country thus described might be compared, as Professor Ritter has observed, to that of Tibet or Daouria, with its se- ries of different levels succeeding each other in regular grada- tion, but the arid nature of its climate distinguishes all the productions of Africa from those of Asiatic regions which have the advantage of a more abundant and equable supply of moisture. Hence the characteristic differences observed in these different regions of the world in vegetation and in the whole aspect of organized nature. The highest elevation in the series above described of suc- cessive terasses or levels, is the region through which the Gariep winds its course towards the Atlantic Ocean, tremed by Ritter the “Table-land of the Orange River.” The extent of this plain towards the north is unknown. According to the most probable conjecture it is prolonged northward to the tropic, and unites with the central highland of Africa. Here all the small rivers, like the Gariep, take a westerly direction, inclining slightly towards the north. The high region of the Orange River is limited towards the south by a vast range of mountains which traverse nearly the whole continent from east to west, and of which the chains of the Roggeveld, the Nieuwveld, the Snieuw-berg and the Winter-berg, are parts. The table-land to the northward of this boundary-line con- sists partly of vast forests, where the soil is watered by the Gariep, partly of steppes covered with herbage, and, in many vast spaces, of arid and sandy deserts. The highest chain of mountains elevating themselves above this surface, are the Karri and the Madjaaga or Iron Mountains, su pposed to rise OF EASTERN AFRICA. 267 one thousand feet above the plains: the level surface is itself, according to Professor Ritter’s calculation, five thousand or five thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea. To the southward of the mountain-chain which forms the boundary of the highland above described, a second and lower level, extends from east to west, containing the dis- tricts named the Karroos, a term given in the colony to plains of which the soil is a hard dry clay divided by innumerable fissures. The Zwarteberg or Black Mountains, a long chain extending from east to west, and separated by various ravines or kloofs, is the barrier which forms the southern limit of the Karroos, and divides them like a wall from the third level or littoral terrass towards the south. This lower region stretches along the coast from the Cape of Good Hope to Algoa Bay: it becomes narrower as we proceed from west to east. q 2. Of the Eastern Parts of Africa, southward of the equator. Of the geography of Southern Africa, considered as a whole, we have less consistent knowledge than of that of the northern part of the same continent. The interior of the eastern part, from the river Juba to the Keiskamma, was al- most unknown until within a very short period. John de Barros, Andrew Battel, and the Portuguese missionary Joao dos Sanctos, the latter of whom set out from Lisbon in 1586, were the only travellers on whose accounts of the inland country much reliance could be placed, until the late expedi- tion under Captain Owen ; and the attempts of Lacépéde to determine, with almost mathematical precision, the limits of the high and low countries, and the course and number of the ereat chains of mountains supposed to proceed in different di- rections from the great central plain, must be looked upon as conjectural and premature. Even Ritter has carried his sys- tematical attempt to generalise beyond the extent of his data in this part of geography, though the exactness with which he has compared all the information accessible at the time when his work was written is such as to entitle his opinions to attention. Enough, indeed, is known to establish the principal point in which Ritter differs from Lacépéde. That 268 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY writer imagined the high central country of Africa to extend only to the twentieth degree of southern latitude, and to send out merely some chains of mountains towards the south. Ritter supposes the elevated region to reach, as we have seen, much further, and to be continuous with the plains of the Orange River. In every part of the eastern coast where travellers have penetrated, or have acquired accurate accounts of the interior, similar geographical phenomena are said to have been found. A low country lies along the coast of the Indian Ocean, greater or less in extent, through which vast rivers flow from the west, carrying such quantities of water as to imply, in the latitudes which they traverse, extensive regions of elevated land for a perennial supply, and to give strong reason to sus- pect the existence of great inland seas and lakes, of which these rivers are the outlets. This supposition has indeed, in some instances, been confirmed. This high plateau is bordered in some places by lofty mountain-chains. In all places it is observed that the inhabitants of the high and low countries differ remarkably in their physical and moral characteristics. The people of the high countries are greatly superior to those of the low plains: the former recede further from the physio- gnomy and colour ofthe Negro ; and this observation holds good even where, from sameness of language and other circum- stances, we have reason to conclude the same races to have peopled both the higher and lower districts. Lichtenstien considered the Snow Mountains, or Sneeuwberg, as forming the origin or starting point of the great longitudinal chain which is the eastern boundary of high South-Africa. From the elevated tracts about these mountains various rivers take their rise, which flow southward towards Algoa Bay, as well as other streams destined to an opposite direction, and to become tributaries to the great Gariep. From this quarter Barrow and Janssens describe the high wilderness, inhabited by the Bushmen, as continued towards the elevated tracts where the different branches of the Orange River commence. The eastern country, from the Keiskamma to Dalagoa Bay, is commonly termed the coast of Natal. Here, according to the report of Captain Owen and his officers, the maritime re- gion is separated from the interior by a range of mountains, OF EASTERN AFRICA. 269 nearly six thousand feet in height. To the eastward is the country of the Amakosah Kafirs, to the westward are the wide plains occupied by the Bechuana andthe Amaztlih. The coun- try of Natalis bounded to the northward by the Maptta and other considerable rivers, which take their rise in the interior and run to the eastward into Dalagoa Bay. From the mouths of those rivers the land runs out eastward as far as the mouth of the Inhambane, and is termed the coast of Inhambane. Thence, or from Cape Corrientes, the most advancing point towardsthe east, commences the region of Sofala, which reaches to the mouth of the river Zambesi, and from the Zambesi northward to Cape Delgado, in the tenth degree of southern latitude, is the coast of Mosambique: from Cape Delgado to the Juba, under the equator, is the coast of Zanzibar. Be- hind this vast extent of maritime country the inland has been visited but in few places by European travellers ; but wherever — an ingress has been gained, or where information has been ac- quired, it appears that chains of mountains, and in some places several chains, run from north to south, beyond which a high plain extends towards the interior of the continent. N otices obtained by several travellers confirm the information which led d’Anville to lay down, in his map of Africa, a lake or in- land sea in the high country behind the Mosambique coast. Chains of mountains are likewise described which are said to be of great elevation: among them the most celebrated are the mountains of Lupata, which, as Ritter conjectures, may be connected even with the Alps of Abyssinia. The high countries are said to be inhabited in part by ferocious savages, and partly occupied by empires of great extent, the subjects: of which have attained a considerable degree of civilization. In some parts there are vast plains, over which nomadic tribes wander with their herds, from whom it has been conjectured that the Galla, as well as the Jagas, the invaders of Abyssinia and of the empire of Kongo, originated. I shall proceed in the sequel to inquire successively into the population of these different districts of Southern Africa. RACES OF MEN IN SOUTH . Section I].—Of the Races of Men inhabiting the ultra- tropical parts of South-Africa—Hottentots—K afirs. The southern region of Africa, to a considerable extent northward of the Cape of Good Hope, is peopled by tribes belonging to two woolly-haired races, differing in many re- spects from each other as well as from the nations commonly termed Negroes, yet having with the latter, and with each other, some common qualities. The Hottentots, who are of much lighter colour than Negroes, and differ from them like- wise in the shape of their skull and in other respects, formerly inhabited the territory now occupied by the colony of the Cape, and they still possess the country bordering on the colony towards the west. The origin of the term Hottentot is unknown: the people term themselves Qaaique, and the wild Hottentots, or Bushmen, have the name of Saabs. The Kafirs, who live to the eastward of the Hottentots, have a greater resemblance to Negroes. This might be inferred from the fact that they are very often so termed by travellers. In the late survey of Eastern Africa we are assured that “ all the country east and northward of the Camtoos River was formerly inhabited by a race of Negroes very distinct from the Hottentots, who appear to have peopled it from the north- ward, generally by the interior, whence they have spread to- wards the west.” ‘These Negroes,” says the same writer, “ were formerly termed by the Arabs and Portuguese, Kafirs, or Kaffers, meaning literally infidels. When the Dutch first colonised the Cape, all the country beyond this settlement was, in conformity with the language of the first discoverers, called the country of the Kafirs, since latinized into Caffraria.”’ Kafir—,s\'—and Kafiria would have been a more cor- rect mode of orthography for the name of the people and that of the country.*' 7 1. Of the Quaique, or Hottentot Race—Tribes of Hot- tentots. There is no African people whose physical history presents more interesting subjects for consideration than the Hotten- * Owen’s Survey. Geog. Journal, vol. iii. p. 199. APRICA :-—-HOTTENTOT TRIBES. OF tots. If we were to admit the supposition that the human kind consists of distinct families, there is assuredly none which presents stronger claims to be regarded as arace of separate origin than the Hottentots, distinguished as they are by so many moral and physical peculiarities, by a language and manner of utterance so different from those of other men, and by their situation at the remote extremity of a great continent. If we adopt the opinion which Lichtenstein and Vater have maintained, that Southern Africa was peopled from the north, and that one tribe has been pressed by a secondary tribe, or moved onwards towards the south, we shall then regard the Hottentots as the last relic and specimen of the most anciently existing race of men whohave trodden upon the soil of Africa. It was the opinion of Professor Vater, that the Hottentots probably made their way from the north into their present region along the western side of Africa, and that they arrived at the southern extremity, many ages before the Kafirs ad- vanced towards the same quarter by the eastern. coast. How- ever this may have been, the latter people have certainly en- croached upon the Hottentots. The names of rivers and of places now within the territories inhabited by the Kosas and Bechuanas, plainly derived from the Hottentot language, are proofs of this fact. Similar encroachments made by both these tribes on the country of the Gonaaqua Hottentots are matters of historical tradition. When the Dutch colonists occupied the Cape of Good Hope, the Hottentots were a comparatively numerous and extensive nation. By Kolben and other early voyagers, and by the older African geographers, who described the Hotten- tots, as Dapper, this nation is said to have been divided into a great number of tribes, most of which are now lost, or have coalesced, since the occupation of their country, under the common national term. Kolben enumerated eighteen nations or tribes, whose names are as follows: 1. The Gunyeman, nearest to the Cape, who sold their territories to the Dutch. 2, The Kokhaqua, further towards the north. 3. The Sussa- quas, near Saldanha Bay. 4, The Odiquas. 5. The Khiri- eriquas, through whose territory the Elephant River flows. 6. The Great andthe Lesser Namaaquas. 8, The Attaquas. 9. The pe TRIBES OF HOTTENTOTS. Khorogauquas. Both these tribes are placed northward of the Namaaquas, where the Kafir tribe of Damaras are now found. 10. The Koopmans, named after a chief. 11. The Hessaquas, who were the richest of all the Hottentot tribes in herds and flocks. 12. The Sonquas to the eastward of the Cape. 13. The Dunquas. 14. The Damaquas. 15. The Guaros or Gauri- quas. 16. The Houteniquas. 17. The Khantouers. 18. The Heykoms, who are said to reach as far towards the north- east as Tierra de Natal, and who must, if this account is correct, have inhabited the country now occupied by the Amakosah.* It is impossible to identify these tribes of Hottentots in all instances with those which now exist, or to trace the history of such as have become extinct; and until lately our know- ledge of the nations belonging to this race was far from accu- rate and complete. Even Professor Vater has committed a mistake, which has been followed by Malte Brun, in reckon- ing the Damaras as a Hottentot tribe. That people are now well known to be a division of the Kafirs or Bechanas, as indeed they were described to be by Mr. Barrow. The tribes of Hottentots now, or until within a short period in existence may be briefly enumerated as follows : 1, Hottentots within the colony. 2. The Gonaaquas to the eastward, near the cis Fish River. These people are now nearly, if not entirely extinct, or lost as a tribe, and their country is occupied by the Kosah Kafirs. They were formerly the most wealthy and the most civilized of the Hottentot race. 3. The Kora or Koraaqua. 4. The Namaaqua. 5. The Saabs, Bushmen on Bosjesmen. These people were supposed by Lichtenstein to be a distinct race from the Hot- tentots, or at least to speak a language wholly separate. Their speech is in fact unintelligible to all other Hottentot tribes. Their utterance is performed with the peculiar cluck- ing, so characteristic of the Hottentots, and of which only some * Kolben’s Natural History of the Cape of Good Hope, 1719. Astley’s Voyages, vol. iii. ++ Thompson’s Travels in Africa, KORAAQUA HOTTENTOTS. 273 of the Kafir tribes partake, and that in a slight degree. But the language of the Saabs is a cognate, though remote dia- lect of the Hottentot speech; and it 1s now universally agreed, that the Bushmen are a tribe, though a very misera- ble and degraded one, of the Hottentot race. 1 shall add some remarks on the three last-mentioned tribes of the Hottentot race. { 2. Ofthe Kora Hottentots. Kora or Koraaqua, Hottentot race. but are The Korana Hottentots, properly the are a numerous and distinct tribe of the They have the features common to the whole nation, of larger stature than the Bushmen, and superior to all other tribes of the same stock. “ Many are tall, with finely- shaped heads and prominent features, and have an air of ease and good humour which is very prepossessing. They are a mild, indolent, and unenterprising race, friendly to strangers, and inclined to cultivate peace with all their neighbours except the Bushmen, towards whom they bear the most deadly ani- mosity. Their wars with that people are prosecuted with such rancour, that quarter is seldom given by either party to old or young. The weapons of both these tribes are similar, but those of the Koras are superior in workmanship, and. their poisoned arrows are occasionally feathered.”’* The Kora women have seldom more than four or five chil- dren. If they have twins, one of them is destroyed, as among the Bushmen. The Koras are continually roaming fr according as the want of pasturage or cap their huts, composed of a few sticks, and a are easily carried on their pack-oxen, which are docile and well-trained. Their language differs consider men, but nearly resembles the dialects of the colonial Hot- tentots, and the Namaaquas. They can converse with Hot- tentots from the Cape, but fully understand only such of the tomed to visit the colony. Bushmen as have been accus " * Thompson, vol. ii. p- 32. om place to place, rice may dictate: covering of mats, ably from that of the Bush- 274 HOTTENTOT TRIBES: NAMAAQUA. The Koras are locally attached to the higher tracts of the great river Gariep, from the principal branches of which they seldom or never migrate to any considerable distance. They are found along the whole course of that river, from the cataracts described by Mr. Thompson towards its source. They are divided into independent clans, or kraals, which wander about with their herds and flocks of sheep or goats, and are most extensively spread on the northern side, where they reach, according to Mr. Burchell, as far northward as Litaka. Along the Yellow River, or Ky Gariep, for several days’ journey up its course, many of their kraals are found.* The flocks of the Koraaquas are not numerous, owing to the difficulty which is experienced in protecting them from wild animals, and particularly from troops of dogs. The Koras inhabiting the Hartebeest River, are entirely destitute of cattle, and live precisely as do the Bushmen ; that is, upon game, when they can obtain it, and upon escu- lent roots, and even upon ants, the gum exuding from trees, and the mucilaginous twigs of bushes. They kill their game like the Bushmen, by poisoned arrows and pitfalls: in times of drought they are reduced to extreme destitution. These Koras, like the rest of their nation, formerly possessed cattle, but have lost them, having been plundered by their neigh- bours. “Their present situation exhibits,” as a sensible and judicious traveller has observed, “the obvious process by which the Bushman race have been originally driven back from the pastoral state, which was formerly the condition of the whole Hottentot family, to that of the huntsman and robber.” {| 3. Of the Namaaqua Hottentots. The Namaaquas are a race of Hottentots inhabiting the country adjoining to the sea-coast on both sides of the Gariep. They are a pastoral people, resembling the Koraaquas and the aboriginal tribes of the colony in their general character- * Burchell’s Travels, vol. i. p. 345. + Thompson’s Travels in Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 430. HOTTENTOT TRIBES: SAABS. 975 istics; living chiefly on milk ; addicted to a roaming life ; and of a disposition mild, indolent, and unenterprising. “They are divided, like all the Hottentot tribes, into a va- riety of separate clans, governed by a chief whose authority is very circumscribed and precarious. The kraals bordering on the colony have been long ago extirpated or reduced to ser- vitude by the boors. The extensive plains between the Gariep and the Kamiesberg are represented by old writers as occu- pied by a numerous race of people, possessed of large flocks and herds, and living in ease and abundance. The only re- maining tribe is that resident at Pella and inits vicinity. It is named after a tribe of bees, which associate amicably with the common sort, Obseses, probably from this horde being formed by the association of several smaller ones. In Great Na- maaqualand the population is rapidly decreasing, but some clans are still existing, and even numerous. They are termed the Nannimap, Koerissimap, Tsaumap, Tsaugamap, Karramap, Aimap, Kanma-tsawep, Gandemap,” &c. The Namaaquas live in moveable huts, resembling those of the Koraaquas, excepting in being larger, and the floor usually dug out of the soil a foot or eighteen inches deep. They have no permanent stations, but roam from place to place, with their flocks and herds and utensils, according as they want water and pasturage. “ Even Pella, which the missionaries have endeavoured for many years to establish as a village, is occasionally deserted for months, and it is very doubtful whether the wandering habits of the tribe, depending on the soil and climate, can ever be overcome.” \ They have a breed of sheep different to those from the co-\ lony being destitute of the large tails. Their dress, manners, \ superstitions, and mode of life resemble those of the old colo- nial Hottentots, except im so far as some have been partially enlightened and improved by intercourse with the mission- aries, to whom they are sincerely attached.* @ 4. Of the Saabs, or Bushmen. The Saabs, or Bushmen, are the most degraded of the Hot- » * The above particulars are taken from the statements given by Mr. Thompson. See his Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 64, 65. ¢ 2 Sena ee =<. ee —— ———— eee eet era ee 276 SAABS, OR BUSHMEN. tentot race: human nature is nowhere seen in a more desti- tute and miserable condition, though neither the poverty nor wretchedness of the Bushman, nor the physical degradation which is their result, is greater than that of the savages of Australia, or of Tierra del Fuego. In these similarly situated extremities of the earth, we observe the condition of man- kind, both physically and morally, nearly the same. The native country of the Bushmen, as they are termed by the colonists of the Cape, is the district which lies between the Orange River and the mountains extending from the Roggeveld eastward to the Snow-Mountains, a district even more barren than the Karroo itself.* Whole years pass with- out the soil being fertilised by rain. The ground is covered with broken masses of rock and blocks of stone, and but a few of the succulent tribe of plants will grow on the thin soil. This tract of country is situated between two very different climates, that of the colony of the Cape, and of the interior, or Kafir country. “It has not the winter-rains of the former, nor the cooling thunder-storms in the hot season of the latter: now and then, as if by chance, a hasty cloud will dis- charge itself in passing over this region.” “ But few animals can live here. The ostrich, eland-antelope, rhinoceros, and a few sheep, introduced by neighbouring settlers, are the only luxuries of the miserable inhabitants. Their common objects of pursuit are serpents, lizards, ants, and grasshoppers. They will remain whole days without drinking ; as a substitute they chew the succulent plants: they do not eat salt. They have no fixed habitation, but sleep in holes in the ground, or under the branches of trees. They are short, lean, and in appear- ance weak in their limbs; yet are capable of enduring much fatigue. They are less indolent than the Koras, and other civilized Hottentots. Their sight is acute, but their taste, smell, and feeling are weak. They do not form large societies, but wander about in families. Bodily strength alone procures distinction among them.” * Lichtenstein’s Travels, translation, vol. ii, p. 193, 194. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE HOTTENTOTS. q 5. Remarks on the Physical Characters of the Hotten- tots. In the first volume of this work I have enumerated the Hottentots and Bushmen among the seven principal varieties of mankind which recede from each other most widely in the shape of the skull and in other physical peculiarities.” I have already described the peculiarities of the Hottentots, as fully as it appeared necessary with a view to determine the rela- tion of that race to other branches of the human family. i shall now add some further particulars, which are requisite in order to render the description complete. The following outline is collected from Mr. Burchell’s por- traiture of the Hottentots: “ Hands and feet little ; eyes so oblique, that lines drawn through the corners would not coincide as being on the same plane, but would intersect sometimes as low down as the middle of the nose ; space between the two cheek-bones, flat ; scarcely any perceptible ridge of the nose ; end of the nose wide and depressed ; nostrils squeezed out of shape; chin long and forward; narrowness of the lower part of face a character of the race.” The complexion of the Hottentots is like that of the palest Negro, but still more dilute. Dr. Sparrmann compared it to the colour of a person affected with jaundice. Mr. Bar- row says it is of a yellowish brown, or of the hue of a faded leaf. According to Mr. Burchell, the complexion of the whole race of Hottentots is of a tawny-buff or fawn-colour ; such as a painter might imagine that of a Guinea Negro would be, if it were half washed off, and a light tint of ochre put over the remainder. Their eyes are of a deep chestnut colour. The hair of the Hottentots is said by Sparrmann to be more woolly than that of the Negroes. It is thus described by Mr. Barrow :-—“ The hair is of a very singular nature: it does not cover the whole surface of the scalp, but grows in small tufts at certain distances from each other, and when clipt short, has the appearance and feel of a hard shoe-brush, except that * Vol. i. p. 247: + Vol. i. p. 272, et seqq: 5 item p. 312, et seqq- 278 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE HOTTENTOTS. itis curled and twisted into small, round lumps, about the size ofa marrow-fat pea. When suffered to grow, it hangs on the neck in hard, twisted tassels, like fringe.” The hump, or steatopyga, is a character of the Hottentot race which has attracted much attention. On this subject, the following observations by Mr. Burchell are instructive :— “The exhibition of a woman having this peculiarity in the principal countries of Europe has made the subject well known to all those who are curious in such matters, and I readily take advantage of that circumstance to excuse myself further digression. But I ought not to allow this occasion to pass by, without endeavouring to correct some erroneous no- tions, which the debates of both the learned and unlearned have equally contributed to render current. It is not a fact that the whole of the Hottentot race are thus formed ; neither is there any particular tribe to which this steatopyga, as it may be called, is peculiar; nor is it more common in the Bush- man tribes than among other Hottentots. It will not greatly mislead if our idea of its frequency be formed by comparing it with the corpulency of individuals among European nations, It is true that the Hottentot race affords numerous examples of it, while on the other hand I do not recollect to have seen any very remarkable instance of it in the other African tribes which I visited in this journey.” | It may be worthy of observation that, although Mr. Burchell did not visit any tribe unconnected with the Hottentot race who have this deformity, it is by no means confined to them. Other nations in South Africa, as the Makfani of the Mosam- bique coast, have the same peculiarity, as we shall have oc- casion to observe in a following section. The language of the Hottentots is another distinguishing character of the race. Their utterance, according to Lichten_ stein, is in general remarkable for numerous rapid, harsh, shrill sounds, emitted from the bottom of the chest, with strong aspirations, and modified in the mouth by a singular motion of the tongue. The dipthongs eow, aao, and owou, predominate, and the phrase frequently ends with the final img, pronounced in a musical tone of voice. In this motion of the tongue there appear to be three progressive sounds, pro- PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 279 duced by the manner in which the back of the tongue 1s with- drawn from the upper part of the palate, or the point of the tongue either from the incisor tee The peculiar construction of the organ much the formation of these sounds, be very difficult. The preceding description belongs to the Hottentot race ge- nerally. The following observations by Lichtenstein, on the peculiarities of the Bushmen, are worthy of attention : « A wild, shy, suspicious eye, and crafty expression, form a striking contrast to the frank, open physiognomy of the Hottentot. The universally distinguishing features of the Hottentot, the broad, flat nose, and large, prominent cheek- bones, are, from the leanness of the Bushmen, doubly re- markable. Their figure, though small, is not ill-proportioned, and they would not be ugly if they had more flesh. Yet the men may be called handsome in comparison with the women. The loose, long, hanging breasts, and the disproportionate thickness of the hinder parts, united with their ugly features, make them, to Europeans, disgusting. The Hottentot women, though resembling the Bushmen, are, from their greater height and better proportioned limbs, in comparison with them, handsome.” * It must not be forgotten that this description, of the delineations given by travellers who attempt to portray in a striking and graphical manner the physical characters of particular races, are drawn from the most strongly-marked geerated idea if looked he whole race. The th or the upper grinders. , 5 in this race, facilitates | which in others would } like most examples, and would convey a very exa upon as giving @ general picture of t Bushmen are the ugliest tribe of the Hottentots, and not, as Lichtenstein supposed them, a particular race ; but even amongst the Bushmen there are individuals whose counte- nances are far from repulsive or disgusting. We are assured by Mr. Thompson, and some other travellers, that some of the females of the Bushmen race have pleasing and even hand- some features. + * Lichtenstein’s Travels, translation, vol. i. p- 117. + Thompson’s Travels in South Africa. {SORE ay ee | —— aes 280 OBSERVATIONS ON THE The annexed plate contains figures of two Hottentot females, from the collection of portraits by Mr. Daniells. They appear to be very characteristic of the Hottentot physiognomy, and display something of that approximation to the Chinese which has been pomted out by Mr. Barrow and other writers. The reader will find some further details on certain ana- tomical peculiarities of the Hottentots in a note at the end of this section. Section III.