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Races of man: an outline of anthropology
olin
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4 0^=5^ C M-^
Naga of Manipur in gala costume, with caudiform appendage,
{Phot, lent by Miss Godden.)
THE RACES OF MAN:
■/ /
AN OUTLINE OF ANTHROPOLOGY ' i
AND ETHNOGRAPHY
.-jW BY
\
jfOENIKER, Sc.D. (Paris),
Chief Librarian of the Museum of Natural History, Paris; Honorary
Fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain ;
Corresponding Member of the Italian Anthropological,
Netherland Geographical, and Moscow Natural
Science Societies, etc.
WITH 176 ILLUSTRATIONS AND 2 MAPS.
LONDON:
WALTER SCOTT, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
153-157 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
1901.
PREFACE.
My object in the present work has been to give in a condensed
form the essential facts of the twin sciences of anthropology
and ethnography. The very nature of such an undertaking
condemns the author to be brief, and at the same time
somewhat dogmatic; inevitable gaps occur, and numerous
inequalities in the treatment. To obviate, partly at least,
such defects, I have endeavoured not merely to present the
actual facts of the subject, but also to summarise, with as
much fidelity as possible, the explanations of these facts, in
so far as such may be educed from theories among which
there is often sufificient perplexity of choice. In many
cases I have ventured, however, to give my personal opinion
on different questions, as, for instance, on the signification
of the laryngeal sacs among anthropoid apes, on many
questions of anthropometry in general, on the classing of
" states of civilisation," on fixed and transportable habi-
tations, on the classification of races, on the races of Europe,
on the Palse-American race, etc.
My book is designed for all those who desire to obtain
rapidly a general notion of ethnographic and anthropological
Viii PREFACE.
sciences, or to understand the foundations of these sciences.
Thus technical terms are explained and annotated in such a
manner that they may be understood by all.
Those who may wish for further details on special points
will be able to take advantage of the numerous bibliographical
notes, at the foot of the pages, in which I have sought to
group according to plan the most important or accessible
works. I beheve that even professional anthropologists will
be able to consult my work profitably. They will find con-
densed in it information which is scattered over a vast crowd
of notes and memoirs in all languages. I trust also that they
may appreciate the Appendices, as well as the lists in the text
itself, in which are collected from the best sources some
hundreds of figures relating to the chief dimensions of the
human body.
The illustrations which complete and elucidate the text
have been selected with very great care. With two or three
exceptions, the " types " of the different peoples are photo-
graphs of well-authenticated subjects, often such as have
been observed and measured by competent authorities, or by
myself.
I attach too much importance to the systematic illustration
of anthropological works not to fail to express here my sincere
indebtedness to the institutions and individuals who have
been good enough to lend me blocks and photographs. I
have thus to thank the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Anthropiological Society and the
Anthropological School of Paris, the India Museum, the
Museum of Natural History of Paris, the Smithsonian Institu-
tion of Washington, Dr. Beddoe, Prince Roland Bonaparte
M. Chantre, Drs. Collignon and Delisle, Herr Ehrenreich and
PREFACE. IX
his editors Fr. Vieweg & Sons, Professor Haddon, Dr.
Lapicque, Mr. Otis Mason, Dr. Soren Hansen, MM. S.
Somraier, P. and F. Sarasin and their editor Herr C. Kreidel
of Wiesbaden, Dr. Ten Kate, Mr. Thurston, Miss Godden,
Miss Werner, and Messrs. Harper & Bros.
I desire also to thank in this place Dr. Collignon, Mr.
Havelock EUis, and M. Salomon Reinach, for the trouble
they have taken in revising the proofs of certain parts of
my work.
J. DENHCER.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
Ethnic Groups and Zoological Species ... ... i
Difficulties in applying to Man the terms of zoological nomen-
clature — Criterion of species — Terms to give to the " Soma-
tological Units " constituting the genus Homo — Monogenesis
and Polygenesis — The " Ethnic Groups" are constituted by
the different combinations of the " Somatological Units" or
' ' Races " — Somatic characters and ethnic characters.
CHAPTER I.
Somatic Characters
Distinctive Characters of Man and Apes. — Monkeys
and anthropoid apes — Erect attitude — Curvature of the
spine — Brain — Skull — Teeth— Other characters— Differences
less accentuated in the foetus and the young than in the
adult.
Distinctive Morphological Characters of Human
Races. — Stature: Individual limits — Dwarfs and giants —
Average stature of different populations — Influence of
environment — Differences according to sex — Reconstitution
from the long bones — Teguments : Skin — Hair of head and
body — Four principal types — Microscopic structure — Cor-
relation between the hair of the head and the pilosity of the
body — Pigmentation : Colouring of the skin, the eyes, and
the hair— Changes in the pigment.
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
PAGE
1. Morphological Characters — {continued) 53
Cranium or Skull: Cranial measurements — Orbits and orbital
index— Nasal bone and nasal index — Prognathism— A^ea;/ of
the living subject : Cephalic index— Face— Eyes— Nose and
nasal index in the living subject — Lips — Trunk and Limbs :
The Skeleton — Pelvis and its indices — Shoulder blade —
Thoracic limb— Abdominal \va\\i^Proportions of the body
in the living subject — Trunk and neck — Curve of the back —
Steatopygy — Various Organs: Genital organs — Brain — ^Its
weight — Convolutions — The neuron—Its importance from
the psychical point of view.
CHAPTER III.
2. Physiological Characters ... ... ... ... 105
Functions of nutrition and assimilation : Digestion, alimenta-
tion, growth, temperature of the body, etc. — Respiration
and circulation: Pulse, composition of the blood, etc. —
Special oiaxix— Functions of communication: Expression of
the emotions, acuteness of the senses, etc. — Functions of
reproduction : Menstruation, menopause, increase in the
number of conceptions according to season, etc. — Influence
of environment : Acclimatation — Cosmopolitanism of the
genus Homo and the races of mankind — Cross-breeding.
3. Psychological and Pathological Characters. —
Difficulties of studying them — Immunities — Nervous diseases
of uncivilised peoples.
CHAPTER IV.
Ethnic Characters 123
Various stages of social groups and essential characters of human
societies: Progress. — Conditions of Progress: Innovating
initiative, and tradition — Classification of "states of
civilisation."
CONTENTS. XUl
CHAPTER \N.— (continued).
PAGE
I. — Linguistic Characters. — Methods of exchanging ideas
within a short distance — Gesture and speech — Divisions of
language according to structure — ^Jargons — Communications
at a reiatively remote distance : optic and acoustic signals —
Transmission of ideas at any distance and time whatever —
Handwriting — Mnemotechnic objects — Pictography — Ideo-
graphy — Alphabets — Direction of the lines of handwriting.
CHAPTER V.
11. — Sociological Characters ... ... ... ... 144
I. Material Life : Alimentation: Geophagy — Anthropophagy
— Preparation of foods — Fire — Pottery — Grinding of corn —
Stimulants and Narcotics — Habitation : Two primitive types
of dwellings — Permanent dwelling (hut) — Removable dwell-
ing (tent) — Difference of origin of the materials employed in
the two types — Villages — Furniture — Heating and lighting —
Clothing: Nakedness and Modesty — Ornament precedes
dress — Head-dress — Ethnic mutilations — Tattooing — Girdle,
necklace, and garland the origin of all dress — Manufacture
of garments — Spinning and weaving — Meatis of Existence :
tools of primitive industry — Hunting — Fishing — Agriculture
— Domestication and rearing of animals.
CHAPTER VI.
II. Sociological Characters — (continued) 197
2. Psychic Ijfe : Games and Recreations — Their importance —
Games of children and adults — Sports and public spectacles
— Masks — Fine Arts — Graphic arts — Ornamentation —
Drawing — Sculpture — Dancing — Its importance among
uncultured peoples — Pantomime and dramatic art — "Vocal
and instrumental music— Instruments of music — Poetry —
Religion — Animism — Its two elements : beUef in the soul,
and belief in spirits — Fetichism — Polytheism — Rites and
ceremonies — Priesthood — International religions — Myths —
Science — Art of counting — Geometry — Calculation of time —
Clocks and calendars — Geography and cartography —
Medicine and surgery.
XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
Sociological Characters — {continued) ... ... 229
3. Family Life. — Relations of the two sexes before marriage —
Marriage and family — Theory of promiscuity — Group
marriage — Exogamy and endogamy — Matriarchate — Degrees
of relationship and filiation — Polyandry — Levirate — Poly-
gamy and monogamy — Patriarcliale — Rape and purchase of
the bride — Duration of conjugal union — Children — Birth — ■
Nurture — Name of the child and of adults — Initiation,
circumcision, etc. — Old men and their faie — Funereal riles —
— Mourning.
4. Social Life. — (a) Home life of a people — Economic organisa-
tion — The forms of property depend on jaroduction — Common
property and family property — Village community — Indi-
vidual property — Social organisation — Totemism — Clan rule
— Family rule — Territorial rale — Caste and class rule —
Democratic rule — Social morals — Right and justice — Taboo
— Retaliation, vendetta, and ordeals — Secret societies —
Extra legal judges — Formula; of politeness — (b) International
life of peoples — Absence of sympathetic relations — Hostile
relations — War — Arms of offence — Bow and arrows — Arms
of defence — Neutral relations — Commerce — Money — Cowry
— Transports and means of communication — Primitive
vehicles —Navigation.
CHAPTER VIII.
Classification of Races and Peoples 280
Criticism of anthropological classification— Frequent confusion of
the classing of races and of peoples — The determining of races
can be based only on somatic characters— Y ox the classing of
peoples, on the contrary, it is necessary to take into account
ethnic characters (linguistic and sociological), and above all
geographical distiibution — Classification of races proposed by
the author — Succinct characterisation of the twenty-nine
races which are therein xatn\Xoi\&&— Classification of ethnic
groups adopted in this work.
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER IX.
PAGE
Races and Peoples of Europe ... ... ... 299
Problem of European ethnogeny — I. Ancient inhabitants of
Europe — Prehistoric races — Quaternary period — Glacial and
interglacial periods — Quaternary skulls— Spy and Chancelade
races or types — Races of the neolithic period — Races of the
age of metals — Aryan question — Position of the problem —
Miration of European peoples in the historic period —
II. European races of the present day — Characteristics
of the six principal races and the four secondary races — ■
— III. Present peoples of Europe — a. Aryan peoples:
Latins, Germans, Slavs, Letto- Lithuanians, Celts, Illyro-
Hellenes — B. Anaryan peoples: Basques, Finns, etc. —
C. Caucasian peoples: Lesgians, Georgians, etc.
CHAPTER X.
Races and Peoples of Asia 359
Ancient Inhabitants of Asia. — Prehistoric times — Pithe-
canthropus erectus (Dub.) — Ages of stone and metals. —
Present Inhabitants of Asia. — Races of Asia —
\. Peoples of N^orthern Asia — Yeniseian, Palaeasiatic and
Tunguse groups. — II. Peoples of Central Asia — Turkish,
Mongolian, and Thibetan groups — Peoples of the south-
west of Thibet and of South China (Lolo, Miao-tse, Lu-tse,
etc.). — III. Peoples of Eastern Asia — Chinese, Coreans, and
Japanese. — IV. Peoples of Indo-China — Aborigines, Mois,
Kuis, Siam, Naga, etc. — More recent mixed populations:
Annamese, Cambodians, Thai, etc. — V. Peoples of India —
Castes — Dravidians and Kolarians — Indo-Aryans and un-
classified populations — VI. Peoples of Anterior Asia —
Iranians and Semites.
CHAPTER XL
Races and Peoples of Africa 426
Ancient Inhabitants of Africa — Succession of races on
the " dark continent" — Present Inhabitants of Africa
— I. Arabo-Berber or Semito-Hatnite Group : Populations of
xvi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.— {continued).
PAGE
Mediterranean Africa and Egypt — li. Ethiopian or Ktishito-
Haniile Group: Bejas, Gallas, Abyssinians, etc. — III. Fulah-
Zandeh Group: The Zandeh, Masai, Niam-Niam popula-
tions of the Ubangi-Shari, etc , Fulbe or Fulahs —
IV. Nigritian Group: Nilotic Negroes or Negroes of
eastern Sudan — Negroes of central Sudan — Negroes of
western Sudan and the Senegal — Negroes of the coast or
Guinean Negroes, Kru, Agni, Tshi, Vei, Yoruba, etc. —
V. Negrillo Group : Differences of the Pygmies and the
Bushmen — VI. Banlu Group: Western Bantus of French,
German, Portuguese, and Belgian equatorial Africa —
Eastern Bantus of German, English, and Portuguese
equatorial Africa — Southern Bantus: Zulus, etc. —
VII. Hollentot-Bushman Group: The Namans and the
Sans — VIII. Populations of Madagascar : Hovas, Malagasi,
Sakalavas.
CHAPTER XII.
Races and Peoples of Oceania ... ... ... 474
The Stone Age in Oceania — I. Australians : Uniformity of the
Australian race — Language and manners and customs of the
Australians — Extinct Tasmanians — 11. Populations of the
Asiatic or Malay Archipelago: Papuan and Negrito
elements in the Archipelago — Indonesians and Malays of
Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, etc. — III. Melanesians: Papuans
of New Guinea — Melanesians properly so called of the
Salomon and Admiralty Islands, New Hebrides, New
Caledonia, etc. — IV. Polynesians: Polynesians properly so
called of Samoa, Tahiti, and Sandwich Islands, New
Zealand, etc. — Micronesians of the Caroline and Marianne
Islands, etc. — Peopling of the Pacific Islands and of the
Indian Ocean.
CHAPTER XIII.
Races and Peoples of America ... ... ... 507
The four ethnic elements of the New World— Or/^«2 of the
Americans — A.^c\KnT Inhabitants of America —
Problem of paL-eoUthic man in the United States—
CONTENTS. xvil
CHAPTER XIU.— {continued).
PAGE
Palasolithic man in Mexico and South America — Lagoa
Santa race ; Sambaquis and Paraderos — Problem of the
Mound-Builders and Cliff-Dwellers — Ancient civiUsation of
Mexico and Peru — -Present American Races — American
languages.
Peoples of North America — i. Eskimo — ii. Indians of
Canada and United States : a. Arctic — Athapascan group ;
b. Antarctic — Algonquian-Iroquois, Chata-Muskhogi, and
Siouan groups ; c. Pacific — North-west Indians, Oregon-
California and Pueblo groups — III. Indians of Mexico and
Central America : a. Sonoran-Aztecs ; 6. Central Americans
(Mayas, Isthmians, etc.) — Half-breeds in Mexico and the
Antilles.
Peoples of South America— i. Andeans : Chibcha, Quechua,
and other linguistic families ; the Araucans — li. Amazonians :
Carib, Arawak, Miranha, and Panos families ; unclassed
tribes — in. Indians of East Brazil and the Central Region :
Ges linguistic family ; unclassed tribes (Puri, Karaya,
Bororo, etc.); Tupi-Guarani family — IV. SouiA Argentine:
Chaco and Pampas Indians, etc. ; Patagonians, Fuegians.
Appendix 577
Index of Authors 597
Index of Subjects 604
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIO- PAGE
Naga of Manipur in gala costume Frontispiece
1. Skull of gorilla 1 6
2. Skull of man . 17
3. Microscopic section of skin and of hair 34
4. Mohave Indians of Arizona 35
5. 6. Pure Veddah of Dangala Mountains of Ceylon 36, 37
7. Toda woman (India) - 39
8. Kurumba man of Nilgiri Hills 40
9 Agni Negro of Krinjabo, Western Africa 41
10. Dolichocephalic skull of an islander of Torres Straits 57
11. Brachycephalic skull of a Ladin of Pufels (Tyrol) 57
12. 13. Skull of ancient Egyptian exhumed at Thebes 60, 61
14, 15. Jenny, Australian woman of Queensland 65, 67
16. Japanese ofScer (old style) 70
17. Two men, Nagas of Manipur 71
1 8. Eye of a young Kalmuk girl of Astrakhan 78
19. Welsh type of Montgomeryshire - 79
20. Kalmuk of Astrakhan 81
21. Jew of Algiers 82
22. Persian Hadjemi 83
23. A, Skull with Inca bone ; B, Malar bone divided in two ; C,
Superior part of femur, etc. - - - 83
24. Hottentot woman of Griqualand - 94
25. Brain with indication of the three "centres of projection" and
the three " centres of association " 102
26. Dakota Indian gesture language - 129
27. Writing by notches of the Laotians 136
28. Coloured prehistoric pebbles of the grotto of Mas-d'Azil (Ariege) 137
XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG, PAGE
29. Journal of the voyage of an Eskimo of Alaska 138
30. Petition of Chippeway Indians to the President of the United States 139
31. Various signs of symbolic pictography 14°
32. Paternoster in Mexican hieroglyphics 14°
33. Ancient Chinese hieroglyphics 141
34. Method of fire-making by rubbing 150
35. Do. do. sawing 151
36. Do. do. twirling 151
37. Bark vessel, used by Iroquois Indians - 154
38. Type of Iroquois earthen vessel - 154
39. Making of pottery without wheel 155
40. Primitive harvest - 156
41. Hemispherical hut in straw of Zulu-Kafirs - 161
42. Hut and granary of the Ovampos (S. Africa) - , 162
43. Summer tent of Tunguse-Manegres - 164
44. "Gher" or tent of the Kalmuks of Astrakhan 165
45. Hexagonal house of non-roving Altaians 166
46. Kraal, or Kafir village, with defensive enclosure 167
47. Zulu girl, with head-dress, necklace, belt, and chastity apron - 171
48. Ufhtaradeka, typical Fuegian with mantle 172
49. Ainu woman, tattooed round the lips - 174
50. 51. Foot of Chinese woman artificially deformed 175
52. Native of the Department of Haute-Garonne - 177
53. Dancing costume of natives of Murray Islands 179
54. Method of making stone tools by percussion 185
55. Method of flaking stone by pressure 185
56. Knife of chipped flint of the Hupa Indians 186
57. Kalmuk turning lathe with alternating rotatory movement 188
58. Principle of tackle utilised by Eskimo, landing a walrus 190
59. Dance of Australians during the Corroboree - 200
60. Anthropomorph ornamental design of the Papuans of New
Guinea - 201
61. 62. Zoomorph ornamental designs on a club and a spatula 202
63. Conventional representation of an alligator 203
64. Ornamental motive derived from the preceding design 203
65. Ornamental designs of tlie Karayas - 204
66. Bushman painting, representing the battle going in favour of the
Bechuana - • • 205
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXI
^I"- PAGE
67. Symbolic adzes of Mangaia Island - 207
68. "Sansa"' or "Zimba," a musical box of the Negroes - 211
69. " Marimba," the Negro xylophone - 212
70. Bushman playing on the "gora " 213
71. Detail of construction of the "gora" - 214
72. Eskimo geographical map . - 226
73. Chipped ihnt dagger of the Californian Indians - - 256
74. Axe of the Banyai (JVIatabeleland) - - 258
75. Missile arms of the Australians - - 260
76. Throwing-stick of the Papuans of German New Guinea - 261
77. Different methods of arrow release 265
78. Australian shield in wood - 267
79. Indonesian shields 268
80. Shield of Zulu- Kafirs - 268
81. Money of uncivilised peoples - 272
82. Method of tree-climbing in India 276
83. Malayo-Polynesian canoe with outrigger 279
84. Chellean flint implement, Saint- Acheul (Somme) 302
85. Quaternary art (Magdalenian period) - 308
86. Spy skull, first quaternary race 311
87. Chancelade skull, second quaternary race - - - 312
88. Islander of Lewis (Hebrides) - 319
89. 90. Norwegian of South Osterdalen 322, 323
91. Young Sussex farmer 326
92. Englishwoman of Plymouth • 328
93. Fisher people of Island of Aran (Ireland) 330
94. Young woman of Aries 331
95. 96. Pure type of Highlander (clan Chattan) - 332, 333
97. Anglian type, common in north and north-east of England 336
98. Frenchman of Ouroux (Morvan) 337
99 100. Dolichocephalic Frenchmen of Dordogne 338
lOI. Englishman (Gloucestershire) - 341
102 103. Russian carpenter, district of Pokrovsk 342, 343
104, 105. Russian woman, district of Vereia 346, 347
106. Cheremiss of Ural Mountains - 350
107 108. Kundrof Tatar (Turkoman) of Astrakhan 352,353
109' Georgian Imer of Kutais 355
no III- Chechen of Daghestan - - - 356,357
xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
112. Skull o{ the FiiAecantAro/ius erecius {Dah.) - 360
113. Calvaria of /'?'Ms«??M«/««, seen from above 3^'
114. Polished stone axe found in Cambodia 364
115. 116. Tunguse hunter (Siberia) with ski and staff 368, 369
117. AinuofYezo (Japan) with crown of shavings - 371
118. Educated Chinaman of Manchu origin 384
119. Leao-yu-chow, Chinese woman 385
120. Young Japanese women taking tea - 388
121. Tong King artisan of Son-tai - 390
122. Khamti of Lower Burma, Assam frontier - ■ 393
123. Black Sakai of Gunong-Inas (Perak, Malay Pen.) 396
124. Negrito chief of Middle Andaman 398
125. Gurkha of the Kus or Khas tribe, Nepal - 403
126. Group of Paniyan men and children of Malabar - 405
127. Young Irula girl 406
128. Santal of the Bhagalpur Hills 407
129. An old Toda man of Nilgiri Hills 412
130. Group of Todas of Nilgiri Hills 414
131. 132. Singhalese of Candy, Ceylon - 416, 417
133. Tutti, Veddah wornan of the village of Kolonggala 418
134. Natives of Mekran (Baluchistan) 421
135. Arts and crafts among the Kafirs 430
136. Tunisian Berber, Oasis type 437
137. Trarza Moor of the Senegal 434
138. Hamran Beja of Daghil tribe ^(.37
139. Yoro Combo, fairly pure Fulah of Kayor (Futajallon) 442
140. Bonna M'Bane, Mandingan-Soss^ 4^8
141. Catrai, Ganguela-Bantu Ary
142. Swazi-Bantu woman and girl ^66
143. N'Kon-yui, Bushman of the region of Lake Ngami 467
144. Flova of Tananarivo 472
145. Ambit, Sundanese of Java (Preanger prov.) 476
146. Natives of Livuliri (near Larantuka, Floris) 479
147. 148. Buri, a Solorian of Adanara Island, 480, 481
149, 150. "Billy," Queensland Australian 484,485
151. Young Papuan woman of the Samarai people 492
152. Papuans of the Kerepunu tribe at Tamain-Hula (New Guinea) - 496
153. Woman of the Fuala clan (New Caledonia) 498
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXUl
FIQ. PAGE
'54. 155- Tahitian woman of Papeete 502, 503
156. Tahitian of Papeete 504
157. West Greenland Eskimo - 518
'5^! 159- Gahhigue-Vatake, a Dakota-Siouan Indian 522, 5^3
160. Woman of Wichita tribe, Pawnee Nation, Ind. Terr., U.S. 525
161. Christian Apache Indian 5^9
162. Young Creole woman of Martinique 53^
163. Miztec Indian (Mexico) - S39
164. Miztec women (Mexico) - 54'
165. Guaraunos chief, with his two wives 54^
166. Guaraunos of the mouth of the Orinoco 549
167. 168. Kalina or Carib of Dutch Guiana 554. 555
169, 170. Miranha Indian of Rio Yapura 558, 559
171. Bakairi, Carib tribe of upper Xingu 562
172. Aramichaux Indian (Carib tribe of French Guiana) 566
173. Bororo woman (unclassified tribe of Matto Grosso) 568
174. Kamanakar Kipa, young Yahgan Fuegian girl 574
175. Tualanpintsis, Yahgan Fuegian, and his wife Ticoaeli 575
MAPI- Europe in the first glacial period 303
„ 2. Approximate distribution of the races of Europe - 327
THE RACES OF MAN.
INTRODUCTION.
ETHNIC GROUPS AND ZOOLOGICAL SPECIES.
Difficulties in applying to M.-in the terms of zoological nomenclaluie —
Criterion of species — Terms to give to the " Somatological Units"
constituting the genus Homo — Monogenesis and Polygcnesis — The
"Ethnic Groups" are constituted by the different combinations of
the " Soniatological Units" or "Races" — Somatic characters and
ethnic characters.
The innumerable groups of mankind, massed together or
scattered, according to the varying nature of the earth's
surface, are far from presenting a homogeneous picture.
Every country has its own variety of physical type, language,
manners, and customs. Thus, in order to exhibit a systematic
view of all the peoples of the earth, it is necessary to observe a
certain order in the study of these varieties, and to define
carefully what is meant by such and such a descriptive term,
having reference either to the physical type or to the social
life of men. This we shall do in the subsequent chapters as
we proceed to develop this slight sketch of the chief general
facts of the physical and psychical life of man, and of the most
striking social phenomena of the groups of mankind.
But there are some general terms which are of more
importance than others, and their meaning should be clearly
understood from the first. I refer to expressions like
2 THE RACES OF MAN.
"people," "nation," "tribe," "race," "species," in short, all
the designations of the different groupings, real or theoretic,
of human beings. Having defined them, we shall by so doing
define the object of our studies.
Since ethnography and anthropology began to exist as
sciences, an attempt has been made to determine and establish
the great groups amongst which humanity might be divided.
A considerable diversity of opinion, however, exists among
leading scientific men not only as to the number of these
groups, of these "primordial divisions" of the human race,
but, above all, as to the very nature of these groups. Their
significance, most frequently, is very vaguely indicated.
/ In zoology, when we proceed to classify, we have to do with
beings which, in spite of slight individual differences, are easily
grouped around a certain number of types, with well-defined
characters, called "species." An animal can always be found
which will represent the "type" of its species. In all the
great zoological collections there exist these "species-types,"
to which individuals may be compared in order to decide if
they belong to the supposed species. We have then in
zoology a real substratum for the determination of species,
those primordial units which are grouped afterwards in genera,
families, orders, etc.
Is it the same for man ? Whilst knowing that the zoological
genus Homo really exists quite distinct from the other genera
of the animal kingdom, there still arises the question as to
where the substratum is on which we must begin operations
in order to determine the "species" of which this genus is
composed. The only definite facts before us are these groups
of mankind, dispersed over the whole habitable surface of the
globe, to which are commonly given the names of peoples,
nations, clans, tribes, etc We have presented to us Arabs,
Swiss, Australians, Bushmen, English, Siouan Indians, Negroes,
etc., without knowing if each of these groups is on an equal
footing from the point of view of classification.
Do these real and palpable groupings represent unions of
individuals which, in spite of some slight dissimilarities, are
INTRODUCTION. 3
capable of forming what zoologists call "species," "sub-
species," "varieties," in the case of wild animals, or "races"
in the case of domestic animals? One need not be a pro-
fessional anthropologist to reply negatively to this question.
They are ethnic groups formed by virtue of community of
language, rehgion, social institutions, etc., which have the
power of uniting human beings of one or several species,
races, or varieties,^ and are by no means zoological species;
they may include human beings of one or of many species,
races, or varieties. _^
Here, then, is the first distinction to make: the social
groups that we are to describe in this work under the names
of clans, tribes, nations, populations, and peoples, according to
their numerical importance and the degree of complication of
their social life, are formed for us by the union of individuals
belonging usually to two, three, or a greater number of
" somatological units." These units are "theoretic types"
formed of an aggregation of physical characters combined in
a certain way. The separate existence of these units may be
established by a minute analysis of the physical characters of
a great number of individuals taken haphazard in any given
"ethnic group.'' Here are, then, entities,, theoretic con-
ceptions exactly like "species" in zoology; only instead of
having within our reach the "types" of these species as in
zoological collections, we are obliged to rest content with
approximations thereto, for it is a very rare occurrence to meet
with an individual representing the type of the somatological
unit to which he belongs. Most frequently we have to do with
subjects whose forms are altered by blendings and crossings,
and in whom, setting aside two or three typical traits, we
find only a confused mixture of characters presenting nothing
striking. Ordinarily, the more peoples are civilised the more
' In these ethnic groups there may further be distinguished several
subdivisions due to the diversity of manners, customs, etc, ; or, in the
groups with a more complicated social organisation, yet other social
groups priests, magistrates, miners, peasants, having each his particular
"social type."
4 THE RACES OF MAN,
they are intermixed within certain territorial limits. Thus
the number of "somatological units" is so much the greater
when the "ethnic groups" are more civilised, and it is only
among entirely primitive peoples that one may hope to find
coincidence between the two terms. In reality, those peoples
are almost undiscoverable who represent "somatological units"
comparable to the "species " of zoology.
But, it may be asked, do you believe that your "somato-
logical units" are comparable with "species"? Are they not
simple "varieties" or "races"?
Without wishing to enter into a discussion of details, it
seems to me that where the genus Homo is concerned, one
can neither speak of the " species," the " variety," nor the
"race" in the sense that is usually attributed to these words
in zoology or in zootechnics.
In effect, in these two sciences, the terms "species" and
"variety" are applied to wild animals living solely under the
influence of nature; whilst the term "race" is given in a
general way to the groups of domestic animals living under
artificial conditions created by an alien will, that of man, for
a well-defined object.
Let us see to which of these two categories man, considered
as an animal, may be assimilated.
By this single fact, that even at the very bottom of the
scale of civilisation man possesses articulate speech, fashions
tools, and forms himself into rudimentary societies, he is
emancipated from a great number of influences which Nature
exerts over the wild animal; he lives, up to a certain point,
in an artificial environment created by himself. On the other
hand, precisely because these artificial conditions of life are
not imposed upon him by a will existing outside himself,
because his evolution is not directed by a "breeder" or a
" domesticator," man cannot be compared with domestic
animals as regards the modifications of his corporeal structure.
The data relating to the formation of varieties, species, and
races can therefore be applied to the morphological study
of man only with certain reservations.
INTRODUCTION. 5
This being established, let us bear in mind that even the
distinction between the species, the variety (geographical
or otherwise), and the race is anything but clearly marked.
Besides, this is a question that belongs to the domain of
general biology, and it is no more settled in botany or in
zoology than in anthropology. The celebrated botanist,
Naegeli, has even proposed to suppress this distinction, and
definitely show the identical nature of all these divisions by
instituting his great and small species}
The idea of " species " must rest on the knowledge of two
orders of facts, the morphological resemblances of beings and
the lineal transmission of their distinctive characters. Here,
in fact, the formula of Cuvier is still in force to-day in science.
" The species is the union of individuals descending one from
the other or from common parents, and of those who resemble
them as much as they resemble each other." ^ (I have
italicised the passage relating to descent.) It is necessary
then that beings, in order to form a species, should be like
each other, but it is obvious that this resemblance cannot be
absolute, for there are not two plants or two animals in nature
which do not differ from each other by some detail of structure;
the likeness or unlikeness is then purely relative ; it is bound
to vary within certain limits.
But what are these limits? Here we are on the verge of
the arbitrary, for there exists no fixed rule determining the
point to which individual unlikeness may go in order to be
considered as characteristic of a species. A difference which
entitles one zoologist to create a species hardly suffices, accord-
ing to another, to constitute a "variety," a "sub-species," or a
"race." As to the second criterion of species drawn from the
^ Naegeli, Mechanisch-Physiok Theorie der Abslammtmgslehre, Jlunich,
1883.
2 The most recent definitions of species given by Wallace and Romanes
approximate closely to that of Cuvier. Eimer has suggested another,
based solely on the physiological criterion. His definition has the advan-
tage of covering cases oi polymorphism, in which the female gives birth to
two or several individuals so unlike that we should not hesitate to classify
them in two species if guided only by morphology.
6 THE RACES OF MAN,
transmission and tlie descent of characters, it is theoretic
rather than practical. Without dwelling on the numerous
examples of "varieties" as fertile among themselves as
"species,"! jgt us ask ourselves how many zoologists or
botanists have verified experimentally the fertility of the
species which they have created. In the large majority of
cases, the species of plants and animals have been established
solely from morphological characters, very often from the
examination of dead specimens, and without any guarantee
that the beings in question proceeded from common parents
and that when crossed they would be fertile or not.
In the case of man, as in that of the majority of plants and
animals, fertility or non-fertility among the different groups has
not been experimentally proved, to enable us to decide if they
should be called "races" or "species." To a dozen facts in
favour of one of the solutions, and to general theories in regard
to half-breeds, can be opposed an equal number of facts, and
the idea, not less general, of reversion to the primitive
type.^ And again, almost all the facts in question are borrowed
from cross-breeding between the Whites and other races. - No
one has ever tried cross-breeding between the Australians and
the Lapps, or between the Bushmen and the Patagonians, for
example. If certain races are indefinitely fertile among them-
selves (which has not yet been clearly shown), it may be there
are others which are not so.^ A criterion of descent being
unobtainable, the question of the rank to be assigned to the
genus Homo is confined to a morphological criterion, to the
differences in physical type.
' See on this point, Y. Delage, VHirSdite, pp. 252 et seij. Paris, 1895.
^ The question is summed up by Darwin, Descent of Man, vol. i., p.
264, 2nd edition. London, 1888.
^ In questions of hybridity, it must be observed, we often confound the
notions of "race" and "people," or " social class," and we have to be
on our guard against information drawn from statistics. Thus in Central
America we consider "hybrids" all those descendants of the Spaniards
and the Indians who have adopted the semi-European manner of life and
the Catholic religion, without inquiring whether or not this physical type
has reverted to that of one of the ancestors — a not infrequent occurrence.
INTRODUCTION. 7
According to some, these differences are sufficiently pro-
nounced for each group to form a "species"; according to
others they are of such a nature as only to form racial distinc-
tions. Thus it is left to the personal taste of each investigator
what name be given to these.
We cannot do better than cite upon this point the opinion
of a writer of admitted authority. "It is almost a matter of
indifference," says Darwin, "whether the so-called races of
man are thus designated, or ranked as 'species' or 'sub-
species,' but the latter term appears the most appropriate."^
The word ''race" having been almost universally adopted
nowadays to designate the different physical types of mankind,
I shall retain it in preference to that of "sub-species," while
reiterating that there is no essential difference between these
two wards and the word "species."
From what has just been said, the question whether
humanity forms a single species divided into varieties or races,
or whether it forms several species, loses much of its im-
portance.
The whole of this ancient controversy between monogenists
and polygenists seems to be somewhat scholastic, and com-
pletely sterile and futile; the same few and badly established
facts are always reappearing, interpreted in such and such a
fashion by each disputant according to the necessities of his
thesis, sometimes led by considerations which are extra-
scientific. Perhaps in the more or less near future, when we
shall have a better knowledge of present and extinct races of
man, as well as of living and of fossil animal species most
nearly related to man, we shall be able to discuss the question
of origin. At the present time we are confined to hypothesis
without a single positive fact for the solution of the problem.
We have merely to note how widely the opinions of the learned
differ in regard to the origin of race of certain domestic
animals, such as the dog, the ox, or the horse, to get at once
an idea of the difficulty of the problem. And yet, in these
' Darwin, loc. cit., vol. i. , p. 280.
8 THE RACES OF MAN.
cases, we are dealing with questions much less complicated
and much more carefully studied.
Moreover, whether we admit variety, unity or plurality
of species in the genus Homo we shall always be obliged to
recognise the positive fact of the existence in mankind of
several somatological units having each a character of its own,
the combinations and the intermingling of which constitute the
different ethnic groups. Thus the monogenists, even the most
intractable, as soon as they have established hypothetically a
single species of man, or of his "precursor," quickly cause the
species to evolve, under the influence of environment, into
three or four or a greater number of primitive "stocks," or
"types," or "races," — in a word, into somatological units
which, intermingling, form "peoples," and so forth.
We can sum up what has just been said in a few proposi-
tions. On examining attentively the different "ethnic groups"
commonly called "peoples," "nations," "tribes/' etc., we
ascertain that they are distinguished from each other especially
by their language, their mode of life, and their manners; and
we ascertain besides that the same traits of physical type are
met with in two, three, or several groups, sometimes con-
siderably removed the one from the other in point of habitat.
On the other hand, we almost always see in these groups some
variations of type so striking that we are led to admit the
hypothesis of the formation of such groups by the blending of
several distinct somatological units.
It is to these units that we give the name "races," using the
word in a very broad sense, different from that given to it
in zoology and zootechnics. It is a sum-total of somatological
characteristics once met with in a real union of individuals,
now scattered in fragments of varying proportions among
several "ethnic groups," from which it can no longer be
differentiated except by a process of delicate analysis.
The differences between "races" are shown in the somato-
logical characteristics which are the resultant of the continual
struggle in the individual of two factors: variability, that is to
say, the production of the dissimilar; and heredity, that is to
INTRODUCTION. 9
say, the perpetuation of the similar. There are the differences
in outer form, in the anatomical structure, and in the physio-
logical functions manifested in individuals. Thus the study
of these characters is based on man considered as an in-
dividual of a zoological group. On the other hand, the
differences between the ethnical groups are the product of
evolutions subject to other laws than those of biology — laws
still very dimly apprehended. They manifest themselves in
ethnical, linguistic, or social characteristics. The study of
them is based on the grouping of individuals in societies.
To study these two categories of characteristics, either in
their general aspect as a whole, or in describing successively
the different peoples, is to study mankind with the object of
trying to assign the limits to the "races" constituting the
ethnical groups, and to sketch the reciprocal relations and
connections of these groups with each other.
The science which concerns itself more especially with the
soraatological characteristics of the genus Homo, whether
considered as a whole in his relation to other animals, or
in his varieties, bears the name of anthropology ; that which
deals with the ethnical characteristics is called ethnography
in some countries and ethnology in others.
This latter science should concern itself with human societies
under all their aspects ; but as history, political economy, etc.,
have already taken possession of the study of civilised peoples,
there only remain for it the peoples without a history, or those
who have not been adequately treated by historians. How-
ever, there is a convergence of characters in mankind, and
we find even today the trace of savagery in the most civilised
peoples. Ethnical facts must not then be considered separ-
ately. We must compare them either among different peoples,
or, down the course of the ages, in the same people, without
concerning ourselves with the degree of actual civilisation
attained.
Certain authors make a distinction between ethnography
and ethnology, saying the first aims at describing peoples or
the different stages of civihsation, while the second should
lO THE RACES OF MAN.
explain these stages and formulate the general laws which
have governed the beginning and the evolution of such stages.
Others make a like distinction in anthropology, dividing it
theoretically into "special" and "general," the one describing
races, and the other dealing with the. descent of these
races and of mankind as a whole.^ But these divisions
are purely arbitrary, and in practice it is impossible to touch
on one without having given at least a summary of the
other. The two points of view, descriptive and speculative,
cannot be treated separately. A science cannot remain con-
tent with a pure and simple description of unconnected facts,
phenomena, and objects. It requires at least a classification,
explanations, and, afterwards, the deduction of general laws.
In the same way, it would be puerile to build up speculative
systems without laying a solid foundation drawn from the
study of facts. Already the distinction between the somatic
and the ethnic sciences is embarrassing; thus psycho-
logical and linguistic phenomena refer as much to the indi-
vidual as to societies. They might, strictly speaking, be the
subject of a special group of sciences. In the same way, the
facts drawn from the somatic and ethnic studies of extinct
races are the subject of a separate science — Palethnography,
otherwise Prehistory, or Prehistoric Archeology.
The object of this book being the description of ethnical
groups now existing on the earth, and of the races which
compose them, the title of " Ethnography " might fitly be given
to it in conformity with the classifications which have just been
mentioned. Nevertheless, it contains in its early chapters
a summary, as it were, of what these classifications style
^ Such is, for example, the scheme of Topinard, consisting of two double
parts [Elements d' Anlhropologie, p. 2i5, Paris, 1885), to which corre-
sponds the system newly propounded by Em. Schmidt [Centralblalt fiir
Anthropologie, etc., vol. ii., p. 97, Bieslau, 1897). The last-mentioned
admits in reality two divisions. Ethnography and Ethnology, in what
he calls Ethnic Anthropology ; and two others, Phylography and Phylo-
logy, in what he names Somatic Anthropology. The two last divisions
correspond to the Special Anthropology and the General Anthropology of
Topinard.
INTRODUCTION. II
" General Anthropology and Ethnology," for the descriptions
of the several peoples can scarcely be understood if we have
not in the first instance given at least a general idea of the
somatic as well as the ethnic characters which serve to
distinguish them.
CHAPTER I.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF MAN AND APES.
Monkeys a.nd anthropoid apes — Erect attitude — Curvature of the spine —
Brain — Skull — Teeth — Other characters — Differences less accentuated
in the foetus and the young than in the adult.
DISTINCTIVE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS OF HUMAN RACES.
Stature : Individual limits — Dwarfs and giants —Average stature of different
populations— Influence of environment — Differences according to sex
— Reconstitution from the long bones — Tegiiiiients : Skin — Hair of
head and body — Four principal types — Microscopic structure — Cor-
relation between the hair of the head and the pilosity of the body —
Pigmentation : Colouring of the skin, the eyes, and the hair — Changes
in the pigment.
Dis/iricitve Characters of Man and Apes.
The physical peculiarities distinguishing man from the animals
most neariy allied to him in organisation, and those which
differentiate human races one from another, are almost never
the same. I shall in a few words point out the former,
dwelling at greater length on the latter, which have a more
direct connection with our subject.
From the purely zoological point of view man is a placental
or Eutherian mammal, because he has breasts, because he is
more or less covered with hair, because his young, nourished
in the womb of the mother through the medium of the
placenta, come fully formed into the world, without needing
to be protected in a pouch or fold of skin, as in the case of
12
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 13
the marsupial mammals (implacentals or Metatherians), or com-
pleting their development in a hatched egg, as in the case of
the monotremata or Prototherians.
In this sub-class of the placental mammals, man belongs to the
order of the Primates of Linnaeus, in view of certain peculiarities
of his physical structure — the pectoral position of the breasts,
the form, number, and arrangement of the teeth in the jaw,
etc.
The order of the Primates comprises five groups or families :
the Marmosets {HapalidcB), the Cebidm, the Cercopithecida, the
anthropoid apes {Simidce), and lastly, the Hominidce?- Putting
aside the first two groups of Primates, which inhabit the New
World, and which are distinguished from the three other
groups by several characters, let us concern ourselves with
the apes of the Old World and the Hominians. Let us at the
outset remember that the monkeys and the anthropoid apes
exhibit the same arrangement of teeth, or, as it is termed, the
same "dental formula," as man. This formula, a character
of the first impoitance in the classification of mammals, is
summed up, as we know, in the following manner : four
incisors, two canines, four premolars, and six molars in each
jaw.
The Cercopithecida walk on their four paws, and this four-
footed attitude is in harmony with the structure of their spine,
in which the three curves, cervical, dorsal, and lumbar, so
characteristic in man, are hardly indicated; thus the spine
seems to form a single arch from the head to the tail. As to
this last appendage, it is never wanting in these monkeys, which
are also provided with buttock or ischiatic callosities, and
often with cheek-pouches.
The anthropoid apes form a zoological group of four genera
only." Two of these genera, the gorilla and the chimpanzee,
inhabit tropical Africa; the two others, the orang-utan and
' If we include the Lemurs in the order of Primates, the five families
iust enumerated are all included in a "sub-order," that of Anthrofoidea.
(See for further details. Flower and Lydekker, Introduction to the Study
of Mamviais Living and Extinct, London, 1891.)
)
r4 THE RACES OF MAN.
the gibbon, are confined to the south-east of Asia, or, to be
more precise, to Indo-China, and the islands of Sumatra and
Borneo. We can even reduce the group in question to three
genera only, for many naturalists consider the gibbon as an
intermediate form between the anthropoid apes and the
monkeys ^ The anthropoids have a certain number of char-
acters in common which distinguish them from the monkeys.
Spending most of their life in trees, they do not walk in the
same way as the macaques or the baboons. Always bent
(except the gibbon),- they move about with difificulty on the
ground, supporting themselves not on the palm of the hand, as
do the monkeys, but on the back of the bent phalanges.
They have no tail like the other apes, nor have they cheek-
pouches to serve as provision bags. Finally, they are without
those callosities on the posterior part of the body which are
met with in a large number of Cercopithecidce, attaining often
enormous proportions, as for instance, among the Cynocephali.
The gibbon alone has the rudiments of ischiatic callosities.
If we compare man with these apes, which certainly of
all animals resemble him most, the following principal differ-
ences may be noted. Instead of holding himself in a bending
position, and walking supported on his arms, man walks in an
erect attitude — the truly biped mode of progress. In harmony
with this attitude, his vertebral column presents three curves,
cervical, dorsal, and lumbar, very definitely indicated, while they
are only faintly marked in the anthropoids, and almost absent
in the monkeys. This character, moreover, is graduated in
man; in civilised man the curvature in question is more marked
than among savages. There is no need, however, to see in
that any "character of superiority." It is quite simply an
acquired formation; it is more marked in civilised man just
because it is one of the conditions of the stability of the
vertebral column, a stability so essential in sedentary life,
while a curvature less marked gives much more flexibility
' J. H. Kohlbruggc, " Versuch einer Anatomic . . . Hyloliates," ^w/of.
Ergeh. einer Reiss in Ned. Ind., von M. Weber ^ vols. i. and ii. Leyden,
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. IS
to the movements, at once so numerous and varied, of the
savage. 1
But to what does man owe this erect and biped attitude ?
Professor Ranke has put forward on this subject a very
ingenious hypothesis.^ According to him, the excessive
development of the brain, while conducive to enlargement of
the skull, would at the same time determine the change of
attitude in a being so imperfectly and primitively biped as was
our progenitor. In this way would be assured the perfect
equilibrium on the vertebral column of the head, made heavy
by the brain. Without wishing to discuss this theory, let me
say that several peculiarities in the anatomical structure of
man, compared with those of anthropoid apes and other
mammals, give it an air of plausibility.
In fact, while with the majority of mammals the equilibrium
of the head is assured by very powerful cervical ligaments, and
with anthropoid apes by very strong muscles, extending from
the occiput to the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrse,
twice as long as those of man (Figs, i and 2, a), which prevent
the massive muzzle from falling upon the chest and pressing
on the organs of respiration, ^ we see nothing of a similar kind
in the genus Homo — no cervical ligament, and no powerful
muscles at the nape of the neck. The very voluminous brain-
case of man suffices to counterbalance the weight of the
much reduced maxillary part, almost without the aid of muscles
or special ligaments, and the head balances itself on the vertebral
column (Fig. 2).
This equilibrium being almost perfect, necessitates but very
thin and flexible ligaments in the articulation of the two occi-
1 D. J. Cunningham, "The Lumbar Curve in Man and the Apes,"
Cimni if^haiii Memoirs of the Royal Irish Academy, No. II., Dublin, 1886.
2 T_ Ranke, ." Ueber die aufrechte Korperhaltung, etc. ," Corr.-Bl. der
deidsch. Gesell. f. Anlhr., 1895, p. 154.
2 The enormous development of the laryngeal sacs in the orang-utan
is perhaps also in harmony with this protective function, as I have shown
in a special work. See Deniker and Boulart, " Notes anat. sur . . .
orane-outans," Nouv. Arch. Alits. d'hist. nal. de Paris, 3rd Series, vol.
vii., p. 47. '895-
i6
THE RACES OF MAN.
pital condyles of the skull on the atlas. The slight muscles to
be found behind the articulation are there only to counter-
balance the trifling tendency of the head to fall forward.
In connection with this point, we must remember that
Broca and several other anthropologists see, on the contrary, in
the biped attitude, one of the conditions of the development
of the brain, as that attitude alone assures the free use of the
hands and extended range of vision. Somewhat analogous
Fig. I. — Skull of Gorilla, one-fourth actual size.
a, spinous processes of cervical vertebrae ; /;, cranial crests, sagittal and
occipital.
ideas have lately been put forward by men of science of the
first rank like Munro and Turner. ^
In any case, let us remember in regard to this point, that at
birth man still bears traces of his quadrupedal origin; he has
then scarcely any curves in the vertebral column. The cer-
' R. Munro, "On Interm. Links', etc.," rrocecd. Roy. Soc. Edinh.,vo\.
xxi. (1896-97), No. 4, p. 349, and Prehisloric Problems, pp. 87 and
165, Edin.-Lond. 1897; Turner, Pres. Address Brit. Assoc, Toronto
Meeting, Nature, Sept. 1S97.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
17
/
vical curve only shows itself at the time when the child begins
to "hold up its head," in the sitting posture to which it
gradually, becomes accustomed — that is to say about the third
month. On the other hand, as soon as the child begins to
walk (the second year), the prevertebral muscles and those of
the loins act upon the lower regions of the spine and produce
le lumbar curve.
Thus, perhaps, the chief fact which determines the erect'
Fio. 2.— Sl^ull of Man, one-fourth natural size.
a, spinous processes of cervical vertebra?.
altitude so characteristic of man is the excessive development
of his brain, and the consequent development of the brain-case.
It is in this excessive developinent of the brain that the
piincipal difference between man and the anthropoid apes
must be sought. We know in fact fiom the researches of
numerous anthropologists (see Chapter II.) that the average
weight of a man's brain in European races, (the only races suffi-
ciently known in this respect) is 1360 grammes, and that of a
woman's is 1211 grammes. These figures may rise to 1675
2
1 8 THE RACES OF MAN.
grammes in certain instances, and fall to 1025 in others.'
Brains weighing less than 1000 grammes are generally con-
sidered as abnormal and pathological.
On the other hand, the brains of the great anthropoid
apes (gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang-utan), the only ones
comparable to man in regard to weight of body, have an
average weight of 360 grammes. This weight may rise to
420 grammes in certain isolated cases, but never exceeds this
figure. And even in these cases, with the orang-utan, for
example,^ it only represents one half per cent, of the total
weight of the body, while with European man the proportion
is that of at least three per cent., according to Boyd and Bis-
choff.9
The excessive development of the brain and of the brain-
case which encloses it is correlative, in the case of man, with
the reduction of the facial part of the skull. In this respect
the difference is also appreciable between him and the
animals. In order to convince ourselves of this we have
only to compare the human skull with that of any ape what-
ever, placing both in the same horizontal plane approxi-'
mately parallel to the line of vision.*
Viewed from above, or by the norma vcrticalis, as the
anthropologists say, the bony structure of the human head
leaves nothing of its facial part to be seen (Fig. 11); at the
very most may be observed, in certain rare instances, the
lower part of the nasal bones, or the alveolar portion of the
upper jaw (Fig. 10). On the other hand, with apes, anthropoid
or otherwise, almost all the facial part is visible. Examined
in profile {norma lateralis), the bony structure of the heads
of man and monkeys presents the same differences.
' Topinard, Vhomme dans la Nature, p. 214. Paris, 1S91.
"^ DeniUer and Boulart, he. cit., p. 55.
3 Boyd, "Table of Weights of the Human Body, etc.," Philos. Trans.
Roy. Soc. London, 1861 ; Bischoff, Das Hirnge-ivieht der Mensehen,
Bonn, 18S0. The difference remains nearly the same if, instead of the
weight of the body, we take its surface, as was attempted by E. Dubois
(Bull. Soc. Anthr, Paris, p. 337, 1897).
■* For further details about this plane, see p. 59.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. I9
With the anthropoid apes, the facial portion forming a
veritable muzzle rises, massive and bestial, in advance of the
skull, while with man, very reduced in size, it is placed
below the skull. The facial angle, by means of which the
degree of protuberance of the muzzle may, to a" certain point,
be measured, exhibits notable differences when the skulls
of man and animals are compared in. this particular. On
continuing the examination of the profiles of the bony
structures of the two heads in question, we notice also the
slight development of the facial part of the malar bone in
man, as compared with its temporal part, and the contrary
in the ape ; as well as the difference in the size of the mastoid
processes, very strong in, man, very much diminished pro-
portionately to the dimensions of the head in the anthropoid
apes.
Seen from the front {norma facialis), the human skull
presents a peculiarity which is not observed in any anthropoid
skull, namely, that the top of the nasal opening is always
situated higher than the lowest point of the lower edge of the
orbits (Fig. 12); while in the anthropoid apes it is always
found below this point. Lastly, if the skulls in question,
always placed on the horizontal plane, are compared from
behind {norma occipitalis), it will be noted that on the human
skull the occipital foramen is not seen at all ; on the skulls of
monkeys it is plainly visible, if not wholly, at least partly.^
All the other characters which distinguish man from the
anthropoid apes are only the consequences of the great
enlargement of his brain-case, at the expense of the maxillary
part of the face, and of the erect attitude and biped progression.
Let us take, for instance, those enormous crests which
give an aspect at once so strange and horrible to the skulls
of the adult males of the gorilla and the chimpanzee. These
projections are due to the extreme development of the masti-
catory muscles which move the heavy jaws and of the
cervical muscles, ensuring the equilibrium of the head. Not
' See on this subject the interesting study of Dr. Torok in the Central-
blattfiir Anthropologie, etc., directed by Eusclian, 1st year, 1896, No. 3.
20 THE RACES OF MAN.
having found sufficient room for tlieir insertion on the too
small brain-case, they have, so to speak, compelled the bony
tissue in the course of development to deposit itself as an
eminence or crest at the point where the two lines of inser-
tion meet on the crown of the head. The best proof of this
is that the young have no crests, and that on their skulls the
distance between the temporal lines marking the insertion
of the temporal muscles is almost as great as it is in
man. In the gorillas, it is the same with the enormous spines
of the cervical vertebra, to which are fixed the muscular
masses of the nape of the neck. These crests and these
processes being less developed in the orang-utan, its head is
not so well balanced, and its heavy muzzle falls on its chest.
So one may suppose that the laryngeal sacs, considerably
larger than those of the gorilla, serve him as air-cushions
to lessen the enormous weight of the jaw resting on the
trachea. The gibbon, better adapted to biped progression,
and having a less heavy jaw, has no skull-crests. Further,
with it, the ventricles of Morgagni, that is to say, the little
pouches situated behind the vocal cord in the larynx, never
develop (except in one species, Hylobates syndactyhis) into
enormous air-sacs as in the orang-utan. In this respect,
the gibbon approaches much nearer to man than the other
anthropoids, but it is also more distinguished from him
than the others by the excessive length of the arms, or, to
be more exact, of the pectoral limbs. It holds itself erect
and walks almost as well as man, aided by the long arms and
hands which touch the ground even when the animal is
standing quite upright, and which he uses as a pendulum
when walking. In the case of three other anthropoids, which
bend forward in walking, the pectoral limb is shorter than in
the gibbon but longer than in man.
The first toe, opposable in the anthropoid apes and unoppos-
able in man, the relative length of the toes and fingers
generally, etc., only constitute modifications correlative to
the erect attitude and biped movement of man, and to his
terrestrial habitat as opposed to the arboreal habitat of the
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 21
anthropoid apes, and to their biped movement necessitating
the support of the hands.
The differences in the form and size of the teeth are also
the consequence of the inequahty of the development of the
maxillary part of the face in man, and in the apes in general.
Sv The size of the teeth in proportion to that of the body
is less in man than in the apes (Figs, i and 2). Putting
aside the incisors and the canines, the size of the molars and
the premolars of these animals is larger in relation to the
length of the facial portion of the skull. The "dental index"
of Flower, that is to say the centesimal relation of the total
length of the row of molars and premolars to the length of the
naso-basilar line (from the nasal spine to the most advanced
point of the occipital foramen), is always greater in the
anthropoid apes than in man; in the latler it is never above
47.5, while it is 48 in the chimpanzee, 58 in the orang, and
63 in the gorilla.
As to the arrangement of the teeth on the alveolar arch, with
man they are in a compact line forming a continuous series
without any notable projection of any one tooth above the
common level; while in all the apes is observed an interval
{diasienia) between the canines and the lateral incisors of the
upper jaw, and between the canines and the first premolars of
the lower jaw. These gaps receive in each jaw the projecting
part of the opposite canine.
Like the anthropoid apes, man has five tubercles in the
lower molars, while the monkeys have in general only four.
This rule admits, however, of numerous exceptions : very
often the fifth posterior tubercle is wanting in the two last
molars in man; on the other hand, it is regularly found in the
last molar in certain kinds of monkeys {CynocephaH, Seinno-
pitheci). As to the wisdom tooth, in certain pithecoid apes
{Cynocephalt, Semnopitheci) it is greater in size than the.anterior
molars; whilst in certain others, like the Cercopitheci, it is
much less than the two first molars. With the anthropoid apes
this tooth is of the same size as the other molars or a little
smaller, and it is generally the same with man, though in some-
22 THE RACES OF MAN.
what frequent cases it is entirely wanting. The dental arch is
different as regards form in man and in apes. In man it has
a tendency towards the parabolic and elliptical form, whilst in
apes it usually takes the form of U.
It should be noted that all the characters that distinguish
man from the anthropoid apes have a tendency to become more
marked with the development of civilisation and life in a less
natural environment, or artificially modified, as we have already
seen in regard to the curves of the vertebral column. Thus the
absence of the fifth tubercle in the lower molars has been more
often noted in European races (29 times out of 51, accord-
ing to Hamy) than with Negroes and Melanesians. The
wisdom tooth seems to be in a state of retrogressive evolution
among several populations. Especially in the white races it is
nearly always smaller than the other molars; the number of the
tubercles is reduced to three instead of four or five; very often
in the lower jaw it remains in its alveola and never comes
through.
In the same way the little toe tends, in the higher races
(perhaps owing to tight boots), to become atrophied and
formed of but two phalanges instead of three. Pfitzner has
noted this reduction in thirty feet out of a hundred and eleven
that he examined. ^
It is perhaps in similar retrogressive evolutions due to the
" social environment " that we must seek the explanation of a
great number of characters of "inferiority " and ''superiority,"
so called, of certain races.
The difference between man and the ape in regard to tegu-
ments is not so appreciable as might be thought. Man comes
into the world covered almost entirely with lanugo or short
fine hair. This hair is afterwards replaced in early infancy by
permanent ha;ir which only occupies certain parts of the body.
Primitive man, it may be presumed, was entirely covered with
hair, except perhaps " on the front part of the trunk, where
natural selection in the struggle with parasites (infesting
that warm part of the mother's body in contact with the
' Pfitzner, "Die kleine Zehe," Arch. f. Anat. it. Phys., 1890..
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 53
young when being suckled) would soon cause the disappearance
of the hair from that place, as indeed we see in apes.^ It is
curious to observe in this respect that the disposition of the hair
of the arms in man is far from recalling that of the anthropoid
apes, as Darwin thought, but rather resembles the disposition
observed among the monkeys. In fact, instead of being directed
upwards towards the bend of the elbow, this hair is turned
downwards towards the wrist in the higher half of the arm,
and transversely in its lower half. The anthropoid apes being
accustomed to cover the head with their arms, or to keep them
above their head so as to cling to the branches of the trees on
which they spend their life, the hairs may have taken in this
case an opposite direction to that of the primitive type of the
Primates by the simple effect of gravity."
Space does not permit us to pass in review several other
characters distinguishing man from the anthropoid apes :
absence of certain muscles {acromiotrachelian, etc.) in the
former, simplicity of the cerebral folds in the latter, the absence
of the lobulation of the liver and that of the penile bone
in the former and. their presence in some of the anthropoid
apes, etc.
Let me say in conclusion that all these distinctions are only
very marked when adult individuals are compared, for they
become accentuated with age. The foetus of the gorilla at
five months bears a very close resemblance to the human foetus
of the same age. A young gorilla and a young chimpanzee, by
their globular skull, by their not very prominent muzzle, and by
other traits, remind one of young Negroes. In comparing the
skulls of gorillas, from the foetal state through all the
stages of growth to the adult state, we can follow step by
step the transformation of a face almost human into a muzzle
of the most bestial aspect, as a result of the excessive develop-
' Bell, The Naturalist in Nicaragua, \i. 2.0(j, 1874; Shevyref, "Parasites
of the Skin, etc ," Works Soc. of Naturalists, St. Petersburg, 1891, in
Russian.
2 Walter Kidd, " Certain Vestigial Characters in Man," Nature, 1S97,
vol. Iv. , p. 237.
^4 The r/Vces of man.
ment of the face in front and below in the anthropoid ape, and
the growth of the skull upward and behind in man, as if these
parts moved in different directions in relation to a central
point in the interior of the skull near to the selia turcica}
iDislinctii)e Characters of Human Races.
In treatises on anthropolog)', anatomy, and physiology will
be found all the information wished for on the different
somatic characters of man, as well as on their variations
according to sex, age, and race. It would be exceeding the
limits of our subject were I to describe here, one by one, all the
anatomical or morphological characters drawn from the bony,
■muscular, nervous, and other systems of which the ■ human
body is composed. We shall only pass in review the char-
acters which possess a real importance in the differentiation
of races. These are much less numerous than is generally
supposed, and belong for the most part to the category of
characters that are observed in the living subject. It is
generally believed that the sole concern of anthropology is
the description of skulls. This is one of the common errors
of which there are so many current among the general public
on scientific subjects. To be sure, the skull, and especially
the head, of the living subject furnish the principal characters
which differentiate races, but there exist several others, without
a knowledge of which it is difficult to direct one's steps in the
midst of the diversity of forms presented by the human body
according to race. We distinguish in general two kinds
of somatic characters: (i) those dealing with the form and
structure of the body — morphological characters; and (2)
those which are connected with its different functions —
physiological characters, with which we will include psycho-
logical and pathological characters.
We shall first examine the morphological characters,
' See for further details Denikcr, Reclieixlies analoin. et einbryol. sill-
ies singes anthropoides, Paris and Poitiers, 1886 (Extr. from ArcJi. de
Zool. experim., 3eser. , vol, iii., supp. , 1885-86).
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
2S
beginning with those furnished to us by the body as a
whole— the stature, the nature of the tegument (the skin
and hair), and its colouring. We shall afterwards pass to
an examination of the morphology of the head, and the
different parts of the body, with their bony framework (skull
and skeleton). \Ve shall complete this brief account by a
glance at the internal organs, muscles, brain, viscera.
Stature. — Of all the physical characters which serve to
distinguish races, stature is perhaps that which has hitherto
been regarded as eminently variable. It has been said that not
only does stature change with age and sex, but that it varies
also under the influence of external agencies. These variations
are unquestionable, but it must be remarked that they are
produced in a similar way in all races, and cannot exceed
certain limits imposed by race.
Even from birth stature varies. Setting aside individual
variations, the new-born are on an average a little taller, for
example, in Paris (499 millim. for boys) than in St. Peters-
burg (477 millim.). Unfortunately we have hardly any data
in regard to this important question for the non-EuropQan
populations. Here in a tabulated form is the average height
of the new-born of different populations, so far as information
has been obtainable.
AVERAGE STATURE.
BOYS.
Girls.
Name of
Millim.
Inches.
Millim.
Inches.
Obsekvek.
Annamese ...
474
18.49
464
18.10
Mondierc.
Russians of St. Peters-
Ijurg
477
1S.60
473
18.45
Jlies.
Germans of Cologne
486
18.9s
484
18.88
Mies.
Americans of Boston
490
19.27
482
l8.8o
Bowditch.
English
496
>9-3S
491
19-31
C. Roberts.
French of Paris
499
19.52
492
19.35
Mies.
26 THE RACES OF MAN.
According to this table there would also be from the time
of birth an inequality of stature of the two sexes; boys
exceed girls by a figure which varies from 2 to lo millim.,
that is to say on an average half a centim. (less than a quarter
of an inch). The data relating to different races are insufifi-
cient ; it may be remarked, however, that with people very
low in stature, like the Annaniese (im. 58, or 5 feet 2 inches),
on the average the new-born are also shorter than those of
people of greater stature, as, for instance, the English or the
inhabitants of the United States. The French (average height
5 feet 5 inches) appear to be an exception to this rule.
We shall examine at greater length in Chapter IV. in-
crease of stature in connection with all the phenomena of
growth. Let me for the present say that as regards rrian,
the age of 18 to 25 years, according to race, may be con-
sidered as the practical limit of this growth. In order to
make a useful comparison of statures of different populations,
we should only take, then, adults above these ages.
It must be said on this point that the greater part of the reli-
able information which we possess concerning stature relates
solely to men, and among these, more especially to conscripts
or soldiers. And it has often been objected that the figures in
documents furnished in connection with the recruiting of armies
do not represent the true height of any given population, for
the conscripts, being in general from 20 to 21 years of age,
have not yet reached the limit of growth.
This is true in certain cases ; for example, when we have
the measurements of all conscripts, who, in fact, grow from
I to 2 centimetres during their military service; but when
we have only the measurements of those enrolled, that is to
say only of men above the standard height (and that is most
frequently the case), the question presents a different aspect.
The average height of this picked section of the population,
higher by i to 2 centimetres than that of men of their age
in general, may be considered (as I have elsewhere shown ^)
1 Deniker, " Les Races de I'Eu'rope',-" Bii/i. S^c. i^nVif. Paris, p. 29,
1897. 1' ' ' . -
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 27
to represent the average stature of the whole number of adult
males of any given population. We may then, while making
certain reservations, take the height of those enrolled (but
not that of all the conscripts) as representing the height of
the adults of any given population.
The individual limits between which the height varies are
very wide. It is admitted in general that the limits of height
in the normal man may vary from im. 25 (4 feet i inch) to
im. 99 (6 feet 6| inches). Below ira. 25 begins a certain
abnormal state, often pathological, called Dwarfism. Above
2m. we have another corresponding state called Giantism.
Dwarfs may be 38 cent, high (15 inches), like the little feminine
dwarf Hilany Agyba of Sinai (Joest), and giants as high as
2m. 83 (9 feet 5 inches), like the Finn Caianus (Topinard).^
Dwarfism may be the result of certain pathological states
(microcephaly, rickets, etc.), as it may be equally the result
of an exceeding slowness of growth. ^ In the same way
giantism is often seen associated with a special disease called
acromegaly, but most frequently it is produced by an excessive
growth. In any case, exceptional statures, high or low, are
abnormal phenomena, the acknowledged sterihty of dwarfs
and giants being alone sufficient to prove this.
Extreme statures which it is agreed to call norma!, those of
im. 25 and im. 99, are very rare. One might say that, in
general, statures below im. 35 and above im. 90 are excep-
tions. Thus in the extensive American statistics,^ based on
more than 300,000 subjects, but one giant (above 2m.) is met
with out of 10,000 subjects examined, and hardly five indi-
viduals in 1000 taller than im. 90 (75 inches). Again,
in the statistics of the Committee of the British Association,^
which embrace 8,585 subjects, only three individuals in a
^ Joest, Verh. Berl, gesell. Anthr., p. 450, 1887; Topinard, Elein.
Aiithr. gen.,--p. 436.
^ Manouvrier, Bu<l. Soc. Anthr. Paris, p. 264, 1896.
* B. A. Gould, Investigations in the Milit, and Anthrop. Statistics of
American Soldiers. New York, 1869.
* Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee, Brit. Ass., i88j.
28 THE RACES OF MAN.
thousand have been found taller than im. 90. Yet in these
two cases, populations of a very high stature (im. 72 on
an average) were being dealt with. If we turn to a population
lower in stature, for instance the Italian, we find only one
subject im. 90 or above in height in 7000 examined, accord-
ing to the statistics of Pagliani.i In the same way, low
statures under im. 35 (53 inches) are met with only once
in every 100.000 cases among the subjects examined by
the American Commission, and not once among 8,585 in-
habitants of the United Kingdom ; even in a population low in
stature, like the Italians, only three such in every 1000 subjects
examined are to be found. We do not possess a sufficient
number of figures to be able to affirm that among all the
populations of the globe the instances of all these extreme
statures are exceptional, but what we know leads us to suppose
that it is so, and that the limits of normal stature in man are
between im. 35 and im. 90.
The figures of individual cases are much less interesting
than the averages of the different populations, that is to say
the height obtained by dividing the sum of the statures of in-
dividuals by the number of subjects measured. On comparing
these averages it becomes possible to form a clear idea of the
difference existing among the various peoples. But here
there is an observation to make.
The data of this kind published up to the present in the
majority of books may often lead to error. In fact, as a
general rule they give only the average height without
stating the number of subjects measured. Very often it is
only the rough guess of a traveller who has not even measured
at all the populations of which he speaks. In other cases we
have averages drawn from the measurements of two, three,
or four subjects, which are evidently insufficient for a standard
which varies so much in one individual and another, and even
in the same individual according to the hour of the day.
We know, in fact, that man measures one or two centimetres
more on rising in the morning than on going to bed at night,
' Pagliani, Lo sviluppo timano per eth, etc. Milan, 1879.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 29
when the fibro-cartilaginous discs situated between the ver-
tebiEe are compressed, more closely packed, and the vertebral
column is more bent. Unscrupulous conscripts whose stature
is near the regulation limit know perfectly well that if the day
before the official examination they carry heavy loads, they
compress their intervertebral discs so that their height is some-
times diminished by three centimetres.
It is necessary then, in order to avoid error, not only to have
measurements taken from adult subjects, but also from several
series containing a great number of these subjects. Calcu-
lation and inference have shown us that it is necessary to have
at least a series of one hundred individuals to guarantee the
exact figure of the height of a population but slightly blended.
Series of 50 to 100 individuals may still furnish occasionally
good indications, and series of 25 to 50 individuals an approxi-
mation; but with series under 25 individuals doubt begins and
the figures are often most deceptive.
I have brought together and grouped in the table at the
end of this volume (Appendix I.) average statures calculated
in series of twenty-five individuals or more. These series
have been based on the collation of hundreds of documents,
of which limits of space prevent a full enumeration.
An examination of our table shows that the extreme averages
of different populations fluctuate, in round figures, from im. 38
(4 ft. 6 in.) with the Negrillo Akkas, to im. 79 (5 ft. 10.5 in.) with
the Scots of Galloway.i But if we set aside the pigmy tribe of
the Akka, quite exceptional as regards stature, as well as the
Scots of Galloway, and even the Scots of the north in general
(im. 78), who likewise form a group entirely apart, we arrive
at the extreme limits of stature, varying from 1465 mm. with
^ These figures differ from those up to the present given in most works,
according to Topinard \E!em. Anthro. gen., p 462), who fixes the limits
between ini. 44 (Bushmen of the Cape) and im. 85 (P.atagonians), Ijut the
first of these figures is that of a series of six sulijects only, measured by
Fritsch and the second the average of ten subjects measured by Lista and
Moreno. This is insufficient, and since the publication of Topinard's work
we have only been able to add a few isolated observations concerning those
interesting populations the actual height of which is still to be determined.
30 THE RACES OF MAN.
the Aeta or Negritoes of the Philippines, and 1746 mm. with
the Scots in generdl. In round figures, then, we can recognise
statures of im. 46 (4 feet 9.5 inches) and im. 75 (s feet 9 inches)
as the extreme limits of averages in the different populations
of the globe. The medium height between these extremes is
im. 61, but if we put on one side the exceptional group of
Negritoes (Akka, Aeta, Andamanese, and Sakai), we shall
note that the rest of mankind presents statures which ascend
by degrees, almost uninterruptedly, from millimetre to milli-
metre between im. 54 and im. 75, which makes* the average
im. 65 (5 feet 5 inches), as Topinard has discovered.^
Topinard has likewise proposed the division of statures, since
universally adopted, into four categories, viz. : short statures,
under im. 60; statures under the average, between im.
60 and im. 649; statures above the average, between im.
65 and im. 699; and lastly, high statures, im. 70 and
over.
Our table shows conclusively that there are many more
populations (almost double the number) whose stature is
above or under the average, than populations of a short cr
high stature.
Short stature is rare in Africa, being found only among the
Negrillo pigmies and Bushmen; in South America a few tribes
of low stature are also met with ; but the true home of low
stature populations is Indo- China, Japan, and the Malay
Archipelago. In the remaining portion of Asia this low
stature is only met with again in Western Siberia, and among
the tribes called Kols and Dravidians in India.
Statures under the average predominate in the rest of Asia
(with the exception of the populations to the north of India
and anterior Asia) and in Eastern and Southern Europe,
while statures above the average comprise Irano-Hindu
populations, the Afrasian Semites, the inhabitants of Central
Europe, as well as the Melanesians and AustraHans.
Thus high stature is plainly limited to Northern Europe,
to North America, to Polynesia, and especially to Africa,
' Topinard, Elem. Anlhi: ghi., p. 463.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 3 1
where it is met with as well among Negroes as among Ethio-
pians.
What is the influence of environment on stature? This is
one of the most controverted questions. Since the time of
Villermd the statement has been repeated in a variety of ways
that well-being was favourable to growth and increase in
stature, and that hardship stunted growth. There are facts
which seem to prove this. In a population supposed to be
formed of a mixture of many races, the well-fed upper classes
appear to possess a higher stature than the lower classes; thus,
while the Enghsh of the liberal professions are 69.14 inches
(1757m.) in height, the workmen of the same nation are only
65.7 inches (i7o5m.).i But can we not likewise adduce here
the influence of race ? That predominating in the aristocracy
and well-to-do classes does not, perhaps, predominate in the
working classes. Beddoe^ and others have remarked that the
stature of miners is lower than that of the population around
them ; in the same way, workmen in shops and factories are
inferior in height to those who labour in the open air, and
this in Belgium (Houze) as well as in England (Beddoe,
Roberts) or Russia (Erisman, Anuchin).^ According to
Collignon,* the populations of Normandy and Brittany living
in the neighbourhood of railways and high-roads are superior
in height to those living in out-of-the-way places. He con-
cludes from this that the material conditions of life being
improved since the formation of roads, the stature of the
population has increased. According to Ammon and Lapouge,
the population of the towns in France and Southern Ger-
many are taller in stature than those of the country,
' Final Report Brit. Assoc, 1883, p. 17.
2 Beddoe, The Stature and Bulk oj Man in the Brit. Isles, pp. 148
et seq. London, 1870.
^ Houze, Bull. Soc. Anthr. Bruxelles, 1887; Roherls, A Afanual 0/ An-
thropometry, London, 1878, anA/oiir. Stat. Soc, London, 1876; Anuchin,
"O geograficheskom, etc.," Geograph. Distrib. op Stature in Russia, St.
Petersburg, 1889; Erisman, Arch. J. soz. gesetzgeb. , Tiibingen, 1888.
^ Collignon, " L'Anthropologie au conseil de revision," Bull. Soc.
Anthr. Paris, 1890, p. 764.
32 THE KACES OF MAN.
because of the migration towards uiban centres of the tall
dolichocephalic fair race which they call Homo Eiiropeus.
However, "Ranke observed just the opposite, and there are
other objections to be raised against this theory, based on
the data of recruiting These town-dwellers of high stature
are perhaps only conscripts too quickly developed ; town
life accelerates growth, and town-dwellers have nearly reached
the limit of their height while dwellers in villages have
not finished growing. This is so true that in countries
where statistics have been taken of the civic population,
as in England for example, the population of the towns
is shorter in stature than that of the country. Beddoe
explains this fact by the bad hygienic conditions in towns,
the want of exercise and drinking habits of dwellers in
cities.!
To conclude, the influence of environment cannot be denied
in many cases : it may raise or lower stature, especially by
stimulating or retarding and even arresting growth; but it is
not demonstrated that such a change can be perpetuated by
hereditary transmission and become permanent. The prim-
ordial characteristics of race seem always to get the upper
hand, and the modifications produced by environment can
alter the stature of the race only within very restricted limits.
Thus miners of a high stature like the Scotch, for example,
while shorter than the Scotch of the well-to-do classes, will be
still taller than the individuals of the well-to-do classes in, for
example, Spain or Italy, and much more so than those of
Japan (im. 59). Stature is truly then a character of race, and
a very persistent one.
So far I have spoken only of the height of men. That
of women (as regards adult women of seventeen to
twenty-three years of age, according to race) is always lower
than the height of men, but by how much ? Tentatively,
Topinard gave the figure 12 centimetres as the general differ-
' Ammon, Die Nalnr. Anslese bcini Meiischen, Jena, 1S93 ; Vacher de
I.apougq, Les selections sociaies. Pari?, 1S96; Beddoe, ioc. cil., p. 180;
Ranke, Der Mensdi., vol. ii., p. log, Leipzig, 1S87.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 33
ence between the stature of the two sexes in all races. The
data for the height of women being very scarce, I have only
been able to bring together thirty-five series of measurements
of women comprising each more than fifteen individuals, for
comparison with series of measurements of men.
It follows from this slight inquiry that in twenty cases out
of thirty-five, that is to say, almost two-thirds, the difference in
height between the two sexes in any given population hardly
varies more than from 7 to 13 centimetres (3 to 5 inches);
fourteen times out of thirty-five it only varies from 11 to 13
centimetres (4.5 to 5 inches), so that the figure of 12 centi-
metres (5 inches) may be accepted as the average.. Besides,
the difference does not appear to change according to the
average stature, more or less high, of the race: it is almost
the same for the Tahitians and the Maricopas, who are tall,
as it is for the Samoyeds and the Caribs, who are short.^
Thus, then, in a general way, the categories of statures — tall,
short, etc. — for women will be comprised within the same
limits already indicated for man, only reduced by 12 centi-
metres for each category. Thus, high statures for women will
begin at im. 58 instead of im. 70; short statures under
im. 48 instead of im. 60
The stature of a living man is naturally higher than that of
his skeleton, but what the difference is is not exactly known.
It can hardly, however, exceed 2 or 3 centimetres, according
to Topinard, Rollet, and Manouvrier.
By means of measurements of the long bones of the limbs
(femur, humerus, etc ), the height of the skeleton of which
they form part may be approximately calculated. For this
purpose we make use of RoUet's formula,^ according to which
the length of the femur must be multiplied by 3.66 for the
height of man, and by 3.71 for the height of woman, or
multiply the length of the humerus by 5.06 or by 5.22, according
' Boas [Zeit. f. Elhnol., 1895, p. 375) fovind, however, in Ihirly-nine
series of Indians Ihe difference greater with tribes of high stature (13.5
centimetres) than with tribes of low stature (9.9 centimetres).
2 RoUet, Mensurations des os longs, etc., Lyons, 1889 (thesis).
3
34
THE RACES OF MAN.
to sex. But this formula is only applicable to subjects whose
stature is near the average, im. 65. In the generality of cases
we must substitute for it more exact calculations by the help
of Manouvrier's tables.' It is by this means that Rahon^
has been able to determine approximately the height of the
prehistoric populations of France, which will be dealt with in
Chapter IX.