— Of the Kafirs. { 1. General Observations on the History of the Kafirs. When the Portuguese navigators of the Indian Ocean came to the coast of Mosambique and Sofala, they found there inha- bitants of two kinds, Arabian settlers of mixed or pure blood, and the black natives of the country: the former were Mo- hammedans, and they were termed Moors by the Portuguese, who had been accustomed to give that name to people of the Same religion and of similar manners in the north of Africa: the latter were called by the Arabs, Kafirs, or infidels, and the Portuguese adopted for them the same denomination. In the account of the voyage of Friar Ioao dos Sanctos to the Zambesi and Sofala, we find these two classes of inhabitants everywhere distinguished and termed accordingly. The Dutch > voyagers who followed the Portuguese in their expeditions to the African coast, gave after them the same denomination to the aborigines of the eastern parts. The only tribe who lived near to the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope were the Kosas, and to these the name of Kafr was appropriated. Other tribes became afterwards known, who, speaking the same language, and resembling the Kosas in manners, were considered as likewise belonging to the race which had re- ceived the denomination of Kafirs. This term is now gene- rally used in the sense here expressed. Under the name of Kaffers, or more properly Kafirs, are comprised all the nations or tribes who by affinity of speech are proved to belong to the same race ag the Kosas, or Amakosah. It is now well known that tribes of Kafirs, the term being TRIBES OF KAFIRS. Pe 8] always used in the sense above defined, extend not only north- ward of the Amakosah, or the eastern coast, but reach quite across the continent, beyond the country of the Namaaqua Hottentots, to the shores of the Atlantic. How far northward Kafferland, or Kafiria, extends, and how many African tribes or nations belong to the race, is yet unknown; but from the results of various inquiries, it seems very probable that a great. part of the native population of Africa to the southward of the equator belongs to this race, or is more OF less nearly related to it. I shall, in the first place, considered by well-informed writers us to the Kafir race, and in a following ¢ the supposed extension of the same family towards The following division comprises the principal tribes :— 1. The Amakosah, or the Kosa Kafirs, are nearest to the south: with these may be joined the tribe of Amatymbah, Mathimba, or Tambuki Kafirs, further towards the north, who speak the same dialect as the Amakosah, as well as the Amapondah, who inhabit the sea-coast to the eastward of Amatymbah. 2. The Bechiana tribes in the interior of Southern Africa are an extensive subdivision of the Kafir race. Their lan- guage, termed the Sichiana, is spoken through a great extent of country. It differs from the Kosa; but is a dialect of the same speech. 3. The Damaras, further towards the w mountainous tracts of country bordering on the Atlan to the northward of Namaaqualand. 4. The Amazilih, Zoolahs, or Vatw warlike nation of the Kafir race to the northward of the Be- chtianas, the extent of whose country 1s unknown. 5. The people about Dalagoa Bay; further to the north- ward than the coast of Natal, who may be ‘aeons’ native inhabitants, and who in many places have suffered from the devastations of the Zoolahs, though differing pees respects from the tribes already enumerated, are considered by well-informed persons as certainly a part of the same stock. Their peculiarities will be noticed 0 the sequel. 1 shall first enumerate the nations who are undoubtedly belonging hapter shall advert to the north. est, who inhabit tic Ocean, ahs, a powerful and 282 KAFIR TRIBES: AMAKOSAH. enumerate a little more particularly and describe more fully the tribes belonging to these subdivisions. q 2. Of the Amakosah and other Kafirs of the coast of Natal. Amakosah, in the singular Kosa, is the national appella- tion of the southern Kafirs : their country is called Amakosina. According to the traditional accounts preserved by the old people of this tribe, they first settled on the great Kei River, under their chief Togul, but whether they were a colony from the Tambuki or Amatymbah tribe, or from some nation of the same race further towards the north-east, has not been ascer- tained. The period of their emigration appears, from the tra- ditional accounts, to have been about one hundred and fifty years ago. They purchased with herds of cattle, tracts of country on the coast between the Sunday and Fish Rivers, from the Gonaaqua Hottentots, who formerly inhabited them. -¥ 3. The Bechianas. The Bechtanas are a widely-extended branch, orsubdivision, of the Kafir race, mhabiting the interior of Southern Africa, and consisting of many nations independent of each other, and often engaged in mutual hostilities. They have in common their language termed the Sichtana, a clearly distinguished dialect of the Kafir speech. They likewise differ in some traits of manner and habit from the Amakosah, but are undoubtedly a branch of the same stock. The Bechiiana tribe, principally known as yet to Europeans, are the people termed Batclapis, whose chief town is Litak4, situated in south latitude 27° 6’ 44’.* To the same division of the race belongs the Barolong tribe, whose country is about one hundred miles north-eastward from Litékt.+ The Tammahas, Muritsi, and Wankitsi, are also tribes of Bechéanas. The Sichdana language is likewise spoken by the Batcloqueeni, a warlike people, who laid waste the country of the Barolongs. The Tammahas live north-east- * Geograph. Journal, iii. 317. Mr. Thompson says this name is more correctly Matclhapees. + Thompson’s Travels, i. p. 242. BECHUANA KAFIR TRIBES. 283 ward of the Batclapis ; the Murttsi again further in the same direction; and the Wankitsi to the westward of the latter.* The wandering savages termed Mantatees, or Ficani, who travel through the interior country in hordes consisting of many thousand men, are of the same race. The barbarous horde which plundered Litakt consisted of at least forty thousand. The men are described as tall and muscular, hav- ing their bodies smeared over with a mixture of coal and pitch. Their natural colour is scarcely a shade darker than that of the Matclhapees, whom they nearly resemble in features. Their language is a dialect of the Sichtana.t In the same division of the Kafir race we may perhaps com- prise the various tribes enumerated by Mr. Campbell to the northward of the Bechiiana country. We are informed by a late traveller that the Sichtiana dialect is spoken by the tribes in the interior so far as they have yet been visited, and varies but slightly from the idioms of the Damara and the Dalagoans, on the two opposite coasts of Africa. The Amakosah tongue, spoken also by the Amatymbah and other adjoining tribes, differs more considerably from that of the Bechtana, but not to such a degree as to constitute a different language. “ The body of all these dialects is the same, and whatever may be the diversities of idiom and construction among them, it has been found that natives of several tribes, when brought into contact, are able, after a very little practice, to converse fluently with each other,” $ The habits and mode of life are very similar among all these tribes. The information obtained by Mr. Campbell, and other travellers in the interior of the Bechtiana country, has been summed up in a brief memoir by Mr. Cooley, published in the third volume of the Geographical J ournal.§ The follow- ing are the most remarkable observations : Both Lichtenstein and Barrow agree representing the Amakosah as greatly elevated above the savage state. ‘The Bechtiana tribes, situated in the interior, three hundred a Thompson’s Travels, Pp: 943. oP Ibid. p- 305. an Ibid. p- 332. § A Memoir on the Civilization of the Tribes inhabiting the Highlands near Dalagoa Bay, (abridged, ) by W. D. Cooley, in 3rd vol. of Geogr. Jour. p- 310. 284 BECHUANA KAFIR TRIBES. miles northward of the Orange River, are still superior to the Amakosah in arts and civilization. They inhabit large towns and well-built houses, cultivate the ground, and lay up stores. “In their physiognomy, also, they rise a degree above the Amakosah ; their complexion is of a brighter brown; their Jeatures more European, and often beautiful.” “As we proceed north-eastward from the country of the Batclapis, the most southern of the Bechiana tribes, along the elevated tract which limits the basin of the Gariep, we find the improvement of the inhabitants increasing. In the country of the Tammahas, Mr. Campbell saw fields of corn several hundred acres in extent, near the town of Mashow, which contains ten thousand people ; and in another plain a cultivated tract not less than twenty miles in circumference. Among the Muritsi, one hundred and sixty geographical miles north-east by east of Litaku, he was surprised by the appearance of progress in arts and industry. The Muriftsi cultivate sugar and tobacco, manufacture razors and knives of iron almost steel, build their houses with masonry, and orna- ment them with pillars and mouldings. “ Beyond the Murttsi, according to information furnished by the natives, towards the north-east or east, are the Mac- quaina, a numerous people, surpassing the Murétsi in wealth and numbers. The Muritsi and other southern tribes obtain from the Macquaina beads, the money of the country, which are obtained by the latter people from the Mollaquam, who live near the great water, or derived in commerce from the Mahalasely, a great nation situated to the north-east of the Macquaina. The Mahalasely, as well as their neighbours the Mateebeylai, are of a brown complexion and have long hair. They wear clothes, ride on elephants, climb into their houses, ‘and are gods.’ This last expression,” says the author, “ is usually applied to Europeans, with whom the Mahalasely are thus placed upon a level. All the nations, from the Muritsi to the Mahalasely, have the art of mitigating the virulence of small-pox by inoculating between the eyes.’’* The Murétsi, Macquaina, and Wankitsi, are said to trade * Campbell, i. p. 163. BECHUANA KAFIR TRIBES. 285 with the Damaras on the western coast of Africa, and it is probable that their neighbours towards the north-east, the Seketay, Bamangwati, and Mahalasely, mantain a commer- cial intercourse with the empire of Monomotapa. From various statements derived from the reports of natives, and other information collated, it is concluded by Mr. Cooley, that the most civilized nations of South Africa are situated at no great distance from Dalagoa Bay. On the route from Kur- richane,* the capital of the Muritsi, eastward to Dalagoa Bay, seven large towns occur in a journey of eight days, viz. seventy or eighty miles. He conjectures the population of the country southward of the Bazaruto Islands, and reaching to the limits of the Cape colony, to be not less than two mil- lions. “ But these limits,’”’ he observes, “ are not to be con- sidered as the boundaries of the race, language, OF commerce of the tribes belonging to the Kafirian stock, which, in fact, extend across the whole continent, from one ocean to the other, and towards the north far beyond the Zambesi River.’ + @ 4. The Damaras. The Damaras are a people of the Kafir race, who inhabit the coast of the Atlantic northward of Great Namaaqualand. They are separated from the Bechiana tribes to the eastward by an extensive, arid desert. They speak a dialect similar to that of the Bechiianas, and might perhaps be considered as a part of that nation. They live in villages like the Bechtanas : to the colony are named Ghoup, Nevis, Gamaqua, and Kurars, which are not their native appellations. They cultivate their country, which is fertile, with millet and beans, have numerous flocks, abundance of wild animals in their forests, and manu- facture the native copper-ore of their country: A large river, which discharges itself into the Atlantic in latitude twenty- two, is supposed to flow through their land.t the clans nearest * The chief town of the Muritsi is Kurrichane, two hundred and fifty miles from Litak4, according to Mr. Campbell, who visited it. + Geograph. Journal, ibid. + Thompson, vol. ii. p. 74, 286 KAFIR TRIBES: AMAZULUH. {] 5. Of the Amazélth, Zoolahs, or Vatwahs. The Zoolahs are a warlike people of Kafir race who have lately conquered and extirpated the former inhabitants of the country southward of Dalagoa Bay, as far as Hambona. They have formed a barbaric kingdom of great extent, strik- ingly contrasted with the patriarchal sway prevalent among other tribes of the same race.* The Zoolahs, or Vatwahs, issued originally from the country adjoining the Mapoota River, and the mountains westward of English River, which falls from the west into Dalagoa Bay. According to Captain Owen, they are the people formerly termed Abutua or Butwah, who are represented in some maps of Africa as occupying an extensive country in the in- terior. They are a bold and warlike people, of noble carriage, and are distinguished by having large holes cut in the flaps of their ears, in which they suspend ornaments. They have the finest figures of any of the nations yet discovered in this country. The devastatious of the Vatwahs have been like those of a swarm of locusts : they have expelled the natives from the whole country from Mamalong, or King George’s River, to Port Natal. The Vatwahs, like all the tribes of the interior from thir- teen degrees of south latitude to the borders of the colony, are well acquainted with the use of iron. It is said that tribes in the interior manufacture the implements of agriculture used on the coast, even by the Portuguese. The Vatwahs are said to clothe themselves with skins, and to live much on animal food. In war they bear shields of bullock’s hide, and six or eight assagais, and a spear. They have a manly openness of charac- ter ; and the oppressors of the weaker tribes are said never to attack an enemy without sending previous notice of their ap- proach. The armed force of the Zoolah nation is said to amount to nearly one hundred thousand men. The Zoolahs have overcome the countries southward of the Mapoota River to the coast of Natal. From the frontier of the Amaponda, or Hambona Kafirs, on the south-west, as “ Thompson, vol. ii. p. 356. REMARKS ON THE KAFIRS. 2987 far as the river Mapoota and Dalagoa Bay on the north, and as far into the interior, at least, as the great ridge of moun- tains, in whose western sides the Gariep, or Orange River, has its principal sources, the whole country is now under the for- midable sway of a military clan consisting of Zoolah war- riors. In many parts of the country they are said to have extirpated the native tribes. The Zoolahs, as I have before observed, are a fine, hand- some people, having the features of the Kafir race. They are described by Owen, who terms them Zoolos and Hollon- tontes, as “fine Negroes, tall, robust and warlike im their persons, open, frank, and pleasing in their manners, with a certain appearance of independence in their carriage, infi- nitely above the natives with whom the party had hitherto communicated.’’* € 6. General Remarks on the Moral Characteristics of the Kafir Nations. The Kafirs in general, even the most barbarous of their tribes, hold a decided superiority, when compared with the destitute savages who occupy the insulated hamlets of cen- tral Negroland. It is yet unknown from what quarter they have derived the rudiments of art which exist among them, and the improvements of moral and intellectual character which they have obtained. One trait certainly directs us to a foreign souree—they practise universally the rite of circum- cision, though they have given no account of the origin of this custom. It is scarcely within probability that they borrowed it from nations who profess Islam, or we should find among them other proofs of intercourse with people of that class. It is more probable that this practice is a relic of ancient African customs, of which the Egyptians, as it 1s well known, partook in remote ages. ~ The Kafirs are associated together in large communities ander chiefs or kings, differing in this respect from the most * Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, under the direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R. N. by command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, vol. i. p. 95. 288 REMARKS ON THE KAFIRS, savage class of African nations, who live in insulated hamlets without intercourse with each other. They are semi-nomadic, moving occasionally their towns, which resemble camps. Their clothing is scanty, and made of tanned skins. They practise polygamy. They have considerable herds of cattle. They are acquainted with the use of iron, and have the art of working this metal, common to them and to many other pagan nations of Africa, especially in the eastern part of the continent. They are likewise acquainted with the use of copper, and some of their tribes, particularly the Damaras, work the ore of that metal and manufacture with it various ornaments. The Kafirs practise agriculture, have fields and gardens fenced with thorny shrubs, cultivate maize, millet, kidney- beans, and water-melons, make bread and beer, manufacture earthenware of sand and clay baked in fire. They wear mantles, and the females a more complete covering of sotened skins: they live in towns of considerable size and population. Old Litaka was thought by an intelligent traveller to be capable of containing from eight to ten thousand inhabitants. The houses are circular, and resemble those of the Fdlahs and other nations of Northern Africa. The Kafirs are not, as some have thought, destitute of reli- gion. The Kosas believe in a Supreme Being, to whom they . give the appellation of Uhlunga, supreme, and frequently the Hottentot name Utika, beautiful. They also believe in the immortality of the soul, but have no idea of a state of rewards and punishments. They have some notion of Providence, and pray for success in war and in hunting expeditions, and during sickness for health and strength. T hey believe in the attendance of the souls of their deceased relatives, and occasionally, especially on going to war, invoke their aid. They conceive thunder to proceed from the agency of the Deity, and if a person has been killed by lightning, say that Uhlunga has been among them. On such occasions they sometimes remove from the spot, and offer an heifer or an ox in sacrifice. Sometimes they sacrifice to rivers in time of drought, by killg an ox, and throwing part of it into the stream. They have some superstitions resembling those connected REMARKS ON THE KAFIRS. 289 with the brute worship and conservation of animals prevalent among the old Egyptians. Ifa person has been killed by an elephant, they offer a sacrifice, apparently to appease the demon supposed to have actuated the animal. One who kills by accident a makem, or Balearic crane, or a brom-vogel, a species of tucan, must offer a calf in atonement. Sometimes they imagine that a shuldga, or spirit, resides in a particular ox, and propitiate it by prayers when going on hunting expe- ditions.* 4] 7. Physical Characters of the Kafirs and Bechuanas. Mr. Barrow was the first writer who clearly distinguished and described the Kafirs: previously to his time they had been frequently confounded with the Hottentots. He says— “ The Kafirs are tall, robust, and muscular, and constitute one of the finest races in the world. The complexion of some tribes varies from a deep bronze to jet-black, but most gene- rally the latter is the prevailing colour.” This description re- fers to the tribes near the sea-coast. Of the Bechuanas inthe interior, Mr. Barrow remarks, that “they are not, like the eastern Kafirs, invariably black, some bemg of a bronze colour, and others of nearly as light a brown as the Hotten- tots. Their hair,” he adds, “ is longer, and more inclined to be straight.” The Kafirs are frequently in the practice of covering their bodies with wood-soot or charcoal mixed with fat. Can this circumstance have been overlooked by Mr. Barrow, and have caused him to believe the natural complexion of the Kosahs to be of a darker shade than more recent travellers have generally reported it to be? Some older writers agree entirely in their accounts of the people of Caffraria with Mr. Barrow. Lieut. A. Paterson, who visited the eastern shores of Caf- fraria, describes the complexion of the natives as of a jet-black colour; and Dampier has thus described the people of the coast near Cape Natal, which is in the country of the Tam- * These particulars are collected from the works of MM. Barrow, Thompson, Burchell, and other travellers. VOL, II. U 290 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS buki Kafirs :—“ They are of a middle stature and well made, with oval faces, and noses neither flat nor high, but well pro- portioned. The colour of their skin is black, and their hair crisped: their teeth are white, and their aspect altogether graceful.”’ Professor Lichtenstein has bestowed more pains on the history of this people, and has done more to elucidate it than any other writer. He says that in respect to the colour of the Kafirs, Mr. Barrow is certainly mistaken, and that their wné- versal complexion is rather of a clear than a dark brown. Lichtenstein has given the following description as generally applicable to the Kafir nation: “The universal characteristics of all the tribes of this great nation consist in an external form and figure varying exceed- ingly from the other nations of Africa. They are much taller, stronger, and their limbs much better proportioned. Their colour is brown—their hair black and woolly. Their counte- nances have a character peculiar to themselves, and which do not permit their being included in any of the races of mankind above enumerated. They have the high forehead and promi- nent nose of the Europeans, the thick lips of the N egroes, and the high cheek-bones of the Hottentots. Their beards are black and much fuller than those of the Hottentots.” < Their language is full-toned, soft, and harmonious, and spoken without clattering: their root-words are of one and two syllables—their sound simple, without diphthongs. Their pronunciation is slow and distinct, resting upon the last syl- lable. Their dialects differ in the different tribes; but the most distant ones understand each other.” “ Mr. Barrow remarks very rightly that the Caffres have, in many respects, a great resemblance to Europeans, and in- deed they have more resemblance to them than either to Ne- groes or Hottentots ; this resemblance is to be remarked par- ticularly in the form of the bones of the face, and in the shape of the skull, ~ Their countenance has, however, something in it wholly appropriate to themselves, which, no less than their colour, and the woolly nature of their hair, distinguishes them, at the first glance, from Europeans. From both the latter characteristics the translators of Mr. Barrow’s Travels derive OF THE KAFIRS. 291 the principal foundations of their doubts concerning the accu- racy of his opinion with respect to their origin, giving particular weight to the circumstance that he calls the colour of some of the tribes black. This is, however, not the case with any: here is to be found one of the strongest distinctions between the Caffre and the Negro: the skin of a pure Caffre, when free from all foreign connexion, is rather a clear than a dark brown.” It appears that considerable variety exists in the physical characters of the Kafir race, and that some individuals and even some tribes display greater resemblance than others to the Negroes in the interior of Africa. M. Burchell has made some remarks on this subject which appear to be important.* He says that he was led by his personal observation to adopt the opinion, that on travelling further towards the north the Kafir tribes would be found gradually to approach, in features and complexion, towards the characters belonging to the black races who inhabit the equinoctial parts of the same continent. Individuals whom he saw among the Bechuanas, belonging to a northern tribe termed Nuaketsi, had thicker lips, more flat- tened noses, and a blacker complexion than the people of the same race who lived further towards thesouth. Other remarks led him afterwards to generalise this observation. We shall find it confirmed by a more extensive survey of the nations of Southern Africa. In describing the personal characters of the Matclhapi, whom he terms Bachapins, the Bechuanas of Litakt, Mr. Burchell says, that ‘“ they differ from the Hottentots m the shape of their countenance; they have not the pointed chins or narrowness in the lower part of the face that is peculiar to the race last mentioned: in their figures they are much more robust. “They have not the excessively flat and dilated nose of the natives of Guinea, though examples more or less approaching towards the latter may frequently be seen.” + * Burchell’s Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 438. + [have selected as specimens of the physical characters of the Kafir race the portrait of a Kosah Kafir, by Mr. Daniells. The head of the Kosah Kafir recedes far from the ordinary characters of the Negro races, and in the expansion of the forehead appears equal to the majority of Europeans. a2 292 KAFIR TRIBES It does not appear that intermixture with Europeans, or with any people of similar features, has given occasion to this variety in the Kafirs. Facts have been discovered which completely give a denial to this suggestion. Among the many Kafirs who were seen at Litakad by Mr. Thompson, it appears that there were individuals supposed to be descendants from Eu- ropeans who had formerly been shipwrecked on the coast. Such persons were distinguished from the native race by their features, and especially by theirlong beards. The hair of the genuine Kafirs is very woolly, and it approaches to that of the Hottentots, which is observed to be different from the woolly hair of the Negro in growing in small, separate tufts. “ The hair of these people,” says Mr. Burchell, “ is, in its natural state, so excessively woolly that it can never form itself into locks, unless it be left to grow for a great length of time, and then be clotted together with grease and dust. It is, therefore, with much pains and continual care that the women dress it into separate threads, or small ringlets.’’* { 8. Of the natives of the country near Dalagoa Bay. The native inhabitants of the countries round Dalagoa Bay are a different people from the Zoolahs. The chorography of these countries is given by Captain Owen. Mapoota, or the Oil Country, is to the southward of Dalagoa Bay, and included between the river Mapoota, which flows into it from the south-west, and the shores of the Indian Ocean. To the westward of Mapoota is Temby, the dominion of King Kapell, reaching northward to English and Dundas rivers, which run into the bay from due west. On the north side of English river is the country of Mafoomo: the tract imme- diately northward of Mafoomo is called Mabota, as far as the banks of the river King George or Manice, and on the west is Mattoll, the southern boundary of which is Dundas River.+ The native people of Dalagoa Bay are then principally the inhabitants of Mapoota, Mafoomo, Mattoll and Temby. These tribes are mentioned repeatedly by Owen, as resembling each * Burchell’s Travels in South Africa. + Owen, vol. i. p. 75. NEAR DALAGOA BAY. Bee bs other in every respect.* We are expressly assured that the same language is spoken all round Dalagoa Bay, from Ma- poota to Inhambana+ which lies considerably to the north- ward, under the tropic, and near Cape Corrientes. The fact that the idiom of these people is a dialect of the Kafir language was first ascertained by Lichtenstein, who made the discovery by means of a vocabulary collected from the natives of Dalagoa Bay, by White.{ We are assured by Owen, that the language of the people of Dalagoa Bay is nearly the same, and of the same origin as that of the Kafirs and Zoolahs.§ The same testimony was obtained by Mr. Thompson from different quarters. The Kafirs and the natives of Dalagoa Bay understand each other, as he reports, with little trouble, and the Zoolahs communicate readily with both.|| * Tbid. p. J41. + Ibid. p. 74. + Journal of a Voyage performed in the Lion East-Indiaman, from Madras to Columbo and Dalagoa Bay, by Captain W. White, London, 1800. See Lichten- stein’s Travels, English translation, vol. i. p. 243, and Adelung and Vater in the Mithridates, oder Allgemeine Sprachen-Kunde, th. iii. pp. 262 and 288. § Owen, vol. i. p. 218. || Thompson’s Travels in Southern Africa, vol. i, p. 373. NORTHWARD EXTENSION CHAPTER XIV. OF THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA WITHIN THE TROPIC, Section 1.