Teguments : The Skin. — The human skin is essentially com-
posed of two parts, the corium (Fig. 3, d) and a superficial
Fig. 3. — Microscopic section (paitly schematic) of skin and of hair: A,
of a European ; B, of a Negro.
c.c. horny layer or cuticle and c.p. pigmenled layer (rete Malpighii) of
the epidermis; D. coiium; g.su. sweat gland; c.e. excretory duct; fa. hair
papilla, andyi). hair follicle ; m. ereclor pili muscle; g.s. sebaceous gland ;
f. hair.
epidermis; the latter is formed in its turn of two cellular
layers, the horny layers (Fig. 3, c.^.), the quite shallow cells of
which are freely exposed to the air, and Malpighi's layer
situated beneath it, with granules of pigment in more or less
quantity in its lower range of cells (Fig. 3, c.p.'). In certain
places the epidermis is modified so as to form either a mucous
' Manouvrier, Mem. Soc. Anlhro., 2ndser., vol. iv., p. 347, Paris, 1893.
^ Rahon, Mem. Soc. Anthro., vol. iv., p. 403, Paris, 1893/
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
Fig. 4. — Mohave Indians of Arizona; smooth hair type.
{Phot. Ten Kate.)
36
THE RACES OF MAN.
membrane, as, for instance, on the lips, or a liorny substance,
sometimes transparent (as the cornea of the eye) and some-
times only translucent and more or less hard (the nails).
There is little to say about the differences in the nature and
structure of the skin according to race. Its colouring, of
which I shall speak later on (see Pigmentation), is more
Fig. 5. — Pure Veddah of Dangala Mimntains of Ceylon; wavy
hair type. [Phot. Brolhe; s Sarasii:.)
important. Attention has been drawn to the hardness of the
corium and the velvety softness of the skin in the negro; the
latter quality is probably due to the profusion and size of the
sebaceous glands which accompany the hair. Bischofif has
made an interesting observation on the relative rarity of the
sweat glands (which are found in the thickness of the
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
3;
corium, Fig. 3, g.stc) among the Fuegians,^ but comparative
studies on this subject have not been pursued in regard to
other races. The disposition of the papilla ridges on the tips
of the fingers, so well studied by Gallon, ^ is of great interest
as regards the identification of the individual; but from this
Fig. 6.— Same subject as Fig. 5, front view. [F/ioi. Brothers Sarasin.)
fact alone, that it is a good characteristic of the individual, it
loses all its value as a characteristic of race.
Hair of the Head and Body. — The most important horny
product of the skin, as regards the differentiation of races, is
' Bischoff, Sitzungsher. Mat. Phys. CI. Bayr. Akad., Munich, 1SS2,
pp. 243 and 356.
= Gallon, Fin-ser Prints. London, 1893.
38 THE RACES OF MAN.
undoubtedly the hair of the head and body. The general
structure and number of the hairs (about 260 to each square
centimetre) hardly show any difference between race and
race; on the other hand, the length of the hair of the head,
the relation of this length in one sex to that in the other, the
nature of the hair, its consistence, its transverse section, its
form, its colour, vary much according to race. A
The body hair has'Tts origin in a layer of the epi3ermis,
deeply imbedded in the coriuiin as though it were in a little sac
or follicle (Fig. 3, fo.); from the bottom of this sac, and
covering by its root a little papilla (Fig. 3, /a.) filled with
vessels designed to nourish it, each hair rises and pushes its
way to the outside; it is always accompanied by a little muscle
which can move it (Fig. 3, mr), and by a sebaceous gland
(Fig. 3, g) designed to lubricate it.
Four principal varieties of hair are usually distinguished in
anthropology, according to their aspect and their nature —
straight, wavy, frizzy, and woolly. It is easy to form a clear
idea at first sight of the differences which are presented by
these varieties, but the most careful examination shows that
the differences are deeper, and can be pursued even into
the microscopic structure of the hair.
Straight and smooth hair {droit or lisse in French, straff or
schlicht in German) is ordinarily rectilinear, and falls heavily
in bands on the sides of the head; such is the hair of the
Chinese, the Mongols, and of American Indians (Fig. 4).
Straight hair is ordinarily stiff and coarse, but it is sometimes
found tolerably fine; for example, among the western Finns.
It is true that in this case it has a tendency to become wavy.
Wavy hair {onde in French, ivellig in German) forms a long
curve or imperfect spiral from one end to the other (Figs. 5
and 6). It is called curly when it is rolled up at the extremity
(Fig. 7). The whole head of hair when wavy produces a very
pleasing effect: I will merely cite as examples certain fair
Scotchwomen. The type is very widespread among Europeans,
whether dark or fair. The frizzy type {/rise in French,
lockig in German) is that in which the hair is rolled spirally,
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
39
forming a succession of rings a centimetre or more in diameter
(Fig. 8). Such is the liair of the Australians (Figs. 21 'and
22), the Nubians, of certain Mulattos, etc. Lastly, the type
of woolly hair (crepu in French, kratis in German) is charac-
terised by spiral curves exceedingly narrow (from i millimetre
to 9 millimetres as the maximum); the rings of the spiral are
Fig. 7.— Toda woman (India); curly hair type.
(Phot. Thurston.)
very near together, numerous, well rolled, and often catch hold
of each other, forming tufts and balls, the whole result recalling
in appearance sheep's wool (Fig. 9). The type admits of two
varieties. When the hair is relatively long and the spirals
sufficiently broad, the whole head looks like a continuous
fleece, as with certain Melanesians (Fig. 153), or the majority
40
THE RACES OF MAN.
of Negroes (Figs, g and 47). In his classification of the human
races, Haeckel^ has taken this type as characteristic of the
Flo. 8.— ICuiuiuba man of Nilgin Hills ; frizzy hair type.
(Phol. Thurston.)
group of eriocomes. But when the hair is short, consisting of
' Haeckel, Na'.w: Schopfuiigsgeschichle, 4th ed., p. 603. Berlin, 1S73.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS.
41
very small spirals, it lias a tendency, when tangled, to form
little tufts, the dimensions of which vary from the size of a
pea to that of a pepper-corn; these tufts are separated by
spaces which appear bald (pepper-corn hair). This type
(called lophocome by Haeckel) is very widespread among
Hottentots and Bushmen, but the majority of Negroes
have it in their infancy, and evep at adult age, especially
towards the temples, on the forehead — briefly, in all the places
Fig. 9. — Agni Negro of Krinjabo, Western Africa ; woolly hair type.
[Photo. Thoman, lent by Collignon.)
where the hair remains very short (Fig. 9). We must not
think that the disposition of which I have just spoken is
due to the hair being stuck in the skin of the head like the
bristles of a brush, for the mode of insertion is the same in
all races, with Bushmen as with Europeans or Mongols. At
the most it may be noted that the rows of hair in Negroes
are more irregular, and are closer together in certain places,
leaving in other rows intervals between them of two or three
millimetres. Only, as a consequence of the shortness and
42 THE RACES OF MAN.
the excessive twisting, the hair gets entangled and the
spirals catch hold of each other, so forming.' glomerules or
tufts.
Does there exist any difference of form between straight,
waved, frizzy, or woolly hair ? The microscopical examina-
tion of transverse sections of the hair allows us to reply
affirmatively to this question. This examination, already
applied to the hair in 1822 by Heusinger, then successively
by Blower (of Philadelphia), Kolliker, Bruner-Bey, Latteux,
and Waldeyer,' has yielded results which fiave been vigorously
discussed, and are still debatable if we c/ling to the individual
and absolute figures, comparing sections made according
to defective methods, or carried out /on different levels of
the hair. But if we calculate the index — that is to say, the
relation of the breadth to the length (=100) of the section
(and that in a great number of individual cases) — we
obtain satisfactory results, as Topinard and Ranke^ have
shown in general, as also Baelz in the case of the Japanese,
and Montano in the case of the races of the Malay Archi-
pelago.^
If we consider a great number of microscopical sections, all
obtained from the same level of the hair, we note that straight
hair gives a circular section, whilst woolly hair gives one in the
form of a lengthened ellipse. This ellipse is less extended, a
little more filled out, in the sections of wavy hair. If the
major axis of the ellipse be supposed to equal 100, the minor
axis will be represented by figures varying from 40 to 50 for
the woolly hair of the Bushmen and the Hottentots, from 50
^ Pruner-Bey, "Cheveluie comme caracterist. des races hum.," Mem.
Soc. Anlhr., vol. ii., p. i, Paris, 1863 ; Latleux, Technique microscopique,
p. 239, Paris, 18S3 ; V^aMtynr, Alias der Menschl. n. Thier Haare, Lahr,
1894.
" Topinard, EIcdi. Anlhrop. gin., p. 265; J. Ranke, loc. cit., vol. ii.,
p. 172,
^ Baelz, "Korperl. Eigensch. d. Japaner," jT/?'///!. Dcut. Gesell. Nal.und
Volkerk. Oslasiens, vol. iii. , fasc. 28, p. 330, and vol. iv. , fasc. 32, p. 39,
Yokohama, 1883-85 ; Monlano, Mission mix iles Philippines, Paris,
1885 (Exlr, from Arch. Miss. Scient., 3rd series, vol. xi.).
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 43
to 60 for that of the Negroes, while the straight hair of the
Eskimo will have this axis = 7 7, that of the Thibetans = 80,
that of the Japanese = 85, etc. The hair of Europeans repre-
sents an elliptical section in which the major axis being = 100,
the minor axis will be represented by figures varying from 62
to 72 (Topinard). It can be said to-day with certainty, after
the work of Unna,'^ that the woolly hair of Negroes rolls up
into a compact spiral precisely because of the flattened shape
of this elliptical section, and of the special form of the follicle
and papilla. In fact, in the Negro the follicle, instead of being
straight, as in the European (Fig. 3, A), is curved inward in the
form of a sabre, or even of the arc of a quarter of a circle
(Fig- 3, B) ; further, the_papilla^Ja-JiaUen^d_jnstead^_£f_^^
round. One would say that the hair has encountered in its
development so much resistance on the part of the dermis
(which IS so hard, in fact, among the Negroes), that it would
be twisted, as it were, from the first. Emerging from an
incurvated mould, it can only continue to roll up outside,
given especially its flattened shape ; it rolls up into a spiral,
the plane of which, at the beginning, is perpendicular lo the
surface of the skin.^ As to the thickness of the hair, it appears^
that in general it is greater in straight hair than in woolly;
however, the hair of the western Finns is straight and fine at
the same time.
A certain correlation appears to exist between the nature of
the hair and its absolute and relative length. Thus straight
hair is at the same time the longest — Chinese, Americans,
Indians (Fig. 4), while woolly hair is shortest, from 5 to 15
centimetres (Fig. 9) ; wavy hair occupies an intermediate
position. Moreover, the difference between the length of the
hair of men and women is almost inappreciable in the two
extreme divisions. In certain straight-haired races the hair of
the head is as long with men as with women ; one need but to
^ P. S. Unna, " Uebcr das Haar als Rassenmerkmal," Deutsche Med.
ZeiL, 1896, Nos. 82 and 83.
^ See Stewart, Microsc. /oiirn., ,\'&']t„ p. 54; and T. Anderson Stuart,
Journ. Anal. Phys., 1881-82, xvi., p. 362.
44 THE RACES OF MAN.
call to mind the plaits of the Chinese, or the beautiful heads
of hair of the Red Indians, which may attain in certain cases
a length of even two metres (Catlin). In frizzy-haired races
the hair of the head, on the contrary, is equally short in the
two sexes ; the hair of the head of women among the Bush-
men, Hottentots, and even Negroes, is not appreciably longer
than among the men. It is only in the categories of wavy
and in part of frizzy hair, that the differences are appreciable.
With European men the length of the hair rarely exceeds 30
or 40 centimetres, while with the women it averages 65 to 75
centimetres, and may attain in exceptional cases to 2 metres
(as in the case of an Englishwoman, according to Dr. D.
Watson).
Another fact to be noted is that the general development
of the pilose system on the face, as on the rest of the body,
seems also to be in relation to the nature of the hair of the
head.
Straight-haired races are ordinarily very glabrous, the men
have hardly a rudimentary tuft of beard — American Indians
(Fig. 4), Mongols (Fig. 20), Malays; while in the wavy or
frizzy-haired races, the development of the pilose system is
considerable — Australians, Dravidians, Iranians (Fig. 22),
Ainus (Fig. 117), etc. The woolly-haired races are not, how-
ever, included in this rule ; glabrous types (Bushmen, western
Negroes) are found side by side with rather hairy types
(Melanesians, Akka, Ashanti). There appears to be a certain
likeness between the abundance of hair on the head and on
the body. Thus, according to Hilgendorf, the Japanese who
are glabrous have from 252 to 286 hairs to each square centi-
metre on the head, whilst the hairy Aitius have only 214.
Negroes and white men do not appear, however, to present
the same differences (Gould). Even baldness results largely
from the nature of the hair. According to Gould, baldness is
ten times less frequent among Negroes than among Whites,
between 33 years and 44 years, and thirty times less so
between 21 and 32. Among Mulattos it is more frequent
than among the Negroes, but less than among Whites.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 45
Lastly, among Red Indians it seems to be still more rare than
among Negroes. White hair follows almost the same rule.i
In the mass, the human races may be divided according to"^
the character of their hair as follows : —
Woolfy Hair. — Bushmen, Negro, and Melanesian races.
Frizzy Hair. — Australian, Ethiopian, Beja, Fulbd, etc., and
Dravidian.
Wavy Hair. — The white races of Europe, of Northern
Africa, and Asia (Melanochroi or the dark-complexioned
Whites, and Xanthochroi or pale Whites).
Fine, straight, or lightly-waved Hair. — Turco-Tatars, Finns,
Ainus, and Indonesians (Dyaks, Nagas, etc.); lastly,
Coarse straight Hair. — Mongolians and American races,
with some exceptions. It must be noted that, in the manifold
Mendings of races, characteristics of the hair amalgamate.
Thus the half-breeds between Negroes and American
Indians have, most frequently, the hair frizzy or wavy. But
there are also frequent reversions to the primitive type, almost
always, however, a little weakened.
There are no races of hairy men. Everything that has
been said of different " hairy savages " in the interior of Africa
or Indo-China resolves itself into the presence of a light down
(probably the remains of embryonic lanugo) in the case of the
Akkas of the Upper Nile, or to the fortuitous existence of one
or two families of hairy men and women from Burma exhibited
some years ago in Europe and America. Other "phenomena"
have been shown, like the famous Julia Pastrana or the " Dog-
men " of Russia. All these subjects are only particular cases
of atavism, or of a reversion to the probable primordial con-
dition of man or of his precursor at the period when he was as
hairy as, for instance, the anthropoid apes of to-day; they are
by no means the representatives of a hairy race.
The beard is, as we know, one of the sexual characteristics of
man, although many fine ones are found among certain women,
notably among the Europeans of the south, and especially among
Spanish women. The more hairy the body, the thicker as a
1 E. A. Gould, toe. cit., p. 562.
46 THE RACES OF MAN.
rule is the beard. In the glabrous races (Mongols, Malays,
Americans) a few straggling hairs are all that can be seen at the
corners of the mouth and on the chin (Figs. 20 and 168); in
the very hairy races, like the Ainus, the Iranians, certain
Semites, the Todas, the Australians, the Melanesians, the
beard is strong and abundant on the lips, the chin, and the cheeks,
where it reaches sometimes to the cheek-bones (Fig. 22); in the
Negro and Bushmen races neither the moustache nor the beard
can attain to great dimensions, because of the curly nature of
the hair (Figs. 140 and 143). The eyelashes and the eyebrows
are likewise much developed in races having an abundant beard,
and this is the case in both sexes; we have only to recall the
thick and joined eyebrows of the Persian women. On the
other hand, among the Mongolians we note the small develop-
ment of the eyelashes in relation to the particular structure of
their eye (see p. 77).
Figmentation. — The distribution of the pigment which gives
the colouring to the skin, to the hair, to the iris, varies much
according to race, and forms, along with the nature of the
hair, a good distinctive characteristic. As I have already
stated above, the pigment is accumulated principally in the
lowest layers of the rete Malpighii (Fig. 3, c.p ), but it is also
met with in small quantities in the horny layer, and even in
the dermis.' According to race, the microscopic granules of
pigment of a uniform brown are very unequally distributed
around the nuclei of the cells, to which they give the most
varied tones from pale yellow to dark brown, almost black. As
the pigment exists in all races, and in all parts of the body,
it is to its more or less plentiful accumulation in the cells that
the colouring of the skin and its derivatives is due. Further,
there must be added, for certain races at least, the combina-
tion with the tint of the blood of the vessels, as seen through
the skin.
Every one knows that our white races become tanned in the
sun; the cause of this is the pigment, developing abundantly
' Breul, "Vertheil. d. Ilautpigments bei veischied. Menschenrassen,"
Morph. Arb., directed by G. Schwalbe, vol. vi., part 3. Jena, 1896.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 47
and being deposited in the cells under the combined action of
air, heat, and light; the congestion of the vessels has also
something to do with it. In the same way, persons living a
long time in dense forests or in dark though airy places end
by becoming paler, in consequence of the loss of the pigment,
but recover colour immediately on re-exposure to the sun. But
the modifications produced by the action of air and sun vary
even among Europeans according to the colouring peculiar to
their race.
Thus among the fair races of Northern Europe the skin,
burnt by the sun, becomes red, as if swollen; on the other
hand, among the dark-coloured peoples of the Mediterranean,
it takes a bronze tint._ There are thus between these two races
notable differences, if not in the chemical nature of the pigment,
which is scarcely likely, at least in regard to its quantity. It
is the same with other races generally, and ten principal shades
of colour at least can easily be distinguished. In the first
place, among Whites, three shades: ist, pale white; 2nd,
florid, or rosy, peculiar to the Scandinavians, English, Dutch,
etc.; 3rd, brownish-white, peculiar to Spaniards, Italians, etc.
In the races called Yellow, three varieties of colour can like-
wise be distinguished: 4th, yellowish-white, a sickly hue the
colour of wheat, as, for example, among certain Chinese; sth,
olive-yellow, the colour of new portmanteau leather, as among
the majority of South American Indians, Polynesians, and Indo-
nesians; 6th, dark yellow-brown, dark olive, or the colour of
dead leaves, as among certain Americans, Malays, etc. In
the dark-skinned races, four shades at least must be distin-
guished : 7th, red, copper-coloured, a<;, for example, among
the Bejas, Niam-Niam, Fulbd; Sth, reddish-brown, choco-
late, as among the Dravidians, the Australians, certain Negroes
and Melanesians; lastly, 9th, sooty black, and loth, coal-
black, for example, among the different Negro populations.
In order to avoid an arbitrary designation of colours,
anthropologists make use of chromatic tables, in which
examples of the chief variations of colour are marked by
numbers. The best table, almost universally adopted, is that
48 THE RACES OF MAN.
of Broca, of thirty-four shades.' The Anthropological Insti-
tute of Great Britain and Ireland has published a very practical
and simplified edition of it,^ which contains only the ten
numbers of principal shades proposed by Topinard, namely,
those I have just enumerated.
The pigment is not uniformly distributed, as I have said,
through the whole body, and this is so with the Whites as well as
with the darkest races. In all of them the parts of the body
most deeply coloured are the nape of the neck, the back (as with
animals), the back part of the limbs, the arm-pits, the scrotum,
and the breasts; the belly (as with animals), the insides of
the hands, the soles of the feet, are among the most lightly
coloured. The parts covered by garments are less coloured
among white and yellow races than the parts uncovered;
it is affirmed, but without reliable proofs, that the contrary
takes place among the dark and black populations.
In the iris, the pigmentation assumes a particular character.
As we know, this perforated diaphragm of the eye is com-
posed, histologically, of three layers: an anterior epithelial
one; a middle one, the "stroma," with muscular fibre',
designed to enlarge or reduce the pupil; and lastly, a pos-
terior layer, called the pigmental layer. But it must not be
thought that this layer is the only repository of the pigment
of the iris. It is also found accumulated in the thickness of
the stroma, and between the muscular fibres. In both places
the granules of the pigment have the same brown colour as
in the rest of the body, but the pigment of the posterior or
pigmental layer is only seen through the stroma and appears
blue or grey, more or less light or dark, according to its
quantity, just as the black veins of the blood appear to us
blue through the skin. On the contrary, the pigment accu-
mulated in the stroma or between the muscular fibres of the
iris exhibits its natural yellow, brown, or almost black colour-
' Broca, Inslruclions gMr, four lesrecli. Anlhro/<o!ogiques surle vivant,
2nd efl., Paris, 1879.
2 J. G. Garson and Ch. II. Read, Notes and Queries on Anthropology,
edit, for the Anthro. Institute, 2nd ed., London, 1892.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. 49
ing, according to the quantity of it, under the form of a
trail radiating very clearly from the pupil towards the periphery
of the eye occupying one-third, two-thirds, or even the whole
of the iris.
Seen at a certain distance, irises without pigment in their
stroma appear blue or grey; those having the whole or the
greater part of this charged with pigment appear brown, dark,
brown, or almost black, according to the quantity of this
pigment. But irises havmg a blue or grey foundation strewn
with yellowish spots of pigment appear green, yellow, yellowish-
grey, greenish-grey, etc.
There are thus distinguishable only three fundamental
shades of the iris, or, as is commonly said, of the colour of
the eyes: light (blue or grey); dark (bright or dull brown or
black) ; and intermediate shades (green, yellow, yellowish-grey,
greenish-grey, etc.). This classification is entirely based on
the quantity of pigment in the iris.
It is only in fair European races that blue or grey eyes are
found, perhaps also in the Turco-Ugrian races; hght-brown
eyes are met with among some Mongolians. In all the other
populations of the earth the eyes are dark-brown or black.
It is the same with the colouring of the hair. It varies
appreciably among the wavy-haired races, much less so among
the straight and frizzy-haired races, and remains always black
among the woolly-haired races. Four principal shades can be
distinguished in the hair — black, dark-brown, chestnut-brown
{chaiain in French), and fair. In this last shade, golden
must be separated from flaxen and dull grey-reddish hair.
Red hair of all shades is only an individual anomaly,
accompanied besides, almost, always, by freckles {ephelides) on
the face and neck. There are no red-haired races, but light
and chestnut hair may have a reddish reflection in it. Red
hair is very common in countries where several white-coloured
races (brown or fair) are intermixed. In these crossed
races there are found heads of hair of all colours — black,
brown, fair, reddish-brown, dull-grey, chestnut, etc. This is
the natural result of the intermixture of blood. Among a
so THE RACES OF MAN.
dark-haired people, which has remained free from inter-
mixture, or has only intermingled with dark-haired races, an
exceptional red-haired individual constitutes a pathological,
condition, called "erythrism'' by Broca. Erythrism can only
manifest itself in certain races; at least, until now no example
has been instanced among the Negroes ; on the other hand,
erythrism is somewhat common among the Jews of Europe,
and among such Jews it is most frequently associated with
frizzy hair.^
The colouring of the hair depends not only on the pigment,
but on the more or less quantity of air in the medulla of
the hair, which blends the white and grey tones with the
general tint given by the pigment. In the air, the hair fades,
becomes less highly coloured, duller. Certain acids of the
perspiration render the hair reddish-brown, as for instance,
under the arm-pit.
At birth pigment is found in the body in less quantity
than in the adult state. Every one knows that the hair of
children, often light-coloured at birth and in early years,
becomes darker as they grow up. Almost all our European
children are born with blue eyes, and the pigment only begins
to increase in the iris, transforming the eyes into grey, brown,
or black at the end of some weeks, or even months after birth.
New-born Chinese, Botocudos, Malays, Kalmuks, are much
less yellow than the adults of these people, and, lastly,
Negroes at birth are of a reddish-chocolate or copper colour,
which only becomes darker at the end of three or four days,
beginning in certain places, such as the nape, nipples,
scrotum, etc.
' Fair hair with all its shades is met with especially among the European
populations of the North; it is rarer in the Sotith. There are, it is com-
puted, i6 fair-haired individuals to every loo Scotchmen; 13 to every 100
Englishmen; and 2 only to every 100 Italians (Beddoe). On the other
hand, brown hair is met with in 75 cases out of 100 Spaniards, 39 out of
[00 Frenchmen, and 16 only of too Scandinavians (Gould). The fair
variety is rarer among straight-haired races ; it is found, however, among
the western Finns, among certain Russians, etc.
SOMATIC CHARACTERS. JI
The presence of temporary spots of pigment noticed among
new-born Japanese by Grimm and Baelz, among the Chinese
by Matignon, among the Tagals of the Phihppines by Collig-
non, and among the Eskimo by S6ren-Hansen,i is more
puzzHng. These are somewhat large blue, grey, or black
spots, situated in the sacro-lumbar region and on the
buttocks, which disappear about the age of two, three, or five
years. The existence of these spots, like that of the ephelides
in the European child, would prove rather the migration of
pigmental granules to the places selected than a general
increase of them. In most races women appear to have
clearer skin than men ; in that respect, as in many other
characters, they have a closer resemblance to children. It
is thought by some that the hair of women is lighter than that
of men among European races.^
Among Negroes the pigment is visible not only on the
skin, in the hair, and the iris, but also in the sclerotic, in
the mucous membrane of the lips, the mouth, the genital
organs, etc. ; the internal organs, even, are not free from it ;
the suprarenal capsules, the mesentery, the liver, the spleen,
are often coloured with black spots of pigment, and even
the brain contains numerous pigmented points in its envelopes
and in its grey matter. Such an abundance of pigment
would become a danger to the White, as is proved by certain
diseases, melanism, for example, in which the pigment
especially invades the viscera, or Addison's disease, in which,
on the contrary, there is an over-production of pigment in the
skin and the mucous membranes.
The total absence of pigment, which may occur with the
Negro as with the White, is termed albinism. This may be
accompanied, if complete (that is to say, when, besides the
white skin and hair, the iris is also deprived of pigment, and
appears red), by somewhat serious affections of the eyesight.
^ Baelz,'&. cit., vol. iv., p. 40; Matignon, Btill. Soc. Anlhr., p. 524,
Paris, 1896; Collignon, ibid., p. 5^8 ; Soren-Hansen, Bidrag VestgrSnl.
Aii'lir., Copenhagen, 1893; Extr. from Medciel. om GrSnI., vol. vii., p. 237.
2 Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 223. London, 1897.
52 THE RACES OF MAN.
But, in every respect, albinos are weakly, and probably not
fertile amongst themselves.
In considering from all points of view the nature of hair
and pigmentation in general, we cannot help noticing a certain
correlation between these two characters. In fact, to the
white colouring of the skin corresponds, in a general fashion,
wavy hair, the colouring of which varies often in accord with
the colour of the eyes and the shades of the skin (white, fair,
brown races) ; to the yellow colouring corresponds straight,
smooth hair; to the reddish-brown skin, frizzy hair; and to
the black, woolly hair.
CHAPTER II.
I. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS {cotliiniied).
Cranium or Skull: Cranial measurements— Orbits and orbital index-
Nasal bone and nasal index— Prognathism — Head of the living
subject: Cephalic index— Face — Eyes— Nose and nasal index in the
living subject— Lips— rra?2/J and Limbs: The Skeleton— Pelvis
and its indices— Shoulder blade— Thoracic limb— Abdominal limb—
Proportions of the body in the living subject— Trunk and neck— Curve
of the back — Steatopygy — Various Organs: Genital organs — Brain —
Its weight — Convolutions — The neuron — Its importance from the
psychical point of view
Having treated of the body in its general aspect, we shall
now examine from the morphological point of view its different
parts : the head, trunk, limbs, etc., as well as their relations to
each other and their reciprocal dimensions, both in the
skeleton and the living subject.
Cranium or Skull. — This part of the skeleton forms the
object of investigation of a very extended branch of anthro-
pology called craniology.
Craniology must not be confounded with the cranioscopy
of the phrenologists, a sham science founded by Gall, who
wished to establish a connection between certain bumps or
irregularities of the surface of the skull and the parte of the
brain in which, as was pretended, were localised the different
intellectual functions. It is now demonstrated that the in-
equalities of the external table of the cranium walls have no
relation whatever with the irregularities of the internal table,
and still less have they anything in common with the con-
formation of the various parts of the brain. But if there be
S3
54 THE RACES OF MAN.
no such direct connection as this between the cranium and the
brain, there is nevertheless a certain remote relation between
them, and the brain has attained'such a development in man
that the study of everything which concerns it, immediately
or remotely, possesses great interest. This would alone sufi&ce
to explain the pre-eminent position assigned to craniology in
the natural history of man. But there exist still other
reasons why the study of the skull is one of the most cultivated
branches of anthropology. As in the case of all the other
mammals, the skull in man is one of the parts of the skeleton,
and even of the entire body, which exhibits the greatest
number of well-marked variations. The differences in the
form and the dimensions of the skull in correlation with
those of the brain and the masticaiory organs, serve- to
distinguish races and species, both in man and other
vertebrata. Besides, the teeth, which characterise not only
genera but even families and orders of the mammifera,
are always attached to the skull, though not forming part of
the bony system. We may also observe that the skull, with
the other bones of the skeleton, constitutes the only anatomical
document of prehistoric man which has come down to us;
it is only in studying it that we can connect and compare,
from the point of view of physical type, existing with extinct
races of mankind.
The characters that may be observed in the skull are very
numerous, and may be divided into descriptive characters,
which give an account of the conformation of the bony
structure of the head and its parts, and craniometrical char-
acters, which give the dimensions of these parts by exact
measurements taken by means of special apparatus or instru-
ments. These two orders of characters are complementary to
each other. The cranial characters vary according to race,
but within the limits of each race there are other lesser varia-
tion's according to age and sex.
The general form of the cranium, as also the number, the
consistence, and structure of the different parts which com-
pose it are modified as the individual develops and grows
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 55
older. Formed of a single cartilaginous and membranous
substance at the beginning of embryonic life, the cranium is
composed in the last foetal state of a great number of foinls of
ossification of various texture. At birth the number of these
points has considerably diminished; they have united for the
most part to form the different parts of the bones of the cranium
or brain case and the bones of the face; as the child grows,
these points grow and end by being contiguous; about the
age of eighteen or twenty years they form bones separated by
sutures. There are twenty-one separated bones described in
classic treatises on anatomy. Later on these bones begin to
unite, the sutures which separate them disappear, and in
extreme old age the cranium is formed of a bony mass almost
as continuous and homogeneous as was the cranial carti-
laginous and membranous mass in the embryo. According
to the number of the pieces composing the cranium, and also
according to their position, structure, and conformation, accord-
ing to the degree of obliteration of the sutures and the order
in which the obliteration of each suture takes place, according
to the general form of the forehead, the angle of the lower
jaw, according to the volume and dimensions of the skull, and
lastly, according to the state of the dentition, etc., the nearly
exact age of the individual to whom the skull had belonged
may easily be discovered in this cycle of development. Other
characters serve to distinguish the sex: the forehead is straight
and rounded in woman, retreating in man; the cranial cavity
is less in woman than in man in any given race; the orbital
edges are sharper in woman, the impress of the muscles less
marked, the weight of the skull in general less than that of
the masculine skull, etc.^ Lastly., the characters of race are
' These characters, in conjunction with several others — the small des'elop-
ment of the lower jaw-bone, the frontal sinuses poorly developed, the much
greater development of the cranial vault proportionately lo its base, the
persistence of the frontal and parietal bumps — make the feminine skull
approximate to the infantile form. See the works of Broca, Manouvrier,
and also Rabentisch, Der Weiberschddel, Morfholog. Arb., Schwalbe,
1892, vol. ii. , p. 207; and H. Ellis, !oc. cit., p. 72.
S6 ■ THE RACES OF MAN.
numerous and special. I shall proceed briefly to enumerate
some of them. First in ordei- of importance comes cranial
capacity, or the volume of the cavity of the brain-case, which
gives an idea of the volume of the brain, and approximately
of its weight.
Cranial capacity may vary to the extent of double the
minimum figure (from iioo cubic centimetres to 2200 cubic
centimetres) among normal individuals in the human race.
The average capacity for the races of Europe is from 1500 to
1600 cubic centimetres; that of the skulls of Asiatic races
appears to be very nearly the same; that of the Negro races
and Oceanians a little smaller, perhaps from 1400 to 1500
cubic centimetres on an average That of the Australians, the
Bushmen, and the Andamanese is still less, from 1250 to 1350
cubic centimetres. But it must not be forgotten that the
volume of the head, as with its other dimensions, has a certain
relation to the height of the individual, and, as a matter of
fact, Bushmen and Andamanese are very short in stature;
Australians, however, are of average height. Partly, too, to
their disproportion of height must, probably, be attributed the
difference between the volume of the cranium in man and in
woman. According to the series examined, this sexual differ-
ence may extend from 100 to 200 cubic centimetres, and
even beyond, in favour of man. The cranial capacity of
woman represents from eighty-five to ninety-five of the cranial
capacity of man.i The cranial capacity of lunatics, of cer-
tain criminals, and especially of celebrated or distinguished
men, scholars, artists, statesmen, etc., appears to be slightly
superior to the average of their race. We shall revert later
to the question of cranial capacity in connection with weight
of brain.
The general form of the brain-case is an oval, but this oval
may be more or less rounded, quite globular (Fig. 11), or more
or less elongated to resemble an ellipse, the major axis of which
^ H. Ellis, loc. cit., p. 89 and onwards; L. Manouvrier, article " Cer-
veau " in the Diet, de Physiol, de Ch. Richet, vol. ii., part 8, Paris, 1897.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
57
is almost double the minor (Fig. lo). The numerical expres-
sion of the cranial form is given in anthropology by what is
called the cephalic index — that is to say, by the relation of the
length of the cranium (ordinarily measured from the glabella
to the most prominent point of the occiput (Figs. lo and
13, A b) to its greatest breadth (Fig. 10, CD, Fig. 12, m n).
Reducing uniformly the first of these measurements to 100,
we obtain the different figures for the breadth, which expresses
the cranial form; thus very round skulls (Fig. 11) have 85, 90,
Fig. 10. — Dolichocephalic skull of
an islander of Torres Straits.
Cephalic index, 61.9. {After
0. Thomas.)
Fig. II. — Brachj'cephalic skull of
a Ladin of Pufels (Tyrol).
Cephalic index, 95. [After
Hall.)
and even 100 (extreme individual limit) for index, while
elongated skulls (Fig. 10) may have an index of 70, of 65, and
even of 58 (extreme individual limit). According to Broca's
nomenclature, skulls having indices between 77.7 and Scare
mesaticephaHc or mesocephalic; those having the indices
below this figure are sub-dolichocephalic (up to 75), or
dolichocephalic (beyond 75, Fig. 10); those which have the
58 THE RACES OF MAN.
index above 80 are sub-brachycephalic (up to 83.3), or
brachycephalic (above 83.3, Fig. 11).^ Peoples or ethnic
groups being formed of various elements, it is in most cases
impossible to determine, after the examination of an isolated
skull, to which population it belongs ; all that can be said is
that the skull is brachy- or dolichocephalic, orthognathous or
prognathous, etc. We must have a certain number of
skulls (from ten to thirty at least, according to the homo-
geneity of the population) to be able to discern the constituent
elements of this population as far as they are manifested in
the cranial characteristics. The average measurements are
then deduced from a given number of skulls, by adding the
individual measurements and dividing them by the number of
skulls examined. But the average of any measurement what-
ever only gives a very general and somewhat vague idea of
the actual dimensions of skulls. To determine it we must
co-oi-dinaie and seriate these skulls — that is to say, arrange
them, for example, in an ascending order of figures expressing
their cephalic index. In this manner we can discover one or
several indices around which the skulls are grouped in the
largest number. It is thus that we can often discern two
or three cranial elements in the same population. ^
' According to the quinary nomenclature adopted in many countries of
Europe, the indices are grouped by series of five ; dolichocephalic from 70
1074.9; mesocephalic from 75 to 79.9; brachycephalic from 80 to 84.9;
hyper-brachycephalic from 85 to 89.9, The two systems might be com-
bined with advantage, as I proposed ten years ago, under the following
nomenclature, which I have adopted in this work : — Cephalic index of
the skull; From 69.9 and under, hyper-dolichocephalic; from 70 to 74.9,
dolichocephalic; from 75 to 77.7, sub-dolichocephalic; from 77.7 to 79,9,
me.socephalic ; from 80 to 83.2, sub-brachycephalic; from 83.3 to 84.9,
brachycephalic ; from 85 to 85 9, hyper-brachycephalic ; from 90 and
upwards, ultra-brachycephalic.
- Skulls may also be grouped by sections (for instance, ascending to the
quinary nomenclature of the cephalic index) to see what is the propor-
tional part of each of these sections. Thus if we take a series of 10 skulls
having the following indices, 75, 77, 78, 80, 80, 81, 81, 81, 82, 84, their
average index will be expressed by the figure 80 (the sum of the indices
divided by the number of skulls), while the most frequent mean index
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 59
If we apply these methods to the study of the cephahc
index, we see that generally the crania of Negroes, Melanesians,
Eskimo, Ainus, Berbers, the races of Northern Europe, etc.,
are dolichocephalic, while those of the Turkish peoples, the
Malays, certain Slavs, Tyrolese, etc., are brachycephalic; that
the dolichocephalic predominate in Great Britain, while the
brachycephalic are in a majority in France, etc. (See p. 75,
and Appendix II.)
The relation of the height to the breadth or to the length of
the skull gives likewise an idea of its general form. It is
thus that we recognise low skulls (platycephalic), medium
(orthocephalic or metriocephalic), or high (hypsicephalic).
In order more correctly to describe the different peculiarities
of the cranium, and to be able to refer the measurements to
fixed co-ordinates, it is desirable to place the skull; when being
studied, on a horizontal plane. Unfortunately, anthropologists
are far from being agreed as to this initial plane. In France, in
England, and in many other countries, that adopted is the aveolo-
condylean plane of Broca (Fig. 13, l k), which passes through
the condyles and the alveolar border of the upper jaw; it is
nearly parallel to the horizontal plane passing through the visual
axes of the two eyes in the living subject; whilst in Germany
the plane still in favour is one passing through the inferior
border of the orbit and the centre or top of the contour of the
auditory meatus^ (F'g- i3> n m). The skull once conveniently
placed in position according to a horizontal plane, the different
views of it are the following : seen from above {norma ver-
ticalis of Blumenbach, Figs. 10 and 11), from below (norma
basilaris), from the side or in profile {norma lateralis. Fig. 13),
from the full face {norma facialis. Fig. 12), or from behind
{norma occipitalis).
will be 81. Further, the series should be considered as not very homo-
geneous, for it comprises i dolichocephalic, i sub-dolichocephalic, I meso-
cephahc, 6 sub-brachycephalic, and i brachycephalic.
^ It is rather a line than a plane ; the cranium always being asymmetrical,
we cannot make a horizontal plane pass exactly through the borders of the
two orbits and the two auditory meatus.
6o
THE RACES OF MAN.
In regard to the face, different measurements express its
general form; thus tlie relation of the bi-zigomatic length (Fig.
12, I g) to the total height of the bony structure of the head
(Fig. 1 2, K l), or to its partial height from the glabella to the
alveolar border of the upper jaw-bone (Fig. 12, f h), serves to
separate skulls into brachy- or dolicho-facial, or, as they are also
called, chamaprosopes and leptoprosopes. Other characters, such
as the excessive development of the supraciliary ridges (Fig.
Fig. 12. — Skull of ancient Egyptian e.\humed at Thebes, with
principal craniometrical lines.
13, a), also give a special physiognomy to the bony structure
of the face.
But the parts that deserve particular attention are the orbits
and the nasal skeleton. The orbital orifice represents a
quadrilateral figure more or less irregular, more or less
angular or rounded, the length and breadth of which can
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
6i
be measured. According to Broca.i the breadth is measured
from the point called dacrion (Fig. 1 2, x) (situated at the inter-
section of the fronto-lachrymal suture and the crista lachrymalis)
to the most distant point of the opposite edge of the orbit
(Fig. 12, y); the height (Fig. 12, t 2) is also measured per-
pendicularly to the preceding line. The relation of this height
to the breadth = 100, or the orbital index, expresses in figures
the form of the more or less shallow quadrilateral of the orbit.
Fig. 13. — .Same slviill as F!g. 12, profile view.
What are called average orbits, or mesosemes, are those whose
index varies from 83 (Broca), or from 84 (Flower\ to 89;
shallow orbits, or microsemes, those which have the index
lower than 83 or 84; finally, higher or large orbits, ?negasemes,
those which have their index from 90 and upwards. The
annexed table gives the orbital indices of the principal popula-
tions of the globe.
^ Broca, " Recherches sur I'indlce orbltaiie," I?ev. Anihro., p. 577,
Paris, 1875.
62
THE RACES OF MAN.
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English
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Kabyles
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Bugis of Mangkassar
Berbers
Arabs
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MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 63
The capacity of the orbital cavity and its depth are also
measured, but, as the researches of L. Weiss have demon-
strated, there is no correlation between the form of the skull
(dolicho- or brachy-cephalic) and this depth. On the other
hand, it appears to have some relation with the form of the
face; broad faces (chamceprosopes) have deeper orbits than long
faces (leptoprosopes).^
The skeleton of the nose presents numerous variations
according to race. The nasal bones may be more or less
inclined, one in relation with another, so as to form either
an almost flat plane or a sort of prominent roof; their
outline may be straight, concave, or convex; their breadth and
their length also vary. The form of these bones, together with
the nasal opening which is found below, may be expressed by
the figures of the nasal index — ^that is to say, of the relation
between the height of the bony mass (from the root of the nose
to the anterior nasal spine) and its breadth (lines v b and E d
of Fig. 12). According to the greater or lesser breadth of
the nasal bones and of the nasal opening, the skull is called
lepiorhinian (long-nosed) ox platyrhinian (flat-nosed); the inter-
mediate forms bear the name of mesorhinian. The form of
the nasal opening appears to be transmitted very tenaciously
by heredity (Broca).
The following table, in which I have introduced only
series of more than ten skulls, gives the distribution of the
principal ethnic groups according to their nasal index.
It is easy to see in running the eye over this table, that
almost all the populations of the so-called white races are
leptorhinians, while all the yellow populations are comprised
exclusively in the group of mesorhinians, and Negroes and
Bushmen in that of the platyrhinians.
The Polynesians seem to be leptorhinians, the Melanesians
with the Australians show a tendency towards platyrhiny.
Prognathism, that is to say the degree of projection of the
maxillary portion of the face, is a characteristic trait of certain
skulls • however, it does not seem to play so important a part
1 L. Weiss, Beili: Anal, der Orbila, part 3, p. 25. Tiibingen, 1890.
64
THE RACES OF MAN.
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MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 65
in the classification of races as anthropologists had thought
twenty or thirty years ago. It presents too many individual
varieties to be taken as a distinctive character of race. The
degree of prognathism is measured by means of different
facial angles, of which that of Cloquet, passing by the forehead,
the upper alveolar point (between the two incisors), and the
external auditory meatus (Fig. 13, f o k), is one of the best.
However, as it expresses the relation of points too fat removed
from each other, it is better to confine ourselves to the measure-
ment of alveolar prognathism, that is to say, of the sub-
nasal projection of the face. This prognathism, is measured
with the angle determined by the alveolar point, the external
auditory meatus, and the nasal spine (Fig. 13, f' o k).
Among, numerous other measurements which give indica-
tions for certain characters we must cite: the minimum frontal
diameter (Fig. 12, s j); the interorbital line; the length and
the breadth of the palate, the relation of which constitutes the
palatal index, etc. Among the measurements of the curves it
is necessary to note the horizontal circumference of the head,
the antero-posterior curve with its frontal, parietal, and occipital
portions, etc. Besides the facial angles, a great number of
others are taken; the more important are the sphenoidal angle
and the different occipital angles (of Daubenton, Broca, etc.),
which give the inclination of the occipital foramen in relation to
a horizontal plane. The measurements of these angles furnish
valuable indications on the characters called seriary, to which
we have recourse in order to compare man with animals which
bear the closest resemblance to him.
But all these measurements do not suffice to exhaust the
data of the morphology of the skull. There still remain a host
ol descriptive c^zxdxXitxi: the general form of the skull, penta-
gonal, oval, elliptical, etc. ; the contour of the face more or less
angular or rounded, its canine fossa more or less deep, its
zygomatic arches, and its molar bones more or less projecting,
etc, Certain anomalies in the sutures of the bones, as for
example the persistence of the medio-frontal suture, the disposi-
tions oi \hz pterion (point of union of the sutures between the
5
66
THE RACES OF MAN.
frontal, the temporal, the sphenoid, and the parietal bones),
are only important as senary characters, but there are others
which possess some value in the diiferentiation of races. The
Fig. 14.— Jenny, Australian woman of Queensland. Height, Im. 56;
cephalic index, 71.2; nasal index, 119. {PJio/o. Prince Roland
Bonaparte. )
Wormian bones, or points of ossification inserted between the
bones of the skull, are of the number. One of these bones
found between the parietal bones and the occipital, has
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
^7
even received the name of the Inca bone (Fig. 23, a), on
account of its very frequent occurrence among Peruvian crania
(deformed or not). In fact, it is met with in an imperfect state
Fig. 15. — Same subject As Fig. 14, seen in profile. Example of nose
concave and flattened, of prognathism, and of prominent super-
ciliary arches. (Photo. Prince Roland Bonaparle. )
20 times in 100 and perfect 5.4 times in 100 among Peruvians,
while in Negro crania it is found only 6 times in 100 imperfect,
and 1.5 perfect; among Europeans it is still more rarely
68 THE RACES OF MAN.
imperfect, and is hardly ever met with perfect (Anuchin).
This peculiarity seems to be a special character of the American
race, seeing that among the crania of the Indians of the New
World (outside Peruvians) the anomaly in question is found
lo times in loo imperfect and 1.3 times perfect. Among
the Indians of Rio Salado, an affluent of the Gila in Arizona,
the frequency of this anomaly is still greater than among
Peruvians (5.7 perfect cases against 5.4 in Peru).i In the
same way, the presence of a suture which divides into two,
more or less imperfectly, the malar bone (Fig. 23, b) appears
to be a special character of Ainu and Japanese crania;
Hilgendorf has even proposed to call the lower portion of the
malar bone thus formed os japonicum (Fig. 23, b, a). While
the suture is only met with 11 or 12 times in 100 in Mongolian
races, and 9 times in 1 00 in European races according to Ten
Kate,^ it is found from 25 to 40 times in 100 among Japanese
according to Doenitz.
It is well understood that in the description of crania the
alterations of form produced by all kinds of causes are taken
into account. (Such, for example, is the considerable asymmetry
or plagiocephaly due to a physiological cause, as the hyper-
trophy of the capacity of the skull, or its atrophy in the patho-
logical cases of hydrocephaly or tnkrocephafy, and so many other
ethnic deformations which will come up for treatment in
Chapter V., etc.)
The head of the living subject furnishes more numerous
characters than the skull, especially if the face be considered
with the play of feature. Sometimes an examination of the
face suffices to determine the race of the subject.
The measurements of the head are about fifty in number, but
they are not all of equal importance. Very few of them, indeed,
are really useful.
The chief of the angular measurements is the facial angle;
. great importance was formerly attached to it when prog-
nathism, or the degree of projection of the maxillary region,
^ Ten Kate, V Anthropologic, 1894, p. 617.
'^ Ten Kale, Zur Antliropologie der Mongoloiden, Berlin, 1882 (thesis).
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 69
was considered as a character of inferiority. In spite of the
numerous instruments invented (double square, Harmand's
instrument, Jacquard's goniometer, etc.), great precision in
these measurements is not attainable. The only angle which
can be taken with sufficient exactitude, thanks to the facial
medium goniometer of Broca, is Cuvier's angle, formed by a
line running either from the glabella or the point between the
eyebrows to the interval between the incisor teeth, and by
another line starting from the external auditory meatus towards
this interval. This angle enables us to estimate the total
prognathism and the alveolar prognathisin, but the variations
which it presents are too slight (3 to 4 degrees), taking race
with race, to constitute a distinctive character. Prognathism
of the lips, pushed forward to form the prominence of the
" muzzle," which gives so characteristic an expression to the
profile of certain Negroes or Australians (Fig. 15), is not
expressed by this measurement, and ordinarily cannot be
measured in any way.
Among the measurements of the cu-rve of the head the
principal are those of the horizontal circumference with its
anterior and posterior portions, the limits of which are found at
the supra-auricular point, that is to say, in the depression which
is found immediately in front of the spot where the helix of
the pinna of the ear is inserted. The value of this measure-
ment has also been exaggerated, it being said that men of
well-developed minds have the circumference greater than men
without intellectual culture. The comparative observations of
Broca made on house-surgeons and attendants of hospitals
seem to bear out the assertion ; but they have not been con-
firmed, and stature appears to have a decided relation with
the size of the head.
The measurements in a straight line are more numerous
and more important than those of angles and curves. Those
which give the anteroposterior diameter or maximum length
of the head (from the glabella to the most prominent point of
the occiput, as on the cranium) and the transverse maximum
diameter, are the first to note. We have already seen (p. 57)
70
THE RACES OF MAN.
that their centesimal relation constitutes what is called the
cephalic index. Let us note afterwards the total height of the
head (projection on a vertical plane), the maximum breadth
of the face (between the zygomatic arches) and the different
" lengths " of the facej the relation of which to the breadth
Fig. 1 6. —Japanese officer (old style), born at Toldo. Example of
elongated face. i,Phot. Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist., Paris.)
constitutes the facial index. The latter is far from expressing
the form of the face as well as does the cephalic index the
form of the head, on account of its irregularity,- and the want
of agreement between anthropologists with regard to the
"facial lengths." Nevertheless we distinguish according to
these measurements elongated faces or leptoprosopic (Ficr. i6),
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
71
short faces or chamcBprosopic (Fig. 17), and medium faces, meso-
or ortho-prosopic (Fig. 14).
Other measurements taken are 'Cc^t frontal minimum diameter
or minimum breadth of the forehead (between the temporal
Fig. 17. — Two men, Nagas of Manipiir. Examples of large faces with
prominent cheek-bones. {Phot. Miss Godden.)
ridges of the frontal bone, which makes a projection under the
skin); the distance between the inner angles or canthns of the
eyes is a good measurement, especially if it be compared with
the breadth of the nose, taken by just touching with the points of
72 THE RACES OF MAN.
the callipers the ate of the nose. Referred to the length of the
nose (between the root of the nose and the point of insertion of
the septum) reduced to loo it gives the nasal index, one of
the important characters in the classification of races. Among
several other measurements may be mentioned the hrcadlh of
the mouth between the commissure of the lips, the subject being
in repose; the length and the breadth oj the ears, etc. All these
measurements are taken either with callipers or with sliding
compasses, similar to those used by shoemakers or engineers,
or with special instruments.^
Measurements taken on the living subject can never be as
accurate as those obtained on the cranium; but, on the other
hand, they may be much more numerous, and the greater
number of observations compensates largely for individual
errors due to difficulties of the mode of operation. Further,
when measuring heads of living subjects, there is the advantage
of knowing sex, approximate age, and exact origin, while in
the case of one-half the crania examined, one or more of
these particulars maybe wanting. All these conditions suffi-
ciently explain why, in these latter days, the attention of
anthropologists is directed towards measurements of living
subjects, among which those of the head occupy the foremost
place.
Do the measurements of the head of the living subject corre-
spond to the measurements of the cranium ? Various researches
made with the object of elucidating this question leave it still
unsettled. It was believed at first, for instance, that the
bregma, or point of junction between the coronal and the
sagittal sutures in the cranium (Fig. 1 1, o), corresponded in the
head with the most prominent point of the line passing from
the supra-auricular point to another perpendicularly to the
horizontal plane ; but the very careful researches of Broca and
Ferre have shown that this point is always in front of the
bregma by a quantity which varies according to sex and indi-
' See P. Broca, Iiistrtic. gin., elc. ; Garson and Read, Notes and
Qiteries, elc; as well as P. Topinard, " Instrac. Anthrapometr. pour les
voyageiirs," Rev. cf Anthro., p. 397, Paris, 1885.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 73
vidual. The correspondence of the tovrbillon of the hair with
the lambda, or point of junction on the cranium of the sagittal
and occipital sutures (Fig. 1 1, f), has not either been clearly
demonstrated. The principal measurement, the cephalic index,
does not appear always to correspond on the cranium and on
the head of the living subject. A priori, the living head
should have the index a Httle higher than the cranium, the
muscles of the temporal region being thicker than those of the
supra-occipital and frontal region. However, experiments made
in connection with this subject are contradictory. According
to Broca, two units must be subtracted from the index taken
on the living subject in order to obtain the index on the
cranium ; this is also the opinion of Stieda and Houze and
a great number of anthropologists, while Mantegazza and
Weisbach advocate the reduction of the index by three units ;
and Virchow and Topinard do not admit any. In the face of
these divergent opinions, it is best to give the indices on the
cranium and the living subject separately as they are, and
indicate the rate of reduction or augmentation.
However, in a general way, one may admit, and I admit
in this book, the difference of two units between the indices
of the cranium and the living subject. In this way the two
may be compared by adding these two units to the index of
crania and removing them from the index of the living subject.
I have given (p. 57) the divisions of the cephalic index of
the cranium ; those of the living subject are the same with
the addition of two units.
We may now proceed to examine a little more closely the
principal measurements and the indices on the living subject
by beginning precisely with the cephalic index, which I
"believe to be, in spite of the recent criticisms of Sergi ^ and
Ehrenreich,^ one of the good characteristics of race, enabling
us to make some secondary partitions in the principal parti-
^ Sergi, Congr. inlernat. d'Arc/uol. etd'Anthr. prehist,, iilh sess.,
Moscow, 1893, vol. ii., p. 296.
2 Ehrenreich, Anthr. SHid. Urhewohner Brasiliens, chap, i., Briinswiclc,
1897.
74 THE RACES OF MAN.
tions of the genus Homo, based, as we shall see afterwards
(Chapter VIII.), on the colour of the skin and the nature of
the hair. Assuredly this index cannot express by itself alone
the true form of the head or the cranium, but it supplies very
clearly a first indication which gives a much better idea than
detailed description, useful, to be sure, but rendering the study
almost impossible when it is a question of comparing with one
another a great number of different types. On the other hand,
this index has such a fixity within the limits of any given race,
that it is difificult to conceive how it could be dispensed with.
The figures given by different authors when they rest on a suffi-
cient number of subjects agree so much among themselves as
to the cephalic index, that it is impossible to deny its fixity.
The recent researches of Conner^ on one hundred children of
Basel, far from weakening the assertion, as it would appear,
speak in its favour; made on only the new-born or children one
month old, they confirm what was already known, that the
cephalic index varies with age, and by no means contradict its
fixity. Ordinarily, at birth children appear to be more dolicho-
cephalic than the adults of their race, but from the first
month the head grows faster in breadth than in length; thus
at the end of the first month, according to Gonner, the head
is broadened in 52 children in 100, and remains stationary
in 9 per 100. My own researches lead me to believe
that the heads of children increase at first in breadth, to
arrive afterwards gradually at a definite form, which is
fixed about the age of ten, twelve, or fifteen years, according
to race.
If instead of comparing, as Gonner has done, children of one
month old with their parents, he had taken children from ten
years upwards, he would have arrived^ at the same results
as Spalikowski, who on forty-eight infants at Rouen found
forty-one of which the cranial form corresponded with their
parents. The researches of O. Ammon, Johansson and
' A. Conner, " Verevbung dcr Forme . . . des Scliadel.s," Zeils, fiir
Geburtshilfe und Gyn'akologie, 1895, vol. xxxiii., p. i.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 75
Westermarck, Miss Fawcett and Pearson, as well as my own
(yet unpublished), lead to the same result. i
The differences of the cephalic index according to sex are
insignificant. According to my personal researches, this
difference hardly exceeds on the average 0.7 in the living
subject and 1.5 in the cranium; and even this latter figure is
exaggerated. It may, in a general way, be admitted that the
difference between the cephahc index of men and women
hardly exceeds one unit — that is to say, the degree of
personal error in the observation. This difference is, in
any case, less than the discrepancies between the different
series of a single and homogeneous race.
In the table of the cephalic index which appears at the end
of this volume (Appendix II.), however, I have given only
the figures relating to men. A few series comprising in-
dividuals of both sexes appear there as exceptional cases. I
have taken care to mark these with a letter S. In this table will
be found side by side with indices taken on the living subjects
some taken on crania, but no series contains measurements of
crania and heads intermingled. The series of ten to twenty-
subjects or crania in the table appear there exceptionally, for
the only series furnishing figures really exact are those com-
prising more than twenty individuals.
An inspection of the table shows us that there is a certain
regularity in the distribution of the different cranial forms on
the surface of the earth.
Dolichocephaly is almost exclusively located in Melanesia,
in Australia, in India, and in Africa. Sub-dolichocephaly,
diffused in the two extreme regions, North and South, of
Europe, forms in Asia a zone round India (Indo-China, Anterior
Asia, China, Japan, etc.), but is met with only sporadically in
other parts of the world, especially in America. Mesocephaly
' Spalikowski, "Etudes d'anthropologie normande," Bull. Soc. amis
Sciences tial. Rouen, 1895, Nos. i and 2, p. 113; Amnion, loc. cif., p. 143 ;
Johansson, and F. Westermarck, Skandin. Arch. f. Physiol., vol. vii. ,
1897, p. 341; Miss Fawcelt and K. Pearson, Proc. Roy. Soc. London,
vol. 62, 1898, p. 413-
76 THE RACES OF MAN.
is frequent in Europe in the regions bordering on tlie sub-
dolichoceplialic countries, as well as in different parts of
Asia and America. Sub-brachycephaly, much diffused among
the Mongolians of Asia and . the populations of Eastern
Europe, is very rare elsewhere. Lastly, brachycephalic and
hyper-brachycephalic heads are almost exclusively limited to
Western and Central Europe, to some populations of Asia,
Tnrco-Mongols, Irano-Semites, and Thai-Malays.
Has the form of the head, so far as the cephalic index can
express it, an influence on the volume of the brain, and con-
sequently on its weight, and even perhaps on the mentality?
This question is subordinate to another, namely: To what
point is the weight of the brain the expression of the psychical
value of this organ? We shall see further, on p. lor, that the
weight can only be considered as a very rough approxima-
tion for the solution of psychological questions. But even in
recognising in the weight of the brain the exaggerated import-
ance that too long has been attributed to it, it may be said
that it is not in relation with the conformation of the skull.
The only investigation made into this matter — that of
Calori — restricted to the figures of adults (from 20 to 60
years) by Topinard,^ shows us that among Italian men the
brachycephalic have on an average 27 grammes of brain
more than the dolichocephalic, while among Italian women
it is the dolichocephalic who have the better of the brachy-
cephalic by 21 grammes. The differences in the two shapes
being so very trifling, one may consider one's self equally
intelligent whether dolichocephalic or brachycephalic.
Next to the form of the head, that of the face is of great
importance in recognising races. It may be more or less long
or broad, oval (Fig. 109), ellipsoidal (Fig. 136), or round
(Figs. 119, 164, and 169), with soft contours or very angular,
and then it may be found as an elongated rectangle (Fig. 121)
or a square (Fig. 124); it may approximate also to the
pentagonal form (Fig. 1 7), etc.
'Y\\t forehead may be broad or narrow, low or high, retreating
' Elein. Anthro. gin. , p. 567.
MOKPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. "JJ
(oblique, Fig. 21) or straight (Figs. 24 and 90), it may present
a medium protuberance, as for instance, among many Negro
tribes (Fig. 1 40), etc. Tlie superciliary arches may be absent
(Mongolian races) or very prominent, overhanging the eyes
(Australians, Fig. 15; Veddahs, Fig. 5).
The cheek-bones may be little developed (Europeans) or very
prominent (Mongolians, Figs. 17 and 20; Bushmen, Fig. 24,
etc.), but cheek-bones projecting forward must be distinguished
from those developed laterally. The chin may be pointed,
rounded, ■ square, projecting, retreating (Fig. 15), but these
variations are of little importance, and may be found in con-
junction with the most diverse forms of the face, while giving
to it its own character. The posterior angles of the lower
jaw may be more or less wide, and thus help to produce the
angular contour of the face; quadrangular in the case of the
square chin (Fig. 121), or with pentagonal contour in the case
of the pointed chin (Fig. 118).
The eyes furnish also some differences of form. We dis-
tinguish the ordinary eye, as in our countries, and the ollique
or narrowed Mongolian eye. The latter presented in its most
perfect form is characterised as follows. It is placed obliquely,
so that its external angle is higher than its inner angle (Fig.
121). This disposition is due to the too high attachment of
the external palpebral ligament to the skull, as Regalia has
shown.' Its palpebral aperture is much narrower than in the
ordinary eye, and instead of having the form of an almond, it
has rather that of a scalene triangle (Figs. 18 and 118) or of
a little fish whose head corresponds to the inner angle (Fig.
119). But these peculiarities are not the most important, and
may be met with, though rarely, in ordinary eyes. The
essential characters of the Mongolian eye consist, as Metch-
nikof^ has shown, in a pufKness of the upper eyelid, which
turns down at the inner angle of the narrowed eye, and,
instead of being free, as in the ordinary eye, is folded towards
' Regalia, " Orbita ed obliquita dell' occhio Mongolico," Archivio p.
Antr., vol. xviii., p. I, Florence, 1888.
'■^ E. Metchnikof, Zeitsch. f. Ethnol., p. 153, Berlin, 1874.
78 THE RACES OF MAN.
the eyeball, forming a fixed fold in front of the movable
ciliary edge; this last becomes invisible and the eyelashes are
scarcely seen. Moreover, towards the inner angle of the eye,
the eyelid forms a fold covering more or less the caruncula,
and sometimes extending more or less far below (Fig. 18).
These peculiarities, which can be met with quite often among
the children of all races as a transitory characteristic, may be
explained up to a certain point by the very small development
of the pilous system in general in people among whom they
persist. For among Europeans, for instance, the inversion of
the eyelid {entropion) may become a cause of disease (trichiasis)
precisely on account of the growth of the eyelashes.^
Fig. 18. — Eye of a joiing Kalmuk girl of Astrakhnn. Example
of Mongoloid eye {from nalure).
Sometimes this puffiness only extends to the outer part of
the eyelid ; we have thus a variety of the Mongolian eye,
with a palpebral triangular opening, very frequent among
the eastern Finns (Fig. 106) and the Turco-Tatar popula-
tions.
The nose, by the variety and the fixity of its forms, presents
one of the best characters for distinguishing races. We can
express by means of the nasal index of Broca its width
(measured by just touching the ate of the nose) in relation to
its length (from the root to the sub-nasal spine) supposed
= 100. This index varies in the proportion of one to three
' J. Denikev, " L'Etude sur les Kalmouks," Revue d'Anlhropologie, 2nd
sciios, vol. vi., p. 696, Paris, 1S83.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
79
(from 40 to 120), according to race. Among the platyrhinians,
the breadth of the nose exceeds 85 (Fig. 14); among the
leptorhinians, this breadth is less than 70 (Fig. 16); lastly,
among the mesorhinians, it oscillates between 70 and 85,
Fig. 19. — Welsh type of Montgomeryshire. Eyes and haii
dark. (Photo, and pmiiculars, Beddoe.)
according to the nomenclature of R. Collignon.i I give
in Appendix III. a table of the nasal indices of the prin-
cipal populations ; I have only introduced into it series of
' CoUignon, "La nomenclature quinaire de I'indice nasal," Rev.
d'Anlhropol, 3rd series, t. ii., p. 8, Paris, 1887.
8o THE RACES OF MAN.
more than ten individuals, whose measurements have been
taken according to the Broca-Collignon method, explained
above.i
Besides the general form of the nose given by the nasal
index, there remain a host of descriptive characters which
may be observed in this organ. It may be more or less
flattened (examples : Negroes, Melanesians, Mongolians), or
more or less prominent^ (Europeans, Jews, Arabs). Its profile
may be: (i) straight .and sometimes sinuous (examples:
Turco-Tatars, Europeans, Fig. 19); (2) concave (certain
Finns, Bushmen, Lapps, Australians, Fig. 15); (3) convex
and sometimes arched (American Indians, Semites, Fig. 21).
Each of these forms may be in combination with a fine, thick, .
or medium tip, and with a plane of the nostrils directed
upwards, downwards, or horizontally. A. Bertillon^ admits at.
least fifteen varieties of the forms of the nose. In the majority
of cases concave noses have the extremity thick, and the plane
of the nostrils directed upward (Figs. 9, 14, and 15); convex
noses, on the contrary, have most frequently the tip fine, and
the plane of the nostrils directed downward (Figs. 2r, T02,
103, and 134). But there are also convex noses with very
thick tips, for instance, among the Jews and the Iranians of
the Assyroid type (Fig. 22), or again, among, the Papuans and
the Melanesians (Fig. 53), as well as concave noses with fine
tips, for instance, among certain European races (Figs. 97, 104,
and 105). Broad noses are most frequently flattened (Figs.
14, 15, and 24), but the flattening may also extend to narrow
noses, as for example among the Mongols (Fig. 20). The
sunken, very depressed root of the nose is almost always
associated with a considerable prominence on the supraciliary
' German anthropologists take the measuvement of the breadth of the
nose, not level with the nostrils, but behind, at the point of their attachment
to the maxillary bone, compressing the soft parts.; the nasal indices thus
obtained are much too low, and not comparab'e to those which result from
the measurements taken according to the Broca-Collignon method.
- A. Bertillon, " Morphologie du Nez," Jfev d'Anthro., 3rd series,
vol. ii., 1887.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. gl
arches: examples, Australians, Fuegians, etc. (Figs. 14, 15,
and 48).
In a general way, as may be seen from the table, the lepto-
liiii'inifls'Viriiiiiii'i'i'
..'11,' I
Fin. 20. — Kalmuk of AsUakhan. Example of convex and (latlened
nose. {Phot. S, Soiiiniier.)
rhinians, who have for the most part the convex and straight
noses, with fine, straight, or turned-down tips, are met with
almost exclusively among Europeans, Eurasians, Armenians,
6
82
THE RACES OF MAN.
Caucasians, and Euiafricans (Arabo-Berbeis), as well as among
the inhabitants of anterior Asia. The mesorhinians, among
whom the form of the profile of the nose varies much, include
different populations of India, some American, Turco-Tatar,
and Mongol peoples. And lastly, the platyrhinians, having
most frequently the profile convex and the tip turned up.
Fig. 21. — Jew of Algiers. Example of convex and prominent nose.
(Phot. Coll. Mils. Hist. Nat., Paris.)
comprise the whole of the black populations of Africa,
Oceania, and India.
At birth and during early infancy the nose is most frequently
concave, with the tip turned up (Fig. 130); it only becomes
straight or convex in the adult ; in old age it has a tendency
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 83
to become convex with the tip turned down (Bertillon, Hoyer).
In the dead body it always takes the arched form. According
to Broca and Houzd, the nasal index has a tendency to get
lower — that is to say, the nose becomes relatively thinner as
the individual advances in age ; according to Hoyer, 1 the
contrary takes place.
The ears present few characteristic traits for distinguishing
races,2 but the same cannot be said of the lips. They are
thin in the so-called white races and among Mongols ; very
thick and protruding among the Negroes; somewhat thick
among Malays, Melanesians, etc. Their form contributes
Fig. 22. — Persian Hadjemi. Example of Assyroid nose.
{Authoi's Phot. Coll. )
much towards hiding or accentuating dental or alveolar
prognathism.
Skeleton oj the Trunk and Limbs. — The parts of the skeleton
other than the head furnish but few materials for characterising
' P. Broca, " Recher. sur I'ind. nas.," Rev. d'Anfhro., vol. i., Paris,
1872; Houze, " L'ind. nas, des Flamands et des Wallons," Bull. Soc.
Anthr., Bruxelles, vol. vii,, 1888-89; O. Hovorka, Die atissere Nase,
Wien, 1893; Hoyer, " Beitr. zur Anthr. der Nase," Schwalbe's Morph.
Arb., vol. iv., p. 151, 1894.
2 Schwalbe, " R. Virchow's Feftschrift, " 1891 ; E. Wilhelm, Rev. Biol,
dit nord de la France, Lille, 1892, No. 6.
84 THE RACES OF MAN.
races. We have already seen (p. 14) that the differences of
curvature in the vertebral cohimn according to race may be
explained by the mode of life. As to the other peculiarities
of the spine, — spinous processes split in the cervical vertebrss,i
narrow sacrum, etc., — all that can be said about them is that
they are more frequent among Negroes, and perhaps among
Melanesians, than among Whites.
The pelvis has more importance on account of its function
from the obstetrical point of view, and of its influence on the
general form of the bodyi..__IJnfortunately this part of the
skeleton has Tonly, been studied) in very inadequate series
among a dozeri'populations. ^subjoined is given: — ist, the
table of pelvic index — that is to say, the centesimal relation
between the maximum breadth of the pelvis (between the iliac
crests) and its height (from the top of the iliac crest to the
lowest point of the ischion), taking for our unit sometimes the
first of these measurements following Turner, sometimes the
second following Broca ; 2nd, the table of the index of the
inlet {pelvic or _ brim ifidex of English authors) — that is to
say, the relation of the antero-posterior diameter of this aperture
(from the middle of the promontory of the sacrum to the
pubic symphysis) to its maximum transverse diameter,
which, let us suppose, = loo.^ It will be remarked that
the tables, formed of series of five subjects at least, are
given in separate parts for men and for women, as the
sexual differences are very appreciable in the pelvis of all
races. In a general way the pelvis is broader and less high,
its slope more pronounced, in woman than in man. The iliac
fossa are wider in the former than in the latter ; the superior
inlet or brim is elliptical or reniform in woman, in the form
^ See the summing up of the question in Cunningham, "The Neural
^i^mn" Joiinial of Anal, and I'hysiol., vol. xx,, p. 637.
- Sec, for further details, Verneau, Le bassin dans les sexes, etc., Paris,
1S75; Turner, "Report Hum. SUelet.," Rep. of Challenger: Zoology, part
47 ; J. Garson, '• Pelvimetry," _/»«/-«. Anal. Physiol., vol. xvi., London,
October, 1881; Henning, " Rassenbecken," Arch, fiir Anthr., 18S5,
and Sitzungsh. Nalurforsch. Gesell., Leipzig, 1890-gi, p. i ; Marri,
Archivio per I'Antr., 1892, p 17.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 85
of a playing-card heart in man, etc. But, as may be seen by
our table, if these differences are very appreciable in certain
races, notably among AVhites and Negroes, they become less
and less among Melanesians, among whom the pelves of the
two sexes approximate nearly to the masculine type.
Has the form of the pelvis, and especially that of the inlet,
any relation to the form of the head of the foetus and of the
child ? Exact data for solving this question are wanting.
However, comparing from our tables the index of the superior
inlet and that of the cephalic index, it may be observed that,
in a general way, pelves with a large aperture are met with in
brachycephalic races, and pelves with a narrow aperture in
dolichocephalic races. But there are numerous exceptions :
I note at least four (English, Russian, Swedish mesocephal
and Malay women) in the meagre list of 12 series of women
that, with much difficulty, I have been able to draw up.
The form of the shoulder-blade varies little with race. The
scapular index — that is to say, the centesimal relation between
the breadth of the shoulder-blade and its length (measured
on the vertebral edge and taken as the unit of comparison) —
oscillates between 64.9 (Australians) and 70.2 (Andamanese).
In a list of 14 series of from 10 to 462 shoulder-blades
that I have drawn up from the works of Broca, Livon,
Turner, Topinard, Garson, Martin, Hyades, Sarasin, Hamy,
Koganei, and my own measurements, the populations are
arranged as follows : index from 64.9 to 66.6, Australians,
Europeans, Fuegians, Bushmen, Ainus, Peruvians, Polynesians;
indices from 67.2 to 70.2, Japanese, Veddahs, Hindu-Sikhs,
Malays, Negroes, Melanesians, Andamanese. This classifi-
cation suffices to show that the greater or less breadth of the
shoulder-blade has almost no value as a seriate character or
as a character of race. It is the same with the sub-spinal
index, which it has been proposed to add to the foregoing in
order to judge of the form of the shoulder-blade. ^
' On the index of the shoulder-blade see Broca, Bull. Soc. Anthr., 1878,
p. 66; Livon, De Vomoplate (thesis), Paris, 1879; Garson, /««;-«. Anat.
Physiol, vol. xiv., 1879-80, p. 13; Turner, loc. cit.
86
THE RACES OF MAN.
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MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 87
As to the skeleton of the limbs, here is a summary of what
can be said about it from the point of view which specially
concerns us now. In the thoracic limb the humerus presents
an interesting peculiarity: the perforations of the olecranon
cavity (which receives the extremity of the ulna) are very
frequent in prehistoric bones in Europe (10 to 27 times in
100), as well as in America (31 times).i
This perforation is met with more often among men than
women, perhaps because it is more especially connected
with the extent and frequent repetition of the movements
of flexion and extension. Here is its growing frequency in
the races from a list which I have drawn up with series
varying from 20 to 249 humeri : white population of the
United States (3.8 times in a hundred), French, Fuegians,
Ainus, Basques, Melanesians, Japanese, Negroes, Polynesians,
Mongolians, and American Indians (36.2 times in a hundred).
The torsion of the Aumerus^th&t is to say, the degree of
rotation of the lower part of this bone in relation to its
upper part, is a character of a certain seriate value; but
it is of no use in the differentiation of races. Besides,
the degree of torsion varies too much in the same race:
it is greater in woman than in man, in short than in
long humeri (Manouvrier, Martin, etc.). This torsion is
measured by the angle of torsion, which is taken either accord-
ing to Broca's method or Gegenbaur's. This is how the
different peoples are arranged according to the decreasing
figures of this angle (series of 10 humeri): according to Broca's
system: — Melanesians (angle of 141°), Guanches, Arabs or at
least Kabyles, Polynesians, Negroes, Peruvians, Californians,
Europeans, French (164°); according to Gegenbam-'s system: —
Ainus (149.5°), Fuegians, Veddahs, Japanese, Swiss, Germans
' It has been thought that this frequency was due to the facihty with
which the thin lamella in question forming the bottom of the cavity can be
destroyed after prolonged interment. However, there are prehistoric
burial-places, as, for example, certain long barrows of Great Britain, in
which not a single perforated humerus in a series of from ten to thirty
bones has been found.
88
THE RACES OF MAN.
(i68°). Until further discoveries are made, a single fact
becomes prominent from the examination of this character —
that is, that the torsion appears to be greater in white
races than in black and yellow. In the ulna Collignon has
noted a special incurvation in certain prehistoric bones.
Fig. 23. —A, Skull wilh Iiica Bone, li; B, Malar Bone divided in two
(a, OS Japonicum); C, superior part of femur with third trochanter
(3), and the hypo-trochanteric fossa {x); i and 2, normal tro-
chanters.
In the femur one peculiarity has especially attracted the
attention of anthropologists in recent times ; it is the more or
less frequent presence of the third trochanter (Fig. 23, C 3), or
tuberosity situated between the great (ibid., i) and the lesser
(ibid., 2) trochanter on the offshoot from the litiea aspera which
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
89
furnishes a point of attachment to the lower part of the gluteus
maximus. This projection, pointed out and studied for the
first time by Houzd,^ appears in infancy as a special centre of
ossification analogous to those of the other diaphyses (Torok,
Deniker, Dixon), and so does not seem to depend on
the greater or less development of the gluteus maximus
(Bertaux).^ The third trochanter is almost always accom-
panied by a hypotrochanteric fossa (Fig. 23, C).
Here is the frequency with which the third trochanter occurs
according to a list which I have compiled : —
Number
Frequency
of
Femurs.
Populations.
per 100
of the Srd
trochanter.
Observers.
42
Belgians and P'rench of the Reindeer
Period
13
Houz^
28
Negroes
21
Houze, Costa
68
Ainus
26.5
\ ICoganei
73
Japanese
28.8
67
Inhabitants of Brussels
302
Houze
102
Italians
30-4
Costa
S4
Hungarians
36.1
Torok
no
Belgians and French of the Polished
Stone Period ...
38
Houze
76
Fuegians
64-3
Hyad., Denik.,
Martin, Costa
Two points will be observed in this table, the rarity of the
third trochanter among Negroes, and its excessive frequency
among the Fuegians. The wom_en of the latter have also the
hypochanteric fossa 80 times in a 100 (out of 76 femurs
examined) ; it almost forms then, like the third trochanter, a
character of race.
^ Houze " Le 3^ trochanter," Bull. Soc. Anthr., Brussels, 1883.
^ See the summary of the question by Dvvight in Joiirn. of Anat.
Physiol, vol. xxiv., pt. i., London, 1S89, p. 61 ; also that by Costa, in
Archivio ter V Antr., vol. xx. , 1890, p. 280; and by Poirier in his Traiti
(T Anatomic, vol. i., p. 221, Paris, 1890.
90 THE RACES OF MAN.
In the tibia attention has been called to platycnemia —
that is to say, the transversal flattening in the upper third of
the diaphysis of the bone, so that its posterior side becomes
transformed into a border. It has been supposed that this
form is a reversion towards the simian type, but Manouvrieri
has shown that platycnemia never attains in the anthropoid
apes the degree which it presents in the human race, where
it is due especially to the development of the tibialis posticus
muscle which plays a great part in the maintenance of the
upright position, and in the movements of walking and
running. The degree of platycnemia may thus vary according
to the more or less sedentary or wandering habits of the
different populations.
The retroversion of the head of the tibia — that is to say, the
slope of the articular surface of it behind — pointed out and
described for the first time by Collignon in prehistoric tibias,
is also not a simian character. According to Manouvrier,^
it is often met with among Parisians in a degree superior to
that exhibited by anthropoid apes. This retroversion, generally
associated with platycnemia, is connected with the half-bending
attitude of the lower limb in the manner of walking which
is called the bending gait, common among peasants, and
especially mountaineers. The retroversion is more marked
in the tibia of the new-born child than in that of the adult,
and this appears to have a connection with the permanent
bending of the knee during intra-uterine life.
The length of the bones of the pelvic and thoracic limbs
varies according to race, but it is difficult to establish the
degree of these variations, owing to the small number of
observations made. Besides, we can more profitably sub-
stitute for measurements of limbs on the skeleton those of the
living subject; in the latter case we can at least relate all the
measurements to the true height of the subject, whilst the
height is never exactly known from the skeleton.
However, the measurements of the long bones have their
^ Manouvrier, Mimoires Soc. Anihr., 2nd ser., vol. iii., Paris, r888.
2 Ibid., vol. iv., 1890.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 9I
importance, for they permit us to reconstitute approximately,
as we have already seen (p. 33), the height of subjects of
which we have only the bones, as is the case of all populations
that have preceded us.
It is for this reason that I give the following figures derived
from nine series of from five to seventy-two skeletons. The
length of the humerus represents from 19.5 (Polynesians) to
20.7 per cent. (Europeans) of the height of the skeleton; that
of the radius from 14.3 (Europeans) to 15.7 (Negroes); that
of the femur from 26.9 (South Americans) to 27.9 (New
Caledonians); lastly, the length of the tibia represents from
-21.5 (Esthonians) to 23.8 per cent. (New Caledonians) of
the height of the skeleton. Thus the differences are insig-
nificant, and the variations between race and race do not
extend beyond the limits of a unit and a half for each of the
bones.
The length of the radius in relation to the humerus (= 100)
exhibits variations a little more appreciable. It is 72.5 among
Europeans, 76 among New Caledonians, 79 among Negroes,
79.7 among Veddahs, 80.6 among Fuegians, 81.7 among
Andamanese. Let us note that the forearm, relatively to
the arm, is much longer in the fcetus in the first stages of
development and in early infancy than in the adult j^ it is
shortened in proportion to the height as the foetus and the
infant grow.
Proportions of the Body in the Living Subject. — In spite of the
quantity of material accumulated, we have not been able up to
the present to make any use of the differences which these
proportions exhibit according to race. The reason is that
these differences are very trifling. In order to understand
this proposition better I will give by way of illustration the
proportions which we may consider as nearly normal in a
European of average stature (im. 65, or 5 ft. 5 ins.). Topinard
established thus the principal proportions of the European,^
assuming the height = 100.
I'Haray, Rev. d'Anlhrop., 1872, p. 79.
2 Topinard, L'hontme dans la Nature, p. 126.
THE RACES OF MAN.
Head . . . . . 13
Trunk and neck ... . 35
(32.7 without neck.)
Thoracic limb ..... 45
Arm . ... . . 19. 5
Forearm .,....,. 14
Hand . . 11.5
Abdominal limb . .... 47.5
(from the ischialic plane to the ground.)
Foot 15
Span of arms (middle finger of one hand to
middle (inger of the other) . . . 104.4
The proportions in the different populations of the earth
oscillate round these figures without diverging from them
more than three units, or five at most. Thus, for example,
the proportions of the height of the head vary between 11.4
and 15, according to Rojdestvensky ; '^ the proportions of the
trunk without the neck from 32.6 to 32.8, according to
Topinard, etc.
The length of the thoracic limb scarcely varies more than
between 42.6 and 47.6, according to the lists of sixteen and
twenty-seven series published by Ivanovsky and Topinard,^ and
according to a third list of twenty-four series that I have drawn
up. We can count on the fingers the populations in which
the proportion for the hand exceeds the figure 1 1 with its
decimals or sinks below it ; it is the same in regard to the
foot, of which the figure 15 with its decimals is rarely exceeded
or is not reached.^ The variations of length for the ab-
dominal limb do not extend further than from 45.1 to 49.2
(Topinard), etc.
The thoracic perimeter exceeds half the height in all
adult populations of the world, except perhaps some groups
^ Rojdestvensky, "Proportions of the Head," Btill. Soc. Friends of
Nat. Sc, vol. xc, part I, Moscow, 1895 (in Russian).
^ Ivanovsky, "Mongols, etc.," JiiiU. Soc. Friends of Nal. Sc, vol.
Ixxi., Moscow, 1893 (in Russian) ; Topinard, Eleiii. Antliro. ghihale,
p. 1076.
■' See Ivanovsky, loc. cit., p. 257; Topinard, loc. cit., p. 1089.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 93
of Georgian Svanes and Jews, or other populations which
happen to be in bad hygienic conditions.
Thus proportions of the hmbs are not good characters of race.
Besides, certain dimensions (length of limbs, of the head) are
always dependent on height. Thus individuals and races of
high stature have the face and abdominal limb a little more
elongated than individuals and races of short stature. On the
other hand, individuals and races of short stature have in
general the head larger, the trunk shorter, and the thoracic
perimeter relatively more considerable than individuals and
races of high stature, but the differences are very trifling as a
general rule.
Trunk and Limbs of t?ie Living. — To complete our study on
the living subject, let us again note some peculiarities. The
neck- is ordinarily long and thin among Negroes, Ethiopians
(Figs. 9 and 138), and on the contrary short among the
majority of the American Indians (Figs. 163 and 169); the
shoulders are very broad among the women of the latter
(Fig. 165), and very narrow among the Chechen and Lesghi
women. Usually the long neck is associated with a form of
trunk like an inverted pyramid and a high stature, while the
short neck surmounts a cylindrical trunk and is associated
with a low stature. Ensellure — that is to say, the strongly
marked curve of the dorso-lumbo-sacral region — is especially
marked among Spanish women whose lumbar incurvation is
such, and the movements of the lumbar vertebrae so ex-
tensive, that they are able to throw themselves backwards so
as even to touch the ground (Duchenne of Boulogne).
Ensellure is also more marked among Negroes than among
Whites. It must be noted that it may also be merely a conse-
quence of abdominal obesit)', pregnancy, or steaiopygia.
By the last-mentioned term is designated excessive projec-
tion of the buttocks due to the accumulation of subcutaneous
fat (Fig- 24); these are physiological fatty tumours proceeding
from the hypertrophy of the adipose tissue more or less abundant
in these regions among all races, and analogous to the fatty
tumours of the cheeks of the orangutan, which are simply
94
THE RACES OF MAN.
Fir„ 24.— Hottentot woman of
Griqiialand (Cape Colony) ; 35
years; height, 4ft. Sins.; cephalic
index, 76.4. Example o/steato-
pygia. {Photo. Prince Roland
Bonaparte. )
Bichat's fatty balls existing
among men and among the
anthropoids,'^ only excessively de-
veloped. As in those tumours,
the fat of the steatopygous
masses does not even disappear
after disease which has emaciated
the rest of the body. Steato-
pygia is characteristic of the
Bushman race; it is only met
with in all its characters (altera-
tion of form on the lateral
and anterior sides of the thighs;
persistence even in emaciation,
etc.) among populations into the
composition of which enters the
Bushman element : Hottentots
(Fig. 24), Nama, etc. The cases
of steatopygia observed among
other Wolof or Somali women,
for example, are only the exag-
geration of adipose deposit
among the muscular fibres, as
with Europeans, not of the sub-
cutaneous adipose layer. Steato-
pygia is especially marked in the
Bushman woman, in whom it
commences to develop only from
the age of puberty; but it exists
also, though in a less degree,
in the male of that race (Fig.
143)-
We cannot enlarge on other
exterior characters : on the form
of the trunk and of the limbs;
on the leg with poorly de-
' Deniker and Boulart, loc. cit., p. 53.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 95
veloped calf, and the foot with the prominent heel which
is observed among certain Negroes (but not among all) ;
on the more or less diverging big toe which is remarked
among the majority of the peoples of India, Indo-China,
and the insular world dependent on Asia, from Sumatra to
Japan, etc.
Two words, however, on the subject of the pretended exist-
ence of races of me7i with tails. We must relegate to the
domain of fable the cases of this kind which are announced
from time to time in publications for the popularisation of
science so called. The costumes of certain populations have
given rise to the fable of men with tails (see frontispiece).
Isolated cases of men having as an anomaly a caudal excres-
cence more or less long, free, or united to the trunk, are known
to science, and numbers have been described, but no single
serious description has ever been given of populations with
tails.i Quite recently, again, Lartschneider has demonstrated
that the ilio-coccygian and pubio-coccygian muscles in mammi-
fera have lost in man their character of symmetrical and paired
skeleton muscles, and are driven back towards the interior of
the pelvis as single unpaired muscle plates (fibres of the levator
ani). Primitive man has never had a caudal appendage since
he acquired the biped attitude ; the disappearance of the tail
is even one of the indispensable conditions of that attitude.^
The different internal or external organs of man afford
also some special characters, though not very numerous, for
differentiating race.
The muscular system, little known outside white races, has,
up to the present, not given any important indication on this
point. At the very outside, we can say, thanks to the works of
Chudzinsky, Le Double, Macalister, Popovsky, Testut, Turner,
etc., and the Committee of the Anatomical Society of Great
Britain and Ireland, that certain muscular anomalies are more
frequent in the Negro than in the White, and that the muscles
' M. Bartels, Arch. f. Anthr., vol. xiii., 1880, p. i.
^ Lartschneider, "Die Steissbeinimiskein, etc.," Denkschr. K. Akad.
Wiss. Wien. ma/, nal. ia.,\o\. Ixii., 1895.
g6 THE RACES OF MAN.
of the face are less differentiated in the former than in the
latter.i In the splanchnic system some differences have also
been observed between the White and the Negro, notably the
excessive volume of the liver, the spleen, the suprarenal-cap-
sules, and, in general, the hypertrophy of all the organs of
excretion in the latter compared with the former. The venous
system appears also to be more developed in the Negro than in
the White. Somewhat notable differences must certainly be
observable in the structure and general conformation of the
organs of the voice and of speech — tongue, larynx, lungs. But
our knowledge on this subject is still very imperfect. Attention
has been drawn to the feeble development of the anterior
fibres of the stylo -glossal muscle of the tongue, the greater
development of the Wrisberg cartilage of the larynx with the
muscles stronger in the Negro than in the White,^ but nothing
is known abput the larynx of other races.
There is nothing, even to the bony parts of the vocal
apparatus, which does not undergo ethnic variations. Thus
the larger cornua of the hyoid bone are not attached to the body
of it in 75 to 95 per cent, of cases observed among the Indians
of America, whilst the same anomaly is met with in only
25 to 35 per cent, of cases among Europeans, and only in 30
per cent, among Negroes, which probably harmonises with the
differences in the production of sounds in the language of each
of these peoples.^
The genital organs also present some differences according
to race, but rather in the dimensions of the various parts than
in their form. The only peculiarity worth notice is the
exaggerated development of the labia minora among the Bush-
man women, known under the name of "apron." This
peculiarity, which appears from infancy, is met with only
' See on this subjcci, Lc Douljle, Traite des variations du Syst. muse,
de riiotniiie, 2 vols , Taris, 1S97 ; and Testul, Anoinalies nmsciit., Pari.s,
1884.
- Hovelacquc and Hevve, Prais d'Anttiro., p. 301. Paris, 1SS7.
" Ten Kate, " Sur quelques points d'osteologie ethnique," Revista del
Miiseo de La Ptata, vol. vii , 1896, p. 263.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 97
among the Bushman race and the people into whose com-
position enters the Bushman element— Hottentots, Nama,
Griqua, etc.i
The breasts of women may also present variations of
form. Ploss ^ classes them under four heads according to
their height, which is inferior, equal, or more or less superior
to the diameter of their base ; we have thus mamm» like
a bowl or the segment of a globe, hemispherical, conical, and
pyriform. These forms may be found in combination with
a more or less extended and prominent areola, and with a
nipple which may be discoidal, hemispherical, digitiform, etc.
It is especially among Negresses that we meet with conical
and pyriform mammae, and digitiform nipples, while maraniEe
shaped like the segment of a sphere predominate among Mon-
golian and European women of the fair race; women of the
south-east of Europe and hither Asia have for the most part
hemispherical breasts.
Among the internal organs, the brain, or better, the ence-
phalon, deserves a little more attention. I have already
said with regard to cranial capacity (p. 56) that appreciable
differences have been observed in the volume of the brain-case
according to age, sex, and race. This difference is in har-
mony with irregularity in the volume and consequently in
the weight of the brain. At birth, European boys have 334
grammes of brain on an average, girls 287 grammes. This
quantity increases rapidly up to 20 years of age, remains
almost stationary between 20 and 40 or 45, then begins to
decrease, slowly at first, until 60 years, then more rapidly.
Let me also add that the weight of the encephalon varies
enormously according to individuals. Topinard ^ in a series
of 519 Europeans, men of the lower and middle classes, found
that variations in weight extended from 1025 grammes to 1675
' R. Blanchard, "Observations sur le tablier . . . d'apres Peron et
Lesueiir,'' Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1883, with Figs.
^ H. Floss, Das Weib, Sth edit., by Max Bartels, vol. i. Leipzig,
1897-
^ Topinard, Vhotnme dans la Nature, p, 215.
7
98 THE RACES OF MAN.
grammes. The average weight of the brain among adult
Europeans (20 to 60 years) has been fixed by Topinard, from
an examination of 11,000 specimens weighed, at 1361 grammes
for man, 1290 grammes for woman. It has been asserted that
the other races have a lighter brain, but the fact has not been
estabhshed by a sufficient number of examples. In reality
all that can be put against the 11,000 brain-weighings men-
tioned above concerning the cerebral weights of non-Euro-
pean races, amounts to nothing, or almost nothing. The
fullest series that Topinard ^ has succeeded in making, that
of Negroes, comprises only 190 brains; that of Annamese,
which comes immediately after, contains only 18 brains. And
what do the figures of these series teach us ? The first series,
dealing with Negroes, gives a mean weight not much different
from that of Europeans — 1316 grammes for adult males of
from 20 to 60 years; and the second, dealing with the
Annamese, a mean weight of 1341 grammes, almost identical
with that of Europeans. For other populations we have only the
weight of isolated brains, or of series of three, four, or at most
eleven specimens, absolutely insufficient for any conclusions
whatever to be drawn, seeing that individual variations are as
great in exotic races as among Europeans, to judge by Negroes
(1013 to 1587 grammes) and by Annamese (from 1145 '°
1450 grammes). Even in the great series of Europeans, sur-
prises await us in comparing the figures. Thus Peacock found
an average of 1388 grammes for the English from a series of
28 brains, whilst Boyd finds 1354 grammes from a series of
425 brains. The difiference (34 grammes) is greater here than
between the brains of Annamese and Europeans, and hardly
less than that which we have just found between Negroes and
Europeans (45 grammes). For the French the figures are
more in agreement. Broca found from the weights of 167
brains an average of 1359 grammes, and Bischoff'^ from 50
brains an average of 1381 grammes; difiference, 22 grammes.
^ Topinard, E/ein. cVAnthrop. geiu'r., p. 571.
^ According to the same aiUlior, the average weight of the brain of 364
Bavarians is 1372 grammes.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 99
Not having at our disposal sufficient data for the weight,
let us see if the cranial capacity could not supply them, for
we know, since the investigations of Manouvrier.^ that we have
just to multiply by the co-efficient 0.87 the capacity of the
cranial cavity to get with reasonable exactitude the weight of
the brain which it contained. This is what we learn from
the figures of cranial capacity brought together by Topinard,^
after the necessary corrections, and reduction to cubic measure-
ment by the system of Broca : among Europeans the measure-
ment is 1565 c.c. on an average for men, varying from 1530 c.c.
(22 Dutch) to i6or c.c. (43 Finns). We have in various series
the following succession of cranial capacities for the popula-
tions of the other parts of the world: the greatest is contained
in a series of 26 Eskimo (1583 c.c), the least that of 36
Australians (1349 c.c.) and of 11 Andamanese (1310 c.c).
Between these two extremes the other populations would be
thus arranged in a decreasing order of capacity : 36 Poly-
nesians (rS25 c.c), 18 Javanese (1500 c.c), 32 Mongols (1504
c.c), 23 Melanesians (1460 c.c), 74 Negroes (1441 c.c), and
17 Dravidians of Southern India (1353 c.c).
The difference between the highest and lowest of these
figures is 255 c.c, a little greater than that which is shown
between man and woman in all races. On the other hand,
Manouvrier' gives the following weights, deduced from
cranial capacities: 187 modern Parisians, 1357 grammes; 61
Basques, 1360 grammes; 31 Negroes, r238 grammes; 23 New
Caledonians, 1270 grammes; no Polynesians, 1380 grammes;
and 50 Bengalis, 1184 grammes; the difference of the two
extremes is 196 grammes. Must we then see in these
differences the influence of stature and bulk of body, as
• Manouvrier, "De la quanlite dans I'encephale,'' Mem. Soc. Anthr.,
2nd ser., vol. iii. , p. 162. Paris, 1888.
2 Elem. Anthr. gen., pp. 61 r et seq. The figures are drawn from the
series of Broca and Flower, the latter being augmented by 64 c.c. (the
mean difference established by Topinard and Garson between the two
systems of determining cranial capacity).
^ Article "Cerveau," in the Diet, de Physiol, of Ch. Richet, vol. ii.,
part 3, p. 687. Paris, 1897.
100 THE RACES OF MAN.>
appears unquestionable in the sexual difference ? We are
tempted to believe it when we see that the mean weight
of the largest brain in Europe has been found among the
Scotch (141 7 grammes, an average obtained by Reid and
Peacock from 157 brains), whose stature is the highest of the
human family, and that the mean weight of the Italians, whose
average stature is rather small, is only 1308 grammes (from
244. cases weighed by Calori). The Polynesians and the Cau-
casians,' peoples of high stature, also outweigh the Anda-
raanese and the Javanese, of very low stature. However, we
see (from weights and cranial capacity) that Negro populations
of very high stature, also Australians and New Caledonians of
medium stature, have the cerebral weight much smaller than
the Eskimo and certain Asiatics of low stature, like the
Javanese.
There is here a double influence, that of stature and that of
race. We might have introduced a third element — the weight
of the body, but it represents too many different things, and
may vary according to the degree of stoutness of the indi-
vidual, the dietary, regimen, etc. C. Voit found, when
operating on two dogs of nearly equal bulk, that the weight
of the brain of the well-fed dog represented i.i per cent, of
the weight of its body, whilst the brain of the dog which had
fasted for twenty-two days represented 1.7 per cent, of the
weight of the body.^ At all events, we cannot deny the
influence of the bulk of the active parts of the body on the
volume of the brain.' But then a new question arises. Is
' "11 Ossetes, 1465 grammes; 15 Ingush-Chechen, 1454 grammes; 11
Georgian.s, 1350 grammes; but 12 Amenians of medium height of
1634 mm. give 1369 grammes for the brain." — Gilchenlto, Congr. Intern.
Atch. prihis., vol. i., p. 183, Moscow, 1892,
^ C. Voit, " Gevvichte A. Organc," Zeitsch. fiir Biologic, 1894, p. 510.
•' Manouvrier has demonstrated (Diet. Pliys., p. 688), worliing on three
series of from 54 to 58 Frenchmen, tliat individuals of low stature have a
lighter brain (1329 grammes) than those of high stature {1398 grammes) ;
two series of women (23 and 27 individuals) yielded a similar result (1198
grammes for the low-statured, and 1218 for the tall). A series of 44
distinguished men of all nations and all statures gave a mean weight of
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. lOl
the increase of the volume of the brain made at the cost of the
white substance formed solely of condiicting-fibres, or of the
grey substance formed principally of cells with their prolonga-
tions (neurons), that is to say, of the part which is exclusively
affected by the psychic processes? This question still
waits its solution. It is not the gross weight of the brain,
but really the weight of the cortical layer which should be
compared in the different races and subjects, in order
to judge of the quantity of substance devoted to the
psychic functions in each particular case.i Before the very
delicate weighings of this kind are made, we have a round-
about method of ascertaining the quantity of that substance
by the superficial area which it occupies. The cerebral
cortex, composed of the grey substance, forms on the
surface of the brain sinuous folds called cerebral cotivolutions.
Now, in brains of equal volume, the greater the surface of
the cortex, the more numerous, sinuous, and complicated
will be these folds. As the thickness of the grey layer is
very much the same in all brains, it is evident that the
complexity in the structure of the convolutions corresponds
to the increase of the grey substance, and consequently of the
psychic force. Now, the little that is known of the cerebral
1430 grammes — that is to say, exceeding that of the French of high stature
and the Scotch. From this may be drawn the conchision that intelligence
causes an increase in the weight of the brain independently of the stature.
Here, by way of documents, are several dataof this interesting series. The
minimum of this series belongs to the anatomist DblHnger, who died at
the age of seventy-one (1207 grammes), the maximum to the novelist
Thackeray, who died at the age of fifty-three (1644 grammes). Between
these two extremes are inserted, Harless (1238 grammes), Gambetta
(1294 grammes), Liebig (1352 grammes), Bischoff (1452 grammes), Broca
(1485 grammes). Gauss (1492 grammes), Agassiz (1512 grammes), and
DeMorny (1520 grammes), to mention only the best known names ranging
between these extremes. M. Manouvrier has excluded from this series
exceptionally heavy brains, like those of Schiller {1781 grammes), of Cuvier
(1829 grammes), of Tourgenieff (2012 grammes), and lastly of Byron (2238
grammes).
^ According to Danilevsky and Dr. Regibus, the weight of the grey sub-
stance represents 37 or 38 per cent, of the total weight of the brain.
102
THE RACES OF MAN.
convolutions in different races, and of various subjects in
the same race, appears to conform to this deduction. The
brains of idiots, of the weak-minded, present very simple con-
volutions, almost comparable to those of the anthropoid apes,
whose brain is like a simplified diagram of the human brain.
On the other hand, distinguished personages, great scholars,
orators, men of action, exhibit a complexity, sometimes truly
remarkable, of certain convolutions. I say expressly certain
Fig. 25. — Brain wilh indication of the three "centres of projection" (2,
general sensibility; 4, visual; 6, auditory) and the three "centres of
association" (i, frontal; 3, parietal ; 5, occipito-temporal); i, fissure
of Rolando; 7, Island of Reil. (After Fkchsig.)
convolutions, for all these folds, arranged according to a
certain plan, common to all men, have not the same value
from the physiological point of view. In the grey layer
of certain of them are the centres of motor impulses,
and of the general sensibility of the body (for example,
those which are arranged around the fissure of Rolando,
MORiniOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. I03
Fig. 25, 2, 2), and only regulate the voluntary movements
of the hmbs, the trunk and the head; others are con-
nected with different forms of sensibility — visual (Fig. 25,
4), auditory (Fig. 25, 6), gustatory, olfactory, etc. But there
are, between the different motor or sensorial regions (centres
of projection) which take nearly a third of the grey substance
of the brain, a great many more convolutions the grey sub-
stance of which is connected with no special function (white
spots in Fig. 25). What is their purpose? Basing his opinion
on the tardy myelinisation 1 of the nerve-fibres which terminate
in it, subsequent to the birth of the individual and to the
myelinisation of the fibres of the sensory and motor centres,
Flechsig^ supposes that these convolutions were designed to
enable the different cerebral centres to communicate with each
other and to render us conscious of this communication ;
therefore he has named their grey substance ''centres of asso-
ciation" (Fig. 25, I, 3, 5). Without the convolutions, the
other centres would remain isolated and condemned to a very
restricted activity. Now, as the eminent anatomist Turner^
has shown so clearly, it is found that the convolutions of the
sensory and motor centres do not present any great differences
in the brain of a child, a monkey, a Bushman, or of a Euro-
pean man of science, like Gauss ; what differentiates these
brains is the degree of complexity of the convolutions
concerned with association. There, then, is the part of
the brain which we want to utilise for the purpose of com-
parison, reduced by almost a third. But let us suppose that
differences of volume and weight are found in these two-
thirds of the grey substance. Have we more reason to
think that we are approaching the solution of the problem ?
' Every nerve-fibre of the adult is composed of an axis-cylinder which
communicates with the nerve-cells and with a niyeline sheath formed
around it. In the course of the development of the embryo this sheath
appears after tlie formation of the axis-cylinder.
' Flechsig, Gehirn und Seele, and ed., Leipzig, 1S96; Die Localization
der geistigen Vorgdnge, Leipzig, 1896.
2 Sir W. Turner, Opening Address at the British Association, Toronto,
1897, Nature, 2nd Sept. 1897.
104 THE RACES OF MAN.
It is believed that certain cells of the grey substance only,
the great and the little pyramidal-shaped cells, are associated
with the psychical functions, and that each of these, forming
with its axis-cylinder, dendrons and other branching prolonga-
tions what is called a neuron, is not in constant connection
with, and does not occupy a fixed position once for all in •
regard to, other similar neurons, but may by means of its
prolongations place itself alternately in contact with a great
number of these.^ Hence the complexity of the nervous
currents resulting from these continual changes of contact.
Thus the cerebral activity might not merely be measured by
the quantity and the size of the cells of the grey substance,
but also by the number and the variety of the habitual contacts
which are probably established after an education, a training
of the cells. As from the same number of keys of a piano
the tyro can produce only a few dissimilar sounds, while an
artist elicits varied melodies, so from cerebral cells practically
equal in number a savage is only able to extract vague and
rudimentary ideas, while a thinker brings out of them intel-
lectual treasures. How far are we, then, from the true appre-
ciation of cerebral work with our rude weighings of an organ
in which, with one part that would assuredly help us to the
solution of the problem, we weigh at least three other parts
having nothing or almost nothing to do with it ! And even
if we succeeded in finding the number, the weight, and the
volume of the neurons, how are we to estimate the innumer-
able combinations of which they are capable? The problem
appears almost insoluble. However, in science we must
never lose hope, and — who knows? — perhaps some day the
solution of the question will be found, and it will then
appear as simple as to-day it appears a matter of course to see
through the body with radioscopical apparatus.
^ See the summary of the question in Ramon y Cajal, Noiiv. idees struct,
syst. nervaix, French trans., Paris, 1894; also Donaldson, Growth of the
Brain, ch. vii. , 1895.
CHAPTER III.
2. PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
Fimclioiis of nutrition and asuinilation : Digestion, alimentation, growth,
temperature of the body, eXz.— Respiration and circulation : Pulse,
composition of the blood, etc. — Special odour — Functions of com-
munication : E.xpression of the emotions, acuteness of the senses,
etc. — Functions of reproduction : Menstruation, menopause, increase
in the number of conceptions according to season, etc. — Infliience of
environment: Acclimatation— Cosmopolitanism of the genus Homo
and the races of mankind — Cross-breeding.
3. — PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
Difficulties of studying them — Immunities — Nervous diseases of uncivilised
peoples..
2. PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
The differences observable in the fulfilment of the organic
functions — nutrition, respiration, circulation of the blood,
reproduction, etc. — according to race are unquestionable ;
but they are still too little studied for us to be able to speak
with as much certainty of them as of morphological differences.
Further, these functions exhibit so many individual variations
that it will always be difficult to rely on averages; besides, the
latter present as far as we know a great uniformity.
The functions of nutrition and assimilation scarcely present
any varieties according to race. Indigent populations living
from hand to mouth by hunting, fishing, the gathering of
fruit, etc., exposed to the alternations of famine and plenty,
surprise us by their faculty of absorbing a great quantity of
food; thus the Eskimo and the Fuegians feed for several days
running on a stranded whale. The tendency to obesity is
lOS
Io6 THE RACES OF MAN.
observed in certain races more than in others; very frequent
among the Kirghiz, it is rare among their neighbours the Kal-
mulcs, etc. The early obesity of Jewish women, which is
besides artificially fostered in Africa and in the East, is also to
be noted. Growth in different races would prove of some
interest, but investigations into this subject have been made
only in Europe and America.^ Great difficulties stand in the
way of these inquiries among uncivilised peoples, as it is
almost impossible to ascertain the exact age of individuals.
In a general way stature and weight increase with age some-
what irregularly, and as if by fits and starts; almost always
a period of rapid growth in height succeeds a period of calm,
during which the dimensions of the body increase in width
(shoulders, pelvis, etc.). It has also been remarked that
growth in height is especially rapid from the month of April
to July and August, that it diminishes from November to
March ; and that, lastly, weight increases especially from
August-September to the end of November. Sexual differ-
ences make themselves felt from birth. We have already
seen (p. 26) that at birth the stature of boys exceeds that
of girls by a figure which varies from two to eight millimetres
(.08 to .32 of an inch), let us say of half a centimetre (less
than the quarter of an inch) on an average. During the first
year stature increases very rapidly: the child a year old is one
and a half times as tall as at birth. The increase is less rapid
until the fourth year, when the height is double what it was at
birth. From the fourth year the growth is a little slower till the
age of puberty, when there is a fresh start, and when the sexual
differences are especially marked; girls grow more rapidly
than boys between ten and fifteen years of age, but after fifteen
boys take the lead and grow at first quickly, then slowly till their
twenty-third year, at which age ,they have almost attained
^ See the works of Bowditch on 2,500 American children of both sexes,
Eighth Ann. Rep. .Slate Board of Massachusetts (1877); of Pagliani on the
Italians {Archivio per PAnlr., 1S76, vol. vi. ); of Axel Key on 1,800
Swedish children {Intern. Congr. Med., Berlin, 1887) ; of Schmidt on
10,000 German children, etc.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. I07
the limit of their stature; while women seem to stop growing
at twenty.
The size of most of the organs increases pretty regularly;
the heart in girls at the age of puberty and the brain in the two
sexes are the only exceptions to this rule. The weight of the
brain is 2^ times greater at one year than at birth, 3J at five
years, 3.7 at ten, and 3.9 at fifteen; later its growth diminishes,
to reach its maximum before the age of twenty, 4 times its
initial weight, and to decline slightly after forty or forty-five
years.
At birth the brain represents 12.4 per cent, of the total
weight of the body, at a year old 10.9 per cent., at five 8.4,
at fifteen 3.8, and at twenty-five 2.3 per cent, only.i Unfor-
tunately we have hardly any parallel observations on non-
European populations. The only observations of this kind
based on a sufficient number of subjects (several thousands)
relate to the Japanese. According to Baelz, the stature of
the Japanese increases after the age of puberty only 8 per
cent., whilst it increases 13 per cent, among Europeans. On
the other hand, Drs. Hamada and Sasaki say that growth
diminishes greatly among Japanese men from sixteen or
eighteen, and is found to be completely arrested at the age
of twenty-two.^ There is abundance of evidence that Negroes,
Melanesians, and Malays attain their maximum height between
eighteen and twenty-one. Dietary regimen and comfortable
circumstances have a great influence on growth, as I have
already said when speaking of stature (p. 31).
The activity of transformations in the system certainly
presents differences according to climate, but not according to
race. Thus the alimentary supply is conditioned solely by the
heat required.^ The temperature of the body hardly varies two
1 H. Vierordt, "Das Massen-waclisthum, elc ," Arcli. fiir Anatoin. 11.
Pliys. ; Anaiom. Division, 1890, supplem. volume, p. 62.
^ Baelz, "Die Korperlichen Eigenschaften der Japaner,'' Miflheil.
Deutsch. Gesell. Ost. Asi., 1882, vol. iii. , p. 348; Hamada and Sasaki in
Seii- Kwai [Japanese Med. Journ. of Toll io), February No., i8go.
' Lapicque, Rev. Mens. Ecole. Anthr., 1897, No, 12.
loS THE RACES OF MAN.
or three tenths of a degree, for instance, among two peoples so
different as regards type and mode of Hfe as the French of the
north and the Fuegians. In fact, the temperature talcen in the
mouth is from 37.1° to 37.2° C. among the former and 37.4°
among the latter.^ Besides, among Europeans the individual
variations range between 37.1° and 37.5° C. Among Negroes
the temperature appears to be, on the contrary, a little lower
than that of Europeans.
Let us pass on to the respiratory functions. The vital
capacity or the quantity of air in the expanded lungs, which
is 3.7 cubic metres among the English according to Hutchin-
son, and from 3 to 4 cubic metres among Europeans in
general, falls to 3 metres among the Whites and the Indians
of the United States (Gould), and even to 2.7 among the
Negroes of this latter country. The difference is very trifling;
however, it has to be taken into consideration, seeing that
among Europeans persons of high stature have an absolute
capacity superior to that of people of low stature. Frequency
of respiration seems to be greater among uncivilised peoples
than with Europeans (14 to 18 respirations per minute); it is
from 16 to 20 respirations among the Fuegians, 18 to 20
among the Mongol-Torgootes, 19 among the Kirghiz, and 18
among the Afghans.^
For the circulation of the blood here are a few scattered
data. The pulse is the same among the Fuegians (72 beats
per second) and the Tarantchi of Chinese Turkestan (72.9
beats) as among Europeans (71 to 72); it is a little faster
among the Whites and the Negroes of the United States (74.8
and 74 beats), and much faster among the Indians of America
and the Mulattos (76.3 and 77 beats), among the Torgootes
' Hyades and DeniUer, loc. cil., p. i8l.
- These figures, as well as those relating to the pulse, are borrowed for
the Fuegians from Hyades and Deniker, loc. ciL, p. 182 ; for the American
populations from Gould, loc. cit. ; for the Europeans from the work of
H. Vierordt, Analomische Daten und Tabellen, 1893; and for the rest
from the memoir (in Russian) of Ivanovsky, "The Mongol-Torgootes,"
already quoted.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. IO9
(76.6), and among the Kirghiz (77.7). The number of red
globules in the blood varies but little according to race :
Europeans have on an average five millions of them to the
cubic millimetre, Hindus and Negroes seem to have half a
million less, and the Fuegians half a milUon more.^ But
these differences are insignificant when we think that the
number of these elements of the blood may vary by a million
in the same subject according to the state of his health,
nutrition, etc.
Certain travellers (Erman, Hue) have asserted that they
could recognise a population by its odour. Without going
so far as this, it must be admitted that some ethnic groups
and, more particularly, the Negroes and the Chinese have
their specific odour, which gets fainter with scrupulous
cleanliness, but, it is said, never disappears. Irr the case
of the Negro this odour is due especially to the abundance
of the secretion of his very voluminous and numerous
sebaceous glands. It was on this property that the planters
relied for putting their dogs on the scent of the fugitive
Negro. The Blacks themselves are perfectly aware of it, it
appears, and those of the West Indies have even framed this
proverb —
" The Lord He loves the nigger well,
He knows His nigger by the smell."
The odour of musk exhaled by the Chinese is attested by a
great amount of evidence; that of the Australians and New
Caledonians appears to be also duly reported. We must not
confound these odours sui gefieris with those which certain
peoples contract from the food they eat, as, for instance, the
odour of garlic among the populations of Southern Europe
and the Jews.^
With regard to muscular force, the data furnished by the
^ Maiirel, Bull. Sac. An/h. Paris, 1883, p. 699 ; Hyades and Denikcr,
p. 183.
- R. Andree, Ethnol. Paralhle, Neue Folge, Leipzig, iS8g.
I 10 THE RACES OF MAN.
dynamometer are deceptive, and cannot teach us anything;
besideSj the individual differences are enormous.
Functions of Relation. — A whole chapter could be written
on the muscles and gestures serving for the expression of the
emotions, and on their differences according to race.^ Let us
content ourselves with a single example connected with
astonishment and surprise. These feelings are expressed
almost everywhere by the raising of the eyebrows and the
opening of the mouth ; several peoples (Eskimo, Tlinkits,
Andamanese, Indians of Brazil) accompany this play of feature
by a slap on the hips; the Ainus and the Shin-Wans
of Formosa give themselves a light tap on the nose or
the mouth, whilst the Thibetans pinch their cheek. The
Negro Bantus have the habit of moving the hand before
the mouth as a sign of astonishment, and the Austrahans,
as well as the western Negroes, protrude their lips as if to
whistle (Fig. 141). In a general way the play of physiognomy
is more complicated the more the people is civilised.
Certain peoples execute movements of facial muscles difficult
to imitate, such as the protrusion of the upper lip alone, which
the Malays axecute with the same facility and grace as a chim-
panzee (Hagen). I shall speak in Chapter IV. of conventional
gestures. The attitudes of the body in repose also vary with
the different peoples : the kneeling attitude is common to
Negroes (Figs. 135 and 142); the squatting position is
frequently used by them and the peoples of the East, and also
by the Americans; the upright position on one foot, the other
being bent and the sole supported on the knee of the former, is
met with as well in Oceania as among the Bejas, Negroes, etc.^
The acuteness of the senses is superior to ours among uncul-
tured and half-civilised peoples. The Andamanese can discover
certain fruits in the forests a long way off, being guided solely
by the sense of smell. Taking as a unit the normal visual
' Daiwin, Expression of the Emotions, London, 1872; Manlegazza,
Physiognomy and Expression (English trans.), London, 1895; M. Duval,
Anatcinie artistique, p. 285, Paris, 1881.
'^ See Glohis, 1897, vol. xxi. , No, 7.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. Ill
acuteness calculated according to the formula of Snellen, we
shall have the following figures for different populations : —
I.I for the Germans; 1.4 for the Russians; 1.6 for the
Georgians; 2.7 for the Ossetes and Kalmuks; 3 for the
Nubian Bejas; and 5 for the Indians of the Andes. It
is in a Kalmuk that the individual maximum of visual acute-
ness (6.7) has been noted. 1 An interesting fact has been
observed by Dr. Herzenstein from the study of 39,805 Russian
soldiers, viz., that visual acuteness is greater as the pigment of
the iris and the hair is more developed. In fact, we only find
among the fair-haired 72.4 per cent, of individuals whose
visual acuteness is stronger than the normal, and 2.7 per cent.
whose acuteness is weaker, whilst among the dark-haired the
corresponding figures are 84.1 and 1.7; they see then, other
things being equal, better than the fair-haired.^
The functions of reproduction are so difficult to study, even
among civilised peoples, that it is almost impossible to say
anything positive about them when dealing with savage
peoples. Thus, for example, we can scarcely draw up an
exact table of the first appearance of menstruation. This
period varies from the age of ten (Negresses of Sierra Leone)
to that of eighteen (Lapps). The influence of climate is
unquestionable; authors as competent as Tilt in England,
Krieger in Germany, Dubois and Pajot in France, are agreed
on this point. They state that the first indication of the
period of puberty appears between eleven and fourteen in
warm countries, between thirteen and sixteen in temperate
countries, and between fifteen and eighteen in cold countries.
But they are also obliged to admit the influence of other
factors — race, occupation, dietary regimen, etc. Thus in
Austria, with the same climate and in the same social con-
ditions, Jewish girls menstruate at fourteen to fifteen, Hun-
garian girls at fifteen to sixteen, and Slovak girls at fourteen
to sixteen (Joachim) ; on the other hand, it is known that
1 Kotelmann, "Die Augen, elc," Zeil.f. Elhn., 1884, Verb., p 77.
' Dr. Herzenstein, Izviestia, etc., ni Friends of Science, Moscow, vol.
xlix , part 4, p. 347 (in Russian).
112 THE RACES OF MAN.
dwelling in a town, indolent life, premature sexual excitations,
accelerate the appearance of the menses. Alimentation has also
its share of influence in the matter. Thus among the badly-
fed girls of the despised caste of Illuvar (Southern India)
their periods appear at about sixteen, while the girls of
India in general menstruate at eleven, twelve, or thirteen.^
It must not be thought that in all countries the appearance of
the menses is also indicative of the period when sexual rela-
tions begin. Among the majority of the peoples of India,
among the ■ Turks, the Mongols, the Persians, among the
Polynesians, the Malays, and the Negroes, young girls enter
into sexual relations much before the appearance of the
menses — at eleven, ten, and even nine years of age. The
time when marriage takes place is also not an indication ; it is
a matter of social convention, among the savage as among the
half-civilised. Thus among the Mongol Torgootes girls begin
to have sexual relations at fourteen on an average, and
marry at eighteen ; for boys the corresponding figures are
fourteen and a half and nineteen (Ivanovsky).
The time of the appearance of the critical age is subject to
so many fluctuations that even for European populations it
is scarcely possible to establish averages, but most of the
figures oscillate around the ages of forty-five to fifty. It is
known that in woman ovulation goes on regularly throughout
the year without those accelerations or exasperations of the
genesic functions in certain seasons which are observed among
animals in heat. In this respect the human female differs
totally from wild animals (except the apes, among whom
menstruation has been noted), and approximates closely to the
female of domestic animals. And yet certain facts seem to
indicate that it has not always been so. These facts have
reference to the greater frequency of conceptions during certain
periods of the year.
The Swedish physician Wargentin was the first to point out
in 1767 this frequency in his own country. Since then,
several statisticians, doctors, and naturalists have confirmed it ;
^ See for further details, PIoss, ioc. cil., vol. i., p. 288.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. II 3
Quetelet for Belgium and Holland (maximum of births in
February, the maximum of conceptions in May) ; Wappteus
for Central Europe (two maxima of conception, in winter,
and at the end of spring or the beginning of summer) ;
Villermd (same periods) for different countries, including those
of the southern hemisphere ; Sormani for Italy (conceptions
in July) ; Mayr for Germany (conceptions in December) ;
Beukemann for the different provinces of the German empire
(maximum of conceptions in December in the north, in spring
in the south) ; Hill for India (maximum of conceptions,
December- January) ; lastly, different authors for Russia (maxi-
mum of conceptions in winter).
The explanations which have been put forward up to the
present of this phenomenon are of different kinds. According
to certain authors, the maxima observed in many countries in
the spring are owing to the fact of there being in this season
"plenty of everything," better nourishment, in short, something
which compels the genesic instinct of man, like that of most
animals, to participate in the " awakening of nature." To
this it is replied by other observers that in certain countries the
maxima are reported in the winter months, that is to say in
the season when the temperature and the relative absence of
the good things of life do not seem to be a priori favourable
to generation ; these scientists look for the cause in the social
organisation. They notice that in countries of the north
it is in the month of December that, after having finished
their work in the fields, the inhabitants give themselves up to
festivities and rejoicings, and that it is in this month the
greatest number of unions are contracted ; on the other hand,
in the south the most popular festivals are those of the spring
at the awakening of nature. Others, again, assert that these
differences are owing as much to religion as to latitude.
All these explanations are somewhat unscientific, and have
never been verified by figures or experience. According to
Rosenstadt,^ cosmic and social influences do not count at
' B. Rosenstadt, " Ursachen welche die Zahl der Conceptionen, etc.,"
Miith. Enihiyol. Instit. Uiiivers, Wien, 2nd series, part 4, Vienna, 1890.
I 14 THE RACES OF MAN.
all in the question, for often the periods during which re-
crudescence of conceptions occurs are the same for countries
differing entirely in climate, religion, and manners (Italy,
Russia, Sweden). These influences may, at the most, create
conditions favourable to the bringing about of the pheno-
menon, may prepare the ground for it. But as to the
phenomenon itself it would be, according to Rosenstadt,
merely the remains in man of his animal nature, a " physio-
logical custom " inherited from the animals, his ancestors.
Primitive man would inherit from his ancestors the habit
of procreating by preference at particular times. On the
arrival of this period of sexual excitement fecundations would
take place wholesale. With the development of civilisa-
tion man has sexual relations all the year round, but the
'■physiological custom" of procreating at a certain period does
not entirely disappear ; it remains as a survival of the animal
state, and manifests itself in the recrudescence of the number
of conceptions during certain months of the year. This con-
clusion is corroborated by the fact that among certain savage
tribes copulation seems to take place at certain periods of the
year; for example, among the Australians at the time of
the yam harvest (see Chap. VII., Marriage, etc.).i
It is perhaps as a survival of these habits that we must
regard the annual festivals followed by wholesale marriages
among the Sonthals, and the wholesale marriages still practised
to-day in Brittany on the eve of Lent. Thus in the little
market-town of Plougastel-Daoulas (Finistfere), containing
only 7000 inhabitants, thirty-four marriages we.re celebrated at
once on the 5th of February i8g6, and the preceding year,
before Lent, forty-eight couples had been united on the same
day in this locality .^ The famous " Bharzwad Jang," or " Mar-
riage of the Shepherds," a ceremony practised by certain
tribes (^Aler, Shir, Rabat) of Western Kathiawar (India), is
also perhaps a survival of this custom. It consists in the
^ Fr. Miiller, Allgem. Elhnographie, 2nd ed., p. 212, Vienna, 1879;
Kulisclier, Zcil. f. E/hii., vo]. viii. (Verh., p. 152), Berlin, 1876.
- Correspondence of the Temps of the 6th of February 1896.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. US
celebration of marriage on the same day, but at stated intervals
(of about twenty-four years), of all the bachelors of the tribe.
At the last ceremony of this kind, which took place from the
28th of April to the 3rd of May 1895, 775 couples were
thus married at once.^
The question of the fertility of women in different popula-
tions is one of great interest as regards the future of these
populations, but it is scarcely more than outlined yet. If we
know in a general way that the birth-rate is very low in France
and somewhat low in the non-immigrant part of the population
of the United States, that it is very high in Russia and among
the Jews, etc., we know almost nothing about the subject in
connection with uncivilised peoples; in their case, as in our
own, we must take into account the different elements of the
problem— social conditions, voluntary limitation (Australians),
infanticide (Polynesia), etc.
Influence of Environment. — I can scarcely treat here as
fully as I could wish such interesting questions as the influ-
ence of external circumstance, of acclimatation and cross-
ings or hybridisation, inasmuch as they are still very little
and imperfectly studied. The direct influence of environment
has rarely been observed with all the scientific exactness
to be wished. Ordinarily we have to rest satisfied with phrases
which do not mean a great deal.^ Even the influence of con-
' J. M. Campbell, _/uK«?. Anthr. Soc. Bombay, vol. iv. , 1S95, No. i.
'■^ I cannot refute here all the erroneous assertions in regard to the
assumed influence of environment, referring the reader to the works of
Pallas (Ac/a' of the' Acad, of St. Petersburg, 1780, part ii., p. 69) and
of Darwin (especially to The Descent of Man). It is enough to give some
examples. Negroes are not black because they inhabit tropical countries,
seeing that the Indians of South America, who live in the same latitudes,
are yellow; Norwegians and Great Russians, who are fair and tall, live side
by side with the Laplanders and the Samoyeds, who are dark and of
very low stature. It has been said and repeated frequently that the Jews
who immigrated to Cochin (India), after the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus, became as black as the indigenous Tamils among whom they
live. This is so little true that in this country the name of " white Jews"
is given to the descendants of true Jews (who really are white), to dis-
Il6 THE RACES OF MAN,
ditions so abnormal as the complete absence of light and solar
heat, those sources of everything living, during several months,
has only been observed incidentally. Nossiloff,i however, has
noted day by day the influence of the polar night on an
ordinary population (not hardened and picked, like the crews
of polar expeditions) and proved its depressing action, mani-
festing itself in general apathy of body and mind, in a tendency
to drowsiness, and in diminution of the height and the thoracic
perimeter ; this action is especially noticeable in children,
who visibly pine away during this period. Unfortunately the
observations of Nossiloff are limited to a small number of
subjects.
It is more than probable that all the modifications which
the organism undergoes as a result of the influence of environ-
ment are mostly of a chemical nature, and have only a
remote effect on the human frame. According to W. Kochs,^
the whole question of acclimatation in tropical countries
resolves itself into the quantity of water in the organism.
He bases his deductions principally on the difference found
to exist in the quantity of water contained in the flesh of
oxen of the Argentine Republic in comparison with that
tinguish them from the "black Jews" or Tamils converted to Judaism.
Further, it has been pretended, according to an assertion of Khanikof,
reproduced by Darwin {Descent of Man, p. 304), and repeated, by so many
others, that the Wurtemburgers of blond type, who emigrated to the
Caucasus in 1816, had become dark. This statement is no truer than the
preceding one. Radde, who has studied these settlers, says expressly
{Zeit. f. Ethnol., vol. ix., Verb., p. 12) that they are as fair as their com-
patriots who have remained in Germany. According to • Pantioukhof
{Anth. ObseTV. in the Caucastts, p. 25, Tiflis, 1893, in Russian), 25 out
of 51 of the settlers, or 55 per cent., have light eyes, while in Wurtem-
burg the proportion of light eyes among children is 65 per cent. {Arcli. f,
Anlhr., 1886, p. 412), which reduces the figure to about 56 per cent, or
58 per cent, for the adults, — a figure very near to the preceding one.
' S. Russkikh, "Influence of the Polar Night on the Human Organ-
ism," Zapiski of the Ourtian Friends of Nat. Sc, Sac, Ekaterinburg, 1895
(in Russian).
^ W. Kochs, "Eine wichtige Veranderung, etc.," Biol. Cenlralbl , ■g.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 1 I7
found among cattle of Northern Germany. The former have
from 80 to 83 per cent, of water, while the latter have from
72 to 75 per cent. only. If it is the same with man, as
Kochs supposes, he would have from 7 to 8 per cent, less
solid matter to burn in his body in the tropics than in
temperate countries, and the vital energy would be
affected accordingly. Thus only the organism that had
acquired the quantity of water necessary for supporting the
heat of the tropics would be acclimatised ; this is so true
that Whites acclimatised in tropical countries suffer more
from the cold in Europe than their compatriots who have
never left Europe.^ Besides, the Negroes of Senegal begin
to suffer from cold when the thermometer falls below 20° C.
(68° Fahr.), whilst the Fuegians who are not more warmly
clad bear very well the cold of 0° to - 4° C. (32° to 25" Fahr.).
Taken as a whole, the genus Homo is cosmopolitan. In
fact, man inhabits the whole earth from the icy regions of
Greenland (in the neighbourhood of the eightieth degree of
N. latitude) to the torrid zone which stretches between
the tropic of Cancer and the Equator. He is found in
countries situated at 75 or 200 metres below the level of the
sea (Caspian depression, depression of Louktchin in Eastern
Turkestan), as well as on table-lands at an elevation of
more than 5000 metres (Thibet). But if we consider the
numerous sub-divisions of the genus Homo which are called
species, sub-species, or races, the question of cosmopolitanism
becomes more complicated as at the same time the positive
data for its solution are less numerous.
Apart from the European and Negro races, peoples have
never changed their habitat abruptly— have not transported
themselves in a body into climates very different from their
native country, though slow migrations, advancing from
place to neighbouring place, have been numerous at all
times and among all peoples ; these have been followed by
accliraatation, the sole criterion of cosmopolitanism. It must
also be remarked that civilised peoples withstand better than
' Davy, Philos. Transac. Roy. Soc. London, 1S50, p. 437.
Il8 THE RACES OF MAN.
savages changes of every kind. In this respect the former
bear a stronger resemblance than the latter to domestic
animals, which rarely become sterile outside of their native
country. According to Darwin, i this results from the fact that
civilised peoples, as well as domestic animals, have been
subjected in the course of their evolution to more numerous
variations, more frequent changes of place, and also more
important crossings.
The question whether each race of mankind can Hve and
reproduce itself — that is to say, become acclimatised — on any
point of the globe will, evidently, only be resolved when
attempts of this kind are undertaken by each race and
pursued during several generations. Now there are no exact
data on this subject except for the so-called white race and in
some measure for Negroes. Without reckoning cosmopolitan
peoples like the Jews and the Gypsies, it is certain that the
majority of European peoples can as a race get acclimatised
in the most diverse regions, in Canada (English and French)
as in Brazil (Portuguese and Germans), Mexico (Spaniards),
Australia (English), Southern Africa (Dutch Boers). The
assumed failures of acclimatation are connected with countries
where there has never been any European colonisation (India,
Java), and where it is known that there are isolated cases
of the collective acclimatation of several families.
According to Clements Markham and Elisde Reclus, the
Englishman not only as an individual but as a race is able
to live in the Cisgangetic peninsula.^ Many generations of
Englishmen have flourished in various parts of India. Numer-
ous examples could be cited of children being acclimatised
without detriment to their strength or health. According to
Francis Galton, the mortality in 1877 of European soldiers in
India (12.7 per 1000) was less than that of native soldiers
(13.4) and Hindus in general (35). In the Dutch Indies the
Dutch have kept themselves in good health for several genera-
' Darwin, Descent of Man, 3rd ed., p. 208.
'^ CI. Markham, Travels in India and Peru, London, 1869; Elisde
Reclus, Ghgraphie universelle, vol. viii. , p. 630, Paris, 1883.
PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS, 119
tions.i We must leave out of the question certain unliealtliy
regions (like Lower Senegal) where the natives suffer almost as
much as Europeans. On the whole, the so-called white race
appears to have the aptitude of acclimatation in all countries,
provided, of course, that it makes the necessary sacrifices for
several generations.
If it be said of certain regions that they are not colonisable
by Europeans, it is thereby implied that the sacrifices entailed
by acclimatation are out of all proportion to the advantages
to be gained by colonisation. As to Negroes, they thrive in
temperate countries like the United States, where they multiply
at the same rate as the Whites. By a strange anomaly they
do not seem to thrive as well in Mexico, in the Antilles, and
in Guiana — that is to say in the same isothermal zone (26°-28° C,
or 7o°-82° Fahr.) as their native country; nevertheless they
live and reproduce there.
Upon the whole, if we consider (i) that the most mixed and
most civilised races are those which are soonest acclimatised,
(2) that the tendency of races to intermingle, and of civilisa-
tion to develop, goes on increasing every day in every part
of the world, we may affirm without being accused of
exaggeration that the cosmopolitanism of mankind, if it does
not yet exist to-day in all races (which seems somewhat im-
probable), will develop as a necessary consequence of the
facility of accHmatation. For it to become general is only
a matter of time.
As to the fertility of acclimatised families, it has been estab-
lished outside of hybridisation. Thus it has been possible
to trace back certain English families in the Barbadoes for
six generations. 2 As much may be said of the French in
the islands of Mauritius and Kdunion. In the Brazilian
province of Rio Grande do Sul, between 25°-3o'' S. latitude
— that is, in a sub-tropical region — it has been ascertained
that there are three or four generations of German colonists,
' Rosenberg, Malayshe Archip.^ Leipzig, 1878, Preface.
^ Huxley, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature^ London, 1863.
120 THE RACES OF MAN.
whose children enjoy very good health.^ Lastly, in Matabeleland
there are already two or three generations of Dutch. ^ It must
be said that certain European races are more capable than
others of becoming acclimatised in tropical countries. Thus it
is universally acknowledged that people of the south of Europe
— Spaniards, Italians, Proven9als — become sooner acclimatised
in Africa and equatorial America than the English and the
Germans of the north.
But in spite of the facility of acclimatation, race-characters
hardly seem to change in the new environment ; the chemical
constituents of the tissues having changed, the body adapts
itself without change either in outward form or even
colour.
The German colonists of Brazil and the Steppes of the
Volga bear a perfect resemblance to each other after more
than a century of separation from their race-brothers of Swabia
or Franconia. It is the same after two or three centuries with
the English of the Barbadoes, the French of Reunion, the
Dutch of the Transvaal, etc.
The phenomena of hybridity are even less studied than
those of the influence of environment ; I shall speak of some
of these in regard to different populations, but the facts are
too isolated and disputed for any general conclusions to be
drawn.
In reality, all that we know is that a great number of races
produce half-breeds by crossing, but whether these half-
breeds in so crossing produce a new race or revert to one of
the ancestral types has not been demonstrated. Humanity
appears to move in a confused medley of the most diverse
and composite forms, without any one of them being able to
persist ; for the means of persistence, artificial selection or
sexual selection, are wanting. The only selection which may
have a decided influence on the predominance of the characters
of a race in its interminglings is that which proceeds from
the number of individuals of each of the races concerned in
' Hettner, Zeits. Gael. Erdk., vol. xxvi , 1S91, p. 137.
^ Proceedings Geogr. Soc. London, 1 89 1, p. 34-
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS, ETC. 12 1
the blending and their respective fecundity, but this selection
has hardly begun to be studied.
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
It remains to speak of psychological characters — that is to
say, of temperament and the different manifestations of mind,
feeling, and affections. But it must be admitted that it is
almost impossible to treat these in the face of many contra-
dictory facts. Speaking generally, it may be said that the
American and Mongoloid races are grave, meditative, a little"
obtuse, melancholic ; and that, on the contrary, the Negro
races and Melanesians are playful, laughing, lively, and super-
ficial as children. But there are many exceptions to such
general rules. Each traveller, each observer, tends to judge
in his own way a given people according to the nature of
the relations (pacific, hostile, etc.) which he has had with
it. We are unable to affirm anything when we have once
made up our minds to escape from the commonplace
generalities that savages are wanting in foresight and general
ideas, that they are cruel, that their imitative faculties are
highly developed, etc.
Pathological characters are better known, as for example, in
regard to immunities. It is a proved fact that Negroes,
for instance, are proof against the contagion of yellow fever;
that they resist much better than Europeans the terrible inter-
mittent fevers which prevail on the coasts of Africa. But if
savage peoples enjoy certain immunities, they are, on the
contrary, very susceptible to the infectious diseases which
civilised peoples introduce among them; whole tribes have
been exterminated by syphilis, measles, and consumption in
South America, Polynesia, and Siberia. 1 There are also
diseases peculiar to certain populations, such, for example,
as the sleeping sickness among the Wolofs and Songhai, which
manifests itself in an invincible tendency to sleep.^ It has
' For details see Bordier, Geogr. Medicate, Paris, 1883, with atlas.
"^ Bull. Giogr. histor. etdescripl., p. 53, Paris, 1889.
122 THE RACES OF MAN.
long been asserted that savage peoples are not afflicted by
nervous and mental diseases. Nothing of the kind. The
genuine "great hysteria'' of Charcot has been observed
among Negresses of Senegal, among Hottentot women and
Kafirs, as well as in Abyssinia and Madagascar.^ Other
nervous diseases have been noticed among Hurons and Iro-
quois,2 and in New Zealand. Some forms of neurosis appear
to be limited to certain ethnic groups. Such is the "Amok"
of the Malays — a sort of furious and imitative madness per-
haps provoked at the same time by suggestion. Developed
especially among the Malays, it is also met with among
the Indians of North America, where it has been called
"jumping" by the Whites. The "Myriachit" of the Ostiaks
and other natives of Siberia, the " Malimali " of the Tagals of
the Philippines, the "Bakchis" of the Siamese, are similar
diseases. Under the name of "Latah" are designated among
the Malays all sorts of nervous diseases, but more particularly
the imitative madness which impels women to undress before
men, to throw children up in the air in imitation of a game
of ball, etc. Besides, the name Latah is also given to a
mental state in which the patient is afraid of certain words
(tiger, crocodile), and which is met with somewhat frequently
not only among the Malays, but also among the Tagals and
the Sikhs of India.^
' G. As \3.To\xttlie, Journal de Medeciue, February, 1893.
^ Brinton, Science, l6lh Dec. 1892 ; and Globus, 1893, 1st half-year,
p. 148.
^ See Logan's Journal of the Indian Archifelago, vol. ill. , Calcutta,
1S49, pp. 457, 464, and 530; H. O. O'Brien, "The Latah, "y«(rK. of the
Straits Branch cf the R. Asiat. Soc, Singapore, June 1883, p. 144;
Metzger, "Amok und Malaglap," Globus, vol. Hi., 1882, No. 7; Rasch,
Neurolog. Centralbl., 1894, No. 15; 1895, No. 19.
CHAPTER IV.
ETHNIC CHARACTERS.
Various stages of social groups and essential characters of human societies :
Progress. — Conditions of Progress: Innovating initiative, and tra-
dition — Classification of "states of civilisation. "
I. — LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
Methods of exchanging ideas within a short distance — Gesture and speech
— Divisions of language according to structure — Jargons — Com-
mitnications at ii relatively remote distance : optic and acoustic
signals — Transmission of ideas at any distance and time whatever — •
Handwriting — Mnemotechnic objects — Pictography — Ideography —
Alphabets — Direction of the lines of handwriting.
So far we have considered man as an isolated being, apart
from the groupings which he forms with his fellows. But
in order to get a correct idea of the sum-total of the mani-
festations of his physical life, and especially of his psychical
life, we must further consider him in his social environment.
Nowhere on the earth has there been found a race of men the
members of which lived completely alone and isolated as the
majority of animals are seen to do. It is in fact but very
rarely that the latter combine into societies; they form a
family group only temporarily during the period of raising the
young, etc. Man, on the contrary, becomes almost helpless
apart from society, incapable of maintaining the struggle for
existence without the help of his fellow-men. The develop-
ment of all the manifestations of "sociality" is then the
measure of progress of human societies. The more man
123
124 THE RACES OF MAN,
is " socialised," if I may thus express it, the less he depends
on nature.
This dependence on nature has long served as a criterion
in ethnography for dividing peoples into two groups — the
"civihsed" and the "savage." The name given by the
.Germans to "savages," Naturvotker (peoples in a state of
nature), explains sufficiently this way of looking at things.
According to their greater or less dependence on nature,
peoples were divided into hunters, shepherds or nomads, and
tillers of the soil or settlers, without, however, characterising in
a very precise way each of these states. Morgan was the first
to bring a little definiteness into this nomenclature, and at the
same time he has shown the necessity of introducing another
criterion into the estimate of states of civilisation. In fact,
to establish the three forms of sociahsation — savage, bar-
barous, and civilised — he has accepted as a distinctive mark
between the second and the third the existence of handwriting
— that is to say, of the material means used by the two forces
necessary to the inception and maintenance of progress: inno-
vating initiative, and conservation of vvhat has been acquired.^
He has not made as much of this classification as, in my
opinion, he might have done. In fact, the ethnic groups of
the earth only differ among themselves from the social point
of view by the degree of culture — its essence being always and
everywhere the same: pursuit of more and more easy means
of satisfying wants and desires. Now, if the form assumed
by this- species of activity, in a word, if production, subject
to the influence of climate, geographical position, etc., is the
basis of all social development, as Grosse has so well shown,^
the nature and evolution of the needs and desires themselves
depend up to a certain point on the "temperament" of fhe
' L. Morgan, Proc. Am. Assoc. Acad. Sc, Detroit Session, 1875,
p. 266, and Journal Anlhro. Inst., vol. vi., 1878, p. 114. The distinc-
tion between the first and the second form lies, according to Morgan, in the
knowledge of pottery — a somewhat unreliable and narrow criterion, which,
however, does not directly interest us here.
^ Grosse, Die Fornien der Wirtschaft, etc., Leipzig, 1896.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS. 1 25
race, which must likewise be taken into consideration. The
nature and amount of psychic force in any given society,
the evolution of which is effected by its mode of pro-
duction, may in its turn, having attained a certain degree
of development, re-act on the economic state, and modify
it. We see nothing like this in the animal communities.
Bees and ants arrange their hives and manage the affairs of
their community to-day as they did a thousand insect-genera-
tions ago. It is very probable that race has something to do
with psychic force, but up to the present time the fact has
not been scientifically demonstrated. However that maybe,
in order to form a correct opinion as to the degree of civilisa-
tion of any people, we should have to take into consideration
not only its material culture, but also its kiat d'ame, its psycho-
logy, to realise the psychical resources which it has at its
command. Thus certain peoples (Australians, Bushmen),
though at the bottom of the scale as regards material
culture, are nevertheless well endowed from the artistic
point of view; in the same way the Polynesians of a hundred
years ago, who were inferior in knowledge of pottery and
metallurgy to the Negroes, were superior to them in general
intelligence and the richness of their mythology.
But progress is only possible if, side by side with individual
power of initiating change, there exists in the social aggregate
what may be called the power of conservation. There may be
produced among savage peoples, as Ratzel ^ has so well pointed
out, persons of exceptional natural talent, men of genius; but
the activity of these will almost always be sterile. Even if
they succeed in ameliorating the material condition, in raising
the moral or intellectual level of the members of their tribe or
of their class, the result of their activity has only an ephemeral
existence, their efforts are not continued, and after their death,
for want of the conservative power, everything falls back into
the primitive condition. The secret of civilisation lies not so
much in efforts of isolated individuals as in accumulation of
these efforts, in the transmission from one generation to
' Ratzel, History of Mmikind, vol. i., p. 24. London, 1896.
126 THE RACES OF MAN.
another of the acquired result, of a sum-total of knowledge
which enables each generation to go further without beginning
everything over again ab ovo. In this way progress is unlimited
by the very conditions of its origin, and civilisation is only the
sum of all the acquisitions of the human mind at any given
period.
\ The conservative and transmittive power become really
'established in a society only when the means of communicating
thought are sufficiently developed, when language has taken a
definite form, and an easy method is devised of fixing it by
conventional signs more or less indelible and transmissible to
future generations. Thus, to estimate different states of civili-
sation we must have recourse to linguistic characters, under-
standing by such everything which concerns the means of
communicating ideas in time and space — that is to say,
spoken or mimetic language and its graphic representation.
But before passing rapidly in review the linguistic characters,
I owe the reader a few words of explanation of the terms
which I am about to use in designating "states of
civilisation."
In these latter days a classification of these states nearly in
accordance with the desiderata which were formulated at the
beginning of this chapter has been proposed by Vierkandt.^
This classification takes material culture into account, but the
primordial division which is adopted in it, between peoples in
a state of nature (or better, uncivilised) and civilised peoples,
is based on the development of certain psychical traits denoting
a greater or less development of individuality, of the spirit of
free investigation, etc. Savage peoples, without any true civili-
sation, are divided in this classification into semi-civilised
and uncivilised properly so-called, with sub-divisions into
nomads and tillers of the soil for the former, and hunters and
wanderers for the latter.
Admitting the criterion of the existence or non-existence of
writing and the relative value of the two elements of progress
^ y\eA7a\&i, Naturvolker und ICultuivolker, Leipzig, 1896; and Geogr.
Zeitschr., vol. iii., pp. 256 and 315, 2 maps, Leipzig, 1897.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS. 1 27
mentioned above, I arrive at a classification of "states of
civilisation" which recalls somewhat that of Vierkandt, but
which differs from it on several points. It may be summarised
as follows : —
(i) Savage peoples, progressing exceedingly slowly, without
writing, sometimes possessing a piclographic method; living
in little groups of some hundreds or thousands of individuals.
They are divided into two categories: hunters'^ (examples:
Bushmen, Australians, Fuegians) and tillers of the soil (ex-
amples : Indians of North America, Melanesians, the majority
of Negroes).
(2) Semi-civilised peoples, making an appreciable but slow
progress, in which the conservative power predominates,
forming authoritative societies or states of several thousands
or millions of individuals; having an ideographic or phonetic
writing, but a rudimentary literature. They are divided like-
wise into two categories : tillers of the soil {exAm-^lti: Chinese,
Siamese, Abyssinians, Malays, Ancient Egyptians, and Peru-
vians) and 7iomads (examples : Mongols, Arabs).
(3) Civilised peoples, making rapid progress, in which the
initiating and innovating power predominates, forming states
based on individual liberty, and consisting of several millions
of individuals; having a phonetic writing and a developed
literature. Their economic state is especially characterised
by industrialism and cosmopolitan com?7iercialism (examples:
the majority of the peoples of Europe and North America).
Having said this much, we shall begin the study of ethnic
characters with those which we may consider the indispens-
able condition of all associability, that is to say the
linguistic characters.
I. LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
Without pursuing the inquiry whether language is born of
inarticulate cries, of onomatopjeias or otherwise, whether it
has a single or a multiple origin, we may content ourselves
^ That is to say, engaged in the pursuit of land animals (hunting), or
of aquatic (fishing) ; or gathering plants or fruits.
128 THE RACES OF MAN.
with stating the fact, that language does not constitute the only
means by which men may understand each other and com-
municate ideas. There are several others. They may be
arranged in three groups : — means of communicating near at
hand: gestures and words; means of communicating at a rela-
tively remote distance: various signals; means of communicat-
ing at any distance and time whatever: writing.
Gestures. — Many gestures are natural and common to all
men. All who have had to ask for anything to eat or drink in
a foreign country without knowing the language, must have
appreciated this means of international communication. How-
ever, the same gestures do not always and everywhere signify
the same thing. Let us take, for example, the simplest ideas,
negation and affirmation. In Central and Northern Europe these
ideas are expressed, as every one knows, by a bending of the
head forward and by lateral movements of the head. But there
are few exotic peoples (Andamanese, Ainus, certain Hindus)
who make use of the same gestures. Most of them, on the con-
trary, affirm by shaking the head laterally (Arabs, Botocudos,
certain Negroes) and deny by raising it; most frequently this
latter gesture is accompanied by an uplifting of the eyebrows
(Abyssinians) or a particular smacking of the tongue (Syro-
Arabs, Naya-Kurumbas, etc.). The natives of the Admiralty
Islands express negation by a tap ort the nose.^ In Italy and
generally in Mediterranean Europe, the signs of negation, with
many other feelings besides, are expressed by gestures of the
hands; thus to say " no,'' the hand is moved sharply before the
breast, the fingers being closed except the forefinger, which is
held up vertically. Perhaps the practice of carrying burdens on
the head, thus preventing the movements of this part of the body,
has had something to do wiih the abundant development
of gestures with the arms by which the European of the
south may be recognised. An almost analogous sign, but con-
sisting in a slow movement outward and downward, signifies
"yes" among the Indians of North America. These last
have pushed to the utmost limits the use of the language
' AncUee, Anlhropologische Parallele, p. 52.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS. 12Q
of gesture. G. Mallery has collected the treasures of this
language, which is being lost to-day, and has drawn up a
vocabulary of it.^ At the period when this language flourished,
the Indians were able to express by gestures not only com-
mon and proper nouns, but also verbs, pronouns, particles,
etc.; they made elaborate speeches by combining the gestures
of the body, the head, and the arms. They introduced abbre-
viations exactly as that is done in pictographic writing.
Here is an example of how a Dakota Indian (Fig. 26) says by
Fig. 26.— Dakota Indian gesture language. {A//er Mallery. )
means of gestures, / am going hoine: he brings his hand with
the forefinger stretched out towards his breast (/), then ex-
tends it forward and outward as high as the shoulder {am going),
^ and, closing the fist, he lets it drop abruptly (home). It is
supposed that extreme diversity of dialects has been the
chief cause of the development of this strange sign-language;
it would serve as a bond between tribes which could not
converse with one another.
j^^^c^ —Setting aside the almost unique example of the
North American Indians, gestures are generally only the
' G. Mallery, "Sign Language," First Annual Report Bur. of
Ethnol., 1879-80, p. 269. Washington, 1881.
9
130 THE RACES OF MAN.
auxiliaries of speech. The latter, which is the exclusive
appanage of the genus Homo., while it is formed of a
somewhat limited number of articulate sounds, nevertheless
presents such a mass of varied combinations of these
sounds that at first one would expect to be lost
in the multitude of languages, dialects, idioms, verna-
cular forms, etc. Fortunately, linguists have been able to
establish the fact that, in spite of their apparent diversity,
dialects are capable of being grouped into languages, and the
latter into linguistic families, which, in their turn, have been
reduced, according to their morphological structure, to three
principal groups : monosyllabic or isolating languages, agglu-
iinative languages, and inflectional languages.
In the monosyllabic languages all the words are roots, there
are neither sufifixes nor prefixes nor any modification of the
words, and their relation in a proposition is only given by the
respective places which they occupy in it. Thus in the Chinese
language the word ta may signify "great, greatness, greatly, to
enlarge,'' according to its position in the phrase. The grammar
is entirely a matter of syntax. Homophonous words of various
signification abound in it, and in speech are only distinguished
by the way in which they are- pronounced, by the toties, high,
low, rising, falling, interrogatory, etc.
In agglutinative languages the words are formed of
several elements, adhering, agglutinated together, of which
one only possesses its own peculiar value, the others being
coupled with it to define it, and having an entirely relative
signification. The first of these elements is the root of the
word, whilst the others are only obsolete roots, having lost
their own signification, and are reduced to the rank of deter-
minative particles or affixes with a definite meaning. The
affixes may be placed before the root (as in the Bantu lan-
guages), and then they bear the name of prefixes, or at the
end (as in Turkish and Mongolian), and then they are called
suffixes. Thus the suffix la?- or liar in Turkish gives
the signification of the plural of the word to which it is
joined (ex. arkan, the rope; arkanlar, the ropes) ; the suffix
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS. 13 I
tchi designates the person concerned with something, etc., for
instance, arkantchi, rope-maker; the suffix ly indicates posses-
sion (ex. arkanly, with a cord, attached). Other suffixes, la,
lyk, denote action, quahty (arkanla, to attach with a cord;
arkanfyk, the best kind of cord).^
Among the agglutinative languages we distinguish a special
group csXXed. polysyntheiu or incorporating languages ; this group
is formed exclusively of American idioms. It is characterised
by the phenomenon of incorporation, by syncope or by
ellipsis, of nouns to the verb, so as to form but one word of
the whole proposition ; for instance, in Algonkin, the phrase-
word nadholiniu, " bring us the canoe," is formed of the elided
words naten bring, amochol canoe, i euphonic, and niu to us.
A similar incorporation takes place when in Italian they say,
for instance, dicendo-ci-lo, " in telling it to us."
The inflectional languages differ from the agglutinative to
this extent, that the root may modify its form to express
its relations with another root. But this change is not in-
dispensable; sometimes the inflection may be attained by
the modification of prefix or suffix. Thus, in Hebrew, the
root mlch gives, when modified, malach he reigned, malchu
they reigned, melechu the king, melackim kings, etc.
With the exception of the Chinese, the peoples of Indo-
China, and the Thibetans, who speak monosyllabic languages,
and also the Indo-Europeans and the Semito-Hamites, who
use inflectional languages, all the rest of mankind belongs, by
its mode of speech, to the division of agglutinative lan-
guage. It must not be thought, however, that the difference
is very marked in the three categories which I have just
mentioned. We have already seen, for example, that the
inflectional languages, like Itahan, may have agglutinative
forms; the Arab, the Frenchman, the Provengal have also
recourse occasionally to agglutination; on the other hand,
most of the isolating languages of Indo-China and Thibet
exhibit several agglutinative characteristics, and even in
' See for the details Fr. Miiller, Grundr. d. Sprachwis^ensch., vol. i.,
Vienna, 1876 ; Hovelacque, Linguistique, Paris, 1877.
132 THE RACES OF MAN.
Chinese, that pre-eminently monosyllabic language, there may
be distinguished "full" roots having their signification, and
"empty" roots playing the part of affixes.
It was thought until quite recently that originally all the
languages of the earth were monosyllabic, that by a process
of evolution they became transformed into a:gglutinative lan-
guages, passing thence into the final and most perfect .form,
■the inflectional. But the immense disproportion between the
number of peoples speaking the agglutinative languages and
that of the other two categories; the presence of the agglu-
tinative forms in monosyllabic languages; the unequivocal
tendency of several inflected languages, like English, towards
monosyllabism; lastly, the recent researches of Terrien de
Lacouperie into the ancient pronunciation of Thibetan and
Chinese words, have appreciably shaken this belief: one is
rather led to see in agglutination the most primitive form of
language. From it would be derived monosyllabism, poly-
syntheticism, and inflection; the two latter forms would tend
in their turn towards monosyllabism. ^ I shall mention with
regard to each of the principal ethnic groups, the pecu-
liarities of the languages which they speak, and in Chapter
VI 11. I shall say a few words about linguistic classifica-
tions and the relation between "peoples" and "languages."
For the moment it is enough to point out that besides
morphological structure, there are other characters: vocabu-
lary, grammatical and phonetic forms, which enable us to
group the allied idioms into linguistic families. Let me
add that side by side with the thousands of languages and
principal dialects distributed among the populations of the
earth, there exist jargons, that is to say, semi-artificial lan-
guages, originating especially in the necessities of commerce.^
1 For resumi of the question see A. Keane, Ethnology, p. 206.
London, 1896.
^ Such aie the lingua franca and the salur, a medley of French, Enghsh,
Italian, and Turkish spread over all the Asiatic and African coast-lines of
the Mediterranean, and particularly among the Levantines. Such also is
the Pigeon (or Pidjin) English, a mi.\ture of Chinese, English, and
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS. 133
Let us not forget either that the different sexes and certain
castes or classes, especially of sorcerers and priests, have
often a special language, sacred or otherwise, but always
unknown to persons of the other sex or of other castes, and
kept secret. Language varies also among certain peoples
(for example, among the Javanese) according as a superior
speaks to an inferior, or vice versa.
Signals. — To communicate at a distance relatively remote,
all peoples make use of optic or acoustic signals. Optic
signals are at first amplified gestures; thus the various
tribes of Red Indians recognised each other at a distance
by making conventional signs with the arms and the body.
An arm raised high with two fingers uplifted and the others
closed, signified "Who are you?" etc. Signals by means
of lighted fires, to announce the tidings of a beast killed,
the approach of the enemy, etc., still remain in use among
the Indians of America, not only in the north, but also
in the south of the continent as far as Cape Horn.
Signalling by means of objects visible from afar, of a more
complicated kind, is in everyday use even among civilised
peoples, forming the basis of optic telegraphy; and there
exists for sailors of all nations a truly international language,
by means of flags of different colours, the code and the
dictionary of which are found on board of every ship bound
on a long voyage.
Among acoustic signals, apart from conventional cries and
sounds of instruments, we must note two kinds of language
of a quite special character. There is, firstly, the whistle
language, which by means of whistles more or less loud,
succeeding in a certain order and produced simply by the
mouth, sometimes by introducing into it two fingers, enables
a conversation to be held at a distance.
This language has attained a high degree of perfection in
Portuguese, employed in the ports of the Far East; the "whalers' lan-
guage," a mixture of Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Chukchi, Japanese,
etc., which is heard in the north of the Pacific Ocean; the Foky-Foky of
Guiana, etc.
134 THE RACES OF MAN.
the Canary Islands,^ but is also known in other parts of the
globe (among the Berbers of Tunis, for instance). This
language, however, must not be confounded with conventional
signals, always the same, given by the whistle for commands
in the navy, for example. The other mode of communicating
at a distance, a highly developed one, is the drum language of
the Dualas and other Bantu Negroes of the Cameroons,
the Gallas, the Papuans, etc. With simply a drum they
succeed, by varying the number and the order of the beats, in
forming a veritable language of two hundred to three hundred
words, very comphcated and difficult to learn. ^
Writing. — The idea of communicating his thought graphi-
cally, in time and in space, to his fellow, must have come to
man from the origin of civilisation ; but through what stages
must it have passed before becoming embodied in'a system at
once so simple and ingenious as that of alphabetic writing!
Before inventing phonetic writing in general, man must have
passed through the period of ideographic writing, and this is
already an advance on another and prior method of repre-
senting and communicating thought, a method much more
simple, which may be called in a general way tlie use of symbolic
objects and mnemonic marks. As typical of this use of sym-
bolic objects we may mention the messages of the Malays
of Sumatra, which are formed of packets containing different
objects: small quantities of salt, pepper, betel, etc., "having
respectively the- signification of love, hate, jealousy, etc.
According to the quantity and arrangement of the objects
in the packet the message serves to express such or such a
feeling. This system attains its perfection in the Wampums
of the Red Indians. These are either chaplets of beads of
different colours fashioned from shells (Fig. 83, 7), also
used as money, or embroideries made with the same
beads on long ribbons forming kinds of belts, which have
^ Lajard, Bull. Soc. Anthr. Paris, 1891, p. 469, and 1S92, p. 23.