—General Observations—Ewtension of the Kafir Race in the intertropical parts of South Africa. In the preceding chapter I have described the Kafir tribes best known to Europeans by their proximity to the English colony, and have traced the extension of their language, and of the family of nations to which they belong, through coun- tries approaching the southern tropic, or even to the north- ward of that line. I now proceed to survey the population of those regions of Africa which lie between the same tropic and the equator. In these parts of the continent it will be found that tribes of the same race, and dialects of the same language are extensively spread. I have already shown from a variety of testimonies that the Kafir language, or a dialect of the idiom spoken by the Ama- kosah, is prevalent among the native tribes about Dalagoa Bay, and that the latter may therefore be considered as belonging to the Kafir race, although their physical charac- ters are nearly similar to those of the intertropical Negro nations. The idiom spoken by the tribes of Dalagoa Bay, is also spoken by the people who inhabit the coast as far to the northward as the Bazaruto islands. Of this fact we are as- sured by Mr. Thompson, who cites the authority of Mr. Owen.* The Bazaruto islands are opposite to the coasts of Sabia and Sofala. Captain Owen says that the language here * 'Thompson’s Travels in Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 373. OF THE KAFIR RACE, 295 spoken is akin to the dialects of Dalagoa Bay, Inhamban and the Majowyie. “ The Majowyie and the Macwanos are the two tribes best known to the Portuguese around Mozam- bique, and to the northward.” He adds, “ We are thus enabled to trace a similitude of language from twelve to thirty-three degrees south, sufficient perhaps to assign a common origin to all the numerous tribes between those lati- tudes.* The nations, termed in Captain Owen’s orthography, Mac- wanos and Majowyie, are probably the Makita or Makuana of the Mosambique coast, who will be described in the fol- lowing section, and the Monjou of Mr. Salt, who are conjec- tured with great probability, by a writer in the Edinburgh Review, to be the Mujao of the Portuguese, termed M’Jao by the natives of Zanzibar. It was long ago concluded by Lichtenstein and by Professor Vater, that the people of the Mosambique country are of the Kafir race. This inference was drawn chiefly from the account given of that people by Mauritz Thoman, a Jesuit, who lived many years in that country. | Lichtenstein delivers it as an opinion which he has adopted after much research, after studying the works of Portuguese writers on this country, and after visiting the Kafir country at two different times in parts very remote from each other, that all the native tribes to the southward of Quiloa, are of the Kafir stock. Mr. Thompson assures us that he has seen “a vocabulary of the language of the island of Johanna, one of the Comoro isles, drawn up by the Rev. W. Elliot, a missionary lately resident there, which proves that these islanders, and pro- bably also the aboriginal tribes of Madagascar, speak a dialect very intimately allied to those of Caffraria and Mo- sambique.’’§ It is the more remarkable that the Kafir language should be found in islands remote from the coast, as we know that all * Owen’s Voyage, voli. p. 276. + Thoman’s Reise und Lebens-beschreibung, Augsburg, 1788. Lichtenstein, vol. i. p. 243. Vater in Mithridates, 3. s. 269. + Lichtenstein, «bi supra. § Thompson’s Travels in South Africa, p. 333, vol. i. 296 NATIONS OF THE MOSAMBIQUE the natives of this shore of Africa are destitute of the art of navigation, and have a great aversion to the sea. We thus trace the Kafirs northward as far as the river Mongalo or Cape Delgado in twelve degrees of south latitude. We shall now survey more particularly, the history of the different tribes on the eastern coast as far as means are to be found for pursuing the investigation. SECTION Il.—Of the Makita or Makiana—the Suhaili, and other native Races of the Coasts of Mosambique and Zanzibar. From the mouth of the river Zambesi northwards, as far as Cape Delgado, the border of the Indian Ocean is termed the Coast of Mosambique, and from Cape Delgado to the river Juba, it is the Coast of Zanzibar. The native inhabitants of the coast of Mosambique are the black races termed Makéa or Maktana: those of the coast of Zanzibar are the Suhaili or Sowauli. The slaves who are seen in the Portuguese settlements, passing under the designation of Mosambique Negroes, are principally of the race of Makua. They are not distinguished by ordinary observers from the N egroes brought from other parts of Africa. A young native of Mosambique whom I saw some time since in London, was a tall well-made black man, with woolly hair and Negro features. He appeared to be a lively and intelligent person, and gave to Dr. Natterer, a German physician, who brought him from the Brasils, a short vocabulary of his native speech. He said that Maki- ani is the name of the Mosambique nation, and that the neighbouring tribes who speak different languages, are termed Mtschauya, Mnijempan’i, Mlomoi and Maravi. The Makiana nation occupy the country behind the sea coast to some distance in the interior. They are frequently mentioned by the Portuguese writers, to whom they were well-known. According to Mr. Salt they consist of many powerful tribes, extending in the inland country from Mo- sambique northward as far as Melinda, and southward to the mouth of the river Zambesi, hordes of the same race being AND ZANZIBAR COAST. 997 spread further towards the south-west. “The Makianas are a strong athletic race, very formidable, and constantly making ag- gessions on the Portuguese settlements on the coast: they fight with spears, darts and poisoned arrows.’* They were a fierce and warlike people at the time when Eastern Africa was vi- sited by Friar Joao Dos Sanctos, who has described them. “The Macias,” says that writer, “ were subject to King Gallo, a poor prince, whose brother becoming a Moore, or Moham- medan, was therefore odious to the Kafirs, which think basely of the Moores, and more easily turn Christians, holding of them more honourable conceit. They are blacke and curled, and worship not idols.” According to Dos Sanctos they occa- sionally eat human flesh. “ The deformity of their counte- nances augments,” as Mr. Salt says, “ the ferocity of their aspect. They tattow their skins, and sometimes raise the marks an eighth of an inch above the surface. They file their teeth to a point, and give to the whole set the appearance of a coarse saw. They dress their hair fantastically: some shave one side of the head, others both sides, leaving a hairy crest from the forehead to the nape of the neck, while others wear only a knot on the top of their foreheads: they suspend ornaments of copper or bone from the cartilages of their noses. The protrusion of their upper lip is more conspicuous than in any other race of men whom I have seen, and the women purposely elongate it as a mark of beauty. The form of the females approximates to that of the Hottentot women, the spine being curved, and the hinder parts protruding. It is impossible to conceive a more disagreeable object than a middle-aged woman belonging to a tribe of the Makooa.” Dos Sanctos gives a similar account of the physical cha- racters of the Macitia: “They have no powerful chief from Cuama to Mosambique on the coast ; but within-land are great kings of curled Cafres, most of them Macuas by nation.” “ Their speech is rough and high as if they fought: they file their teeth as sharp as needles: they cut and rase their flesh : they are strong and endure labour.’’+ The people who inhabit the northern banks of the Zam- * Salt’s Travels in Abyssinia. ++ Purchas’s Pilgrims, vol. ii. p. 559. 298 NATIONS OF THE MOSAMBIQUE. besi are Makfia, as we learn from the statement of Dos Sanctos as well as from late writers. The borderers of this river were described by the officers who accompanied Captain Owen, who says, “the further our travellers advanced from the coast, the more they observed the natives to improve in their ap- pearance. Of those of Marooro, many were firmly knit, stout and elegantly proportioned: some were perfect models of the human form. They go naked, with the exception of a piece of cloth, barely sufficient for decency of appearance. Some have their beard shaved, others only in part, but many not atall. Inthis latter case the hair, for it is worthy of remark that they have not wool, grows long, is neatly plaited, and hanging in slender tails, communicates to the countenance a wild and savage aspect, in this resembling the people of Mada- gascar, whose hair is neither wool nor hair, and is dressed in general in a similar manner.’’* The variation here noted from woolly to merely frizzled hair, or the difference of description, is often discoverable in the accounts of cognate races, or of the same tribe seen by different travellers. The mode of dressing the hair practised by these people is similar to that used by the Kosahs, as wellas by the nations of the mountainous re- gions, particularly the Mocaronga, who will be mentioned in the next section. “ Wild as the Makooa are ina savage state,” says Mr. Salt, “it is astonishing to observe how docile and serviceable they become as slaves, and when enrolled as soldiers, how quickly their improvement advances.”’ Mr. Salt has also described another tribe, termed Monjou, inhabiting the country further in the interior, and, as he sup- posed, situated in a north-easterly direction from Mosambique. Persons of this tribe told him that they were acquainted with traders of other nations, named Evesi and Maravi, who had travelled far enough inland to see large waters, white people, and horses. He says the Monjou are Negroes of the ugliest description, having high cheek-bones, thick lips, small knots of woolly hair, like peppercorns, on their heads, and skins of a deep, shining black. Mr. Salt has given vocabularies of * Expedition up the Zambesi, in the Geographical Journal. AND ZANZIBAR COASTS. 599 the languages of the Makooa and the Monjou, in which there appears to be sufficient resemblance to prove that they are only different dialects of one original speech. The Sthaili, or the Sowauli, as they are termed by Mr. Salt, live on the coast of Zanzibar, northward of the Makooa, from Magadoxo, or Mug-dasho, to the neighbourhood of Mombasa. “In person they resemble the Makooa, being, as Mr. Salt says, of the true Negro race, black, stout, and ill- favoured, Their language is spoken at the seaports of Mag- adoxo, Juba, Lama, and Patta. It is stated by Mr. Bird, in a memoir published in the Geographical Journal, that the Sijhaili are seen northward as far as the coast of Ajan; that they have jet-black complexions and woolly hair, without the thick lips or protruding mouth of the Negro. Captain Owen calls them Sowhylese: he says that they are Mohammedans, and differ in person and character both from the Arabs and native Africans. Notwithstanding the wide differences in physical character between these nations of the intertropical coast of Africa and the Amakosah and other southern Kafirs, it seems probable that they are branches of one race. The number of common or resembling words in the vocabularies of their respective lan- guages which have been as yet collected, are sufficient to prove some connexion or affinity between them, and to yender it highly probable that a closer resemblance will be found on further inquiry. Some other races are mentioned by Dos Sanctos in the in- land country behind the Makooa, and between them and the high mountainous region. Among these are the Mongas, who may perhaps be the people termed by Mr. Salt, Monjous. The Mumbos are a numerous and very savage people, who live to the east and north-east of Tete, and at Chicoronga. They are cannibals, according to Dos Sanctos, and have in their town a slaughter-house, where they butcher men every day. The Zimbas, or Mazimbas, are another man-eating tribe, near Senna. “Whilst I was at Senna,” says Dos Sanctos, “the Mazimbas warred on some of the Portugals friends, and did eate many of them.” “These are talk bigge, and strong, 300 NATIONS IN THE and have for armes small hatchets, arrowes, azagaies, and great bucklers of wood, lined with wild-beasts skins, with which they cover their whole bodies.” Section II].—Of the Nations and Countries in the interior of Southern Africa. The interior of Southern Africa within the tropic is not entirely a “terra incognita.” The Portuguese colony of Rios da Senna,* and the navigation of the Zambesi, has af- forded a way of access to the inland countries which have been penetrated in this direction by several Europeans, both in former and in later times. One of the most intelligent of them is the old friar Joao dos Sanctos, from whose quaint account, translated by Purchas, I shall extract some particulars : “The river Cuama, or Zambese,” which flows through the Portuguese colony of Senna, “ rises so farre within land that none know of its head; but by tradition of their progenitors they say it comes from a lake in the midst of the continent, which yields also other great rivers divers ways visiting the sea. They call it Zambese, of a nation of Cafres dwelling neere * Some information has been communicated by Mr. Bowdich from Portuguese authorities on the history of the Portuguese colony of Rios da Senna. It is said to have been founded by Barreto, who in 1570 fitted out an expedition at Sofala, in order to penetrate, by the Mongas, to the gold-mines of Manica, belonging to the Quiteve, or sovereign, of Matapa. [Barreto for the first time traversed the mountains of Lupata, denominated “ the spine of the world.” He founded theset- tlement of Senna, and afterwards penetrated into the higher country to Chicova, in quest of silver-mines, built the fort of Tete, and took quiet possession of the banks of the Cuama. Manica, another of the Portuguese stations, is twenty journeys south-west of Senna. Here that people barter the cloths of Surat, with coarse silks and iron, for gold, ivory, and copper. Zumbo, where there is another factory, is on the Cuama, a month’s journey from Tete. Tete and Senna were lately visited by the officers in the expedition of Captain Owen. (See Bowdich’s Account of the Discoveries of the Portuguese in the interior of Angola and Mozambique, from ori- ginal MSS. p. 104, et seqq.) The relative positions of the Portuguese stations, ac- cording to the information obtained by Captain Owen’s officers, at Tete and Senna, are as follows :—The town of Senna is in latitude 17° 30 south, longitude 35° 38’ 8”. Tete is sixty leagues higher up the Zambesi or Cuama. Chicova is fifteen days? journey beyond Tete, and Zumbo eight days further. Manica is eight days from Sofala.—Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. ii. p. 158, &c. INTERIOR OF SOUTH AFRICA. 301 that lake which are so called. It hatha strong current, and is in divers places more than a league broad. Twenty leagues before it enters the sea it divides itself into two armes, each daughter as great as the mother, which thirtie leagues distant pay their tribute to the father of waters. The principal of them is called Luabo, which divides itself into two branches, one called Old Luabo and the other Old Cuama. The other less principal arme is called Quilimane, (the river Dos Bons Sinaes of Vasco de Gama.) This river hath also another great arme issuing from it, called the river of Linde, so that Zambese en- ters the sea with five mouths, or armes, very great.” Many of these particulars have been confirmed by the officers attached to the late expedition under Captain Owen. “ They sail up the Luabo west-north-west above two hundred leagues, to the kingdom of Sacamba, where it makes a great fall from the rocks, beyond which there is a strong current twenty leagues, to the kingdom of Chicoua, where there are mines of silver.” Here the highlands commence. “ Beyond Chicoua it is again navigable, but how farre they know not.” The forests of the Cuama are described by Dos Sanctos as abounding with “ elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, wild kine, horses, asses, zeuras made like mules, wild dogs, anda kind of worme as great as hogs, and fashioned somewhat like, with feet and long nailes thereon, which live in-holes like conies, and feed on ants. «“ Midway from Sena to Tete, ninety leagues from the sea, are the mountains of Lupata, very high, craggie, and exten- sive, therefore by the Cafres called ‘the backe-bone of the world.’ The river of Zambese,” continues the author, “ forceth their stonie heart to yield him passage ; in some places, as af- frighted, lifting themselves steepe upright in the ayre, in others with beetle over-hanging browes, expressing their frowning in- dignation, as if they would fall upon that piercmg enemie, which yet swiftly flieth and lightly escapeth.” “ These hills traverse the kingdom of the Mongas, the most warlike Cafres. The Mongas have the Cuama on the south, and reach to the land of Monamotapa. The kingdom of Monamotapa is situate in Mocaronga, which was, in times past, all subject to Monamotapa, but is now divided into four 302 NATIONS IN THE kingdoms, to wit, Monamotapa, which is still bigger than the three others together, and is above two hundred and eight leagues long and as much broad. Secondly, Quiteve along the river of Sofala; Sedanda, on the Sabia; and Chicunga, or the land of Manica.” All these regions, or districts, are well known by the same names in the present day. “The natives of all these countries are called by the Kafirs Mocarangas, because they speak the Mocaranga tongue. On the north-west Monamotapa borders on Abutua,* which stretches across the whole continent to Angola. In this king- dom of Abutua is much fine gold : traffic is carried on between Angola and the Zambesi. The country southward to the river Inhambane is divided between the three kingdoms separated from Monamotapa.”’ We thus find the empire of Monamotapa, or the region inhabited by the race termed Mocarongas, brought into contact with the Kafirs, who have been traced northward with certainty to the river Inhambane. “ Near to Missapa,” says Dos Sanctos, “there is a high mountain called Fura or Afura, whence may be seen a great part of Monamotapa. This is supposed to be the Ophir of Solomon : thence much gold is carried down the Cuama.” Many of the particulars mentioned by Dos Sanctos, and the general tenour of his information, coincide with notices fur- nished to M. d’Anville for the construction of his map of Africa. These notices were obtained by M. d’Anville from the Portu- guese government through their ambassador in France, M. da Cunha; and Mr. Bowdich, who says that he had an oppor- tunity of perusing in manuscript d’Anville’s original memoir, has given some extracts from it. That celebrated geographer obtained a similar account of the empire of Motapa, and its extent and dismemberment. Mocaronga, however, is termed by Bowdich, Mocaranya. It is said to have included the kingdoms of Manica, Sofala, and Sabia. This dominion was divided between three princes, as reported by Dos Sanctos. The final dismemberment of the dominion of Quiteve, accord- ing to Portuguese authorities, took place in 1759. At present * Abutua is conjectured to be Butua, and the same as Vatwa, the denomination of the Amazulih Kafirs. INTERIOR OF SOUTH AFRICA. 303 the Maravi and Movizas appear to be the most powerful na- tions in this part of Africa. If we knew certainly what was the language of the Moca- ronga much light might be thrown on the ethnography of this part of Africa. Itseems to have been spoken through a great extent of country. Dos Sanctos assures us that it was the idiom of the people subject to the Quiteve, who was sovereign of Manica and Sofala, as wellas of the great region of Mono- motapa. “They speak the Mocaronga tongue, the best lan- guage of all the Caffres; and whereas the Moores of Africa draw their words out of the throat, these pronounce with the end of their tongue and lips. They speak many words with a whistling accent, wherein they place great elegance, as I have heard the courtiers of the Quiteve and Monamotapa speak.” The country of the Monjous and Maktana is continuous with that of the Mucarongas, and it is very probable that the language of the latter people is allied to the idiom of the two former. The following words, collected by Mr. Salt from the narrative of Dos Sanctos, have an evident affinity with corres- ponding words inthe Maktiana and Monjou dialects. ENGLISH. MUCARONGA. MONJOU. MAKUA. God Molungo Moloono Wherimb A tree *Matuvi Mere It-tu-va A dog Im-pum-pes Oom-pii-ah Ma-la-po-a h Flesh of animals In ha ma Enama Ne-ya-ma To drink Cuni (a particular Khun-wa Ghoo re a kind of drink) Dos Sanctos has given some interesting notices referring to the moral and physical history of the Mucaronga race, and particularly to the “ Cafres,” as he terms them, subject to the Quiteve. “The Quiteve’s people,” says DosSanctos, “are the strongest of the Mucarongas, and the best archers, and the most expert at the azagay.”’+ ‘The Quiteve, for so the king is termed, is of curled hair, a gentile, which worships nothing.” “TJ be- lieve for certain that this Caphar nation is the most brutal and barbarous in the world, neither worshipping God nor any idol, nor have image, church, or: sacrifice’’—“ only they believe * Ma is a frequent prefix in many of the idioms ofthe Kafir nations. + Purchas’s Pilgrims, p. 1548, 1551. 304 NATIONS IN THE the soul’s immortalitie in another world. They confess that there is a devill, which they call Musaca. They hold monkeys were in time past men and women, and call them the old people.” “ Every September the king goes from Zimbaobe, his citie, to a high hill, to perform obites, or exequies, to his predecessors there buried.” “ In this feast the king and his nobles clothe themselves in their best silks and cottons: after eight days festivall they spend two or three days in mourning, then the devill enters into one of the company, saying that he is the soul of the deceased king.” “ The Cafres””—of Quiteve—“ are as blacke as pitch, curled, and wear their hair full of hornes made of the same hair, which stand up like distaffes, wearing slender pins of wood within these locks to uphold them without bending.” ‘The vulgar go naked, both men and women, without shame, wearing only an apron made of a monkey’s skin.” “In Mocaronga some parents, as blacke as pitch, have white, gold-locked children, like Flemmings. Whilst I was in the country, the Quiteve nourished one white childe in the court asa strange prodigie. The Monamotapa kept two other white Cafres with like admiration.” Mr. Bowdich’s collection of papers relating to Portuguese discoveries in South Africa, contain some notices of the countries in the interior, which formerly belonged to the em- pire of Motapa and the adjoining regions.* The most im- portant of these are extracts from the despatches of Colonel Lacerda, written at Tete in 1798, containing the depositions of an adventurer named Pereira, who had penetrated into the interior, and gave an account of several kingdoms before un- known, which he reported himself to have visited. This tra- veller, whose relation has been generally credited,+ set out from Maringa, three days’ journey north of Tete, in company with traders of the Moviza, a nation of the mterior. He passed through the territory of the Maravis, divided into the districts of Benerenda, Mocenda, and Mazaramba. The Maravi are * An Account of the Discoveries of the Portuguese in the interior of Angola and Mozambique, from original MSS. By T. E. Bowdich, Esq. Lond. 1824. + On this authority many places are marked in Mr. Arrowsmith’s last map of Africa. INTERIOR OF SOUTH AFRICA. 305 a nation of robbers. They are the people, as it seems, who have given their name to a great lake, which d’Anville laid down in this part of Africa from the report of the missionary Liugi Mariano, under the designation of Lake Zambri, or Merawe. After passing this lake,and a rapid river termed Aroo- anga, Pereira came into the country of the Movizas, a civil- ized people, having, however, their teeth filed, who trade with the Mujaos, and through them with the coast of Zanzibar. They pay tribute to a neighbouring state, subject to a prince termed the Cassemba, whose capital, a fortified town, was visited by Pereira, after he had passed a wide but shallow lake. The sovereign is said to live in a style of great magni- ficence, clothed in silk and gold. He has, moreover, a well- disciplined army, and appoints magistrates to prevent drunk- enness among his subjects ! The writer of an excellent article in the one-hundred and twenty-fourth number of the Edinburgh Review has afforded some evidence to these reports, which otherwise would have appeared entitled to little credit, derived from information given by an intelligent Arab, a native of Zanzibar, who had himself travelled in the interior of South Africa, and had vi- sited the lake in the country of the Movizas. This lake is said to be termed by the natives N’Yassa, or the “ Inland Sea:” it is situated to the westward of a chain of mountains of great ele- vation, beyond which is a vast highland plain. The lake be- comes visible to the traveller, who has ascended this bordering chain, at a great distance, in the midst of the plain, studded with innumerable islands, and extending from north-east to south-west. Itis said to contain fresh water, but no hippo- potami or crocodiles, though these creatures abound in the rivers to the eastward and below the mountains. The natives of this country are, therefore, mountaineers, and they display that superiority both in the physical and social state which often distinguishes the inhabitants of elevated countries in Africa from those of the lower and hotter regions. “The Mo- viza, the Mucamango, Muchiva, the Monomoezi, are different tribes or nations inhabiting the plains above the sources of the great rivers.” All these are said to be of a “ bright brown com- plexion, tall, handsome, and vigorous, like the Amazuluh, or a oe | as 306 RACES INHABITING the fairest of the Bechiéana tribes, near the Cape of Good Hope.” The Moviza and the Monomoezi are styled Vavia, or the rich people. The fairest tribe are said to be the Wambungo, These people, according to the writer whom I am now citing, are termed white by the neighbourmg black races, and give the foundation of the story so prevalent in many accounts of Africa that a white nation inhabits the interior.* To the northward of the country of Monomotapa is the em- pire of Munemugi, extending, according to Dos Sanctos, who terms it a great Kafir country, behind the coast of Melinda, bordering towards the south on the lands of the Mauruca, a part of the Makua and of Embeve, and reaching northwards to the empire of the Abyssines.” In this last assertion Dos Sanctos is probably mistaken. It is more likely that the people described border on the countries of the Galla, who wander over the plains behind the region of the Stmali, to the north- ward of the Juba. The Munemugiare probably the Monomo- ez1; Mune, Mono, or Mani, meaning sovereign, as it has been observed, is prefixed to the titles or names of many South African chiefs and sovereignties. Monomotapa, Monomeegi, Monikongo are examples. Section IV.—Of the Races inhabiting ihe Western Parts of | South Africa.—Empire of Kongo. On the western side of Africa,to the southward of theequator, the inland countries are almost unknown beyond the boun- daries of the Cape colony and Namaaqualand, if we except the region comprised in the empire, so termed, of Kongo. Of the latter we have more information through the medium of the Portuguese colony, and of the missionaries who have been sent to convert the natives to the Roman Catholic re- ligion. A vast region nearly three hundred leagues in extent, reaching from Cape Lopez or Gonsalvo to Cape Negro, and in breadth to the space of two hundred leagues, is said to have been for ages subject to one sovereign, who was styled the Mani-kongo, and who governed the provinces of his wide _* Edinburgh Review, No. 124, p. 352. THE EMPIRE OF KONGO. 307 domain by his Sovas, or black viceroys.* This is Lower or Southern Guinea, or the empire of Kongo. According to Professor Ritter, who has analytically exa- mined all the accounts which are likely to throw light on the physical geography of Kongo, the limit which separates the lower region of this empire from the high central table-land of Africa, is formed by chains of mountains, which run from south to north, and bearin the map constructed by Lopez, and in various geographical outlines, the names of “ Serra de Cris- tal” and “ de Prata,” and of “ Monti Freddi e Nevosi ;” they are continuous with the mountains of Dongo and Matamba, which form the eastern border of the kingdoms of Benguela and Kongo: passing in a northerly direction at right-angles with the rivers which descend from the central region towards the Atlantic, they are traversed by those rivers, and give ex- istence to the great cataracts of the Coanza and of the Zaire. The low country to the westward of this line is nearly two hundred leagues in breadth, from the sea-coast. Between the highest level of the mountain-plain which lies to the eastward of Kongo and the low lands, there is a band of broken and diversified surface, which is the richest and most populous part of the whole region. There is the celebrated province of Bamba, termed “ la chiave e lo scudo, la spada e la difesa del Re,” which, though only a sixth part of the empire, could set on foot 400,000 warriors. The Portuguese only frequented the lower or littoral region, abounding in sandy deserts but traversed by innumerable channels, where heats hardly tole- rable and pestilential emanations with swarms of reptiles and noxious animals expose to perpetual hazard the lives of the inhabitants.