'^ M. Buchner, Kainenm, Leipzig, 1887; Andree, Verh. Berl. Ges.
Anthr., 1888, p. 411; Betz, Mitth. Forschungsreiseitden detU. Schutzgeh.,
vol. xi., part I, 189S,
LlNGtJtSTId CMAkACTERS. t3^
the value of diplomatic documents to the Indians.^ The
staff-messages in use among the Melanesians, the Niam-Niams,
the Ashantis, and the peasants of Lusatia and Silesia, etc.,
have the same signification. This is often a sort of passport
or a summons; the form of the staff, as well as the particular
marks which it bears, are so many signs to make known the
commands of the chief, or of the mayor, the order of the day
for the assembly, etc.
The notches which these staffs sometimes bear form a con-
necting link with the mnemonic marks which the less civilised
peoples have the habit of making on trees, on bits of bark, or
pieces of wood. It is the first step towards writing properly
so called. Little horn tablets bearing notches have been
found in the sepulchral caverns of the quaternary period at
Aurignac (Dordogne). Even still the Eskimo, the Yakuts,
the Ostiaks, the Macusis of Guiana, the Negroes of the west
coast of Africa, the Laotians, the Melanesians, the Micro-
nesians, commonly make use of them to keep their accounts,
or note simple facts ; they even continue in use among Euro-
peans, as a survival of the old practice under the form of
" baker's tallies," or words to denote letters {Buchstabe, little
staff of " beechwood," in German), etc. Here, for instance,
is the translation of what was conveyed by a notched tablet
found by Harmand in a Laotian village attacked by a cholera
epidemic (Fig. 27): Twelve days from now (12 notches to the
right) every man who shall venture to penetrate into our enclo-
sure will remain a prisoner, or pay us four buffaloes (4 notches
lower down) or twelve ticals (pieces of money) as ransom (12
notches). On the other side, but doubtful, is the number of
men (8), women (9), and children (11) of the village.^
An analogous mnemotechnical object is the knotted cord,
' See for details, H. Hale, "Four Huron Wampum Kecoids,'' /ouni.
Anthr. Inst., vol. xxvi., No. 3 (1887), and the interesting note of E. B.
T)lor at the end of this paper. Hamy, Galerie Americ. du Mus. Trocadirc,
Paris, 1897, PI. I.
^ Harmand, Mem. Soc. Anfhro., Paris, 2nd ser. , vol. ii., 1875-S5,
P- 339-
136
tl-lE RACES OF MAN.
which is met with among a great number of peoples, Ostiaks,
Angola and Loango Negroes, Malagas!, Alfurus of the
According to the- number and colour of the
cords, and the number of the knots which
they bear, events past or to come are brought
to mind, accounts of a bartering transaction
kept, etc. Among the Micronesians of the
Pelew Islands, when two individuals make an
appointment with one another for a certain
date, each makes on a cord as many knots as
there remain days to run. Undoing a knot
each day and coming to the last knot at the
date of the appointment, they of necessity
recall it. According to Chinese tradition, the
first inhabitants of the banks of the Hoang-ho,
before the invention of writing properly so
called, also made use of little cords knotted
to notched staffs as mnemonic instruments.
Besides, is not our practice of tying a knot
in our handkerchief to remember something a
simple survival of these customs ? The method
of expressing certain events and certain ideas
by means of knots made in different ways and
variously arranged has been carried to the last
degree of perfection in the case of the quipus
of the ancient Peruvians. The quipus are cord
rings to which are attached various little cords
of different colours. On each of these little
cords are found two or more knots variously
formed. The Peruvian and Bolivian shepherds
again make use of similar quipus, but much less
complicated, to keep accounts. Let us also
note in the same order of ideas the different
marks of ownership, of family relationship, of
tribeship (the Totems of the Red Indians, the Tamgas
of the Kirghiz, etc.), which it is the custom to put on
weapons, dweUings, animals, and even the bodies of the
Celebes, etc.
^
lij
•«
O -^
■5 J
I
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
137
men (New Zealand). Hence are derived trade-marks and
armorial bearings.
Lastly, are not the pebbles bearing strokes printed in red,
the number of which varies from one to nine, and several
other signs (Fig. 28), found by M. Piette' in the paleolithic
stations of the south of France, at Mas-d'Azil (Ariege), also
mnemonic objects? It has been asserted that they were
playing dice, but the size of the pebbles is against this
view.
Fig. 28. — Coloured prehistoric pebbles of the grotto of Mas-d'Azil (Ariege).
I and I A, two sides of the same pebble; 2, pebble with three
marks; 3, pebble with four marks differently arranged. {After Pie:te.)
The methods which I have just mentioned are the
precursors of true writing. This really only begins with
drawing.s expressing a sequence of ideas, with pictography.
Imperfect attempts at pictography are found in the drawings of
the Melanesians, representing different events of their life; in
certain rock-pictures of the Bushmen (Fig. 64) and Australians.
But already among the Eskimo, side by side with the simple
representation of objects, certain figures are seen to appear
denoting action or relations between objects : this is the
beginning of ideographic writing. Here, for example, is the
gist of a hunting story engraved by an Eskimo of Alaska on
1 Pielle, "Etude d'ethnogr. prehist.," L'Anihropo'.ogie, i8g5, No. 4,
p. 385. Article accompanied by an excellent folio atlas.
138 THE RACES OF MAN.
an ivory whip (Fig. 29). The first figure (i) represents
the story-teller himself, his right hand making the gesture
which indicates "I," and his left, turned in the direction
in which he is going, means "go." Continuing our trans-
lation, we read the subsequent figures as follows:— (2) "in
a boat" (paddle raised); (3) "sleep" (hand on the head)
"one night" (the left hand shows a finger); (4) "(on) an island
with a hut in the middle" (the little point); (5) "I going
(farther) ; " (6) " (arrive at) an (other) isle inhabited " (without
a point); (7) "spend (there) two nights;" (8) "hunt with
harpoon;" (g) "a seal;" (10) "hunt with bow;" (11)
"return in canoe with another person" {two oars directed
backward); (12) "(to) the hut of the encampment." As is
evident, this ideography bears a relation to the language of
gesture. It might be thus assumed a priori that it is highly
12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Fig. 29. — ^Journal of the voyage of an Eskimo of Alaska. Example
of pictography. {AJler Mailer y- Hoffmann. )
developed among the Indians of North America, and as a
matter of fact it is. The number of pictographs on tablets
of wood, bits of bark, skins (often on those forming the tent),
is enormous in every tribe. These are messages, hunting
stories, songs, veritable annals embracing cycles of seventy,
a hundred and more years (the latter bear the picturesque
name of "winter tales ").i We may judge of the degree of
development of this art among the Indians by the following
example of a petition (Fig. 30) presented in 1849 to the
President of the United States by the Chippeway chiefs
asking for the possession of certain small lakes (8) situated in
the neighbourhood of Lake Superior (10), towards which
1 S. Malleiy, "Pictographs of the North American Indians,'' Fourth
Rep. Bur. Ethn., 1S82-83, Washington, 1884. By the same, "Picture
Writing of the American Indians," 1888-89, Tenth Rep. Bur. Ethn., .
1893.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS.
139
leads a certain road (11). The petition is painted in
symbolic colours (blue for water, white for the road, etc.)
on a piece of bark. Figure i represents the principal
petitioning chief, the totem of whose clan is an emblematic
and ancestral animal (see Chapter VII.), the crane; the
animals which follow are the totems of his co-petitioners.
Their eyes are all connected with his to express unity of
view (6), their hearts with his to express unity of feeling.
The eye of the crane, symbol of the principal chief, is more-
over the point of departure of two lines: one directed towards
the President (claim) and the other towards the lakes (object of
^^3,l)1uc.
EiiJ.oclirc. tl^.tncli red.
a.iwk
Fig. 30. — Petition of Chippeway Indians lo the President of the United
States. Example of pictography, (After Schoolcraft.)
claim). In the other pictographs the symbolism is carried yet
further by the reproduction either of parts of the object for the
object itself (head or footmarks for the whole animal, etc.), or
by convejitional objects for very complicated ideas. Thus the
Dakotas indicate "a fight " by the simple drawing of two arrows
directed against each other (Fig. 31, i); the Ojibways represent
morning by the rising sun (2), " nothing '' by the gesture of a
man stretching out his arms despairingly (3), and " to eat " by
the gesture of the hand carried to the mouth (4), exactly as the
ancient Mexicans and Egyptians have drawn it in their hiero-
glyphics, or again, the natives of Easter Island (Fig. 31, 5) in
140 THE RACES OF MAN.
their rude attempt at ideographic writing on their " speech
tablets." ^ The writing of these tablets is but a series of
mnemonic signs which succeed each other in boustrofhedon
arrangement (see p. 142), being used for sacred and profane
songs, or for magical rites.
From a similar pictographic method is derived the figurative
writing in hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, the Chinese, the
Fig. 31. — Various signs of symbolic pictography ; i, war ;
2, morning ; 3, nothing ; 4 and 5, to eat.
Mexicans of the table-land of Anahuoc and their neighbours
the Mayas of the peninsula of Yucatan. This mode of writing
is a step in advance; certain figures have the phonetic
value of the first syllable of the word which they repre-
sent. It is the rebus or "iconoraatic" system, as Brinton
calls it. Thus the first words of the Lord's Prayer are repre-
P OD i OD
Fig. 32, — Paternoster in Mexican hieroglyphics.
sented in the Mexican code by the figures of a flag (Fig. 32)
{pantii), a stone {tetl), the fruit of the Indian fig (twchtli).
and another stone {tetl), the first syllables of which form
pa-te-nochte (Pater-noster).^ The drawings not representing
more than sounds, in this species of writing there is a tendency
to simplify them, and thus we see the primitive figure being
transforrned into a conventional sign representing a sound, a
^ Among the present natives of Easter Island there are only one or two
who can decipher these tablets. — W. Thomson Smith's Rep. U.S. NaU
Mus., 1889, p. 513.
- Aubin, RiZue orientale et Atncrkaine, vol. iii., p. 255.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS. I4I
syllable. This transformation may be traced in the Egyptian
hieroglyphics as well as in the cuneiform writing of the ancient
Assyrians. In Chinese writing the same phenomenon has
taken place, as is evident from Fig. 33, which represents the
ancient hieroglyphics side by side with the modern — morning,
i; the moon, 2; a mountain, 3; tree, 4; dog, 5; horse, 6;
man, 7. These characters, though simplified, have kept their
first signification corresponding to the figure. The association
of these figures with the purely phonetic signs constitutes one
of the principal resources of Chinese writing, which enables
homophonic words,i etc., to be distinguished.
Chinese characters have been adopted by only one people
with an agglutinative language, the Japanese, who along with
_M. ti \li ^ fs. M K
Fig. 33. — Ancient Chinese hieroglyphics (top line),
Modern (bottom line).
these characters (Afana) use another method of writing (Karid),
which is syllabic. The Egyptians, speaking an inflectional
language, had, on the contrary, to abandon hieroglyphic
writing at an early period in order to pass on to syllabic
' The two hundred and fourteen "keys "or hieroglyphics comparable
with the hieratic characters of Egypt — that is to say, ideograms represent-
ing categories of objects or symbolising general ideas — joined to a thousand
phonetic signs, suffice by their combinations to convey a definite sense to the
series of homophonous hieroglyphics forming the forty-four thousand char-
acters of Chinese handwriting. Thus the word or syllable pa signifies
banana, war-chariot, scar, cry, etc. To distinguish the various accepta-
tions of the word, there must be joined to the phonetic sign/« (derived
from a word the proper sense of which has long been obliterated) the key
of plants, or that of iron, of diseases, of the mouth, according to the sense
which it is desired to give to it. The monosyllabic structure of Chinese
lends itself admirably to this hieroglyphic writing.
142 THE RACES OF MAN.
writing and running characters (hieratic and demotic). It is
supposed that from the Egyptian (hieroglyphic and hieratic)
writing was derived the alphabet styled the Phoenician, the
prototype of most of the alphabets of the world.^
The direction of the lines in writing is especially determined
by the nature of the materials written upon. As long as it is
a question of tracing on rocks, monuments, etc., there is no
dominant direction, and the signs are disposed, as in the picto-
graph, at hazard, in any direction whatever. Even the ancient
Greeks wrote sometimes from right to left, sometimes from
left to right, sometimes in " boustrophedon " — that is to say,
alternately, in both directions, as oxen walk during ploughing.
But from the time people began to write on palm leaves,
on bits of bark, on tablets, papyrus, paper, it has been found
necessary to choose a uniform direction.
The brush of the Chinese determined the direction down-
wards and from right to left, as for painting. The ancient Syriac
estranghelo was also written in the same way, but from left to
right; this direction still persists in Mongol writing, which
is derived from it, while Arabic had transformed it into hori-
zontal writing from right to left. And to-day certain peoples,
for instance the Somalis, yet write Arabic downwards, and
read it from right to left, turning over the leaf at 90°. Writing
from right to left may have been favoured by the sacred custom
of the Arabs placing themselves with their face to the east, the
light coming from the right ; besides, contrary to what takes
place with us, in Arabic writing the paper must be made to
move from left to right with the left hand, while the right
hand, which writes, remains motionless.^
' The discovery by A. J. Evans of a special syllabic writing in the island
of Crete leads one to conjecture, on the contrary, that it was from this un-
fortunate island that the first alphabet set out. .This writing, more ancient
than the Phoenician characters, is a direct derivative of pictography ; it
is found again at Cyprus and in Asia Minor at the epoch of the jEgean
civilisation. — A. J. Evan.s, Rep. Brit. Ass., 1S96, p. 914.
^ C. Vogt, "L'Ecriture, etc.," Rev. Scienl., 2nd half-year, p. 1221.
Paris, 1880.
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERS, 143
The propagation of the different methods of ancient and
modern writing and their adoption by different peoples, are
closely bound up with the religion and progress in civilisa-
tion of these peoples. Thus the Mussulman world has
adopted the Arabic writing; the Buddhists of the north,
without distinction of race, hold in great esteem the sacred
Thibetan characters, whilst those of the south venerate the
Pali writing. The Mongol and Manchu alphabets are remains
of the Uighuro-Nestorian influence and of the Syriac writing
in Central Asia, as the Javanese alphabet is the remains of
the civilising domination of the Hindus in Java. With the
expansion of European colonisation the characters of the Latin
alphabet become more and more prevalent; in Europe even,
they tend to relegate to the second place the other characters
(gothic, cyrilic, etc.). At the same time, new modes of writing
are coming to the front, the telegraphic alphabet, stenography,
precursors of a writing of the future, universal, international,
simple, and rapid.
CHAPTER V.
II. — SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
I, Material Life : Alimentation: Geophagy — Anthropophagy — Pre-
paration of foods — Fire — Pottery — Grinding of corn — Stimulants and
narcotics — Habitation: Two primitive types of dwellings — Permanent
dwelling (hut) — Removable dwelling (tent)— Difference of origin of the
materials employed in the two types — Villages — P"urniture — Heating
and lighting — Clothing: Nakedness and modesty — Ornament pre-
cedes dress — Head-dress — Ethnic mutilations — Tattooing — Girdle,
necklace, and garland the origin of all dress — Manufacture of garments
— Spinning and weaving — Means of existence: tools of primitive in-
dustry — Hunting — Fishing — Agriculture — Domestication and rearing
of animals
I. MATERIAL LIFE.
Alimentation. — The first and most imperious preoccupation
of man at all tiines is the search for food. It is therefore
natural that we should begin our brief account of sociological
characters with those relating to this preoccupation.
In tropical countries man finds in nature without effort
edible plants in sufficient quantity for his support. It is said
that in the island of Ceram, a single sago-tree will yield what
will nourish a man for a whole year.
In temperate countries there are also not wanting vegetable
species which, with only slight effort on man's part, produce
nutritive substances. The animal world also supplies every-
where a great variety of species suitable for food. These, for
the most part, belong to the division of vertebrates or molluscs;
however, certain of the arthropods (crustaceans, insects, etc.),
144
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. I45
echinoderms (sea-urchins), nay, even worms (large earth-
worms of China, Tonkin, and Melanesia), also furnish their
contingent to human gluttony.
The mineral kingdom contributes only salt, which, however,
is unknown to certain tribes, as, for example, the Veddahs
(Sarazin), the Somalis (Lapicque), etc. Besides, according to
Bunge,^ peoples whose food is almost exclusively animal (as is
the case of the Veddahs, Eskimo, etc.) never eat salt, while
those whose chief food is of vegetable origin experience an
irresistible need for this condiment, probably because of the
insufficiency of mineral substances in plants.
Perhaps also to this need of supplying the deficiency of mineral
substances (calcareous or alkaline salts) is due the habit of
eating certain earthy substances — kaolin, clay, limestone.
Geophagy has, in fact, been observed in all parts of the
world : in Senegal (the earth called " konak "), in Persia
(argillaceous earth from Nichapur and the saline steppes of
Kirman, composed of carbonate of magnesia and chalk),^
and especially in the Asiatic archipelago, in India, and South
America. In the markets of Java are sold little squares or
figures in baked clay ("ampo" in Javanese) which are much
valued, especially by pregnant women.^ In Calcutta are sold
similar products, and in several towns of Peru hawkers offer
for sale little figures in edible earth. The Indians of Bolivia
eat a white clay, a kind of kaolin called "pasa."* The Whites
settled in South America are likewise addicted to geophagy.
Women assert that the eating of earth gives a delicate com-
plexion to the face. The same custom has also been
pointed out among women m several countries of Europe,
more especially in Spain, where the sandy clay which is
Bunge, Lehrbicch physiol. Chemie, 2nd ed., p. no, Leipzig, 1896.
2 Goebel, Bull. Ac. Sc. St. Felersb., vol. 1. (1861), p. 397, and Schmidt,
ibid., vol. xvi. (187 1), p. 203.
3 Wilken, Vergelijk. Volkenk. v. Ned hid., p. 89, Leyden, 1893;
Science et Nalitre, Paris, 18S5, 1st half-year, p. 393.
^ T. Gautier, "Sur une certaine argile blanche, etc.," Acles de la Soc.
Sclent, du Chili, vol. v. (1895), pt. i to 3, Santiago, 1895.
10
146 THE RACES OF MAN.
used for making the "alcarrazas" is especially in vogue as an
edible earth. ^
We must now pass on to speak of another food — human flesh.
Anthropophagy is much less general than is usually believed.
Many peoples have been wrongly accused of this crime against
humanity by travellers who have had neither the time nor the
means necessary to verify the fact, and by writers who here
formed a hasty generalisation from isolated facts. ^
Cannibalism has also been too hastily inferred from the
observation of facts like "head-hunting," or the practice of
adorning houses with human skulls and bones. As with
human sacrifices, these are perhaps survivals of ancient
cannibalism, but not proofs of its existence at the present
time.
Besides, it must be noted that most of the statements of
authors have reference to bygone times, which would lead us
to suppose that anthropophagy is a custom tending to dis-
appear among all peoples, even among those who have not
been converted to one of the religions whose dogmas con-
demn this practice (Chrictianity, Buddhism, worship of
Riamba in Africa,^ Islamism, etc.).
It appears from the very conscientious work of P. Berge-
mann,* that actually the only regions of the world where
anthropophagy has been really proved to exist are Oceania
(including the Asiatic Archipelago), Central Africa, and
Southern America.
The Battas of Sumatra, the natives of the Solomon Islands,
of New Britain, and of certain islands of the New Hebrides,
as well as a large number of Australian tribes, are known as
^ Hellwald, Ethnogr. Rossehpriinge, p. 168, Leipzig, 1891.
^ Thus, merely from a phrase heard from the lips of a Fuegian boy
by Byron, and reproduced in the Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin, the
Fuegians have until the present time been accused of cannibalism, and
yet no observer living months and years among these savages has been
able to verify the existence of this custom, in spite of all efforts to dis-
cover it.
'^ Wissmann, Im Iniieren Afrikas, p. 152, Leipzig, 1888.
* P. Bergemann, Verbreitimg d. Aiilhropoph., Breslau, 189 j.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 147
incorrigible cannibals. We can speak less confident!}' as to
the other inhabitants of Oceania. Dyaks, Fijians, New Cale-
donians, Karons of New Guinea, seem to have abandoned
cannibalism. In South America positive facts abound con-
cerning the anthropophagy of the Arovaques and certain
Indians of Columbia, the Botocudos and some other Brazilian
tribes ; but for the rest of the continent they resolve them-
selves into the statements of ancient travellers or to the report
of survivals. On the other hand, Central Africa appears to be
the chief seat of anthropophagy. It is of frequent occurrence
among the Niam-Niams, the Monbuttus, the Bandziris, and
other tribes of the River Ubangi, as well as among the tribes
of the Congo basin, the Basangos, the Manyuema, the tribes
of Kassai, etc. We have likewise genuine proofs enough for the
Fans of French Congo and certain tribes of the Benguelas. In
general, cannibalism appears to be unknown in Africa beyond
the tenth degree of latitude to the north and south of the
Equator.
Cannibahsm is practised for three reasons : necessity,
gluttony, superstition.
Necessary Anthropophagy may take place in consequence of
the want of animal food, as in Australia, or in consequence
of accidental circumstances (shipwreck, famine), as it may
occur even among civilised peoples ; but this kind of
cannibalism is as rare as that which is attributable to gluttony.
It is said, however, that the Melanesians of the Solomon
Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Britain hunt man
merely to sa'.isfy their taste for human flesh. The Niam-
Niams pursue the same kind of sport not only for the
flesh, but for the human fat which they utihse for lighting
purposes. Various tribes of the Ubangi 'buy slaves or capture
men separated from their fellows in order to fatten them up
and eat them afterwards; sometimes, to improve the flavour
of this kind of meat,, the carcasses are left to soak in water ;
similar facts have been observed among the Manyuema.
However that may be, the majority of cases of cannibalism may
be explained by superstitious beliefs. There is especially a
I4S THE RACES OF MAN.
belief in the possibility of appropriating the virtues and the
qualities of a man by eating the whole or certain portions of
his body — the heart, the eyes, the liver. Sometimes drinking
the blood of the victim is regarded as sufficient.^
Of the three causes which I have just enumerated the first
two are probably the remains of downright anthropophagy —
that is to say, of the habit of eating one's relatives and especially
one's offspring just the same as any other flesh, as it exists among
many animals. The Australians, for example, are known to
eat their children which they have killed for other reasons
(restriction of progeny).
R. S. Steinmetz^ has thought it possible to bring together all
these cases of anthropophagy under the name of "endocanni-
balism," or the practice of eating parents and relatives. He
mentions a great number of tribes in which this practice
exists alone or combined with "exocannibalism," that is to say
the habit of eating the flesh of strangers. This second sort of
cannibalism, much more widely diffused, however, than endo-
cannibalism, is alone amenable to moral, religious, or social
ideas, while endocannibalism is but the remains of a natural
state of primitive man, the residue of instincts which still
stirred his soul at the period when he wandered solitary through
the virgin forests without realising the possibility of forming
any social group whatever.^
Ritual anthropophagy persists for a considerable length of
time, and may accord with a relatively developed civilisation.
The Battas, the Monbuttus, the Niam-Niams, are tribes
^ Among the Kalebus of Central Africa (between Lomami and Lukassi,
.6° lat. S.) the whole of the body is eaten with the exception of the fingers,
which are left untouched from a fear of disease "which retires to them as
the last place of refuge" (Wissmann).
^ R. S. Steinnietz, "F,nAoc!mmha\i%mu&," Miitheilungen dei- Anlhrofol.
Gesel. in IVien, vol. x.xvi. (xvi.), pt. 1-2, 1896.
^ It seems to me that Steinmetz's theory encounters a great difficulty in the
fact that anthropophagous peoples (for example, certain Australian tribes)
avoid eating relatives, with the exception of infants; the clans exchange
one with another the bodies of their dead in order that each may only eat
individuals unrelated to it.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 149
almost half civilised; one has a well-developed method of
writing and a style of ornament, the others have a fairly ad-
vanced social organisation. As a survival, anthropophagy
manifests itself not only in the practice of cutting off the heads
(Dyaks) in human sacrifices, but also in a multitude of
religious or superstitious practices among a great number of
even civilised peoples. The belief in the supposed curative
properties of human flesh, especially that of executed criminals,
is still in full force in China,i and was so in Europe in ancient
times and in the Middle Ages; the Salic law forbade the magical
practices associated with anthropophagy. To drink from the
skull of an enemy was a very widespread custom in Asia and
Europe, and even until the beginning of this century the
remains of the skull of a hanged criminal figured among the
remedies in the pharmacopoeias of Central Europe.
Preparation of Foods. — There is no people on earth which
eats all its food quite raw, without having subjected it to pre-
vious preparation. Some few northern tribes, the Eskimo,
the Chukchi, eat, it is true, reindeer's flesh and fish quite
raw, but they cut these up, prepare dried provisions from them,
and moreover they cook their vegetable food.
Food is prepared by cutting it into pieces, subjecting it to a
fermentation, moistening it, triturating it, and especially by
exposing it to the action of fire.
No tribe exists, even at the bottom of the scale of civilisation,
which is not to-day acquainted with the use of fire, and as far
back as we can go into prehistoric times we find material traces
of the employment of fire (cinders, charcoal, pieces of worn-out
pyrites, cracked flint, etc.). However, the preservation of
fire produced by the natural forces (conflagrations, lightning,
volcanoes, etc.) must have preceded the production of fire
(Broca, Von den Steinen). Most of the forces of nature trans-
formable into heat — light, electricity, motion, and chemical
affinity — have been turned to account by man in the production
of fire with more or less success. Kindling flame by concentrat-
^ Schlegel, " Festgabe Bastians" (suppl. No. to vol. i.\. oi /nienmf.
Anhiv. fiir Ethnogr., 1896).
ISO
THE RACES OF MAN.
ing the solar light with bi-convex glasses and mirrors, mentioned
from the remotest antiquity, could never have become general.
It is the same with electricity. On the other hand, motion and
chemical affinity have been at all times, and still are, pre-
eminently the two productive forces of fire. Motion is utilised
in three different ways : by the friction of two pieces of wood,
by the striking together of two pieces of certain mineral sub-
stances, or by pneumatic compression. The last method is
little used ; it has been observed among the Dyaks of Borneo
and in Burma. It is based on the principle of the pneumatic
tinder-box of our scientific demonstration rooms. But the two
other modes of utihsing
motion are still in general
use among all savage
peoples.'
A little red-hot ember
capable of setting fire to
certain substances (tinder,
down, dry grass, etc.) may
be obtained either by
rubbing together two pieces
of wood, or by sawing
one across the other, or by
turning the end of one in a
little hole made in the other,
of making fire by friction, each having a
The first way (simple rubbing).
Fig. 34. — Method of fire-making by
rubbing. {Afler Hough.)
Hence, three ways
well-defined geographical area,
the most primitive and the least easy, is employed especially in
Oceania. It consists in rubbing a little stick of hard wood,
bending it downward, against a log of soft wood held between
the knees (Fig. 34). A little channel is thus hollowed out of
the log, and in the end the operator succeeds in obtaining
incandescent particles of pulverised wood, which gather at the
bottom of the channel. He has only to throve in a little dry
grass or tinder and to blow upon it to obtain the flame.
' W. Hough, "The Methods of Fire-making,'
Nalional Museum for iSgo, p. 95. Washington, iS
Report of the U.S.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
151
The j-az£;/«^ method (Fig. 35) is employed by the Malays and
by some Australian tribes, as well as in Burma and India. A
piece of bamboo split longitudinally is sawn with the cutting
edge of another piece of bamboo until the sawdust becomes
hot and sets fire to the tinder on which it falls.
Fig. 35. — Method of fire-making by sawing. {After Hotigh.
The twirling or rotatory method (Fig. 36), which consists
in turning the end of a fragment of wood supported on the
surface of another fragment, is the
most generally used. It is met
with among Negroes, the Indians
of North and South America, the
Chukchi, in certain regions of
India, etc. The most primitive
apparatus consists of a log or board
of soft wood, held horizontally with
the feet, on which is placed the blunted
point of a cylindrical stick of hard
wood. Twirling the stick rapidly
between the hands in both directions, Fig. 36.-Method of fire-
a little hole is hollowed and the dust '-I'i"? W twirling a^ong
, , . , , J . , the Kafirs. {After Wood. )
of the wood which gathers around the
point becomes incandescent. It is thus that some tribes of
Zulus and of Australians, the Ainus, etc., make fire.
But to this primitive apparatus important improvements
are made among other populations, especially among the
Redskins and the Eskimo. The hole in a horizontal board is
152 THE RACES OP MAN.
hollowed out beforehand, then a communication is made
between this hole and one of the vertical faces of the board
by a channel through which escapes to the outside the
woody powder produced by rubbing, in the form of little
incandescent cylinders, which falls on the tinder. As
to the upright stick, different contrivances are fitted to it to
render its motion more rapid and more regular. Thus the
Eskimo wind round it a cord which is drawn alternately
in both directions ;i in this case the upper end of the stick is
held by an assistant or by the operator himself. They apply
also to these apparatus a mouth-drill, etc.
The second method of obtaining fire, that of striking together
two pieces of iron pyrites or two pieces of flint, or flint against
pyrites, must, like the first, have been known from the most
remote period. To-day it is only employed by some few back-
ward tribes — Fuegians, Eskimo, Aleuts. With the knowledge
of iron, which replaced pyrites, the true "flint and steel"
was invented; it very quickly superseded in Europe and Asia
the production of fire by friction, as, in its turn, it has been
superseded by apparatus utilising the chemical aflSnity of
different bodies (matches).
But the old processes survive in traditions, in religion.
Thus the present Brahmins of India obtain fire for religious
ceremonies by the friction of two sticks, in front of shops
where Enghsh matches are sold; it is still by friction that the
Indians of America, amply provided with matches, procure fire
for the sacred festivals. Even in Europe, in Great Britain,
and in Sweden, at the beginning of this century the fire
intended for superstitious uses (to preserve animals and people
against contagious diseases) was kindled by rubbing together
two pieces of wood. This practice was forbidden by a decree,
dating from the end of last century, in the same district of
Jonkoping whence to-day are sent forth by millions the famous
Swedish matches.^
^ An apparatus of this sort was in use half a century ago among Polish
peasants [Globus, vol. lix. , 1S91, p. 3S8).
^ Tylor, Anltiropology , p. 262.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. I 53
1 he long and difficult processes of obtaining fire compel
savage tribes to preserve it as one of the most precious things.
Almost everywhere it is to women that the care is committed.
Among the Australians, women who let the fire go out are
punished almost as severely as were the Roman vestals of old.
The Papuans of Astrolabe Bay (New Guinea) prefer to go
several leagues in search of fire to a neighbouring tribe than to
light another (Miklukho-Maclay). The preparation of "new
fire" among a great number of tribes, especially in America
and Oceania, is celebrated with festivals and religious cere-
monies.^
Cooking. — Fire, once discovered, heat, light, and at the same
time the means of rendering a great variety of foods more
digestible, were artificially assured to man. But it is some-
what difficult to roast a piece of meat in the fire, especially
when there is not a metal skewer at hand, as was the case with
primitive man. So, at an early stage, he tried to find some
method of cooking his food, especially fruits. He heated
stones in the open fire, and with these stones he cooked his
meat and vegetables. The process is still in use to-day among
tribes unacquainted with pottery. Thus the Polynesians before
their "civilisation" by Europeans proceeded in the following
way to cook their food. Stones heated in the fire were put at
the bottom of a hole dug in the ground; upon these stones was
spread a layer of leaves, on which were placed the fruit of the
bread-tree, then a fresh layer of leaves and other heated stones;
care being taken to cover the whole with leaves and earth. In
half-an-hour a delicious dish was drawn out of the hole.^
Among most savage Indonesians food is cooked in bamboo
vessels filled with water, in which heated stones have been
previously plunged. This method of cooking with stones is
also in use at the two extreme points of America, among the
■^ A certain moderalion must nevertheless be observed in the explanation
of myths and practices in which fire is concerned. See on this subject an
intelligent though somewhat exaggerated critique by E. Veckenstedt,
"Das wilde, heilige und Gebrauchsfeuer, " Zeitschr. jur Naiin-wiss.^ vol.
Ixvi. , p. 191, Leipzig, 1893.
- O. Mason, Origins of Invention, p. 158, London, 1895.
154
THE RACES OF MAN.
Indians of Alaska and the Fuegians. It is even used in
Europe among the Serbian and Albanian mountaineers.
Pottery. — But real cooking, even of the simplest sort, is only
possible with the existence o{ fottery, the manufacture of which
must have followed closely on the discovery of a method of
obtaining fire, for no example is known of unbaked pottery.
There are still peoples unacquainted with this art, such as the
Australians and the Fuegians, but the absence of it is not always
the sign of an inferior degree of civilisation, as we may. see
in the Polynesians before the arrival of Europeans, and also
Fig. 37. — Bark vessel, used
by Iroquois Indians. {^Afler
Cushing.)
Fig. 38. — Type of Iroquois
earthen vessel, moulded on
the bark vase of Fig. 37.
{After Cttshing.)
the present Mongols, whose cooking utensils consist of iron,
wooden, and leather vessels, for pottery which easily breaks
would be an encumbrance in nomadic life.
The most primitive pottery is made without the potter's
wheel. In its manufacture we may admit, with Otis Mason,i
three special tnethods of working. Modelling by hand; mould-
ing to an exterior or interior mould, usually a basket or other
object of wicker- woik, which burns away afterwards in the
baking (Figs. 37 and 38); and lastly, a (nethod of proceeding
which may be called coiling in clay. Long strings of clay are
' Olis Mason, loc. ci/., p. 158.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
155
taken and rolled so as to form a cone or a cylinder, or any
other form of the future pot, then the sides are made even.
The Zuili Indians of New Mexjco begin this work in a little
basket-dish (Fig. 39), which shows the connection of this
method with that of moulding, whilst the Wolofs, whom I
have seen working in the same way, as well as the Kafirs (Fig.
13 s. to the left), have only as a base to work upon a clay disc or
a wooden porringer, moulding being unknown to them. But in
both cases this mode of manufacture is already a step towards
pottery formed by the wheel, only instead of the clay it is the
hand of the workman which turns, naturally much more
Fig. 39. — Making of pottery without wheel by the Zufii Indians
(coiling method). {After dishing.)
slowly. Besides, the primitive wheel, that is to say, a disc or
a board set in motion by the hand, soinetimes without a pivot,
as still seen in China, does not revolve with the dizzy speed of
the true wheel, the construction of which is an adaptation of
the general processes of the transmission of forces by means of
levers and wheels.
In regard to pottery it must be noted that its manufacture is
left almost exclusively to women among most of the tribes of
America, while it is entrusted without distinction to men and
women in Africa.
Grinding of Corn. — ^We need not dwell on the means of
IS6
THE RACES OF MAN.
preparing food independently of the action of fire (n:iilk and
its products, pemmican, etc.) ; they vary infinitely. Let us
deal briefly, however, with the method of preparing grain.
Many peoples are unacquainted with flour : they eat the grain
P'IG. 40. — Primitive liarvest, ihe women (Shoshones) gathering
wild grain. {After Powell. )
either roasted or cooked, as we do still the most anciently
known perhaps of the graminacese, rice and millet. In the
primitive state of agriculture certain tribes of North America
combined in one single operation the threshing, winnowing,
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 157
and roasting of grain. After being triturated between the
hands, the grain is thrown into a basket-dish (Fig. 40) in which
are red-hot stones ; the straw burns, the husk comes off and
partly burns too, whilst the grain is being roasted.
From the time when some intelligent man perceived when
crushing a grain of corn, perhaps by chance, between two
stones, that flour might supply a more delicate food than
roasted grain, the art of the miller was discovered. There
are three ways of preparing fiour : pounding in a mortar,
trituration on a flat surface, and true grinding by means of
a mill turned by the hand or other motor power — animals,
water, wind, steam.
The mortar, used by a great number of savage or half-
civilised tribes to crush not only grain but also the roots of
starchy plants, cassava, yam, etc., must have been known for a
very long time. Its most primitive form is met with among
the Indians of North America — a block of granite or sandstone
in which a cavity has been made, with a piece of porous rock,
almost cylindrical, for the pestle. In Africa and Oceania the
mortar and pestle are of wood. Almost everywhere the
pounding is done by women. The rudest hand-mills, such
as are met with among the Arabs, the Kabyles, the Bushmen,
are made of a round stone pierced in the centre, turned on
another stone by means of a handle passing through the hole.
Incisions on the triturating surface of the millstone is not
found as yet in these primitive machines.
The preservation of food is known to a great number of
savage and half-civilised tribes. The Eskimo preserve their
meat by means of cold, many fisher peoples resort to salting,
the art of preparing true pemmican by enclosing the food in a
mass of grease or honey is known to the Veddahs of Ceylon, to
Negroes, etc.
Stimulants. — Among most savage peoples special ferme)ited
beverages are found: "koumiss," or fermented mare's milk,
among the Turco-Mongols; bamboo beer among the Mois
of French Indo-China; millet or eleusine beer among the
Negroes; sago-juice wine among the populations of the coast
158 THE RACES OF MAN.
of the Indian Ocean — Dravidians (Fig. 81), Indonesians,
Malays; "pulque," derived from the juice of the agave,
among the Mexicans of the high table-lands. I must lastly
mention "kava," the national beverage of the Polynesians,
concocted from the juice of the leaves of a pepper-plant {Piper
tiiethysticuni), which is made to ferment by means of the ptyalin
of the saliva, these leaves being previously chewed in com-
pany, each spitting out his " quid " into the common dish.
The distillation of fermented liquids for the purpose of
obtaining alcohol is known to most semi-civilised peoples. We
need but instance the "arka" of the Turco-Mongols derived
from "koumiss," the arrack of the Chinese and Japanese, etc.
Among the stimulants, tonics, narcotics, drugs, etc , other
than fermented beverages, and tea, coffee, and chocolate of
international fame, must be mentioned the kola nut used as a
stimulant on a large scale in the whole of Western Africa; the
"mate" {Ilex paraguayensis) taking the place of tea in a large
portion of South America; different roots and certain fish
(like the Fistularia serrata of Java)i used by way of aphro-
disiacs; lastly, the "coca" of the Peruvians and Bolivians
{Erithroxylon coca), the leaves of which taken as an infusion
plunge you, says Mantegazza, in the most delicious dreams,
while pulverised and chewed with lime they only act as a
stimulant. It is possible that the chewing of betel or siri, that
is to say, areca palm nut mixed with shell lime and wrapped
in a leaf of betel {Chavica belle), produce the same effect; but
this habit appears to be induced by hygienic considerations in
regard to the mouth. However that may be, the chewing of
betel nut, inseparable from Malaysian civilisation, always has
a tendency to blacken the teeth of peoples addicted to it.^
^ Internation. Arch, fur Ethnographie, vol. ix., pt. 3, Leyden, 1896.
^ Revue scientifique, 1892, 1st half-year, p. 145. It is also from hygienic
considerations in regard to the mouth that many peoples of India and the
Negroes of Senegal chew continually the dried roots of different plants
reputed antiseptic. In Siberia and in the east of Russia the chewing of
pine resin ("sera") has probably the same origin. The habit of chewing
tobacco is only common among European sailors and among the Javanese
and Chukchi.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. I 59
The practice of tobacco smoking, universal at the present
day, only spread into Europe in the sixteenth century. In
the primitive home of this plant, America, the Indians smoke
moderately, although the pipe with them plays a ceremonial
part ("the calumet of peace,'' etc.). The pipe, which in
Europe is yielding place to the cigar, is still held in great
honour throughout the whole of Asia, where ethnographers
point out more than 150 ethnic varieties of this object,
without counting the numerous forms of "narghile."' The
cigarette appears to be of Malay origin.^ The habit of
smoking opium, which so speedily becomes an invincible
passion, tends at the present day to spread wherever Chinese
influence penetrates: in Corea, Indo-China, etc.
The practice of smoking haschish, a product of Indian hemp
{Cannabis Indica), is localised in Persia and Asia Minor;
but it is found also among the Baluba Negroes of the Congo
basin, who attach to it a great importance from the politico-
religious point of view.
Not satisfied with eating, drinking, inhaling by the mouth,
and chewing stinralants, man absorbs them too by the nose.
The habit of taking a pinch of snuff, formerly the fashion in
the best society of Europe, seems now to be relegated to the
lower classes. But among several of the Bantu Negroes of
Uganda, of the Cameroons, and the east coast of Africa, snuff-
taking (introduced by Europeans?) is still in great honour, and
Kafirs in high positions carry coquettishly very small snuff-
boxes in the lobe of their ears. Instead of snuff, the Mura
Indians of the Lower Amazontake " parica," a very stimulating
powder, which is derived from the dry seeds of a vegetable
called " Inga." The stuff is taken by two persons together,
during the festival of the ripening of the Inga. One of these
Indian braves puts the parica into a tube and puffs it into the
nose of his companion.^
As Letourneau ^ judiciously observes, the chief motive for
■" Hellwald, Rosselsprunge, etc., p. 206
2 H. Bates, Naturalist on . . . Amazons, vol. i., p. 33r, London, 1863,
2 Letourneau, Sociologie, p. 44, Paris, 1S80.
l6o THE RACES OF MAN.
the use of various drugs and stimulants all over the earth is the
desire experienced by every human being to emancipate him-
self, if even for a moment, from the ordinary conditions of
existence. He is only too happy to be able to find at pleasure,
in the midst of the fatigues, the annoyances, and the miseries of
daily life, a moment of forgetfulness, the semblance of refuge.
Habitation. — The natural shelters — caverns, overhanging
rocks, holes in the ground, thick foliage, hollow trunks of
trees, etc. — must have been utilised by primitive man as places
of abode. But which of these shelters served as a model
for the first artificial dwellings ? Not the cavern, for even now
it is made use of just as it is by civilised populations in
China, Tunisia, Afghanistan, and even France, in the valley of
the Cher. Besides, with the exception, perhaps, of the huts
of the Eskimo, half underground and covered with a dome of
ice blocks, constructions in mineral substances are scarcely
found among savage peoples.^ Substances of vegetable origin
were those first utilised for fixed habitations (hut, etc.), and
substances derived from animals for dwellings which could be
carried.^
> The hut, which is the prototype of the fixed habitation, is
derived probably from the screen formed of -a series of branches
stuck in the ground, as one sees it still among the Austra-
lians. Sometimes this screen is constructed of large palm-,
leaves resting against crossed branches, as for example
among the Veddahs of Ceylon, Andamanese, the Botocudos,
and other Indians of Brazil. The leafy branches of these
screens had but to be arranged in the form of a circle or in
two parallel rows, their tops joined together, the interstices
' The beaten-earth and sun-dried clay structures of the Sudan, of
Turkestan, and Mexico are of "secondary formation"; they are derived
probably from the straw huts, as we shall see further on.
^ We call every habitation " fixed " which has not been constructed with
the view of being removed, however lisht and imperfect it be. Thus, the
rude hut which the Fuegian abandons so readily is nevertheless a fixed
habitalion, whilst the tent of the Kirghiz, a much more complicated
structure, and far more comfortable, must nevertheless be classed
among movable habitations.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
I6l
stopped up with grasses, moss, and bark, in order thiat the
frail shelter might be transformed into a stronger dwelling, a
better protection against the inclemencies of the weather. The
form which this primitive dwelling was thus obliged to take
depended then, before everything else, on the arrangement of
the branches of the screen: if put in the form of a circle
the hut became conical provided the branches used in its
construction were rigid and but little spread out (Fuegians) ;
hemispherical, cupola-shaped, if they were flexible and leafy
Fig. 41. — Hemispherical hut in straw of Zulu Kafirs. {After Wood
and other sources. )
(Australians); if they were placed in two parallel rows the hut
took the form of a two-sided roof, flat (Indians of the Amazon),
or convex (Todas), according to the materials.
Trying to secure themselves still better from the rain, the
wind, and the sun, the first architects must have dug out the
soil beneath the hut, as the Ainus, the Chukchi, the Kamt-
chadnles still do at the present time, and this may have
suggested the idea, as Tylor says,^ of extending the vertical
^ E. B. Tylor, Anthropology, p. 2S1.
l62
THE RACES OF MAN.
walls above the ground. The rushes, the little twigs, and the
clod's of potter's clay or grass which were used at first to stop
■S
V
I
up the holes, eventually formed the walls, and the ancient hut
thus raised was transformed into a dwelling a little more com-
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 163
fortable, having roof and ivalls. This was probably the origin
of the hive-shaped huts of the Zulu Kafirs (Fig. 41), and the
cylindrical, conical-roofed huts of the Ovampos (Fig. 42), and
the Gauls of the time of Csesar. Straw entering into the com-
position of the roof, and soflnetimes even the body of these
dwellings, they may be styled sirazv huts or thatched huts. As
to the quadrangular huts, they are transformed in the same
manner into those little houses so characteristic of the Muchi-
kongos, of French Congo and the coast of Guinea. ^ Among
the peoples inhabiting the shores of the Pacific and Indian
Oceans, from the Kamtchadales and the Indians of the north-
west of America to the Maoris and the natives of Madagascar,
the quadrangular houses are erected on poles even when they
are far from water. The materials of which they are con-
structed are bamboos, reeds, and palm-leaves.^
In order to give solidity to the straw and reed-built walls,
it must have been necessary at an early period to plaster them
over with potter's earth (Senegal, palafittes of the bronze age in
Europe). In very dry countries it was seen that lumps of clay
were able of themselves to form sufficiently solid walls, and
this observation has led naturally enough to the making of
sun-dried bricks, which were known to the Babylonians, to
the Egyptians, and are still used to-day in the Sudan, in
Turkestan, and Mexico.
Movable Habitations. — From the moment when the tired
hunter of primitive times fell asleep beneath the skin of a wild
beast spread out on two or three poles, and folded it up on the
morrow to carry it away with him in his wanderings, the tent
was invented. Skins continued to be the best material for its
construction until the invention of felt and stuffs, plaited or
woven of a sufficient breadth. Bark has only been used
^ L. Hosel, " Die Rechteckige SchragdachhlUte Mittelafrikas," ^(^/'(m,
1894, vol. xxvi., pp. 34 r, 360, and 378, with map.
^ There are many other types of dwellings peculiar to different regions:
the reed-built houses of Lob Nor (Eastern Turkestan), the Finnish houses
derived from semi-underground structures, the dwellings of the Caucasian
mountaineers, etc.
iC4.
THE RACES OF MAN.
exceptionally, in Siberia for example, and for summer tents only
(Fig. 43). Like the hut, the tent may be circular, conical
(Indians of North America), cupola-shaped (Kafirs), or quad-
rangular in the form of a prismatic roof (Thibetans, Gypsies).
The last-mentioned of these fofms has not been improved
on, and the Arab tent of the present day, which is derived
Fig. 43. — Slimmer tent of Tunguz-Manegres, of birch-tree
bark (exceptional type).
from it, differs from its prototype only in its dimensions and
the awning set up at the entrance. On the other hand, the
two circular forms have been improved on by the use of pieces
of wattling instead of poles, and felt instead of skins. The tent
has thus become a comfortable dweUing, the best suited to the
life of half-civilised nomads, a real house with a roof, conical
in the "Gher" of the Mongols (Fig. 44), almost hemispherical
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
I6S
"-to
wi ' —
"rt -O
^ i
O
1 66
THE RACES OF MAN.
in the " Yourte" of the Kirghiz.^ This dwelling of the nomads
has even served as a model for the permanent wooden habita-
tions of the tribes of the Yenisei or Altai. Their wooden house
has a ground-plan of hexagonal or octagonal form, imitating
the circular yourte or felt tent (Fig. 45), and it is only little by
Fig. 45. — Hexagonal house of non-roving Altaians, constructed in '
iniiiation of the felt tent of the nomads. {After Yadrinlsev.)
little, under Russian influence, that it is transformed into a
four-sided house.^ The " mazankis " of the Teleuts of Siberia
1 This tent has never, as a general rule, been placed among the Turco-
Mongols on a waggon, to be carried from place to place, as authors have
been pleased to affitni, from Ruliruquis to our own day. The habit in
question has only existed in some Nogai tribes, and has only been practised
in special circumstances (marriage, conveyance of women), the survival of
which is found among the Tatars of Koundrov, near Astrakhan.
^ Kharouzin, htoria, etc. {Hislory of the Development of the Habitation
among Turco- Mongol Nomads of Russia), Moscow, 1896 (in Russian).
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
167
and the Little Russians with their walls of fascines plastered
with clay and lime, are only imitations of wattled tents.
^^il';^^p^^/.f
o
As social life becomes more complicated, there appear,
side by side with the dwelling properly so called, other struc-
l68 tHE RACES OF MAN.
tures : granaries and storehouses, ordinarily built on wooden
pillars (among the Malays and the Ainus), or on a clay stand
(among the Negroes of the Sudan) or a wooden support
(Fig. 42), to protect them against the attacks of wild beasts.
Access to them, as to the houses on poles, is gained by
primitive ladders, a series of notches in a tree-trunk. Other
structures, light straw huts on trees, serve as refuges in case
of attack and as posts of observation to watch the movements
of enemies. The idea of defence was also the first motive for
the grouping of houses into villages. In non-civilised countries
almost always the villages and urban agglomerations are sur-
rounded with palisades (Kraal of the Kafirs, Fig. 46), ditches,
sometimes filled with traps and prickles (Laos), lastly, with
walls. Watch-towers replace the airy posts of observation on
trees (example: Lesghi village of the Caucasus). According to
the forms of propriety (see Chapter VII.), several families
may inhabit enormous houses in which each has a special
apartment adjoining the common space in which dwell the
non-married people (Nagas, Mossos, Pueblo Indians). The
"communal houses," so general in all Oceania and among
certain peoples of Indo-China, which serve at the same time
as "bachelor's dens," as "clubs," as temples, as inns, repre-
sent the common rooms of phalansteries as separated from
the private parts.
With habitations are naturally connected furniture, methods
of heating and lighting. Among primitive peoples all the
furniture consists of some skins and straw or dry grass for
bed and seat. Mats are already a sign of a fairly advanced
civilisation; carpets, seats, and beds come after (Figs. 44 and
120). The wooden pillow in the form of a bench is found
from Japan and New Guinea to the country of the Niam-
Niams and the Eastern Sudan, where it must probably have
penetrated from Egypt. Chests for linen, plate, etc., are quite
late inventions.
For heating purposes a fire in the middle of the hut was
used in the first instance. The Fuegians burn enormous
trees, which project from the hut and are brought forward into
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 1 69
the fire as the end is consumed. The smoke issues by the
open extremity of the hut. The Altaians, the Kamtchadales,
the Tunguses, the Kalmuks, are content with a similar fire
kept in the middle of the tent or wooden house (Figs. 44
and 45). Among the Russian peasants one may meet with
houses, "koornaia izba," having a stove, but not a chimney;
the smoke issues by the windows and by an orifice in the
roof. In Corea the smoke of the stove is carried under the
planks ; in China under a sort of clay bed (Kang). The
mantelpiece, raised above the hearth, appears to be a Euro-
pean invention which preceded that of the true chimney,
which latter appeared in the eleventh century. Among the
Eskimo the seal oil, which burns in great lamps of earth
dried in the sun, serves to give warmth and light at the same
time.
Very finely made lamps have been described as existing
among the Indians of North America. The Polynesians burn
coco-nut oil in a half of the shell of the coco-nut itself, using
the fibres which cover the fruit by way of wick. In Egypt, in
Babylon, in Europe, lamps have been known from the earliest
times.i But most primitive peoples are still content to burn
fat pine-knots or resinous torches for lighting purposes. The
Mois-Lays of French Indo-China obtain light by means of
little pieces of fir-wood burning aloft on a chandelier formed of
a double metal fork.^ This description may be applied word
for word to the "loocheena" of the Russian peasants, the use of
which has not disappeared at the present time. Moreover,
the torch was much used in the whole of Europe side by side
with closed and open lamps before the invention of the candle,
the light of which grows dim to-day before the petroleum lamp
even in China and Turkestan, and before the electric light
among us.
^ It is possible that in Western Europe a hard leaf of some plant folded
in a certain way has served as a model for the lamps with wicks called
Roman, to judge from certain actual forms. — Letourneau and Papillault,
Bicll. Soc. Atithr. Paris, 1896, p. 348. Vinchon, ibid,, p. 615.
^ Neis, Excursions et lieconnaissances, Saigon, vol. a., p. 33, 1881.
I/O THE RACES OF MAN.
Dress and Ornament. — To say that primitive man went about
quite naked is almost a commonplace, but to say that nudity
is not synonymous with savagery would appear a paradox to
many. And yet nothing is more true. Among the peoples
who know nothing of dress there are some quite savage, like
the Fuegians, the Australians, the Botocudos, and others
who have attained a certain degree of civilisation, like the
Polynesians (before the arrival of Europeans) and the Niam-
Niams. Let us remember, moreover, that the Greeks of
classic antiquity only half covered their nakedness. It does
not necessarily follow that the less clothes a people wears the
more savage it is. It is a question of climate and social
convention, entirely like the emotion of modesty, which is
not at all something natural and innate in man. It is not
met with among animals, and one could mention dozens
of cases of peoples among whom the sentiment is entirely
lacking. On the contrary, the fashion of covering the female
genital organs, for example among different tribes of the
Amazon, 1 and the male organs among the New Caledonians'^
or the New Hebrideans, is such as rather to attract attention
to these parts than to hide them. The same thing may equally
be said of the little ornamented aprons barely covering the
genital organs which are worn by the Kafir women (Fig. 47),
etc. Certain authors (Darwin, Westermarck) even think that
ornament in general, that of the region of the abdomen in parti-
cular, was one of the most powerful means of sexual selection,
by attracting attention to the genital organs. It is, rather, the
garment which gives birth to the sentiment of modesty, and not
modesty which gives birth to the garment. Among a people as
civilised as the Japanese, men and women bathe together quite
naked without any one being shocked. It was the same in
Russia during the last century.
And yet, to prove how conventional all this sentiment of
modesty is, it is only necessary to say that the Japanese
1 Von den Steinen, Unter d. Nalurvolk^ Zent. Brazil, Berlin, 1894,
p. 190.
^ Glaumont, " Usages, etc.," Rev. d'Ellmogr., Paris, 188S, p. loi.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
171
Fir,. 47. — Zulu girl wilh the three types of ornament: headdress,
nscklace, and belt ; also leather chastity apron decorated with
pearls. {Phot, lent by Miss Werner.]
172
THE RACES OF MAN.
are shocked to see the nude in works of art ; ^ that it is
as indecent for a Chinese woman to show her foot as for a
European woman to expose the most intimate parts of her
Fig. 48. — Ufhtaradelia, typical Fuegian with piimitive mantle of seal-
sldn; height, i m. 56; ceph. ind , 79.1. {Phol. of the Scientific Miss,
of Cape Horn, Coll. Miis. Nat. His.'., Paris.)
body; that a Mussulman woinan surprised in the bath by
indiscreet eyes hastens before anything else to hide her face,
the rest of the body being exposed to view without any great
1 C. Davidson, " Das Nackte, etc.," Globus, \o\. l.\x. , 1896, No. 18,
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 173
shock to modesty; that a European woman could never
uncover her breast in the street and does it in a ball-
room, etc.
Starting from the primordial nudity of mankind, we are led
to inquire what was the motive which prompted men to clothe
themselves. In countries with a rigorous climate it was the
necessity of protecting themselves from cold and damp,
but in the other parts of the world this has not been the case.
The sentiment of vanity, the desire of being different from
others, of pleasing, of inspiring with horror, begot ornaments
which became transformed little by little into dress.
Adornment of the Body. — Strange as it may appear at the
outset, the fact that ornament preceded dress is well established
in ethnography. It is, moreover, often difficult to draw the
boundary-line between the two. Thus the first and most
primitive mode of personal adornment is certainly that in which
the body itself is adorned without the putting on of any
extraneous objects whatsoever. And the most simple of these
primitive adornments, the daubing of the body with colouring
matter, may also be considered as one of the first garments.
Almost all peoples who go naked practise this mode of adorn-
ment (Figs. 59 and 124), but it is held in special esteem on
the American continent. The colours most used are red,
yellow, white, and black, yielded by such substances as ochre,
the juice of certain plants, chalk, lime, and charcoal. Certain
tribes of the Amazon basin fix a covering of feathers on their
body, daubed with a sticky substance. The painting of the
face (Figs. 158 and 159) is colouring only of a modified form.
Thibetan women coat their face over with a thick layer of
paste or starch, which with a refinement of coquetry they
inlay with certain seeds arranged so as to form designs more
or less artistic, without interfering with the red spots on the
cheeks made with the juice of certain berries. Chinese women
only put a thin coating of rice-starch without seeds, and the
Javanese women, hke our ladies of fashion, are content with
rice powder. The red spots on the cheeks of Mongolian and
Thibetan women are the prototypes of the paint which spoils
174
THE RACES OF MAN.
SO unnecessarily the fresh complexion and the faces, naturally
so beautiful, of the women of Southern Europe (Spain, Serbia,
Rouraania).
The custom of applying lac to the teeth, in vogue among
the Malays, the Chinese, and the Annamese; the colouring of
the lips so generally practised from Japan to Europe; the
dyeing of the nails and the hair with "henna" (^Lawsonia
Fig. 49. — Ainu woman tattooed round the lips.
inermis) in Persia and Asia Minor; lastly, the painting of the
eyebrows and eyelashes in the east, the dyeing of the hair in
the west, are various manifestations of this same mode of
primitive adornment.
Side by side with colouring must be placed tattooing, which
leaves more indelible marks. There exists an infinite number
of varieties of it, which, however, may be reduced to two
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
I7S
principal categories : tattooing by tna'sion, in which the design
is produced by a series of scars or gashes, and tattooing by
puncticre, in which the design is
formed by the introduction under
the skin of a black powder by
means of a needle. The first
method is practised by dark-
skinned peoples, Negroes, Me-
lanesians, Australians (Figs. 14,
15, 149, and 150). In this case
the incision having injured the
non-pigmented dermic layer the
scars are less coloured than the
surrounding skin. Tattooing by
puncture is only possible among
clear-skinned peoples; among the
Fig. so.— Foot of Chinese woman i^itter may be instanced the New
artificially deformed. {After Zealanders, the Dyaks, and the
Laotians, called "green-bellies."
In the case of a great number of peoples, tattooing is re-
stricted to one sex only, chiefly
to women (Ainus, Fig. 49, Chuk-
chi), or else to certain categories
of persons (postilions and drawers
of carriages in Japan ; sailors,
criminals, and prostitutes in
Europe).
Tattooing may be already con-
sidered as an ethnic mutilation ;
but there exist many others of a
less anodyne character which are
also connected with ornamenta-
tion. Chinese women deform
their feet by means of tight
bandages, and end by transform-
ing them into horrible stumps fig. 51.— Skeleton of the foot
(Figs. 50 and 51), which only represented in Fig. 50, with
outline of shoe.
1/6 THE RACES OF MAN.
allow them to walk by holding on to surrounding objects.
European and other " civilised " women compress them-
selves in corsets to such an extent that they bring on
digestive troubles, and even displacement of the kidneys.^
The Australians draw out the teeth of young men on their
reaching the age of puberty ; Negroes of the western coast
of Africa break the teeth and transform them into little
points ; the Malays file them into the form of a half-circle,
a saw, etc. As to cranial deformations, a whole chapter
would not suffice to describe them all. Topinard distinguishes
four principal types of such, without counting the various
special forms (trilobate skull of the islanders of Sacrificios,
etc.). In general the skulls are lengthened by this practice
into a sort of sugar-loaf, the top of which points more or less
upward and backward. It is chiefly by compression, by means
of bandages, boards, or various caps and head-dresses, that the
desired form of the head is obtained.^
Intentional deformation is practised by the Chinooks and
other Indian tribes of the Pacific slope of the United States;
by the Aymaras of Bolivia; in the New Hebrides; among a
great number of tribes of Asia Minor, where the deformed
skulls recall those which Herodotus had described under the
name of macrocephali. In Europe the custom of altering the
shape of the head has spread a little everywhere; the best
known deformation is that which Broca had described under
the name of " Toulousaine,'' and which is still practised both
in the north and south of France (Fig. 52). What effect may
deformation of the head have on intellectual development?
Inquiries made in this direction afford no positive infor-
mation; but it may be presumed that without being as
harmful as some people believe, the deformation, by
displacing the convolutions of the brain, may favour the
^ Mme. Dr. Gaches-Sarraute, VHygiinedu Corset, Paris, 1S96.
^ This intentional deformation must be distinguished from that which is
caused by the manner of placing the child in the cradle. This is always
less strongly marked, and may pass unnoticed in the head of the living
subject, but it may always be recognised in the skull.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
177
outbreak of cerebral diseases in persons predisposed to
them.i
Adornment wUh Objects attached to the Body. — The per-
foration of the ear, the nose, and the lips is made with the
view of placing in the hole an ornament of some kind or other.
Fig. 52. — Native of the Department of Haute-Garonne whose head
has undergone the deformation called " Toiilousaine." (Phot.
Deliste ; engraving hetonging to the Paris AntJi.ro. Society.)
Thus this species of mutilation may be considered as a natural
step towards the second manner of adornment, which consists
in placing or suspending gauds on the body. When people
have few garments or none at all they are compelled to hook
^ See for the details, L. A. Gosse, Essai deform, artif. crdne, Paris, 1885 ;
Broca, Insir. craiiiol., 1875; P. Topinard, Revue Anthro., 1879, p. 497,
^TiA Elem. Anthro., p. 744; Delisle, Deform, du crdne, Paris, 1880, and
Congr. Americanisle, Paris, 1892, p. 300; Ambialet, V Antlirofologie,
1893, p. II.
178 THE RACES OF MAN.
these objects to the body itself. The Botocudo perforates the
lobes of the ears and the lower lip to insert into them heavy
wooden plugs ; other Indians of South America perforate
the cheeks to slick feathers therein ; the Papuans and the
Australians the nasal septum, that it may hold a bone or
stick (Figs. 53 and 149); the Caribs and the Negroes of the
Ubangi the lower lip, for the insertion of crystal, bone, or
metal rods, or simply pins. Similar customs persist, moreover,
among peoples more amply clothed. The nose-rings among
the Dravidians or among Tatar women; the ear-pendants
of the American Indians (Figs. 158, 159, 160, and 161);
the bone plugs placed in the cheeks among the Eskimo; the
metal plates or precious stones inlaid in the teeth among the
Malays of Sumatra, exist to prove this point. And the
ear-rings of our civilised European women are the last vestige
of a savage form of adornment which requires the mutilation
of an organ.
The hair also is used to attach ornaments: flowers, jewels,
ribbons, chips, feathers (Figs. 47, 1,17, 154, 158, 159, and
frontispiece). As to the arrangement of the hair, it depends a
great deal on its nature. The Negroes, with their short and
woolly hair, are enabled to have a complicated head-dress (Figs.
47 and 141). Peoples with smooth hair are content to leave
it floating behind (Americans, Fig. 160, Indonesians), or to
gather it up into a chignon (Annamese, Coreans, Eskimo), in
one or several plaits (Chinese), or in several rolls or bands,
stuck together and disposed in various ways (Mongols, Japanese,
Fig. 120, Chinese). But it is among peoples with frizzy and
slightly woolly hair that the head-dress attains a high degree of
perfection. We have but to mention the capillary structures
of the Bejas (Fig. 138), the Fulbes (Fig. 139), the Papuans and
some Melanesians, whose mops of hair with a six-toothed comb
coquettishly planted at the top are so characteristic (Figs. 152
and 153).
The custom of shaving the hair of the head and the beard,
as well as the habit of plucking out the hairs, are more general
among peoples whose pilous system is little developed than
SOCIOl^OGICAL CHAKACTERS,
1/9
l8o THE RACES OF MAN.
among hairy peoples. All the Mongolians, all the Indians of
America, and alrinost all the Oceanians shave or pluck out the
hair. Amongst them the razor, sometimes a fragment of
obsidian or glass, is used in conjunction with depilatory
tweezers. The wearing of the beard or long hair is often a
matter of fashion or social convention. From the time of the
patriarchs the beard has been honoured in the East, while in
the West the fluctuations of fashion or opinion have made of
its presence or absence a sign of opposition (Protestant clergy
before the eighteenth century in Germany, Republicans of the
middle of this century in France), or a distinctive mark of
certain classes (Catholic clergy, servants, actors, soldiers in
many states). Several superstitious ideas are connected with
human hair. From at least the ninth century to the end of
the Middle Ages, the Slavs and the Germans shaved the
crown of their children's heads, believing that it facilitated
teething.
It would take too long to enumerate all the peoples among
whom the cutting of the hair is a stigma of slavery or
degradation; certain peoples cut their hair as a sign of
mourning (Dakota Indians, etc.), others, on the contrary,
let it grow very long for the same reason. On the other
hand, the habit of letting the nails grow to a length of
several centimetres, so general among the wealthy classes in
Indo-China and Malaysia, is inspired chiefly by vanity; the
object being to show that they have no need to resort to
manual labour in order to live.
The Girdle, Necklace, and Garland. — Ornaments fixed to the
body without mutilating it (the second stage in the evolution
of ornament) are very varied. Originally strips of hide,
sinews of animals, or herbaceous twigs, sometimes plaited,
were fastened around the head or parts of the body where
there was a depressed surface, above a bony projection or a
muscular protuberance — the neck, the waist, the wrists, the
ankles, as is still seen among the Fuegians (Fig. 174),
Melanesians, Bushmen, and Australians. According to the parts
of the body thus adorned, four classes of ornaments may be
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS, l8l
recognised : garlands, collars, belts (Fig. 47), and bracelets (on
the arras and legs). To these simple bands men began at
first to attach all sorts of secondary ornaments : bright shells
(frontispiece and Figs. 53 and 151), seeds and gay-coloured
insects, beads of bone and shell-fish (Figs. 151, 159, and 160),
claws of wild beasts, teeth and knuckle bones of animals
and human beings (Figs. 158 and 159), bristles and hoofs of
the Suidse, pieces of fur, feathers of birds, leaves and flowers.
And it is to these superadded ornaments that we may trace the
origin of the garment proper. The thong of the head, over
and above its utilitarian purpose as a quiver (the Bushmen push
their arrows into it), becomes transformed into the crown of
feathers so well known among the American Indians and
Melanesians (Fig. 53), into a wreath of flowers among the
Polynesians, into all kinds of head-covering among other tribes
(Figs. 22, 40, 107, 108, 109, 115, 134, 145, etc.).
To the thong of the neck or collar may be suspended a
beast's skin, and you have it then transformed into a mantle.
Among the Fuegians this piece of skin is so scanty that they
are obliged to turn it about according to the direction of the
wind in order to protect the body effectually (Fig. 48). The
thong of the waist, the girdle, was likewise laden with different
appendages, and became transformed into a skirt. The leafy
branches which the Veddahs push under their belt, the pieces
of bark upheld by the belt among the Niam-Niams, the
Indo-Malayan "sarong" (Figs. 126 and 146), which com-
bines, the functions of a skirt and a belt, — these are all
merely the prototype of the skirt,
Space fails us to show in detail how the other ornaments and
garments have sprung from these humble beginnings. How
from the bracelet proceeded the ring; how the stone, the
twisted tooth, the perforated shell (Figs. 53 and 152) replaced
the thongs in this class of ornament ; how, when once metals
became known, gold and silver plates, hollow and solid rings
in gold, silver, copper, or iron (Figs. 112 and 158), brass
wire rolled several times around the neck and the lirabs,
were substituted for thongs of skin, blades of grass, and
1 82 THE RACES O? MAN.
shell beads. The inlaying of precious stones has transformed
ornament. The wearing of massive metal becomes uncomfort-
able even in the climate of the tropics; in certain countries of
Africa, rich ladies of fashion have slaves specially employed in
emptying pots of water over the spiral-shaped bracelets which
coil around the whole arm or leg and become excessively hot
in the sun (J. G. Wood).
It is necessary, however, to say a few words about the
fabrication of stuffs and the making of garments.
The skins of animals — ox, sheep, reindeer, horse, seal, dog,
eland, etc. — were used at first just as they were. Then men
began to strip off the hair when there was no necessity to
protect themselves from cold, soaking the skin in water,
to which they added sometimes cinders or other alkaline
substances. This is still the method adopted by the Indians
of the far west to obtain the very coarse and hard ox-hide
for their tents. But if they wish to utilise it for garments,
or if they have to deal with the skin of the deer, they scrape
it afterwards with stone or metal scrapers, cut it into half
the thickness and work it with bone polishers to render it more
supple.i Tanning comes much later among half-civilised peoples
(like the ancient Egyptians, etc.). Apart from the mammals,
few animals have furnished materials for the dress of man;^ the
famous mantles and hats of birds' feathers so artistically worked
by the Hawaiians and the ancient Mexicans were only state
garments, reserved for chiefs; clothes of salmon skin, prepared
in a certain way, have not passed beyond the territory of a
single tribe, the Goldes of Amoor; the fish-bladder water-
proofs of the Chukchi are only fishing garments. On the
other hand, the number of plants from which garments may be
made is very great. Several sorts of wood supply the material
of which boots are made (the sabot in France and Holland).
The bark of the birch is utilised also for plaited boots
("lapti" of the Russians and Finns), the bark of several tropical
' O. Mason, loc. cil., p. 274.
^ Note also that almost everywhere foot-gear and often head -gear are
made from materials obtained from the mammals ; leather, fur, and felt.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 1 83
trees, almost in its 'natural state or scarcely beaten, is employed
as a garment by the Monbuttus, the Niam-Niams, the tribes
of the Uganda, and is characteristic of Zandeh peoples in
general; this kind of garment is also found in America (among
the Warraus of Guiana and the Andesic tribes). In Oceania
the preparation of stuffs from the beaten bark of paper mul-
berry [Brusonnelia papyriferd) has attained a high degree of
perfection, and the "Tapa" of Tahiti with its coloured and
printed patterns, the " Kapa " of Hawaii, might enter into
competition with woven stuffs. 1
The latter have been known since remote antiquity. Woven
stuffs are found in the pile-dwellings of the bronze age in
Europe and in the pyramids of Egypt. But it seems that the
plaiting of vegetable fibres and grasses, as it is still practised
to-day with esparto grass, must have preceded true weaving.
The Polynesians still manufactured, at the beginning of this
century, robes plaited with the stems of certain grasses, and
plaited straw hats are made by Malays, Indians of North-west
America, etc. On the whole, weaving is only plaiting of a finer
substance, yarn, which itself is only very thin cord or twine.
The process of spinning cord or thread is always the same.
In its most primitive form it consists simply in rolling
between the palms of both hands, or with one hand on the
thigh, the fibres of some textile substance. This is how the
Austrahan proceeds to make a line with his wife's hair, or
the New Zealander when he transforms a handful of native flax,
inch by inch, into a perfect cord. The Australian had only to
transform into a spindle the httle staff with two cross-pieces, on
which he rolls up his precious line, to effect a great improvement
in his art.2 In fact, the spindle is a device so well adapted
for its purpose that it has come down from the most remote
Egyptian antiquity into our steam spinning factories almost with-
out alteration in form. Primitive weaving must have been done
at first with the needle, like tapestry or modern embroidery,
' See for details W. Brighani, "Hawaiian Kapa-making,'' Hawaiian
Alman. and Annual, p. 76. Honolulu, 1896.
"^ Tyler, Anlhropology, p. 246.
184 'I'HE RACES OF MAN.
but soon this wearisome process was replaced by the following
arrangement : two series of threads stretched between two staifs
which may be alternately raised and lowered half (warf) by
means of vertical head-threads attached to wooden sleys;
between the gaps of the threads passes the shuttle carrying
the woof, which is thus laid successively above and below each
thread of the warp. This is the simplest weaving loom.
The dyeing of thread and stuffs by an application of mor-
dants (kaolin especially) is known to all peoples acquainted
with weaving. Nature supplies colours such as indigo, turmeric,
litmus, purple, madder, etc., which are subjected to transforma-
tions by being left to steep with certain herbs. The Polynesians
were acquainted even with printing on textures by means
of fern-fronds or Hibiscus flowers, which they steeped in
colour and applied to their " tapa."
The primitive "tailors" cut their hides or stuffs with flint
knives, sewing the pieces together in shoemaker fashion; they
made holes with a bone or horn awl and passed through them
a thread made of the sinews of some animal, or of woven
grass, etc. Sewing with needles is less common among un-
cultured peoples, but it has been found in Europe from the
neolithic period.
Means of Existence. — To procure food and the necessary
raw materials for the construction of a shelter and the making
of clothes, man had to resort at an early stage to various
tools, arms, and instruments, which rendered his hunting,
fishing, and fruit-gathering expeditions more productive. ^
We will glance rapidly, in the first place, at fools of a
general character needed for all kinds of work. Among most
uncultured peoples the raw materials used for making tools
were, and are, stone, wood, bone, shell, horn. The
metals — copper, bronze, iron, steel — only came later on. This
does not mean that the knowledge of the use of metals is
necessarily connected with a superior stage of civilisation.
Thus most Negroes of Central Africa are excellent black-
' For details see G. de Mortillet, On'gines de la chasse, de la peche, etc.;
O. Mason, loc. cit. ; Tylor, Antlirop. ; Holmes, Fifteenth Rep. Bur. Eihnol.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
I8S
smiths (Fig. 135), though otherwise less advanced than certain
peoples unacquainted
with metals, like the
New Zealanders or the
Incas of Peru, for" ex-
ample (before the ar-
rival of the Europeans).
We cannot dwell on
the methods of working
each of the materials
from which tools may A
be made. It is enough /,(
to say that there are C
two principal methods \
of working stone — cut-
ting and polishing. The
chips are removed from
a stone either by percus-
sion with another stone
(Fig. 54), or by pressure
with the end of a bone or piece of pointed wood (Fig. 55)
N
Fig. 54. — Method of making stone tools by
percussion; the first blow. (After Holmes. )
It
Fig. 55. — Method of flaking stone by pressure; the splinter [c)
is severed by outside pressure on the stone with a pointed
bone [a). {After Holmes.')
1 86 THE RACES OF MAN.
was thus that the Europeans of the post-tertiary period obtained
their flint tools (Fig. 84), and to-day the same process may still
be seen in operation, less and less frequently it is true, among
the Eskimo when they are making their knives, and among the
Fuegians and Californians when they are preparing their spear-
heads or arrows, etc. (Figs. 56 and 73). The process of
polishing takes longer and produces finer tools (Figs. 7 1 and 1 1 2).
In Europe it succeeded that of stone-cutting, and it flourished
among the peoples of Oceania and America before the arrival
of Europeans. Polished tools are obtained by rubbing for a
long time a chipped or unchipped stone against another stone
with the addition of water and sand, or the dust of the same
rock from which the tool is made.
Fig. 56. — Knife of chipped flint of the Hupa Indians; it is mounted on
a wood handle with pitch. Attached to a longer handle it becomes
a spear. (After Ray, U.S. Nat. Museum.)
As to metals, of the two methods of working them, forging,
which can be adopted in the case of native metals, is more
general amongst uncultured peoples than casting, which
implies a knowledge of treating the ore. The Indians of
America could forge copper, gold, and silver before the arrival
of Columbus, but the casting of bronze or iron-ore was un-
known to them. On the other hand, Negroes know how to
obtain iron by smelting the ore, and from the very earliest
times the peoples of Europe, Anterior Asia, China, and Indo-
China were acquainted with the treatment of copper ore,i
and obtained bronze by the amalgamation of copper with tin,
and sometimes with lead or antimony (in Egypt, Armenia,
the Caucasus, Transylvania).
' Weeren, "Analyse, etc.," Verh. Berl. Ges. Anthr., June-Oct. 1895.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 1 87
In the early stages of material progress the objects manu-
factured were not differentiated; the weapon of to-day became
the tool of to-morrow, the agricultural implement of the day
after. However, there are savages who have sometimes
special instruments for cutting or chopping (axes, knives, saws
of stone or shell), saws for scraping or planing (scrapers and
raspers of stone, bone, shell, etc.), for piercing (awls of bone
or horn, stone bits), for hammering and driving in (stone
hammers), etc. As to the fastenings which keep together
the different parts of the tools, these are chiefly bands (sinews,
strips of hide or bark, plaited or spun cords) and the sticky
preparations of various gums and resins. An axe or a knife
is fixed to its handle by means of cords of plaited coco-nut
fibres in Polynesia (Fig. 71) and very rarely among Negroes
(Fig. 74), by resin in Australia and among the Hupa Indians of
the Oregon (Fig. 56), and by sinews or strips of sealskin among
the Chukchi and the Indians of California (Fig. 73).
The invention of primitive "machines" followed that of
tools. Alternate rotatory motion must have been utilised in
the first instance as being the easiest to obtain. Example:
the flint-pointed drill of the Indians of the north-west of America,
the apparatus for making fire (see Fig.' 36), or the turning-
lathe of the Kalmuks (Fig. 57), the Egyptians and the
Hindus, moved by the palms of the hand at first, with a cord
afterwards, and later again with a bow.^ The transformation
of this alternating motion into a continuous circular one must
probably have resulted from the use of the spindle furnished
with its wheel. In this instrument, so simple in appearance,
is found the first application of the important discovery that
rotatory movement once produced may be maintained during
a certain time by a heavy weight performing the function of a
fly-wheel.
The potter's wheel (p. 55) is a second application of the
same principle; rollers for the conveyance of heavy objects are
a third (see Chap. VII., Transports). The screw and the nut
^ Reuleaux, Hist, du divelopp. des machines dans Phumaitite (translated
from the German), Paris, 1876 (extr. from the section Ciiiematique).
1 88
THE RACES OF MAN.
appear to be a comparatively recent invention, presupposing a
degree of superior development. Certain authors see in the use
of twisted cords, and the cassava-squeezer of the Caribs of
Guiana,' the first steps towards that invention. The principle
of the single pulley is frequently applied by savages, and the
compound pulley or tackle-block is known to the Eskimo,
who make use of it to land huge cetaceans (Fig. 58).
AVe may divide the activity displayed by uncivilised and
even half-civilised peoples in procuring the necessaries of life
:C
Fig. 57. — Kalmuk turning lathe with alternating rotatory movement
obtained by means of a strap {a); (c) block of wood to make a
porringer; (rf) bench for the workman. {After Reuleaux.)
into four great categories: hunting, fishing, agriculture with
fruit-gathering, and cattle-breeding.