+ This was the country traversed by Captain Tuckey, who did not penetrate beyond the cataracts. It would seem, from this outline of the physical geography of Kongo, that the great mass of the population are the in- habitants of comparatively low plains, at no great elevation above the surface of the ocean. In the high country, and near the higher course of the Zaire, and to the eastward of * Description of Kongo in Astley’s Voyages and in the fifth tome of the Algemeine Historie der Reisen. + Ritter’s Erdkunde, 1. Theil, s. 257 et seqq- 9 : x ape en Saeed Sen i aes eee ee ss - " or See ee 308 RACES INHABITING the river Cambra, dwell the Anziko, the Angeka, and N’teka, on mountains rich in mines, and covered with forests of san- dal-wood. These people are savages who are said to feed on human flesh. . In the early history of the Portuguese settlements in Kongo, the Jagas hold a very conspicuous place. They were hordes of fierce nomadic warriors, who overran the high plains to the westward of Loango and Kongo, and struck terror into the inhabitants of all the neighbouring countries. The de- scription of the Jagas answers almost exactly to that of the Mantatees and Vatwahs, who have been so formidable in their incursions on the borders of the English colony. The name of Jaga, denoting warlike nomades, is now a title of honour- able distinction, and is claimed as the exclusive right of the Cassangas, a powerful tribe, who live to the eastward of the empire of Kongo. It is in the territory of the Cassangas, according to the information obtained by Mr. Bowdich, that the most remote fairs, or trading-resorts, frequented by the Portuguese from Angola and Kongo, are held. At- tempts have been made to penetrate from the country of the Cassangas further into the interior, and to open, if possible, a communication with Mosambique, on the eastern coast. A mulatto traveller, sent from Cassanga, after a journey of two . months, is said to have reached the capital of a tribe termed Multa, a large town laid out in regular streets, where fifteen or twenty Negroes are sacrificed every day. From the M4- laas the Cassangas receive in barter the copper which they sell to the Portuguese. The Cassangas have, for their northern neighbours, the Cachingas, and the Domges on the east, who maintain a communication with the Portuguese at Mombaza. The Mexicongos, or Kongos of the interior, de- scribe the Hocanguas as a powerful nation, beyond whom are the dominions of the Amaluca, a nation of the interior, whose name indicates an affinity to the Kafir Amazuluh and Amakosah. The proper inhabitants of the great empire of Kongo are said, by the early Portuguese travellers, to have spoken one language, divided into a number of dialects.* I shall enume- * Lopez, Relazione del Reame di Congo, per Fil. Pigafetta, cited by Ritter, wi supra. THE EMPIRE OF KONGO. 309 rate the tribes constituting this great nation in two classes, beginning with the countries and tribes northward of the river Zaire. q 2. States comprised in the Kongo empire, situated to the northward of the Zaire. Loango is the principal country to the northward of the Zaire. Proyart, who has described it, says that its inhabit- ants, and all the people of this part of Africa, as far as the Zaire, including the nations of Majomba, Kakongo, and An- goy, speak one dialect, with very little variation. Loango ex- tends from Makanda, in the 4° 5’ south latitude, to the river Loango Luisa. The capital town, Bouali, at a distance from the coast, contains 15,000 inhabitants. The country is very unhealthy to Europeans. A great export of slaves has been carried on from districts in the interior, particularly from Ma- jomba and Quibangua.* Slaves from the latter district are said to be “very fine Negroes, well-made, very black, with white teeth and pleasing countenances.” A remarkable fact in the history of Loango is that the country contains—according to a statement which was fully credited by Oldendorp, himself a writer of most correct judg- ment and of unimpeachable veracity—many Jews settled in the country, who retain their religious rites, and the distinct habits which keep them isolated from other nations. Though thus separate. from the African population, they are black, and resemble the other Negroes in every respect as to phy- sical characters.} To the southward of Loango lies the kingdom of Kakongo, termed by European seamen, Malemba, from the name of its principal port, which was a place of embarkation for vast numbers of slaves. The Portuguese resorted to these coun- tries with the double purpose of making slaves and converts. They were more successful in the former object, the functions of Christian missionary and kidnapper being incompatible. To the northward of Loango lies the kingdom of Jomba, often termed, with the ordinary prefix, Majomba. This % Malte-Brun’s Geography of Africa. + Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Bruder, &c. Barby, 1777. §. 287. 310 EMPIRE OF KONGO. must not be confounded with another kingdom of Majomba, which, as well as that of N’teka, lies to the eastward of Loango. Further southward is the kingdom of N’Goyo, Goy, or Angoyi, which often takes its name from the bay of Ca- binda. The slaves exported from this part of the coast are termed Kongos, Sognies, and Mandongos. The Sognies are ‘stout, copper-coloured men. Proyart describes all the nations above mentioned as hav- img one language, which he says is different from that of Kongo, spoken to the southward’ of the river Zaire. The dif- ference, according to Professor Vater, is, however, certainly not greater than that between the English and Danish. The idiom of Angola, and that of Kongo, are said, by Pigafetta, to differ nearly m the same degree as the Portuguese and Castilian, or as the Venetian and Calabrian dialects of the Italian.* ) 4] 3. Kongo, the kings of which claimed formerly a kind of sovereignty over all the neighbouring states, is situated to the southward of the river Zaire, and extends from that river to the high mountains and sandy deserts of Angola, and to the river Danda. On the east it is bounded by Matamba, and other districts still less visited. The history of Kongo has been tolerably well known to Europeans from the conclusion of the fifteenth century, at which time the Portuguese formed settlements there, and entered into alliances with the Kongoese sovereigns, who made profession of Christianity. The capital of Kongo, termed St. Salvador by the Portuguese, is said to be a well-built town, shaded by palm-trees. Kongo is divided into numerous provinces, of which Bamba, Sogno, Pemba, Quia- Maxondo, N’Damba, N’Sasso, N’Sella, are the principal, The Portuguese style the chieftains of these districts dukes. The kingdom of Angola, N’Gola, or Dongo, extends south- ward from the river Danda in 8° 30’ south latitude to 16°. It is said to have included the province or kingdom of Benguela. The people of this latter country have a peculiar lan- guage, different from that of their neighbours, and difficult to understand. In Angola is the capital of the Portuguese pos- sessions in Africa, Loando San Paoli. * See page 35, vol. v. of the ‘‘ Allgemeine Historie der Reisen,” an admirable collection in twenty-one quarto volumes, the first parts of which are a translation of Astley’s Voyages. LANGUAGES OF THIS EMPIRE. sll Oldendorp has described the Negro nation of Mandongo as occupying the interior of Angola, divided into three states, Colambo, Cando, and Bongolo. Professor Water remarks that Bongolo is probably Benguela, and that Mandongo is a modification of Dongo, one of the names of Angola itself. Inclosed between Kongo and Benguela is the kingdom of Ma- tamba, a mountainous and forest country, now independent of the Mani-kongo. Portuguese and other Catholic missionaries have compiled works on the languages of Loango, Kongo, and Angola, from an examination of which Vater, following Grandpré, has de- clared the language of this region to be divided into many dia- lects, but essentially the same ; soft and harmonious, abound- ing with inflections, the verbs and nouns being modified by them in such a manner as to express a great variety of changes in their sense. The editor of Tuckey’s voyage to the river Zaire says—“ There does not seem to be the least truth in the complicated mechanism of the Kongo language, which some fanciful author thought he had discovered.” The same writer seems to treat with ridicule the opinion of Malte-Brun, who has followed Professor Vater without citing his name. The editor was apparently unacquainted with the accurate and laborious researches of the German philologer. Mr. Marsden, whose opinions on any subject connected with the history of languages, and particularly of the languages of the African nations, are entitled to the greatest attention, has remarked that the specimens he possesses of the idiom of Loango and the dialect to the northward of the Zaire prove them to be radically the same with the language of Kongo, which is spoken to the southward of that great river. Dialectic differences are found, as it seems, in places at a short dis- tance from each other; but one speech, variously modified, extends through the whole empire of Kongo, and a great deal further. Of this language copious vocabularies were collected by Captain Tuckey, commander of the expedition gent to explore the river Zaire, and the adjoining coasts. These vocabularies, as Mr. Marsden observed, appear to have been taken accurately from the mouths of the natives, and agree generally with those formerly collected and given oie COMPARISON OF THE by Brusciotti, Oldendorp, and Hervas. They also correspond with vocabularies from the neighbouring countries of Loango and Angola, with some variety of pronunciation, and less per- fectly with those of the Cambo and Mandongo people given by Oldendorp, belonging likewise to the western coast. Accord- ing to Mr. Marsden, it is highly probable that all these tribes of people understand each other in conversation. So much for the information obtained with respect to the languages of Kongo and its provinces. The vocabularies given by Tuckey were collected at Malemba, in Loango, and at Embomma, near the mouth of the Zaire, on the northern shore of that river. Section V.—Indications of Affinity between the Languages and Races of People in various parts of Southern Africa. A striking resemblance in the forms of words, and especi- ally in the common prefixes to national and local names, 1s to be traced in various idioms of Southern Africa. The syl- lables Ma, Mu, N’, and an,* which come before the names of countries and tribes from Majomba to Angola, in the western region, are equally prevalent in the names of the Kafir com- munities in the south-eastern parts of the continent: it is sur- prising to find the Mono-emugi, or Mono-moezi, and the Mo- nomotapa, with titles or prefixes so similar to that of the Mani- kongo, or emperor of the Kongoese nations. These traces afford an indication of some analogy between the languages of different nations in very distant parts of Southern Africa, and the suspicion hence arising has been confirmed and converted into certainty by a discovery made accidentally by Mr. Mars- den. That distinguished writer, whose attention was for many years directed to subjects connected with philology, collected at Bencoolen a short vocabulary from the mouth of a Negro servant, a native of Mosambique, and before Captain Tuckey’s voyage was undertaken he had fully recognised a decided re- * Ma and N’ are prefixes of the names of particular tribes throughout a great part of Southern Africa, EASTERN AND WESTERN LANGUAGES. OLS semblance between the words contained in it and specimens of the language of Kongo. On comparing it subsequently with the vocabularies obtained by Captain Tuckey on the coast of Loango, and with other specimens of the Kongo language from Oldendorp and Brusciotti, and likewise with some words of the language spoken at Dalagoa Bay and amongst the Kafirs, obtained by White and Sparrmann, he discovered in all these collections some striking comcidences. In an appendix to Captain Tuckey’s narrative of his voyage to the Zaire, Mr. Marsden recorded this interesting discovery, of which he displayed the proof in a list of twelve words from nearly all the languages above mentioned. His specimen of the language of the Mosambique coast was of very small extent— at least he has only published eight or ten words. I had lately an opportunity, through the kind assistance of Dr. Hodgkin, of obtaining a more extensive vocabulary of this idiom from a native of Mosambique, brought to England by Dr. Natterer: this Negro termed his mother-tongue the Ma- kéani. It proves to be nearly the same language with that of which Mr. Salthas given a specimen under the title of Makooa or Makooana, and which, as he reports, is spoken by the Negroes ofthe country behind the Mosambique shore, and it is likewise cognate with the dialect of the Monjou, who live at some distance in the interior. We have thus four specimens of the Mosambique language,* which not only il- lustrate each other, and somewhat extend our as yet scanty acquaintance with that idiom, but further prove its affinity with the dialect of the Sihaili, or Sowauli, the Negro nation inhabiting the coast of Zanzibar, further northward than Mo- sambique, and reaching even beyond the equator and the mouth of the river Juba. The following table will present a condensed view of the affinities which I have been enabled to trace between languages proved thus to be related to the Kafirian stock. The first column contains words of the Ama- kosah tongue ; the second some words of the Bechtana; the * In M. Balbi’s Introduction to his Atlas Ethnographique, vol. i, p. 226, are three short vocabularies of dialects spoken in the same parts of Africa. It may be seen that the numerals marked as those of the Matibani bear a considerable resem- blance to the terms used by the Mak@ani. 314 COMPARISON OF LANGUAGES. third a part of the vocabulary from Dalagoa Bay, collected by White ; the fourth contains the specimens above mentioned of the dialects of the Mosambique country; the fifth some words of the idiom of the Suhaili; the sixth a part of the vo- cabularies of Malemba and Embomma, collected by Tuckey on the coasts of Kongo and Angola ; and the last some words given by Oldendorp as specimens of four other dialects spoken in the empire of Kongo. To these I shall add a specimen, extending only to the numerals, of the Sonho, a dialect of the Kongo language, and of the Banda which is the idiom of the Jagas, in the countries lying eastward of Kongo. These last are taken from Mr, Bowdich’s Memoir on the Discoveries of the Portuguese. : Se -ATaaqssaoons paroquinu ‘osu0yy ‘oSuopuryiy -(g) vumoqurg—"(T). eqmerep—ere Aoyon,T, Woxy syooTerp o3u0 ayy jo Lienquooa sayeg wor (7) poyreut ssoy— wioay 1010}78N “AcE Aq pourerqo Arefnqeoo,A ayy Wosy “gq ‘tyuno “a & Ss sue wu *g Senoat OATS *¢ Senge 80A “q ‘mbeu Y ise 6. c "g ‘oupu | ‘oueu *q ‘Trenquies yp ‘lvoques *g Tagoquies @ ‘ouraoys}u9a *g ‘nuueues “a & S sa bea: *g “nus *g ‘nugs Ture yIs TUNE Au1009 eueu eueA,d eue.u nueua Apoquies meequres p ‘uei-iIs qT ‘nue} p ‘eds © “eurTUt ] ‘eue oourques oouR3 ° 6 q ‘eupn ° G sve vay vor el-ts nes n)8S Z ‘001e} J ‘neye} p ‘nqyerIs I ‘aye} “q “Tayh *§ STT9S "aq “yogurt *S “Tyoout p ‘a1gouUl [ “tros p ‘Typsout [ ‘osooq z ‘Ajoout 1 *9109 J ‘Aoseq z ‘fasout *AHOGNAGIO *ATMOO YL WOU woud LOLIVIG OONOY LOATVIC OONOY ‘VaNVG aNv OHNOS efou SUL Y gueuunU yopueynur ayy funy ooueul ayoayonut zZ ‘ooyepeul araqqeut efow-ays Sequreg ‘oSueory *ZIA assess TTTWLOY OUTUT O00] gssass Buel} Td eueyy eseoul BUBIT} eueyy ¢ z, ‘gssess ¢ Seues-oul gE “nyey-eq jee % ‘itd Z “esoout “ArenqeooA s,uepsieyT wWoryere (g) poyreut os (Z) peyteur soy, L— — SMOT[OF SB =U] 94} JO sp10 M—osensuey yy} Jo Arepnqeo0 A S.qeying. ayy Aq uMOT, SwueyeID 1% poystyqnd ‘reuueiy Igey oy} Woy (g) pa —: sarjoyyne SurMorpof oy} Uory ‘paroequinu se “BooyeyAl oy jo Arepnqes0 A s ‘sjoaqerp onbrquiesoyy, ay} JO Sp10 AA — “ONT AA WOry “IJ, WO splom euenypog— Areuoysssyut uefaTse MA & newinoy nourty} neuoout noredty} A910 A908 evosulyo ‘ITIVHAg *MADIAN VSOPT aunts TU, WUIIe ednfsett orey3 nouey} fu,dut orreIeq, omey 3 Mogqey epoyesuoul 4ser moy sty 018 diopuaptOQ Woy speTeIp OSUu0sT a— eg Aq ArepnqvooA % WOT spIO T]REMOS JO } Tureys-T Tues aumfs g “eqoy-T auony,} © ‘ozoqis 10 OXOQUIIZ @ “OXUdXIZ ayyepuey ys @ ‘nepuezuiz eueyis ¢ “nueTyulZ nuepyseUl g ‘oulZ z “nurs TUeUT @ *nyeyUIZ zg N}B}-8 nyyy jeur g “pUrqualZ z ‘Turqeq Torqeut zg ‘ofut aAuyt Teas nofuo yay oyy—eaTyeu onbiquiesoyy, sty ayes worg (1) poyreur osoy,y, keg vosepeq jo aden ‘gakog “AAT *AOY yreul “sprom yesoyy—uroisuayyorry wos (T) Spiom Yesoyy Suaye} are so|qe} SuTpassons pue eaoge ot} Ul Sprom oU,L, uo, oun ys madAag OAT, 3uO ‘AVE voovivd ‘VNVOHOTG ‘HVSOY «=“HSITONG 316 ENGLISH. BECHUANA. Daracoa Bay. Names of Persons, Relations, and Qualities. Man uhmto muhnto monhee pl. umuntd monuna Woman, wife umf-asi massari aduhast unjana lusaana Children § lusatschana Young man lutscha People ga-baanto baato Father bao raacho Child d uhmtoana - Mother mao, 1. mau, 2 maacho Brother umklhueh muehuluah molupaliaka, 2 2 alloombo,4 4 Dead u-file, 2 foi ufile Names of Material Objects. Heaven isuhlu maano Sun ilanga lelanga, loetshatsi diambo Moon injanga 2 moomo Evening star ngaandi § Night upsuhoh bussecho Water maasi, 1 : f meetsi maesi, 2 § Mountain mango Salt tjua munyou Day pittce immihti Bird Head Rain fula House inslhuh Road MosaMBIQUE, Viz. MakUANA AND Monsovu. SUHAILI, OR SowAvULt. 317 KonGo DIALECTS: Konco DIALECTS, _ MALEMBA AND EMBOMMA. muntu, | muke, 1 mékonqué, 4 mischana, 4 (a girl) te-te, ] titi, 2 mama, |, 2 } amaoo, 4 molupaliaka, 2 2 alloombo, 4 4 kufoa, 3 o-kua, 1 ezooah, 1 moloongo (God) 4 moyse, 3 tan d’wa, | (star) maschi maze madje mago, | matoombe, 4 rouku, 1 Q jete, 4 § riubu, 3 mere, 4 noo-ne, | mu tu we, 4 ma na moo ke sejana (a girl) babbe-akou amavo FROM OLDENDORP. moontau, 1 kentou, | \ quinto, 2 mauana moana bantoo, 2 tata, 1, taata, 2. mama, |, 2 ezooloo, | tangua, 2 mooezy, 1 ) n’gondue, 1? gondo, 2 § massecha, 1 maza, 1 and 2 m’zanza monqua Q moonqua § booboo moiné, 2 noone, 1 2 noonee, 2 § n’too, 1. m’too, 2 t voula, 1 t vola, 2 mzo, 1 and 2 mozeila, 1 euzala, 2 mond, | mundu, 4 kentu, 4 makaintu tatta, 1, tate, 2 mama, |, 2 sullu, 4 2 tunga, 4 § gondo,1 2 gonde, 4 § ‘oojnsua I ‘euvu G “OTOq *{ ‘ojoa G “BUCA | SeueA Z “euout j “ely “] “vap @ ‘aoaap U1 texopat 1 ‘aquos oqoojoos ooT0os,u 20q, Ut % “aUIIpooy ; [ ‘aamaapooyt @ ‘Auooy OYOH Z ‘osorut , T ‘nesour Z% ‘oouswt | ‘oouvut CLO I ‘“enou t Zz *oo}eul ( 1 ooxeut 0,004 z ‘edosus @ ‘Aeanims p ‘odooynsey j ‘f “enjoy p ‘eoodum ; @ ‘T “endepew p TUN b Tunyt fF ‘ozout @ Sosour © ‘oueut § ¢ ‘nin3-out tg ‘noafu 1 ‘oodey-a g “nue Pp “eauno I ‘naes PF ‘9M Jooxeur Hyaq-eun euod nysof Qopur ouloyUt aqunnsur Aemor[ns } alee auINTUL ane ouoy-un Wo {poot TULOOT oysea} out ofyjseoure oyueut ousut ovuo, z ‘nefue ‘ovyfuel eqeyysuin epuoziya nwioopuin aqyayeo yoo, 400.7 weg ynojy IO *dUOdNACIO —ooNOY ‘ATION, L—OoN0y ‘ITIVHNG *TADIINVSOPT “VOOVIVG “VNVOHOAG “HVSOY ‘HSLIONG COMPARISON OF THE KOSAH AND KONGO. 319 A still more decisive proof of near relation is displayed between the language of the Amakosah Kafirs and the dialects of the Kongo nations, by a comparison of the personal and possessive prononns in all these idioms. The following table contains, in one column the personal and possessive pronouns in the idiom of Loango* and Kakongo ; in a second those of the dialect of Kongo; and in a third the same words in the Kosah Kafir. Itis observed by the author of the Kafir Gram- mar, that the possessive pronouns in the idiom of the Ama- kosah are formed from the genitive cases of the personal pronouns : LANGUAGE OF THE AMAKOSAH. IDIOMS OF LOANGO AND KAKONGO. Bie) OBL aia Sth ei ee oe Personal Possessive, Personal Possessive,| Personal Possessive, Pronouns. Pronouns.| Pronouns. or Genitives.|Pronouns. or Genitives. Singular. Singular. Singular. Ist per. i ame meno me mina am 2d u aku ngue ku wena ako 3d ka andi oyandi ndi yena ake Plural. Plural. Plural. Ist per. etu etu tina etu 2d enu enu nina enu 3d au au yena ake | IDIOMS OF KONGO. The preceding collections exhibit specimens of languages spoken in the most distant parts of Southern Africa: they may be considered as exemplifying, though bya brief specimen, the sdioms of the whole African continent to the southward of the equator, except the Hottentot dialects. The Sthaili on the eastern coast, near the river Juba, the Kongo languages in the west, and the Kafir in the south, occupy the extreme points of a great triangle. The imstances of resemblance are sufficiently numerous to show undoubted proof of con- nexion between all these languages; but this proof of con- nexion is of different extent in different mstances. The words of the Suhaili dialect are few in addition tothe numerals ; but few as they are, they show several instances of near analogy * It may be doubted whether the short syllables given as personal pronouns in the Loango dialect are the simple forms, or rather affixes or suffixes, consisting of abbreviations of the primitive forms. ee ——— = en oe 320 COMPARISON OF EASTERN to the Bechiiana and Kosah languages. This is likewise the case with the idioms of the Makiani and other dialects of Mosambique.* Although the instances of common words in the various idioms of Southern Africa as yet discovered, are not absolutely considered very numerous, yet they are so in relation to the extent of the vocabularies obtained and compared. When we consider the nature of these words, common to the idioms of so many distant nations, the supposition that they may have been borrowed by one people from another seems alto- gether untenable. We are ready to think that no other hypo- thesis can explain these indications of affinity in the idioms of tribes in so low a degree of social culture, and spread over countries so remote, except the obvious one that the tribes themselves were originally subdivisions of the same stock. I shall not, however, attempt to lay down this conclusion as proved with respect to all the nations whose idioms are com- pared in the preceding table, but I think it may be consi- dered as undoubted in regard to several of the most remark- able of them and to some of those which are very widely separated. In the instance of the Kosah and Kongo languages, a much stronger evidence has been shown than with respect to the remainder, and some additional proof might still be furnished. The dialects of the empire of Kongo—including the dialect of Loango in the north, that of Kongo in the south, and the Banda, or idiom of Cassanga, in the interlor—may be considered as forming collectively one nearly-related family of languages. Those of the Kafirtribes are another. Between these two comes the Bechtana language. Besides analogy in particular words, the specimen of pronouns above given in-- dicates a grammatical affinity between several of these idioms, and we have good reason for the opinion that this affinity is very extensive. I have shown in a preceding chapter, by a comparison of all the information I could collect respecting’ the grammatical system of the Kongo dialects from Grandpré, * It is remarkable that the Maktana table of numeral s, which contains the same series as the Sthaili, though abbreviated and corrupted up to five, has no proper words to express the higher terms, but repeats the lower numbers from five to ten, 2 fact which seems to argue a falling off into a state of extreme barbarism. Sn ee EN AN = OE a ee y aaaniaidaedneneiaaer eee lon 4 a iS S Ly AND WESTERN LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 321 Brusciotti, and from Cannecattem, as cited by Vater and Bow- dich, with the accounts given from authentic sources respect- ing the Kosah Kafir language, that the same laws of construc- tion, and the same principles of declension and conjugation, hold in all these extensively-spread languages. Ina great de- eree the same laws of construction are, as I have observed, in all probability, common to all the genuine African languages ; but those of Southern Africa are by many circumstances shown to be the most intimately related. We have likewise, in the instance of these last, besides the proof of near analogy in grammatical construction, which alone would bring the re- spective languages within the same crass, a further proof of relationship in the resemblance of their vocabularies. On the evidence of these facts we may, perhaps, venture to comprise them all in one FAMILY of languages. Perhaps, indeed, after taking into consideration the coinci- dences already pointed out in their respective vocabularies, and the still more decided marks of affinity which depend on gram- matical structure, we shall be warranted in comparing the re- lation between these idioms of South Africa with that which is now generally allowed to subsist between the languages of the Indo-European nations. Section VI.—Physical Characters of the Nations of inter- tropical Africa, to the southward of the Equator. We have seen that a vast region in Africa, including per- haps the whole space between the tropic of Capricorn and the equinoctial line, is principally the abode of nations con- nected by affinity of languages with the races of people who inhabit countries further towards the south. Some of the tribes comprised in this region are strongly distinguished in many respects from the Kosahs and Bechianas. The slaves brought from Mosambique to the Cape of Good Hope are considered as a very different class of people from the Kafirs. By Mr. Barrow, for example, they are contrasted with the Kafirs. “At Mosambique and Sofala, the black people,” says this excellent writer, “ are all Negroes:” and he speaks VOL. II. ¥ Nene, LN er a22 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF of the stupid Negroes of Mosambique “as inferior in many respects to the Hottentots.” The slaves exported from Kongo, which has been long a principal resort of the Portuguese traders in black men, have always been regarded by slave- dealers and planters as genuine Negroes. By those who hold the Negro race to be very distinct in physical characters from the Kafirs, and who doubt or disbelieve the asserted influence of external agencies in modifying the complexion and form of mankind, it will be thought very improbable that the natives of Mosambique and Kongo are of the same stock with the Amakosah. The difficulty of admitting this opinion will be materially lessened, if I am not mistaken, by a consideration of the fol- lowing circumstances : Whatever may be thought of the affinity of the Kafirs with the distant nations of Kongo and Mosambique, there seems no room for doubting that the people round Dalagoa Bay are tribes of that stock. We have shown that there is sufficient reason for extending this observation to the peo- ple of Mafoomo, Mattoll and Temby. The Mapoota peo- ple seem to be fairly included in proper Kafir-land, from which their country forms a promontory: they are nearly surrounded by Kafir tribes, viz. the Zoolahs and Amapondah. | By Captain Owen, and by Mr. Thompson they are consi- dered as undoubtedly of the same race. Of these Mapoota people Captain Owen has given us the following description : “‘ A much greater variety is observable in the countenances and features of these people than is usually perceived in Ne- gro countries, all being jet-black, with thick woolly hair, differing in nothing but this well-marked variety of features from those of the coast of Guinea. The men are stout, hand- some and athletic, and the women well-made, but generally not so well-featured as the men: still many might be called pretty.” “On this coast the custom of tattooing was practised ; notching the face is universal, each tribe having its distinc- tive mark. This is common to all the Negro nations of Africa; but the people of Dalagoa Bay and to the south- ward have also a peculiar fashion for shaving and dressing THE EASTERN AND WESTERN KAFIRS, ooo their hair. The chiefs of Mapoota and Temby wear their heads shaved, except a large tuft on the crown, on which is placed a small pad or roller, into which the wool, combed out — straight and tight, is tucked with much neatness. The Zoolas or Vatwahs, on the contrary, shave the crown, and leave.a ring of wool round the head, similarly dressed by being trussed over a pad, and kept in its place by wooden skewers.” * By the variety of features here described, we are to under- stand that while the Negro form of countenance is frequent, there are many who deviate from it, and approach the Euro- pean type: a similar observation has been made among all the northern tribes of the same groupe of nations, as with respect to the people of Kongo, and the same remark has occurred to nearly all the travellers who have described the Kafirs and Bechiianas. Inall the races of Eastern Africa, and in many of those of the interior, we shall find that similar variations exist. If the physical traits of the Mapoota tribe, who will, as [ suppose, be admitted to be undoubtedly of the Kafir race, so nearly approach the Negro character, it will be less difficult to admit that the natives of Mosambique and Kongo belong to the same stock. The observations of the missionary Mo- ritz Thoman have been cited to prove a general resemblance +n customs and manners between the Amakosah and the people of Mosambique, and many particulars collected in the preceding sections of this chapter from the descriptions given by Dos Sanctos, as well as by late writers, exemplify the same remark. By Captain Tuckey, or by the narrator of the voyage per- formed under his command, it is said that the people of Kongo are a mixed race, having no national physiognomy. and many of them resembling, in their features, the people of Europe. The attempt to account for all variations of physical character on the hypothesis of mixture of races, cannot be adopted in this instance with any degree of probability. We are assured that there are very few Mulattoes among the people of Kongo and the Portuguese can never have been in * QOwen’s Narrative, vol. i. p. 78. ae $24 PHYSICAL HISTORY such a proportion to the native people, with respect to num- bers, as to produce any impression on the physical character of the race; and it does not appear that the individuals who are said to have European features are either more fair or have hair less woolly than the remainder of the people. Professor Smith remarked that the chief, or mafooh, of Ma- lambo, and many of his retinue, had interesting, noble counte- nances, with more of the Arab than of the Negro character.* There are, however, deviations from the black complexion and woolly hair of the Negro race among the people of Kon- go, though these deviations take place in a manner which does not allow them to be referred to intermixture of race with the Portuguese. Many, for example, have red hair, which is very rare, if it ever occurs amongst the Portuguese. The following description is collected from the accounts given by Pigafetta and Cavazzi : “The complexion of the genuine natives of Kongo is black, though not of the same degree; some being of a deeper dye than others; some are of a dark brown, some of an olive, and others of a blackish red, especially the younger sort. Their hair is in general black and finely curled, but some have it of a dark sandy colour. Their eyes are mostly of a fine lively black, but some of a dark sea-green colour ; they — have neither flat noses nor thick lips like other Negroes. Their stature is mostly of the middle-size, and, excepting their black complexions, they much resemble the Portuguese, though some of them are more fat and fleshy than these.’’+ According to Pigafetta’s statement, the “ Negroes of Kon- go have black, curly, and frequently red hair.” He observes that “they resemble the Portuguese pretty much, except in colour: the iris was in some black, but in others of a bluish green, and they had not the thick lips of Nubians.” + It appears, on the whole, very probable that all the nations of Africa, southward of the equator, with the exception of the * Pigafetta drew up, and prepared for publication, the memoirs of Lopez, who resided several years in Kongo. See Astley’s Voyages, vol. iii. p. 132. ‘++ Modern Universal History, vol. xvi. ¥ Relazione del Reame di Kongo, per F. Pigafetta, Winterbottom’s Account of Sierra Leone, vol. i. p. 197. OF THE KAFIR RACE. O20 Hottentot tribes, including the people ofthe western coast as far northward as the empire and the dialects of Kongo and Loango reach, and on the eastern shore the Makuana and the other inhabitants of the Mosambique country, and even the Sithaili who extend nearly to Ajan beyond the Juba, are con- nected in origin. On the sea-coast, within the tropics, these nations, especially those among them who continue in the absolutely savage state, display much of the Negro character. Some, perhaps, have the physiognomy which is considered as | most characteristic of that description of men in an equal degree with the inhabitants of Gumea. But the tribes who dwell in the high countries in the interior, and those who ap- | pear to have issued from that region at no very distant period, | among whom we may perhaps include the Amakosah, deviate | greatly from the ordinary Negro type. Of this they still re- tain some vestiges even in the form of their skull, as I have shown from the results of Dr. Knox’s researches, in the first volume of this work. Their complexion is sometimes nearly black, although in other tribes it becomes a clear brown. The hair of many is woolly, in others it is considerably lon- ger than the hair of the Guinea Negroes, and is rather friz- zled than woolly, or, as Owen describes it, intermediate be- tween the hair of the Negro and European, and similar to the curled locks of the Madecasses. The form of the skull in the natives of Mosambique re- cedes considerably, as I have observed in the first volume of this work, from the type which is considered as proper to the Negro tribes, and makes an approach towards the form cha- racteristic of the Kafirs.* I believe that this observation may be generalised and applied to all the native races of the east- ern parts of Africa. There are several specimens of these skulls in the museum belonging to Guy’s Hospital, which are marked as belonging to Mosambique Negroes, in the cata- logue of the museum, published by Dr. Hodgkin. The fact of this approximation to the form of the Kafirs in the cra- nium of the Mosambique or eastern Negroes, was long ago rematked by that excellent anatomist, who observed that the forehead in the skulls belonging to these races is more * See vol. i. p. 297. 326 WHITE NEGROES OF KONGO. elevated than in the natives of Guinea, though somewhat nar- row and conical, and the jaw scarcely more protuberant than in the European. {] 2. Of the Dondos, or White Negroes of Kongo, and the adjacent Countries. Many writers on the History of Kongo have mentioned the Dondos, or White People, who are occasionally born in that country and’ the adjoining provinces. The earliest ac- count of these persons is the following, which I copy exactly as I find it, from Purchas, who has given the relation of Andrew Battell. Battell wasan Englishman, who was taken prisoner by the Portuguese, and resided eighteen years in Kongo and the neighbouring countries. ; “Here are sometimes borne in this countrey, white chil- dren, which is very rare among them, for their parents are Negroes. And when any of them are borne, they be presented unto the king, and are called Dondos. These are as white as any white man. These are the king’s witches, and are brought up in witchcraft, and always wayte on the king. There is no man that dare meddle with these Dondos. If they goe to market, they may take what they list, for all men stand in _ awe ofthem. The king of Loango hath foure of them.” Dapper gives a more particular account of these white peo- ple. He says that they have grey eyes, and red or yellow hair, and when viewed at a distance resemble Europeans. When examined more nearly, he asserts that their colour is as that of a dead corpse, and their eyes as if they were fixed in their head. Their sight is weak, and they turn their eyes like such as squint ; but they see strongly at night, especially at moonshine. It is added they are very strong, but so idle, that they would rather die than undergo any tiresome labour. The Portuguese term them Albinoes. Szction VII.—On certain Anatomical Peculiarities of the Hottentots. 4 5. M. Le Vaillant and other travellers have described a pe- culiarity of conformation which they represent as characteristic PECULIARITIES OF THE HOTTENTOTS. A of the female Hottentot. Others have denied that any such thing exists. A female of the Bushman tribe, who was long known in England under the name of the Hottentot Venus, died in Paris in 1815, and her body was there examined by M. Cuvier. From a memoir on the subject by that celebrated anatomist, we have obtained more accurate information than we before possessed on this particular, as well as in some other points relating to the organization of the Hottentot race. The following is a very brief abstract of M. Cuvier’s memoir. The author begins by some observations on the habitudes of the female who is the subject of his description, during life. He remarks that her gesture had something peculiar, which resembled the movements of apes: “ Elle avoit surtout une maniére de faire saillir ses lévres tout a fait pareille 4 ce que nous avons observé dans l’orang-outang. Son caractere étoit gaie, sa mémoire bonne. Elle dansoit a la manicre de son pays, et jouoit avec assez d’oreille de ce petit instrument qu’on appelle guimbarde. Les colliers et autres atours sau- vages lui plaisoient beaucoup, mais ce que flattit son gout plus que tout le reste, c’etoit l’eau de vie. On peut méme attribuer sa mort & un excés de boisson, auquel elle se livra pendant sa derniére maladie. “‘Sa hauteur étoit de quatre pieds, six pouces, sept lignes. Sa conformation frappoit d’abord par 1’énorme largeur de ses hanches, qui passoit dix-huit pouces, et par la saillie de ses fesses, qui étoit de plus d’un demi-pied. Du reste elle n’avoit rien de difforme dans les proportions du corps et des mem- bres. Ses épaules, son dos, le haut de sa poitrine, avoient de la grace. La saillie de son ventre n’étoit point excessive. Ses bras un peu gréles, étoient trés-bien faits, et sa main char- mante. Son pied étoit fort joli, mais son genou paroissoit eros et cagneux, ce qu’on a ensuite reconnu étre dt a une forte masse de graisse, située sous la peau du coté interne.” M. Cuvier thinks these characters general in the tribe, since they are attributed to the Houzowanas, by M. Le Vaillant. “Ce que notre Boschismanne avoit de plus rebutant, ¢’était sa physiognomie ; son visage tenoit en partie du Négre, par la saillie des mAchoires, Vobliquité des dents incisives, la 328 PECULIARITIES OF THE HOTTENTOTS. grosseur des lévres, la briéveté et le reculement du menton ; en partie du Mongole par l’énorme grosseur des pommettes, l’aplatisement de la base du nez et dela partie du front et des arcades surciliéres qui l’avoisinent, les fentes étroites des yeux.” “Ses cheveux étoient noirs et laineux, comme ceux des Négres ; la fente de ses yeux horizontale et non oblique comme dans les Mongoles, ses arcades surcilidres rectilignes, fort écartées une de l’autre, et fort aplaties vers le nez, tres saillantes, au contraire, vers la tempe, et au-dessus de la pom- mette. Ses yeux étoient noirs et assez vifs: ses lévres un peu noiratres, monstrueusement renflées; son teint étoit fort basané. “Son oreille avoit du rapport avec celle de plusieurs singes, par sa petitesse, la foiblesse de son tragus, et parce que son bord externe étoit presque éffacé a la partie postérieure. “ Ona pu, quand elle s’est depouillée, verifier que la protu- berance de ses fesses n’etoit nullement musculeuse, mais que ce devoit tre une masse de consistance élastique et trem- blante, placée immediatement sous la peau. Elle vibroit en quelque sorte d tous les mouvemens. “ Les seins qu’elle avoit contume de relever et de serrer par la moyen de son vétement, abandonnés 4 eux mémes, montrérent leurs grosses masses pendantes terminées par une aréole noiratre, large de plusde quatre pouces:”) $6 be couleur générale de sa peau étoit d’un brun-jaunatre. Elle nvavoit d’autres poils que quelques floccons, tres courts d’un laine semblable a celle de sa téte clair-semés sur son pubis.”’ “A cette premiére inspection l’on ne s’apercut point de la particularité la plus remarquable de son organization. Elle tint son tablier soigneusement caché—ce n’est qu’aprés sa mort qu’on a su qu’elle le possédoit.” “ Elle mourut le 29 Décembre, 1815.” “ Les premicres recherches (au Jardin du Roi) durent avoir pour objet cet appendice extraordinaire dont la nature a fait, disoit-on, un attribut special de ga race. “ On le retrouva aussitét.” “ Letablier n’est point un organe particulier; c’est un développement des nymphes.” I shall PECULIARITIES OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 329 not insert the details of the minute anatomical description by which this conclusion is fully established, a conclusion which completely refutes the opinion held by M. Péron, who sup- posed the females of the Bushman race to be endowed with a peculiar organ not found in other races, and such as would afford some reason for imagining a specific diversity between them and other human races. M. Cuvierseems indeed to have regarded the Bushman tribe as such a race: he erroneously supposed them to be of a different stock from the Hottentots, and seems to have looked upon them as approximating very nearly to the Simie. He was therefore led, without any prepossession of mind, to the inference which he adopted re- specting the supposed anatomical peculiarity, and which some further remarks contribute to confirm and illustrate. He says: “ On sait que le developpement des nymphes varie beaucoup en Europe; qu il devient en général plus considérable dans les pays chauds ; que des Négresses, des Abyssines en sont incommodées au point d’étre obligées de se détruire ces parties par le fer ou par le feu. On fait méme d’avance cette opération a toutes les jeunes filles d’Abys- sinie.” “Le collége de la Propagande envoya un chirurgien sur les lieux pour vérifier le fait, et sur son rapport le réta- blissement de l’ancienne coutume fut autorisé par la Pape.” “ Tl n’y auroit, donc, de particulier dans les Boschismans que la constance de ce développement et son exces.” The former of these supposed facts seems to be altogether a mis- take, since the Hottentots are often destitute of the pecu- liarity. M. Cuvier says further, “ Le voile des Boschismannes n’est pas une de ces particularités d’organisation qui pourroient établir un rapport entre les femmes et les singes, car ceux-Cl, loin d’avoir les nymphes prolongées, les ont en général a peine apparentes.” “Tl n’est pas de méme de ces énormes masses de graisse que les Boschismannes portent sur les fesses.”’ “ Elles offrent une ressemblance frappante avec celles qui surviennent aux fémelles des Mandrilles, des Papions, etc., et qui prennent d certaines époques de leur vie un accroissement vraiment monstrueux.” He might have found a similar analogy to the IRR ne oe == : era 330 M. DUBREUIL’S OBSERVATIONS. tails of the African sheep. The steatopyga of the Hottentot consists merely of fat traversed in various directions by strong cellular fibres. The pelvis of the Hottentot female bore some resemblance to that of the Negress: “c’est a dire, il est proportionnelle- ment plus petit, moins évasé, la créte antérieuse de l’os des iles plus grosse, et plus recourbée en dehors, la tuberosité de Pischion plus grosse.” These characters in the Negress and the Bushman female approximate, but in an extremely small degree to those of the pelvis of the simiz. In one or two minute characters of the skeleton, M. Cuvier recognised a correspondence between the Bushmen and the Guanches. He says, “la lame qui sépare la fossette cubitale antérieure et la postérieure de humerus, n’etoit pas ossifiée: il existe un trou a cet endroit, comme dans I’ hu- merus de plusieurs singes, des chiens, et de quelques autres carnassiers. J’ai trouvé aussi que la Gouanche et la Bos- chismanne avoient les angles de l’omoplate plus aigues et le bord spmal plus prolongé que la Négresse et l’Européene.” The former of these characters, namely, the foramen ob- served in the humerus, or the opening into the fossa or ca- vity of the olecranon, has been thought the more important as itis known to exist as a constant character in many tribes of animals, as, for example, in many of the simie, in dogs, and some other carnivorous kinds, in the wild-boar, the chev- rotin, and thedaman. The subject has been lately referred to by M. Dubreuil, in a memoir presented by him to the Aca- demy of Sciences, on which a report has been given by M. Flourens.* In two skulls of Guanches exhibited by M. Du- breuil, this foramen was wanting. It is therefore not a charac- teristic of the race which inhabited the Canary Islands. M. Flourens discovered it in the humerus of an Egyptian mummy, and m the skeleton of a female Mulatto, but sought for it in vain in that of a Negress. He remarks that it exists occasion- ally in Europeans. From all these facts we must conclude that the presence or absence of this character in human skeletons is probably an instance of individual variety. * Mémoire sur les Caractéres des Races, pris de la Téte Osseuse. Par M. Dubrueil. RELATION OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERS. CHAPTER XV. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE AFRICAN NATIONS, ON THEIR RELATION TO THE CLIMATE OF AFRICA, AND ON THEIR CONSTANCY OR LIA- BILITY TO VARIATION. Szcrion I—Inquiry into the Relations between the Phe- nomena of Variety in the Physical Characters of the African Races and Climate and other external condi- tions. In concluding this survey of African ethnography, I shall endeavour to collect some inferences from the facts already reviewed, which may contribute, as far as their evidence ex- tends, to a solution of the inquiries stated at the outset of this part of my work. If we inquire in the first place whether the physical cha- racters of the African nations display themselves under any relation to climate, facts seem to decide the question im the affirmative; for we might describe the limits of Negroland to the north and south with tolerable correctness, by saying that it is bounded on both sides by the tropics; that is, that the native country of all the black races, properly so termed, seems — to be the intertropical region. If we follow the prolongations of Central Africa to the southward of the tropic of Capricorn, we find the Hottentots, in whom the hue of the Negro is diluted to a yellowish brown, and the Kafirs, who in the country of the Bechwanas, are said to be red or copper-co- -_Joured ; but here are ‘no people resembling the black natives of equatorial Africa. To the northward of the Senegal we have the Tuaryk in the oases of the Great Desert, and wandering = os “ne ——_ ae a = A = Ukr, 332 RELATION OF PHYSICAL tribes of Arabs, in both of which races some tribes or families are said to be black ; but the same races are in general brown or almost white, and the Berbers, akin to the Tuaryk, inha- biting the second system of mountains or highlands in this quarter of the world, an elevated region eight or ten degrees in breadth and extending lengthwise through a great part of Africa, but under a temperate climate, are not like the native races of the intertropical parts, but white people with flow- ing hair, similar to the nations of Europe, and in some high tracts displaying all the characters of the xanthous variety of mankind. Perhaps it may be thought by some of my readers that these facts, although their bearing is sufficiently plain, are too limited in their number and extent to carry much weight of evidence, or authorise a general induction. I shall endea- vour to examine the question in a more extensive field, by following the plan suggested at the outset of this part of my work. But for that purpose it will be necessary to anticipate what properly belongs to a succeeding part of this inquiry, and to bring into comparison different zones both in Europe and in Africa, from the northern limits of the former conti- nent to the southern extremity of the latter. In thus advert- ing to European countries, and their population, I shall not enter into particulars, but merely touch upon some facts well known, and which do not require to be established by ethno- graphical researches. These researches, in relation to Europe, belong to a future part of my work, and are not wanted for my present undertaking, which only requires a reference to some leading facts, such as may usefully be brought into a comparison with corresponding facts in the history of African nations. The mountains of Atlantica may be considered as forming the southern side of an extensive declivity or depression in the surface of our planet, which contains or rather forms the basin of the Mediterranean. In a wide sense, this basin may be described as reaching in breadth from the chain of Atlas to a boundary line which touches the most northern coast of the Mediterranean sea, and is continued on one side by the CHARACTERS TO CLIMATES. 330 Pyrenees on the other by the Alps. The northern limit of the depressed region thus described may be termed the Pyreno-Alpine line. The highlands of Atlas, or rather the southern border of that system of mountains, form moreover the northern mar- gin of another low region, the southern boundary of which is the chain of the Jebei Kumra, or Lunar Mountains, the border of Central Africa. If we compare the climates of the three elevated borders which rise above and contain between them the region of the Mediterranean and the Dry Sahara, we find the intermediate one much less different from the climate of the northern than from that of the southern chain which lies within the region of tropical rains and heats. That the climate of Mount Atlas is more similar to that of the Alps and Pyrenees than to that of Central Africa is proved by the fact well known in bota- nical geography, that the vegetation of Southern Europe ex- tends to the Atlantic chain. The flora of the northern coast of the Mediterranean undergoes no very great modification within that limit. Both of the coasts of that inland sea are considered as belonging to the same botanical province. But tropical Africa displays a widely different vegetation. In like manner, the physical characters of human races vary comparatively little from the northern limit of the Me- diterranean region to Mount Atlas, while on the border of Central Africa they display a remarkable change. The inha- bitants of this last chain of mountains are Negroes, while the Berbers of Atlas differ but little in colour and other phy- sical peculiarities from the Piedmontese and Spaniards under the northern limit of this region. Another geographical department, which may be compared with those above described, may be distinguished if we take the Pyreno-Alpine line for a southern, and the Scandinavian Alps for a northern limit. This may be termed the Central European region. We shall further increase the number of geographical de- partments, for the purpose of a more extended comparison, if we divide the Central European region, as well as the Great African region, each into three zones, or districts, in different 334 RELATION OF PHYSICAL latitudes. The European region may be divided into the lati- tudes of France, of Germany, and of Scandinavia ; and Africa into Negroland between the tropics, Kafirland beyond that Iine, and further southward, the country of the Hottentots. These divisions, including the Mediterranean region and the Sahara, will constitute eight zones. We shall now find, on comparing these several departments with each other, that marked differences of physical charac- ter, and particularly of complexion, distinguish the human traces which respectively inhabit them, and that these differ- ences are successive or by gradations. First, Among the people of level countries within the Medi- terranean region, including Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Moors, and the Mediterranean islanders, black hair with dark eyes are almost universal, scarcely one person in some hundreds presenting an exception to this remark: with this colour of the hair and eyes is conjoined a complexion of brownish white, which the French call the colour of brunettes. We must observe, that throughout all the zones into which we have divided the European region, similar complexions to this of the Mediterranean countries are occasionally seen. The qualities, indeed, of climate are not so diverse, but that even the same plants are found sporadically in the north of Europe as in the Alps and Pyrenees. But if we make a comparison between the prevalent colours of great numbers, we can easily trace a succession of shades or of different hues. Secondly, In the southernmost of the three zones, to the northward of the Pyreno-Alpine line, namely, in the latitude of France, the prevalent colour of the hairis a chestnut-brown,* * M. Esquirol has given a table indicating the varieties of temperament, or ra- ther of complexion, which displayed themselves in the hospital of the Salpétriére, at Paris, and the proportional number of individuals of each complexion. He says further, that these proportions are nearly identical with those which are pre- valent in the mass of the population of the centre of France. They are as fol- lows: Hair, chesnut-brown in 118 cases. fair or blond grey or white CHARACTERS TO CLIMATES. 305 to which the complexion and the colour of the eyes bear.a certain relation. Thirdly, In the northern parts of Germany, England, in Denmark, Finland, and a great part of Russia, the xanthous variety, strongly marked, is prevalent. The Danes have always been known as a people of florid complexion, blue eyes, and yellow hair.* The Hollanders were termed by Silius Italicus, “ Auricomi Batavi,” the golden-haired Batavians, and Lin- neus has defined the Finns as a tribe distinguished by “ capillis flavis prolixis.” Fourthly, In the northern division we find the Norwegians and Swedes to be generally tall, white-haired men, with light grey eyes, characters so frequent to the northward of the Baltic, that Linneus} has specified them im a definition of the inhabitants of Swedish Gothland. We have thus, to the northward of Mount Atlas, four well-marked varieties of human complexion succeeding each other, and in exact ac- cordance with the gradations of latitude and of climate from south to north. The people are thus far nearly white in the colour of their skin, but in the moresoutherly of the three regions above defined, with a mixture of brown,.or of the complexion of brunettes, or such as we term swarthy or sallow persons. Fifthly, In the next region, to the southward of Atlas, the native inhabitants are the “gentes subfusci coloris” of Leo, and the immigrant Arabs in the same country are, as we have seen by abundant testimonies, of a similar light-brown hue, but varying between that and a perfect black. Sixthly, With the tropic and the latitude of the Senegal, begins the region of predominant and almost universal black, and this continues, if we confine ourselves to the low and plain countries, through all intertropical Africa. Eyes, chesnut or brown in 102 cases. Dlucior Wight cuss... ws aesk es caeeieaee es 98 Dict. des Sci. Méd. = Jacobi’s Sammlungen, b. i. p. 298. * According to Dr. Clarke they still deserve this description. See his Travels in the North of Europe. -++ “ Gothi corpore proceriore, capillis albidis, oculorum iridibus cinereo-cm- rulescentibus.” Linnzus’s Fauna Suecica. 336 RELATION OF PHYSICAL Seventhly, Beyond this is the country of copper-coloured and red people, who, in Kafirland, are the majority, while in intertropical Africa there are but few such tribes, and those in countries of mountainous elevation. Lastly, Towards the Cape are the tawny Hottentots, scarcely darker than the Mongoles, whom they resemble in many other particulars besides colour. It has long been well known, that as travellers ascend mountains, in whatever region, they find the vegetation at every successive level altermg its character, and assuming a more northern aspect, thus indicating that the state of the atmosphere, temperature, and physical agencies in general, assimilate as we approach alpine regions, to the peculiari- ties locally connected with high latitudes. If, therefore, com- plexion and other bodily qualities belonging to races of men depend upon climate and external conditions, we should ex- pect to find them varying in reference to elevation of surface, and if they should be found actually to undergo such varia- tions, this will be a strong argument that these external characters do, in fact, depend upon local conditions. Now, if we inquire respecting the physical characters of the tribes inhabiting high tracts within either of the regions above marked out, we shall find that they coincide with those which prevail in the level or low parts of more northern tracts. 'The Swiss, in the high mountains above the plains of Lombardy, have sandy or brown hair. What a contrast presents itself to the traveller who descends into the Milanese, where the peasants have black hair and eyes, with strongly marked Italian and almost Oriental features. In the higher parts of the Biscayan country, instead of the swarthy complexion and black hair of the Castilians, the natives have a fair com- plexion with light-blue eyes and flaxen or auburn hair.