Bunting is almost the only resource of uncivilised peoples;
it is still a powerful auxiliary means of livelihood with nomads
and primitive tillers of the soil, and it is only among civilised
peoples that it assumes the character of a sport. Originally,
' This is a long woven bag in which the tough warp and woof run
spirally and diagonally, so that when the two ends are forced together the
cylinder becomes short and wide, and when pulled apart, it becomes long
and slender.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 1 89
man was obliged to hunt without weapons, as certain tribes
still sometimes do. On dark nights, when the cormorants are
asleep, the Fuegian hunter, hanging by a thong of seal-skin,
glides along the cliffs, holding on to jutting points of rock;
when near a bird he seizes it with both hands and crushes its
head between his teeth, without giving it time to utter a cry or
make a movement. He then passes on to another, and so
continues until some noise puts the cormorants to flight.
But more frequently the inventive faculty is brought into
play to construct all kinds of weapons for facilitating the cap-
ture of prey. As most of these contrivances are at the same
time weapons of war, we shall glance at them in Chapter VII.
Moreover, the multiplicity of weapons has not prevented
primitive man from using all sorts of stratagems for capturing
animals. Any one who has dipped into the old books on
venery, or even into catalogues of modern gunsmiths, is able to
realise this, for most of the traps, snares, and pitfalls represented
are also found among savages. Bow-traps are especially
favoured, but the springe forbirdsand the pitfallsfor large animals
are not despised. To these we may add the use of bait, poison-
ing, the smoking of bees in order to take their honey, the
imitation of the song of birds to allure them to the gin, disguise
by means of the skin of a beast the better to approach it, and
the artifices devised by man in his war with animals are not yet
exhausted. There is still the most treacherous of all : having
degraded certain animals by domestication (falcon, dog,
cat, etc.), man makes them hunt their untamed kind (see
Domestication).
In fishing there is the same display of artifice. The simple
gathering of shells, sea-urchins, and crustaceans at low tide,
mostly left to the women, supplements but little the means of
subsistence of fishing populations. The bulk of fish and
animals of aquatic habits are taken by means of suitable
weapons, and still more often by means of traps, weirs, poisoned
waters, etc.
The weapons most used in fishing are pikes with one or
several teeth (tridents, fish-spears), that the Melanesians, the
190
THE RACES OF MAN,
Fuegians, the Indians of Brazil, and so many otlier saVages
handle with the utmost dexterity, never missing the fish for
which they lie in wait sometimes for hours at a time. The bow
is also sometimes emplo3'ed to shoot the fish (Andamanese),
■§^
6 3
I -a
but the special missile used in fishing is the harpoon, the wood
or bone head of which usually takes the form of a fork or pike
with one or several barbs.
The Fuegians simply throw their harpoons like a javelin, the
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. IQI
Eskimo make use of instruments to hurl them (see Chap. VII.).
In many harpoons the head is only fitted to the shaft and
attached to it by a long cord; immediately the animal is
wounded the shaft separates itself from the head and acts as a
float, indicating the spot where the victim has plunged, for it
will not be long before he comes again to the surface to breathe,
and other wounds are then inflicted. The Eskimo of Asia
and the Chukchi also attach bladders to the shaft as floats.
But all these weapons are chiefly employed against marine
mammals (seals, sea-lions, walruses, whales, etc.); for catching
fish recourse is had to other means. Poisoning the water
appears to be one of the most primitive. It is constantly
practised by Australians, Indonesians, and Melanesians. We
have next to refer to the various devices for catching fish,
which, according to O. Mason, may be grouped into two cate-
gories — (i) those intended to bring the fish, quietly following
its way, into a place or trap from which it cannot afterwards
get out, and (2) those which consist in getting it to swallow a
hook hidden under some form of bait.
Among the former of these devices, bow-nets and sweep-
nets in bamboo and rattan are very widely used among the
Dyaks, Micronesians, etc. Cast-nets are less common among
uncivilised peoples ; they are met with, however, in Polynesia.
Fish-hooks other than those in metal are made of bone, the
thorns of certain trees, of wood, and especially of mother-of-
pearl. Yox fishing-boats, see Chapter VII. {Navigation).
Agriculture. — It is constantly stated that man has passed
successively through three stages — that in the first he was a
hunter, in the second a nomadic shepherd, and in the third a
tiller of the soil. This is only true if we consider agriculture as
it is understood at the present day in Europe, that is to say as
closely connected with the existence of certain domestic animals
(horses, oxen, etc.) which supply man with motive power and
at the same time with manure. But there are numerous
peoples, without these domestic animals, who nevertheless are
acquainted with agriculture, only it is a special kind of agri-
culture which is related rather to our ornamental and market
192 THE RACES OF MAN.
gardening, at least by the method of cultivation. ^ Hahn has
proposed to call this species of cultivation after the principal,
and almost the only, tool which is used — "Hoe-culture"
(Hackbau in German); while cultivation by means of a plough
drawn by animals might be called true agriculture (Ackerbau).
It is evident that in the development of mankind the most
primitive hoe-culture, such as is practised by certain tribes of
Africa and South America, may well have sprung from the
gathering of plants and roots. The Australians, the Papuans
(Fig. 152), and the Indians of California even yet make use of
pointed staves, hardened in the fire, to unearth natural roots;
certain Negroes and Bushmen join to the staff a stone whorl
which makes the work easier. These "digging sticks" are the
first agricultural implements ; they perhaps preceded the hoe.
The habit that many Australian tribes have of returning
periodically to the same places for the gathering of fruits and
roots, giving these time to grow, is one of the first steps towards
the cultivation of the ground; it proves a comprehension of the
development of a plant from a sown seed. Hoeculture
prevails at the present time in vast regions of tropical Africa
and in South America. The tubers, maniocs, yams, and sweet
potatoes play a prominent part there, but the graminaceae also
are represented by the maize introduced from America and rice
from Asia, and it is among the two peoples who have adopted
these cereals as the staple of their food, the Incas of Peru and
the Chinese, that hoe-culture has been improved by the intro-
duction of manure. Carried to a still greater degree of perfection
by the employment of artificial manure, it has been transformed
by civilised peoples into "plantations" (sugar-cane, coffee, etc.)
in tropical countries and into " horticulture " in all climates.
True agriculture could only have originated where the
ox, the horse, the buffalo, and other animals used in
ploughing were first domesticated— that is to say, in Eurasia,
and perhaps more particularly in Mesopotamia, where the
art of irrigation was known at a period when in other
countries there was not even any agriculture at all. As far
^ Hahn, Die Hmisthiere, etc., Leipzig, 1896, in 8vo, with map.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 193
back as the historic Chaldean monuments can talce us
we find agriculture existing in this part of Asia. In Europe
it has appeared since the neolithic age, after the quaternary
period. Domestic animals having most probably been intro-
duced into Egypt from Asia, it may be supposed that before
their introduction the country of the Pharaohs was cultivated
by the hoe, like the kingdom of the Incas of old, or that of
the "sons of Heaven" of the present day. Besides, in Asia,
as in Europe, hoe-culture existed thus early, and the favourite
plant cultivated was millet {Paniaim miliaceum, L.), con-
sumed but little to-day, but universally known, which attests
its importance in antiquity.'
The system of laying lands fallow and raising crops in
rotation could only have been established with the develop-
ment of agriculture. Hoe-culture was satisfied with the total
exhaustion of the soil, even if it had to seek out new ground
cleared by a conflagration of the forests, the ashes of which
were the first and only manure.
The plough, that implement so characteristic of true agri-
culture, has evolved, as regards its form, from the double-
handled hoe of Portuguese Africa (Livingstone), which bears
so close a resemblance to that of the Egyptian monuments,
to the "sokha" of the Russian peasants, and even to the steam
plough of the modern farmer, not to mention the heavy ploughs,
all of wood except the share and the coulter, still in use in many
rural districts of Central Europe. Reaping in both systems of
cultivation is accomplished with knives or special implements,
bill-hooks, examples of which, almost as perfect as those of
to-day, are found as far back as the days of ancient Egypt and
the bronze age in Europe; the scythe, known to the ancient
Greeks, appears to be a later improvement.
The threshing of wheat, which often constitutes but a single
^ This opinion of Hahn's appears to be corroborated by this fact, that
millet is still the "national cereal" of the Turkish peoples, who, like
all other nomad shepherds, beginning with hoe-culture, have arrived at
their present state through having preferred to breed animals other than
those used in ploughing — that is to say, the camel, sheep, and later, the
horse.
13
194 THE RACES OF MAN.
operation with winnowing and the preparation of food (see
p. 156) in hoe-culture, is accomplished in true agriculture
with the aid of domestic animals, either by making them tread
on the threshing-floor, or draw over the cut corn a heavy plank
strewn with fragments of flint (the tribulum of the Romans,
the mowrej of the Arabs and the Berbers, in Syria, Tunisia,
and Egypt). For grinding, see p. 156.
The use of granaries for storing the crop is known to most
semi-civilised peoples (see p. 168); almost always the granaries
are arranged on poles (example: Ainus), or on clay stands
(example: Negroes). "Silos," or holes in the ground for
hiding the crop in, exist among the Kabyles of Algeria, the
Laotians (Neis), the Mongols of Zaidam (Prjevalsky), etc.
Domestic Animah. — The breeding of domestic animals should
be considered, as I have already said, an occupation denoting
a social state superior to that in which hoe-culture is prevalent.
But before concerning himself specially with the breeding of
cattle, man knew how to domesticate certain animals. I
emphasise this term, for domestication presupposes a radical
change, by means of selection, in the habits of the animal,
which becomes capable of reproducing its species in captivity;
this is not the case with animals simply tamed.
One of the first animals tamed, then domesticated, by man was
probably the dog. The most uncultured tribes — Fuegians and
Australians — possess domesticated dogs, trained for hunting.
Europeans of neolithic times bred several species of them: the
Canis familiaris palustris, of small size; a large dog {C. f.
Inostrantzewi), the remains of which have been found in the
prehistoric settlements of Lake Ladoga and Lake Neuchatel,
and which would be nearly allied to the Siberian sledge-dogs;
lastly, the Ca?tis familiaris Lesneri, of very slender form, with
skull somewhat resembling that of the Scotch greyhound (deer-
hound), which gave birth in the bronze age to two races: the
shepherd dog (Canis familiaris matris opitimcB) and the hunt-
ing dog {Canis familiaris inter7nedius). It is from these three
species of Arctic origin that most of the canine races of Europe
and Central and Northern Asia are descended; those of Southern
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 1 95
Asia, of Oceania, and Africa would be derived from a different
type, represented to-day by tlie Dingo of Australia.^ We may
lay stress on these differences of canine races because often
the races of domestic animals vary according to the human
races which breed them. Thus, it has been observed in the
Tyrol that the geographical d stribution of races of oxen corre-
sponds with that of varieties of the human race.
After dogs, several other carnivorous animals have been
tamed with a view to the chase : tiger, ferret, civet cat, wild
cat, leopard, and falcon; but man has only been able to
domesticate two: the ferret and the cat. The Chinese have
succeeded in domesticating the cormorant and utilising it for
fishing, placing, however, a ring on its neck, so that it can-
not give way to its wild instinct to swallow the fish which it
catches.
Many animals have been domesticated by peoples acquainted
only with hoe-culture; such as the pig and the hen in Africa
and Oceania; the she-goat in Africa; the turkey, the duck
(Anas moschata), the guinea-pig, and the llama in America.
But true agriculture begins only with the domestication of the
bovine races, the she-goat, and the ass; and true breeding of
cattle with the domestication of the camel and the sheep
among nomads. The horse and the mule do not appear until
a little later among nomads, as among sedentary peoples.
Among the domesticated bovidae other than the ox must
be mentioned the yak in Thibet and around Thibet; the
gayal of Assam and Upper Burma; the banteng {Bos
sondaicus) of Malaysia; and the buffalo, which is found
everywhere where rice is planted. In mentioning, besides
the animals just referred to, the reindeer of hyperborean
peoples (Laplanders, Samoyeds, Tunguses, Chukchi), we
shall have exhausted the list of nineteen domesticated
mammals actually known to the different peoples, according
to Hahn. As to birds, out of thirteen, we have named only
1 Th. Studer, " Beitrage zur Geschichte unserer Hunderassen," Natttr-
wissench. Wochenschrift, 1897, No. 28. See also Mem. Soc. Hihitique
sciences naturelles, 1 896.
196 THE RACES OF -MAN.
four : cormorant, duck, hen, and turkey ; to these must
be added the goose, the swan, the Guinea-fowl, the peacock,
the pheasant, the canary, the parrot, the ostrich, and, lastly,
the pigeon, which perhaps of all the winged race is the easiest
to tame. The other classes of animals have furnished few useful
helpers of man. Among insects there are the bee and the silk-
worm; among fishes we can mention only three: carp, gold-
fish, and Macropus viridiauratus, Lacep., chiefly bred for
amusement by the Chinese.
CHAPTER VI.
11. SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS —COfti/nued.
^. Psychic Life: Gatnes and Kecrealions — Their importance — Games of
children and adults — Sports and public spectacles — Masks — Fine Arls
— Graphic arts — Ornamentation — Drawing— Sculpture — Dancing —
Its importance among uncultured peoples — Pantomime and dramatic
art — Vocal and instrumental music — Instruments of music — Poetry
— Religion — Animism — Its two elements ; belief in the soul, and
belief in spirits — Fetichism — Polytheism— Rites and ceremonies —
Priesthood — International religions — Mytlis — Science — Art of counting
— Geometry — Calculation of time — Clocks and calendars— Geography
and cartography— Medicine and surgery.
2. PSYCHIC LIFE.
Games and Recreations. — In two works based on carefully
observed facts, Groos has shown that animals do not expend
all their muscular and psychic energy in procuring the means
of material existence, but, further, expend this energy in
games, which are really a process of training, of education.
In a greater degree is this the case with man, that animal
whose psychical life has expanded so enormously, ^ In fact,
games are the first manifestatiolis of the psychical hfe not
only of man individually but of mankind as a whole.
It is necessary to distinguish between the games of children
and those of adults. The former are__, above alL imitation,
while the latter aim at either gaining an advantage or demon-
strating muscular or mental strength and skill.
The boys of " savages " handle tiny bows and lassoes made
by themselves, and hunt toy guancos, birds, and turtles made
of clay and wood, in imitation of their fathers; while the little
' K. Groos, Die Spiek der Tliierc, 1896; Die Spiele der Mensclien, 1899.
197
198 THE RACES OF MAN.
girls treat their rag dolls as actual children, repeating the
gestures and words of their mothers. It is the imitative game
of the young.
But if the object of the game is to exercise the strength and
skill, it becomes common to children and adults. It is such
with the game of hand-ball, known lo all peoples with the
exception perhaps of the Negroes; and stilts, which are met
with in Europe, China, Eastern Africa, and Polynesia. Side
by side with these games in which muscular skill plays the prin-
cipal part, there are others in which attention and quickness
of the senses are put to the test. To guess in which hand
some object is hidden is a recreation among the Tlinkits, as
among Europeans. Among the Hottentots this game is com-
plicated, inasmuch as it is necessary to point out by a special
position of the fingers the hand of the partner which is
supposed to conceal the object, thus recaUing the very
ancient game known to the Egyptians, and called by the
Romans mirare digi/is, which survives at the present time
under the name of " Morra" in Italy.
This is how it is played : — Simultaneously each partner,
putting out his hand, shows whatever number of fingers he
may think fit, bending the others, and at the same moment
mentioning a number ; he whose figure equals the sum of the
fingers stretched out by the two partners wins the game. It
is evident that this game, known in absolutely the same form
in China, is already a game of chance. It is the same with
most games played with dice, vVhether the latter be represented
by true dice (China, prehistoric Europe), or by otter's teeth, seeds,
etc., variously marked or coloured (Indians of North America),
or by sheep's astragali (Central Asia, Persia, etc.). Lo/to is
known to the Chinese, the Siamese, etc., and it was the
Celestials who introduced roulette or tlie thirty-four animal
games into Indo-China.^
^ Roulette flourished among the Eskimo of Gieenland in the eighteenth
century; it is known under the name of " Chombino" among the Assini-
l)oines and Blackfeet Indians. — H. Egede and Wied, cited by Andree,
Elhnogr. Pai-al., p. 104 (Neue Folge),
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. I99
The chief intellectual game is chess, invented in India;
varieties of chess are the game of draughts, known wherever
European civilisation penetrates, and the game of Uri or
Mugole, spread by the Arabs throughout the whole of Africa
from Madagascar to Senegal. The object used in this
latter game is a block of wood with 16, 24, or 32 little cups
disposed in two or four rows, in which the aim is to place in
a certain way a certain number of little stones or seeds. A
third variety of the game of chess, backgammon, holds a
middle place between Uri and the game of dice, and in con-
sequence is half a game of chance. It is known under the
name of Tob in Egypt and Palestine, of Pachisi in India, and
of Fatolitzli in ancient Mexico.^
Sports and Spectacles. — Hand-to-hand contests soprized by the
Japanese and the Mongols, horse-races esteemed by all nomads,
the superb nautical sports practised of old by the Hawaiians, in
which, standing upright or astraddle on a canoe, they descended
cataracts several metres in height,^ and so many other sports
still form, as it were, a link between games properly so called,
giving pleasure to those taking part in them, and spectacles,
which give pleasure to others. Most spectacles are com-
posed of the dance, pantomime, scenic representations, music
and song, of which I shall presently treat. Outside the mani-
festation of these arts, public spectacles are confined almost
everywhere to the different ceremonies, festivals, and processions
connected with various rites or customs (initiation, common
marriages, worship of the dead, etc.), or to jugglery, exhibition
of animals, acrobatic performances, sleight-of-hand tricks, etc.,
most of which have originated in India. To these we must add
combats between men and animals or between animals them-
selves, the best kriown of which are the bull-fights so dear to
the Hispano-Portuguese of Europe and America, and the cock-
fights which have had ardent supporters not only in England and
' See the interesting study on this game by Tylor, Journ. Anthr. Inst. ,
vol. viii., p. 116, and in Internationales Archtv. Ethnog., suppl. vol. ix.
(Festg. Bastian), Leyden, 1896.
■^ " Hawaiian Surf- Riding," Haw. Alinan., p. lo5, Honolulu, 1896.
200
THE RACES OF MAN.
■s.
5,
o ^
b -vt
° b
O ^
u J*
I
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
201
the United States, but also in Spanish America, all over the
Malay Archipelago, etc. In China and Siam people are less
blood-thirsty; they are content to look at contests between
crickets, grasshoppers, and fishes.
Masks play an important part in
festivals, ceremonies, and spectacles,
as in so many other manifestations
of the social life of uncivilised and
half-civilised peoples (religion, war,
justice). Let us merely mention the
fantastic masks used in dances and
processions among the Javanese
and the Dyaks, and especially
those of the Melanesians ; certain
of them are made of cocoa-nuts,
with an imitation of the beard and
moustache in the fibres of this
fruit, others have the human skull
as a groundwork. The Papuans are
very skilful in making masks with
tortoise shells, etc.^
TM Arts. — -Artistic manifestations
are distinguished from games by this
fact, that their object is not only to
afford pleasure to the artist himself
during the execution of his work,
but also to cause this pleasure to be
shared by the greatest possible num-
ber of his fellow-beings. These
manifestations are called forth then
by the sentiment of human socia-
bility, and the more they are de-
veloped in an ethnic group the higher
this group is from the point of view of social organisation.
The Graphic Arts. — It is often among the less advanced and
' See, for more details, the excellent article of Andiee on " Masks" in
his Eihnographische ParaHele, Neue Folge, p. 107.
Fig. 60. — Anthropomorph
ornamental design of the
Papuans of New Guinea.
(After Haddon. )
202
THE RACES OF MAN.
more uncultured peoples that we find very skilful draughts-
men. And here it is necessary to make a distinction between
design properly so called, whether it be on the flat surface, in
bas-relief, engraved, etc., and what is generally called ornamental
or decorative art. The latter exists among almost all peoples
(except perhaps the Fuegians), and does not always spring
from artistic feeling. Sometimes vanity, the desire to possess
the most ornate object, in-
spires the hand of the artist,
who almost always, among
the uncivilised, is not a pro-
fessional. The characteristic
trait of the decorative art of
primitive peoples is that
every leading idea is in-
spired by real objects ; there
are no lines purely and volun-
tarily ornamental, and still
less are there geometric fig-
ures, as was thought until
recent times. All the sup-
posed figures of this class are simplified drawings of animals,
inanimate objects, etc.^ The
by animals (zoomorphs), men ^^^■^•'''^~"**' "■
(anthropomorphs), and manu- Fig. 62.— Zoomorphomamenial
factured objects (skeuomorphs); <J^^.'g" °" ^ sp^'»la (New
lU 1 • u J c Guinea). (After HadJoii.)
those which are drawn from ' ^ ■" '
plants (phyllomorphs) are excessively rare (Haddon).
Fig. 60 shows us, for example, in an engraving on a bark
belt executed by a Papuan, the human face transformed into
an ornamental motive. At the extremity of the object is still
plainly seen a face with both eyes, and a mouth widely opened
showing a fine set of teeth; lower down, perpendicularly to this,
1 In this connection see E. Grosse, Die Anfdn!;e der ICiiint, Freib. and
I.eip., 1894; Haddon, Evotulionin Art, London, 1895; H' Stolpe, Studies
i Aiiuril;ansli Ornamenti/i, Stockholm, 1896.
Fig. 61. — Zoomoiph ornamental de-
sign on a club (New Guinea).
(After Haddon.)
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
203
we see two faces with only the mouth and a single eye left, its
companion having strayed into the intervening space between
the two faces. Another example: the head of the frigate bird,
a favourite ornamental //i^/// of the half-Melanesian populations
Fig. 6^. — Conventional representation of an alligator; ancient pottery
of Chiriqui, Isthmus of Panama. (After Holmes. )
of the south-east extremity of New Guinea, is plainly visible in
the middle of the second row, and throughout the fourth row of
ornaments on a club (Fig. 61), but it is transformed into
arabesques on the other rows. Overlapping in a certain order,
Fig. 64 — Ornamental motive derived from the preceding design
(Chiriqui pottery). {After Holmes. )
this head is transformed into spiral ornaments (Fig. 62). In
the same way, among the ancient inhabitants of Chiriqui
(Isthmus of Panama) the already somewhat diagrammatic
figure of the alligator (Fig. 63) is transformed into ornament
(Fig. 64) in which it would be difficult, without the presence
204
THE RACES OF MAN.
of intermediate forms, to find a resemblance to tiie reptile in
question. Among the Karayas of Central Brazil ornaments
like those reproduced here (Fig. 65) are simplified forms
of lizards (A), bats (B), of the skin of a rattlesnake (C),
and of another snake (D)."^ Imitations of manufactured
objects, drawing of cords, arrangement of fibres in a tissue,
etc., are often suggested by the mode of manufacture of the
decorated object — for example, in pottery by the impress- of
the woven basket which has served as a mould in the
manufacture of the pot, etc. (see p. 154). Often the entire
object is transformed into
ornament and becomes un-
suitable for the use to which
it was intended, such as the
double fish-hooks in mother-
of-pearl of the islanders of the
Torres Straits,- and the orna-
mental and symbolic axes of
the Polynesians of the Hervey
Islands or Cook's Archipelago
(Fig- 67)- V
It is interesting to note that
the more a people loves orna-
ment, the less it is capable of
producing drawings properly
PS
Fig. 65. — Decorative designs of
the Karayas (Central Brazil) —
A, lizards (engraved on a tomb);
B, flying bats; C, rattle-snake ;
D, other snake (plaiting on a
club). {After Von den Steinen.)
so called. Thus the Polynesians, the Malays, the Indians of
North-west America, are past-masters in ornamentation, but
they draw badly; while the Australians, whose ornaments
are rudimentary, paint on the polished surfaces of rocks and
grottos, in white, red, and yellow, large pictures representing
hunting scenes, '' corroborees," also human faces with a sort
of aureole around them (hair ?), but almost always without a
mouth. The Bushmen, whose tools and arms bear no' orna-
ment, have also their great rock -pictures. We can form an
idea of them by the annexed reproduction of a picture drawn
' Von den Steinen, Unl. Natiirvolk. Zent, Bra::., Berlin, 1894.
- See the plate at p. 77 of Iladdon's work, already quoted.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
205
206 THE RACES OF MAN.
on the wall of a cave near Hermon, and published by Andree.^
It represents Bushmen, who have carried off the cattle of the
Bechuanas, engaged in a struggle with the latter, who are pur-
suing them. All the details of the picture are well observed,
even to the form and coats of the oxen, the respective colours,
stature, and arms of the combatants (the little yellow Bushmen
armed with bows, and the tall, black Bechuanas armed with
assagais). The Melanesians are as skilful in ornamentation
as in drawing, their drawing having a tendency to become
transformed into pictography ; pictography has almost entirely
swallowed up drawing among the Indians of North America,
but it reappears among the Hyperboreans (Eskimo, Chukchi,
Yakuts, Tlinkits). What all these primitive drawings lack
is perspective and relief; we should also look in vain for it
in the art of half-civilised peoples like the Chinese, the Hindus,
the Persians, the Cambodians.
Sculpture, which like drawing is met with even among the
remains of quaternary man in Europe (Fig. 85), attains little
development among uncultured peoples in general. The carved
wooden articles of the Melanesians and Negroes, the gigantic
statues of the Polynesians of Easter Island, the figures in low
relief of the monuments of the ancient Peruvians, Mexicans, and
Khmers, the numerous little figures in wood or potter's clay
of the Malays, Negroes, etc., are not superior to the stage
of development of Egyptian and Greek art earlier than the
fifth century B.C., in which the median or sagittal plan of the
human body is always straight, vertical, and never distorted.
Even if there is an assemblage of two or more figures, their
lines are always either parallel or perpendicular to each other.^
Needless to say that among many peoples "national art" has
been profoundly modified by an adopted religion, which has
introduced or created an art of its own (prohibition against
representations of human figures by Islam, conventional
postures in Buddhist drawings, etc.).
' Andree, Eth. Paral., N.F., p. 67.
° See on this subject I. Lang, Billedkunst. Fremslell., etc.; Vidensk.
Sehk. Shrif., 5th series; Hist. Fhilos., vol. v., No. 4, Copenhagen, 1892
(with French Summary).
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
207
Dancing. — The productions of the graphic arts charm the
eye after completion ; those of the musical arts are enjoyed
only while being performed. But there is an art which
combines these two modes of
aesthetic enjoyment : it is dancing.
Its plastic attitudes are so many
pictures, and its movements have a
rhythm like music.
This art, sunk among civilised
peoples to the level of a simple
amusement, plays a large part in
the life of uncultured peoples.
Thus the great nocturnal festivals
of the Australians, the " Corro-
borees" (Fig. 59), celebrated in
connection with important events,
are only a succession of very varied
dances, strictly regulated, and exe-
cuted by young men trained a long
time beforehand by the elders of
the tribe for these choregraphic
exercises. Men alone take part in
them, as in all serious affairs ;
women are only there as specta-
tors or musicians. It is by dancing
alone that, among uncultured
peoples, joy in common is ex-
pressed in regard to a happy event
which affects the whole tribe. Let
us also note that these dances are
executed by a gathering of indi-
viduals who have given proof of
their solidarity, having sacrificed
part of their liberty by submitting
to the discipline of the elders in order to afford pleasure to
the people of their tribe. The joy, moreover, is mutual, for
the performers "feel" the dance without seeing it, and the
Fig. 67. — Symbolic adze of
Mangaia Island (Hervey
Islands or Cook's Archipe-
lago, Polynesia), Museum
of Copenhagen. (After
Haddon.)
2o8 THE RACES OF MAN.
spectators witness it witiiout experiencing the immediate
effects of movement.
Dancing is tlien a great school of "solidarity" in primitive
societies; more than any other act, it brings into promi-
nence the benefits of sociality. But this favourable result
is only possible in the smaller groupings, in which at least
half of the society may take part in the dance; this condition
no longer exists in civilised societies, numbering millions on
millions of members; thus in these societies the choregraphic
art is in a complete state of decay.
Dances of the character of " corroborees " are a step towards
the ritual dances which play so great a part in most religions.
I may instance the epileptic dances of the Siberian and
American Shamans, or the Negro fetich-worshippers, the
gyrations of the Dervishes, the masked ballets performed by
the Buddhist-Lamaile priests, the sacred dances of the Levites
among the ancient Jews, etc. Christianity retained the dance
in its rites even until the eighth century, and one may still
see the partial survival of it in what takes place in Seville
Cathedral during the Easter festival. Dancing assumed a
sacred character by being conjoined with a symbolic mimicry,
especially as connected with offerings, with sacrifices, or with
religious ecstasy.
But it has also evolved in another direction by having
associated with it two other species of mimicry, one recalling
strife and battles,. the other love. Hence come warlike dances
and lascivious dances. The latter have this characteristic, that
they are performed either solely by women — as, for example,
the "Hula- Hula'' of the Hawaiians — or by both sexes
(Eskimo), and very seldom by men alone (the " Kaoro " of
the Australians, performed at the advent of the marriage
season, or the time of the yam harvest). Moreover, it may
be presumed that the alternating dances of men and women
were, at the beginning of societies, a powerful aid to sexual
selection.
The movements performed during the dance vary with every
people, and also according to the nature of the dance. The
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 200
Australians leap, advance suddenly, then fall back with threat-
ening or lascivious gestures, as the case may be (Fig. 59);
Negroes add to the steps and innuendoes movements of the
head and pelvis. Among most Asiatics (Chinese, Japanese,
Malays) men do not dance, and in the case of women, the
choregraphic art degenerates into a series of rhythmical
movements of the' arms and trunk, without change of
position. It is to mimicry, that is to say, the first step
towards pantomime, that dances imitating the move-
ments of animals (Eskimo, Araucans) owe their origin.
The pantomime of the uncultured, like their dancing,
is always accompanied by music and song, sometimes by
masks and disguises. We have but to develop the share of
song and recitation, to render the music less dependent on
the rhythm, in order to transform these exercises into real
dramatic representations?-
Vocal and instrumental music are the common property of
mankind as a whole. There is no people that does not know
at least how to hum an air of a few notes ; and rare are
those who have no instrument of music (Fuegians, certain
Micronesians, Veddahs). The music of uncivilised peoples is
most frequently reduced to one only of its elements, rhythm,
— better understood when we bear in mind that the greater
part of the time it forms only the accompaniment of dancing.
Melody and harmony are reduced to their simplest expres-
sions.^ And yet in the opinion even of specialists it is very
difficult to note the airs of "savages," and three-fourths
of the notations published in different works are incorrect.
That is the result of these airs having been written down
according to our scale, which is heptatonic. Now this scale,
although existing even among many uncivilised peoples, is
not the only one which is used.
We find them using certain successions of sounds with
fixed intervals, that is to say, true scales of two, three,
and even six sounds. Most frequently "natural tones" (tonic,
^ Wallaschek, Prit/iilive Music, chap, viii., London, 1893.
2 Grosse, Anf. d. Ktinst, chap. iii.
14
210
THE RACES OF MAN.
third, fifth) form the scale (Bushmen). The airs of uncivilised
peoples are often in the minor tone, for example, the follow-
ing Fuegian air, transcribed by Carfort : — ^
In fine, the scale being merely a convention based on
the construction of instruments, the most perfect of which,
like our violin, can only give half-tones or, exceptionally,
quarter or third tones, there can be no such thing as a
"natural scale." It is the musical instruments of a people
that determine the scale it uses ; thus the study of these
instruments should precede that of singing.^
As the most primitive music may be reduced to rhythm
alone, the earliest musical instruments were objects serving to
beat time ; pieces of wood clapped together, as still seen to-day
among the Annamese, or rude drums like those which the
Australian women use during the corroborees — a cloak of
opossum skin stretched between the thighs, on which they tap
with a stick (Fig. 59). But, like castanets, the triangle, etc.,
these, properly speaking, are not instruments of music pro-
ducing a scale, or at any rate a series of varying sounds. Three
kinds of true musical instruments may be distinguished — -wind
instruments, string instruments, and percussion instruments. Of
wind instruments the most ancient is probably the flute or the
shepherd's pipe of cane, bamboo, animal or human bone, etc.,
as seen among the Botocudos and the Yurunas of Xingu
^ Miss. Scieniif, Cap Horn ; vol. i. Hist. d. Voy. by Martial, p. 210,
Paris, 1888.
^ Tylor, Anlhropology , p. 292; Wallaschek, loc. cit., pp. 151, 155, and
Mitth. Anthr. Ges. Wien., 1897, vol. xxiii., Sitzungsb., p. 11. According
to the investigations of Weber, the ear can distinguish sounds which vary
(tjth of a semitone.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 211
(Brazil).i The bow was the first corded instrument; the Kafirs
and Negroes of Angola "play on the bow" by attaching to it
a gourd and tightening at will by means of a sliding ring the
cord which they play (Fig. 135). As to instruments of percus-
sion: the most generally used among the Negroes are the
Sansa, a sort of musical box (Fig. 68), and the xylophone, a
kind of piano (Fig. 69). The most uncivilised peoples, how-
ever, have composite instruments; as, for instance, the "gora"
of the Bushmen (Figs. 70 and 71).^
Fig. 6S. — "Sansa" or "Zimba," a musical box of the Negroes, placed
on or in a calabash ; played witli the fingers. {After Wood. )
The harp of the Kafirs and the gora give forth only feeble
sounds, and serve chiefly to satisfy the musical taste of the
performer; they are scarcely heard by the others. This fact,
' According to Wallaschek {loc. cit., p. 155), the heptatonic scale
(diatonic) owes its origin to the construction of the primitive flute, which
had at most six to eight holes. To have had more would have been
useless, as the instrument could not have been held without more fingers.
Facility in making this instrument is due to the fact that, holes simply
being pierced at regular intervals along the lube, a series of the most
harmonious sounds can be obtained.
■■^ Here is a description of it : a quill split and cut into the form of a
leaf is attached to the end of a bow (Fig. 71); it is held to the mouth and
set vibrating; it is then a reed and a stringed instrument combined. But
it gives forth such feeble sounds that the artist is obliged to stuff one of his
fingers in his nose and the other in his ear so as better to hear the music;
it serves thus as a sort of microphone.
212
THE RACES OF MAN.
like others, proves that music is a less powerful means of
socialisation than dancing; it affords joys more intimate, more
individual, except when it is reduced to what is its least
musical element so to speak — rhythm ; then the part it plays
is a considerable one, especially in warlike manifestations. No
army has been able to do without music.
A Poetry. — Singing and poetry are indistinguishable during
the early stages of civilisation. The poetic productions of
uncultured peoples have as yet been very little studied,' but
from what is known about them it appears that the earliest
Fig. 69. — "Marimba," the Negro xylophone. {Afler Wood.)
creations of this kind are repeated rhythmical phrases, ex-
pressing the most common sensations, and concerned chiefly
^ith the digestive functions : complaint in regard to hunger,
the pleasure experienced after feasting, or a desire for certain
articles of food as expressed in this song of the Australian^
"The peas that the white men eat are good —
I should like some, I should like some."
Afterwards come the emotions of hunting: the jubilation at
^ The only all-round study that I know is the chapter "Poetry'' in
Crosse's work, Die Anf. d. Kunst, from which I borrow my account
and some selected examples, which he gives from Eyre, Spencer, and Grey.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
213
having killed an animal, recitatives after the manner of the
following : —
' ' The Kangaroo ran very fast,
But I ran faster still.
How fat he was,
How plump he was!
What a fine roast he made !
O Kangaroo, O Kangaroo.''
Fig. 70. — Bushman playing on the "gora." {Partly afier IVoOii.)
War-songs are not unknown to Australian savages, but the
beauties of nature and the feelings of love are subjects only
occasionally met with in the poetry of uncivilised hunters. They
begin to appear among the Eskimo, and are highly developed
among half-civilised nomads, contemplators of nature, whose
214 THE RACES OF MAN.
lyric poetry is sometimes inspired by very elevated feelings,
as is shown, for example, by Kalmuk songs.^ As to epic
poetry, it is met with only among half-civilised peoples who
possess a history.
Religion. — For a considerable time now the question has
been discussed by ethnographers, theologians, and moralists,
whether or not there exist peoples without a religion. The
answer to this question depends entirely on the meaning we
give to religion. If by this word is meant an acknowledged
revealed doctrine, accompanied by a well-ordered ritual
and a strongly organised priesthood, as implied in current
speech, or even if it simply means the belief in "beings
superior to man" and in "a future beyond the tomb," as
Quatrefages would use it,^ there are certainly peoples who
Fig. 71. — Detail of construction of the "gora." (After Wood.)
have nothing of this kind. If, on the contrary, we content
ourselves with the minimum definition of religion, given by
E. B. Tylor,3 "belief in spiritual beings," it is difficult to find
a tribe on the earth which has not this belief. I should
like to modify a little this definition of Tylor's by substituting
"imaginary beings" for "spiritual," to indicate clearly their
psychological origin, for it is in beings entirely created out
of their imagination that savages believe.
This belief originates chiefly in the fear of unusual or
extraordinary events, and especially of disease and death.
Sometimes the idea of a "spiritual being" is so inseparable
from the sensation of fear that it only presents itself when
the latter occurs. Thus the Fuegian Yahgan have no clear
idea of " spirits," and it is only at dusk under the influence
1 Deniker, "Les Kalmouks," Rev. ci'Anthr., 18S4, p. 671.
^ De Quatrefages, Vesphe humaine, 2nd ed. , p. 356, Paris, 1890.
' E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. i.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 21 5
of fear that they imagine themselves to be attacked by the
"savages of the west," by the "Walapatu," which some of
them regard as ghosts, and others quite simply as individuals
of a neighbouring tribe, that of the Alakalufs.^
But cases of this kind are rare, and most uncivilised
peoples have the rudiments of natural religion a little more
developed, a belief in spirits less vague. We may, with the
eminent ethnologist Tylor, give the name of "Animism" to
this primitive religion.
Animism in the most primitive forms consists in believing
that the body of a man contains another more subtle being,
a "soul," capable of being temporarily separated from its
envelope, and admitting further that everything that exists,
beasts, plants, stones, down to objects fashioned by hand,
have equally a soul which is endowed with corresponding
qualities. Thus the Shans of the Kieng-Tung (upper Burma)
believe that the soul leaves the body of a man asleep in
the form of an iridescent butterfly ;2 the Malays have the
same ideas, and take care on that account not to awaken a
man asleep. His observation of the shadow which exactly
repeats every movement of a man, of reflections in the
water, may confirm a savage in his animistic beliefs, but what
especially establishes them are the dreams and visions during
which he lives another life and is "another man." Death is
considered as a separation of man from his shadow or his
soul, something like the separation which is effected during
sleep. Most frequently it is the breath, the air breathed
' These Yahgans give the name of " Kachpik " vaguely to : i,
very wicked imaginary beings living in the depth of the forests, and, 2,
every person who has a strange or wicked character. They give the name
of "Hanuch" to: i, imaginary beings with an eye at the back of the
head and no hair, and, 2, to madmen or individuals living alone in the
forests. It is the belief in these three or four imaginary beings to which
all religious manifestations of the Yahgans may be reduced. (Hyades and
Deniker, loc. cit., p. 253.)
^ R. Woodthorpe, yo?/r«. Anihr. Inst., vol. xxvi., No i, August 1896.
In Yorkshire the country people call the night butterfly (sphinx) "soul,"
and in Ireland butterflies are the souls of ancestors (L. Gomme,
Ethnology in Folklore ,
2l6 THE RACES OF MAN.
out, which represents the .immaterial being that forsakes the
body. Thus, among the natives of Nias Island, the one to
become chief is he who succeeds, sometimes not without a
desperate struggle with his rivals, in swallowing the last breath
of the dying chiefs Besides, for the most part uncivilised
people think that death is only a prolonged sleep, and it is
on that account that some are accustomed to keep the corpse
as long as possible, sometimes until putrefaction sets in, in
their huts or in the immediate neighbourhood (see p. 243).
They imagine that the soul seeks to re-enter the body, and if
it does not find it, wanders restlessly around the dwellings,
and is angry with the living who have hidden the body from
it. Cases of lethargy, of hypnotic sleep, of fainting-fits, which
strike the imagination the more forcibly because more rare
than ordinary sleep, confirm the belief in the separation of
man and his double. In fine, the mind of a savage does not
regard death as a natural phenomenon, but as a violent and
very prolonged separation of man and his soul.
But what is the cause of this separation ? Here comes
in the second element of animism, the belief in "spirits,"
imaginary beings- who take the most diverse forms, like
the soul itself. Sometimes the " soul " of a dead man is also
a "spirit"; there are here no subtle distinctions. However,
what especially differentiates "spirits'' from "souls'' is this,
that the former are more active, that they constantly take part
in human affairs, so that the whole life of a savage is passed
in compromises or continual struggles with spirits. Every
disease, every misfortune, every death, comes from the
angry "spirit." Happily, side by side with wicked spirits,
who are legion, there are encountered from time to time
benevolent ones, who become protectors, or "patrons'' of
men. Most frequently these are the "souls" of the old men
of the tribe, of the "ancestors." As these old men have
' Modigliaiii, Un Vi'aggio a Nias, p. 277, Milan, 1890. Besides, the
Nias admit, like many other peoples, three souls in man ; that which
manifests itself by the breath is comparable to the "double" of the
ancient Egyptians.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 217
ordinarily endowed the tribe or the family with some material
advantage by giving during life counsels dictated by their
long experience, they are laid under contribution after
death. Their memory is recalled in times of misfortune,
and advice is asked of them. This is the origin of ancestor
worship.
The number of spirits is infinite, there is a whole world of
them. Every object, sometimes every category of objects, has
its spirit, and as objects may be made so spirits may be
created, or at least may be made to communicate to objects
a portion of their power. This circumstance gives birth to
fetichisiH,^ which is only one of the sides of animism, one
of the grossest forms. Fetichistic peoples consider certain
objects called fetiches, gris-gris, etc., as beings endowed with
an inherent will and power. Every object, a piece of wood,
a bundle of grass, a stone, a nail, a claw, a lock of hair, a
horn, a rag, a bit of string, may become fetiches ; the material
value of the object bears no relation to its power as a fetich;
the most insignificant things may be the greatest fetiches.'^
As to the relations which exist between spirits and objects,
they are of a twofold character: either the fetich is regarded
as an animated being, as the material envelope of a spirit,
1 The word " felichism " is a corruption of the Portuguese term feitifo,
"charm," derived probably from the 'L^'Cva faetiihis, in the sense "full of
magical artifices," which the first navigators on the coast of Guinea applied
to the fetiches venerated by the Negroes. Des Brosses was the first to
introduce, in 1760, the term " fetichism " to denote the belief in fetiches.
Auguste Comte gave a much more extended meaning lo the word, to de-
note a religious state opposed to polytheism and monotheism. Today the
fetichism of Auguste Comte is the animism of English ethnographers, of
which true fetichism forms only a part. (E. Tylor, Prim. Cult., vol. ii.,
P- 143- )
2 In certain cases, fetiches are supposed to be animated with power of
movement ; thus the staffs which negro sorcerers put into the hands of men
in convulsions, caused by wild dances, are reputed to draw these men in their
mad career, and to direct them in the search of persons accused of crime.
Similarly, the two staffs which the Siberian Shamans hold in their hands
during their exorcisms are supposed to draw them, like horses driven at
" full gallop, towards regions inhabited by spirits.
2l8 THE RACES OF MAN.
or it is only an instrument by which the existence of the
spirit is manifested, a vehicle in some way of part of its
power. It must be remarked, however, that the two forms
of connection between the spirit and the material object
are frequently interblended, and a fetich to which sacrifices
are offered as to a living being, may become a simple
amulet preserving its possessor from wounds or any other
misfortune. Fetichism is the first step towards idolatry, but it
is essentially distinguished from it in that idols are only images,
represefitations of certain supernatural beings, whilst fetiches
are these beings themselves, or at least the direct vehicles
of a portion of their power. The boundary line between
idolatry and fetichism is, however, often diiificult to define
exactly.
Animism with its variants, more or less developed, is the
religion of all uncivilised peoples untouched by international
or universal religions : Buddhism, Christianity, Mahomedan-
ism, etc., and even among those who have accepted one of
these religions, animistic ideas persist with great obstinacy.
How many Christian peasants there are who believe as
firmly in spirits, in ghosts, in guardian genii of cattle and
crops, as in the various saints of the church with whom they
sometimes confound them! Besides, spirits, such as angels and
demons, are admitted by most Christian churches. Fetich-
istic practices also form part of the outer worship of Lamaite
Buddhism and Taoism, and they are not only tolerated but
prescribed by other universal religions. I need but mention
the amulets, talismans, scapularies, miracle-working relics, etc.,
among Mahomedans (Figs. 139 and 140) and Christians
(Fig. 161).
Worship of Naiitral Objects and Phenomena. — It is im-
possible to review even the principal forms which animism
assumes. As society grows and develops, the notion of the
soul and of spirits is transferred from the more immediate
objects surrounding man to objects more remote and the
phenomena of nature. The latter, by reason of their greatness or
violence, are regarded as spirits much higher and more power-
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 219
ful than the others. They become superior divinities entitled
to "worship." Thus we have the worship of water (sacred
rivers, Ganges, Nile), worship of plants and especially trees
(sacred forests of the Gauls, the Germans, the Finns, the
Papuans), the worship of animals and more especially birds
(the eagle of the Aztecs and the Peruvians, the ibis of the
Egyptians), and serpent-worship (prevalent everywhere, but
principally in India and Western Africa).
The worship of the elements varies according to the kind of
life led by a people ; the succession of climates, the rain
which gives life to the seed, the sun which burns the grasses,
etc., are incarnations of so many divinities for agricultural
peoples, while they have no importance for peoples living by
the chase. Fire is considered as a divinity by several peoples
(see p. 153). The adoration of fire was the ancient religion of
the Persians, and is still preserved to-day among certain
Parsees of India : we pass over the god Xiuhtecutli, " lord
of fire," of the ancient Mexicans, the goddess Vesta of the
Romans, etc. Often the worship of the sun was combined
with that of fire, and the ancient solar festivals sung by Ovid
have become the midsummer eve bonfires, which the clergy
still bless every year in several places in Lower Brittany. I
can only mention the legends relating to the divine origin of
fire, which all resemble more or less that of Prometheus (the
Mahonika of the Polynesians, the Tkps of the Circassians,
etc.). The difference between the great spirits which animate
the phenomena of nature and the little spirits concerned with
the trivial facts of man's daily hfe once admitted, there is
established a hierarchy in the world of spirits entirely modelled
on the hierarchy of human society. Above gnomes, elves,
demons, sprites, and so many common spirits, we find among
the Khonds ^ the six great gods (of rain, first-fruits, procrea-
tion, hunting, war, and boundaries), who in their turn are
governed by the sun-god and his wife, the powerful goddess
of the earth. The religion of the Khonds is already polytheism,
and this may end either m the dualism of two contrary prin-
^ Macpherson, quoted by Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 325.
220 THE RACES OF MAN.
ciples (the germs of which are seen in the example quoted
above, and which are impersonated by Ormuzd and Ahriman
of the religion of Zoroaster) or in pantheism or monotheism.
Religion and Morality. — Animistic religion is destitute of
the moral eleinent which many persons consider inseparable
from religion. Its code of morals has nothing to do with
religion; it is based on public opinion and social conventions
independent of beliefs. It is only in the more developed forms
of polytheistic or monotheistic religions, and especially in those
whose ministers sought to have an effective influence on the
people, that the moral element was introduced Httle by little
and placed beside the dogmatic and ritual element.^ If the
survival of the soul and the after-life form part of the behefs of
a great number of uncultured peoples, as shown especially by
funereal rites, the life beyond the tomb is for them only the con-
tinuation of real life ; the country of the dead resembles the
country of the living, the same customs flourish there, the
same usages, the same kind of life ; the Eskimo continue
their fishing feats, and may even die there a second time ; the
Polynesians give themselves up there to the same pleasures as
they enjoyed on earth, etc. The other world is only a dupli-
cate of this world, and no idea of justice is connected with itj
the evil and the good in it have the same destiny.^
Rites and Ceremonies. — What is the nature of the relations
of man and spirits in primitive religion ? Sometimes an
attempt is made to combat the spirits. The Fuegians barri-
cade themselves in their huts and keep themselves armed, in
readiness to ward off blows, the whole night long, when
they fancy they hear the "walapatu";^ the Australians hold
^ E. Tylor, Priviitive Cidtiire^ vol. i., p. 427.
^ Put forward by Tylor {Prim. Cult., vol. ii., chaps, xii. and xvii.), the
ideas which I here formulate have been developed by L. Marillier
(" Survivance de I'ame :" Paris, 1894, Pub. Ecoleprat. Hautes Etudes, sect.
Sc. relig.), and combated by Steinmetz {ArcJi. fiir Anthro., vol. xxiv.,
P- 577)1 Ijwl 'he arguments of the latter do not seem to me convincing. He
compares, for example, the difference of the destiny of the noble and the
common Polynesians in the other world to distributive justice.
^ Hyades and Deniker, toe. cit., p. 254.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTEKS. 221
an annual celebration for the purpose of getting rid of all the
ghosts of the last year's dead ; the Negroes of the Gold Coast
assemble together in arms from time to time to drive the evil
spirits from their village ; rushing about in all directions, with
frantic howhng, they return home and assert that they sleep
more easily, and for a while afterwards enjoy better health.i
But these contests with spirits are rare, and it is usually found
preferable to employ craft against them (hence exorcism,
incantation, the use of symbols, etc.), or gentleness (prayer,
offerings, sacrifices). The last method, which is most fre-
quently used, develops into an outward cult; the "fetich-
house," like that seen in Dahomey and other Negro countries,
becomes transformed into a temple ; the place of sacrifice into
an altar, and instead of real animals or plants, images of them
in paper, butter, clay, etc., are sacrificed, or finer offerings such
as grass, flowers, perfumes, etc.
Priesthood. — In the earliest stages of religion man put him-
self into communication with spirits at his own risk and peril;
but as he soon perceived that he was frequently unsuccessful
in obtaining what he wished, and could not prevent them
laying their spells on him, he was compelled to have recourse
to intermediaries. He observed that certain individuals are
better fitted to deal with spirits ; that they can fall into a
trance and remain in this death-like condition long enough
to be able to treat with demons, and he came to the
conclusion that they were appointed to intercede with
spirits for simple mortals and to direct propitiatory cere-
monies, offerings, and prayers. It was thus that the priest-
hood arose, under the form of fetich-men or shamans, who
play so important a part in the life of Negroes, the Tunguse
peoples and Mongols, and the Indians of North America.
All the functions of life, marriage, pregnancy, the entering
upon the age of puberty, birth, death, hunting or warlike
expeditions, require the offices of the sorcerer, of the shaman,
who is usually at the same time a doctor (see below). As
society develops, numerically and in civilisation, there is
' E. Tylor, loc. cil., vol. ii., p. 199.
222 THE RACES OF MAN.
formed a sacerdotal class, which sometimes holds both the
temporal power and the civil (as is still the case to-day in
certain regions of Africa, and in Thibet). Often side by side
with the regular priesthood thus constituted the ancient sor-
cerers continue to live and to wield great authority over the
people; in most of the Lama-Buddhist temples the presence
of a sorcerer is admitted for oracles, propitiations, etc.
International Religions. — This is not the place to speak of
universal or international religions like Brahmanism, spread
over India and the Asiatic archipelago; the once flourishing
Buddhism of the south, based on the doctrine of the "litde
vehicle " (Hinayana), the last remains of which are to be
found in Siam and the Island of Ceylon ; the Buddhism of the
north, or Lamaism, based on the doctrine of the "great
vehicle " (Mahayana), which rules the Thibetan and Mongol
world, nor of the other more or less altered forms of this
religion, Chinese Foism, Japanese and Annamese Buddhism,
Indian Jainism, etc. And we must take for granted as better
known the other universal religions, Jicdaism with its sects
which do not acknowledge the Talmud (like the Karaites of
the Crimea); Mahomedanism, with its two principal divisions,
the sect of Shiahs (Persians) and that of the Sunis (other
Mahomedan peoples) ; Christianity, with its great divisions
and numerous sects (Copts, Nestorians, etc.).. And we must
notice finally the " national religions " — Taoism in China,
Shintoism in Japan, Confucianism in both these countries, etc.
Myths. — Myths occupy an intermediate position between
science, poetry, and religion, for they try to explain all pheno-
mena while leaving a great deal to the imagination. The
infinite variety of myths is only apparent. They all may be
reduced to a very limited number of ideas or fancies, which are
the same among all peoples. They are all explanations, more
or less simple and childish, of the origin of plants, animals,
men, the earth, the stars, etc., founded on the idea of animism.
The details change according to the nature of the country, but
the substance remains always the same. It is a vegetation of
fancy more or less luxuriant and beautiful on the common
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 22^
ground of animism. Thus religion and mytlis are often one
and the same thing, since they are derived from a common
source, from that habit which primitive men share with children
of giving a personality to every object they contemplate, from
the sun to a knife, from a blade of grass to the ocean. We
cannot dwell longer on this subject, which would require de-
veloping at considerable length ;i I will merely say that on
carefully studying myths we find in them psychological data
relating to the mode of thinking of a people, rather than
indications of the relations and afifinity of one people with
another, for borrowed details in myths are innumerable among
all peoples.^
Scie7ices. — It is only with the rudiments of the sciences that
we have to deal in the case of uncivilised and even half-
civilised peoples.
The knowledge of numbers exists more or less among all the
peoples of the earth. We often say, " Such a people can only
count up to three, because it has no special word to denote a
higher number." This reasoning is not always just, for, by
adopting it, we might accuse the French of scarcely being
able to count beyond sixty, since they have no special words
for, say, seventy-five or eighty, and to express these fall back
on words already employed in counting — sixty and fifteen or
four score. Many savages employ a similar method. Thus
the Yahgan Fuegians have only words for the number one
{Kaueh), two (Kombdi), and three {Maten); but they make
use of the words Akokombai (literally " the other two," or
"another time two") to denote four, and Akomateti (the other
three) to indicate six.^
Certain Australians proceed in a similar manner.* If these
1 See A Lang, Culture and Myth; and his Modern Mythology, London,
1897.
- Legends, traditional tales, proverbs, etc. , are simplified mytlis, with
the poetic element predominating. The study of them forms a special
branch of ethnology called " Folk-lore."
* Hyades and Deniker, loc. cit., p. 316.
* Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, vol. ii., p. 3, London, 1878;
Curr, The Australian Race, Melbourne-London, 1886-87, 4 ^'ols. passim.
224 THE RACES OF MAN.
tribes had been able to continue the same process beyond this
point they would have arrived at the duodecimal system; what
they lacked for that were objects which should always be with-
in their reach to assist them in this mode of calculation.
Peoples who thought of distinguishing by special words the
first five figures had at once, in their fingers, an aid to enable
them to set up a decimal system. Many South American
Indians, Caribs, Tupis, and Tamanacas of the Orinoco count
by the fingers, hands, and feet, employing thus the decimal
system; instead of five they say "a hand"; instead often,
"two hands"; instead of twelve, "two hands and two
fingers''; instead of fifteen, "two hands and one foot";
instead of twenty, "a man"; and so forth. With the develop-
ment of civilisation the fingers of the hand are replaced by
objects, by little stones, seeds or shells, which are arranged
in boxes^representing units, tens, etc. From these were derived
the abaci of the Chinese and Russians.
Geometry — Calculation of Ti??ie. — Measures of distances,
surfaces, etc., which gave birth to geometry, are found again
among certain uncivilised peoples. The Indians of Veragua
find the height of a tree by measuring the distance from which
they see it, turning their back and bending the body in such
a wRy that the head is between the outstretched legs; the
ancient Egyptians measured the surfaces of their lands empi-
rically by means of geometric figures, etc. The measure-
ment of time by the movement of the stars exists among all
peoples, the succession of day and night, and the phases
of the moon, being the things easiest to observe. Thus days
and months or "moons" are nearly everywhere equal. But it
is not the same with regard to the year. It is the succession
of vegetation or seasons which determines periods longer than
months. Thus the Andamanese count by successions of three
seasons (cold, dry, and wet) ; the Papuans by successions of
two seasons (corresponding to the prevailing monsoons), but
the epochs at which these seasons arrive do not coincide
exactly with lunar divisions, and tallying computation becomes
more difficult. Thus, as soon as writing was invented, the
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 225
more intelligent of the nomadic tribes, especially, turned
their attention towards noting coincidences of the position of
the sun in relation to the constellations, according to the
seasons, for the principal constellations, especially the Great
Bear, Orion, the Southern Cross, are known by almost all the
peoples of the earth, who have emerged from the state of
savages dependent on the chase.
The verification of the time when the year begins (coincid-
ing generally with some commemorative festival) became later
the business of State astronomers (Egypt, India), who were at
the same time astrologers or magicians.
Calendars and Clocks. — There are yet in China astronomers
who periodically harmonise the lunar with the solar year,
though, for the ordinary purposes of life, other peoples make
use of the solar year calculated either from a reign (as in
ancient Egypt), or day by day in a cycle of sixty years, formed
by the combination often kou (stock) and twelve tchi (branches),
as in the Hindu calendar. A similar calendar is found
among the ancient Mexicans. ^ In regard to the divisions of
the days into hours, they are somewhat uncertain among
the Andamanese and Australians, and they begin to assume
a definite character only with the introduction of the sun-
dial, as for example among the Zuni Indians, who have
before nearly every cabin a pillar, the shadow of which serves
to indicate the hours. In China and in Corea the use of the
candle which burns a certain time is a remnant of the mode
of calculating time according to the duration of the fire.^ The
running of water and sand has been utilised, as we know, in the
construction of clepsydras and other primitive clocks of classic
antiquity and of the Middle Ages.
Geog7-aphy and Cartography. — We can only indicate sum-
marily what primitive navigators and halfcivilised nomads
know of geography. Orientation according to the cardinal
points is known even to peoples as primitive as the Fuegians
' R. Schramm, "Jahrform, sic.,'' Miltheil der Geogr. Gesell.,\'o\. xxvii.,
1884, p. 481, Vienna.
''■ O. Mason, Origins of Invenlion, pp. 71 and 116.
15
' 226
THE RACES OF MAN.
and the Andamanese, but cartography is only developed
among those who draw. The Australians can draw maps
on the sand very accurately, except as regards distances ;
we have even maps drawn on weapons, like that of figure
79, F, representing a lagoon and an arm of Broken River,
between which is situated the territory of the tribe to which
the owner of the weapon belonged.^ The Micronesians of
the Marshall Islands con-
struct with bamboo rods
geographical maps in which
these rods represent the di-
rection of the currents, and
the shells or seeds attached
to their intersections, the
different islands ^
But it is the Eskimo who
excel in the cartographic
art, as may be seen from
the specimen which I repro-
duce from S. Holm.' This
consists of two wooden tab-
't JI'ilNl'lillB^ / 'Mlfi Ists (Fig. 72). One of them
V j^ Jill, (A) represents all the fiords,
bays, and capes of that part
of the coast of Eastern
Greenland comprised be-
tween Kangerdenarsikajik
(a) and Sicralik ib) ; we
must read the names of
these places in the direction
of the arrow. The second tablet (B) represents the islands
off the coast, situated opposite to different bays. By bring-
ing it near to, or removing it from the first, we have the
Fig. 72. — Eskimo geographical map.
{After Holm, )
' Bioiigh Smyth, he. cil., vol. i. , p. 284.
- Schmeltz and Kiausc, "Museum GodcfitVoy," Hamburg, 1881, p. 271
and plate xxxii.
^ S. Holm, Mediklels. oni Groml., p. loi, Copenhagen, 1S87.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 22/
distance between the coast and each of the islands. The
ancient Mexicans had topographical maps, marine charts,
and even cadastral plans, much more perfect than those of
the ancient Egyptians. The Chinese maps still further surpass
these models, and remind one already of our coasting pilot
books in their use of orientation by means of the compass.^
I should take up the whole chapter if I were to give an
account, even in an abridged form, of everything concerning
primitive medicine.''' I will merely point out that, according to
their' animistic conception of the world, "savages" have no
other idea of disease than as a malevolent manifestation of a
spirit who enters into the man, of a demon who "possesses"
him. Thus, fetich-men and shamans are the first doctors.
They know how to " drive " from the body of the patient the
evil spirit who torments him, to "draw out" the disease in
the form of a pebble, or some other object deftly concealed
before the operation. Moreover, the bones, mummified por-
tions of the body of sick persons, or of fetich-men themselves,
may become after their death relics possessing miraculous
healing power, etc. For the matter of that, even among
civilised peoples diseases are often attributed to the "evil eye,"
to "spells" (France), to "Jettatura" (Italy), etc. Among the
Indians of North America there are also special healers
(medicine-men) who are held in great esteem, and who some-
times form a corporation {Midi), into which admission can
only be gained after a professional examination in the " doctors'
cabin'' (Schoolcraft, Hoffmann). Along with incantations
and magical proceedings, with dancing and music, the
principal remedies of the Australian healers and the American
medicine-men are scarifications, blood-letting, and blood-
sucking. Negroes show a preference for cupping-glasses. The
processes of advanced surgery among certain peoples go as far
as ovariotomy (Australians), laparotomy and the csesarian
operation (Negroes of Uganda) ; but not as far as the amputa-
tion of limbs, the fingers excepted. Trepanning, known from
^ See for the details, Andice, Ethn. Faral, p. 197,
2 See Max Bartels, Medecin der Na/urvSlker, Leipzig, 1893.
228 THE RACES OF MAN.
the quaternary period in Europe, is also employed among
Negroes, Persians, New Hebridians, etc., for nervous diseases,
epilepsy, etc. The clyster, the great remedy of our ancestors,
is hardly used, except by the Dakota Indians and the Negroes
of the west coast of Africa, where also the doctor squirts the
drug into the sick person from his mouth through the medium
of a calabash (Monnier).i Attenuation of virus is even prac-
tised by, for example, the Bushmen, who use it to cure the
bite of scorpions and serpents. ^
' M. Monnier, La France Noire, p. no, Paris, 1894.
H. .Schinlz, DezUsch Siiri-west Africa, p. 396, Oldenburg, 1894.
CHAPTER VII.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTKRS^COnc/uswn.
3. — Family Life. — Relations of the two sexes before marriage^
Marriage aiid family — Theory of promiscuity — Group marriage —
Exogamy and endogamy — Matriarchate — Degrees of relationship and
filiation — Polyandry — Levirate — Polygamy and monogamy — Patri-
archate — Rape and purchase of the bride — Duration of conjugal union
— Children — Birth — Nurture — Name of the child and of adults —
Initiation, circumcision, etc. — Old men and their fate — Funereal rites
■ — Mourning.
4. — Social Life. — [a] Home life of a people — Economic organisation —
The forms of property depend on production — Common property
and family property — Village community — Individual property —
Social organisation — Totemism — Clan rule — Family rule — Territorial
rule — Caste and class rule — Democratic rule — Social morals — Right
and justice — Taboo — Retaliation, vendetta, and ordeals — Secret
societies — Extra legal judges — Formulae of politeness — (b) Inter-
national life of peoples — Absence of sympathetic relations — Hostile
relations — War — Arms of offence — Bow and arrows — Arms of defence
— Neutral relations — Commerce — Money — Cowry — Transports and
means of communication — Primitive vehicles — Navigation.
The subjects about to be treated are so vast and complicated
that it is almost impossible to give an idea of them in a few
words and without going into details. So our account will of
necessity be somewhat dogmatic, and will only touch on some
salient facts of family and social life.
3. FAMILY life.
The relations of the two sexes are somewhat free among
uncivilised and half-civilised peoples so long as there is no
formal marriage or birth of a child. In the whole of Oceania,
229
230 THE RACES OF MAN.
Malaysia, among the Samoyeds, Mongols, and certain Negroes,
sexual intercourse between the young people of both sexes is
by no means prohibited.^ Sometimes even, as among the
Bavenda for example, the young men and women give them-
selves up to obscene " games." ^ Uncivilised peoples among
whom the loss of virginity would be considered dishonouring
to a girl are somewhat rare (Nias islanders, Igorrotes, Malays
of Menangkabau). Most of them treat it with indifference,
and among some of ' them defloration is obligatory before
marriage; it is effected artificially or naturally by the parents
(Bataks, Pelew islanders), by the matrons (Bissayas of the
Philippines), by the priests (Cambodia), and even, it is said,
by persons paid for this kind of work.^ It would be possible
to give instances of many other customs which shock our ideas
about chastity and marriage. Thus in the Algerian Arab tribe
of the Ouled-Nail, no young girl will find a husband if she has
not previously acquired a dowry by regular prostitution. On
the other hand, it must not be forgotten that the prostitution
of girls before marriage was required by certain cults of
antiquity (cult of Aphrodite at Abydos, Ephesus, etc., cult of
Mylitta in Babylonia, etc.).
Marriage and Family. — But marriage once contracted,
the woman, among almost all uncivilised and half-civilised
peoples, is no longer free. From this moment either the
husband, the family on the mother's or father's side, or the clan,
see strictly to the observation of the marriage rules which are
in vogue, and the laws, written or unwritten, punish every slip
of the woman who was so free before marriage. It is the con-
trary to what one often sees in our civiUsed societies. In fine,
marriage is above all a social convention, and the form which
it takes in different ethnic groups is intimately connected
with the social and economic constitution of these groups.
1 S. Wilken, Verglijk. Volkenktiiide van Nederl. Ind., p. 293, Leyden, ,
1893; Ivanowsky, loc. cit., p. 19 of the original impiession ; Post,
Gnmdz. ethnol. Jurisprttd., vol. i, , Oldenb. -Leipzig, 1894.
" Bartels, " Reifc-Unsitten, etc.," Zeit. f. Elhii., 1896 (Verh., p. 363).
^ Giraud-Teulon, Origiues du manage el de la fainille, p. 33, note,
Paris, 1S84; Wilken, loc. ci/., p. 294.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 23!
The position of woman in society, ideas on conjugal obliga-
tions, etc., are entirely subordinated to the ideas which prevail
about property and the social organism.
Theory of Promiscuity. — We often hear it said that marriage
has sprung from a "state of promiscuity" in which mankind
primitively lived; every man could then couple with every
woman, "like the animals," people sometimes add, forgetting
that among animals the most akin to man this state of promis-
cuity is rather exceptional, and that the polygamous and even
monogamous family exist among a great number of birds and
mammals.'-
The theory of promiscuity or "communal marriage,'' so
well summed up some time ago by Lubbock,- has few de-
fenders at the present day. We know that actually there does
not exist on the earth any population practising an "irregular
promiscuity,'' and the evidence of history is reduced to three
or four texts of Herodotus, Strabo, and Solinus, the interpreta-
tion of which is far from easy.'
Gfoup Marriage. — What has been often taken for pro-
miscuity is only a form of marriage, different, from our
individual marriage, which, nevertheless, represents the
first attempt to regulate sexual relations and to define
^ See for further details, Letourneau, The Evolution of Marriage, etc.,
chap, i., London ; and Westermaick, History of Human Marriage,
chaps, iv. to vi., London, 1891.
'^ Lubbock, Origin of Civilisation, chap. iii. , 1875.
'^ The long list of peoples practising promiscuity given by Lubbock
dwindles as we become better acquainted with the different populations in
question. Certain peoples, like the Fuegians (Hyades and Deniker, loc.
cit.), the Bushmen, the Polynesians (Westermarck, loc. cit,), the Irulas
{Thurston, Bull. Madras Mus., vol. ii., No. I, 1897), the Teehurs of
Oude (W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes N.W. Province, etc., vol. i. , p.
clxxxiii., Calcutta, 1896), should be mercilessly struck out of this list, since
they all have individual marriage to the exclusion of other forms. Others,
like the Australians, the Todas, the Nairs, have been entered in it because
they practise "group marriage" or certain forms of polyandry, which
is not the .same thing as promiscuity. There remains of the list but two
or three tribes about whom we have no exact general information at all
(example, the Olo-Ot of Borneo).
232 THE RACES OF MAN.
ties of kinship in order to ensure the existence and bringing
up of children. This form of marriage, admirably s'.udied
l)y Howiit and Fisoni among the Australians, has received
from them the name of "group marriage." Its essential
feature is that men and women, by the fact of belonging
to such and such a group or clan are not marriageable one
with another, and are obliged by the fact of their birth
to contract unions with members of other groups of the
tribe.
Marriage by groups is met with in its most pronounced form
among the Australians and some tribes of India (Nairs, Todas).
Among the Australians this custom co-exists with individual
exogamous marriage (the " Noa " of the Dieri of Central
Australia), and exhibits itself in its simplest form in the
example of the Wotjoballuk Australians of the north-west of
Victoria. This tribe is divided into two classes or clans, the
Gamutch and the Krokitch. The men of the Gamutch clan
are by right the husbands of all the women of the Krokitch
tribe, and vke-versd. But it is only a virtual right. In practice,
during the great festivals of initiation (see p. 241), the old
men of the tribe, assembled in council, distribute among the
bachelors of a clan the unappropriated girls of the other clan.
This marriage, called " Pirauru " among the Dieri, and known
under the name of " Paramour custom " by the colonials, gives
the right to the man of the Gamutch clan, for example, to
contract a marriage with the woman of the Krokitch clan thus
allotted to him when the occasion shall present itself; he
may also take with him one or more of these women and
make her or them live with his wife of the individual
marriage. However, as the same woman may be allotted in
the successive festivals to several men, there are certain rules
of precedence to observe in the fulfilment of the conjugal
duties, if chance puts two men before their "common" wife:
1 A. W. Howitt, "Australian Group Relations," Smithsonian Rep.,
Washington, 1883; A. W. Howiit and L. Fison, " Kamilaroi and
Kurnai," Melbourne-Sydney, 1880, and Journ. Anlhr. Inst., vol. .sii.,
p. 30, 1SS2.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 233
■the elder brother takes precedence of the younger, the man
up in years of the youth. ^
Exogamy and Endogamy. —Group marriage is closely con-
nected with what is called exogamy or exogeny, that is to
say, marriage outside the clan, as opposed to endogamy or
endogeny, marriage within the clan. It must be said, however,
that exogamy is as often met in the individual form of mar-
riage, and that sometimes endogamy, interdicted within the
limits of a clan, is, on the contrary, practised within the limits"
of the tribe of which these clans are the componenls. There
is in this case exogamy in relation to the clan and endogamy
in relation to the tribe.
Mairiarchate. — But how are matters of filiation and family to
be decided with such a system of marriage, for it is impossible
to settle the question of paternity in this case? To Bachofen
and McLennan 2 we must attribute the honour of having
discovered a complete system of filiation, in vogue among
many uncivilised peoples, and the exact opposite to that
which we are accustomed to in our societies : filiation by the
mother, or matriarchate. Thus in our example of the Aus-
tralians of Wotjoballuk (p. 232), the posterity of a man of
the Gamutch clan married to a woman of the Krokitch clan
will belong to the Krokitch clan ; if, on the contrary, the
father is a Krokitch and the mother a Gamutch, the children
will belong to the Gamutch clan. This filiation establishes
the uterine relationship and, united to exogamy, prevents
marriage between nearest relatives. In fact, the son of the
first couple being of the Krokitch clan, will not be able to marry
' A. \V. Howitt, " Dieri, zic." Jourti. Anihr. Inst., vol. xx., 1S90,
p. 53. Among the Nairs of the coast of Malabar things are done in
exactly the same way. The main point in both cases is the prohibition of
marriage in the clan itself (L. Fison, " Classificat. Relationship," /o««-«.
Anthr. Inst., vol. xxv., 1895, p. 369). Among the Todas of Nilgiri the
groups are limited in this sense, that the men who cohabit with a woman
must be brothers, and at the same time can only marry with the sisters of
this woman.
^ Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht, Stuttgart, 1S61 ; J. P". McLennan,
Stuiies ill Ancient History, London, 1876.
234 THE RACES OF MAN.
his uterine sister, since she is of the same clan as he is, but
only an alien woman, or a relative, according to our conven-
tions, of the Gamutch clan, for example, the sister of his father.
Theoretically, a father of the Gamutch clan would be able to
marry his daughter, since she belongs to the Krokitch clan ; but
in practice these cases are forbidden by custom, for example
among the Australian Dieri,i or they are avoided by the
existence not of two, but of four or a greater number of classes
in the tribe, with prohibitions against the marriage of people
of certain of these classes.^
However, peoples who practise group marriage and
exogamy have not to regard incest very seriously, for
degrees of relationship are not fixed with them as with us.
To fix relationship, they make use of a system called
by Morgan, who discovered it (among the American Indians
first), and described it admirably,-^ the " dassificaiory
system." In its simplest form, such as it is met with, for
example, among the Micronesians and the Maoris, it may be
thus summed up. All persons allied by consanguinity are
divided into five groups. The first is formed of myseif&nd. my
brothers, sisters, and cousins ; we all bear the same name,
which is that of the whole group. The second group is
formed of my father and mother with their brothers and sisters,
as well as their cousins, all likewise bearing the same name;
the third group comprises my grandparents, with their brothers,
sisters, etc. ; the fourth, the cousins of my children, whom I
' L. Fison, loc. cit.,Journ. Anlhr. Inst., vol. xxiv., 1895, p. 36.
Thus, if there are four clans, A, B, C, and D, as among the Kamilaroi,
for example, the children sprung from the parents of the clans A and B
may not intermarry; they belong to the clan C, the members of which may
only marry with the members of the clan D. It is their children only who
will be able to contract marriages in the groups A and B. In this way
incest is only possible between ihe grandfather and the granddaughter,
that is to say, reduced practically to zero.
^ L. Morgan, " Syst. of Consanguinity, etc.," Smithsoti. Conlrib.
Knowl, vol. xvii., Washington, 1871 ; xaA Ancient Society, London, 1877.
See also the very clear statement of the system in Lubbock, loc. cit, and
its extension to the Australians and the Melanesians of the Fiji Islands
in Howitt and Fison, loc. cii.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 235
consider as my sons and daughters; lastly, the fifth group is
composed of the grandchildren of my brothers and sisters,
whom I consider as my grandchildren. A similar system of
nomenclature is very common among certain peoples of India,
and sometimes causes much embarrassment to English judges
newly landed. To give an example: A witness said that his
father was at home at such and such an hour; then, a few
minutes after, he affirmed that his father was in the fields.
The judge is perplexed until, by a series of questions, he elicits
the fact that the witness means his "little" father, equivalent to
our term uncle.^ Westermarck has tried to interpret the classi-
ficatory system differently ; he sees in it only an artifice of
speech, a vfay of addressing persons of different ages ; but as
Fison judiciously observes, if it be held that this system has
no reference to degrees of relationship we should have to
deny any idea whatever of this subject to certain peoples
who have no other expressions to denote degrees of rela-
tionship.^
Polyandry, that is to say, marriage in which the woman
possesses several husbands, is considered by the majority of
authors as a form derived from group marriage. With the
exception of two doubtful examples (Khasias and Saporogian
Cossacks), polyandry always assumes the fraternal form ; that
is to say, the husbands of the woman are brothers. The
classic country of polyandry is Thibet. There each of the
brothers cohabits in turn with their common wife, a certain
period being allotted. Among the ancient Arabs, according to
Strabo, matters were arranged less systematically, and the first
comer on his arrival at the woman's house asserted his marital
rights, after having taken care, however, to place his staff
across the door, as is still done in the case of temporary
marriages in Persia and among the Todas, who leave the cloak
as well as the staff. Polyandry is practised by several peoples
living on the borders of Thibet (Miris, Dophlas, Abors,
' Tylox,Journ. Aiithr. Inst., vol. xviii., 18S8-89, p. 262.
^ Westermarck, loc. cil., p. 82 ; L Fison, /^iir. cit. ("Classific. System"),
p. 369.
236 THE RACES OF MAN.
Khasias, Ladakhis, etc.), but appears to be but rarely met with
elsewhere, and almost never outside of India. It is explained
by the scarcity of women in these countries (a statement not
confirmed by statistics in regard to certain of them), and by
the necessities of the pastoral life of these peoples.
Levi rate, or compulsory marriage with a dead brother's
widow, a very widespread custom in India (where it is called
niyoga), among the Iroquois and other American Indians, the
Melanesians, the Negroes, as well as the ancient Egyptians
and Jews, is considered as a survival of polyandry. However,
Maine, Westermarck, and others see in it only a custom
established with a view to securing the protection of orphan
children. 1 With polyandry is also connected, on not very
good grounds it seems to me, parental marriage. In this
form of union the father or uncle or some other relative really
cohabits with the nominal wife of his son or nephew during the
minority of the latter. This custom, according to Shortt,
prevails in India among the Reddies or Naickers, and according
to Haxthausen among the peasantry in Russia, where a modi-
fication of this kind of relation, strongly reprehended, however,
is still known at the present day under the name " Snokha-
chestvo."^
Polygamy and Monogamy. — Individual marriage, which may,
as we have seen in Australia, co-exist with group marriage,
assumes two different forms — -polygamy and inonogamy. The
latter does not necessarily proceed from the former. Many
savage tribes, like the Veddahs and the Andamanese, are mono-
gamous, as are also a certain number of mammals and birds.
Among others (Fuegians, Bushmen) polygamy is exceptional.
In reality it only takes root in societies a little more advanced, in
which, especially, the idea of individual property is already more
' Maine, Ancient Law, p. 241, London, 1SS5 ; Westermarck, loc. cii.,
p. 51C.
■^ Shoi'tt, Transact. Elhn. Soc, London, N.S., vol. vii. , p. 264;
Ilaxlhausen, Transcaucasia, p. 403, London, 1854. Leioy-Boaulieu
(VEmpire des Tzars, vol. vi., chap. 5, p. 48S, Paris, 18S5-89) aUiibutes
this custom to the over-exercise of paternal authority.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 237
or less firmly planted. Woman is then considered very much as
a slave, from whom pleasure and labour may be obtained ; she
is treated like any other property; the more wives a man has,
the richer and more esteemed is he. Polygamy is widely
diffused over the world, either in its pure form (Mahomedans,
Australians, American Indians, Negroes, etc.) or in its modified
forms: lawful concubinage (all over the East), or unlawful
(Europe), and temporary marriage (Persia, Japan).
It is only with the development of society that monogamy^
nominal or real, develops, and with it a little respect for
woman. She enjoys more liberty, as do also the children
who have passed a certain age. Thus is constituted the
family of to-day, in which, however, the patriarchal spirit is
still dominant.
Patriarchate. — Individual polygamous marriage is most
frequently allied to a new form of affihation, that of kinship
through males, which, in its turn, is rooted in the constitution
of property and the subordination of woman to man. In
the matriarchate the natural protector of the child and the
family is the mothers brother ; in the patriarchate his
place is taken by the father, who extends the right
of property not only to include the mother, but also the
children ; he may sell them, hire them out, etc. The
patriarchate is the regime under which live most half-civilised
peoples and a great number of uncivilised.
Several matrimonial customs may be explained by the
primitive forms of marriage. Thus the practice of showing
hospitality to a stranger by lending him one's wife, so common
among savages and half-civilised nomads, may be explained as
a relic of group marriage, in which, as we have seen, the
exchange and the lending of women are practised.^ Similarly,
the custom, very prevalent, especially in Malaysia, which
requires a husband to live in his wife's family, is considered
by most authors as a relic of the matriarchate. Another
' The Torgoot Mongols, who practise this ciislom, explain it by the
general rules of hospitality (Ivanovski, loc. at.); in this respect they are in
agreement with Westermarck, toe. cil., chap. vi.
238 THE RACES OF MAN.
custom, nearly always allied to the first, but which is also met
with as a survival in the cases where the woman goes to live
with her husband's family, is that prohibiting newly-married
couples from speaking to their fathers and mothers-in-law
{avoidance). The best known form, widely diffused from the
Kafirs to the Mongols, is the forbidding of the husband not
only to speak to, but even to see his mother-in-law; if by
chance he should meet her, he is obliged to take to flight,
or, at any rate, to turn aside out of the way. Among
several peoples of the Caucasus and certain North American
Indians this custom is observed only until the birth of the first
child. This custom, in a general way, is considered as a relic
either of exogamy (Tylor) or of anti-incest customs (Wester-
marck).!
Among the most widely diffused practices having a con-
nection with marriage, we must mention the abduction of
the wife, whether real (Arabs, Turco-Mongols, Caribs, Pata-
gonians, Burmese, Australians, etc.) or simulated and symbolic,
and often forming part of the marriage ceremonies (among a host
of peoples). Ethnologists are not agreed as to the origin of
this custom; some see in it the last vestiges of exogamy, others
the relic of the slavery of women, etc.
Side by side with simulated abduction there is almost always
the purchase of the wife from her parents (the "Kalym"
of the Turco-Tatars, etc.), which proves that marriage by
purchase took the place of marriage by capture in the
■' It must be observed on this point tliat, according to Westermarck, the
horror of incest is not an instinctive sentiment (animals do not have it),
but rather a social habit springing from sexual repulsion for persons, even
unrelated to the family, with whom one has been brought up from infancy.
Thus we often see marriages prohibited between one village and another
(ancient Peru), or between god-parents, who superintend the baptism of a
child, and are in no way aUied to each other by lilood (Russia). The learned
Helsingfors professor, who believes in the omnipotence of sexual selection,
explains the frequency of the aversion to incest by the survival of
individuals who did not contract consanguineous marriages, always mis-
chievous in his opinion. However, he admits that the bad effects of
consanguineous marriages may be mitigated by material well-being, as is the
case in Europe.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 239
exogamous relations .between tribes, and contributed to their
social cohesion, preventing quarrels and wars (Tylor). The
marriage portion is only found in societies having a relatively
high organisation. It is, as it were, a payment for the
guardianship which the husband assumes over the wife and her
children under the patriarchal system. The institution of the
marriage portion is probably derived from the practice still in
vogue among many peoples, according to which the parents
offer presents in exchange for the money or the service given
as the purchase-price of their daughter.
The duration of the conjugal union varies so much among
different peoples that no general rule can be laid down re-
garding it. From unions of a night (under the regime of
group marriage, in temporary or trial marriages) to the
indissolubility prescribed by the Christian religions, there is
quite a scale of conjugal relations more or less durable. Most
frequently the husband may discard the wife when she has
ceased to please him; sometimes divorce is hedged round with
certain formalities of established custom.
Children. — In all societies, as in the animal world, the
family is principally established for the bringing up of
children. But it is far from true that the arrival of children
is everywhere accepted with joy. The voluntary limitation
of progeny is not an invention of advanced civilisation.
Savages could teach us much on this point. The Australians
with this object practise ovariotomy on women, the operation
"mika" (artificial hjpospadTas) on men, or simply kill off the
superfluous infants. Infanticide on a large scale was practised
by the Polynesians before their " Europeanisation "; it exists
still here and there in Thibet, so far as girls are concerned.
Some would even see in this custom the origin of polyandry.
Birth. — But having once decided to let a child live, the
uncivilised look well after it. One could write a volume, if
one wished to enumerate all the hygienic and af the same
time superstitious customs attendant on the pregnancy, par-
turition, and recovery of the woman among different peoples.
The act of generation is considered by nearly all the un-
240 TI-IE RACES OF MAN.
civilised as something at once mysterious and impure.
The pregnant woman is kept quiet and rubbed; she has
to occupy a hut apart before, during, or after the birth of
the child, according to the custom of the different countries.
Rarely is the woman allowed to be confined alone; the ex-
amples quoted have reference for the most part to isolated
cases, such as may happen even among the civilised. She
is often assisted at the time of the confinement by one or
more women, and sometimes by men.^
Among the customs which accompany birth, the most
curious is that of the " couvade " practised by the Basques,
the Indians of Brazil and Guiana, and other peoples. Accord-
ing to this custom, the husband, after the coming into the
world of the child, behaves exactly as if it were he who had
been confined ; he betakes himself to bed, receives congratula-
tions, sometimes looks after the bab)'. E. B. Tylor sees in
this custom a survival of the matriarchate in a society with a
patriarchal regime. It would be the ransom paid by the husband
for the right, which formerly belonged to the mother, to be
called the head of the house. ^
As to the child, from the moment of his entrance into the
world, every effort is made to keep away from him the spirits
which might harm him; the Laotians, in the vicinity of
the house which shelters him, hang bells, rattles, and cloth-
bands, so that, shaken by the wind, they may make a noise
and keep away evil spirits (Harmand, Neis). The Malays
and the Nias Islanders for this purpose prepare special fetiches
(Modigliani).
The naine which is given to a child is also the result of
much care and forethought. Fetichers, shamans, sorcerers,
and priests are consulted. The name chosen is sometimes
determined by the locality or house of the birth. Thus
the Kalmuks who were exhibited at Paris in 1882 gave the
name of " Paris " to the child which one of their number
brought into the world. The Negroes of Senegal, under similar
^ See Ploss, Das IVeilf, 5th cd., vol, ii., 1S97, Leipzig.
^ E, TyloYfJ'our/i. Anthr, /nsL^ vol. xviii., p. 24S.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 241
circumstances in 1895, called one of their new-born "The
Frenchman." But most frequently the name given is of a
plant or animal (Red Indians, Mongols, etc.). It must
be said, however, that among many peoples the name
given at birth is not borne throughout life. It may be changed
more than once. The most frequent cause for doing this is
the fear of spirits; the Dyaks and the Mongols change the
name of sick persons to " deceive the spirit " who has caused
the disease; among the Fuegians, the Indians of North
America, the Polynesians, and the Malays, the name of a
dead man is not allowed to be uttered, and all his name-
sakes are obliged to change their name. Often, too, the
name is changed because their "trade" requires it; the
Okanda healers bear another name when they practise their
art ; and among civilised peoples changes of name are bound
up with certain social conditions (monks, actors, prostitutes,
etc.).
Education of Children. — Suckling ordinarily lasts a very
long time among uncivilised peoples, till the child is two,
three, four, and five years old, sometimes even older.i Children
are treated kindly by uncivilised peoples, and rarely are they
chastised as they are in Europe, though a certain "discipline"
appears among the half-civilised, with the necessity of making
the child learn many more things. At the age of puberty,
among most uncivilised peoples, the ceremony of initiation
takes place. This is a sort of higher education with certain
tests, followed by a ceremony, after which the individual is
declared adult. It is met with among the Australians, as also
among the American Indians, Negroes, etc., with the same
essential features. The young men of the tribe are led into a
place apart, where the sorcerers, the fetichers, or the " old men,"
teach them during a varying period all that a " man " should
know about social and sexual life. The candidates are then
put tests, sometimes very cruel, to make sure of their power
' Ploss [loc. eit.) mentions Australian, Eskimo, and North American
Indian tribes among whom the child is suckled till the age of fourteen or
fifteen.
16
242
THE RACES OF MAN.
to resist thirst, hunger, and physical pain. Those who emerge
victorious from these tests are brought back triumphantly into
the villages, and feasted during several days.^
Among the operations to which young men are subjected
during initiation, we must specially notice circumcision, gene-
rally practised all over Oceania, among the American Indians
and other peoples, without taking into account the Israelite
and Mussulman world, in which this custom has now but a
religious symbolic signification. Moreover, several religions
have kept the custom of initiation, giving to it very varied
forms (shaving of the forelock among Buddhists, first com-
munion among Catholics, etc.).
The lot of the old men is not an enviable one in primitive
societies. They are not cared for, and often when they
become infirm they are left to die of hunger. The voluntary
suicide of the old men, which is committed amid great pomp
among the Chukchi ^ and some other peoples, may be ex-
plained as much by the miseries of existence as by the belief
in a better life beyond the tomb, which is the basis of
funereal rites.^ Among nearly all peoples it is customary
to put into the grave objects which the dead had used
in their ordinary occupations, but only such as constituted
private property: weapons by the side of a warrior, pottery
near to a woman, etc.* These objects are usually broken to
signify that they also are dead, and that their "soul" goes to
accompany their owner into the other life. It is also with
this idea that a warrior's favourite horse is sacrificed on his
grave (Red Indians, Altaians), or a symbolic ceremony
suffices, the animal being led in the funeral procession, a custom
' For an illustration of this see the " Description of Australian Initia-
tion" (Bura), by R. Malhews, y««-/?. Anthr. Inst,, vol. xxv. , 1896,
No. 4.
^ Deniker, " Le peuple Tchouktch, etc." (from Avgustinovich), Rev.
(T Anthr. , 1882, p. 323, and De Windt, Ctobus, 1S97, vol. Ixxi. , p. 300,
^ Tyler, toe. cit. (Anttir.), pp. 346, 420.
■* In various countries in Europe these objects give place to a piece of
money put into the mouth or the hand of the dead ; as one never knows
what may happen, it is always well to have a little money at one's service.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 243
Still practised all over Europe at the interments of superior
officers. In India women are sacrificed, slaves in Dahomey
and among the Dyaks, etc., in order that the dead may not
be deprived of anything in the other world.'-
Funeral ceremonies and the practice of going into mourning
give place to feasts of diverse character. Among the Dualas
of the Cameroons (Western Africa), the " feast of the dead "
lasts nine days, the time required for his soul to make the
journey to Bela, the place of eternal rest. Among the Battas of
Sumatra, we find these funeral feasts accompanied by dances
and a special kind of game, the 7'oping}ia. The exhumation
of the bones of the dead person at the end of a certain time,
practised by several Indonesian, Melanesian, and American
tribes, is the occasion of orgies ; I may also mention the habit
of visiting the cemetery at stated periods, and taking food
either on the grave or by the side of it, which is very general
in Europe.
Among the feasts organised in honour of the dead let us
mention the Bung of the Japanese, at the end of which
miniature skiffs in straw are thrown into the sea, supposed to
transport the souls of the dead who have been present at the
feast back to their dwelling-place.
The modes of sepulture, although very varied, — interment,
incineration, exposure to the air (natural mummification), em-
balming, pure and simple abandonment on the earth or to
the waves, — have not a great importance from the ethnical
point of view ; often two or three modes may co-exist among
the same people (examples, Mongols, Papuans).
Mourning. — Outward manifestations of grief caused by
the death of a near relative exist among all peoples of the
world, even the most uncivilised. These are, first, cries,
lamentations, and tears (Bushmen, Bechuana, ancient Egyp-
■ Many practices in relation to the dead are explained by the belief that
they are sleeping for a greater or less time (see p. 216). Thus, among the
Micronesians of the Gilbert Islands, the woman sleeps by the side of her
dead husband, and covers her body with the putrid matter which oozes
from the corpse.
244 THE RACES OF MAN.
tians, Caribs of Guiana, Italians, Russians). Then succeed
material signs displayed on the body, some of which are
the consequence of cruel practices which seem to suggest
the idea of sacrifice for the purpose of removing the anger
of "the dead man's soul," which wanders about the survivors.
We need only mention the cutting off of the finger-joints
among the Bushmen, of the toes among the Fijians, the
drawing out of teeth in Eastern Polynesia, the laceration of
the skin among the Australians, the burnings among the New
Caledonians. Under a milder form the same idea of sacrifice
manifests itself in the custom of plucking out the hair of the
beard (Australians, Fijians), of cutting or shaving off a part
or the whole of the hair (Jews and Egyptians in ancient times,
Huns, Albanians, Hovas, Malays, American Indians, Basutos,
Gallas). Certain signs of mourning on the body seem to be
caused by the desire not to be recognised by the "spirit" of
the dead person; such is the custom of daubing the face or
the whole body, practised by the Negroes of Central Africa,
the Australians, the Polynesians, etc. Among peoples who
are more clothed, the mode of dress is altered. General
negligence in dress is a sign of grief among the Bechuana
and the Malays ; tearing of the garments is practised among
the American Indians; the Manganya of Southern Africa
wrap the body in palm-leaves, which they wear until they fall
withered to the ground. The conventional colour of the
clothes, white among the Chinese, black among Europeans,
is a sign of the same kind.
4. — SOCIAL LIFE.
Social life may be studied both as limited to a given people
(inner life) and in the relations of one people with another
(international life).
The inner life of a given ethnical group comprises economic
or property organisation, and social organisation properly so
called (administration and politics). Ideas of morals, right,
and justice depend much on the forms which these organisa-
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 245
tions have taken, as well as on usages and customs; and the
latter in their turn are derived principally from family organisa-
tion and religious ideas.
The international life of peoples manifests itself in three
different v^ays : either in hostile relations (war), in pacific
neutral relations (commerce), or in sympathetic relations (ex-'
change of ideas and feelings, feasts, congresses, etc.).
Inner Life of a People — Economic Organisation. — The system
by which froferiy is held depends on the mode of production,
for the distribution and consumption of wealth are in intimate
relation with the mode of procuring it. Among savage hunters
it is often necessary for several to combine to catch big game;
thus Australians hunt the kangaroo in bands of several dozen
individuals; the Eskimo gather quite a flotilla of kayaks for
whale-fishing. The captured kangaroos, the whale brought
to shore, are considered common property; each eats of the
spoil according to his hunger. The territory of each tribe
among the Australians and Red Indians is considered collective
property; every one hunts on it in his own way, on condition
that he does not encroach on the territory of neighbouring
tribes. But in the midst of this common property certain
objects used solely by the individual, his garments, his weapons,
etc., are considered personal property, while the tent with its
furniture, etc., belongs to the family; as the canoe which is
used for whale fishing, holding five or six persons, belongs to
these persons in common.
Thus in the same society three sorts of property, collective,
family, and individual, may exist simultaneously side by side.
What decides its category is the character of the labour
expended, the mode of production. I have made a flint
implement with my own hands, it is mine; with the assist-
ance of my wife and children I have built the hut, it belongs
to the family; I have hunted with the people of my tribe,
the beasts slain belong to us all in common. The animals
which I have killed by myself on the territory of the tribe are
mine, and if by chance the animal wounded by me escapes and
is killed by another, it belongs to both of us and the skin is
246 THE RACES OF MAN.
his who gave the finishing stroke. For this reason each arrow
bears the mark of its owner.
It is thus that matters are arranged among the Tunguses
and North American Indians. Among the latter, rules have
been strictly laid down in regard to bison-hunting from the
point of view of individual property.^
But since the introduction of fire-arms, the balls bearing no
distinctive marks, the slain bisons are divided equally; they
are considered as common property. This example shows
plainly how closely are related production and the system by ■
which property is held. Common and private property do not
lead among savages to monopoly, for the products of the
chase cannot be kept for long without getting spoilt; so after
having taken what he wants for himself, the hunter gives the
remainder to his relatives, his family, or the tribe. It is this
which partly explains the carelessness of savages and the
absence among them of the spirit of thrift and thought for the
future.
Family Property. — With the introduction of agriculture,
most of the objects of personal property become family property;
the transformation frequently coincides with the appearance of
the patriarchal form of family life; the land still remains for some
time common property, but soon it likewise becomes family pro-
perty. The members of the same family group enjoy in common
the products of the soil, which common labour has fertilised.
This mode of property existed in Russia before the sixteentli
century, that is to say, before the establishment of the com-
munal ownership of the soil still in vogue to-day. It is found
in England from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century (See-
bohm), and in certain parts of France (in the Nivernais, *
according to the statement of Guy Coquille) in the form of
" porgonneries " having "pot and fire" in common, working
in the same fields and accumulating their savings in the
' Even in the cases where several arrows have pierced the animal their
reciprocal positions decided to whom belonged such or such part of the
slain animal ; the sldn, for instance, was his whose arrow had penetrated
nearest to the heart.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 247
same box.^ With the growth of population, this family joint-
ownership developed into an agricultural commune, the
true " village community ' of English authors, with the
alienation of holdings and the admission of strangers into
its midst, with periodic distributions of the various strips
of land. The best type of this kind of community is the
Russian "mir.'' In India it is met with side by side with the
family commune among the Dravidian and Aryan peoples,
and in Western Europe numerous traces of it are found. ^
But these are only traces and survivals, for communal property
has been destroyed here as in the Mussulman world, often by
means of force, with the establishment of the feudal system,
which gave birth to the different modes of land tenure which
we find to-day. In Russia and in India the dissolution of the
communal system is still taking place under our eyes, but from
intrinsically different causes, especially the rapid increase of
population and diminution of the size of holdings.
Social Organisation. — The constitution of society is modelled
on that of property. In the simplest cases the family organisa-
tion is at the same time the social organisation. Under
the regime of group marriage, and even after its partial
-replacement by individual marriage, tribes are divided into a
certain number of clans, each of which, with the majority
of peoples, has its totem. The totem is a class of material
objects (never an isolated object, thus differing from the
fetish) for which uncivilised man professes a superstitious
veneration, believing in a sort of mysterious connection
between himself and each representative of the class of objects.
Most frequently the totem is some species of animal or vegetable
which the members of the clan regard as their ancestor, and
also as the patron and protector of the whole clan. The
Iroquoian legends relate circumstantially how the tortoise, their
totem and ancestor, got rid of its shell and gradually developed
1 Kovalewsky, Tableau des origines de la fain ilk, etc., pp. 59 and 91,
Stockholm, 1890; Maine, Early History of Institutions, London, 1875.
2 G. L. Gommc, The Village Community, London, 1890; and Kova-
lewsky, loc. cit. Baden- Powell, Indian Village Com., London, 1896.
24S th£ races of man.
into man. The totem is represented on different objects
belonging to the dan. Our blazons and armorial bearings are
derived from the totem, as well as marks of ownership. The
totemistic divisions are independent of the territorial divisions
of the tribe; the connection is, rather, a moral one. The
inhabitants of a territorial district may belong to several clans,
and, on the other hand, the members of one and the same
"totem" may inhabit places distant from each other.
Nearly always the totem is subject to taboo^ (page 252).
The social organisation of clans and "phratries" (groups
of clans of which the members are intermarriable) joined to
totemism is widespread among North American Indians,
Australians, Melanesians of the Solomon Islands, the Tshi-
speaking tribes of the Gold Coast, etc. It exists side by side
with other social organisations among the Kirghis, the Kev-
surs of the Caucasus (Kovalewsky), the Mandingoes (Binger),
etc. Under this primitive regime there are no permanent
chiefs, but intermittent councils, formed of the "old men " in
each clan. If several clans are united into a tribe, an elective
chief sometimes appears, but always invested with only a
temporary and very limited power.
Family Organisatioti. — AVith the change from the hunting to
the agricultural mode of life, with the estabUshment of affiliation
by blood and the patriarchal family, with the constitution of
family ownership, the social organisation is also transformed.
All the members of the family gathered under the same roof
(often in the literal sense of the word ; for example, among the
Indonesians and the Pueblo Indians) constitute the social unit.
Such is the origin of the commune in China and Japan, of the
" fine " in Ireland, etc. The chief of the race, the living
"ancestor,'' becomes the chief of the society, and his power
tends to become hereditary.^
' J. G. Frazer, Totemism, London, 1887 (expanded from his article in
vol, xxiii. of the Encyclop<i.dia Brltannica) \ E. Smith, Second Ann. Rep.
Bur. of Ethnol, 18S0-81, p. 77, Washington, 18S3.
^ This family rigitne of society is closely allied to the worship of
ancestors and the "hearth," as the names given to the communities
show ("feu " in France, " pechtchiche " in the Ukraine).
SOCIOLOGICAL CMARACTEKS. 249
Territorial Organisaiion. — When family ownership is re-
placed by communal ownership, the social organisation takes
the territorial form. All the people inhabiting a given territory,
whether related by blood or not, form the social unit. The
Russian "Volost," the Annamese commune, the Japanese
"Mura," the "Calpulli^' of the ancient Toltecs, are examples
of this kind of grouping.^ Sometimes these territorial organisa-
tions form by themselves independent states, governed by an
elected chief, assisted by the delegates of each commune (Moqui
in North America, Krumen and Vakamba in Africa, Saraoans in
Oceania), or controlled by popular assemblies (New Hebrideans,
most of the peoples of Western Africa and the Congo basin).
Sometimes also they form part of vaster confederations at the
head of which is an elected chief, a council, etc. (Rejangs
of Sumatra with their " Pangherans," or princes, Afghans with
their "Khans," etc.).
Organisation of Castes and Classes. — We may find already in
the territorial organisation of society the rudiments of the forma-
tion of classes, shown by the development of private property
and wealth, and also by the authority of the chiefs and powerful
persons who become the " protectors " of the weak. This
differentiation of classes is also marked by the appearance
of slavery, the result of wars and the right of private property
(enslavement for debt). It takes definite form in the class
organisation which presupposes the existence of two groups
of citizens at least — the lords and nobles, the aristocracy or
directing class, and the "people,'' the plebeian or directed
class. The relations between these classes may extend from
the complete servitude of the one and the exercise of the right
of life and death by the other, to an almost absolute equality
of the two.
There is similarly a perfect gradation for non-free people,
as opposed to citizens divided into two or more classes. At
' Laveleye, Proprtete pri>iiitive, p. 9, Paris, 1S91 ; Kovalewsky, loc. cit.,
passim ; Sakuya Yosbida, Ceschkhll. Eniwickl. d. Slaats- Verfass. in
Japan, p. 46, Hague, 1890 ; Bancioft, Native Races of Pacific Slates,
vol. ii., p. 226, San Francisco, 18S2.
250 THE RACES OP MAN.
the foot of the ladder are " slaves," in the strict sense of the
word, not regarded even as men; while at the top are found
those who by birth are not free, but who by fortune or other-
wise may come to occupy a position almost equal to that of
free citizens of the highest class.
What are the qualifications required in order to become
chief in primitive social organisations ? Most often, by
election, those become chief who are bravest in war, strongest,
most skilful in the chase (American Indians, Congolese), or
the chiefs are the richest (Indians, Polynesians, Negroes), or
simply they are the biggest, the best fed (Athapascans,
according to Bancroft). But whatever may be the ground on
which they are chosen, the power of these chiefs is often most
precarious, and it may disappear with the cause of its
origin (war, hunting expedition). Chiefs elected for a stated
period are iiivested with more real power. Sometimes they
are elected for life ; this is a step towards hereditary
power which may degenerate into the purest absolutism
(ancient Dahomey). The outward ensigns of authority are
of various sorts : clubs and commander's staffs (Oceania and
Europe), parasols (Asia, Africa),^ etc. In the same way
as the clan is responsible for the misdeeds of each of
its members, so the absolute monarch, king, sultan, khan,
prince, etc., is responsible for the acts committed by his
subjects. The corollary of the conception that kings or other
potentates represent the most skilful, influential, and bravest
men is that of forfeiture of power when the holder becomes
aged or infirm, or when he shows himself incapable of
reigning (Quechuas, Masai); in certain absolute States the
right of revolt against an incapable holder of royal power
is expressly recognised (China), at least in theory. ^
Feudal and Democratic Organisation. — It would be out of
place here to dwell on the development of the feudal system and
the theocracy which result from the regime of classes. Let us
^ See Andree, Etkno/og. Para/le/e, p. 250.
"^ See for further details. Post, ,^ cit., Grundriss der ethnol. Jurisprud.,
vol. i.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 251
merely say that almost all half-civilised peoples are still in the
midst of the feudal regime or are just emerging from it. The
recognition of individual liberty forms the first step towards
the organisations of modern European states, constitutional
monarchies or republics, in which the aim is to reduce to a
minimum governmental action and the differences of classes,
especially before the law, — to establish, in a word, a democratic i
regime. y
Social morality, or the basis of conduct imposed on the
members of society, is a convention recognised by the laws and
by public opinion. This is to say that it changes from one people
to another, according to the degree of culture, surrounding
circumstances, etc. In the most uncivilised tribes life has a
relative security, owing to certain rules of conduct to which
each member submits from fear of punishment or the dis-
approbation of public opinion. The right of the strongest is
not applied in all its brutal logic even among savages.
Their rules of morality are of course not always in accordance
with ours. Among the uncivilised, it is not a question of
absolute right, of absolute morality; everything is reduced to
a very restricted altruism, not extending beyond kin and imme-
diate neighbours. It is wrong to kill a man of one's own clan,
or to steal something from the collective property of the clan ; but
it is, on the contrary, very praiseworthy to strike down with a
well-directed arrow a stranger to the clan, or to carry off some-
thing from a neighbouring clan. Gradually the moral senti-
ment extends to people of the same tribe, of the same class or
caste, of the same religion, but such extension is slow. Among
the civilised the moral code sometimes varies as it is applied
on this or that side of political or social boundaries.
Besides, in a general waj', a number of acts regarded as
culpable by the codes of all civilised states, are yet tolerated,
and even extolled, in certain particular circumstances; such
as the taking of life, for example, in legitimate defence,
in a duel, during war, or as capital punishment. Thus in
recalling examples of this kind, we shall be less severe on
a Dyak who cuts off a man's head solely that he may carry
252 THE RACES OF MAN.
this trophy to his bride; for if he did otherwise he would
be repulsed by all, and would not be able to marry.
Among the uncivilised, morality is purely utilitarian; it en-
courages acts of utility to the clan, to the tribe (hospitality,
protection of children, respect for common property, etc.), it
reprobates those which are not advantageous (support of the
old people, compassion for slaves, etc.).
Right and Justice. — At the origin of societies morals and
the action of justice are indistinguishable, pubhc opinion
constitutes " common law,'' often respected even by the legisla-
tions of the civilised. I cannot undertake to speak here of
morals based on religious ideas, nor of ethnical jurisprudence.^
Let it suffice to give some examples of customs which bring into
prominence some of the ideas of right and justice of uncivilised
peoples.
Taboo is one of the customs which show in the clearest way
the power of public opinion in primitive societies. This
custom, common in Australia, Melanesia, and especially in
Polynesia, may be briefly defined as an interdiction, by the
authority of the council of old men, chiefs, priests, etc., to in
any way use a certain object or living thing. Thus, young
Australians are forbidden to eat the flesh of the emu before
reaching the age when they undergo "initiation" (see p. 241);
taboo in this case has a utilitarian purpose, as also in Polynesia,
where chickens, bananas, and yams are tabooed when there
is a scarcity. Sometimes taboo is only to be observed
by women or children, etc. Whoever infringes this law runs
the risk of punishment by death.
Another example of judicial and social custom is the
vendetta. At the beginnings of socialisation, in groups
organised in clans, every offensive act had to be personally
"avenged" by the victim. The vengeance assumes then
the form ol a. judicial combat (prototype of European duel). In
the case of murder, it is the near relatives who take upon
themselves the duty of avenging it, but as the search for the
' See for more details, Ch. Letourneau, Vivolu'.ion de la Morale, Paris,
1887, and A. Post, loc. cii., 2nd vol., Leipzig, 1895,
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 253
true culprit is sometimes difficult, the whole clan is held
responsible for the act committed by one of its members, and
it becomes lawful to kill any one belonging to this clan
to avenge the murder. The law of retaliation also imphcs
that the misdeed should be avenged in nearly the same
form in which it was committed. Gradually, however, ven-
geance passes into the hands of the representatives of society
(judges, magistrates), and the penal code is established.
Ordeals represent one of the most vvidespread methods of
judicial procedure of non-civilised peoples. Most frequently
the carrying out of these trials is entrusted to magicians
believed to have the faculty of discovering the guilty person.
Needless to say that the presents offered by interested parties
had a considerable influence on the decision of these umpires. ^
The taking of an oath is the last remnant of this mode of
procedure; it is a moral test which, among many peoples, is
associated with the obligation of swallowing certain special
beverages (the rust of a sword »in wine in Malaysia, blood
among the Chinese, etc.).
Secret Societies — Extra-legal Judges. — In every social organi-
sation which is imperfect or powerless to give satisfaction
to the just claims of its members, secret societies are formed
which undertake the redressing of wrongs and the re-establish-
ment of justice. Such, for example, are the societies of the
" Duk-Duk " of New Britain, usually formed of a confidant
of the chief of the tribe, and of young men who have entered
the " club " on payment of a somewhat large sum. Each
Duk-Duk is on occasion a justiciary; clad in his particular dress
and wearing a horrible mask, lie runs howling through the village,
and all those who are not in the secret run away terrified. He
goes to the hut of the native against whom a complaint had been
^ The most common ordeals are the trial by water (swimming across a
river, remaining some time under water, etc.) and that by fire. In the
latter case the accused is made to run on hot coals, as in India, among the
Somalis, in Siam; to lick red-hot iron, as among the Dyaks, the Khonds,
the Negroes of Sierra-Leone ; or again, to dip the hands in molten lead,
as in Burma among the Jakuns of Malacca, or the Alfurus of
Buru, etc.
254 THE RACES OF MAN.
lodged or who is suspected of a crime, and inflicts punishment
which may vary from a simple fine to death. No one dare
resist him, for sooner or later a violent end would be the
fate of him who had raised his hand against the Duk-Duk,
The members of this secret society, who recognise each other
by certain signs, meet together in places to which the profane
are forbidden to approach under pain of death. They give
themselves up in these places to songs, dances, and copious
feasting, in which human flesh often forms the chief dish.
They are also sorcerers and healers.^
Similar societies exist among the Yoruba Negroes of
Guinea, and the traces of like institutions are found in
Europe, as, for example, the famous "Oat-field procedure"
lyHaberfeld ireiben\ an ancient custom which is kept up in
the region of upper Bavaria situated between the Inn and
the Isar. It is a sort of trial by a secret tribunal of mis-
demeanours which are not reached by the ordinary penal
law. The court of Munich had in 1896 to deal with one of
these procedures, which have now become very rare.^
Rules of Politeness. — Departments of social life which depend
on mutual sympathy or the feeling of solidarity are not
numerous. We must include in this category associations
formed for the chase or for agricultural work like harvest,
assistance in the reconstruction of a house destroyed by fire, etc.
This kind of labour in common is chiefly known in societies
in which the commune is the basis of social life, among
Southern Slavs and Russians. The custom of "exchanging
blood," or drinking in the same cup, widely spread among
these Slavs, as among the Malays, the Indonesians, and the
Negroes, is also one of the expressions of sincere mutual
sympathy, while rules of J>olite?iess are the manifestations,
frequently hypocritical, of feelings of sociability. They vary
infinitely. Thus salutations present a great diversity, but
^ Schmeltr and Krause, Ethnogr.-Anlhr. Ait. Miis. Godeffroy, p. 17,
Hamburg, iSSi; W. Powell, Wanderings amongst Cannibals of New
Britain, London, 1883; Gvaf von Pfeil, "Duk-Duk, eic. ," Journ. Anthr,
Institute, 1897, p. 197.
'' G. Schultheiss, Globus, 1896, vol. Ixx., No. 22.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 255
the origin of them all is the desire to show inferiority to
the person saluted, and to express sympathy and devotion.
The expression of inferiority is a posture which puts you
lower than the person saluted. This posture varies from
prostration to the ground (Negroes, Cambodians) to simple in-
clination of the head (Europeans), passing through a series of
intermediate forms: touching the ground with the forehead
(Chmese), simple genuflexion, and the " curtsey" of our mothers.
As to manifestations of sympathy, they are almost always
expressed by an embrace or kiss. In the case of the most
humble submission, the kiss is given to the soil trodden by
the feet of the person saluted, while in that of friendship
between equals it is bestowed on the cheek or lips ; inter-
mediate forms are not wanting here either, and the various habits
of kissing the foot, the garments, the hand, etc., are universally
known. To these two principal manifestations of politeness
several others may be added. A person meeting a friend or
even a casual acquaintance uncovers the whole or a part of
the body, the breast (certain Negroes), the arm or head
(Europeans); each rubs the other with oil or with earth,
nose is brought into contact with nose, and each "sniffs" the
other's health (Lapps, Eskimo, Malays, Polynesians) ; ^ each
shakes the other's hands, places the hand on the forehead
(Hindus) or on the breast (Mussulmans), or draws out the
tongue while scratching at the same time the ear (Thibetans,
etc.). 2
b. Liternaiional Life of Peoples. — The relations of ethnical
groups one with another may be of three sorts — hostile,
neutral, or sympathetic. The relations of the last category
are only just indicated among civilised peoples in the form
1 The custom of applying the nose to the cheek and drawing a breath,
with closed eyes and a smacking of the lips, exists among the Southern
Chinese, but only as an act of love. According lo P. D'Enjoy, it is an
olfactory gesture derived from the sensations of nutrition, as the European
kiss on the lips is derived from the lascivious bite. [Btill. Soc. Anihr.,
Paris, 1897, pt. 2.)
2 See for details Ling Roth, Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. xix., i88g,
p. 164; Andree, Eth. I'aral., N.F., p. 225; Hellwald, RosseUp., p. I.
ISO
THE RACES OF MAN.
of international festivals, exliibitions, and congresses; inter-
national scientific, charitable, and professional gatherings, etc.
Inter-gatherings are non-existent, or reduced to a few feasts and
rejoicings among the uncivilised and half-civilised; on the other
hand, hostile relations (or war) exist among all peoples, from
the most savage to the most refined. Neutral relations
(commerce) are but little developed
among the uncivilised, and only
begin really to assume any import-
ance among the half-civilised ; they
attain a high degree of development
among the civilised.
Waf is made on various pretexts
among the uncivilised, who have no
special armies, each member having
to fight in conjunction with the other
members of his clan, tribe, or people,
as the case may be, either to pro-
cure for himself provisions, slaves,
wives, or cattle, or to avenge
defeat, murder, or robbery on the
individuals of a " foreign,'' and con-
sequently hostile {Hostis of the
Romans) clan, tribe, or people.
The conflicts are not very deadly
at this stage of civilisation ; fre-
quently the hostilities are reduced
to mutual insults, to manoeuvres in
with otter-skin wrapping for which efforts are made to frighten
grip. {From 0. Mason.) ji^g enemy by cries, by warlike
dances, by disguises and masks of horrible aspect. Some-
times also the fate of the battle is decided by single combat
between two chiefs or two braves selected from each of the
adverse camps. Ambushes, traps, and surprises are more
common than pitched battles.
On the whole, war in primitive societies is only a species
of man-hunt. Thus the offensive weapons are nearly always
Fig. 73. — Chipped flint dagger
of the Californian Indians,
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 257
the same for hunting and war. It is only among the half-
civilised that, with more or less permanent armies, weapons
specially designed for war make their appearance, as well as
works of a defensive character — fortresses, palisades, protective-
moats, and caltrops.
I can give here but a very brief description of offensive
and defensive weapons. ^
Offensive weapons may be divided into two categories —
weapons held firmly in the hand and missile weapons ; each
of these categories comprises striking, cutting, and piercing
weapons.
Among 'C^xe, weapons held firmly {71 the hand, Xh^ striking at
blunt ones play an important part among the uncivilised, for these
are derived directly from the staff, pre-eminently the weapon
of primitive peoples. The most common is the club, only
just distinguished from a staff by its terminal swelling in
^ The difference between offensive and defensive weapons is often not
very marked even in our civilisation ; thus the sword and the sabre serve
as much for giving as warding off blows ; the same is true among savages
in regard to the staff, the club, etc. Frequently, too, objects which
originally have nothing in common with war, become offensive or defensive
weapons. Thus the bracelet is sometimes a defensive weapon. Among
several Negroes (Ashantis, Kafirs, Vakambas), and in Melanesia,
warriors put on their legs and arms bracelets formed of the long hair of
different animals (goat, boar, zebra) which almost completely cover the
limbs and protect them effectually against the blows of club and spear.
The bracelets of wire rolled in numerous spirals around the fore-arm
or the leg, which are met with among the Dyaks, the Mois of Indo-China,
the Niam-Niams, and the Baghirmis of Central Africa, are veritable
protective armour; they are the prototypes of the vantbrace and greaves.
In certain rarer cases the bracelet is an offensive weapon. Among the
Jurs, a negro tribe of the upper Nile, bracelets are found provided with
two points or spurs, four inches long, and very dangerous. The
bracelet of the Irengas (to the east of the upper Nile), as well as that of
the Jibba (living on the banks of the Jibba, a left-hand tributary of the
Sabba), is a great disc, with an opening in the middle through which to
pass the arm. A portion of the disc is removed in order to give it more
elasticity, and its outer edge, exceedingly sharp, forms a kind of circular
sabre. In order not to wound himself, the wearer covers the edge with a
circular case which he only removes for battle.
17
258
THE RACES OF MAN.
Australia ; it takes the most varied forms in Oceania, vvliere
almost every island or group of islands has its particular forms
of club. The sharp-ended clubs of the New Hebrides are
the connecting-link with pointed iveapons, of which the spear,
the lai^ce, the assagai, the fork, are the best known forms.
The point of these weapons is sometimes of flint (as among
Fio. 74. — Axe of the Banyai (Matabeleland), employed in hunting
elephants ; special hafting, partly by means of bands. {After Wood.)
Melanesians of the Admiralty Islands), sometimes of bone,
wood, shark's teeth (natives of the Gilbert or Kingsmill
Islands), sometimes of bronze (prehistoric Europe, China),
of iron (Negroes), steel (Europeans). Cutting weapons, with
the exception of the axe, the form of which varies infinitely
(Figs. 66, 74, 114, 158), are generally piercing weapons
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 259
as well. The simplest is the knife, whether it be of flint
(!'"'§■ 56), bronze, or iron (Fig. 146); from it is derived the
sabre; and the flint poignard or dagger, which gradually
became transformed into the steel sword. ^
Missile Weapons. — The readiest missile weapon to throw
at the quarry or the enemy is the weapon carried in the hand;
this is what must have happened many times to primitive man
in the excitement of the combat or chase.
But to throw a staff, a stone, or any weapon whatever so
adroitly as to wound an animal or a man was a difficult thing
to do. It became necessary to increase the force of the
propulsion, which could be done only in two ways : either by
giving a special form to the projectile, or by discharging it
by means of a special apparatus constructed for the purpose.
The first of these methods did not produce very brilliant
results. The Zandeh peoples and their congeners of Central
Africa considerably modified the knife to make use of it as a
weapon to throw with the hand (trumbache); the Franks had
the missile battle-axe called "francisque," and the Romans
javelins of all sorts. But the use of these weapons was
very restricted in all times. Clubs are still used as missile-
weapons either by reducing their size (the kerri-kerri of the
Bantu Negroes) or by changing their form (the boomerang of
the Australians). The boomerang (Fig. 75) is a wooden blade,
the form of which varies from a very gentle curve to that of a
square; its surface is always slightly curved. Thrown into
the air, certain kinds of boomerang have a secondary move-
ment of gyration and return to the foot of the thrower, as a
hoop returns to the child when he throws it before him, having
given it first a rotatory motion. Similar weapons (singd)
exist among the Khonds of Orissa (India); they existed
also in ancient Egypt, and have served perhaps as models
for the "trumbaches" of the Zandeh of the present day.
Let us add to the boomerang the "bolas" of the Patagonians
^ See for details and series of forms, Lane-Fox (now Pitt Rivers), Cat.
Aiithr. Collection in the Betluial Green Museum, London, 1S77, with
illustrations. (Tlie remarkable collection in question is now at Oxford.)
26o
THE RACES OF MAN.
(which must not be confounded with the lasso) and the balls
of bone united by little cords which the Eskimo use for
killing birds, and we shall have exhausted the list of weapons
thrown directly by the hand, which, moreover, are not very
efifective. The true improvements in missile-weapons have
Fig. 75.— Missile arms of the Australians: a, It, boomerangs; c, trans-
verse section of a boomerang; /, Lil-lil, a liind of boomerang, with
geographical map representing the environs of Broken River; d,
the same seen sideways. {After Br. Smyth. )
only been attained by the second solution of the problem—
that is to say, by increasing the power of propulsion by means
of special apparatus.
The contrivances for hurling missiles may be divided into
three categories, according to the three forces which set them
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
261
in motion: direct application of the muscular force of man,
elasticity of certain solid bodies, and lastly, the pressure of gases.
Of the first of these forces but little use
is made. The amentum of classic anti-
quity had only a restricted use. The
throwing-stick,^ or stick provided with a
notch which serves to increase the force
of the impulse given by the arm to a
javelin, is only used in some very circum-
scribed regions of the globe, especially on
the borders of the Pacific Ocean, in
Australia, where it bears the name of
Woomera, in Melanesia (Fig. 76), in the
north-west of America, among the Eski-
mo and Chukchis. It was also known in
pre-Columban times in Mexico and Peru,
whence, perhaps, it passed into Brazil.
Another similar weapon, the s!ing, in
former times much used by Semitic
peoples, and still surviving as a common
toy of our children, is scarcely used as a
weapon of any importance, except by
some Polynesian or American tribes
(Hupa Indians, Araucans, Fuegians).
Missile weapons which make use of the
pressure of gases are very little known
among uncivilised peoples. We can only
mention the blow-tube, the Sarbacan, or
more correctly speaking the Zarabatana,
of the South American Indians, and its
homologue the Sutupiian of the Malays,
in common use among the Indonesians
of the Asiatic Archipelago and Indo-
China.
This weapon is known in Europe from
S&
s .s
.2
w
c
ri
ri
C
'H
Ph
3
OJ
Ui
,c
c
0^
„
^
£s
i ■■=
1 O. Mason, "Throwing-sticks," R
Luschan, " Wurf holz, etc," Festschr.
U.S. N. Afiis. for iS
F. V.
Bastian, p. 131, Berlin, iS
262 THE RACES OF MAN.
the circumstance of a child's toy bearing the first of these
names. It is a long tube from which a little arrow is expelled
by the breath, resembling in size and appearance a knitting-
needle, and provided at its unpointed end with a ball of
elderpith or tow, which serves as wadding. The range of this
arm is from 75 to 100 feet. The sumpitan may be considered
as a weapon indirectly set in motion by muscular force, for
the arrow is expelled from it as the result of contractions of
the thoracic muscles, but it is better to regard it as the proto-
type of the ' fire-arm, as the arrow may be discharged by
utilising the expansion of gas, and thus transformed into a
fire-arm. As to true fire-arras, known to the Chinese and
peoples of antiquity, they have only made real headway in
Europe, and that from the fifteenth century.
But if the missile weapons in the two categories which
I have just enumerated are little known to uncivilised
peoples (setting aside, of course, the fire-arms imported by
civilised man), those of the third category, in which advantage
is taken of the muscular force of an elastic body (the bow), is
universally employed by them, as it was formerly in Europe.
The most perfected arm of this kind was the complicated
cross-bow of our ancestors and the Chinese.
The Bow and Arrovj} — The origin of the bow is unknown;
certain authors consider that a flexible twig arranged as a
snare would give the first idea of it. This may be so, for
among the Maoris of New Zealand there used to be a hand-
weapon which bore a striking resemblance to this snare : a whip
with a flexible handle, by means of which an arrow held in the
hand was shot off ^ Among several Eurasian peoples there is
a toy which reproduces this weapon as a survival; among the
Votiaks it even bears the name of ri'el, which means arrow in
' See H. Balfour, "On Ihe Structure and Affinities of tlie Composite
Bow," Joiirn.- AnI/ir. Inst., London, 1889, vol. xix.,p. 220; Anuchin,
Look i Slrcly (Bow and Arrows), Moscow, 1889 (in Russian); 0.
Mason, " Bows, Arrows, and Quivers of the North American Aborigines,"
Smithson'.an Report, Washington, 1893.
' Phillips, Trans. N. Zeal. Inst., vol. a., p 97, Wellington, 1877.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 263
several Finnish languages. 1 However that may be, we may
divide the infinite variety of bows into two groups : the plain
bow — that is to say, the bow formed of a single piece of wood,
and the composite bow, made of various materials — wood, horn,
ivory, sinews, leather, etc., glued solidly together.
The least complicated type of the composite bow is that of
the eastern Eskimo, of wood and horn, or of wood and bone, the
weapon being strengthened by a cord of sinews applied along
the "back" or the outer side (opposed to the "belly," inner
side, which is nearest the archer when he bends the bow).^
Among simple bows we must mention that of the Mela-
nesians, having a groove sometimes on the outer, sometimes
on the inner side ; that of the Monbuttus, provided with
a "grip"; lastly, that of the Andamanese, in the form of an S,
resembling in its general appearance on the one hand certain
bows of the Eskimo, and on the other, those of certain Bantu
Negroes of Eastern Africa (according to Foa).^
' M. Buch, Die Wotiaken, p. 78, Helsingfors, 1S82 ; Extract from
Ada Soc. Scient. Fennica, vol. xii.
'^ The prototype of the true composite bow, characterised by the addition
to it of a mass of moistened sinews which, on drying, make the bow
curve up, must have had another form ; it bore a resemblance probably to
the bow of the Indian tribes of the north-west of America and of California,
in which the sinew covering often goes beyond the body of the bow and
hangs down at its two extremities.
The improved forms of the composite bow are only found on the Asiatic
continent. The so-called "Tatar" or Mongolian bow, the Chinese
" kung," is chiefly composed of a piece of wood to which is fixed with
bird-lime on the inner side a piece of horn, and on the outer side two layers
of sinews covered with two layers of birch-bark. All other composite bows,
Persian, Hindu, etc., are only complicated forms of this type, to which we
may also refer the exceptional types of bow of the Lapp and Javanese, etc.
Accepting the view of General Pitt Rivers, loc. cit., we may say that the
composite bow is not a more perfect weapon than the simple bow, and that
it could only have had its origin in countries where the absence of very
elastic varieties of wood make it necessary to seek in the superposition of
various materials the elasticity required to augment the force of the weapon.
■' The substance used in the manufacture of the bow-string varies with
the region ; thus in the west of Africa it is always of rattan, as far as
Butembo (country of the Ponondas), where strings of Ootalaria and bam-
boo begin to be used. (Weule, Ettinol. Notizblalt. Mus. Berlin, vol. i.,
No. 2, p. 39, 1895-96.)
264 THE RACES OF MAN.
Arrows cut wholly from one piece of wood are rare. Most
of them are composed of three distinct parts fitted together :
head, shaft, and feather. The head is of hard wood (some-
times hardened in the fire) or of human bone among the Mela-
nesians ; of chipped stone among certain American Indians
and our quaternary ancestors; of bone, wood, and iron among
various Siberian peoples; of iron among most of the other
peoples. The form of the head varies infinitely; but the varieties
turn around two types : sagittal (as a classic or conventional
arrow) and lanceolate (as a laurel leaf). There are likewise
arrow-heads with transverse or hollowed edges in the form of
the fruit of the maple (Turks and Tunguses of Siberia, Negroes
of the Congo). Tastly, there are arrows of which the head has
nothing pointed about it, for it is shaped like a ball, an olive or
cone upside down, etc. These arrows are used by several
Siberian peoples (Ostiaks, Tunguses), by Negroes of the Congo,
Indians of Western Brazil, etc., as a blunt weapon for killing
animals whose fur, being valuable, might be spoilt by the blood
flowing from a wound. The Buriats of old used whistling
arrows, probably to frighten their enemies, etc. The feather
is wanting in several forms of Melanesian arrows very com-
plicated as regards the head, in certain African arrows, etc.
Among the Monbuttus it consists of the hair of animals;
everywhere else, however, of birds' feathers.
The mode of shooting the arrow and bending the bow vary
too with different countries. The Veddahs draw the cord
lying on the back, holding the bow between the feet; the
Andamanese and the Eskimo hold the bow vertically, the
Omahas and the Siouans, horizontally, etc. To bend the
immense Mongolian or Scythian bow it was necessary to hold
it by the knees, etc. Morse ^ distinguishes five special
methods of releasing the arrow. The most primitive {primary
release) is that which is naturally adopted by children of every
race when they attempt for the first time to draw the bow (Fig.
77, top): the arrow and the cord are held between the stretched-
^ E. Morse, "Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow-release," .£««.»:
Insi. Bull., Salem, Oct. -Dec, 1885.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
265
out thumb and the second joint of the bent forefinger (Ainus,
Chippewas, Assyrians, etc.). The second method is only a
variant of the first, and is
widespread hke the first,
especially among the
North American Indians.
Both give but a moderate
propelling power to the
arrow. The third method
consists in holding the
arrow between the thumb
and the second joint of
the scarcely bent fore-
finger, whilst the first joint
of this finger draws the
string, with the help of
the third finger. In this
method of release it is
necessary to hold the
bow horizontally (Omahas,
Siamese, the natives of the
greater Andaman Island,
the Egyptians and the
Greeks of antiquity).
The fourth, so-called
Mediterranean, method
(Fig. 77, bottom) con-
sists in drawing the string
by the first joints of all
the fingers except the
thumb and the little finger, ^ .^^ , , r
, . . , Far. 77. — Dirferent methods ot arrow
the arrow bemg nipped ^.^,^^^^^ .j,„p_ primitive release.
between the fore and Middle, Mongolian release. Bottom,
middle fingers and placed Mediterranean release. {A//e?- E.
on the left of the bow; Morse.)
this is the method practised by European archers of all
ages, as well as that of the Hindus, Arabs, Eskimo, and
266 THE RACES OF MAN.
Veddahs. Lastly, the fifth method, known as the Mongolian
method (Fig. 77, middle), is quite different from the others.
The string in this case is drawn by the bent thumb, kept in
this position by the forefinger; the arrow, taken in the hollow
at the base of these two fingers, is placed on the right of the
bow. This method has been practised from the most remote
antiquity by Asiatic peoples : Mongols, Manchus, Chinese,
Japanese, Turks, Persians, and was likewise practised by the,
ancient Scythians; in order that the hand may be protected
from the recoil of the string, it is necessary to wear a special
kind of ring, either of bone, horn, ivory, or metal, on the
thumb, or a peculiar three-fingered glove.
Defensive Weapons. — Originally, in their simplest forms,
they would not differ appreciably from offensive weapons such
as tree-branches, or clubs, perhaps a little broader and flatter
than those used for attack. The inhabitants of Drummond
Island (Gilbert or Kingsmill archipelago, Micronesia), as well
as the natives of the Samoan Islands, can ward off hostile
arrows in a marvellous way with only cudgels and clubs;
several other peoples (Hawaiians, Tahitians) are acquainted
neither with buckler nor cuirasse, and defend themselves
with clubs, their native weapons. The Dinkas of the upper
White Nile, the Mundas, their neighbours on the south, as
well as the Baghirmis of the Central Sudan, can turn aside the
arrows of their enemies by means of sticks, either straight or
bent like a bow, and somewhat thicker in the middle.
The different forms of shield are only derivatives from the
primitive weapon, the club. The evolution must have been
effecled in various ways, according to local conditions. We
may, however, distinguish two principal lines, two types, of
evolution to which all the others can be referred. The first is
only the development in breadth and the flattening out of
the club ; this is the origin of most of the long shields.
The second is characterised by the presence of a piece of
wood, skin, etc., applied to the club around the place where
it is held by the hand; this hand guard was the origin of the
round shields and some of the long ones.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
267
The most striking example of the first type is furnished by
the shields of the Australians. Certain of them (the Tama-
rangs) are only clubs a little flattened out and enlarged in the
middle ; others (the Mulabakas) are very narrow little boards
rounded towards both ends with a hilt formed by the slit
made in the hinder side, which is a little bulging or ridge-like
(Fig. 78); others take the form of boards somewhat broad,
Fig. 78 — Australian shield in wood ; three sides shown.
oval, and sometimes ridge-like. Shields of a similar kind,
with the ridge a little enlarged at both ends, are used by
the Alfurus of the Southern Moluccas (Fig. 79, b). The
characteristic shield of the Dyaks and other Indonesians
(including those of lower Burma, see Frontispiece) is also
derived from a type analogous to the Mulabaka. It is a
ridge-like wooden iDoard, sometimes adorned with human hair
(Fig. 79-/)-
The second mode of development of the shield is marked
by the placing on the club some sort of wooden, metal,
268
THE RACES OF MAN.
or skin guard. The clubs or primitive shields of the
Monudus are surrounded in the middle by a band of
buffalo skin, under which the hand is passed to hold them.
Let us suppose that some day this annular band, becoming
half-detached, formed in front of the hand a bulwark, the
Fio 79. — Indonesian shields — h, of the Fig. 80. — Shield of Zulu-
Alfuius of the Moluccas (wood Kafirs, in ox skin, with
and inlayings) ; /, of the Dyaks medial club,
(painted wood, tufts of human
hail).
somewhat large surface of which protected it more effectually
than the primitive ring, and we understand the origin of
shields formed of bits of animal skin fixed on a club, at
first very small, like those of the Hottentots, then becoming
enormous, like those of the Zulus (Fig. 80). Similar, but
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 269
quadrangular bucklers are found among the Shulis of the
upper White Nile, the Fans of the Ogow^ etc. Among
other equestrian and nomadic peoples the frequent changes
of place that were rendered necessary decided the rounded,
lighter form of the leather shield, the dub of which has dis-
appeared, the hand-grip being made of a thong. Such are
the shields of the Bejas, the Abyssinians, the Somalis, and
also those of the North American Indians.
In countries where cattle are scarce, shields similar to those
of the Zulus are made with rattan twigs or reeds, or palm-
leaves artistically plaited ; such are the large shields of the
Niam-Niams, of certain Dyak and Naga tribes (Frontispiece),
etc. These shields are not very strong, but there is this to
be said for them, that the arrows striking them instead of re-
bounding, pierce them, and remain fixed, to the benefit of the
owner of the defensive weapon.
The space which we have given to the description of
shields hardly permits us to dwell longer on protective
armour, breast-plates, coats of mail, helmets, vantbraces,
greaves,! etc. It may, however, be said that there exist
peculiar kinds of armour among certain peoples and in certain
regions of the world : the dress of the natives of the Kings-
mill Islands, woven from cocoa-nut fibres, which affords an
admirable protection against their wood-handled weapons
with sharks' teeth fixed in their edges; breast-plates of
buffalo skin, in use among the Indians of America; the
padded breast-plates of the Baghirmi warriors and Chinese
soldiers, ancient Japanese and ancient Mexicans. Among the
latter, armour consisting of little boards of lacquered wood
was further affixed to the breast-plate, similar kinds being
found all around the shores of the North Pacific, among the
Eskimo, the Chukchi, the Koriaks (little ivory or bone plates),
and among the Tlinkit Indians of the north-west of America
(wooden plates sewn on stuffs), etc.^
1 With regard to greaves, see the note on p. 257.
2 W. Hough, "Prim. Am. Armour," Rep. U.S. Nat. Mtis. for iSgs,
p. 625, Washington, 1895.
270 THE RACES OF MAN.
But it would require a volume to describe all the inventions
which have resulted from the hostile relations of peoples.
Let us pass on to a more peaceful subject, to neutral
relations, which are more profitable to men.
Commerce is almost unknown among uncivilised hunters.
It could only develop in societies already numerous, inhabit-
ing various territories, their products differing to such an
extent that they might be exchanged with advantage. The
progress of industry, with the division of labour and the
specialisation which it involves, also had something to do
with it. Thus, in Guiana, each tribe has its special industry
and visits even a hostile tribe to effect exchanges.^ This is
the primitive form of commerce, originating probably in the
custom of exchanging presents.
Primitive commerce is not infrequently conducted in such
a way that the treating parties do not see each other.
According to Humboldt, at the beginning of this century the
modern Mexicans traded with savage tribes, wandering on
their northern frontier, in this way. The barterers did not see
each other; the goods were fastened to posts devoted to this
use and then left. The purchaser came for them, replacing
them by objects having an equal value. It is thus that the
Sakai still traffic with the Malays, the Veddahs with the
Singhalese. The Veddahs even order things in this silent
way; they deposit, for example, side by side with the
goods which they offer, cut leaves representing the form of the
spear-head which they desire to acquire from the Singhalese
blacksmiths.
Commerce, indispensable to societies at all complex, de-
veloped everywhere as soon as man emerged from savagery,
and it has been a powerful agent in the diffusion of ideas,
and often even an agent of civilisation. It has profoundly
modified societies in which it has developed, opening out before
them new horizons and making them learn foreign tongues and
the manners of other societies.
It was a step towards broader solidarity, but at the same
' O. Mason, loc, cit., p. 364.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 27 1
time it opened the door to the spirit of lucre, to monopoly of
wealth, to mercantile egoism, to greed of gain. This explains
why in most primitive societies merchants were but little
esteemed. 1
Money. — In the primitive forms of commerce exchanges
were made directly ; object was bartered for object, as we
see it still done to-day sporadically in many countries. But
soon the need for values was felt — standards which would
render exchanges more rapid, easy, and equitable. For
this purpose objects coveted by the greatest number of per-
sons were chosen. These objects were either ornaments (on
which primitive commerce especially depends) or things which
everybody wanted. It is thus that jewels, objects of adornment
(feathers, pearls, shells, etc.), stuffs, furs (Siberian peoples,
Alaska), salt (Laos), cattle (Africa, " Pecunia" of the Romans),
slaves (Africa, New Guinea), became the first current money
of primitive commerce. Later, certain objects were chosen
which by their rarity are of great value. It is thus that the
Pelew islanders treasure up as current money (Andou) a certain
number of obsidian or porcelain beads (Fig. 81, i and 8) and
terra-cotta prisms, imported no one knows when and how into
the country, which have a very great value ; a certain tribe
possesses one single clay prism (called Baran) and regards it as
a public treasure, etc. In the island of Yap, in the neighbour-
hood of the Pelews, the place of money is taken by blocks of
aragonite, a rock which, being unknown on the island, has to be
sought for in the Pelews. The greater the block the greater its
value. Fifty pound bank-notes are replaced here by enormous
mill-stones, so heavy that two men can hardly carry them; they
serve rather to flatter the vanity of the rich people of the country,
who exhibit them before their huts, than to facilitate exchanges.^
It is clear from this example that the rarity of a substance
is not sufficient to make it into good money. The second
condition is that it may be easily handled, and though -small
in bulk, may represent a high value, either real or fiduciary.
' Lelourneau, Vholution du commerce, Paris, 1897.
2 Kubary, Eihn. Beitr. Karolinen-Archipel, p. i, Leyden, 1889-95.
2/2
THE RACES OF MAN.
Such are the teeth of the Wapiti deer {Cervus canadensis),
which the Shoshone Indians and the Bannocks of Idaho and
Montana' still make use of in their transactions. Such, again,
ii o .C
•2 y-^ ■«
O..S o^
c i " M
O K OJ -r.
tH 4)
cn -_- tn
■^ OJ -, S
_i2 T" 1J lU
c ^ rt ■£
rt O '
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(U C TJ
o, .^ O I-
VI ra ■"
t:.h o; 6
c aj
0° rt .2 S
„- i; T3
C C 00
.. OJ l-t
■" u ^ '3
lU w S c
O OJ
0) a.^ »"
^srt
.(« 14-1 g M
"> 1, a, in
S .S g h
3 fc. ^ .
I*- j^
° r^;- ^
S'--:^
6
c ~ - Z
O M ui '^
N
W
k7?K C OJ ^
cowri
Uppe
ri
o
00
6
£
is the skin-money of the ancient Carthaginians and Scandi-
navians,^ the cocoa-seed money of the ancient Mexicans, the
' Balfour, yb«r«. Anthro. Inst., vol. xix., 1889, p. 54.
^ Nillsson, Ureinwohner Skand. Noi-dens, p. 37, Hamburg, t866,
i. Nachtr.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 273
use of which is kept up to the present day; the animal skull-
money of the Mishmee, etc.^
Let us give a glance at eatables employed as money : rice-
grains by the ancient Coreans and the modern natives of the
Philippines; grains of salt in Abyssinia and at Laos; "cakes
of tea," which serve as the monetary unit in Mongolia. Let us
also make but a passing reference to the pieces of stuff of a
fixed length, which have a current value in China, Thibet,
Mongolia, Africa, etc., and come to the subject of shells.
Several species are employed as money : the Denialum entalis
by the Indians of the north-west of America, the Venus mer-
cenaria, transformed into beads (wampum) by the Indians of
the Atlantic coast of the United States (Fig. 81, 7), etc. But
of all shells, the cowry is the best known. Two species are
specially utilised as money, Monetaria (cyprea) moneta, L. (Fig,
81, 4, 5, 6), and Monetaria annuhis, L. The first-mentioned
seems to be most commonly used in Asia, the second in
Africa.^ Both are known all over the Indian Ocean, but they
are gathered in great quantities only at two points, the Maldive
Islands (to the west of Ceylon) and the Sooloo Islands
(between the Philippines and Borneo). On the Asiatic con-
tinent the use of them was widespread, especially in Siam
and in Laos. Twenty years ago 100 to 150 of these shells
were worth a halfpenny. In Bengal, in the middle of last
century, 2,400 to 2,560 cowries were worth a rupee, 100 a
penny.
The true zone in which the cowry circulates is, however,
tropical Africa; the fact is explained by its rarity, for the shell
not being known in the Atlantic, it is only by commercial
relations that it could have been propagated from east to west
across the continent, from Zanzibar to the Senegal, and these
' Cooper, The Mishmee Hills, London, 1873.
2 It is the English who have given to this porcelain the name of cauri or
cowry, which appears to be a corruption of the Sanscrit word Kaparda,
Kapardika, whence Kavari in the Mahratta dialect ; the Portuguese call
it Bouji or Boughi; the inhabitants of the Maldives, boll ; the Siamese,
bios (which means shell in general in their language) ; the Arabs, wadda or
vadaat.
18
274 THE RACES OF MAN.
commercial relations must have existed for a long period, for
Cadamosto and other Portuguese travellers of the fifteenth
century mention the use of the cowry as money among the
" Moors " of the Senegal. The rate of exchange of the cowry
is much higher in Africa than in Asia, which shows that this
shell is an imported object. It was probably by the Arabs
that the cowry was introduced to the east coast of Africa.
Later on the Europeans also got hold of this trade.^
The cowry is still current to day along all the west coast of
Africa as far as the Cuanza River in Angola; farther south, as
far as Walfisch Bay, another kind of "shell-money" is found,
chaplets formed of fragments of a great land shell, the
Achaiina moneiaria, strung on cord ; they are principally
made in the interior of the country of Benguela, in the district
of "Selles," and are despatched along the whole coast, and as
far as London. These chaplets, about eighteen inches long,
were worth fifteen years ago from fivepence to one shilling
and threepence.^
But it is to metals especially that we may trace the
origin of true money. Iron or bronze plates of fixed size or
weight served as money in Assyria, among the Mycenians,
and the inhabitants of Great Britain at the time of Julius
Csesar. Metal plates of varying form are in general use in
Africa as money, as for example the " loggos " of the Bongos and
other negroes of the Upper Nile (Fig. 8i, 9), the spear-heads
of the Jurs, the iron plates of the peoples of the basin of
the Ubangi (Fig. 81, 2), the X-shaped bronze objects
made in Lunda, which are current all over the Congo.
Thirty years ago, in Cambodia, iron money, in the form of
■ Martens, "Uberverschiedene Verwendungen von Conchylien," Zeii.
fiir Elhn., Berlin, 1872, vol. iv., p. 65 ; Andree, Ethnol. Parall, p. 233 ;
Stearns, " Ethno-conchology," Report U.S. Nat. Mus. for iSSj.
^ In 1858, 2,938 piculs of cowry-shells (about 177 tons) were exported
from Manilla, for the most part to England. In 1848, 59I tons of'cowries
were imported into Liverpool. At the time of the Dutch dominion of
Ceylon, Amsterdam was the principal market of this trade ; there were
sold there in 1689 192,951 pounds (Dutch) of these shells; and in 1780
133,229 pounds (Johnston).
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 275
thin rings, from five and a half to six inches long, and vveigli-
ing about seven ounces, was used.
A general fact to be noted in regard to primitive money is
that it may be transformed without much trouble into an
object of use (lance-iron, shovel, hoe, arrow-head, sword).
In China the first bronze money had the form of a knife, the
handle of which terminated in a ring ; in time the blade
became shorter and shorter, and at last disappeared, leaving
only the ring, which was transformed into that Chinese money,
pierced with a square hole, called " sapec," or "cash." Brass
or copper wire, of which pieces are cut up (Fig. 81, 3), represents
money in Central Africa. Silver bars, pieces of which are cut
according to need, are also current money in China, as they
were in Russia in the fifteenth ceqtury, as well as skins.
The question of transport and means of communication is
closely allied to that of commerce. There is little to say about
trade-routes, which most frequently are tracks made by chance
in savage countries, and sometimes horrible neck-breaking
roads in half-civilised countries. The means of transport are
very varied, and may furnish matter for an interesting mono-
graph, as O. Mason has shown.'- The simplest mode of trans-
port is that on men's backs, with or without the aid of special
apparatus, like the ski and snow-shoes in cold countries (Figs.
115 and 116). To be noted apart are the attachments for climb-
ing trees, used from Spain to New Caledonia, passing through
Africa and India (Fig. 82). We come next to the utilisation
of animals, the ass, horse, mule, camel, ox, zebra, dog, etc.,
which at first carried the loads on their backs, and were
afterwards employed as draught animals.
Primitive Vehicles. — Most uncivilised peoples are unacquainted
with any form of vehicle. This is so among the Australians,
Melanesians, and most of the natives of Africa and America.
But there are also a number of populations pretty well advanced
in civilisation whom their special circumstances do not permit
the use of chariots or other vehicles on wheels; such are the
' O. Mason, loc. cil., p. 327, and "Prim. Travel and Transport,"
Sinithsoiian Report U.S. Nat. Mtis. for i8g4, p. 239, Washington, 1896.
2-]^
THE RACES OF MAN.
Eskimo and other Hyperboreans, the Polynesians, etc. Tlie
siedges of the former, the canoes of the latter, fitly take the
place of the carriage. Nomadic peoples have a kind of
aversion to every sort of vehicle; they prefer to carry things
on the backs of camel, ass, or horse. The earliest vehicle
must have been something of the same description as that seen
among the Prairie Indians of the present day — two tree branches
Fig. 82. — Method of tree-climbing in India. (After B. Hurst.)
attached to the sides of a horse, that is to say, inclined shafts,
the ends of which drag on the ground; on them is laden
the luggage, which is used by these Indians as a seat. Let
us suppose that one day this primitive vehicle happens to
break, but incompletely, so that one portion of the branch
drags horizontally on the ground, and we shall understand the
advantage which men must have taken of this mishap. He
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 2^7
must have understood at once that traction is made easier by
joining at an obtuse angle one pair of horizontal branches to
another serving as shafts. From this point to placing pieces
of wood transversely on horizontal branches there is only a
step, and the sledge, as we see it still among the Finns and
Russian peasants, was invented. Primitive as is this vehicle,
it is admirably adapted to primitive roads, and still remains to-
day the sole means of locomotion, winter as well as summer,
in the forest regions of northern Russia, where no wheeled
carriage would be able to pass, the pathways being scarcely
visible across the dense virgin forest, when the ground is
covered with a thick bed of moss and grass. It is only later,
and in less wooded countries, that man thought of putting
rollers under the horizontal branches of the sledge, contrivances
which afterwards became transformed into true wheels. If
this genesis of the vehicle be accepted, the appearance of
sledges in funeral • rites, even at the time when wheeled
carriages were already invented, is explained quite simply as
the survival of a custom the more venerated the greater its
antiquity.!
The two-wheeled chariot was known in Asia from the most
remote antiquity; it was used either in war (Assyrians, Chal-
deans, Persians) or for purposes of transport. Even at the
present day in India, Ceylon, Indo-China, the light waggon
drawn by zebras or asses is much more common than the four-
wheeled cart drawn by buffaloes. In the far East, where man
is employed for draught purposes, the wheel-barrow takes the
place of the car, and the Japanese jinrickshaiv, as well as the
Indo-Chinese pousse-pousse, are only adaptations of modern
carriages to this mode of transport by men. It is only to the
north of the Yang-tse-Kiang that one comes across Chinese
cars with two cogged wheels, and heavy waggons, a sort of
tumbrel without springs, with massiVe and sometimes solid
wheels, drawn by buffaloes. It is perhaps such vehicles
1 D. Anuchin, "Sani, etc " (The sledge, the canoe, and horses in
funeral rites, in Russian), Dievnos/i [Antiquities), vol. xiv., Moscow,
2/8 THE RACES OF MAN.
that served as the type for the Russian tarantass, a box
fixed on long parallel shafts which rest on the axles. It was
likewise from Asia that the Greeks and Romans, and perhaps
the Egyptians, brought back the models of their elegant and
light war-chariots. As to four-wheeled waggons, the popula-
tions of Europe must have known them at least from the
bronze age, to judge from the remains found in the lake-
dwellings of Italy and the tombs of Scandinavia. The
waggons of the ancient Germanic peoples, also employed in
war, resembled those which are still met with at the present
day among the peasants of central and western Europe. The
same kind of conveyances have been transported by the Dutch
Boers as far as South Africa, and by the colonists of the Latin
race even into the solitudes of the Pampas.
Navigation.— Tx2i.r\z^oxt by water has undergone more
important transformations than vehicular transport. From
the air-filled leather bottle, on which, after the manner of
the ancient Assyrians, rivers are still crossed in Turkestan and
Persia,! ^g elegant sailing yachts; from the primitive reed
rafts of the Egyptians and the natives of lake Lob-Nor
(Chinese Turkestan) to the great ocean liners, there are
numberless intermediate forms. Australian canoes made from
a hoUowed-out tree-trunk, Fuegian canoes made of pieces of
bark joined together by cords of seal's sinews, the effective
Eskimo " kayaks " made with seal skins, the elegant skiffs of
the Polynesians with their outriggers or balancing beams which
defy the tempests of the ocean (Fig. 83), heavy Chinese junks,
etc. We cannot enter into the details of this subject ; let
us merely observe that there is a great difference in the aptitude
of various peoples for navigation. It is not enough to live by
the sea-shore to become a good sailor; take for example the
case of the Negroes who have never been able to go far away
from their coasts, and who often have not even an elementary
knowledge of navigation, while the Polynesians and the
^ See the Assyrian bas-reliefs, Maspero, Hist. anc. de t Orient, vol. ii.,
p. 628, Paris, 1897; O. Mason, Origins of Invention, p. 334J and
Moser, A travers I'Asie Centrale, p. 220, Paris, 1885.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.
2^9
Malays make bold and perilous voyages of several thousand
miles across the Pacific and Indian oceans; canoes of the
Malay type are seen from Honolulu and Easter Island to
Fig. 83. — Malayo-Polynesian canoe with outrigger (seventeenth
century). {After O. Mason. )
Ceylon and Madagascar. With the taste for navigation and
voyages migrations become more numerous, and the intellectual
horizons widen perceptibly. It is thus one of the great means
of bringing peoples into closer relationship.
CHAPTER Vlll.
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES.
Criticism of anthropological classifications — Frequent confusion of the
classing of 7-aces and of peofiles — Tlie determining of races can be
based only on somatic characters — For the classing of peoples, on
the contrary, it is necessary to take into account ethnic characters
(linguistic and sociological), and above all geographical distribu-
tion — Classification of races proposed by the author — Succinct
characterisation of the twenty-nine races which are therein mentioned
— Classification of ethnic groups adopted in this work.
Exception has frequently been taken to the anthropological
classifications of different authors, from the time of F. Bernier
(1672) to our own days, in that they recognise in humanity an
excessively variable number of races, from two (Virey in 1775)
up to thirty-four (Haeckel in 1879).! These strictures are by
no means deserved, seeing that those who make them almost
always compare classifications dating from various times, and
consequently drawn up from facts and documents which are
not comparable. In all sciences, classifications change in
proportion as the facts or objects to be classed become better
known.
Besides, if we go to the root of the matter we perceive that
the diversity in the classifications of the genus Homo is often
only apparent, for most classifications confuse ethnic groups
and races. If my readers refer back to what I said in the
^ See for the history of classifications, Topinard, V Anthr. gen.^ pp. 28-
107, 264-349; Giglioli, Viaggio . . . del/a Magenta, p. xxvii., Milan,
1S75; and Keane, Ethnology, p. 162, Cambridge, 1896.
280
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 28 1
introduction on "races" and "ethnic groups," they will under-
stand all the difficulties this causes.
In order to class peoples, nations, tribes, in a word, " ethnic
groups," we ought to take into consideration linguistic,
differences, ethnic characters, and especially, in my opinion,
geographical distribution. It is thus that I shall describe
the different peoples in the subsequent chapters, while
classing them geographically. But for a classification of
" races " (using the word in the sense given to it in
• the introduction), it is only necessary to take into
account physical characters. We must try to determine by
the anthropological analysis of each of the ethnic groups
the races which constitute it; then compare these races
one with another, unite those which possess most similarities
in common, and separate those which exhibit most dis-
similarities.
On making these methodic groupings we arrive at a small
number of races, combinations of which, in various proportions,
are met with in the multitude of ethnic groups.
Let us take for example the Negrito race, of which the
Aetas of the Philippines, the Andamanese, and the black
Sakai are the almost pure representatives. This race is found
again here and there among the Melanesians, the Malays, the
Dravidians, etc. In all these populations the type of the
Negrito race is revealed on one side by the presence of a
certain number of individuals who manifest it almost in its
primitive purity, and on the other by the existence of
a great number of individuals, whose traits likewise repro-
duce this type, but in a modified form, half hidden by
characters borrowed from other races. Characteristics of
various origin may thus be amalgamated, or merely exist in
juxtaposition.
Race-characters appear with a remarkable persistency, in
spite of all intermixtures, all modifications due to civilisa-
tion, change of language, etc. What varies is the proportion
in which such and such a race enters into the constitution
of the ethnic group. A race may form the preponderating
2S2 THE RACES OF MAN.
portion in a given ethnic group, or it may form a half, a
quarter, or a very tnfiing fraction of it; the remaining portion
consisting of others. Rarely is an ethnic group composed
almost exclusively of a single race; in this case the notion of
race is confused with that o{ people. We may say, for example,
that the tribes called Bushmen, Aetas, Mincopies, Australians,
are formed of a race still almost pure; but these cases are
rare. Already it is difficult to admit that there is but one
race, for example, among the Mongols; and if we pass to the
Negroes we find among them at least three races which, while
being connected one with another by a certain number of
common characteristics, present, nevertheless, appreciable
differences. Now, each of these races may be combined,
in an ethnic group, not only with a kindred race, but also
with other races, and it is easy to imagine, how very numerous
may be these combinations.
I have just said that the number of human races is not
very considerable; however, reviewing the different classifica-
tions proposed, in chronological order, it will be seen that this
number increases as the physical characters of the populations
of the earth become better known. Confining ourselves to
the most recent and purely somatological classifications, we
find the increase to be as follows: — In i860, Isid. Geoffrey
Saint-Hilaire admitted four principal races or "types," and
thirteen secondary ones.^ In 1870, Huxley proposed five
principal races or types, and fourteen secondary ones or
^ Principal Races, Secondary Races.
(i) Caucasian. (l) Caucasian, (2) Alleghanian (Red Indian).
(2) Mongolian. (3) Hyperborean (Lapps), (4) MalSiy, (5)
American (except the Red Indian), (6)
Mongolian, (7) Paraborean (Eskimo),
(8) Australian..
(3) Ethiopian. (9) Kafir, (10) Ethiopian, (11) Negro,
(12) Melanesian.
(4) Hottentot. (13) Hottentot.
.—Isid. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, "Classif. Anthropologique," Mem. Soc,
AiUhr. Paris, vol. i., p. 125, 1861.
CLASSIl'lCATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 283
" modifications." 1 Finally, in 1878, Topinard enumerated
sixteen races, and increased tliis number in 1885 to nineteen. ^
In mixed classifications, based on both somatic and ethnic
characters, a very much greater number of sub-divisions is
found, but the reason of that is that "ethnic groups" are
included.
Putting these aside, we see in the most complete mixed
' Principal Races. Secondary Races or "Modificalions."
(1) Neproicl. (l) Bushmen, (2) Negro, (3) Papuan.
(2) Australoid. (4) Australians, (5) Black race of Deccan
(Dravidians), (6) Ethiopian (Ilamite).
(3) Mongoloid. (7) Mongol, (8) Polynesian, (9) American,
(10) Eskimo, (n) Malay.
(4) Xanthochroid. (12) Xanthochroid of Northern Europe.
(5) Melanochroid. (13) Melanochroid of Southern Europe, (14)
Melanochrold of Asia (Arabs, Afghans,
Hindus, etc.).
— T. Iluxley, " Geogr. Distrib. of Mankind," Journ. Elhnol. Soc.
London, N.S., vol. ii., p. 404, map, 1870. The classification of P'lower
{JL Anthro. Inst., vol. xiv., 1SS5, p. 378) differs from that of Pluxley in a
few details only. This eminent anatomist grouped his eleven races and
three sub-races under three " types"— Negro, Mongolian, and Caucasian.
^ In the first edition of his classification (Rev. d^Anthr., 2nd series,
vol. i., p. 509, Paris, 1878), Topinard admits sixteen races in three groups: —
(a) Straight-haired Races. — Eskimo, Red Indians, Mexico-Peruvians,
GuaraniCaribs, Mongols.