* And in Atlantica, while the Berbers of the plains are of brown complexion with black hair, we have seen that the Shaluh mountaineers are fair, and that the inhabitants of the high * I have been assured of this fact by Col. Napier. The Basques of the high tracts approaching the Pyrenees, as he informs me, are a people of strikingly dif- ferent aspect from the inhabitants of the low parts around, whether Spaniards or Bis- cayans, They are finely made, tall men, with aquiline noses, fair complexion, &c, CHARACTERS TO CLIMATES. Bot tracts of Mons Aurasius are completely xanthous, having red or yellow hair and blue eyes, which fancifully, and without the shadow of any proof, they have been conjectured to have derived from the Vandal troops of Genseric. Even in the intertropical region, high elevations of surface, as they produce a cooler climate, seem to occasion the appear- ance of light complexions. In the high parts of Senegambia, which: front the Atlantic, and are cooled by winds from the Western Ocean, where, in fact, the temperature is known to be moderate and even cool at times, the light-copper-coloured Filahs are found surrounded on every side by Negro nations in- habiting lower districts ; and nearly in the same parallel, but at the opposite side of Africa, are the high plains of Enarea and Kaffa, where the inhabitants are said to be fairer than the na- tives of southern Europe. The Galla and the Abyssinians them- selves are,in proportion to theelevation of the country inhabited © by them, fairer than the natives of low countries ; and lest an exception should be taken to a comparison of straight-haired races with woolly Negroes or Shungalla, they bear the same comparison with the Danakil, Hazorta, and the Bishari tribes, resembling them in their hair and features, who inhabit the low tracts between the mountains of Tigre and the shores of the Red Sea, and who are equally or nearly as black as Negroes. We may find occasion to observe that an equally decided relation exists between local conditions and the existence of other characters of human races in Africa. Those races who have the Negro character in an exaggerated degree, and who may be said to approach to deformity in person—the ugliest blacks with depressed foreheads, flat noses, crooked legs—are in many instances inhabitants of low countries, often of swampy tracts near the sea-coast, where many of them, as the Papels, have scarcely any other means of subsistence than shell-fish, and the accidental gifts of the sea. In many places similar Negro tribes occupy thick forests m the hol- lows beneath high chains of mountains, the summits of which are inhabited by Abyssinian or Ethiopian races. The high table-lands of Africa are chiefly, as far as they are known, VOL. Il. Z eS eg rere SS a lr el a NE i tees 338 RELATION OF PHYSICAL OV ES lie 4 — aT * sinc the abode or the wandering places of tribes of this character, or of nations who, like the Kafirs, recede very considerably from the Negro type. The Mandingos are, indeed, a Negro race inhabiting a high region; but they have neither the de- pressed forehead nor the projecting features considered as characteristic of the Negro race. We may further remark, and perhaps this observation is fully as important as that of any other connected fact or coinci- dence, that physical qualities of particular races of Africans are evidently related to their moral or social condition, and to the degrees of barbarism or civilization under which they exist. The tribes in whose prevalent conformation the Negro type is discernible in an exaggerated degree, are uniformly in the lowest stage of human society ; they are either ferocious savages, or stupid, sensual, and indolent—such are the Papels, Bulloms, and other rude hordes on the coast of Western Guinea, and many tribes near the Slave Coast, and in the Bight of Benin, countries where the slave-trade has been carried on to the greatest extent, and has exercised its usually baneful influence. On the other hand, wherever we hear of a Negro state, the inhabitants of which have attained any considerable degree of improvement in their social condition, we constantly find that their physical characters deviate considerably from . the strongly-marked or exaggerated type of the Negro. The Ashanti, the Silima, the Dahomans, are exemplifications of this remark. The Negroes of Guber and Hausa, where a con- siderable degree of civilization has long existed, are perhaps — the finest race of genuine Negroes in the whole continent, unless the Iolofs are to be excepted. The Iolofs have been a comparatively civilized people from the era of their first discovery by the Portuguese, to which I have alluded in the preceding pages. Perhaps we ought to enumerate among the instances of physical peculiarity connected with local conditions, the woolly nature of the hair in the South African races. As this is a character common to tribes who in other respects differ so considerably from each other in the shape of the head, and other particulars of form and organization, as do the Kafirs and Hottentots, we may draw an inference that it is connected << Se * —— ania Piece arent CHARACTERS NOT PERMANENT. 339 with the local circumstances either of the countries where these races now dwell, or of others which they may have heretofore inhabited. These may have been within the region still occupied by the Negroes of equatorial Africa. On simi- lar grounds we may refer to some unknown condition of cli- mate, the steatopygous deformities of the Bushmen. As these remarkable depositions of fat are not the peculiarity of one tribe, namely the Saabs, who have been erroneously looked upon as a separate race, but appear also among the Hottentots, and, as we have shown from sufficient testimony, among the Makiani, a people of different origin, who are allied to the Saabs in nothing but the savageness and squalid misery to which both tribes are reduced, we have no room for doubt that the cause of the phenomenon is some influence connected with climate and situation. If the question should be asked, why then does not the same cause produce a like | effect in other instances, as among the descendants of Euro- pean colonists, the only reply will be, that the local influence is perhaps not sufficiently strong to give rise to the pheno- menon generally, but only sporadically ; and other concurring agencies may be required. It has been observed, that the descendants of Frenchmen who have settled in the Valais are not, like.the native inhabitants, subject to the goitre and cretinism so frequent among the Savoyards,* and that the Plica Polonica or “ Weichselzopf” to which Polish families are subject in the neighbourhood of the Vistula scarcely ever appears among Russians or Germans who are settled in the same districts.+ * Report on the Cretins of the Valais, by M. Rambuteau, prefect of the De- partment of the Simplon, in 1803, addressed to the Minister of the Interior. M. Georget, Dict. de Médecine, art. “ Idiotisme.” + Merkwiirdige Fille von Plica Polonica aus vieljihriger Erfahrung gesammelt zur Aufheilung ihrer verborgenen Formen vom Dr. Kiitzen zu Bromberg. Mit | einem Vorwort iiber Ragenkrankheiten von. C. W. Hufeland. Hufeland und Osann’s Journal der praktischen Heilkunde, 1834, CHARACTERS OF THE AFRICAN RACES Section II.—Kaamination of the question, whether the Physical Characters of human Races are in Africa per- manent, or liable to variation. What instances of such Deviation can be proved to have taken place ? The inquiry above stated is more important with respect to the history of mankind, than even that which relates to the connexion of physical characters with local circumstances. For if it be allowed that all the characteristics of the Negro and the Hottentot are in relation to the nature of external agencies in the countries which they inhabit, it will not immediately follow that the climates of Africa are capable of transmuting other races of men into Negroes or Hottentots, or of giving rise to peculiarities similar to those which distin- guish these tribes, in others originally destitute of them. It might still be maintained that the people so characterised are races originally constituted by nature to inhabit particular regions, and endued from their first creation with peculiari- ties which render them fit for their abode within a destined space, just as we suppose the numerous and multiform spe- cies of monkeys to have been originally distinct from each other, and each originally fitted to inhabit its own native seat. Before I proceed to point out the instances of variation which can be traced among the African races, it may be useful to attend to the followmg consideration. The .dark-coloured nations of Africa do not appear to form a distinct race, or a distinct kind of people, separated from all other families of men by a broad line and uniform among themselves, such as we ideally represent under the term Negro. There is, perhaps, not one tribe in which all the characters ascribed to the Negro are found in the highest degree, and in general they are distributed to different races in all manners of ways, and combined in each instance with more or fewer of the characters belonging to the European or the Asiatic. The distinguishing peculiarities of the African nations, may NOT PERMANENT. 341 be summed up into four heads, viz. the characters of com- plexion, of hair, features, and figure. We have to remark, 1. That some races, with woolly hair and complexions of a deep black colour, have fine forms, regular and beautiful fea- tures, and are, in their figure and countenances, scarcely dif- ferent from Europeans. Such are the lolofs, near the Sene- gal, and the race of Guber, or of Hatisa, in the interior. of Sadan. Some tribes of the South African race, as the darkest of the Kafirs, are nearly of this description, as well as some families or tribes in the empire of Kongo, while others have more of the Negro character in their countenances and form. . 2. Other tribes have the form and features similar to those above described: their complexion is black, or a deep olive or copper-colour approaching to black, while their hair, though often crisp and frizzled, is not the least woolly. Such are the Bishari and the Dan&kil and Hazorta, and the darkest of the Abyssinians. 3 Other instances have been mentioned in which the com- plexion is black, and the features have the Negro type, while the nature of the hair deviates considerably, and is even said to be rather long and in flowing ringlets. Some of the tribes near the Zambesi are of this class. 4, Among nations whose colour deviates towards a lighter hue, we find some who have woolly hair, with a figure and features approaching to the European. Such are the Bech- fana Kafirs, of a light brown complexion. The tawny Hot- tentots, though not approaching the European, differ from the Negro. Again, some of the tribes on the Gold Coast and the Slave Coast, and the [bos in the Bight of Benin, are of a lighter complexion than many other Negroes, while their fea- tures are strongly marked with the peculiarities of that race. These observations can hardly be reconciled with the hy- pothesis that the Negroes are one distinct species. We might more easily adopt the notion that there are among them a number of separate species, each distinguished by some pecu- liarity which another wants ; but on that supposition the de- viation will be so gradual from the physical character of other human races, as to undermine the ground on which the opinion eS an a i ana a = 342 CHARACTERS OF THE AFRICAN RACES of 'a specific and strongly marked distinction has been founded. Separate species of organized beings do not pass into each other by insensible degrees. I shall now allude in a summary manner to the most re- markable instances in which deviations in the physical cha- racters of races appear, from the testimonies collected in the foregoing pages, to have actually taken place. 1. The Arab tribes who emigrated into Africa eleven or twelve hundred years ago, have undergone a very consider- able change in their physical character. I shall not repeat what I have before said on this subject, but refer my readers to the seventh chapter of this book, where they will find _ the testimonies of travellers and naturalists, who have made the most accurate researches into the history of the Arabs of Nubia and Maghrab. The general result appears to be, that though the Arab races retain everywhere more or less of their primitive type, as they have everywhere retained their ancient manner of existence, yet they have become in many places a people of greater stature, stouter form, and more regular features than the inhabitants of the peninsula. Their complexion has also undergone a change, and, accord- ing to several accurately informed and scientific writers, such as Mr. Waddington, Dr. Riippell, and M. Rozet, there are black races in Africa, among the genuine descendants of emi- grants from Arabia. It must be remembered, that the parts of Africa which these tribes inhabit, are not the Negro coun- tries, but various tracts in Atlantica and the Sahara, and on the borders of Egypt and Nubia. 2. The native Lybian or Atlantic race, affords a parallel instance of deviation in physical character, or at least in com- plexion. Aborigines of the mountainous tracts, they are stran- gers in the Desert to which they perhaps resorted soon after the surface of the Sahara-bela-ma was abandoned by the waters which once covered it. If it seems to any one more probable that they first peopled the low country, they must be considered as foreigners in the mountainous region of At- lantica. On either supposition the Tuaryk appear to be the same people as the Berbers and Shilih. The former are, as we have seen, of various hues. Some tribes, as those of Gua- NOT PERMANENT. " 343 lata, are said to be black, without having any other charac- teristic of the Negro, which might suggest the supposition of intermixture with the nations of Sadan. Others are yellow, or copper-coloured, and some, as we have lately observed, viz. in mountainous countries, white, and even xanthous. 2. There are no authenticated instances, either in Africa or elsewhere, of the transmutation of other varieties of mankind into Negroes. The experiment has never been tried, for al- though Europeans and Asiatics have settled, and all their de- scendants have dwelt for generations on the soil of intertropi- cal Africa, they have never adopted the manners of the abo- rigines. We are not sufficiently informed respecting the fact asserted’ by Oldendorp on the authority of his black inform- ants, that there are many Jews in Kongo, whose physical characters have assimilated to those of the native inhabitants. We have, however, examples of very considerable deviation in the opposite direction. The descendants of genuine Ne- eroes are no longer such: they have lost, in several instances, many of the peculiarities of the stock from which they sprang. I have already described the Barabra of the Nile, and shall now only refer my readers to the testimonies which I have collected in the sixth chapter of this book, in reference to that people. It has been there stated, that although descended from the Koldagi Nuba, or Negro mountaineers of Kordofan, the Barabra exempt, as they are said to be, from intermixture with the Arabs, and other inhabitants of the Nile-valley, have, nevertheless, acquired and now display physical characters of a very different description from those of the Negro. A simi- lar change has taken place apparently under nearly corre- sponding circumstances in the characters of the Funge, the conquerors of Sennaar, who, though descended from the Shi- lukh Negroes, have no longer the genuine characters of the Negro race. One of the peculiarities of the nation last mentioned, is the frequent appearance among them of a red complexion and of red hair, a phenomenon analogous, as it would seem, to the so-termed accidental developement of light varieties of complexion in the black nations, of which so many instances have been recorded. White Negroes, or Dondos, are fre- ar me a a ne ee ae ; 344 CHARACTERS OF THE AFRICAN RACES quently born from black parents, in all parts of Africa. Many of them are of the xanthous variety, and have red hair. They seem to be particularly numerous in the black race which repeopled Sennaar some hundred years ago, where, un- der the name of “ E] Aknean,” “ the Red People,” they form, according to M. Cailliaud, a separate or distinguishable caste. In other parts of Africa, the xanthous variety often appears, but does not multiply.\\ Individuals thus characterised are like seeds which perish in an uncongenial soil.’ In the instance of a white Kafir, of which I have cited from Mr. Burchell a description in the preceding volume of this work, and in many examples of white Negroes described in the same place, it would appear that the complexion of such persons is not so remote from that of fair Europeans as to leave much room for doubt, that by distant marriages a stock might be propagated from persons of this description, which might be reckoned among the white and xanthous races of man- kind, 4. The difference of physical characters between the Kafirs, meaning the Amakosah, and the Negroes known to us in Western Africa, are so great as to have appeared to many travellers to be distinctive of separate races, and of varieties of the human species, very remote from each other. The Kafirs have been thought by intelligent and accurate observers, to resemble the Arabs more than the natives of interiropical Africa. The conclusion to which we are led by the most careful researches into their history, is, that nothing in their physical or moral qualities confirms the hypothesis of an Asiatic origin. They are a genuine African race, and, as it appears highly probable, only a branch of one widely-ex- tended race, to which all the Negro nations of the empire of Kongo belong, as well as many tribes both on the western and eastern side of southern Africa. The skull of the Kosah Kafirs, though still retaining something of the African cha- racter, deviates very considerably from that type, and ap- proaches the form of the European skull, or that of the Indo- Atlantic nations. To the form described by Dr. Knox as characteristic of the Kafir, the eastern Negroes of Aftica appear generally to approximate ; the skulls of Mosambique NOT PERMANENT. 345 blacks or Mak@ani filling up the gradations that may be imagined between the depressed forehead and_ strongly- marked African countenances of the Ibos, and the well- developed heads and bold and animated physiognomy of the Amakosah and Amaztiluh. The complexion of these tribes presents every variety from the dark black of the Loango or Angola Negro to the olive-brown or copper colour of the Bechfiana, who inhabit high plains beyond the tropic. The nature of the hairis one of the most general, as it is certainly the most characteristic peculiarity of these nations. Yet.even this displays deviations, and in some tribes among whom there is no probable ground for conjecturing diversity or intermixture of race, the hair is positively stated to be not woolly but merely curled, or in flowing ringlets of consider- . able length. Many other instances may be collected in the preceding survey of the African races, in which variations of a similar description are proved to have taken place. The more accu- rate are our researches into the ethnography of this region of the world, the less ground do we find for the opinion that the characteristic qualities of human races are permanent and undeviating. Among the various considerations which confirm this view of the subject we must not neglect to take into the account the conclusions to which we are led by a comparison of the languages of Africa. If, as it would appear highly probable, the various idioms of Africa constitute one family of lan- guages, in which the language of the Kafirs and that of the Egyptians are included, this will go far towards the proof of acommon origin. On this subject I shall add nothing fur- ther to what has been already stated in the fifth section of chapter the tenth. An attempt to analyse accumulated facts, such as those which we have now reviewed, and to deduce some general conclusion respecting the manner in which varieties in races take their rise, the theory of the causes which produce them, and the nature of the influence which these causes exert, will find its proper place after we have completed the ethnographical survey of other regions of the world. In the “— — - — ‘ fl i enact sat . eon EN Te I RT ESN EINE EET ES ————— meee = eR ee ST Ee Se eS a nant - = Aiming npn lagen ——— sie . . 7 2 desis m : , ic Ji 5 i ui lea lig ila hn iil ill ceil it aa A y 346 INTELLECT OF THE AFRICAN next book we shall proceed to consider the population of Europe. ‘Srcrion I1L.—General Observations on the intellectual Faculties of the African Nations. I cannot finish the concluding reflections which form the subject of the present chapter, without adverting, in a general point of view, to the opinion of those who consider the native races of Africa as mentally inferior to the rest of mankind. I shall briefly survey the evidence deducible with reference to this question from the preceding account of the African na- tions, and from some other arguments which appear to throw light upon it. It is well known that many celebrated writers on natural history, and particularly on that of man, have regarded the natives of Africa as inferior to Europeans in intellect and in the organization contrived for the developement or exercise of the intellectual faculties. Among these writers the most eminent are Camper, Soemmering, Cuvier, Lawrence, White, Virey, and M. Bory de St. Vincent. By all of these it is maintained that Negroes make’a decided approach towards the natural inferiority of the monkey tribe—that they were endowed by the Creator with the noble gift of reason in a very inferior degree, when compared with the more favoured inha- bitants of Europe. | It has been well observed by a late writer that itis important to elucidate this question if possible, on several accounts ; and that if it were proved to be correct, the Negro ought to occupy a different situation in society from that which has been de- clared to belong to him by the British government, and we may add, by the unanimous acclaim of the British nation. In reality the Negro—if his capabilities and aptitudes are such as some of the writers above mentioned, particularly White and Bory de St. Vincent, argue—is only fitted, by his natural constitution and endowments, for a servile state; and the zealous friends of his tribe, Wilberforce and Clarkson and others, who are thought to have obtamed an exalted station NATIONS NOT INFERIOR. 347 among the great benefactors of the human race, must be re- garded as well-meaning enthusiasts, who, under an imagined. principle of philanthropy, have argued with too much success for the emancipation of domestic animals—of creatures plainly destined by nature to remain in that condition, and to serve the lords of the creation in common with his oxen, his horses, and dogs. If science has led to this conclusion, and it is the true and just inference from facts, the sooner it is admitted the better: the opinion which is opposed to it must be an un- reasonable and injurious prejudice. It may be observed, that those writers who maintain the mental inferiority of the African have not extended that alle- gation to all the native races of Africa. They have restricted it, for the most part, or have principally ascribed it to the Negroes of the intertropical region, comprising, however, the Hottentots. I have endeavoured to show that the Kafir, or woolly-haired tribes in the southern parts of Africa, cannot be considered as a people permanently distinct from the Negroes; some tribes of the Kafir race, namely those who live near or within the tropic, having every attribute that can be ascribed to the most genuine Negroes. The Kafirs, in fact, are not distinguished by any decided or clearly-marked Ime. They are, as Dr. Knox has very properly termed them, only improved Ne- groes, or Negroes of a temperate and mountainous region. Those who maintain that a natural and permanent inferiority belongs, as a general attribute, to the Negroes, and that they form a particular race of a lower rank in the creation than white men, must extend this assertion to all the woolly-haired nations of Africa. They must, indeed, comprehend not only the Hottentots and Negroes, usually so termed, but likewise the Kafirs: all these tribes have physical characters in common, which appear to be much more distinctive and permanent than any characteristics which separate them. But if it is pretended that all the woolly-haired races in Africa are uniformly inferior in intellect to other tribes of men, the assertion is at most a gratuitous one. Nay, it is contra- dicted by the most clear and decisive testimony. Travellers in South Africa have been struck by the proofs of vigour and SS nia 348 INTELLECT OF THE AFRICAN acuteness of understanding displayed by the Amaziluh, Ama- kosah, Bechtana, and other Kafir nations. And if the alleged inferiority of organization and of capacity in the skull is the ground on which deficiency of intellect is ascribed to the wool- ly-haired nations, this at least does not apply to the Kafirs, many of whom have a form of the head, and particularly an expansion of the anterior parts of the skull, resembling the heads of Europeans. A similar objection to this doctrine might, indeed, be fur- nished by many black races between the tropics, and among those tribes who are considered as genuine Negroes. I need not repeat what I have said respecting the physical and the intellectual characteristics of the Mandingos, and the people of Guber, Haiisa, and other nations. But if the allegation of intellectual inferiority is scarcely to be maintained with respect to the woolly-haired nations con- sidered as one class, it will be still more difficult to uphold it, with any degree of probability, when we extend yet further the limit by which the African family or department of nations is defined. Iam aware that the facts which I have been able to collect relating to the languages of the African nations are very incomplete, and that far more extensive researches must be instituted before the subject can be said to have been elucidated in a satisfactory manner. Yet I think I have col- | lected evidence sufficient to prove that the languages of many African nations, including particularly the Egyptian and the Kafir and Kongoese nations, belong to one department of human idioms. The divisions constituted by difference of language are, perhaps, not less important or less permanent _than those depending on physical characters. If it should _ be allowed that the native races of Africa constitute, by the | analogy of their languages, one department of nations, and that the ancient Egyptians are included in this class, no person j will maintain their universal and permanent inferiority of | intellect. This assertion has not, in fact, been made so extensively. Apish stupidity and resemblance to the orang and macauco have been predicated of the Hottentots, and chiefly of some nations on the western coast, of those tribes particularly who NATIONS NOT INFERIOR. 349 display in their conformation the peculiarities of the Negro in a strongly-marked or exaggerated degree. If these tribes are, as I have endeavoured to prove, not a distinct class of nations, but only the offsets of stems differing widely from them when existing under more favourable cir- cumstances ; if the apparent inferiority in their organization, their ugliness, thin and meagre and deformed stature, are usually connected with physical conditions unfavourable to the developement of bodily vigour—there will be no proof of ori- ginal inferiority in anything that can be adduced respecting them. Their personal deformity and intellectual weakness, if these attributes really belong to them, must be regarded as in- dividual varieties. Similar defects are produced in every human race by the agency of physical circumstances parallel to those under which the tribes in question are known to exist.* If these were reversed, it is probable that a few generations would obliterate the effect which has resulted from them. * An interesting remark, which bears upon this subject, has been made respecting the natives of some parts of Ireland :—“ On the plantation of Ulster, and afterwards on the successes of the British against the rebels of 1641 and 1689, great multitudes of the native Irish were driven from Armagh and the south of Down into the mountainous tract extending from the barony of Flews eastward to the sea ;—on the other side of the kingdom the same race were expelled into Leitrim, Sligo, and Mayo. Here they have been almost ever since, exposed to the worst effects of hunger and ignorance, the two great brutalizers of the human race.” 'The descend- ants of these exiles are now distinguished physically from their kindred in Meath, and in other districts where they are not in a state of physical degradation. They are remarkable for “open projecting mouths, with prominent teeth and exposed gums: their advancing cheek-bones and depressed noses bear barbarism on their very front.’ “In Sligo and the northern Mayo the consequences of two centuries of degradation and hardship exhibit themselves in the whole physical condition of the people, affecting not only the features, but the frame, and giving such an example of human deterioration from known causes as almost compensates, by its value to future ages, for the suffering and debasement which past generations have endured in perfecting its appalling lesson.” “ Five feet two inches upon an average, pot- bellied, bow-legged, abortively featured ; their clothing a wisp of rags, &c.—these spectres of a people that once were well-grown, able-bodied, and comely, stalk abroad into the day-light of civilization, the annual apparitions of Irish ugliness and Irish want.” In other parts of the island, where the population has never un- dergone the influence of the same causes of physical degradation, it is well known that the same race furnishes the most perfect specimens of human beauty and vigour, poth mental and bodily.””—See an excellent paper on the Population, &e. of Ire- land, in the Dublin University Magazine, No. XLviil. p. 658—675. 