(i) Wavy or Frizzy-haired v'^af^j.— Fair-haired people of Europe (Xan-
thochroids of Huxley), dark-haired people of Europe and Semites (Melano-
chroids of Huxley), Australians and Indo-Abyssinians (Australoids of
Huxley), Fulbd, Finns, Celto-Slavs, Turanians.
(c) Woolly-haired Races. — Bushmen, Papuans, Kafirs', Negritoes.
In the second edition, dating from 1885 [EUni. Anlhr. gen., p. 502,
we find nineteen races grouped under three heads: —
(a) White Leptorhine Races. — Anglo-Scandinavians, Finns (first type,
Western), Mediterraneans, Semito-Egyptians, Lapono-Ligurians, Celto-
Slavs.
{b) Yellow Mesorhine Races. — Eskimo, Tchuelches, Polynesians, Red
Indians, yellow peoples of Asia (including Finns of the second type), Guar-
anis (or South Americans, except the Tehuelches), Peruvians.
(c) Black Rlatyrhine Races. — Australians, Bushmen, Melanesians,
Negroes, Tasmanians, Negritoes,
284 THE RACES OF MAN.
classifications only four or five principal races, and twelve to
eighteen secondary races. Thus Haeckel and Fr. Mueller
admit four principal races (called "tribes" by Haeckel, " sub-
divisions" by Mueller), and twelve secondary races (called
"species" and sub-divided into thirty -four "races" by
Haeckel, called "races" and sub-divided into numerous
"peoples" by Fr. Mueller).i On the other hand, De Quatre-
fages sub-divides his five " trunks " into eighteen " branches,"
each containing several ethnic groups, which he distinguishes
under the names of " minor branches" and "families."^
Some years ago I proposed a classification of the human
races, based solely on physical characters.^ Taking into
account all the new data of anthropological science, I endea-
voured, as do the botanists, to form natural groups by com-
bining the different characters (colour of the skin, nature of
the hair, stature, form of the head, of the nose, etc.), and I
thus managed to separate mankind into thirteen races. Con-
tinuing the analysis further, I was able to give a detailed
description of the thirty sub-divisions of these races, which I
called types, and which it would have been better to call
secondary races, or briefly " races." A mass of new material,
^ Tribes (sub-divisions): (i) Lophocomi (woolly hair, tufted), compris-
ing the following species (races) : Papuans, Hottentots ; (2) Eriocomi
(woolly hair, growing uniformly and not in tufts): Kafirs and Negroes;
(3) Eulhycomi (straight hair) : Australians, Malays, Mongols, Arctic
people (Hyperboreans), Americans; (4) Etiplocotni (curly hair): Dravidians,
Nubians (Ethiopians), Mediterraneans (Aryans). (Haeckel, Natilrl. Schop-
fungsgesch., 7lh ed., pp. 628 and 647, 1S79; Fr. Mueller, AL'g. Ethnogr.,
2nd ed., pp. 17 and 19, Vienna, 1S79.)
'^ "Trunks": (\) Negro, with its "branches," Indo-Melanesian, Australian,
African, and Austro-African; (2) Yellow, with its "branches," Siberian,
Thibetan, Indo-Chinese, and American (Eskimo-Brazilian); (3) White,
with its " branches," Allophyle (Ainu, Miao-tse, Caucasian, Indonesian-
Polynesian, etc.), Finnish, Semelic, and Aryan. "Mixed Races": (i)
Oceanians (Japanese, Polynesian, Malay); (2) Americans (of North,
Central, and South America). (A. de Quatrefages, His!. Gen. Races Hutu.;
pp. 343 et seq., Paris, 1889.)
^ Deniker, " Essai d'une classification des races hum., etc.," Paris, i88g
{Extr. du Bull. Soc. Anthr., vol. xii. , p. 320). Cf. O. Mason, Smithson.
Report for iSSg, p. 602.
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 285
and my own researches, have compelled me since then to
modify this classification. This is how it may be summarised
in the form of a table, giving to my former "types'' the title
of race or sub-races, and grouping them under six heads — •
A. Woolly Hair, Broad Nose.
Races and Sub-races.
Yellow skin, steatopygous, short stature, Bushmen (s. t. Hottentots
dolichocephalic and Bushmen)
Reddish-brown, very short Negrito (s. i. Negrillo and
stature, sub-brachycephalic Negrito)
or sub-dolichocephalic
Dark skin \ Black, stature tall, dolicho- Negro (5. 1. Nigritian and
cephalic Bantu)
Brownish-black, medium sta- Melanesian (s. i. Papuan
ture, dolichocephalic and Melanesian)
B. CuRLV OR Wavy Hair.
'Reddish-brown, narrow nose, Ethiopian
tall stature, dolichocephalic
Chocolate-brown, broad nose, Australian
medium stature, dolicho-
cephalic
Brownish-black, broad or Draviilian (s. r. Platyrhine
narrow nose, short stature, and Leptorhine)
dolichocephalic
Dark skin
Skin of a tawny white, nose narrow,
hooked, with thick top, brachycephalic
Assyroid
C. Wavy Brown or Black Hair, Dark Eyes.
Clear brown skin, black hair, narrow,
straight or convex nose, tall stature,
dolichocephalic
; Aquiline nose, promi-
nent occiput, doli-
chocephalic, ellip-
tical form of face
Straight coarse nose,
dolichocephalic,
square face
Straight fine nose, me-
socephalic, oval face
Short stature, dolichocephalic
Tawny
white
skin,
black
hair
Tall
stature,
elongated"
face
Indo-Afghan
Arab or Semite
Berber (4 sub-races)
Dull rShort stature, strongly bra-
white skin, J chycephalic, round face
brown
hair
I Tall stature, brachycephalic,
\ elongated face
Littoral European
12
Ibero-insular
13
VVeste7-n European
14
Adriatic
IS
286
THE RACES OF MAN.
D. Fair, Wavy or Straight Hair, Light Eyes.
'Somewhat wavy, reddish ; Northern European
Reddish tall stature, dolichoce-
white skin, phalic
Somewhat straight; flaxen- Eastern European
hair haired, short stature, sub-
. brachycephalic
E. Straight or Wavy Hair, Dark, Black Eyes.
Light brown skin, very hairy body, broad
and concave nose, dolichocephalic
Prominent nose, sometimes
convex, tall stature, ellip-
tical form of face, brachy-
or meso-cephalic
Yellow Short stature, flattened, some-
skin, J times concave nose, pro-
smooth I jecting cheek-bones, loz-
body enge-shaped face, dolicho-
cephalic
Short stature, prominent
straight or concave nose,
meso- or dolicho-cephalic
^
F. Straight Hair.
(Straight ("Tall stature, mesoce-
aquiline j Short stature, brachy-
nose L cephalic
Straight nose, tall stature, brachy-
cephalic, square face
Brownish-yellow skin, short stature, round
flattened face, dolichocephalic
Turned-up nose, short stature,
brachycephalic
Straight or concave nose.
Yellowish- short stature, meso- or
white \ dolicho-cephalic,projecting
skin cheek-bones
Straight nose, medium sta-
ture, strongly brachyce-
phalic
Pale yellow skin, projecting cheek-bones,
Mongoloid eye, slightly brachycephalic
Eskimo
Lapp
l6
17
Ainu 18
Polynesian 19
Indonesian 20
South American (s. r. 21
Pal£eo-Am. & S. Amer. )
North American (s. r. 22
Atlantic and Pacific)
Central American 23
24
2S
26
Ugrian (s. r. Ugrian 27
and Yeniseian)
Turkish or Ttirco- Tatar 28
Mongol (s. r. Northern 29
and Southern)
My table contains the enumeration of the principal somatic
characters for each race. Arranged dichotomically for con-
venience of research, it does not represent the exact grouping
of the races according to their true affinities. It would be
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 287
vain to attempt to exhibit these affinities in the lineal
arrangement of a table ; each race, in fact, manifests some
points of resemblance, not only with its neighbours in the
upper or lower part of the table, but also with others which
are remote from it, in view of the technical necessities of con-
struction of such a table. In order to exhibit the affinities in
question, it would be necessary to arrange the groups accord-
ing to the three dimensions of space, or at least on a surface
where we can avail ourselves of two dimensions. In the ensuing
table (p. 289) are included twenty-nine races, combined into
seventeen groups, arranged in such a way that races having
greatest affinities one with another are brought near together.
Seven of these groups only are composed of more than one race.
They may be called as follows (see the table) : — XIII., American
group; XII., Oceanian; II., Negroid; VIII., North African;
XVI., Eurasian; X., Melanochroid; IX., Xanthochroid. This
table shows us clearly that the Bushman race, for example, has
affinities with the Negritoes (short stature) and the Negroes
(nature of the hair, form of nose) ; that the Dravidian race is
connected both with the Indonesian and the AustraUan ; that
the place of the Turkish race is, by its natural affinities,
between the Ugrians and the Mongols ; that the Eskimo have
Mongoloid and American features ; that the Assyroids are
closely related to the Adriatics and the Indo-Afghans ; that ^
the latter, by the dark colour of their skin, recall the
Ethiopians, and the Arabs by the shape of the face, etc. Here
are, moreover, some details of the twenty-nine races (marked
by their numbers of order) of the first table, and of the seven-
teen groups of the second (marked in Roman figures).
I. I. The Bushman race is found in a relative state of purity
among the people called Bushmen (Fig. 24), and less pure
among the Hottentots (Fig. 143). The presence of the Bush-
man type may be detected among a great number of Negro
peoples to the south of the equator (for example, among the
Bechuana and Kiokos, etc.),
II. The Negroid group comprises three races : Negrito,
Negro, and Melanesian.
288 THE RACES OF MAN.
2. The Negrito race may be split up into two sub races : a,
the Kegrilloes of Africa, of which the pure representatives are
the Al<kas, the Batuas, and other sub-dohchocephahc pigmies ;
and b, the Negritoes of Asia (Andamanese, Fig. 124, blaclc
Sakai, Fig. 123, Aetas, etc.), niesocephalic or sub-brachy-
cephalic, of a little taller stature than the Negrilloes. The
presence of Negrito elements has been noticed among different
Bantu negroes (for example, among the Adumas). As to the
influence of the Negrito type on that of the Malays, the
Jakuns, certain Indonesians, etc , it is perfectly well recog-
nised.
3. The Negroes may likewise be sub-divided into two sub-
races : a, the Nigritians, of the Sudan (Fig. 140) and of
Guinea (Fig. 9), more prognathous (more "negroid," if we
may thus express it) than b, the Bantus of sub-equatorial
and southern Africa (Figs. 47, 141, and 142). The Negro
element is strongly represented in the mixed populations of
Africa (certain Berbers and Ethiopians, islanders of Mada-
gascar). The majority of the Negroes of America belong to
the Negritic sub-race.
4. The Melanesian race differs from the Negro race espe-
cially in having less woolly hair with broader spirals (see p.
39), and the skin a lighter colour. It comprises two variations
or sub-races: one with elongated ovoid face, hooked nose,
especially prevalent in New Guinea (^Papuan sub-race. Figs. S3
and 152), and the other with squarer and heavier face, which
occupies the rest of Melanesia (^Melanesian sub-race properly
so called. Fig. 153).^ The first of these sub-races enters into
the composition of several mixed tribes of Celebes, Gilolo,
Flores (Figs. 146 to 148), Timur, and other islands of the Asiatic
Archipelago situated farther to the east.
III. 5. The Ethiopian race forms by itself the third group.
It is preserved fairly pure among certain Bejas (Fig. 138) and
the Gallas, but is modified by the admixture of Arab blood
' Fig. 153 represents individuals of one tribe only, but belonging to the
two sub-races mentioned. Fig. 151 represents the blending of the two
types with Polynesian admixture.
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 289
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290 THE RACES OF MAN.
among the Somalis, Abyssinians, etc., and by Negro blood
among the Zandehs (Niam-Niams, etc.), and especially amoug
the Fulbe or Peuls, though among the latter fine Ethiopian
types, almost pure, are still met with (Fig. 139).
IV. 6. The Australian race (Figs. 14, 15, 149, and 150) is
remarkable for its unity and its isolation on the Australian
continent, and even the Tasmaniaiis (see Chapter XII.), the
nearest neighbours to the Australians, at the present day
extinct, had a different type.
V. 7. The Dravidian race, which it would have been better
to call South-Indian, is prevalent among the peoples of Southern
India speaking Dravidian tongues, and also among the Kols
and other peoples of India ; it presents two varieties or sub-
races, according to Schmidt :i a, leptorhinean, thin nose, very
elongated head (Nairs, etc.); b, platyrhinean, with very broad
nose and a somewhat shorter head (Dravidians properly so
called. Figs. 8, 126, and 127). The Veddahs (Figs. 5, 6, and
133) come much nearer to the Dravidian type, which moreover
penetrates also among the populations of India, even into
the middle valley of the Ganges.
VI. 8. The Assyroid X2s:t., so named because it is represented
in a very clear manner on the Assyrian monuments, is not
found pure in any population, but it counts a sufiScient number
of representatives to give a character to entire populations,
such as the Hadjemi-Persians (Fig. 22), the Ayssores, certain
Kurdish tribes, and some Armenians and Jews. The
characteristic Jewish nose of caricature, in the form of the
figure (5, is an Assyroid nose; it is almost always associated
with united eyebrows and thick lower lip. The Todas (Fig.
130) partly belong, perhaps, to this type.
VII. 9. The Indo-Afghan race (see Chapter X.) has its typical
representatives among the Afghans, the Rajputs, and in the
caste of the Brahmins, but it has undergone numerous altera-
tions as a consequence of crosses with Assyroid, Dravidian,
Mongol, Turkish, Arab, and. other elements (Figs. 125 and 134).
^ E. Schmiilt, "Die Anlhropologie Indiens,'' Globus, vol. 61, 1892,
Nos. 2 and 3.
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 2gl
VIII. The North African group is composed, lo, of the Arab
or Semite race, represented by typical individuals among the
Arabs and certain Jews (Fig. 21), the features of which are
often found in most of the populations of Syria, Mesopotamia,
Beloochistan (Fig. 134), Egypt, and the Caucasus; 11, of the
Berber X&.C& (Fig. 136), which admits four varieties or "types,"
according to Collignon (see Chapter XI.).
IX. The AIela7iochroid group comprises the four dark-com-
plexioned races of Europe (12 to 15), Littoral, Ibero-insular,
Western (Fig. 98), and Adriatic.
X. The Xanthochroid group contains the two fair races
of Europe (16 and 17), Northern (Figs. 88 to 90) and
Eastern. (For further details respecting groups IX. and
X. see Chapter IX.)
XI. 18. The Ainu race is preserved fairly pure among the
people of this name (Figs. 49 and 117); it forms one of the
constituent elements of the population of Northern Japan
(see Chapter X.).
XII. The Oceanian group is formed of two races, the
relations of which are somewhat vague. 19. The Poly-
nesian race (Figs. 154 to 156), found more or less pure
from the Hawaiian Islands to New Zealand, undergoes
changes in the west of Polynesia owing to intermixture
with the Melanesians (Fiji, New Guinea). It furnishes
perhaps a more hirsute sub-race in Micronesia. 20. The
Indonesian race is represented by the Dyaks, the Battas,
and other populations of the Malay Archipelago (Nias,
Kubus), or of Indo-China (Nicobariese, Nagas, Fig. 17 and
Frontispiece). It is modified by intermixture with Negrito
elements (White Sakai Of the Malay peninsula), Hindus
(Javanese, Fig. 145), Mongoloids (Malays, Khamtis, Fig. 22),
or Papuans (Natives of Flores, Figs. 146 to 148).
XIII. The American group comprises the four races
numbered in my table 21 to 24, which will be dealt with
in the chapter devoted to America. Let me merely say that
the type of Central Americans, brachycephalic, short, with
straight or aquiline nose (Figs. 163 and 164), is frequently
292 THE RACES OF MAN.
met with on the Pacific slope of the two Americas, as well as
on several points of the Atlantic slope of South America. In
the former of these two regions the population is principally
formed of a blending of this type with the North American
race; in the latter, with the South American race (Fig. lyi).
Two sub-races may be distinguished in the North American
race : a, Atlantic, mesocephalic, of very tall stature, good re-
presentatives of which, for example, are the Siouans (Figs. 158
and 159); and b, the Pacific, of which the Tlinkit Indians
may give an approximate idea, differing from the former by
shorter stature, more rounded head, and better developed
pilous system. Further, in the South American race we most
probably admit two sub-races : a, the dolichocephalic race, with
hair often wavy, or even frizzy (Figs. 48, 165, 172, and 175),^
which is perhaps derived from the oldest inhabitants of the
continent, and which I called Palceo-American type in my
first attempt at a classification of the human races (1889),
and another {b), which would be the present type of South
American mesocephalic race with straight hair (Figs. 167 to
170). The tall Patagonian race, brachycephalic, of deep brown
colour, has its representatives among the Patagonians and
among certain peoples of Chaco and the Pampas.^
XIV. 25. The ^.f,4/»z<? race (Fig. 157) has kept fairly pure on
the east coast of Greenland, as well as in the north of Canada ;
but it is modified by intermixtures with the North American race
in Labrador, in Alaska, on the west coast of Greenland (where
there is, further, intermixture with the Northern European race),
and with the Mongolic races (Chukchi, Aleuts, etc.) on the
shores of Behring's Sea.
^ Ehrenreich, loc. cit. {Urbewohner Bi-asil.), and Von den Steinen, loc.
cit., describe numerous individuals with wavy or frizzy hair among the
Bakairis, the Karayas, the Arawaks, etc. I myself have noticed Fuegians
with frizzy or wavy hair (Hyades and Deniker, loc. cit.). See also
Fig. 171, which represents the blending of the Central American and
South American types, and portraits of the Goajires in Le Tour du Monde,
iSgS, 1st half year.
- A. Barcena, "Arte . . . lengua Toba," Jiev. Mus. de la Plata, vol.
v., 1894, ?• 142.
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 293
XV. 26. The Lapp race is fairly pure among some
tribes of Scandinavian Lapps ; elsewhere it is blended
with the northern and eastern races (Scandinavians, Finns,
Russians).
XVI. The two races which compose the Eurasian group (so
named because its representatives inhabit Europe as well as
Asia) have only a few common characters (yellowish-white skin,
modified Mongolian features, etc.). 27. The Ugrian race pre-
dominates among the eastern Finns (Ostiaks, Permiaks,
Cheremiss, Fig. 106), and perhaps as a variety among the
Yeniseians. It is found again interblended with the Samoyeds,
and perhaps with the Yakuts. 28. The Turkish race, which
I would wiUingly call Turanian, if this term were not too
much abused, enters into the composition of the peoples called
Turco-Tatars, who speak Turkish idioms. The type, fairly
pure, is common among the Kirghiz and the Tatars of
Astrakhan (Figs. 107, 108), but in other ethnic groups it is
weakened by intermixture with such races as the Mongolo-
Tunguse (Yakuts), Ugrian (Shuvashes), Assyroid (Turkomans,
Osmanli Turks, etc.).
XVII. The Mongol race admits two varieties or sub-races :
Tunguse or Northern Mongolian, with oval or round faces
and prominent cheek-bones, spread over Manchuria, Corea,
Northern China, Mongolia (Figs. 20, 115, 116, and 118);
and Southern Mongolia, with lozenge-shaped or square faces
and cheek-bones laterally enlarged, which may be observed
especially in Southern China (Fig. 119) and in Indo-China
(Fig. 121).
We have now sketched out the classing of races, that is to
say of the somatological units. It remains for us to deal with
the "ethnic groups" or sociological units.
In these the grouping must rest on linguistic, sociological,
and especially geographical affinities, for sociological difference,
are very often the product of differences in the immediate
environment.
I have already spoken of the classing of languages (p. 127)
and social states (p. 124). In subordinating them to con-
294 THE RACES OF MAN,
siderations of habitat, I shall give the table of mixed
classification, geographico-lingustic, which I have adopted in
the descriptive part of this work. But first, a few words on
the relations of the different classifications of ethnic groups
one with another.
The purely linguistic grouping does not correspond with the
geographical grouping of peoples: thus in the Balkan peninsula,
which forms a unit from the geographical point of view, we find
at least four to six different linguistic families; in the British
Isles, two or three, etc. Neither does this grouping coincide
with the somatological grouping : thus, the Aderbaidjani of the
Caucasus and Persia, who speak a Turkish language, have the
same physical type as the Hadjemi-Persians, who speak an
Iranian tongue; the Negroes of North America speak English;
several Indians of Mexico and South America speak Spanish
as their mother-tongue; different Ugrian tribes (Zyrians, Votiaks,
Permiaks) make use of Russian, etc. In European countries
cases of changes of language in any given population are
known to every one. The limits of the Breton language in
France, of the Irish in Ireland in the sixteenth century, were at
least 60 miles to the east of their present frontier. The limits of
Flemish in France, of Lithuanian in Prussia, h^ve perceptibly
receded to the east during the last hundred years; it is the same
with so many other linguistic limits in Europe, the only conti-
nent where accurate data on this subject exist.
But similar, though isolated facts may be adduced from
other parts of the world. Thus in India the Irulas, who differ
physically from the Tamils, yet speak their language; many of
the Kol, Dravidian, and other tribes at the present time speak
Hindustani instead of their primitive tongues. According to
the last census,! quj- Qf 2,897,591 Gonds, only 1,379,580, less
than half, speak the language of their fathers.
However, in certain regions where there is little intermixture
due to conquest, in South America for example, language may
give valuable indications for the classification of ethnic groups.
As to " states of civilisation," it is very difficult to make clear
' Bain, Census of India, iSgi. Calcutta, i8g6.
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 295
sub-divisions, seeing that frequently one and the same people
may be at the same' time shepherds and fishers (Chukchi),
hunters and tillers of the soil (Tlinkits), hunters, shepherds,
and tillers of the soil (Tunguses), etc. Certain characters of
civilisation, especially of material culture, are of clearly defined
extent, and form what Bastian calls "ethnographic pro-
vinces." I have spoken of them in connection with the
geographical distribution of plate-armour, the throwing-stick,
pile dwellings, etc. But similarity of manners and customs,
and identity of objects in common use, do not yet give
us the right to infer an affinity of race or language, and
still less a common origin. At the very most, they may
indicate frequent communication, whether pacific or not,
between two peoples and " adoption " of customs and material
culture. Sometimes even two distinct peoples, having never
communicated with each other, may happen to produce almost
identical objects and adopt almost similar manners and
customs, as I have previously shown.
Having said this much I shall proceed to give the classi-
fication of the "ethnic groups" adopted in this work.
I adopt in the first place the best known geographical
division, into five parts, of the world (including Malaysia or
the Asiatic Archipelago with Oceania). "^ I afterwards divide
each part of the world into great linguistic or geographical
regions, each comprising several populations or groups of
populations, according to the following arrangement: — ■
I. Europe. — We may distinguish here two linguistic groups :
Aryan and Anaryan, and a geographical group, that of the
Caucasians.
The Aryans are sub-divided into six groups ; the Latins or
Romans (examples: Spaniards, French, etc.), the Germans or
Teutons (Germans, English, etc.), the Slavs (Russians, Poles,
' Each continent in fact contains distinct populations, witli tlie exception,
however, of Asia, to which belongs half a score of peoples, of whom part
live outside its borders: in America (Eskimo), Oceania (Malays and Ne-
gritoes), Africa (Arabs), Europe (Samoyeds, Vogule-Ostiaks, Tatars,
Kirghiz, Kalniuks, Caucasians, Armenians, and Russians), or in other
parts of the world (Greeks, Jews, Gypsies).
296 THE RACES OF MAN.
etc.), the Helleno-Illyrians (Greeks and Albanians), the Celts
(Bretons, Gaels, etc.), and the Letto-Lithuanians (Letts and
Lithuanians). The Anaryans are represented in Europe by
the Basques (whose language is not classified), and by peoples
of Finno-Ugrian languages (Lapps, Western Finns, Hun-
garians, and Eastern Finns ; the latter partly in Asia). The
Caucasians are the native peoples of the Caucasus ; they form
four groups : Lesgian, Georgian or Kartvel, Cherkess, and
Ossets. The language of the last is Iranian ; the idioms of
the three others form a group apart, not classified.
' IL Asia. — We include in this continent six great geographi-
cal regions. Northern Asia comprises three groups of popula-
tions: Yenisians (Samoyeds, Toubas, etc.), the Palmo-asiatics
(Chukchis, Giliaks, Ainus), and the Tunguses (Manchu,
Orochons, etc.). C««/ri2/y4«a likewise contains three groups of
populations: Turkish (Yakuts, Kirghiz, Osmanlis, etc.), Mongol
(Buriats, Kalmuks, etc.), and Tliibefan (Lepchas, Bods, etc.).
Eastern Asia is occupied by three "nations'': Japanese,
Coreans, and Chinese. Indo-China, or the Transgangetic penin-
sula, includes five ethnic divisions : the Aborigines (Negritoes,
Tsiam, Mois, Mosses, Naga), the Cambodians, the Burmese,
the Annamese, and the Thai (Shans, Kakhyens, Siamese,
Miao-tse, etc.). The Cisgangetic peninsula, or India, includes
four linguistic divisions : the Dravidians (Tamils, Khonds,
etc.), the Kols (Santals, -•etc.), the Indo-Aryans (Hindus,
Kafirs, etc.), and the peoples whose languages are not classified
{Veddahs, Singhalese, Nairs, etc.). Anterior Asia is divided
between two great linguistic groups: Eranian or Iranian
(Persians, Afghans, Kurds, etc.) and Semite (Syrians and
Arabs, the latter partly in Africa), and further comprises some
other peoples not classified (Brahuis, Takhtajis), or cosmopolites
(Gypsies and Jews).
III. Africa. — In this continent there are three great divi-
sions: one linguistic in the north, the Semito-Hamites; and
two ethnic or even somatological ones in the south, the Negroes
and the Bushmen-Hottentots. The peoples speaking Semitic
or Hamitic languages may be united into three groups: the
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES. 297
Arabo-Berbers l!To\xzx&g%, Fellahs, etc.), the Ethiopians {GaWns,
Bejas, Abyssinians), and the Fuiah-Zandehs (Fulahs, Niam-
Niams, Masai, etc.). The Bushmen- Hottentots form an
ethno-somatological group quite apart. As to the Negroes,
they may be divided as follows : — the Negrilloes or Pygmies
(Akkas, Batuas, etc.), the Nigritians or Negroes properly so
called (Dinkas, Hausas, Wolofs, Krus, Tshis, etc.), and the
Bantiis (Dwalas, Batekes, Balubas, Swaheli, Kafirs, Bechuanas,
etc.). The populations of the Island of Madagascar also form
a linguistic and geographical group apart.
IV. Oceania. — Four ethnic regions are here well defined:
Malaysia, Australia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Malaysia (to
which, strictly speaking, should be joined a portion of the
populations of Madagascar, Indo-China, and the Sino-Japanese
islands) comprises four great groups of populations : the
Negritoes (Aeta, etc.), the Indonesians (Battas, Tagals, etc.), and
mixed peoples like the Javanese, the Bugis, the Malays, etc.
Australia is peopled, over and above the white or yellow
colonists, by only one race-people, the Australians ; the Tas-
manians who lived near them no longer exist. Melanesia is
peopled by Papuans (of New Guinea), and by Melanesians
properly so called {pi New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, etc.).
Lastly, Polynesia comprises the Polynesians properly so called
(Samoans, Tahitians), and the Micronesians (natives of the
Carolines, the Marshall Islands, etc.).
V. America. — P"or North America we may adopt three
ethno-geographical groups: the Eskimo, with the Aleuts; the
American Indians (Athapascans, Yumas, Tlinkits, etc.); and
the Indians of Mexico and of Central America (Aztecs, Pimas,
Miztecs, Mayas, Isthmians, Ulvas, etc.).
South America has four geographical groupings : the
Andeans (Chibchas, Quechua-Aymara, etc.); the Amazonians
(Caribs, Arawak, Pano, Miranha, etc.); the Indians of East
Brazil, and of the central jegion (Tupi-Guarani, Ges or
Botocudo-Kayapo, etc.); and, finally, the Patagonians, tribes
of Chaco, of the Pampas, etc., with the Fuegians.
It is likewise well, as regards the New World, to take into
298 THE RACES OF MAN.
account the imported Negroes, and the descendants of colonists;
Anglo-Saxon in the north, Hispano-Lusitanians in the
south. These settlers form the nucleus of the different
civilised nations of the two Americas, around which are
grouped other elements from Europe or originating on the
spot (Half-breeds of various degrees. Quadroons, Creoles, etc.).
CHAPTER IX.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
Problem of European ethnogeny — I. Ancient inhabitants of Europe
— Prehistoric races — Quaternary period — Glacial and interglacial
periods — Quaternary skulls — Spy and Chancelade races or types — ■
Races of the neolithic period — Races of the age of Tneta.\s— Aryan
question — Position of the problem — Migration of European peoples
in the historic period — II. European races of the present day —
Characteristics of the six principal races and the four secondary races
— III. Present peoples of Europe— a. Aryan peoples: Latins,
Germans, Slavs, Letto-Lithuanians, Celts, lUyro-Hellenes — B. Anar-
yan peoples : Basques, Finns, etc. — c. Caucasian peoples: Lesgians,
Georgians, etc.
Of all parts of the world Europe presents the most favourable
conditions for the interblending of peoples. Easy of access, a
mere peninsula of Asia, from which the Ural mountains and
straits a few miles wide hardly separate it, Europe has a
totally different configuration from the continental colossus,
heavy and vague in outline, to which it is attached. Indented
by numberless gulfs, bays, and creeks, provided with several
secondary peninsulas, crossed by rivers having no cataracts,
and for the most part navigable, it offers every facility for
communication and change of place to ethnic groups. Thus
from the dawn of history, and even from prehistoric times, a
perpetual eddying has taken place there, a coming and going
of peoples in search of fortune and better settlements.
These migrations, combined with innumerable wars and active
commerce, have produced such a blending of races, such
successive changes in the manners and customs and languages
spoken, that it is very difficult to separate from this chaos the
299
300 THE RACES OF MAN.
elements of European ethnogeny, and that in spite of the great
number of historical and linguistic works published on the
subject. We may, however, thanks to the progress in pre-
historic, anthropological, and ethnographical studies, obtain a
glimpse of the main outlines of this ethnogeny, in. which
history and linguistics give us often but vague, and in any case
very slight information.
The better to understand the distribution of races at the
present day, we must cast a glance at those which are extinct,
going back to geological times removed from us by several
hundreds or even thousands of centuries.
I. — ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF EUROPK
Geological Times. — The portions of Europe emerging towards
the end of the tertiary period of the geological history of our
globe have been inhabited by man, probably from this very
time, and assuredly from the quaternary period which succeeded
it — the predecessor of the present geological period. The
existence of tertiary man in Europe has not, however, been
directly proved. The finds of artificially chipped flints in the
miocene and pliocene beds in France (at Thenay, Puy-
Courny, and Saint-Prest), in England (the uplands of Kent,
Cromer), and in Portugal (Otta, near Lisbon); the discovery
made in Italy (Monte Aperto) of bones with rude carvings on
them, asserted to be the work of pliocene man, and so many
other interesting facts, are now called in question by lead-
ing men of science, and have few supporters at the present
day.i In every case in these finds we have to deal only
with objects supposed to be worked by man, or by some
^ See for details, De Mortillet, Le Prehistoriqtte, chap, iii., Paris, 1SS3;
Stirrup, "So-called Worked Flints of Thenay," Journ. Anthr. Inst.,
vol. xiv., 1885, p. 289, and Rev. d'' Anthr., 1885; Cartailhac, La France
Prehistorique, p. 35, Paris, 1889; Newton, "The Evidence for the
Existence of Man in the Tertiary Period," Proceed. Geohg. Assoc, vol.
XV., Ijondon, 1897; Salomon Reinach, AntiquitSs Nationales, Descrip.
Mush St.-Germain, vol. i., p. 96, Paris, l88g, — this work contains a
mass of prehistoric information and a copious bibliograpliy.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 30I
hypothetical being, for no remains of human bones have been
found up to the present time in the tertiary beds of Europe.^
It is only in quaternary beds that the presence of human
bones has been ascertained beyond question. The quaternary
age in Europe is characterised, as we know, by the succession
of "glacial periods," each of which comprises a greater or less
extension of glaciers, followed by their withdrawal ("inter-
glacial periods "), with accompanying changes of climate. The
well-known geologist Geikie ^ claims, from the end of the plio-
cene age to proto-historic times, the existence in Europe of six
glacial periods; but most other geologists (Penck, Boule)
reduce this number to two or three, considering the move-
ments of the glaciers of some of Geikie's periods as purely
local phenomena, having exercised no influence on the
continent as a whole.
At the beginning of quaternary times the climate of Europe
was not the same as that of the present day ; hot and moist, it
was favourable to the growth of a sub-tropical flora. Dense
forests gave shelter to animals which no longer exist in our
latitudes — the Elephas meridio?ialis, a survival of the pliocene
age, the Rhinoceros Etruscus, etc.
But soon, from causes still imperfectly known, ice began to
accumulate around certain elevated points of Northern Europe;
a veritable " mer de glace " covered all Scandinavia, almost the
whole of Great Britain, the emerged lands which were between
these two countries, as well as the north of Germany and half
of Russia.^ This is 'Cr^ first glacial period, or the period of the
^ The so-called tertiary skeleton of Castenedolo, near Brescia, discovered
by Ragazonni, is an "odd fact," an "incomplete observation," to use the
happy phrase of Marcellin Boule, and cannot be taken into account.
^ J. Geikie, Great Ice Age, London, 1894; Marcellin Boule, "Paleontol.
stratigr. de rHomme," Rev. d'Anthr., Paris, 1888.
' The extreme limit of the spread of glaciers to the south at that
period may be indicated by a line which would pass near to Bristol,
London, Rotterdam, Cologne, Hanover, Dresden, Cracow, Lemberg;
then would go round Kief on the south, Orel on the north, and rise again
(on the south of Saratov) up to Nijni-Novgorod, Vialka, the upper valley
of the Kama, to blend with the line of the watershed of this river and the
Pechora (see Map I. ).
302 THE RACES OF MAN.
great spread of glaciers (Map i). Such an accumulation of
ice, combined with a change of climate, which had become
cold and moist, was not very favourable to the peopling of the
country. Besides, if we consider that all the great mountain
chains, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Caucasian range, with their
advanced peaks, were covered entirely with ice, and that the
Aralo-Caspian depression was filled with water as far as the
vicinity of Kazan on the north (Map i), we shall easily under-
stand that the habitable space thus available for man at this
period in Europe was very restricted.
Fig. 8.5. — Chellean flint implement, Saint-Acheul (Somme); half
. natural size. (After G. and A. de Afortillet.)
France with Belgium, the south of England, the three
southern peninsulas (Iberian, Appenine, and Balkan), the
south of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the plains of Southern
Russia as far as the Volga, and the basin of the Kama,
communicating on the south of the Ural by a narrow isthmus
with the Siberian steppes — these were the only countries which
quaternary man could occupy. These conditions only changed
at the time that the glaciers began to withdraw {first inter-
glacial period). The climate became milder again, and the
Arctic flora gave place to the flora of the forests of the Tem-
perate Zone. It is to this period that the most undoubtedly
ancient vestiges of mankind in Europe are to be attributed.
The men of that period have handed down to us imple-
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
303
■f 1
eJ
a
5 V
<
304 THE RACES OF MAN.
ments of a very rude type : fragments of flint of pointed form,
the sinuous edges of which are scarcely trimmed by the re-
moval of some flakes. 1 These implements are called "knuckle-
dusters" (G. de Mortillet), or "Chellean axes" (Fig. 84), from
the Chelles bed in the valley of the Seine ; but such imple-
ments are found in sitH in numerous places — in France
(especially in the valley of the Somme), in England (valleys
of the Ouse and the Thames), in Spain, Portugal, Austria,
Belgium, etc.^
The first interglacial period, characterised, as we have just
seen, by a mild and moist climate, was followed by a new
glacier invasion {second glacial period). This time the sea of
ice did not extend as far as in the first period : It covered
Ireland, Scotland, the north of England (as far as Yorkshire),
Scandinavia, Finland, and stopped in Germany and Russia at
a line passing nearly through the present site of Hamburg,
Berlin, Warsaw, Vilna, Novgorod, Lake Onega, Archangel.
To this period succeeded, after the withdrawal of the glaciers,
a period called "post-glacial" (or second interglacial period),
characterised at first by a continental climate, dry, with a very
cold winter, and a short but hot summer, and by flora of the
Tundras and steppes. At the end of this epoch, the climate
becoming milder, there appeared the flora of the meadows and
forests, which has remained to the present day.^ The harsh
"■ See G. and A. de Mortillet, Musle prihislorique, Paris, pi. vi. to ix. ;
J. Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. , chap, xxiii. , London,
1897.
^ Frequently these implements have been found, in sufficiently deep beds,
beside bones of the straight-tusked elephant {Elephas antiqtms), the smooth-
skinned, two-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Merckii), the great hippopota-
mus — that is to say, of animals characteristic of the first interglacial period.
As these species are allied to the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippo-
potamus of Africa of the present day, the hypothesis has been propounded
that they came from this continent, utilising the numerous isthmuses then
existing (between Gibraltar and Morocco, between Sicily, Malta and
Tunis, etc.). Man, the maker of the Chellean implements, followed, it
is supposed, in their steps. One might argue with equal force that the
migration took place in the opposite direction.
* Woldrich (after Nehring), Mil. Antlir. GeselL, vol. xi., p. 187, Vienna.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 305
climate of the beginning of this period could only be favourable
to the preservation and growth of thick-furred animals : the
mammoth or elephant with curved tusks (^Elephas primigenius),
the rhinoceros with divided nostrils (i?. tichorinus), the rein-
deer {Cermis iarandus), the saiga, the lemming, etc.
The man who inhabited Europe during the two overflows of
the glaciers and the two interglacial periods is known to us
chiefly by the stone implements which are found in the strata
of these periods, along with the bones of animals which are
now extinct or which have migrated into other regions. It
must not be inferred from this that palaeolithic man used no
other but stone tools or weapons. The finds of objects made
out of bone, horn, stag's horn, shell, and wood belonging to
these periods are there to bear witness to the contrary. Only
these finds are much more rare, on account of the ease with
which bone, horn, and especially wood, decompose after a
more or less prolonged stay in the ground. Basing their con-
clusions on the variety of the forms of the stone implements
and partly on the frequent occurrence of bone objects, pate-
ethnologists have divided the two interglacial periods which form
their stone age or palceolithic period into two or three periods,
according to country. It would have been better, in my
opinion, to have replaced in the present instance the word
"period" by the term "state of civilisation," for these periods
are far from being synchronous throughout the whole of
Europe; the Vogules and the Samoyeds were in the "stone
age " hardly a century ago.
Nevertheless, for certain defined regions, we may consider it
settled that the first so-called Chellean " period," characterised
by the "knuckle-duster," belongs, as we have seen (p. 302), to
the first interglacial period, and that the others coincide with
the second (Boule). In a general way, we may distinguish
in the latter a more ancient period, characterised by the
abundance of mammoth bones and by smaller and more varied
implements than the Chellean tool ; and a more recent period
characterised by the presence of the reindeer in Central and
Western Europe, by the frequent occurrence of bone tools, and
29
305 THE RACES OF MAN.
by the appearance of the graphic arts, at least in certain
regions.
The first of these "periods" is known as the Mousterian;
it is well represented in France, Belgium, southern Germany,
Bohemia, and England.-'
Instead of a single flint implement, the "knuckle-duster,''
which was used variously in the Chellean period, with or
without a handle, as an axe, hammer, and dagger, a variety of
implements make their appearance in the Mousterian period,
and, among others, tools needed in the manufacture of garments,
blades to open and skin animals, scrapers to make their hides
supple, sharp-edged awls for cutting the skin and when neces-
sary making cords or straps from it, for piercing it and making
button-holes.^ On the other hand, the use of the bow does
not seem to have been known, for in the Mousterian deposits
there have not been found any arrow-heads either in flint or
bone. These arrow-heads appear only in the next period,
generally called the reindeer age ; in France styled, according
to the classification of G. de Mortillet, the Magdalenian
period? The man of this period was still in the hunting stage,
^ In England it is sometimes designated the "cave period" to distin-
guish it from the Chellean, called " River-drift" period, but this term is
open to objection; thus, for example, in the celebrated Kent cavern there
have been found at the bottom implements of the Chellean type identical
with certain objects of the River-drift. (See the works already quoted, as
well as Windle, Life in Early Britain, p. 26, London, 1897.)
'■* According to G. de Mortillet, Mousterian industry also differs from
the Chellean in regard to technique. In the Chellean period what is
utilised is the core or nucleus of the stone cut right round on both sides ;
while in the Mousterian period what are fashioned are the splinters struck
off from this core, which are trimmed especially on one face, the inner face
remaining smooth and showing the trace of its origin under the form of a
"cone" or "bulb of percussion," which corresponds to a hollow in the
block from which the splinter has been dislodged. However, implements
recalling at first sight the " knuckle-duster," but which differ from it by
their amygdaloidal form and their straight edges (Saint-Acheul type), are
still to be found at this period.
^ In G. de Mortillet's classification a yet additional period is inserted
between the Mousterian and the Magdalenian. This is the Solutrian,
characterised by finely cut heads (spear or arrow?) in the shape of a
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 307
but had more perfect hunting weapons than in the Mousterian
period; he was also occasionally a fisher, and probably reared
the reindeer. But his especial characteristic in certain
regions, as in the south-west of France, is that he was a
consummate artist. He has left us admirable carvings (Fig.
85, B), and engravings on bone most expressive in design
(Fig. 8s, AV
After the second glacial period, the era of great overflows
and withdrawals of the glaciers came to a definite close for
Central Europe; but it continued in the north, in Scotland,
and especially around the Baltic, even as it is still prolonged
to our own day in Greenland and Iceland.
According to Geikie and De Geer, the glaciers advanced and
withdrew thrice again in Scandinavia and Scotland after con-
tinental Europe was almost entirely rid of them (Geikie's fourth
to sixth glacial periods).^
laurel leaf. But the zone in which these implements are met with is
limited to certain regions of the south and west of France only. For
many palccethnographers this is a " facies local" of the Magdalenian
period.
^ There may be added to the masterpieces here reproduced the famous
representation of the mammoth carved on the tusk of this animal itself by
a man of La Madeleine (Dordogne), discovered and described by Lartet ;
and by Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Brit., p. 105, London, 1880. See
Cartailhac, loc. cit., p. 72-
^ After the second interglacial period the "Great Baltic Glacier" still
covered the Scandinavian peninsula, with the exception of its southern part
(Gothland), extended over the emerged bottom of the Baltic, over nearly
the whole of Finland, and spreading round Gothland invaded the east coast
of Denmark and the littoral of Germany to the east of Jutland. After the
retreat of this glacier and a series of changes in the surface of the ground
(a sinking which brought the Baltic into communication with the North
Sea by means of the Strait of Svealand, followed by the upheaval
which cut off that communication and made of the Baltic the Ancyhts
Lake of the geologists), the climate became milder in these parts, and
the trees of Central Europe, first the pines, then the oaks and birches,
penetrated into Denmark and Gothland, while in the north of Sweden
there were two other new glacier movements. (Gerard de Geer, Om
Skandinavens Geografiska Utveckling, Stockholm, 1897; G. Andersson,
Geschichte Vegetal. Schtved., Leipzig, 1896.)^
^oS
THE RACES OF MAN.
Fig. 85. — Quaternary art (Magda-
lenian period) : 13, dagger of
reindeer horn with sculptured
liaft, Laugerie-IIaute (Dordogne) ;
A, "Baton of command" with
carving (La Madeleine, Dord.);
two-thirds natural size. (After G.
and A. de Mortillet.)
A slow sinking of the land,
which submerged beneath the
ocean all the countries to
the north and north-east of
Europe, marks the end of the
quaternary period, and the
beginning of the present era
in the geological sense of the
word. This era is charac-
terised, from the archaeo-
logical point of view, by the
substitution for the "earlier
stone age" {palcnolithic period')
of another "age," or, better,
of another stage of civilisa-
tion, that of the later stone age
iiieolilhic).
However, this " age " did
not come in abruptly, after a
lapse of titne, the hiatus of
ancient pateethnologists, dur-
ing which man retired, it
was supposed, from Central
Europe and emigrated towards
the north after the reindeer.^
There must have been a tran-
sitional or mesolithic period.^
Nor was neolithic civilisation
established everywhere at the
same time. Thus the Scan-
dinavian peninsula, from
' This supposition is invalidated
by this fact among others, that, in
the neolithic "shell heaps" of
Scandinavia no remains of the
reindeer are found.
'^ As witnessed by the diggings of
Piette at Mas d'Azil, see p. 163.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 309
which the glaciers have not yet altogether withdrawn, was in
course of formation during this period.'- The "neolithic
folk," settling at first in Denmark, then in Gothland, have
left us in the kitchen-middens (kitchen refuse, accumulations
of shells) certain chipped stone implements, a sort of hatchet
of a special form, contemporaneous with the neolithic tools
of the rest of Europe.
These tools are associated in the geological beds and pre-
historic stations with other objects which denote among the
Europeans of this period a fairly advanced civilisation: know-
ledge of agriculture, pottery, the weaving of stuffs, the rearing
of cattle.
The " neolithic people " constructed pile-dwellings near lake-
sides, in Switzerland, France, Italy, Ireland; they buried their
dead under dolmens, and raised other megalithic monuments
(upright stones, the rows at Carnac, etc.), of which the meaning
has not yet been cleared up.
As may have been seen from this brief account, it is almost
perfectly well known what were the stages of civilisation of the
Europeans in the quaternary and neolithic periods. It is
different with regard to the physical type of these Europeans.
In fact, of interglacial man, contemporary of the Elephas anti-
quus, the maker of those flint implements exhumed from the
lowest beds of the oldest quaternary alluvia, we have no
remains, except perhaps two molar teeth, found by Nehring in
the Taubach station (near Weimar), and some other disputed
fragments (Neanderthal, Brux, and Tilbury skulls). This state-
ment, made for the first time by Boule in 1888, is now admitted
by many pateethnologists.^ As far as man contemporary
' There was yet to take place another sinking of the ground which
established a communication, by means of the Sound, between the " Ancy-
lus Lake " of the preceding period with the North Sea, transforming it
thus into a very salt and warm sea called, from the principal fossil which
reveals to us its existence, the Littorina Sea.
^ Nehring, Zeilschr. f. EthnoL, 1895, No. 6 (Verli., pp. 425 and 573);
Salomon Reinach, L'Anthropohgte, 1S97, p. 53; P. Salmon, Races Ituin.
frehist., p. g, Paris, 1S88; Cartailhac, loc. cil., p. 327; M. Boule, loc. ciL,
p. 679; G. de Mortillet, S,a Formal, de la Nat. Franc, p. 289.
3 Id The races of man.
with the mammoth (Elephas primigenius) and the reindeer
is concerned, we possess a certain number of skulls and
bones from the river drifts and caves. But a doubt exists
as to the beds in which many of these specimens were
found, and consequently as to their date. Eliminating all
those of unknown or uncertain age, we have at the most,
for the whole of Europe, but a dozen skulls or fragments of
skulls and a score of other bones genuinely quaternary.^
Evidently that is insufficient for the forming of an opinion
on the physical type of quaternary Europeans. However,
one significant fact is eUcited from an examination of this
small series, and it is this: that all the skulls composing
it are very long, very dolichocephalic. The exceptions put
forward, like the skulls of upper Crenelle (Seine), Furfooz
(Belgium), I,a Truchfere (Saone-et-Loire), Valle do Areciro
' Out of forty-six skulls to which the title " quaternary " has been
applied, I have only been able, after a careful examination of all evidence,
to recognise as such the ten to fifteen following skulls. For the age of the
mammoth or "Mousterian" period, seven skulls certainly quaternary;
two skulls from Spy (Belgium), and those from Egisheim (Alsace), Olmo
(Val d'Arno, Italy), Bury St. Edmunds (England), Podbaba (Bohemia),
and Predmost (Moravia). Perhaps we should refer to this period the
skulls which cannot be definitely traced to a certain alluvial bed, like those
of Neanderthal (Rhenish Prussia), Denise (Auvergne), Marcilly-sur-Eure
(Eure), La Truchere (Sa6ne), and Tilbury (near London). As to the
skulls of the " reindeer" age (Magdalenian period), three only are known
which are not called in question : these are the skulls of Laugerie-Basse,
Chancelade (Dordogne), and Sordes (Landes). Perhaps we should include
among them the skulls of uncertain date, like those of Bruniquel, Engis,
Sargels (near Larzac), and perhaps others which certain authorities classify
as belonging to mesolithic and even neolithic times : the three skulls of
Cro-Magnon (Dordogne); the six so-called Mentone skulls (Baouss^-Rousse,
Maritime Alps); the skulls of the Trou de Frontal at Furfooz (Belgium),
of Solutre (Valley of the Saone), Bohuslan (near Stangenas, Sweden),
Clichy and Crenelle (Paris). And, lastly, we have no data on which to form
an opinion as to the date of the skulls of Canstatt (Wurtemberg), Maes-
tricht (Holland), Gibraltar, Brux (Bohemia), Lhar, Nagy-Sap (Hungary),
Schebichowitz (Bohemia), Valle do Areciro (Portugal), etc. Cf S.
Reinach, loc. cit. {Antiquith Nation.], p. 134; and Herve, Rev. Ecok
Aulhr., p. 208, Paris, 1892.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
311
(Portugal), do not conflict with this assertion; there are reasons
for believing that certain of these skulls belong to the neolithic
period, and that others date from the mesolithic period, or, at
the very outside, from the end of the quaternary period.
These then, even admitting the authenticity of their date,
would only be isolated precursors of the neolithic brachy-
cephals with whom we shall deal further on.
Let us return to our palseolithic dolichocephals. These
appear to belong to two distinct types, the so-called Neander-
thal or Spy type, referred to the Mousterian period, very well
Fig. 86. — Spy skull, first quaternary race.
{After Fraipont and Jacques, )
represented by the skulls and bones found at Spy, near Namur
in Belgium; then the type of the Magdalenian period, repre-
sented by the skulls exhumed at Laugerie-Basse and Chance-
lade (Dordogne). The first of these types is characterised by
marked dolichocephaly (ceph. ind. from 70 to 75.3), by the
exceedingly low and retreating forehead, by the prominent
brow ridges (Fig. 86), and probably by a low stature
(about im. 59). Several pithecoid characters are observable
on the skull and bones of this type, the presence of which has
been noted, from England (skull from Bury St. Edmunds, in
Suffolk), Belgium (Spy skull, La Naulette jaw), and perhaps the
3l2 tllE RACES OF MAN.
Rhenish province (Neanderthal skull), to the Pyrenees (jaw
found at Malarnau, Arifege), Bohemia, Moravia (Predmost and
Podbaba skulls), and Italy (Olmo skull). Like all the other
prehistoric races, that of Neanderthal or Spy has not entirely
disappeared; Neanderthaloid skulls are found, few in number
it is true, in several prehistoric or historic burial-places (at
Furfooz in Belgium, in the dolmens of France, England,
Ireland, etc.). Scattered here and there, some rare indivi-
duals may still be observed in the populations of the present
day showing the characters of this race, according to the
statements of Roujoux, Quatrefages, Virchow, Kollmann, and
Fig. 87. — Chancelade skull, second quaternary race.
[After Testut. )
Other anthropologists.^ The second so-called Laugerie-Chan-
celade race (Herve) is represented at the present day by only
three or four skulls and some other bones found at Laugerie-
Basse, Chancelade (Dordogne), and Sordes (Landes). It is
characterised by a dolichocephaly almost equal to that of
the preceding race, but it differs from it in the high and broad
forehead, the capacious skull, the absence of the brow ridges,
the high orbits, and especially the face with projecting cheek-
bones, high and broad at the same time (Fig. 87). Its stature
' The instances of the skull of Saint Mensuy, an Irish bishop, and
others, are universally known. See on this subject, Godron, Mem.
Acad. S/anisIas, p. 50, Nancy, 1884; Worthington Smith, Man, the
Primeval Savage, p. 3S, London, 1893; and W. Borlase, The Dolmens of
Ireland, vol. iii., p. 922, London, 1897.
RACES AND PEOPLES 0¥ EUROPE. 313
is rather low. This is the type to which approximates the race
of the Baumes-Chaiides of Hervd or the true race of Cro-Magnon,
which appeared quite at the end of the Magdalenian, if not at the
transitional or mesolithic period. The latter race differs from
the former in its very pronounced dolichocephaly (ceph. ind.
from 63 to 74.8), its lower face and orbits, its very lofty stature
(from im. 71 to im. 80), and many other characters.^ We see
then, at the beginning of the neolithic period, the second
quaternary dolichocephalic race still existing slightly modified,
but we also see the earliest brachycephals appearing along with it.
Several hundred skulls, found in neolithic burial-places in
France, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, exhibit an inter-
mixture of brachycephals and dolichocephals. According to
the more or less frequent occurrence of the former in relation
to the latter in each burial, we may, with Herve,^ trace the route
followed by these brachycephals of Central Europe, from the
plains of Hungary, by the valley of the Danube, into Belgium
and Switzerland; from these last-named countries they flung
themselves on the dolichocephahc populations of France and
modified the primitive type, especially in the plains of the
north-east and in the Alpine region.
But if the " neolithic " people of France and Central Europe
belonged to at least two distinct races, the same has not been
the case with the other countries of our continent. In the
British Isles we find ourselves, on the contrary, as regards this
period, in presence of a remarkable homogeneity of type; it is
without exception dolichocephalic (cephal. ind. from 65 to 75
for the men), with elongated faces, such as are found in the long-
barrows. Did they come from the Continent in neolithic
times, or are they the descendants of the palseolithic men of
Great Britain, the physical type of which is unknown to us?
This is a question which still awaits solution. In Russia also,
' De Quatrefages and liamy, Cr. Elhn., p. 44; De Quatrefages, Hist.
Chi. Races Hum., vol. i., p. 67; Herve, Kev. Ecole. Anthr., Paris, 189J,
p. 173; 1894, p. 105; 1896, p. 97.
' Herve, " Les brachycephales neolith.," Rev. Ecole. Anlhr., Pans,
1894, p. 393; and 1895, p. 18.
314 THE RACES OF MAN.
we only meet with dolichocephals during the later stone age
(certain "Kourganes"' and the neolithic station of Lake Ladoga). ^
In Spain, in Portugal, in Sweden, dolichocephalic skulls are
found in conjunction with some brachycephalic ones, -the latter
somewhat rare however.^
It is impossible for us to enter into details while treating of
the period which followed the neolithic, that is to say the
" age " of metals (copper, bronze, and iron). The metal which
first took the place of stone was probably copper. In fact,
the copper weapons are hammered or cast after the pattern of
the stone axes and daggers, and in certain stations in Spain
have been found ornaments in bronze (precious metal rarely)
by the side of tools and arms in copper (ordinary metal). The
existence of a " copper age " is, however, admitted to-day by
almost all authorities, who regard it as an experimental period;
it supplies one of the arguments in favour of the theory that
the bronze industry did not come from the East (from the
shores of the Euxine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, or Indo-
China, according to different authors), as was thought until
recent times, but sprang up locally in Europe itself
The complete absence of oriental objects, for instance
Assyrian cylinders or Egyptian sculptured scarabrei in the finds
of the bronze age in Europe, is an argument in favour of the
new theory, maintained chiefly by Salomon Reinach in France
and Much in Austria. The Scandinavian authors, Sophus
Miiller and Montelius, admit the local development of the
industry in metallic objects, but with materials supplied by
the merchants of the Archipelago and Cyprus. The great trade-
route for amber, and perhaps tin, between Denmark and the
Archipelago is well known at the present day; it passes through
1 J. Beddoe, The Races of Brilain, Bristol-London, iSSj, and "Hist,
de I'indice ceph. dans les ties Britan.," L' Anthropol. , 1894, p. 513; Windle,
loc. cil., p. 9; Inostrantsev, Bo'tslorikheskn, etc. [Ptehistor. Man of
Ladoga), St. Petersburg, 1S82, fig. and pi.
^ Montelius, Temps, pr^hist. en .Suede, p. 41, Paris, 1895; Cartailhac,
Ages prikist. Esp. e! Forlug., p. 305, Paris, 1886; H. and S. Siret, Prem.
dges dtt mlial dans le sud-esl de I'Esp., 3rd part (by V. Jacques), Antwerp,
1S87.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 315
the valley of the Elbe, the Moldau, and the Danube. The
commercial relations between the north and south explain the
similarities which archaeologists find between Scandinavian
bronze objects and those of the ^Egean district (Schlieraann's
excavations at Mycense, Troy, Tiryns, etc.).^
It is generally admitted that the ancient bronze age corre-
sponds with the "^gean civilisation" which flourished among
the peoples inhabiting, between the thirtieth and twentieth
centuries B.C., Switzerland, the north of Italy, the basin of the
Danube, the Balkan peninsula, a part of Anatolia, and, lastly,
Cyprus. It gave rise (between 1700 and iioo B.C.) to the
"Mycenian" civilisation, of which the favourite ornamental
design is the spiral.^
In Sweden the bronze age began later, in the seventeenth or
eighteenth century B.C., but it continued longer there than in,
Southern Europe.
So also, according to Montelius, the introduction of iron
dates only from the fifth or third century B.C. in Sweden,
while Italy was acquainted with this metal as far back as the
twelfth century B.C. The civilisation of the "iron age" dis-
tributed over two periods, according to the excavations made
in the stations of Hallstatt (Austria) and La Tene (Switzer-
land), must have been imported from Central Europe into
Greece through lUyria. This importation corresponds perhaps
with the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus. The so-called
" Hallstattian " period lasted in Central Europe, France, and
Northern Italy from the tenth or ninth to the sixth century
B.C. The Hallstattian civilisation flourished chiefly in Carinthia,
Southern Germany, Switzerland, Bohemia, Silesia, Bosnia, the
south-east of France, and Southern Italy (the pre-Etruscan iron
' S. Reinach, "Mirage oriental," I' Anthropo!ogie, 1894, pp. 539 and
6gg; A. Evans, "Eastern Question," Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1896, p. 911;
Montelius, loc. cit.; Much, "Die Kupferzeit in Europa," Jena, 1893.
^ A. Evans, loc. cit., " Eastern Question"; Sal. Reinach, V Anthropol. ,
1893, p. 731; Montelius, "The Tyrrhenians, eic, " Joitr. Anthr. Inst.,
vol. xxvi., 1897, p. 254, pi.; and "Pre-classic Chronology in Greece," Hi J. ,
p. 261.
3l6 THE RACES OF MAN.
age of Montelius). The period which followed, called the second
or iron age, or the La Tfene period,^ was prolonged until the first
century B.C. in France, Bohemia, and England. In Scandi-
navian countries the first iron age lasted till the sixth century,
and the second iron age till the tenth century a.d.
The physical type of the inhabitants of Europe during
the bronze age varies according to country. In England
they were sub-brachycephals (ceph. ind. 8i), of whom the
remains found in the " round barrows " have been described
by Thurnam and Beddoe. In Sweden and Denmark they
were dolichocephals or mesocephals, tall and fair-haired, as far
as one can gather from the remains of hair found in the burial-
places (Montelius and S. Hansen). In the valley of the Rhine
and Southern Germany they were typical dolichocephals, above
the medium stature (type of the " Reihengraber " or row-graves,
established by Holder and studied by Ranke, Lehmann-
Nietsche, and others). In Switzerland, in the pile-dwellings,
the neolithic brachycephals, of whom we have spoken, were
succeeded in the bronze age by dolichocephals similar to those
of Germany. During the Hallstattian period of the " iron
age," we notice the persistence of the dolichocephalic and tall
type in the row-graves of the Rhine and Mein valleys; while
during the following period of the same age (that of La Tfene
or the Marnian), we find in the forms of the skulls exhumed
from the burial-places a diversity almost as great as that which
is seen in the populations of the present day.
The ages of bronze and iron, as we have seen, over-
lapped, in certain regions, the historic period, the period of the
Phcenician voyages, the development of Egypt, the origin of
Greek civilisation; and yet it is very difficult to say to what
peoples known to history must be attributed the characteristic
civilisations of each of the periods of the age of metals, and
^ This term, used first in Germany, is accepted by almost all men of
science. The La Tene period corresponds pretty nearly with the " dge
Marnien" of French archeeologists and the late Celtic of English
archaeologists. Cf. M. Hoernes, Urgesch. d. Menscli., chaps, viii. and ix. ,
Vienna, 1S92.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 317
what were the languages spoken by these peoples. Most
historians believed until quite recently that the Euscarians, and
perhaps the Ligurians or Lygians of Western Europe, as well
as the Iberians, the Pelasgian Tursans or Turses^ of the three
southern peninsulas of our continent, were the "autochthones,"
or rather the oldest European peoples known to history. These
would then be the probable descendants of the palceolithic
Europeans, the races of Neanderthal, Spy, and Chancelade.
Further, according to the philologists and historians, these
peoples spoke non-Aryan languages, and at a certain period,
which D'Arbois de Jubainville ^ places vaguely at twenty or
twenty-five centuries B.C., Europe was invaded by the Aryans,
coming from Asia, who imposed their languages on the autoch-
thones. The Basque language of the present day, derived from
the Euscarian, is the only dialect surviving this transformation.
The central point for the ethnographic history of Europe is,
according to the philologists, the arrival of the Aryans.
But who were these Aryans ? Nobody quite knows. It is no
part of my plan to write the history of the Aryan controversy.'
It is enough to say that men of acknowledged authority in
science (Pott, Grimm, Max Muller) have maintained for a long
time, without any solid proof, the existence not only of a primi-
tive Aryan language, which gave birth to the dialects of neariy
every people of Europe, but also of an " Aryan race," supposed
to have sprung up " somewhere " in Asia, one part migrating
towE^rds India and Persia, while the remainder made its way
by slow stages to Europe. Generations of scientific men have
accepted this hypothesis, which, after all, had no other founda-
tion than such aphorisms as "ex oriente lux" put forward by
Pott, or "the irresistible impulse towards the west" invented by
' Together with the Sards, the Turses are the only European peoples of
which the Egyptian inscriptions anterior to the thirteenth century B.C.
make mention, under the name of Shordana and Thursana (W. Max
Miiller, Enropa und Asien, 1894).
- D'Arbois de Jubainville, Les Anciens Habitants de P Europe, new ed.,
vol. i., p. 201, Paris.
= See for this history, Isaac Taylor, The Origin of the Aryans, chap, i.,
London, 1890, and S. Reinach, L'origine des Aryens, Paris, 1892.
3l8 THE RACES OF MAN.
Grimm. It must, however, be mentioned tliat objections against
this hypothesis by recognised authorities were raised as soon as
it was promulgated ; they came from philologists like Latham
(1855), ethnographers like d'Omalius d'Halloy, anthropologists
like Broca (1864); but it was only about 1880 that a somewhat
lively reaction took place against the current ideas, and it
originated in the camp of the philologists themselves. De
Saussure, Sayce, and others, returning to the ideas expressed
long before by Benfey, rightly observed that the assumed
close relationship between Sanscrit and Zend and the primitive
Aryan language rests solely on the fact of the archaic forms of
these two dialects being preserved to the present time in written
monuments, while the Aryan languages of Europe do not
possess documents so ancient. They said further, that the
European languages of the present day, such as Lithuanian,
for example, are much nearer the primitive Aryan forms than
the Asiatic dialects, Hindu for example. As to the Asiatic
origin of the Aryans, a somewhat rude blow was struck at this
second hypothesis by Poesche and Penka, who, taking up the
ideas of Linnd and d'Omalius d'Halloy on the exclusive
existence in Europe of fair-haired populations, identified these
populations, without any proof, it is true, with the Aryans.^
In reality, the hypothesis of the fair-haired "Aryan race," tall
and dolichocephalic (Fig. 88), indigenous to Europe, does not
rest on a firmer foundation than that of the "Aryan race"
coming from Asia. •
Anthropology is powerless to say if the ancient owners of
the dolichocephalic skulls in Southern Europe spoke an Aryan
language or not. Moreover, the works of modern philologists,
with Oscar Schrader^ at their head, show that we can no longer
speak to-day of an "Aryan race," but solely of 2l family of
1 Th. Poesche, Z)/a ^;-«;-, Jena, 187S; Venkz., Die Herkunfl der Aricr,
Vienna, 1886. This identification has been turned to account by several men
ofscience, especially by 0. Amnion (loc. cit. ) in Germany and V. de Lapoiipe
(Selections sociales, Paris, 1895) in France, in the construction of somewhat
bold sociological theories.
' Osc. Schrader, Sprachvergl. 11. Urgesch., 2nd ed., Jena, 1S90.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 319
Aryan languages, and perhaps of a primitive Aryan civilisaHon
which had preceded the separation of the different Aryan
dialects from their common stock.
This civilisation, as reconstituted by O. Schrader, differs
much from that which Pictet had sketched out in his essay on
"Linguistic Pateontology." This was something analogous to
the neolithic civilisation; metals were unknown in it (with the
exception, perhaps, of copper), but agriculture and the breeding
Fig. 88. — Islander of Lewis (Hebrides),
Northern Race. {Phot. Beddoe.)
of cattle had already reached a fair stage of development.
However, there is nothing to prove that peoples speaking
non-Aryan languages had not been in possession of the same
civilisation, which with them would be developed in an
independent manner. Hence we see the uselessness of looking
for a centre from which this Aryan culture might have proceeded.
The only question which we may still ask ourselves is, what
was the point from which diffusion of the Aryan languages in
320 THE RACES OF MAN.
Europe began. This point no one at the present time seeks
any longer in Asia. It is in Europe, and what we have to do
is to define it (S. Reinach). Latham and d'Omaliu.s d'Halloy
located the habitat of the primitive Aryans in the south or
south-east of Russia. Penka had placed it in Scandinavia.
Other learned authorities have selected intermediate points
between these extremes. ^
On the whole, the Aryan question to-day has no longer the
importance which was formerly given to it. All that we can
legitimately suppose is that, in the period touching the
neolithic age, the inhabitants of Europe were Aryanised from
the point of view of language, without any notable change in
the constitution of their physical type, or, probably, of their
civilisation.
Migrations of European Peoples during the Historic Period. —
It would require volumes to relate even succinctly all the move-
ments and dislocations of European peoples. We can only
recall here the more salient facts.
The confirmation afforded by history respecting European
populations does not go farther back than the eighth or ninth
century B.C. for the Mediterranean district, and than the second
or third century B.C. for the rest of Europe. But proto-historic
archseology makes us acquainted with a movement of peoples
between the tenth and the eleventh century B.C. The Dorians
'According to Mirt, "Die Urheimat . . . d. Indogermanen," Geogr.
Zet/sd. ,vo\.i., p. 649, Leipzig, 1895, the home of dispersion of the primitive
Aryan language would be found to the north of the Carpathians, in the Letto-
Lithuanian region. From this point two linguistic streams would start,
flowing round the mountains to the west and east; the ^yeslern stream, after
spreading over Germany (Teutonic languages), leftSJ;|hind them the Celtic
languages in the upper valley of the Danube, and fill/fered through on the
one side into Italy (Latin languages), on the other side into Illyria, Albania,
and Greece (Helleno-IIIyrian languages). The easterr^^ream formed the
Slav languages in the plains traversed by the Dniepe'r^Tsiji spread by way
of the Caucasus into Asia (Iranian languages and Sanscrit). In this way
we can account, on the one hand, for the less and less marked relationship
between the different Aryan languages of the present day and the common
primitive dialect, and, on the other hand, the diversity between the two
groups of Aryan languages, western and eastern.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. ^21
and the inhabitants of Thessaly penetrated at this date into
Greece and forced a portion of the inhabitants of this country (the
Ach^ans, the Eolians) to seek refuge on the nearest coast of
Asia Minor. About the same period the Tyrrhenians or Turses
(a small section of the Pelasgians) moved into Central Italy,
taking with them the Mycenian civilisation, somewhat debased,
and founding there the Etruscan " nation." This nation drove
back the Ombro-Latins or Ilaliotes, who, in their turn, expelled
the Sicules (a branch of the Ligurians, according to D'Arbois
de Jubainville) in Sicily.
The Venetes and the Illyrians made their appearance at
nearly the same period on the coasts of the Adriatic, and the
Thracians in present Bosnia.
Central Europe was occupied, probably from this period, by
Celtic populations who, from their primitive country between
the upper Danube and the Rhine, spread into the valley of the
Po (bronze age of the "terramare,'' sites or foundations of
prehistoric huts), in the middle valley of the Danube (Hallstatt),
and later (seventh century B.C.?) into the north of Gaul, whence
they reached the British Isles ("ancient Celts" of the English
archaeologists, " Gaelic Celts " of the philologists).^ It was also
about the tenth century B.C. that the Scythians, established in
Southern Russia some time before, spread themselves towards
the mid-Danube.
About the fifth century B.C. there evidently occurred another
movement of peoples. The Trans-Alpine Celts or Galatians
invaded, under the name of Celto-Belgce, Jutland, Northern
Germany, the Low Countries, England (the " new Celts " or
Britons of English authors). They also spread over a large
part of Gaul, and into Spain {Celtiberians), and then in
392 B.C., 2 they penetrated into Italy, where they found their
kinsmen, who had been settled there for three centuries, and
were under the subjugation of the Etruscans; these they
overturned, and only halted after having taken Rome (390). A
■' A. Bertrand and S. Reinach, Les Celtes dans la valUe du P6, etc. , Paris,
1894.
" D'Arbois de Jubainville, loc. cit., vol. ii., p. 297.
322
THE RACES OF MAN.
little later (about 300), other waves of Celts, the Galatians,
occupied the valley of the Danube, whence they chased the
Illyrians and the Thracians. The more audacious of them
continued their course across Thrace and penetrated into
Asia Minor, where they established themselves in the country,
since known as Galatia (279).
During this period (from the fifth to the third century), which
may be called Celtic, by analogy with that which followed,
Fig. 89. — Norwegian of South Osterdalen. Ceph. ind.,
70. 2. Northern race. {After Arbo. )
styled the Roman period, history mentions the Germans as a
people similar to the Celts, and dwelling to the north-east of
the latter.
The Roman conquest of transalpine Europe, effected in the
first centuries B.C. and a.d., imposed the language of Latium
on the majority of Celts, Iberians, and Italo-Celts, and main-
tained the populations within almost the same bounds during
three centuries.
The period extending from the second to the sixth century
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
323
of the Christian era comprises the great historic epoch of the
" migrations of peoples." In this period we see the Slavs
spreading in all directions: towards the Baltic, beyond the
Elbe, into the basin of the Danube and beyond, into the
Balkan peninsula; this movement determined that of the
Germans, who invaded the south-east of England (Angles,
Saxons, Jutes), Belgium, the north-east of France (Franks),
Switzerland, and Alsace (Alemanni), the south of Germany
Fio. 90. — Same subject as Fig. 89, seen in profile.
(Bavarians), and spread even beyond the Alps (Longobards).
The Celts in their turn pushed the Iberians farther and farther
into the south-west of France and Spain, while the Italo-Celts
absorbed little by little the rest of the Etruscans and Ligurians.
Towards the end of this period a final wave of invasion, that
of the Huns (fifth century), the Avars (sixth), and other allied
tribes, once more threw Europe into a state of perturbation;
they spread out into the plains of Champagne, then drew back,
severed the Slavs into two groups (northern and southern).
324 THE RACES OF MAN.
and subsided in the plains of Hungary, already partly occupied
for several centuries by the Dacians. Almost at the same
time the Bulgarians removed from the banks of the Volga to
both sides of the Danube. After the sixth century other ethnic
movements, less general, but not less important, occurred in
every part of Europe. In the eighth or ninth century the
invasion of the Varecks (Scandinavians or Letts?) took place
in the north-west of Russia. In the ninth century the Hun-
garians, pushed by the tribes of the Pechenecks and the
Polovtsis who invaded the south of Russia, crossed the Car-
pathians and settled in the valley of the Tissa. From the
ninth or tenth century, the Normans or Northmen (Danes,
Scandinavians) established themselves in the north and east
of the British Isles as well as the north of France, a part of
which still bears their name. Almost at the same time (tenth
to eleventh century) the Arabs made themselves masters of
the Iberian peninsula, of Southern Italy and Sicily; they main-
tained their position to the south of the Guadalquivir until the
fifteenth century. In the twelfth century the Germans drove
back the western Slavs to the banks of the Vistula, which led
to the expansion of the eastern Slavs towards the north-east
at the expense of the Finnish tribes. In the thirteenth century
came the Mongols, or rather the Turco-Mongolian hordes; they
occupied the whole of Russia (as far as Novgorod in the north),
and penetrated into Europe as far as Liegnitz in Silesia. They
soon withdrew from Western Europe, but remained until the
fifteenth century in the east of Russia, and even until the
eighteenth century in the Crimea and the steppes of southern
Russia. Finally, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed
the invasion of the Osmanli Turks into the Balkan penin-
sula, Hungary, and even into lower Austria, as well as the
migrations of the Little Russians into the upper basin of the
Dnieper. About the sixteenth century began the definite
movement of the Little Russians towards the steppes of
Southern Russia, and the slow but sure march of the Great
Russians beyond the Volga, the Ural mountains, and farther;
into Siberia — a movement which continues in our own time.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 325
We can only mention other migrations or colonisations of a
more limited range, that of the Illyrians and Albanians into
Southern Italy, that of the Germans in Hungary and Russia,
etc., as well as the arrival of non-European peoples, Gypsies
and Jems, who are scattered at the present day among all the
nations of our continent.
II. — EUROPEAN RACES OF THE PRESENT DAY.
Setting out from the fact that the peoples or nations of
Europe, like those of the rest of the earth for the matter of
that, are formed of the intermixture in varying proportions of
different races or varieties (see the Introduction), I have endea-
voured, by grouping the exact characters, carefully abstracted
from many million individuals, relating to stature, form of head,
pigmentation, and other somatic particulars, to determine the
constituent elements of these intermixtures. I have thus
succeeded in distinguishing the existence of six principal and
of four secondary races, the combinations of which, in various
proportions, constitute the different " European peoples "
properly so called, distinct from the peoples of other races,
Lapp, Ugrian, Turkish, Mongolian, etc., which are likewise
met with in Europe.^
Here, in short, are the characters and geographical
distribution of those races which, in order to avoid every
interpretation drawn from linguistic, historical, or nationalist
considerations, I describe according to their principal physical
characters, or for the sake of brevity, according to the geo-
graphical names of the regions in which these races are best
represented or least crossed.
We have in Europe, to begin with, i^o fair-haired races, one
dolichocephalic, of very tall stature (Northern race), and another,
sub-brachycephalic, comparatively short (Eastern race). Then
' For particulais see J. Deiiilcer, " Les Races de rEurope," Bidl. Soc.
d'Anthropol., 1897, pp. 1S9 and 291; I' Anthropologic, 1S98, p. 113 (with
map); and "Les Races de rEiu'ope," first part, Viiidice Ciphal., Paris,
1S99 (coloured map). Cf. Ripley, "Racial Geography orEurnpc,"y////«Ai;/'.f
Popular Scieiuc l\lonthly. New York, for the years 1S97, 1S9S, and 1899.
326
THE RACES OF MAN.
four dark-haired races: two of short stature, one of which
(Ibero-insular) is dolichocephalic, the other (Cevenole or
Western) brachycephahcj and two of high stature, of which one
is sub-dolichocephalic (Littoral), the other brachycephalic
(Adriatic). Among the four secondary races two have a
relation to the fair-haired race, while the two others may be con-
FiG. 91. — Young Sussex farmer. Dolichocephalic,
fair. Northern race. [After Beddoe.)
sidered as intermediate between the fair and dark-haired races
(see Map 2). I now give a few details respecting these races.
I. Fair, dolichocephaiic race of very high stature, which may
be called the Northern Race, because its representatives are
grouped together almost exclusively in the north of Europe.
Principal characters: very lofty stature (im. 73 on an average);'
^ See in Appendices I. to III. the figures relative to the different popula-
tions of Europe, taken from the works referred to by me in the previous
note.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
327
323
THE RACES OF MAN.
fair, sometimes reddish, wavy hair; light eyes, for the most
part blue ; elongated, dolichocephalic head (cephalic index on
the living subject from 76 to 79); ruddy white skin, elongated
face, prominent straight nose. The race of this type, pure or
Fig. 92. — Englishwoman of Plymouth (Devon).
Mixed Northern and North-western races (?).
{Phot. Beddoe.)
slightly modified, of whose principal traits Figs. 88 to 92
give a fairly good representation, is found in Sweden, Denmark,
Norway (with the exception of the west coast); in the north of
Scotland; on the east coast and in the north of England,
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 329
in Ireland (with the exception of the north-west), in the
northern Faroe Isles, in Holland (north of the Rhine); in the
Frisian countries, in Oldenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklen-
burg; lastly, in the Baltic provinces of Russia, and among the
Tavasts of Finland. It is the Cymric race of Broca, the
Germanic race {Ihe race of the row-graves) of German authors,
or, in fine, the Homo JEuropeus of Lapouge.
To this race is related a secondary race, fair, mesocephalic, of
tall stature, called Sub-northern, with angular face, turned-up
nose, straight hair; it is found more especially in Northern
Germany, among the Letto-Lithuanians, in Plnland, and on
the west coast of Norway (in part Figs. 89 and 90).
2. Fair, sub-brachycephalic, short race, or Eastern race, so
styled because its representatives are almost exclusively
grouped together in the east of Europe. Principal characters :
stature somewhat short (im. 63 or im. 64 on an average),
moderately rounded head (cephalic index, 82 to 83 on the
living subject), straight, light yellowor flaxen hair, square-cut face,
nose frequently turned up, blue or grey eyes. The representa-
tives of this race are theWhite Russians, the Polieshchooki of the
Pinsk marshes, and certain Lithuanians. Blended with others
this type is frequent among the Vielkorousses or Great Russians
of Northern and Central Russia, as well as in Finland and
Eastern Prussia (Figs. 104 and 105, modified type).
With this race we have to connect a secondary race, fair,
mesocephalic, of very short stature ( Vistulian race), the characters
of which are frequently met with among the Poles, the
Kashoobs, and probably in Saxony and Silesia. *'
3. Dark, dolichocephalic, short race, called Ibero-insular,
because it is chiefly found in the Iberian peninsula and the
islands of the western Mediterranean. It is found, however,
somewhat softened, in France (in Angoumois, Limousin, and
Perigord) and in Italy (to the south of the Rome-Ascoli line).