350 INTELLECT OF THE AFRICAN The crania of Negroes existing in European collections, and those which have been principally examined by anatomists, have been almost exclusively taken from tribes who may be supposed to have presented the most unfavourable specimens of the African organization. They have been the skulls of un- fortunate wretches kidnapped from the coast, or their enslaved offspring. It was from Negro skulls of this description that those proportional measurements were taken by Soemmering and others, from which an attempt was made to prove that the amplitude of the brain is less in the Negro than in other races of men. A string carried over the sagittal suture, and reach- ing from the root of the nose to the posterior edge of the fora- men magnum, was found by Soemmering to be shorter in Negro than in European skulls. From this and other mea- surements described in Soemmering’s treatise, and of which the reader will find a sufficient account in the former volume of this work, it was inferred that the capacity of the cranium, and consequently the size of the brain, is less in Europeans than in Negroes. I have endeavoured to prove that there is a fallacy in all these statements, arising from the standard of comparison, which is a given extent of facial bones, or length of the superior maxilla; that one of the prominent peculiarities of the strongly-marked Negro head is an absolute excess in the length of the upper jaw, the extent of which there- fore ought not to be the basis of comparison, and that from these measurements of Soemmering no decisive result can be deduced. This opinion has received a most ample con- firmation from the results of a series of observations by Pro- fessor Tiedemann, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1836, on the brain of the Negro in comparison with the brain of the European and that of the orang-outang. In this | paper the learned author proposes to answer the two follow- ing questions :— Ist. Is there any important and essential difference in the structure of the brain between the Negro and the European ? 2ndly. Has the brain of the Negro any greater resemblance to the brain of the orang-outang than has the brain of the European ? NATIONS NOT INFERIOR. 351 To these inquiries the author has obtained very satisfactory solutions. He has, in the first place, established some general conclu- sions respecting the quantity of the brainin Europeans. The opinion of Aristotle, who supposed the brain of man to be larger than that of other animals, both absolutely and rela- tively, is liable to some exceptions. These exceptions, how- ever are not numerous. The whale and the elephant alone have brains absolutely larger than the human, which consi- derably exceeds in absolute weight the brain of animals much larger than man, as the horse, the zebra, the stag, camel, lion, tiger, bear. There are more numerous exceptions to the observation that the brain is larger in man than in other ani- mals in relation to the size of the whole body. The sparrow and many small birds, as well as some of the smaller apes, and several of the rodentia, have larger brains than man in proportion to the bulk of their bodies. With respect to the weight of the brain when human heads are compared with each other, M. Tiedemann has shown that the previous researches of anatomists have led to no satisfac- tory result, and he has given the details of an extensive series of observations made by himself in a more accurate method. From these the following inferences are deducible : 1. The brain of an adult male European varies in weight from 3lbs. 3 ozs., troy weight, to 4lbs. 6ozs. 2. The brains of females weigh from four to eight ounces less than those of males. There is even at birth a perceptible difference between the male and female brain; nevertheless the female brain is, for the most part, larger than the male in proportion to the size of the body. 3. The brain arrives, on an average, at its full size towards the seventh or eighth year. 4, The vulgar opinion that the mass of the brain diminishes in old age rests on no adequate evidence. Tiedemann’s induc- tion rather tends to establish the negative of this supposition. 5. The proportion of the brain to the body decreases from infancy to adult age. With this fact Tiedeman connects the ereater sensibility and susceptibility of children and young on INTELLECT OF THE AFRICAN persons. He is of opinion that there is a connexion between the size of the brain and the intellectual capacity of individuals, and instances MM. Cuvier and Duhaytien, who had very large heads, but on this subject it does not appear that he has in- stituted any researches. In comparing the Africans with other races of men in rela- tion to the capacity of the cranium, by which he estimates the magnitude of the brain, M. Tiedemann adopted the following method of proceeding: 1. He weighed the skull with and with- outthe under jaw-bone. 2. He then filled the cavity of the skull with dry millet-seed, through the foramen occipitale magnum. The skull was then weighed again carefully filled. 3. He then deducted the weight of the empty skull from that of the filled one, and thus obtained a measure of the capacity of the cavity of the cranium. Tiedemann has given the results of a great number of ob- servations made on this method. Forty-one instances display the capacity of the cavity of the cranium in Negroes of dif- ferent races. Seventy-seven similar measurements of male European skulls areadded, twenty-four of male Asiatics of the so termed Caucasian race, twelve of female Europeans, twenty of skulls of the Mongolian, and twenty-seven of the Ame- rican race, and forty-three of the Malagar and Polynesian na- tions, in which Australians are included. The general result of these comparisons is that the cavity of the skull in the Negro is generally in no degree smaller than in European and other humanraces. Tiedemann concludes that “the opinion of many naturalists, such as Camper, Soemmering, Cuvier, Lawrence, and Virey, who maintain that the Negro has a smaller brain than the European, is ill-founded and “entirely refuted by my researches.”’ He says, “ [look upon Camper’s facial line and facial angle as very unsatisfactory in determining the ca- pacity of the skull, the size of the brain, and the degree of intellectual power.” Tiedemann has added to these remarks on the size of the brain in different races some measurements of the medulla oblongata and spinal chord, from which he concludes that there * White's Tr., ubi supra, p. 504. TIEDEMANN’S RESEARCHES. 353 is no discoverable difference between these parts in the Negro and the European, except any variety that may result from the different stature of individuals. With respect to other as- serted points of difference, he proves that the nerves of the Negro, relatively to the size of the brain, are not thicker than those of Europeans ; that the external form of the spinal chord, the medulla oblongata, cerebellum, and cerebrum of the Negro show no important difference from those of the Euro- pean; and that no difference can be shown to exist in the in- ward structure, and the arrangement of the cortical and me- dullary substance. The brain of the orang-outang, as well as that of the chimpanzee, differs prodigiously in size, and very considerably in its organization, from the human brain, and in all the particulars of this difference the brain of the Negro is precisely similar to that of the European. The only point in which Tiedemann could discern the slightest resemblance be- tween the brains of the Negro and that of the Simic was in the arrangement or position of the gyri and sulci on the sur- face of the hemispheres. These gyri and sulci are more nu- merous in the brain of the pongo and chimpanzee in the Hunterian Museum than they are in the human brain, either European or African, and they are likewise more regular or symmetrical. The corresponding structure appeared to Tiede- mann somewhat more symmetrical in the brains of the Negroes examined by him than in European brains ; but it is very pro- bable that this slight appearance of resemblance is only an individual variety. It appears, then, that there is no character whatever in the or- ganization of the brain of the Negro which affords a presump- tion of inferior endowment of intellectual or moral faculties. If it be asserted that the African nations are inferior to the rest of mankind on the ground of historical facts, and because they may be thought not to have contributed their share to the ad- vancement of human arts and science, we have, in the first place, the example of the Egyptians to oppose to such a conclusion, and this will be allowed by all to be quite sufficient, if only we may be permitted to reckon the Egyptians as a native African tribe ; but those who insist on tracing the Egyptians from Mount Caucasus, and represent them as foreigners in Africa, VOL. II. AA 354 INTELLIGENCE OF AFRICANS and late intruders among the native people of that continent, will not admit this instance to be of any avail in our argument. But if we are confined to nations who are strictly Negroes, it will be sufficient to point out the Mandingos, as a people who are evidently susceptible of mental culture and civilization. They have not, indeed, contributed towards the advance- ment of human art and science; but they have shown themselves willing and able to profit by these advantages when introduced among them. The civilization of many African nations is much superior to that of the aborigines of Europe during the ages which preceded the conquests of the Goths and Swedes in the north and the Romans in the southern parts. The old Finnish inhabitants of Scandinavia had long, as it has been proved by the learned investigations of Riihs, the religion of fetishes, and a vocabulary as scanty as that of the most barbarous Africans. They had lived from immemorial ages without laws, or government, or social union ; every individual the supreme arbiter, in every thing, of his own actions; and they displayed as little capability of emerging from the squalid sloth of their rude and merely.animal existence. When conquered by people of Indo-German race, who brought with them from the East the rudiments of mental culture, they emerged more slowly from their pristine barbarism than many of the native African nations have done. Even at the present day there are hordes in various parts of northern Asia, whose heads have the form belonging to the Tartars, and to Scla- vonians, and other Europeans, but who are below many of the African tribes in civilization.* * Among the circumstances which have contributed to retard the progress of civilization in Africa, one of the most important and influential is the compact and undivided form of the African continent, and the natural barriers which render access to the great regions of the interior so remarkably difficult. It has been ob- served by Professor Ritter, that the civilization of countries is greatly influenced by their geographical forms, and by the relation which the interior spaces bear to the extent of coast. While all Asia is five times as large as Europe, and Africa more than three times as large, the littoral margins of these latter continents bear no si- milar proportion to their respective areas. Asia has seven thousand seven hundred geographical miles of coast; Europe, four thousand three hundred, and Africa only three thousand five hundred. To every thirty-seven square miles of continent in Europe, there is one mile of coast: in Africa, only one mile of coast to one hun- NOT INFERIOR TO THAT OF OTHER NATIONS. 355 dred and fifty square miles of continent. Therefore the relative extension of coast is four times as great in Europe as in Africa. Asia is in the middle, between these two extremes. ‘I'o every one hundred and five square miles, it has one mile of coast. The calculation of geographical spaces occupied by different parts of the two last-mentioned continents, is still more striking. “ The ramifications of Asia, excluded from the continental trapezium, make about one hundred and fifty-five thousand square miles of that whole quarter, or about one-fifth part. The ramifi- cations of the continental triangle of Europe form one-third part of the whole, or even more. In Asia the stock is much greater in proportion to the branches, and thence the more highly advanced culture of the branches has remained for the most part excluded from the great interior spaces. In Europe, on the other hand, from the different relation of its spaces, the condition of the external parts had much greater influence on that of the interior. Hence the higher culture of Greece and Italy penetrated more easily into the interior, and gave to the whole continent one harmonious character of civilization, while Asia contains many separate regions which may be compared individually to Europe, and each of which could receive only its peculiar kind of culture from its own branches.” Africa, deficient in these endowments of nature, and wanting both separating gulfs, and inland seas, could obtain no share in the expansion of that fruitful tree, which, having driven its roots deeply in the heart of Asia, spread its branches and blossoms over the western and southern tracts of the same continent, and expanded its crown over Europe. In Egypt alone it possessed a river-system so formed as to favour the developement of similar productions.—Die Erdkunde von Asien, von Carl Ritter, 2. B. Berlin, 1832. Einleitung, §. 24, 25. ee aie ~e: ee ne AR NTI PS nasa NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Nore I. On the terms Berber, Barbaria, Barbar, Sc. with reference top. 15. SrveRAL considerations important to ethnography, are connected with the application of the term Barbar or Barbari, to different na- tions, and with that of Barbaria to different parts of Africa, and the subject deserves some inquiry. Barbary, or Barbaria, as applied to the northern region of Africa, is a comparatively modern name. It is supposed to be de- rived from the designation of the Berber people. On this I shall cite a curious passage from Leo Africanus : << Our cosmographers and historians affirm,” says Leo, ‘ that in times past, Africa was altogether uninhabited, except that part which is called the Land of the Negroes; and most certain it is, that Barbary and Numidia were for many ages destitute of inhabit- ants. The tawny people,—gentes subfusci coloris—of the same re- gion were called by the name of Barbar, derived from the verb éar- bara, which, in their tongue, signifies to murmur, because the Afri- can language sounds in the ears of an Arabian not otherwise than the voice of brutes. Others will have Barbar to be one word twice repeated, for as much as bar in the Arabian tongue signifies a de- sert; for they say that when King Iphricus, being by the Assy- rians or Ethiopians driven out of his own kingdom, travelled to- wards Egypt, he, seeing himself so much oppressed by his enemies, that he knew not what should become of himself and his followers, asked his people how it was possible to escape, who answered him ‘ Bar-bar,’ that is,—‘ To the desert, to the desert, giving him to understand by this expression, that he could have no safer refuge than to flee over the Nile into the desert of Africa. This reason,” says Leo, ‘agrees with those who affirm the Africans to be de- scended from the people of Arabia.” * * Joh. Leon. Afric. Descriptio Africa Rerumque in ed memorabilium, lib. i. p. 4, prima editionis. I have followed in part Purchas’s quaint translation, but have altered it with reference to the text of Leo. foe en ee dn in di got if 360 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. All that can be inferred from these traditional stories related by Leo, is, that the real origin of the term Berber was entirely unknown among his countrymen, and that this term was in his time among the Arabs used as the general denomination of the native African or Lybian people, as distinguished from their Arabian conquerors. The name of Barbary does not appear to have been applied by Europeans to the north-western parts of Africa, previously to the Mohammedan conquest; but it is of much greater antiquity in the eastern side of the same continent, where it was widely extended. It seems to have comprehended the inhabitants of various countries between the Upper Nile and the Arabian Gulf. _ The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean sea, describes the country behind Myos Hormos and Berenice as occupied by a people called Barbari, a term which is here used as the name of a particular nation,* and Agathemerus says, that the coast of Ethiopia was termed Barbaria.+ The extent of the region so named is clearly to be traced in Ptolemy’s Geography. This writer terms the country on the Arabian Gulf ‘‘ Troglodytica” as far to the southward as Mons Elephas. “Mons Elephas was situated beyond the promontory of Mosyloa, which forms the strait of Babelmandeb. In this coast of the Troglodytes he places the Adulite, or people of Aduli, the Avalitee, and the Mosyli, who gave name toa port or emporium, celebrated for its trade in cinnamon, and mentioned by the author of the Periplus and by Pliny. Beyond Troglodytica to the “ pro- montory of Raptum, all the coast,” according to Ptolemy, “is termed Barbaria.” ‘‘ The inland country abounding in elephants, is termed Azania.” We learn from this, that the Barbaria of Pto- lemy, is what is now called the coast of Ajan.{ It seems therefore that in the early centuries after the Christian era Barbaria was the maritime region of Africa, looking towards the Erythreean or the Indian Ocean, and that the people of that coast were termed Bar- bari, or Barbarii, a name which is still preserved in the port of Barbara, and perhaps, though in a region at a considerable dis- tance from the ancient Barbaria, among the inhabitants of Dar Berber, in Upper Nubia, and among the Berberins or BarAbra. The word Barbari appears in a most remarkable manner to have been used by many nations as an epithet rather than a proper name for races of people upon whom they looked with contempt as igno- * Hudson, Geog. Minor. tom. i. + Ibid. tom. ii. $ Claud. Ptolem. Geog. lib. iv. cap. 8. The Byzantine writers continue to use the same term. Stephanus (de urbib. voc Bap€apoc) adds, that the adjacent sea was termed Baptapicdy médayoc and Cosmas Indico pleustes terms the people of this region, Bap€apior. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 361 rant of their own language and manners. Strabo indeed, has re- marked that when Homer termed the Carians BapBapddwror he m- tended only to imply that they spoke impure Greek, but if this was his meaning, the particular exception serves only to establish the sense of the term in general. Bdp€apo., was the denomination of people who spoke an idiom different from the Greek. We are as- sured by Herodotus that the Egyptians likewise termed all those who spoke a language different from their own Barpart.* It is somewhat doubtful whether he meant to say that the Egyptians applied this particular word, Barbari, or some term in their own lan- guage that was equivalent to that expression in Greek. It is still more remarkable that this identical word, or one that only differs accidentally from it by the peculiarity of Sanskrit orthography, was used by the Hindoos with a meaning precisely similar. Varvvarah, or Varvvaras—q :—means, according to Professor Wilson, and in another sense, ‘“‘ woolly or curly hair, as the hair of an African.” The only way of explaining, with any degree of probability, so extensive a diffusion of the term Barbarii, or Barbari, and at the same time its local application to the country and the people of the African coast, is the conjecture that Barbar was originally an a “low man, an out-cast or barbarian,” Egyptian term, or name given by the Egyptians to the maritime country on the Red Sea, or its inhabitants. The word might be derived, as Leo derives it, from Bar, a desert, were it not impro- bable that an Arabian name could have been adopted by the Egyp- tians, the people so termed not being Arabians. The Coptic word GepGep, signifying hot, may be the etymon of the name, if it origi- nally belonged to the country. Bop€eo, as well as Bep€wp, means to cast out. Could the people be hence termed ‘ Outcasts?” These southern borderers on Egypt, probably ferocious nomades, as are the Bishari at present, being dreaded and hated by the Egyptians, and their name being equivalent to that of Savages, it is possible that it may have been borrowed by the Greeks from the Egyptians in this sense.t The Hindoos used, as it seems, the same name in both of its meanings, both as a national appellation, which was extended, however, from the natives of the Barbari coast to other crisp-haired Africans, and likewise in the sense of outcasts or barbarians. By the Arabian conquerors of Africa, the name of Barbar, * “ Baobdpouc O& tavrac ol AiyimTtor Kadéovor TOvC [1) OGL duoyAWoooUG.” Lib. ii. 158. + This conjecture is adopted by Mr. Kerr, in the introduction to his General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels. 362 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. already in use as a general term for the nomadic tribes near Egypt was easily transferred to the inhabitants of the western desert. The gentile appellation of the Berbers is Amazigh, a term which reminds us of the Amakosah. Note II. On Chap. 1. Section 4, p. 25. There is some discrepancy in the statements preserved respecting the language of the northern African population under the Roman government, and. during the times which preceded the Mohammedan conquest. Procopius says, in reference to the mhabitants both of Mauritania and Numidia, “ Phoenicum lingua etiam nunc utuntur incole.” It is extremely improbable that the Numidians ever used generally the Pheenician language, and equally so that Procopius possessed the information requisite for ascertaining the fact. The great majority of the population used amongst themselves, in all likelihood, a speech unintelligible to the Greeks and Romans, and this was imagined to be Punic, whereas there can be little doubt that it was the idiom which the inhabitants of the country spoke before the arrival of Phoenician colonies, and which they are well-known to have preserved and to have used as their vernacular and only dialect long after Carthaginians and Romans had ceased to be known among them, even by name. That Latin was in common use in the cities, and among the cul- tivated part of the people, and even among classes who possessed but a moderate degree of mental culture, we may infer from the fact that the Christian teachers never appear to have used, or to have thought it necessary to learn any other speech. In Egypt we know that those who converted the people to Christianity were anxious to translate the Scriptures, and even formed three versions for the use of natives who could not read Greek. But nobody ever heard ofa Punic or Lybian version, or even of any necessity to interpret from Latin into any vernacular language of North Africa. There is a letter of St. Augustin extant, in which he entreats St. Jerome to trans- late the best Greek commentators into Latin, for the use of the Christians in Africa. Even among the great variety of sects which divided the Christians of that country we do not find that any diffi- culty was experienced on account of variety in language, or that any peculiar dialect existed among them. Latin was the universal idiom of religious instruction, and it is, therefore, most probable that it was the ordinary medium of communication in the cities of Barbary. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Norte III. On the Physical Characters of the Berber Race :—page 26—30. The osteological characters of the Berber race are as yet but im- perfectly known. Almost the only heads belonging to this family of nations that have been figured and examined are those of a few Guanche mummies. Very lately, however, the skull of a Berber has been described by M. Dubreuil, in a memoir presented to the Academy of Sciences, which has been already cited. The individual to whom this skull belonged was a Berber of the tribe of Krechnad, inhabitants of the plain of Metidjah. It presented, according to the author of the memoir, some traits characteristic of the Negro, and others similar to those of the European skull. The form ofthe cranium is oblong, and the forehead narrow and retreating, asin the Negro; but the face, though projecting and elongated, deviates from the circular shape; the nasal bones, instead of being flat- tened, are vaulted; the auditory foramen is nearer to the occiput than to the forehead, a character to which M. Dubreuil attaches some importance. From the examination of one cranium it would be impossible to consider anything as decided with respect to the race. Many Eu- ropean heads might be found to which the preceding description would apply. The characters noted in this skull are different from those of the Guanches, who are, however, concluded, on apparently safe grounds, to have been a branch of the Berber race. M. Dubreuil has also described a newly found Guanche skull, and his account of it has been compared by M. Flourens with that of another Guanche skull in the Museum of Paris, which it strongly re- sembles in osteological characters. These characters, which are the following, coincide in general with Blumenbach’s description of Guanche skulls published in his ‘‘ Decades Craniorum.” This Guanche skull is of a fine oval form, the posterior part of which is much more voluminous than the anterior. It is remarkable for the height of the head, the rounded shape of the vault, the en- tire absence of angles and projections, ‘“ par des reliefs symmétriques et adoucis. Le front domine la partie inférieure.” The tem- poral fossee are considerably excavated. The auditory foramen ap- proaches the posterior part of the head, or the occiput. The occi- pital hole is rounded like the entire cranium. The face is some- what rounded, oval. The nasal fosse and the palatine vault 364 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, have little extent: the teeth are set vertically. It is remarked by M. Dubreuil that in two Guanche mummies the coronoid apophysis of the lower jaw is more distant from the condyle than in European heads. This character exists in the Guanche mummy preserved in the Museum of Paris. It appears, according to M. Flourens, in a still greater degree in the lower jaw of an Egyptian mummy. M. Dubreuil added some observations on a perforation of the hu- merus observed in the skeletons of two Guanches, similar to that remarked by M. Cuvier in the female of the Bushman race. To this subject I have already adverted when describing the anatomical pe- culiarities of the Hottentots. Note IV. On the Vocabularies at the endof Chapter II. in pages 41, 42. The following remarks on the comparative vocabularies of the Berber and other Atlantic dialects with those of the northern African and southern European idioms, will tend to illustrate the etymology of many words in the several columns, and the relations of the dif- ferent dialects to each other. Iam indebted for them to Mr, W. F. Newman, whose analysis of the Berber translation of St. Luke and Berber Grammar have been repeatedly mentioned in the preceding pages. I. Remarks on the column of Berber words. 1. In the Berber column, the word elehoua—rendered rain— seems to mean storm in the Gospel of St. Luke, and to be the Arabic el-hawa, the air or wind. Face—agadowm—should be wodam or odom, the particle ag being only a preposition. Woman —themmetont—seems to be a misprint for themmeéout. If it be correctly said that TH initial is the Berber feminine article, the word is mattut, pointing to the root, mat or mad, whence comes the Ber- ber word maddan, men. Boy—agehich—is a misprint for agchich— AQCHICH. Call—serar—or rather gara, is pure Hebrew, and is used in Berber in all its Hebrew senses. In Arabic it has a different sense, to read. Good, deladi; the d is a prefix: the root is el’a-ii, good, if indeed the el be not the Arabic article. The word tefoukt, which stands for sun, is used once in the Berber Gospel of St. Luke for fire, while thafath is used for light and for the oven. Comparing the Showiah column, we can hardly doubt that fouk is the root, meaning a blaze, flame, light, or source of heat; a fire-place—having NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 365 a remarkable similarity to the Latin focus, Italian fuoco—whence the feminine form tefoukt, corruptly tefout. But the element of fire is thimas. Dates are expressed by tint, the Arabic fora fig. 2. Comparing the two first columns, the Shillah is evidently Berber. 3. Comparing Showiah with Berber, we may remark: Sky, or heaven, in Berber, is thagnaw—probably akin to signa, a cloud— though omitted in the table. Stars—ithran—points to the root ithra, since n final is a Berber plural; also gethra, yethkra, would be a mere provincial variation. Edfil and aljfil, the same: thiwani has the form of an Arabic plural, from singular thint. Atfhi— milk—is evidently a corruption of alefki, so that nearly all the Showiah nouns are at once referable to Berber. The word fouse, head, one may suspect to be a mistake. The verbs are less similar, but when a language is but slightly known, it is hard to obtain the verbs so accurately as to found a negative arcument. We have here but six verbs to compare, of which certainly two—to eat and to sit—are the same, and probably a third—to speak—so that it would be futile to reason from them. The evidence before us seems, therefore, to indicate the Showiah to be only a dialect of Berber. 4, Inthe Tuaryk column, a few words are Arabic, viz. mar—a man, —zain—good,—yehamma—hot. Also aghemar, akhmar—a horse —is probably the same word as Arabic hhamar—an ass :—teele— a sheep—may be compared with the Arabic tali—a lamb. unless it is the same word as the Showiah ouly, with the article ¢ prefixed. Laghrum—a camel—is doubtless the same as elghowm, under a dif- ferent system of orthography. Head, in Berber, isekhf; in Tuaryk, ighrof. If ghr here, as elsewhere, denotes the Arabic ghain, the word is better written ighof, identical with ikhf. We may how- ever remark, that in the Gospel of St. Luke the Berber word for head is agarroy, [in Langle’s, zkhf and agarwi.] Khool, which stands in the Tuaryk column for fish, in Arabic means vinegar : possibly its strict application in Tuaryk may be to pickled fish. If these remarks hold, nearly all the remaining Tuaryk is Berber. 5. In the Siwah column, the words samak—fish,—saint—year,— are Arabic, and probably akhmar, as was observed. Of the rest it is easy to count thirteen that are Berber, and eighteen which may, indeed, be Berber, but which are not manifested to be such by the table. In the Tuaryk column I can only count five for the eighteen in the Siwah. Hence the evidence of the table seems to be that the Siwah is less near to the Berber than is the Tuaryk. 366 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 6. The Tibboo does not seem to have a single word in common with the Berber in this table. For a cow, the Tibboo has farr, which seems to be Hebrew. In Arabic the same word means a rat or mouse. 7, Not one word in the Biscayan is like any other language in the table, except gamelua,a camel. 8. The Coptic is nearly as peculiar; yet mashg—the ear—may be compared with Berber amzough—or mazzogh,—and so—to drink —is the same in both languages. 9, The Amharic seems to borrow more largely from Ethiopic, or Arabic, than the rest. 10. The Barabra says amanga for water.—[The termination ga orka is evidently aformative in the language, as appears in ademga, _ from Arabic adem—a man,—anebhy from ’aneb—grapes. Com- pare windjega, ourka, manga, ukkega, kabakka, arykka, gemga, awaka, edinga, mirtega.] No other word appears common to it with any language in the table. The general result from the data before us is as follows : I. The Coptic, Biscayan, Barabra, Tibbo, and Berber, are all as unlike each other as English and Arabic. II. Nearest to the Berber seems to be the Shillah, of which, how- ever, we have but few words: the Showiah and Tuaryk are each near akin to the Berber: the Siwah dialect less close to it than either, yet having much in common with the other dialects. Of the derivations alluded to in the note to page 16, three seem quite satisfactory, viz. thala, augela, and tipasa. Few, probably, will think atlas, atlantis, sufficiently like adhraar to infer that the former is a corruption of the latter. If ampsaga come from am- sagar, it proves nothing to the point, for sagar is a vulgar Arabic corruption of shagar—or shadjar—a true Arabic word, meaning trees, a plantation. But what, then, isam? Arriver? Besides, the r is too rough to be so easily elided; and we might rather expect the word in Latin orthography to have been ampsagara. Nore V. On the Filahs, with reference to page 73. We have seen that in a variety of instances more accurate local investigation, when opportunities have occurred, or more extensive researches, when history or philology have afforded lights, has con- tributed to remove a prejudice which had led many writers on ethno- NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 367 graphy, or travellers in Africa, to set down those nations who differ physically from the Negroes, as strangers to the African continent, unconnected with its aboriginal population. The Chinese have been represented as Hottentots, the Kafirs as Arabs, the Berbers and other tribes of Atlantica have been deduced from Assyria or Palestine, the Barabra of Nubia have been supposed to be foreigners who came by sea from India, the Egyptians have been represented to be a Se- mitic tribe, or a Caucasian nation, Further investigation has cor- rected all these notions, and has given us reason to conclude that the Hottentots are, in all probability, the oldest inhabitants of South Africa; that the Kafirs have nothing in common with the Arabs, but are akin to other black and woolly-haired African nations; that the Berbers are the aborigines of Atlantica; the Barabra allied to the black Nouba of Kordofan; and the Egyptians neither Semites nor Indo-Europeans, but if we can rely, in any instance, on history and analogy in the structure of languages, a genuine African stock, and intimately connected with the black or dark-brown Ethiopians. A similar opinion, and on nearly the same grounds, has been ad- vanced, as we have seen, respecting the race of Fulahs, who, in Western Guinea, afford the strongest instance of deviation from the prevalent physical character of the African tribes. The Falahs have been thought to be a northern people, driven into their present abode from countries far to the northward of the Senegal. This no- tion appears to have been adopted in order to explain the phenomena of their physical diversity. We have seen that it is contradicted by local investigation, and that the Filahs are, as far as evidence can be collected, among the aboriginal inhabitants (that term bemg used in the sense in which I have adopted it) of higher Senegambia. Later observations have afforded some additional support to the opi- nion that the Falah or Felatah race are not, when the great body of the nation is considered, removed at so wide a distance from other African nations as by some it has been imagined. As far as we can judge of their language from the specimens collected of it, we should determine it to be a genuine Africanidiom. The physical characters of the Felatah were thought by Mr. Lander, who had lived among both nations, to bear a decided resemblance to the Red Karfirs, a fairer tribe of the same stock with the Amakosah. The Felatahs have been very lately visited and described by Mr. Oldfield, an intel- ligent traveller, who, being a medical man, was likely to direct his attention to physical peculiarities so often neglected by ordinary p-eeetceramteriinnnnttnri ut "iis Bin ja ccna aii! 368 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. travellers, to the great regret of those readers who search their books in vain for some aid in ethnographical researches. In the great Felatah town of Rabbah, the population of which is said to be immense,* as well as in many other places, Mr. Oldfield had abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted with the moral and physical characters of this race. On the lower parts of the Niger the Felatahs are new inhabitants: they have come thither in great numbers from Soceatoo, and have built towns, after expelling or destroying the natives of the country. A sufficient space of time has not yet elapsed to admit of the hypothesis that these Felatahs are merely a mixed breed between the original Foules and the Negro population, which M. Mollien has imagined to be the case in Fouta- diallo. Even in Soccatoo and the adjoining provinces, the abode, or at least the dominion of the Felatahs is but of two generations. And the physical character of these people, as described by Mr. Oldfield, certainly does not coincide with the opinion that they are a kind of Mulattoes, and that those individuals amongst them who resemble in many respects the Negro, owe their similitude to intermixture; a notion which the much-lamented Clapperton was inclined to entertain. “The Felatahs,” says Mr. Oldfield, “‘ are above five feet ten in height, very straight, and muscular. They have small heads and woolly hair. I looked in vain for Felatahs with straight hair, but I did not find one. Their complexion is a little brighter than that of the natives of the neighbouring towns: they have small noses, thin lips, rather a handsome mouth, and an intelligent expression of countenance.” + Mr. Oldfield describes particularly a female who was brought to him as a patient, and the description has no resemblance to that of a Mulatto, nor does it agree with the supposition that the race of Falah, when of dark complexion and woolly hair, owe their cha- racters to the fact that they are really of Negro descent, and only Felatahs by name and adoption. Mr. Oldfield says, “ the invalid was one of the finest girls I have seen in this country. Her colour was a light brown, her features regularly formed, beautiful black eyes, Grecian nose, a small mouth, with teeth as white as ivory. There was nothing denoting the thick lips or flat nose of the Negro, but the contrary.” He adds that “the Felatah ladies are very par- * Narrative ofan Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger, by Macgregor Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield. London, 1837. Vol. ii. p. 60, Mr. Oldfield’s Narrative. : + Ibid. p. 85. NOTES AND’ ILLUSTRATIONS. 369 ticular in adorning their persons: their toilet occupies them several hours: their toes and hands are stained with a beautiful purple colour, by means of henna-leaves, moistened and kept applied dur- ing the night. They have the extraordinary practice of staining their teeth with the acid of the Gorra-nut and indigo, and with the juice of ashrub, by which the four front teeth are dyed of different colours, one blue, another yellow, another purple, the fourth remaining white. Their eyelids are pencilled with sulphuret of antimony. Their hair, or wool, is plaited in perpendicular knots of four or five inches long. They besmear themselves with a red pigment, which is supposed to lighten the colour of the skin, and correct the odour of perspiration. They are clean in their persons, and perform ablu- tions twice a-day in the river.” ‘‘The Felatahs are fond of danc- ing and other amusements, and, like all the Africans I have met with, pass their nights at new and full moon in this diversion.” Nore VI. On the Eboes, and other Nations near Benin and on the Lower Niger.—See page 96. Some additional particulars have been collected by Mr. Oldfield respecting the Ibo, or Eboes, and the neighbouring tribes of Ne- groes in the countries bordering on the Lower Niger. He says that the Eboes have the Negro features in the greatest degree, and the Ibbodo next. The skin of the Eboes is of a light copper-colour. The Nufie, or Nufanchi, are a very handsome race of people, mild and gentle in disposition, and industrious. The higher he proceeded up the river theless marked was the African physiognomy. This is attributed by Mr. Oldfield to intermixture with Arabs or Moors ; but the number of Arabs is by much too inconsiderable to produce any change in the great mass of the inhabitants; and the fact is, moreover, a general one, and observed in parts where no such jntermixture can be imagined to exist. The Ibbodo above mentioned appear to be the people of Kakunda, a country on the western bank of the Lower Niger, higher up than Eboe, and on the borders of Yarriba. On the opposite side of the river are Nyffe, Nufie or Tappa, and lower down, Funda: Jacoba and Adamowa lie to the eastward. Mr, Oldfield has given vocabu- laries of the languages of some of these countries, from which I shall extract the ten first numerals. The reader may observe that many words in them resemble terms which occur in the tables of numerals VOL, II. BB 370 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. in page 113, exemplifying the languages of Sfidan, or the interior of Negroland, though the similar words do not always denote the same numerals. On the other hand, they are quite unlike the numerals be- longing to the languages of Western Guinea and Senegambia, which may be seen in page 99. NUFIE, or HAUSA. FELA . N UPAYSEE. t sion EBOE. SHABBE.*® 1. Ofu war nee wornee i goh 2. Ab’boar hooswarba ogibar diddee 3. Atto hodswar tar ogitar 6 tattie 4, Anno hooswar'nee ogwi'nee ni 5. E’sa ar'tcke ogootso jowy 6. H’see hoéatwarnee ogoosuiee shiddah joago 7. As’sa hooabwarabar ogootwabee bocqua joardidee 8. Assato hooartridssa ogootutar tockquas _ jotackie 9. Te'nnani tuar’nee ogootwarne _— turrah joarni 10. Eree atchabba oquo gomar sappo 20. Osu atcharinee woshee ashereen sasso (Arab.) 100. E’ggodésee asharaba wosheesoh daree sasso ej0a Nore VII. With reference to page 220. I may have expressed myself somewhat too decidedly in this passage as to the assent given by M. de Schlegel to my conclusions deduced from a comparison of the Indian and Egyptian mytholo- gies. The preface to which I have referred contains a profoundly philosophical and comprehensive survey of the relations which dis- play themselves between some of the most celebrated nations of an- tiquity, when compared in reference to their religious dogmas, their science and philosophy, and their political institutions. In regard to the ancient Indians and Egyptians who constitute the chief subject * Kakunda is termed by the natives Ibbodah, and their language Shabbe. + I have added the numerals in the Haisa and Felatah languages from Mr. Oldfield’s collection, partly because the orthography of some words differs from that given in the preceding tables, and in part because there is an evident relation be- tween several words in both these sets of numerals and others collated with them. For example, several of the Ebo numerals appear to be Felatah words disguised by prefixes or abbreviations: the Shabbe and Niifie appear to have the same elements as the Hatisa, disguised in like manner. On comparing this table with that given in page 113 above, the reader will perceive an extensive connexion between all the languages thus exemplified : similar elements are common to nearly all of them. For example, egi, ogi, oki, or something equivalent, is found in many of them contained in the numeral jive. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Wk! of inquiry, M. de Schlegel has dwelt more especially on the circum- stances in each particular of their intellectual history, which distin- guish them from each other, and are calculated to suggest doubts as to the fact of any direct intercourse between them, or even to disprove its existence since the commencement at least of the his- toric age, and of those times during which the nations of antiquity attained their peculiar developement, and those traits of character ‘which serve to individualize them. M. de Schlegel seems to attri- bute to me the intention of establishing, by the comparison which I endeavoured to institute, more than he is willing to concede. Perhaps I have not defined with sufficient precision the limits within which my inferences were, or ought to have been, restricted. My conclusions will indeed be found to connect very closely the early mental culture of the Egyptians and of the Indians. Their tenour is not, however, unless I mistake M. de Schlegel, irreconcil- able with his views, since he appears fully to allow that certain ge- neral principles were common to these nations as an original ground- work of their religious and philosophical systems. If this be con- ceded or regarded as well established, the greater the diversity manifested between them in their subsequent developement, the more will the facts be found favourable to my argument, since they will carry back with fuller evidence the mutual resemblance and con- nexion discovered between these nations to a remote period of an- tiquity. But on this topic | must refer my readers again to the work in which it is discussed, without much apprehension as to their acquiescence in my conclusions ; and if their assent extends no further than that given by M. de Schlegel, or at least fully im- plied in his observations, it will answer my purpose in adverting to this subject, and will furnish a sufficient ground-work for the re- marks which I have advanced, in the pages which follow the above- cited passage. Nore VIII. Referring to pages 248, 249, on the Cush of the Hebrew Scrip- tures, the AiOvorec of the LXX. The name Cush, in the Hebrew Scriptures, is rendered by the Septuagint AiOvomes, or Ethiopians. The people generally so termed in Egypt were the Ethiopians of Meroe, the subjects of Queen Candace, but the same name, as we learn from its use by Diodorus, 372 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, was extended to some of the neighbouring nations, but always re- stricted to black people. Cush, in the older historical parts of the Old Testament, is, how- ever, applied evidently to nations living to the eastward of the Red Sea. Hence an ambiguity in its meaning in some passages. The subject has been discussed by Bochart and Michaélis. Among the Hebrew writers of later times, there can be no doubt that this name belongs exclusively to African nations. The Ethio- pians who were connected with Egypt by political relations are termed by these writers, Cush. Thus, Tirkahah, the Cushite in- vader of Judah, may be identified with Tearchon, an Ethiopian chief, mentioned by Strabo, and both are probably identical with Tarakos, who is set down by Manetho as an Ethiopian king of Egypt. In the earlier ages the term Cush belonged apparently to the same nation or race; though it would appear that the Cush, or Ethiopians of those times, occupied both sides of the Red Sea. The Cush mentioned by Moses are pointed out by him to be a nation of kindred origin with the Egyptians. In the Toldoth Beni-Noach, or Archives of the sons of Noah, it is said, that the Cush and the Mizraim were brothers, which means, as it is generally allowed, na- tions nearly allied by kindred. It is very probable that the first people who settled in: Arabia were Cushite nations, who were afterwards expelled or succeeded by the Beni-Yoktan, or true Arabs. In the enumeration of the de- scendants of Cush in the Toldoth Beni-Noach, several tribes or set- tlements are mentioned apparently in Arabia, or Saba and Havilah.. When the author afterwards proceeds to the descendants of Yoktan, the very same places are enumerated among their settlements. That the Cush had in remote times. possessions in Asia, is evident from the history of Nimrod, a Cushite chieftain, who is said.to have pos- sessed several cities of the Assyrians, among which was Babel, or Babylon, in Shinar. Long after their departure the name of Cush remained behind them on the coast of the Red Sea. Itis probable that the name of Cush continued to be given to tribes who had succeeded the genuine Cushites, in the possession of their ancient territories in Arabia, after the whole of that people had passed into Africa, as the English are termed Britons, and the Dutch race of modern times, Belgians. In this way it may have happened, that people, remote in race from the family of Ham, are yet named Cush, as the Midianites, who were descended from NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 373 Abraham. The daughter of Jethro, the Midianite, is termed a Cushite woman. Even in this instance the correspondence of Cush and Ethiopia has been preserved. We find the word rendered ZEthiopissa by the LXX., and in the verses of Ezechiel, the Jewish Hellenistic poet, Jethro is placed in Africa, and his people termed Ethiopians. Sepphora is introduced replying thus to a query of Moses :*— “© AiBun piv i yh waoa KAACeTat, ive, oicovor © adryy gi\a wayrotwy yEevOr, Aidiomec dvdpec pédavec :” On the whole it it may be considered as clearly established that the Cush are the genuine Ethiopian race, and that the country of Cush is generally in Scripture that part of Africa above Egypt. In support of these positions may be cited not only the authority of the Septuagint, and the writers above mentioned, but the concur- ring testimony of the Vulgate and all other ancient versions with that of Philo, Josephus, Eupolemus, Eustathius, all the Jewish commentators and Christian fathers. There is only one writer of antiquity on the other side, and he was probably misled by the facts above considered, which, as we have seen, admit of a different ex- planation.+ It may be worth while to notice, that the Ethiopians are by the Greeks divided into two departments, probably those of the two sides of the Arabian Gulf :—thus Homer terms them— Aidiorec rot duxy Od dedaiarat, Eoxaror avdody, Oi pév Svoopévou Yrepiovos, ot 0 aviovroc.t * Euseb. Prep. Evan. Lib. ix. cap. 28. I believe this passage escaped both Bochart and Michaelis. + The single dissentient is the writer of Jonathan’s Targum, and on this autho- rity the learned Bochart, supported by some doubtful passages, maintains that the land of Cush was situated on the eastern side of the Arabian Gulf; however, it has been satisfactorily proved, by the authors of the Universal History, and by Michaélis, that many of these passages require a different version, and prove that the land of Cush was Ethiopia. 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It is now so printed as to form one handsome volume in octavo, (instead of two,) and con- tains much new and valuable matter, derived from the recent discoveries of Dr. Paris in Pharmacological and Chemical Science ; and such additional observations respecting the powers of simple and combined re- medies as the extended experience of the Doctor has enabled him to offer. «© Dr. Paris’s happy illustration of the operation of medicines, as diversified by combination, appears to be peculiarly his own; and he has so far succeeded in reducing his principles to scientific accuracy, and in rendering them applicable to practice, as justly to merit the praise of forming a new era in the departments of pharmacy and prescription. —The PHAR ACOLOGIA is a work entitled to the double commendation of being admirably suited to the wants of the profession, and the only one of the kind.” —Preface to the Second American Edition. DR. CLARKE ON CONSUMPTION AND SCROFULA. A TREATISE ON PULMONARY CONSUMPTION, Comprehending an Inquiry into the Nature, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment of TUBERCULOUS AND SCROFULOUS DISEASES IN GENERAL. 8vo. Price 12s. By JAMES CLARK, M.D., F.R.S. *¢ We recommend strongly, the study of the author's hygienic remarks to our professional brethren ; in- deed we think that every parent ought tobe acquainted with the excellent rules laid down on nursing, dress, bathing, air, exercise, and education. We have seldom seen a medical work more deserving of gene- ral circulation, or one that we would more zealously recommend to the younger members of the profession.” Medical Quarterly Review, April, 1835. HOBLYN’S MEDICAL DICTIONARY. DICTIONARY OF TERMS USED IN MEDICINE AND THE COLLATERAL SCIENCES; A MANUAL FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND SCIENTIFIC READERS. Containing the Erymo.oey and Meraninc, NoMENCLATURES, CLASSIFICA- tions of Nosonocy, Mareria Menpica, Porsons and their ANTIDOTEs, Analyses of MineraL Waters, an Account of CrimatE, &c.; Tabular Sketches of CuEmistry, Mepicat Botany, and Zootocy. Price 9s. By RICHARD D. HOBLYN, A.M., late of Balliol College, Oxford. ** A Work much wanted, and very ably executed.” —London Medical Journal, Sept. 1835 © This compendious volume is well adapted for the use of Students. It contains a complete Glossary of the terms used in Medicine,—not only those in common use, but also the more recent and less familiar names introduced by modern writers. The introduction of tabular views of different subjects is at once comprehensive and satisfactory. It must not, however, be supposed that the volume is a mere word book; it is, on the contrary, an extremely interesting manual, beautifully printed, containing much ex- ia in a little space, and is deserving of our strong recommendation.”— Medical Gazette, pt. \. «€ Concise and ingenious.”—Johnson’s Medico Chir. Journal, Oct. 1835. ; “It is a very learned, pains-taking, complete, and useful work—a Dictionary absolutely necessary in a medical library.” Spectator, Nov. 1835. RYAN’S MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. A MANUAL OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE AND STATE MEDICINE, Being a Compendium of the Works of Brcx, Paris, and FoNBLANQUE, OrFILA, CuRisTIsoNn, and all standard modern Writers. In Four Parts. Part I. Medical Ethics. Part II. Laws relating to the Medical Profession. Part III. All Medico-L.egal Questions which may arise in Courts of Justice. Part IV. Laws for the Preservation of Public Health. Intended for the Use of the Medical and Legal Professions. Second Edition, considerably enlarged and improved, comprehending all that is essential in Perctvan’s Mrpicat Erarcs, and in Brcx’s celebrated Work on JURISPRUDENCE. By MICHAEL RYAN, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Obstetricy, and Medical Jurisprudence, at the Medical School, Gerard-Street Soho, &c. &c. In One Vol. 8vo. Price 13s. _ © We are acquainted with no Work on Medical Jurisprudence that presents so much valuable informa- tion in so condensed and yet so clear a form,”— and humanity.”—Journal Hebdomodaire, Nos. 42, 43, 45, and 47. “ These observations are new, and denote a decided advance in our science.” Professor Miller ; Handbuch der Physiologie, vol. i. p- 688. 2. MEMOIRS on the NERVOUS SYSTEM. Ato. with 3 Plates, price 10s. 6d. cloth. ** Tt is questionable whether, since the time of Harvey, any discovery has been made in physio- logy so important as that developed in these Memoirs.” « Amongst physiologists the author must take a high rank, and the name of Hall must henceforth be associated with that of Bell. To both, the physiological reputation of our country will be deeply indebted ; but Dr. Hali’s discovery is the more original of the two, because more unex- pected. »_ Spectator, Nov. 18, 1837. 3 OBSERVATIONS on the DUE ADMINISTRATION of BLOOD-LETTING ; founded upon Researches principally relative to the MORBID and CURATIVE EFFECTS of LOSS of BLOOD. 9s. “ We believe the credit of having first put forward, ina strong light, the ieee utility of attending to these points (blood-letting) is eminently due to Dr. Marshall Hall.” “« We may take this opportunity of recommending Dr. Hall’s valuable work to our ee ; they will find in it several rules and obserxyations of great importance relative to blood-letting as a diagnostic of diseases.”— Medical Gazette, Nov. 1885. 4. . CRITICAL and EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS on the CIRCULATION of the BLOOD; especially as observed in the Minute and Capillary Vessels of the Batrachia, and of Fishes, 8vo. with Plates, 9s. 5: i ‘COMMENTARIES on the CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES of FEMALES ; in Two Parts. A New Edition, 8vo. with Plates, price 16s. Part Frrst—Of the Symptoms, Causes, and Prevention of Local Inflammation, Consumption, Spinal Affections, and other Disorders incidental to Young Females. Part Srconp—Comprehending the several Affections incidental to the middle and later Periods of Life, and of their Constitutional Origin. : Page unavailable because it was uncut within original volume DARWIN'S LIBRARY PROJECT Page unavailable because it was uncut within original volume DARWIN'S LIBRARY PROJECT Medical Works, published by Sherwood and Co. NOW PUBLISHING, IN MONTHLY PARTS, THE CYCLOPADIA PRACTICAL SURGERY, Comprising a Series of Original Dissertations in Operative Medicine. By am Association of Physicians and Surgeons. ~ EDITED BY W. B. COSTELLO, M.D. MEMBER OF SEVERAL LEARNED SOCIETIES, BOTH NATIONAL AND FOREIGN. This important Publication has been undertaken for the purpose of collecting into one copious and comprehensive Digest the Doctrines of Surgery, and the valuable Views of Practice, which either rest on individual experience, or are inculcated in too isolated a manner for the general benefit. The chief excellence of this work rests upon each article being written by a gentleman of great professional ability upon such subjects as his esta- blished reputation or previous writings have proved him eminently qualified to treat. In this manner all the great and eminent men connected with the medical world are asso- ciated to produce a body of knowledge, equally valuable to the student and the man of - learning, such as does not exist in the English or any other language. The Cycropapra or SurcERy is issued in Parts, at 5s. each, every alternate month. The work is printed in double columns, with a new type cast expressly for the purpose, on superfine paper, of the largest royal 8vo. size. The articles will be illustrated with woodcuts and other engravings, wherever they may be required. \ Two Parts have already been published, and Part III. will be ready for delivery shortly. » j THE CYCLOPADIA ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. ‘EDITED BY R. B. TODD, M.D. PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY AND OF GENERAL AND MORBID ANATOMY IN KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. “‘ The Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology’? is publishing in Parts, at 5s. each, consisting of a Series of Dissertations, under the headings of the more important subjects of Human Anatomy, General, Surgical, and Morbid—of PaysioLogy—of Compara- tive ANAToMy—and of ANIMAL CHEMISTRY; and in order to unite the advantages of | a Dictionary with the proposed form of the work, a very copious Index will be added, containing all the terms employed in the Sciences. The publishers have much pleasure in stating that upwarps of Forty distinguished writers, eminent in Science, in Great Britain, Ireland, and France, have kindly engaged to contribute to this work, which they trust will be no inconsiderable security for the manner in which the great object of it will be accomplished. Tllustrations, by Woodcut and other Engravings, to a much greater extent than can be found in any publication professing to treat of the same subjects, will be introduced in the articles on the Anatomy and Physiology of the various classes of the animal king- dom, and also wherever they may seem requisite to elucidate descriptions which would otherwise be obscure. Thirteen Parts have already appeared. Part XIV. will be published shortly. WILSON AND SON, PRINTERS, 57, SKINNER-STREET, LONDON. came Sete EIT Se SAT RON Se EES RE RPE I I Ie EL e Sige : . en ES ci “ teas oe ae = : Rates aon w