Principal characters : very short stature (im. 61 to im. 62 on
an average), very elongated head (cephalic index averaging 73 to
76 on the living subject), black, often curled, hair, very dark
eyes, tawny skin, straight or turned-up nose, etc. It forms, partly.
330
THE RACES OF MAN.
the "Mediterranean race" of Sergi,^ or the Homo meridionalis of
certain authors (Ripley, Lapouge). Figures 99 and 100 represent
traits of this race, but modified by intermixtures.
4. Dark, very br achy cephalic, short race, named the Western
or Cevenole race, because of the locahsation of its most
characteristic type in the extreme west of Europe, in the
Cayennes, on the central table-land of France, and also in the
western Alps. But it is met with, a little modified, in Brittany
Fig. 93. — Fisher people of Island of Aran (Ireland),
race (?). {Phot. Haddon.)
North-western
(with the exception of Morbihan), in Poitou, Quercy, the middle
valley of the Po, in Umbria, in part of Tuscany, in Transylvania,
and probably the middle of Hungary. Blended with other
races, it is found again at a number of points in Europe, from
the basin of the middle Loire to that of the Dnieper, passing
through Piedmont, Central and Eastern Switzerland, Carinthia,
Moravia, Galicia, and Podolia. In Southern Italy it is blended
^ Sergi, Origine . . . Stirpe Mediterranea, Rome, 1895.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
331
with the Ibero-insular race. It is the Celtic or Rhetian race,
the Celto-Slav, Ltgurian, or Celto-Ligurian race of some
anthropologists, the Homo Alpinus of others. It is charac-
terised by a very rounded skull (average ceph. ind. on the
living subject from 85 to 87); by shortness of stature (im.
63 or im. 64 on an average); by brown or black hair, light or
Fig. 94. — Young woman of Aries. Mixed Littoral race (?). {Phot,
lent by School of Anthropology, Paris.)
dark brown eyes, rounded face, thick-set figure (Fig. 98, per-
ceptibly softened type of this race).
5. Dark, mesocephalic, tall race, Littoral or Atlanto-
Mediterranean race, so styled because it is found in a pure or
mixed state along the shores of the Mediterranean from
Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tiber, and on several points of
332
THE RACES OF MAN.
the Atlantic coast, from the straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of
the Guadalquivir, on the Bay of Biscay, in the lower valley of
the Loire, etc. It is not met with anywhere at a greater
distance than 120 or 150 miles from the sea. This Littoral race
is still httle studied; it is distinguished by its moderate dolicho-
cephaly or mesocephaly (ceph. ind. on living subject 79 to
80), by its stature above the average (im. 66), and very
deep colouring of the hair and eyes. It corresponds pretty well
Fig. 95. — Pure type of Highlander (clan Chattan) ; grey
eyes, hair dark brown. {Phot. BedJoe.)
with the "Mediterranean race" of Houze,' and with the Cro-
Magnon race of certain authors.
It is probably with this Littoral race that we must connect a
secondary so-called North-Wesiern race, tall, sub-dolichocephalic,
with ches/nut hair, often almost brown. It is found chiefly in
^ Houze, " Caract. phys. des races eitrop^ennes," Bull. Soc. Anthro.,
Brussels, vol. ii., 1883, 1st part.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
333
the north-west of Ireland (Fig. 93), in Wales (Fig. 19), and the
east of Belgium.
6. Dark, br achy cephalic, tall race, called Adriatic or Dinaric,
because its purest representatives are met with along the
coast of the Northern Adriatic and especially in Bosnia,
Dalmatia, and Croatia. They are also found in Rumania,
Venetia, among the Slovenes, the Ladinos of the Tyrol, the
Romansch of Switzerland, as well as in the populations of the
Fig. 96. — The same, seen in profile.
tract of country which extends south to north from Lyons to
Lifege, at first between the Loire and the Saone, then on to
the table-land of Langres, in the upper valleys of the Saone and
the Moselle, and into the Ardennes. In all these parts the
Adriatic race appears with its essential characters: lofty stature
(im. 68 to im. 72 on an average), extreme brachycephaly
(ceph. ind. 85-86), brown or black wavy hair; dark eyes, straight
eyebrows ; elongated face, delicate straight or aquiline nose ;
slightly tawny skin. The same characters, somewhat softened,
334 THE RACES OF MAN.
are met with among the populations of the lower valley of the
Po, of the north-west of Bohemia, in Roman Switzerland, in
Alsace, in the middle basin of the Loire, among the Polish and
Ruthenian mountaineers of the Carpathians, and lastly among
the iVIalorousses or Little Russians, and probably among the
Albanians and the inhabitants of Servia.
We may connect with this principal race a secondary race,
not quite so tall (medium stature im. 66) and less brachy-
cephalic (average ceph. ind. from 82 to 85), but having lighter
hair and eyes. This race, which we might call Sub-Adriatic,
springing probably from the blending of the principal race with
the tall, fair mesocephals (secondary Sub-northern race), is
found in Perche, Champagne, Alsace-Lorraine, the Vosges,
Franche-comte, Luxemburg, Zealand (Holland), the Rhenish
provinces, Bavaria, the south-east of Bohemia, German Austria,
the central district of the Tyrol, and a part of Lombardy and
Venetia. It partly corresponds with the Lorraine Race of
CoUignon.i
in. — PRESENT PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
Linguistic study being older than anthropological study,
the classing of the best known peoples in Europe is that which
is based on difference of language. Nearly every one knows
that the ethnic groups of our continent are as a consequence
distributed into " Aryan " and an-Aryan peoples. The former
are divided (i) into three great linguistic families, Latin or
Roman in the south-west of Europe, Teutonic in the centre and
north, Slav in the south-east and east; and (2) into three smaller
ones: Celtic in the extreme north-west of the continent,
Helleno-Lllyrian in the extreme south-east, and Letto-Lithic-
anian in the centre. As to the non-Aryan group, it com-
prises the Basques, the Finno- Ugrians, the Turks, the Mongols,
the Semites, and the Caucasian peoples.
These groups are heterogeneous enough in physical type
' R. Collignon, Bull. Soc. Antkro., Paris, 1883, p. 463, and V Anthro-
pologie, 1890, No. 2.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 335
and civilisation. What, for example, have the two Latin
peoples, the Portuguese and Romans, in common? or the
two Slav peoples, like the Kashoobs, fair, short, thick-set, peace-
ful cultivators of the plain, and the Montenegrins, dark, tall,
slender, warlike shepherds of the mountain ? What more strik-
ing contrast can we imagine than that between a Norwegian,
tall and fair, a bold sailor, whose flag floats in every port of the
world, and a Tyrolese of the north, dark and short, a seden-
tary cultivator of the soil, whose horizon is bounded by the
summits of his mountains? However, both these are included
in the "Germanic" group.
Nevertheless, and only to bring out better the differences
between linguistic divisions and those of ethnography and
ethnology, I shall rapidly pass in review the "peoples "of
Europe, according to the linguistic grouping as outlined above.
A. — ETHNIC "ARYAN" GROUPS.
I. Latin or Roman Peoples, that is to say speaking languages
derived from the Latin. The majority of philologists divide them
into seven distinct groups, viz., French of the north, Langue-
docian-Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese-Galego, Italian, Romansch-
Ladino, and Rumanian.
I. The French group of the north, or the Langue d'oil, com-
prises the populations (Fig. 98) on the north of the line which,
starting from the Gironde, passes by Angouleme, Montmorillon,
Montlucon, Lyons, and the crests of the Jura, to terminate in
the neighbourhood of Berne in Switzerland. ^ Among the
numerous dialects recognisable in it, we must make special
mention of Wallon, spoken in the southern part of the depart-
ment of the north in France, and in the southern half of
Belgium,^ in the commune of Malmedy in Prussia, and in
^ Ch. de Toiutoulon and Bringuier, " Limite . . de la langue d'oc,
etc.,". Arch. Miss. Sc. Paris, 1876. Cf. Kev. Ecole AiUhr. Paris, 1891,
p. 218.
^ Province of Namur, nearly the whole of ihe provinces of Hainault,
Li^ge, and Luxemburg, as well as the southern part of Brabant. Cf.
Bremer, Nationalit. tmd Spraciie in Belgien (with map), Stuttgart, 1887.
336
THE RACES OF MAN.
several places in the grand duchy of Luxemburg. Northern
French is likewise spoken in the west part of Lorraine and
lower Alsace annexed to Germany, as well as in several places
in upper Alsace.
2. The Languedocian-Caialan group, or the Langue ifoc,
situated south of the hne referred to above, comprises four
great dialectal divisions which make a distinction between
Fig. 97. — Anglian type, common in north and north-east
of England. (After Beddoe. )
the Gascons (south of the Garonne) (Figs. 99 and 100) and the
Languedodans and Provencals (Fig. 94), while admitting the
mixed so-called Rhodanian group (basin of the upper Rhone,
Roman Switzerland, Savoy, and the French valleys of
Piedmont) ^ and the Catalan group (Roussillon in France,
' H. Gaidoz, "Die franzosisch. Thaler Piemonts," Globus, p. 59, 1891,
with map; Sachiev, Le Frattfais et le Provetifal (Fr. trans, by Monet,
Paris, 1891).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
337
Catalonia and Valencia in Spain, the Balearic Islands, and a
point on the west coast of Sardinia).
3rd and 4th. The Spanish group comprises the peoples of
Castillian language, that is to say, the whole population of
Spain, with the exception of the Catalans and the inhabitants
ofGalicia; the latter speak Galego, an idiom allied to Portu-
guese, and form with the population of Portugal our fourth
linguistic group, Galego Portuguese.
Fig. 98. — Frenchman of Ouroux (Morvan). Mixed
western race. (Phot. School of Anthropology,
Paris. )
5. The Italian grotip comprises the Italians ^ of the penin-
sula, of Sicily, Sardinia, and the inhabitants of Corsica, of
southern Tyrol (south of Botzen), of the Swiss canton of
Tessin, and of the coast of Istria and Dalmatia. The Italian
dialect enters also into the constitution of the Maltese jargon,
derived for the most part from the Arabic.
6. The Romansch-Ladino or Rheto-Ronian group is formed
1 F. Pulle, "Profiloantr. dell' Italia," ArcJiivo. p. Anlr., 1898 (with
maps).
338
THE RACES OF MAN.
by the Romansches of the southern part of the canton of Grisons
(German Switzerland) and by the Ladinos of the south-
FlG. 99. — Dolichocephalic Frenchmen of Dordogne. Ibero-insular
race (?). {Phot. Collignon. )
Fig. 100. — The same subjects as in Fig. 99, seen in profile.
east of Tyrol (Groedner Thai, etc.). These are probably the
remnants of the old Alpine population, having adopted the
language of the Roman legionaries of the time of the conquest.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 339
They are, moreover, in process of extinction as a linguistic
unit; their language gives place to Italian in the Tyrol, to
German in Switzerland. It is the same with the Friulans
who are related to this group, and who inhabit the basin of the
Tagliamento in Venetia.
7. The Rumanian group comprises the Rumanians who
are found, beyond Moldo-Wallachia, again in Transylvania
(Austria), the south-east of Hungary, the north-east of Servia,
Bessarabia, and in the lower valley of the Dniester (south-west
of Russia). To the Rumanians are related the Aromunes
or Kutzo- Viakhs, or Zinzars of Epirus and Macedonia, speak-
ing a dialect allied to Rumanian, but modified by contact
with Turks, Greeks, and Albanians. ^
There is no unity of type in any of these seven Latin
linguistic families. Among the Languedocian-Catalans we
distinguish the presence of at least three races: Western or
Cevenole, which prevails op the central table-lands of France,
Littoral or Atlanto-Mediterranean, predominant in Provence
and Catalonia; Ibero-insular, which we find in Angoumois as
in Catalonia (see p. 329, and Map 2). In the same way we may
perceive in the Italian group the existence of representatives
of almost all the European races (except the Northern); we
have only to recall the striking contrast between the Venetian,
tall, chestnut coloured, brachycephalic, and the inhabitant of
Southern Italy, short, dark, and dolichocephalic. It is among
the Portuguese, perhaps, that we find the greatest unity of type;
the majority of them belong to the Ibero-insular race, except
in the north of the country, where we find intermixtures with
the Western race, as among the Galicians of Spain.
II. The Germanic or Teutonic peoples are usually divided
into three great linguistic groups: Anglo-Frisian, Scandinavian,
and German.
I. The languages of the Anglo-Frisian group, derived
probably from the ancient Gothic, are spoken by the Frisians
^ Dr. N. Manolescu, Tgiena Teramihti (Hygiene of the Rumani.in
peasant, an ethnographical inquiry), Bucharest, 1895 ; S. Weigand, Die
Aromunen, vol. i., Leipzig, 1S95 (with plates and maps).
340 THE RACES OF MAN.
of the north of Holland and the extreme north-west of
Germany, by the' inhabitants of England (Figs. 91, 92,
97, and loi), and a considerable part of Scotland (Figs. 88,
95, and 96), Ireland (Fig. 93), and Wales (Fig. 19), where
English encroaches more and more on the domain of the
ancient Celtic languages.
The English language, which comprises many dialects,^ is,
in the main, the Anglo-Saxon dialect, a branch of low German
imported into the island in the fifth century and modified in
the eleventh century by the language of gallicised Normans.
2. The Scandinavian group comprises the Swedes, Norwegians
(Figs. 89 and 90), and Danes, the two last speaking almost
the same language. The Swedish language is also found in
Finland (especially on the coast), as Danish is in Schleswig.
The Icelanders, descended for the most part from Danish
colonists, speak a special dialect, which approaches most
nearly to the old Norse.
3. The German or Teutonic group. The Germans of the
north (Saxons, Hanoverians, etc.) speak low German {platt-
Deutsch, nieder-Deutsch). One of the dialects of this idiom is
transformed into the Flemish or Dutch tongue, employed by the
Netherlanders, as well as the Flemings of the north of Belgium, ^
and several cantons of the department of the north in France.
The southern Germans (the Alemanni of German Switzerland,
of Alsace and Baden ; the Swabians of this last province,
Wurtemberg, and of Bavaria ; the Bavarians of eastern Bavaria
and of Austria) speak high German (hoch-DeutscK). The
inhabitants of middle Germany (Thuringians, Franconians, etc.)
speak middle German {mittel-Deutsch). This is also the
language of the Prussian'!, a people formed in part from
the Slavo-Lithuanian elements germanised but a few cen-
turies ago. The boundary-line between low and high
German passes, from the Flemish zone in France and Belgium,
' A. J. Ellis, English Dialects, London, 1890, two maps; and other
publications of the English Dialect Society (1873-98).
^ Almost all the two Flanders, the half to the north of Brabant, the
provinces of Antwerp and of Limbourg. Cf. Bremer, toe. cil.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
341
almost by Dusseldorf, Cassel, Dessau, and curving round
Berlin in the north reaches the confluence of the Oder and of
the Warta, following the course of this last.i There exist
further in Europe several German colonies : in upper Italy
(Sette-Coramuni, etc.), in Bohemia, in Hungary, and in the
south and south-east of Russia. The German tongue is
Fig. ioi. — Englishman (Gloucestershire), Saxon type.
{After BedJoe. )
much spoken in the Baltic provinces of Russia, as well as in
Poland and Austria-Hungary.^
' R. Andree, " Granzen Niederd. Sprache," Globus, 1891, vol. lix.,
No. 2.
^ See Langhans, Deutsch. Kolon. Alias, maps Nos. 3 to 7. For a com-
prehensive view of the Germans generally, see Ranke, Der Mensch., vol. ii.
Somat., Arched.), and E. H. Meyer, " Deutsche Volkskunde " (Ethno-
graphy, Folk-lore), Strassburg, 1898; for the Austrians : Oester.-Ung.
Monarchic, vols. iv. and vi., Vienna, 1886-89; and for the Bavarians,
Beitrdge z. Anlhr., etc., Bayerns, Munich (1876-99).
342
THE RACES OF MAN.
From the somatological point of view, the Germanic group
is no more homogeneous than the " Latin." Let us take, for
example, the Anglo-Frisians. We find among them at least
three races in manifold combinations. The Northern race (see
p. 328, and Map 2) is prevalent in the Frisian countries of
Fig. 102. — Russian carpenter, 47 years old, district of Pokrovsk
(gov. Vladimir). {Phot. Bogdanoff, Coll. Museum of Nat.
Hist. , Paris. )
Germany and Holland, as well as in that part of England
situated north of the line from Manchester to Hull, and on
the east coast, south of this line (Figs. 88, 91, and 97). The
secondary North-west race preponderates in the centre of
England (counties of Oxford, Hertford, and Gloucester,
Fig. 1 01, etc.), while the influence of the secondary Sub-
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 343
northern race is especially felt in the counties of Leicester and
Nottingham, and on the south coast, with the exception of
Cornwall and Devon, where the Northern and North-western
races are counter-balanced (Fig. 92). In Scotland the
Northern type is often disguised by the dark colouring of the
Fig. 103. — Same subject as Fig. 102, seen in profile. {Phot.
Bogdanoff, Coll. Museum of Nat. Hist., Paris.)
hair (Figs. 95 and 96). The Scandinavian group is fairly
homogeneous, especially formed as it is of the Northern race
(Figs. 88 to 90). But in the German group diversities
reappear, and we find in it elements of almost all the races of
Europe except the Littoral and Ibero-insular ones.
III. The Slav peoples may be divided into three great
344 THE RACES OF MAN.
linguistic groups -^eastern, western, and southern.^ The
eastern group comprises the Great Russians or Vielkorousses
(Figs. 1 02 to 105), the Litlle Russians or Malorousses, other-
wise called Ukrainians or Ruthenians, and the Bielorousses or
White Russians. The latter inhabit the upper basins of the
Dnieper, the Dwina, and the Vistula as far as the river Pripet
(a tributary of the Dnieper), which separates them from the
Little Russians. As to the boundary between these and the
Great Russians, it follows an undulating line from the town of
Souraj towards the Don, then a little to the north of (he
province of Kharkov, and thence to the south as far as the
shores of the Sea of Azov. The Little Russians of eastern
Galicia and Bukovina are known by the collective name
of Ruthenians, or the local names of Gorales (mountaineers),
Huzules, Boiki, Tukholtsi, etc. The colonisers of eastern and
northern Russia have been Great , Russians ; the Little
Russians have founded colonies in the south-east of Russia.
The ivesiern Slav group is composed oV Poles of Russian
Poland, western Galicia, Posen, and eastern Prussia {A/azours,
Kashoobs), whose language is somewhat common in Lithuania;
of Wends or Lnjichanes or Sorobes, of the kingdom of Saxony
and the Prussian province of Saxony (several thousands are
in process of being germanised), of Czechs or Bohemians of
Bohemia, and of a part of Moravia, of Slovaks, of Moravia
and Hungary.
As to the southern group, it comprises the Slovenes or
Slovintsi of Carniola and the interior of Istria (Austria-
Hungary), and the Serbo- Croats, known by the name of
Khorvates in Hungary, of Serbs in Servia, of Morlaks,
^ See for the Slav languages : A. Pypine and Spassovitch, Istoria, etc.
(Hist, of Slavonic Literatures), St. Petersburg, 1879, 2 vols., of which
there is a translation of the first in French by S. Denis (1881) ; for a slight
general view: F. von HelUvand, Die Welt der Slaveii, Berlin, 1890 ;
Zograf, Les feuples de la Rttssie, Moscow (1S95); and Oester-Huiig.
Alonarcti., vols. i\'., xi., xiv., xv. (1891-96) ; for ethnogeny and archEeology:
Lul3or Niedcrlc, O Pzivodu Slovantt (Origin of the Slavs), Prague, 1897
(in Czech) ; and Ctieloviechestvo, etc. (Prehistoric Man), Russian transla-
tion, Si. Petersburg, 1S98.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 345
Vskoks, etc., in Dalmatia, of Herzogovinians, Bosnians,
Montenegrins, or Tsrnagortsi in other parts of the Balkan
peninsula. The Servian tongue is also spoken in a portion
of Macedonia. The Slav colonies which still existed some
centuries ago in Greece and Thessaly must have been formed
largely of Serbo-Croats. We must, lastly, include in this group
the Bulgarians, a people of Turco-Finnish origin, slavonised
for at least ten centuries ; their habitat is in Bulgaria, Rumelia,
a part of Macedonia, and several localities of Turkey. There
exist several Bulgarian colonies in Russia (Crimea, northern
shore of the Sea of Azov).
No greater homogeneity is shown by the Slav group than
by the two great preceding ones, from the point of view
of corporeal structure, and it is useless to look for a "Slav
type." Among the Slav peoples there is an interblending, as
far as is known at present, of three principal and three
secondary races, without taking into account the Turco-
Ugrian elements. The traits of the secondary Vistulian race
appear especially among the Poles of Prussia and Russia;
the Eastern race is most marked in the White Russians, but is
also met with among the Great Russians, the Mazours, and
the Wends; the Adriatic race characterises the Serbo-
Croats, as well as certain Czechs and Ruthenians ; the sub-
Adriatic race is well represented by a section of the Czechs, while
numerous elements of the Western race are met with among the
Slovaks, the Little Russians, and certain Great Russians.
Joined to the three great- linguistic groups of Aryan peoples
which we have just characterised are three others, less consider-
able but not less interesting, their manner of speech perhaps
being nearer to the primitive Aryan tongue. These are the
Letto-Lithuanian, Helleno-Illyrian, and Celtic groups.
The peoples of the first group axe the Letts of Livonia
and Kurland (Russia), and the Lithuanians peopling the
provinces of Vilna, Grodno, the north of Russian Poland, as
well as western Prussia, where they are germanised for the
most part.
The majority of the Letts belong to the Northern or Sub-
346
THE RACES OF MAN.
northern race, while the Lithuanians exhibit elements of the
Sub-northern and Eastern race.
> Among the peoples of the Helleno-IIlyrian group the
Greeks are distributed outside the political frontiers of the
kingdom of Greece, in Epirus, and on the coast of Macedonia
and the Propontis. Greek colonies are found in the rest of
Fig. 104. — Russian woman of the district of Vereia (gov. Moscow),
20 years old, Eastern race (?). {Phot. Bogdanoff, Coll. Museum
of Nat. Hist., Paris.)
Turkey, in southern Russia, and in the south-east of Italy
(province of Lecce, Terra d'Otranto). The Albanians or
Skiptars form a people whose linguistic affinities are little
known. Two sub-divisions are recognised, formed of very
distinct elements from the physical point of view : the Gegs
and the Mirdites on the north, the Tosks on the south.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
347
Albanian colonies are found in Greece, in the south of Italy
(Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily), and Corsica (in Cardevole).
The physical types are very diversified among the Greeks,
and still require to be studied. The Albanians of the north
appear to be connected with the Adriatic or sub-Adriatic race,
"but nothing is known about the southern Albanians. The
Fig. 105. — Same subject as Fig. 104, seen in profile. (Phot.
Bogdanoff, Coll. Mus. of Nat. Hist., Paris.)
Albanian colonists in Italy and Corsica have the same
physical traits as the surrounding population.
The peoples speaking Celtic languages are divided into
two sections according to dialect : the Gaelic section com-
prises the Celts of the north-west of Scotland, the west of
Ireland, and the Isle of Man. The second or Cymric section
is composed of the inhabitants of Wales ( Welsh language) and
348 THE RACES OF MAN.
of Brittany {Bas Breton). The Cornish language, spoken two
centuries ago in Cornwall, is now a dead language. The
other Celtic dialects are also destined to disappear owing
to the spread of such highly developed and widely known;
languages as English and French. There is no "Celtic" type
or race. The Gaels of Scotland, as well as the Irish of Munster,
appear to be connected with the Northern race ; the Irish of
Connaught present two or three types, variants of the secondary
North-western race, which is predominant among the Welsh,
and which is found again modified in Cornwall and in Devon
(Fig. 92), by side, perhaps, of the remnants of Neolithic types;
and lastly, the Low Bretons belong to the Western race, more
or less intermixed, like the French of the central table-land.'
B. — AN- ARYAN PEOPLES.
As we have already said, peoples speaking Aryan tongues
are not the only ones to inhabit Europe. We find in it the
representatives of other linguistic famiUes: Basque, Finno-
Ugrian, Turkish, Mongolian, Semitic, etc.
The Basques inhabit the extreme south-west corner of France
(in the department of the Basses Pyrenees) and the adjoining
part of Spain, provinces of Guipuzcoa and Biscay (as far as
Bilbao on the west), and the north of the provinces of Navarre
and Alava. The affinities of their agglutinous laiiguage have
not yet been clearly determined. As to their physical type, it is
also quite peculiar. Its chief characteristics, according to
Collignon, are its mesocephaly "with a peculiar swelling in
the parietal regions," conical torso, elongated and pointed
face, etc. In the main this type approaches most nearly to
the Littoral race, and is met with, in a pure state, especially
among the French Basques.^
1 Beddoe, " The Kelts of Ireland," /««'■«• of Anthropol., 1871, p. 117
(map); Broca, "La Question Celtique," j5«//. Soc. Anthro. Pans, 1873, PP-
313 and 247; Havelock Ellis, "The Men of Cornwall," New Century
lieview, 1897, Nos. 4 and 5.
^ T. Aranzadi, El pueblo EscalJuna, San Sebastian, 1889 (maps); R.
Collignon, "La Race Basque," V Anlhropologie, vol. v., 1894, P- 276.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 349
Peoples speaking the Finno-Ug7'ian dialects. — The Magyars
or Hungarians '■ occupy in a compact mass, four millions and
a half in number, the plain of Hungary. They represent 43
per cent, of the population of this State. There may still be
distinguished among them traces of the ancient divisions
into various tribes (Haiduks, Vazigs, Kumans, etc.). The
eastern portion of Transylvania is also inhabited by a
division of the Magyars, the Szeklers, who differ by their rneso-
cephalic skull from the other Hungarians, who are brachycephalic
for the most part. The ivestern Finns are divided into Finns
properly so called or Suomi, Baltic Finns, and Karelians. The
Suomi (in the singular Suomalaiset) occupy Finland, with the
exception of certain points on the coast, taken by the Swedes;
they are sub-divided into several small sections, according
to their dialects: Savoiaks, Tavasts, Kvenes or Kvanes. The
latter inhabit the north of Sweden. The Baltic Finns, formerly
very numerous, are reduced to two peoples, the Esthonians
or Esths of the Russian provinces of Esthonia and Livonia,
with the adjacent islands (Osel, Dago, etc.); and the Livonians,
quartered to the number of 2000 at the extremity of the north
coast of Kurland; they have entirely disappeared from Livonia,
from which they derive their name. The Karelians are
scattered in groups, more or less important, over the south-east
of Finland, in the Russian province ("government") of Olonetsk,
and in the norlh-west of the province of Archangel. Isolated
groups of this population found on the plateau of Valdai and
almost in the heart of Russia (in the north of the province of
Tver) are indications of the ancient expansion of the western
Finns towards the east. We must connect with the Karelians
the Veps (to the south of Lake Onega) and the Chukhontsi,
Finns of the province of St. Petersburg, descendants of the
ancient Ingrians and Chudes whose name recurs often in
Russian chronicles and legends.^
The 42nd degree of longitude east of Greenwich seems to
1 Oester.-Ung. Monarchie, vols, v., ix., and xii,, 1888-93.
^ Retzius, .^ms/^aA>a?«/«r, Stockholm, 1878, pi. (with French summary);
see also publications of the Finno-Ugrian Society of Helsingfors, etc.
350
THE RACES OF MAN.
mark the boundary between the western Finns and the follow-
ing group, that of the eastern Finns or Ugrians. These are
tribes dispersed in the north-east of Russia, for the most part
mixed with the Russians, and Russianised in language, religion,
and customs. We may distinguish among them three principal
divisions. The northern division comprises the Zyrians, re-
FlG. io6. — Cheremiss of Ural Mountains.
(Phot. Sominier.)
duced to some thousand families, buried in the midst of the
Russian population, in the eastern part of the provinces of
Archangel and Vologda (between the 6oth degree of latitude
north and the polar circle). The middle division is composed
of two neighbouring peoples, Votiaks and Permiaks, dwelling
among the Russians, in more or less considerable islets in the
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE. 35 1
space compiised between the Vetluga and the Kama, tributaries
of the Volga. More to the south, in the middle basin of the
Volga, as far as about the 50th degree of north latitude, we find
the southern group of the Ugrians composed of Cheremiss (Fig.
106) on the left bank of the upper Volga and of Mordva or
Mordvinians on both banks of the middle Volga in numerous
islets between the 42nd and 54th degree east longitude.^
We may class among the Finns, for linguistic reasons, three
peoples differing from each other as much as they are dis-
tinguished from the groups I have just mentioned. These
are the Lapps, the Samoyeds, and the Ostiaks. The Lapps
occupy the most northern region of Sweden and Norway {Scan-
dinavian Lapps), as well as the north of Finland and the Kola
peninsula in the north of Russia {Russian Lapps or Lopari).
They appear to have been formerly spread much more to
the south of their present habitat. They are the shortest in
stature of all Europeans, and almost the most brachycephalic
(see Appendices I. and IL). One portion only of the Samoyeds
inhabits Europe, on the east of the river Mezen and to the
north of the polar circle; the rest wander about Siberia between
the Arctic Ocean and the lower Obi. Their neighbours on the
south, the Ostiaks, extend from the middle Obi to the Ural
mountains, over which they pass to occupy several points in
Europe. The Ostiaks of both slopes of the Urals bear also the
name of Vogules or Manz."^
As regards physical type there is a great difference between
1 S. Sommier, Un Estate in Siberia, Florence, 1885 ; and Archive p.
f Antra., vols. xvii. and xix. (1887-89); Mainof, Resooltaty, etc. (Anthr.
andjurid. Studies of the Mordva); "Zapiski," Russian Geog. Socy. (Ethnog.
Sec), vols. xi. andxiv. (1883-85); works of Smirnov on the Mordva, Chere-
miss, etc., Fr. trans, by Beyer (Paris, 1897-98).
^ P. Mantegazza and Somtnier, Studii anlr. sui Lapponi, Turin, 1880
(phot, pi.); "Notes on the Lapps," by Prince R. Bonaparte, Keane, and
Garson, y««'. Anthr. Inst., vol. xv., 1885, pp. 210 et seq.; Montefiore,
"The Samoyeds," Jour. Anthr. Inst., vol. xxiv., 1895, p. 396; Zograf,
" Esquisse des Samoyedes," Izviestia [Bull.) Soc. Friends. Nat. Sc. ,
Moscow, vol. xxxi., 1878-79, supl. (analysed in the Jiev. d'Anthr., 1881) ;
Sommier, loc. cit. (analysed Rev. d'Ethnogr.), Paris, 18S9.
352
THE RACES OF MAN.
the western and the eastern Finns. The former are the off-
spring of the union of the Northern or Sub-northern race with
the Eastern race, somewhat tall, mesocephalic, and lightcom-
FlG. 107.— Kundrof Tatar (Turkoman) of Astrakhan, with cap.
( Phot. Sommier. )
plexioned, while the latter belong for the most part to a
special Ugrian race, short, dolichocephalic, dark, with slightly
Mongoloid face.
For the other Eurasian peoples {Turks, Armenians,
Gypsies, Jetvs, etc.), see the following chapter.
RACES AND PEOPLES OP EUROPE.
3S3
c. Caucasian Peoples.^ — All who have seen the ethno-
graphical maps of the Caucasus must have been struck
by the motley appearance which they present ; fifty various
Fig. io8.— The same in profile, with slaill-cap, which is never removed,
worn under the cap. [,Phot. Sommier.)
tribes may in fact be counted in this isthmus, the area of
which is less than that of Spain. I shall speak here only of
J R. Ercl<ert, Der Kaa/iasus u. Seine Vblker, Leipzig, 1885 (with
map); E. Chantre, Rech. AnthropoL, dans le Caacase, Lyons, 18S5-87,
4th vol., and atlas; Pantiukhof, " Obser. Anthr. au Caucase," Zapiski
Caucasian Sec. of Russ. Geog. Soc, vol. xv., Tiflis, 1893, phot.
23
354 fllE RACES OP MAN.
the Caucasians properly so called — that is to say, of the peoples
who dwell only in the Caucasus, putting on one side all others
(Iranians, Europeans, Turks, Mongols, Semites, etc.) who
have overflowed into this country from the adjacent regions.
The Caucasians are sub-divided into four linguistic or
ethnic groups : the Cherkess (on the north-west of the
Caucasian range), the Lesgian Chechen (on the north-east
of the range), the Kartvels or Georgians (on the south-west of
the range), and the Ossets (in the centre of the range on both
slopes). The last, by their language, are the nearest to the
Iranians and the Armenians, but the three other groups form
a perfect linguistic unit. The dialects which they speak
preserve the impress of a common origin and form a family
apart which has nothing in common with any other.
The Cherkess or Circassians, until the middle of this century,
inhabited all the western part of Ciscaucasia; but, since the
conquest of their country by the Russians, they have emigrated
en masse into the Ottoman empire. At the present day there
are only a few remnants of them in the Caucasus. Principal
tribes, Abkhazians, Adighe or Cherkess (Circassians) properly
so called, Kabards of the plain, Abadzeh, Chapsugh, etc.
The Chechen-Lesgians are divided, as the name implies,
into two groups : the Chechen (with the Ingushes, the
Kists, etc.) of the upper basin of the Terek, who have long
been considered as a population apart (Figs, no and iii),
and the Lesgians of Daghestan. These last are sub-divided
into five great sections, according to their dialects: (i) The
Avars-Andi, with the Dido, whose language tends to pre-
ponderate owing to the historic part played by the tribe of
the Avars, to which belonged the famous Shamil, the hero of
the Caucasus, whose memory still lives. (2) The Dargha in
the centre of Daghes.'an, the best known tribe of which is
that of the Kubachi, living in little houses piled one above the
other on the sides of the mountains. (3) The Kurines of the
Samur basin, with the 7>aM«;-j- (Tabassaurans, etc.). (4) The
Laks or Kazi-Kumyks, with which are connected lesser known
tribes, like the Agtcl, the Budukh, and the Khinalugh, whose
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
355
language is distinct from all the other dialects of Daghestan.
(S) The Udes, an ancient Christian tribe converted to
Islamism, of which there remain but 750 individuals still
acquainted with their mother-tongue (district of Nukha,
province of Elisabetpol).
The Kartveh, Karthli or Georgians, who alone of the
Fig. 109. — Georgian Imer of Kutais.
(Phot, from Coll. of Author.)
Caucasians possess a special mode of writing, and a literature,
are divided into three linguistic sections: (i) Gruzin, which
comprises the Georgians properly so called of the plains of the
province of Tiflis, Georgians of the mountains {Khevsurs,
Pshavs, and Toushs, 21,300 in all), and the Imers (Fig. 109)
with the Gurians. (2) The Mingrelian section of people
3S6
THE RACES OF MAN,
living more to the west, composed of the Mingrelians of
the Kutais country and the Lazes of the Batum circle.
(3) The Sivan section, comprising the tribe of Swanet or
Swanetians, driven back into the unhealthy regions of the
province of Kutais, where the race degenerates; cretins and
those afflicted with goitre form a third part of the population.
The Ossets, while speaking a language which (in the
Digorian dialect) is nearly allied to Iranian, have nevertheless
Fig. no. — Chechen of Daghestan.
(Phot. C/iantre.)
much in common with the other Caucasians, from whom they
are distinguished perhaps by the frequent occurrence of fair
hair (10 per cent.) and light eyes (29 per cent.); more
frequent than among all the other Caucasian peoples, the
Imers, the Lesgi-Dido, and the Chechen excepted. But
figures are still too inadequate in regard to the number
of subjects with dark hair and eyes (51 and 53 per cent.) to
enable us to afifirm, as all authors from Am. Marcellinus to our
own days have done, that the Ossets are a people of fair
RACES AND PEOPLES OF EUROPE.
357
race. They are above the average in stature (im. 68), and
sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 82.6).
As to the somatic characters of the other Caucasians, we
know little of those of the Cherkess (sub-brachycephalic, of
medium height), but we are better informed in regard to the
Lesgians and the Kartvel. The contrast between the two
groups is striking. The I.esgians are very brachycephalic (see
Appendix II.), especially the tribes of the east; their stature is
Fig. III.— Same as Fig. no, seen in profile.
[Phot. Chantre.)
fairly high. To these characters are united others which,
in their totality, produce the most singular effect; the
prominent nose, straight or curved, recalls the Semites,
while the projecting cheek-bones, broad face, and angles
of the lower jaw directed outward, suggest the Mongols;
lastly, the whole aspect becomes still more odd, owing to
the light-grey or greenish eyes, and fair or chestnut hair, so
common among the Lesgians (Figs, no and in).
Quite different are the characters of the Kartvel. In the first
358 THE RACES OF MAN.
place, they form a less homogeneous group; we must distinguish
in it between the eastern and the western Georgians. The
former (Gruzins) are true brachycephals, though in a lesser
degree than the Lesgians, while the latter (Mingrelians, Imers)
are distinguished from all the other Caucasians by the
elongated form of the head (see Appendix II.). The stature
varies in harmony with the cranial forms ; the Kartvel tribes
with rounded heads have the shortest stature, and the
dolichocephalic tribes the highest ; light hair is less common
in the two groups than among the Lesgians, but we find
among the Georgians in general a great number of subjects
in whom the iris has a particular yellow colour, a grey or
greenish yellow. The Gruzins have a rather rounded face and
broad nose, while the Imers have an elongated visage, thin
nose, tight lips, pointed chin (Fig. 109); their physiognomy
reminds one of a goat's head, according to Pantiukhof, who
considers the Imers to be the purest representatives of the
primitive Kartvels.^
' For particulars see Deniker, lac. cit. {Races de F Europe).
CHAPTER X.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
Ancient Inhabitants of Asia. — Prehistoric iirats — Pithecanthropus
erectus (Dub.) — Ages of stone and metals. — Present Inhabitants of
Asia. — Races of Asia — I. Peoples of Northern Asia— YemsAa.x>, Palse-
asiatic and Tunguse groups. — II. Peoples of Central Asia — Turkish,
Mongolian, and Thibetan groups — Peoples of the south-west of Thibet
and of South China (Lolo, Miao-tse, Lu-tse, etc ).— III. Peoples of
Eastern ^j«a— Chinese, Coreans, and Japanese. — IV. Peoples of Indo-
china — Aborigines, Mois, Kuis, Siam, Naga, etc.^More recent
mixed populations: Annamese, Cambodians, Thai, etc. — V. Peoples of
India — Castes — Dravidians and Kolarians — Indo- Aryans and un-
classified populations — VI. Peoples of Anterior Asia — Iranians and
Semites.
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF ASIA.
Prehistoric Times. — It is a common practice to call Asia, or
at least certain regions of Asia, "the cradle of mankind," the
"ofificina gentium.'' The migrations and invasions of the
Asiatic peoples into Europe, which took place from the most
remote times, gave birth, naturally enough, to this idea among
the western peoples (p. 317 et seq.). However, no serious data
authorise us to say that the first man was born rather in Asia
than Europe. Nowhere do we find there any traces of tertiary
man.i Eugene Dubois discovered, it is true, quite close to the
' The flint flakes resembling palseolithic tools, found by F. Noetling
(Records Geol. Survey, India, vol. xxvii., p. loi, Calcutta, 1894) in
Miocene or lower Pliocene beds, at Yenang-Yung (Central Burma), are
considered by Oldham and other scholars as natural products. However,
Noetling has since (in 1897) described an animal bone, artificially polished (?),
of the same beds. — Nat. Science, London-New York, 1894, p. 345; 1895,
1st half-year, p. 367; 2nd, pp. 199 and 294; and 1887, 1st half-year, p. 233.
359
36o
THE RACES OF MAN.
Asiatic continent in the very uppermost tertiary beds (upper
pliocene) of the Island of Java, the bones of a being which he
considers as intermediate between man and the anthropoid
apes, and which he has called Pithecanthropus erectus {Y'lgi. m
and 113). But Java belongs to-day as much to the Oceanian
world as to Asia, and the Pithecanthropus is not altogether a
man, either according to his discoverer or many other authorities.
\
zxi'^ri
..M
Fig. 112. — Skull of the Pithecanthroptis erecius, Dub. The calvaria
(a) and the teeth (b c) are designed by P. Moutel after the
casts and photographs of E. Dubois. The reconstruction of the rest
is made after Dubois aitd Matiouvrier.
Some regard this being simply as a gigantic gibbon, while
others (myself among the number) hold that he is a being
more closely related to man than to the anthropoid apes,
or even a man of a race inferior to all existing ones. If
this last hypothesis be correct we must admit the existence
of tertiary man in Asia, since it is highly probable that even
at the end of the tertiary period the islands of Sumatra and
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
361
Java were connected with the great continent by the Malay
peninsula.!
As to quaternary man, if no bones have yet been found,
tools absolutely similar to those of Europe have been
noted almost everywhere in Asia ; in
Siberia, around Lake Baikal (Tchersky
and Poliakof), and near to Tomsk in
the loess, beside a dismembered and
calcined skeleton of a mammoth, the
remains of a pantagruelic repast of
quaternary Siberians (Kuzndtzof); in
Japan, in the ancient province of
Jenchiou, now Osaka, the Ivate and
Miaghi province, northern Nippon
(S. Fuse), western Nippon (Vidal) in
the country of Rikuzen, now in the
province of Etzigo or Teshigo
(Inuzuka); then in anterior Asia, in Fig,
the grottos at the mouth of the Nahr-
el-Kelb, near Beirut (Lortet) ; at
Hannauch to the east of Tyre (Lortet and Pelagaud), in Galilee
(Cazalis of Fondouce and Moretain), in Phoenicia (Zumoffen),
etc^ In India, attention has been drawn to several palaeo-
^ The bones of the Pithecanthropus, a thigh-bone, a calyaria (Figs.
112 and 113), and two molar teeth (Fig. 112), were found by Dr. Dubois
at Trlnil (province of Madioun), on the bank of the river Bengavan, in
a layer of lava, by the side of bones of animals of the Pliocene period. The
calvaria, indicating a cranial capacity of about 900 cubic centimelres,
recalls rather the Neanderthal-Spy skull (Fig. 86) than that of a gibbon ;
the thigh-bone is entirely human ; the teeth are of a form intermediate
between those of Man and of the Anthropoids. — For particulars see E.
Dubois, Pithecanthropus . . . azis/ava, Batavia, 1894; ^rid his articles in the
Anat. Anzeig., 1896, No. 1, and ihe Jour. Anthr. Inst., London, vol. 25,
p. 240 (1896); Manouvrier, Bull. Soc. Anthr., Paris, 1895, pp. 12 and 553;
1896, pp. 396 and 467; G. Schwalbe, Zeitsch. Morph. u. Anthr., vol. i.,
p. 16, Stuttgart, 1899.
^ Uvarof, Arkheologia, etc. (Archeol. oj Russia, vol. i., Moscow,
1881, p. 162, in Russian); Kuzn^tzof, Mittheil. Anthr. GeselL, Vienna., 1896,
Nos.4and5; "Agedelapierreau Japon,"j1/a/er./«2.fA . . , homme,Ton\oaiie-
13. — Calvaria of Pithe-
canthropus, seeii from
above. {,Phot. Dubois.)
362 THE RACES OF MAN.
lithic stations in the midst of the ancient alluvia of the
rivers Nerbadda, Krishna,, and Godaveri (Wynn); in certain
places there quartzite implements were associated with the
bones of extinct animals {Eqiius nomadicus, Hippopotamus
palcRindicus) or animals which have since emigrated into
other regions {Bos palceindicus, etc.). Single tools have
been found in the beds of laterite near Madras, in Scinde,
at Banda, in the central provinces (Rivett-Carnac), in the
south-east of Bengal.^
Monuments and objects of the polished stone and bronze
periods, often confounded in Asia, have been found almost
everywhere. They are connected with peoples who presented
at that remote date great differences in their civilisation and
probably in their physical type_. The excavations of Schliemann
at Hissarlik (Asia Minor) have brought to light a civilisation
which appears to correspond with the end of the stone age and
the beginning of the bronze epoch (2,500 years B.C. ?). Pre-
historic objects in polished stone and bronze have been found
at other points of Asia Minor (A. Martin), in Lycaonia
(Spiegelthal), in the Sinai peninsula (Bauermann and
Richard), on the shores of Lake Issik-koul (Russian Turkestan).
Southern Siberia, the Kirghiz steppes, north and north-western
Mongolia are covered with stone circles {Kereksur), barrows,
tumuli, menhirs (^Kishachilo) of every form, with burial-places
in which are found objects in wood, bone, bronze, copper, iron
(Radloif, Potanin, Klementz). The skulls which have been
taken from some of these burial-places, in the upper valley of
the Yenisei, are dolichocephalic; the plaster mortuary masks
Paris, 1879, p. 31; S. Yase,Joum. Anthr. Soc. Tokyo, vol. xi., 1895, No.
122 (in Japanese); Inuzuka, ibid.. No. 119; E. Cartajlhac, " L'age de la
pierre en Asie," Congr. Orienlalistes, 3rd ser., r, p. 315, Lyons, 1880;
G. Chaiivet, "Age de la pierre en Asie," Congr. inietn. arch, prehis.,
nth session, vol. i., p. 57, Moscow, 1892. The arrows picked up by Abbe
A. David in Mongolia, and supposed to be palceolithic, belong to the historic
period (Hamy, Btill. Mus. Hist. Nat., 1896, p. 46).
1 Medlicot and Blandford, Manual of Geol. of India, Calcutta, 1879, 2
vols.; Cartailhac, loc. cit.; Rivett-Carnac, rowiz. Anthr. Inst., vol. xiii.,
1884, p. 119.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 363
found in the same region by Adrianof present a type some-
what European.!
It must not be forgotten that many of these monuments date
from the historic epoch and belong, as proved by the runiform
inscriptions of MongoUa discovered by Yadrintsef and de-
ciphered by Thomson, to the seventh and eighth centuries of
the Christian era.^
The kitchen-middens of Omori, near Tokio, and of several
other localities in Japan examined by Morse, Milne, andTsuboi,
afford evidence of the existence in this country of a fairly
civilised race which was acquainted with pottery, but employed
only bone and partly polished stone implements. The excava-
tions of ancient underground dwellings in the islands of Yezo
(Morse, Tsuboi) and Saghalien (Poliakoff) lead us to believe
that this race extended much farther to the north. It is
possible that it was related to the men whose polished flint
implements have been found in Siberia in the valley of the
Tunka, in that of the Patcha, one of the tributaries of the
river Amur (Uvarof), and in the shell-heaps of the Pacific
coast near Vladivostok (Margaritof).^ Polished stone hatchets
1 Potanin, Otcherki, etc. {Norih-West Mong. Sketches), St. Peters-
burg, 1881-83, 4 vols, (in Russian); Adrianof, "Zapiski, etc.," Mem. Kuss.
Geog. Soc, Sect. Gen. Geog., vol. xi., 1888, p. 149; Radloff, Aiis Sibirien,
Leipzig, 1884, 2 vols., and Arbeit. Orkhon. Exped., St. Petersburg, 1893-97
(in course of publication). For summary of the question and bibliography,
see Deniker, Nouvelles Geogr., p. 54, Paris, 1892 (with map).
^ Radloff, loc. cit. i^Arbeit., etc.); Thomson, Metii. Soc. Finno-Ougrienne
vol. v., Helsingfors, 1896. We cannot admit as a general rule an exact
synchronism between the prehistoric periods of Europe and those of
Northern Asia. If, as Uvarof says, the age of the mammoth was earlier
in Siberia than in Europe, it is none the less true that many peoples of
Eastern Siberia were still in the midst of the " stone age " at the time when
the Russians penetrated into this country (seventeenth century). As to the
peoples of Western Siberia and the Kirghiz Steppes, the beginning of their
bronze age goes back at the furthest to the beginning of the Christian era.
^ Margaritof, Memoirs Amiirian Soc. of Naturalists, vol. i. , Vladivostok,
1887. The only skull found in these heaps is dolichocephalic and reminds
one of the Ainu skull. Thus one might suppose, as Milne had done
(Trans. As. Soc. Jap., Tokio, 1899, vol. vii., p. 61), in connection with
364
THE RACES OF MAN.
have been found in the north-east of China in the vicinity of
tumuli resembling the American " mounds " (Williamson);
others have been picked up in the Yunnan (Sladen), and in
Burma (Theobald); Moura, Jammes, and Morel exhumed in
Cambodia, between Lake Tonle-Sap and the Mekong, side by
side with objects of bronze, several polished stone implements
of a peculiar type (Fig. 114), a kind of square-tongued axe
(shouldered celt), which has since
been found again in several other
places in Indo-China as far as the
upper Laos (Leffevre-Pontahs) and
Burma.i In the district of Somron-
Sen (Cambodia), previously explored
by Jammes, as well as in the neigh-
bourhood of Saigon, Corre dis-
covered similar implements close
to shell-heaps containing, besides
pottery and stone tools, human
bones, but no skulls.
Lastly, in India, the "cromlechs,"
"mounds," and finds of stone
objects similar to those which are
Fig. 114— Polished stone axe found in Europe, may be counted
found in Cambodia. Pre- ;„ hundreds. It is certain that the
historic type peculiar to . << • 1 „ 1- , ,
Indo-China stone Circles of the central pro-
vinces and the " Kouroumbarings "
of Southern India date from a period anterior to the Aryan
immigration. As in Europe, so in Asia the age of metals
borders very closely on the historic period of which the
the similar kitchen refuse found in Japan, that they are the work of the
Ainus; however, the presence of pottery, unknown to the Ainus even to
recent times, militates against this view.
' The Nagas have still at the present day axes of precisely the same
form, which they use as hoes. (S. '?ftz\.,Journ. As. Sac. Bengal, vol. Ixv.,
Part III., p. 9, Calcutta, 1896.) Cf. Noulet, "Age de la pierre . . .
au Cambodge d'apres Moma." Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 3, Toulouse,
1879; and Mater. Mist. Nat. Hovmte, vol. xiv., p. 315, Toulouse, 1879;
Cartaillac, VAnthropol., p. 64, 1890 (a summary of Jammes's discoveries).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 365
Chinese annals have preserved for us a record. The monu-
ments of Chaldea, Assyria, Asia Minor, India, and Cambodia,
also reveal ethnographical facts of great interest (see, for
instance, note 2, p. 419).
Present Inhabitants and Races of Asia. — It is impos-
sible in the present state of our knowledge to draw up a
complete table of the migrations which have taken place on the
Asiatic continent in historic times. I shall mention those in
connection with some peoples whose history is partially known
(Chinese, Turks, Mongols, Thai).
So also, in the present state of anthropological knowledge,
we can only discern in the midst of the numerous Asiatic
populations, in a quite general way, the elements furnished by
the following eleven races: — Five races pecuhar to Asia (Dra-
vidian, Assyroid, Indo-Af^han, Ainu, Mongolian), and six races
which are also met with in other parts of the world: Negrito,
Indonesian, Arab, Ugrian, Turkish, and Eskimo (leaving out
of account the Assyroid and Indo-Afghan races, which are
found again among the Jews and the European Gypsies).
I have already given (p. 285 et seq.) the principal characters
of these races; it only remains to say a few words as to their
geographical distribution in Asia.
The Eskimo race is quartered in the north-east of the
continent; that of the Ainus in Saghalien, Yezo, and
perhaps in northern Japan; while the Ugrian race is repre-
sented by its Yeniseian variant. The Mongolian race (with its
two secondary races, northern and southern) is found almost
all over Asia. The Turkish race is limited more particularly
to the inland regions of Central Asia. The Indonesians are
numerous in Indo-China, and in the islands from Japan to
the Asiatic Archipelago, while the Dravidians and Indo-
Afghans abound in India. The latter are also met with in
anterior Asia, side by side with the Assyroids and Arabs.
Some representatives of the Negrito race inhabit the Malay
peninsula and the Andaman Islands; the elements of this race
are also found among the inhabitants of Indo-China and
perhaps India.
366 THE RACES OF MAN-
As to existing populations of the Asiatic continent, I shall
rapidly pass them in review, grouping them, according to
geographical region, under six heads: peoples of Northern
Asia; of Central Asia; of Eastern Asia; of Indo-China; of
India; and lastly, of Anterior or Western Asia.
I. Northern Asia, consisting almost exclusively of Siberia,
a cold country covered with dense virgin forests {iu'iga) or
marshy, frozen plains {tundra), harbours, in addition to Russian
or Chinese colonists, only a few somewhat wretched tribes,
mainly hunters, but depending partly on fishing and hoe-
culture.
We may group them thus: — (i) tribes of Western Siberia,
having some affinities with the Samoyeds and the eastern
Finns, which I shall call Yeniseians or Tubas; (2) peoples of the
extreme north-east of the Asiatic continent, whom Schrenck ^
describes as Palceasiatics ; (3) the Tunguses of Eastern Siberia
and Manchuria.
I. Yeniseians or Tubas. — Besides the Samoyeds of Asia, who
differ from their kinsfolk in Europe only by their more Mon-
goloid features, the Yeniseians comprise two distinct groups of
populations. In the first place the so-called Ostiaks of the
Yenisei, on the right bank of this river (between Yeniseisk
and Touroukhansk), probable descendants of the Kien-Kouen
and the Ting-ling of the Chinese annals. It is a tribe in process
of extinction, whose language differs from the Samoyed tongue
and the Finnish dialects properly so called (Castren). Then
come the tribes who formerly formed the Tuba nation,
mentioned until the seventh century a.d. by the name of Tu-
po by the Chinese annalists; they inhabited the basin of the
upper Yenisei, the Altai region, and north-western Mongolia,
and bore the local names of Matores, Arines, Kottes, Assan,
Tuba, etc.
These peoples have disappeared as linguistic units,^ but
' Schrenck, Reisenin Ainur-Lande, vol. iii. , Parts I. and II. , St. Peters-
burg, 1S81-91.
''■ Miiller and Gmelin saw in 1753 the last surviving Arines, and in 1855
Castren was still able to find five individuals speaking the Kotte tongue.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 367
their physical type, some of their characteristic manners, as
well as a few words of their language, are preserved among
certain populations speaking a Turkish dialect. The Russians
call these populations "Tatars"; they might more suitably
be called by the name of Altaians. This ethnic group, whose
physical type has been altered by intermixtures with peoples
of Turkish or Mongolian race, comprises the "Tatars" of
Abakan, that is to say, Katchines, Koibals (eight hundred
individuals), Sagai, and Kizils; the ^^ Tatars" of Altai and
those of Ckiilim, among whom must be noted the "Tatars
of the black forests" {Chemievyie Tatary in Russian), called
" Tubas " by their neighbours. The latter are mesocephalic,
of medium height; they have abandoned little by little the
hunting state, and become primitive cultivators of the soil;
they break up the ground with the hoe, which was used by
them until not very long ago to dig up edible roots, and they
cut their corn with hunting-knives.^ The Soiots or Soyons of
North-western Mongolia, who call themselves Tubas, are prob-
ably the descendants of the ancient Uigurs (Turkish nation)
commingled with aboriginal Yeniseians of this country and
partly Mongolised about the seventeenth century.
2. The Palaasiatic group should comprise, according to
Schrenck, all the ancient peoples of Asia driven back at the
present day towards the north-eastern extremity of the Continent.
The more important of these peoples are the following : — The
Chuchi (or Chukchi), numbering about 8000, are the most
typical representatives of the group; they inhabit the north-
east of Siberia, and the occupation of some is the breeding
of reindeer, and fishing of others; however, the distinction
between the nomadic and fishing Chukchi is both of an
economic and ethnic order.^ The Koriaks dwell to the south
of the Chukchi, as far as Kamtchatka; they b;ar a close
resemblance to them and speak the same language. The
1 Vadrintsef, "Ob Altaitsakh, etc." (On the Altaians and Tatars of
Chern), hviestia of the Kuss. Geogr. Soc, St. Peteisb., 1881.
2 Noi-denskiold, Voyage de la Vega, vol. ii., chap, xii., Pan.<;, 1883-84;
Deniker, loc. cit. {Rev. Anlkr., p. 309, 1S82).
368
THE RACES OF MAN.
Fig. 115.— Tunguse hunter (Siberia) with ski and statF.
{Phot. Shimkiivich. )
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
369
Fig, 116. — Same subject as Fig. 115, full face. {Phol. ShimkilvUh.)
24
370 THE RACES OF MAN.
Eskimo of Asia, Namuollo, or Yu-Ite formerly occupied the
coast of the Chukchi country, as shown by their ancient
habitations excavated by Wrangel and Nordenskiold. At the
present day they are not found except in isolated camps on
the coast and in the islands of the Behring Sea. They differ
but very little from the Eskimo of Alaska ; their ornaments,
however, recall rather those of the Aleuts. The KamUhadals
of the centre and west of Kamtchatka dififer from the peoples
just mentioned. They number 4,250 at the present day, and
are becoming Russianised very rapidly. They have com-
pletely given up their language, which has no relation to any
linguistic family now known, and they speak a very corrupt
form of Russian. Nominally orthodox Christians, they are at
bottom animists, and the anthropomorphic element, often
under obscene forms, occupies a large place, in their myths
and legends. They are fishers and hunters.
The Yukaghirs are the last remnants of a somewhat
powerful people who formerly occupied all that part of
Siberia situated to the east of the Lena, and who were com-
posed of several tribes : Omoks, Anauls, Ckeliags, etc.^ It
was believed until the last few years that even the Yukaghirs
had disappeared, but quite recently lokhelson^ ascertained
that there are at least 700 individuals, and that their language,
which has no affinities with any of the Uralo -Altaic dialects,
is spoken by a certain number of Tunguse-Lamuts (see p. 373),
their neighbours. On the other hand, the Yukaghirs of Verk-
hoiansk, have adopted the Lamut dialect, and those of the
^ The disappearance of these tribes is more apparent than real. The
Anauls, in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Anadyr, exterminated by the
Cossacks in 1649, were only a fraction of the Yukaghirs, as is indicated by
the termination " ul " which is found again in the name "Odul," which
the Yukaghirs use to describe themselves. The word " Omok " means
simply people, " tribe" in Yukaghir language. As to the Cheliags, who,
according to the Cossack Amossof, occupied at the end of the last century
the Siberian coast between the Gulf of Chaun and the mouth of the
Kolima — they were probably one of the Chukchi tribes.
^ lokhelson, " Izviestia, etc.," Bull. East-Siberian Sect, of the Rttss,
Geogr. Soc, vol. xxix. , p. 8, Irkutsk, 189S.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
371
banks of the lana the Yakut tongue. By several peculiar
manners and customs (classificatory system of relationship,
pictography, etc.) they approach very closely certain North
American Indians. Physically they resemble the Tunguse-
Lamuts, though more brachycephalic and somewhat less dark-
haired as a rule.
The Ainus (Figs. 49 and 117), who are classed among
Fig. 117. — Ainu of Yezo (Japan) with crown of shavings.
i^Phol. lent by Collignon. )
the Palaeasiatics, inhabit the north and east parts of the island
of Yezo, the south of Saghalien, and the three most southern
islands of the Kuriles. They form a group by themselves,
different from all the other peoples of Asia, Their elongated
heads (ceph. index on the liv. sub. 77.8), their prominent
supraciliary ridges, the development of the pilous system, the
form of the nose, give to them some resemblance to the
Russians, the Todas, and the Australians ; but other characters
372 THE RACES OF MAN.
(coloration of the skin, prominent cheek-bones, short stature,
frequent occurrence of the os japonicuni, etc.) distinguish them
from these peoples and afford grounds for classing them as
a separate race (see Chap. VIII.). According to Japanese
historians, the Ainus or Asuma Yebissu occupied the whole
of Nippon from the seventh century B.C. until the second
century of the Christian era. In the seventh century a.d.
they still occupied all that portion of this island situated to the
north of the 38th degree of north latitude, and even in
the ninth century the chronicles speak of the incursions of
these "barbarians." Thus the Ainu element enters very
largely into the composition of one of the types of the Japanese
people, not only at Yezo but in the north of Nippon (province
of Aomori), where several Ainu words still survive in current
speech. In the Kurile islands the Ainus are intermixed
with the Kamtchadals and the Aleuts introduced by the
Russo-American Company about the middle of the present
century.
It is calculated that there are about 18,500 Ainus (of whom
1,300 are in the island of Saghalien) at the present time ;
their number at Yezo has remained stationary for several
years. The dress of the Ainus is a sort of greatcoat with
broad sleeves, fastened with a girdle so that the right lappel
covers the left lappel as among Turkish peoples, and contrary
to the way it is done among the Chinese and Mongols. The
chief occupation of the Ainus is hunting and fishing; they
engage but little in agriculture. Their religion is pure
animism ; the word Kamut, which means spirit (like the
Kami of the Japanese Shintoists), also serves to indicate
everything incomprehensible, in the sanie way as the word
"shif," the literal meaning of which is "animal" (may this
be a word corresponding to totem ?).
The Ainus, like most Asiatic peoples, such as the Giliaks,
Tunguses, etc., have a special veneration for the bear; they
organise festivals in its honour, during which a bear is killed,
after having received the homage of many i7iaou (staffs decorated
with shavings).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 373
The Ainu language is agglutinative, and has no analogy
with any known language.*
The Giliaks, who inhabit the north of Saghalien, and the
mainland to the north of the mouth of the Amur, suggest by
their traits sometimes the Ainus, sometimes the Tunguses, but
they are brachycephalic. They are a people of fishers, living
on the banks of rivers and the sea, in the winter in huts half
buried in the ground, in the summer in little houses on piles.
The Giliaks are readily disposed to trade, and are distinguished
by their taste for ornaments. Their number hardly exceeds
5000 individuals.^
The Tunguses^ while speaking a particular language,
exhibit the Mongol type, softened by intermixtures with
the primitive inhabitants (Palaeasiatics ?) of their territory,
which extends from the Arctic Ocean to the 40th degree of
north latitude, and from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean.
Their number can hardly exceed 50,000 individuals over this
immense stretch of country. They are divided into southern
and northern Tunguses and maritime Tunguses or Lamuts.
The river Amur forms the approximate boundary between
the first two sections of Tunguses. The Lamuts occupy the
shores of the sea of Okhotsk, the north-west of Kamtchatka,
and extend more to the west to the river lana. The Northern
Tunguses are split up into several tribes, of which the following
are the principal, going from east to west : — The Olchas or
Mangoon, at the mouth of the Amur ; their congeners the
' Anuchin, " Izviestia " Soc. Friends Sc. AIoscow, suppl. to vol. xx. ,
1876 (analysed Rev. d'An/hr., 1878, p. 148); Scheube, Mill. Deut.
Gesell. Naiur. u. Volkenk, vol. iii., pp. 44 and 220, Yokohama-Tokio,
1880-82; G. Batchelor, Trans. As. Soc. Japan, vol. x., part 2, Tokio,
1882, and The Ainu of Japan, London, 1892; Chamberlain, Mem. Imper.
Univ. Japan, Litter, coll. No. i, Tokio, 1887 (analysed Kev. d'Anthr.,
1888, p. 81); Tarenefsky, Mem. Ac. Sc. St. Petersburg, 1890, vol. xxxvii. ,
No. 13; Hitchcock, Rep. U.S. Nat. Mtis. for iSgo, pp. 408 and 429;
8. Landor, Alone zuith the Hairy Aimi, 1893 ; Koganei, Beitr. z. Phys.
Anlhr. Aim (extr. from Mit. Med. Fakult. , vols. i. and ii., Tokio, 1893-94).
- Schrenck, loc. cit.; Seeland, Russiche Rev., vol. xi., St. Petersburg,
1882 ; Deniker, Les Ghiliaks, Paris, 1884 (extr. from Rev. d'Ethnogr.).
374 THE RACES OF MAN.
Oroks, in the north of the island of Saghalien ; the Orochons,
of a very pure Tunguse type ; the Manegres (P'ig. 43), and the
"Olennyie" Tunguses, or the Tunguses with reindeer (Figs.
115 and 116). As to the southern Tunguses, they comprise
the Goldes of the lower Amur and Ussuri, of a very pure
type, and having a fairly well developed ornamental art ; the
Oraches of the coast; and lastly the Solon-Daurs, very
much intermixed with the Mongols, of which colonies exist
in the Kuldja.
The Manchus, reduced to a small number, belong by their
dialect as well as by their physical type to the Tunguse group.
They are being absorbed more and more by the Chinese, and
hardly form a tenth part of the population of the country which
bears their name (Pozdni^ef). It is probable that the Niu-chi
or Yii-chi of Shan-alin and Sien-pi on the northern border of
Corea, mentioned in the Chinese annals, were Tunguse tribes.
The type which predominates among the Tunguses represents
the secondary race called North Mongolian and characterised
by mesocephaly or a slight sub-dolichocephaly, and by a
rather elongated face. The stature varies; the Orochons are
of average stature and the Manchus very tall, etc.^
II. Peoples or Central Asia. — The immense central
Asiatic region, whose waters have no outlet towards the sea, is
formed principally of denuded table-lands (Thibet) or of plains,
sometimes grassy, sometimes desert (Mongolia, Turkestan). It
is inhabited for the most part by populations which may be
grouped from the linguistic point of view under three heads,
Turks, Mongols, Thibetans.^
^ C. Hiekisch, Die Tungusen, St. Petersburg, 1879; L. Schrenck, loc. cit.;
H. James, "A Journey in Manchuria," Proc. Geogr. Soc. London, 1886,
p. 779; D. Pozdnieef, Opissanie, etc. {Description of Manchuria, in
Russian), vol. i. , chap. vi. , St. Petersburg, 1897. For measurements, see
Appendices II. and III.
''■ This classification is not at all absolute. Turks and Mongols inhabit
the wooded regions of Northern Asia (Yakuts, Buriats); they are also to be
found in Europe and Asia Minor. The table-land of Iran, belonging to the
region without outlet, assimilated since the works of Richthofen to Central
RACES AND PEOPLES OE ASIA. 375
The peoples speaking the different Turkish dialects who are
called Turco-Tatars ox Turanians ^xz scattered over an immense
area comprising half of Asia and a large portion of Eastern
Europe, from the Arctic Ocean (Yakuts) to Kuen-lun (Polus)
and Ispahan (Turkomans of Persia), from the banks of the
Kolima and the Hoang-ho (Yegurs) to Central Russia (Tatars
of Kasimov) and Macedonia (Osmanli Turks). All these
peoples may be gathered together into three great groups :
eastern, central, and western.^
The eastern group comprises the Yakuts, who have preserved
in its purity the ancient Turco-Uigurian language, but who in
type, manners, and customs show the influence of contiguity with
the Palseasiatics ; then the various tribes of non-Yeniseian
"Tatars" (see p. 366) of Siberia, hke the Altaians (called
Kalmuks of Altai, although they have nothing in common
with the true Kalmuks), nomads who have recently adopted
settled habits, like the Teleuts (or Kara-Kaimuks), likewise
nomads, or the Tatars of Siberia, divided, according to their
habitat, into Tatars of the Baraba steppes, Tatars of Irtish,
of Tobol, etc.2
To this group must be added the Taranchi and other
"Turks" of East Turkestan, as well as the Polus of the
northern slope of the Kuen-lun, more or less mingled with Indo-
Asia, is mostly inhabited by Iranian peoples having a connection with those
of anterior Asia. The Thibetans chiefly occupy the upper valley of the
Yaro-tsanpo, which is now in the line of communication between Central
and peripheral Asia, etc.
^ See my articles "Turks" and "Tatars" in the Diet. Univ. de Ccogr.
of Vivien de Saint-Martin and Rousselet, vol. vi. , Paris, 1894; and for
details the works of Radloff and Vambery, to which reference is therein
made.
^ These "Tatars" have sprung from the intermixture of three elements:
the primitive Tatars, the probable descendants of the Tu-Kiue of Chinese
authors, the founders of the kingdom of Sibir destroyed by the Russians in
the sixteenth century; the Sartes and the Uzbegs, coming especially from
Bokhara; lastly, the Tatars of the Volga, immigrating in the wake of the
Russians. In the west of Siberia there are also Ostiak tribes which bear
the name of Tatars (such as the Zabolotnyi Tatary), because they have
adopted the customs and religion of their neighbours the Tatars.
37^ friE rAcSs of man.
Afghan elements; the Yegurs of the province of Kan-su in
China, etc.^
The central group comprises, in the first place, the Kirghiz-
Kazak of the plains between the Irtish and the Caspian, with
the Kara-Kirghiz of the Tian-chan mountains, typical nomads
who under a Mussulman veneer have preserved many ancient
Turkish animist customs; 2 then the Uzbegs z.x\& Sartes, villagers
or citizens, more or less mingled with Iranian elements, of
Russian Turkestan ; and finally the Tatars of the Volga, or of
Ewopean Russia. Among these last, the so-called-^ffza« Tatars,
descendants of the Kipchaks, must be specially mentioned.
Arriving on the banks of the Volga in the thirteenth century,
they intermingled there with the Bulgarians. They differ from
the Astrakhan Tatars (Figs. 107 and 108), descendants of the
Turco-Mongols of the Gold horde, mixed with the Khazars, as
well as from the Nogai of the Crimea,* representatives of whom
we find also in the Caucasus, near Astrakhan, and in Lithuania,
where, while remaining Mussulmans, they have adopted the
language and the garb of Poles. With this group we must
connect the Bashkir-Mesthcheriaks, a tribe intermixed with
Turkish, Mongol, and Ugrian elements ; and their congeners
the Shuvashes, as well as the Kitmyks, the Karachai, the
Kabards, or Tatars of the Caucasus mountains, distinct from
the true Kabards.
The weste?-n group is composed of Turkomans of Persia
(Khojars, Afshars) and Russian (Turkmen) or Afghan Turke-
stan {Jemshids, etc.), of Aderbaijani, Turkish-speaking Iranians
^ Dutreuil de Rhins and Grenavd, Miss. Sc. Haute Asie, vol. ii., Paris,
1898.
2 See bibliogvaphy in the monograph on the Kirghiz- Bukei by Kharouzin,
" Izviestia" Soc. Friends of Nat. Sc, Moscow, vol. 72, 1891.
^ We must distinguish among the "Tatars of the Crimea" two ethnic
groups, speaking the same Turkish dialect : the Tatars of the Steppes
(Nogai), and the Tatars of the Mountains and of the Coast, or Tauridians
[Krimchaki in Russian). These are the Islamised descendants of the
ancient populations of the Taurus {Kipchaks, Genoese, Greeks, Goths).
The Nogai belong to the Turkish race, more or less crossed, while the
Tauridians have many traits of the Adriatic and Indo-Afghan races.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 377
of the Caucasus and Persia, and lastly the Osmanli Turks.
Included under this name are subjects of the Sultan speaking
the Turkish language and professing Islamism. We must
distinguish among them the settled Osmanli, much intermixed,
and the nomadic tribes {Tttrkomans, Yuruks, etc.), who
exhibit several characteristics of the Turkish race.
The Turkish race, so far as can be gathered from recent
anthropological works, is preserved in a comparatively pure
state among the Turks of the central group, but in the eastern
group it has been profoundly modified in consequence of
intermixtures with the Mongolian, Tunguse, and Ugrian races;
as also in the western group, in which we have to take into
account elements of the Assyroid, Indo-Afghan, and Arab
races, and certain European races (Adriatic chiefly). The
Turkish race may be thus described : Stature, above the
average (im. 67 — im. 68); head, hyper-brachycephalic (ceph.
ind. on the liv. sub., 85 to 87), elongated oval face, non-
Mongoloid eyes, but often with the external fold of eyelid
(p. 78) ; the pilous system moderately developed ; broad
cheek-bones, thick lips; straight, somewhat prominent nose;
tendency to obesity.^
The Turks are essentially nomadic, and when they change
their mode of life it is rather towards the chase, commerce, or
trade that their efforts are directed ; the true cultivators of the
soil (Taranchi, Sartes, Osmanli, Volga Tatars) are Turks already
powerfully affected by intermixtures. The Turkish tent is the
most highly finished of transportable habitations (p. 164-166).
Meat and milk products form the staple foods, as they do
among all nomads. With the exception of the Christian
Chuvashes and the Shaman Yakuts, all the Turks are Mussul-
mans; but often they are only nominally such, at bottom remain-
' For statistics as to stature, ceph. index, etc., see Appendices I. to
III. ; these figures are borrowed fronn the works of Benzengre, Bogdanof,
Chantre, Elissieef, Erckert, Meeker, Kharuzin, Lygin, Malief, Merejkovsky,
Nazarof, Paissel, Pantiukhof, Sommier, Ujfalvy, Vyrubof, Weisbach,
Weissenberg, Yadrintzef, etc. (Cf. Deniker, Les Races de V Etirope, I.
Ind. ceph., Paris, 1S99. )
378 THE RACES OF MAN.
ing Shamans. The veneer of Islamisra becomes thinner and
thinner among the Turkish peoples as we go from west to east.
The Osmanlis, the most fanatical of all the Turks, are the most
mixed as regards type, language, manners, and customs. It is
perhaps to this mixed origin that they owe the relative stability
of the state which they have founded, for no nomadic Turkish
tribe has been able to create a political organism of long
duration, and the vast empires of the Hiungnu, the Uigurs,
the Kipchaks, have had only an ephemeral existence.
2. The Mongols'^ form an ethnic group more homogeneous
as regards manners and customs and physical type than the
Turks. Their name is chiefly known on account of the great
empire founded by Genghis Khan, but it must be observed
that the nomadic hordes united into a single body, and led to
victory by this conqueror, were only very partially composed
of Mongols, other nomadic peoples, and especially Turks,
formed more than half of them. Hence the practice among
Europeans, as among the Chinese, — a practice which is kept
up to the present time, — of giving the name of one of the
Turkish tribes, Ta-ta or Tatar, transformed into Tartar, to
the Mongols, and extending it to many of the Mongoloid
peoples, like the Tunguses for example.
Three principal divisions are recognised in this group :
Western Mongols or Kalmuks, the Eastern Mongols, and
the Buriats.2 The Western Mongols, who style themselves
^ Pallas, Samml. Hist. Nachricht., St. Petersburg, 1776-1801, 2 vols.;
Bergmann, Nomad. Streifereien. a. d. Kalmuk, Riga, 1804, 4 vols. ;
Howorth, History of Mong., London, 1877, 4 vols.; Deniker, loc. cit.
(Rev. Anthr., 1883-84); Ivanovsky, fe. aV. (Mongols-Torg.) ; Potanin,
loc. cit. ; A. Pozdni^ef, Mongolia, etc. (Mongolia and the Mongols, in
Russian), St. Petersburg, i8g6, vol. i., and other publications of this
learned writer.
'^ In many works to these three divisions of Mongols are also added the
so-called Hezare or Hazara and the Aimaks, tribes styled Mongolian, left
by Tamerlane in Afghanistan. It appears that at the present time these
tribes have only preserved of their origin a few phj'siognomical features ;
they speak a Turkish dialect and have intermixed with the Jemchids,
whose mode of life and religion they have adopted.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 379
Eleuts, and whom the neighbouring peoples call Kalmuks, are
scattered, owing to wars and migrations, over the immense
tract lying between Siberia and Lassa, from the banks of
the Hoang-ho to those of the Manich (a tributary of the
Don). The more compact groups are found in European
Russia (Kalmuks of Astrakhan, Figs. 20 and 44, and the
Caucasus) ; in Dzungaria (the Torgools) and north-western
Mongolia, between Altai and Thian-Shan ; lastly, in Alashan
and farther to the west in the Chinese province of Kuku-Nor
and northern Thibet. They number about a million.
The Eastern Mongols occupy almost the whole of the
region known by the name of Mongolia properly so called.
In the south of this country they are broken up into a
multitude of tribes {Tumets, Shakars or Tsakhar, etc.);
while in the north they form a single nation, that of the
Khalkhas, which has still preserved, in spite of its sub-
mission to China, some traces of its ancient political organisa-
tion. The Khalkhas number about 200,000, and the southern
Mongols 500,000.
The Burials form a population sprung from the Khalkhas,
intermixed at several points with various Siberian elements,
Tunguse, Yakut, Russian; they occupy the steppes and forests
of the province of Irkutsk, but their central seat is Trans-
baikal, whence they spread out even into Mongolia, into
the valleys of the Orkhon and the Argun. They number
about 250,000.
The type of the Mongolian race is very strongly marked
among most of the Kalmuks and Khalkhas ; it is less
distinct among the Buriats, etc. It may thus be described :
Nearly average stature (im. 63-64); head, sub-brachycephalic
(ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 83) ; black straight hair, pilous
system little developed ; the skin of a pale-yellow or brownish
hue, prominent cheek-bones, thin straight flattened nose.
Mongoloid eyes (p. 77), etc.
With the exception of some Buriat tribes the Mongols are
typical nomadic shepherds. Their live-stock, camels, sheep,
and horses supply them not only with food, the raw material
380 THE RACES OF MAN.
for the manufacture of tents and garments, but also means of
transport and fuel (camel excrement or dried dung). Unlike
the nomadic Turks, who are fond of fighting, the Mongols of
the present day are gentle and peaceable folk. Can this be
the efifect of the influence of Lama-Buddhism, which they all
profess except a few small Buriat tribes, who have remained
Shamans ? We are inclined to believe this when we consider
the important part which this religion plays in the daily life of
the Mongols.
3. Thibetans.^ — We may include under this name the non-
Mongolian populations of Thibet and the surrounding
countries, known by the name of Bod, or Thibetans properly
so called in southern Thibet, by the name of Tanguts in the
Chinese province of Kuku-Nor, of Si-fan in western Sechuen,
by that of Ladaki and Champa in eastern Cashmere (province
of Leh), of Gurong, Limbu, Mangar and Murmi in Nepal,
of Lepchas or Rongs in Sikkin, of JBhutani in Bhotan, etc. The
Abors, Mishmee, etc., of the Himalayan country who dominate
Assam are also included among the Thibetans, but they ap-
proach the Indonesians in type. It is the same with the Garro
and their neighbours on the east, the Khasia or Djainthia,
whose language, however, differs from the Thibetan'.^
Most Thibetans are cultivators of the soil or shepherds,
pillagers in case of need, and fervent votaries of numerous
Lamaite-Buddhist sects, of which that of the Geluk-pa (yellow
caps) represents the ruling church. Its chief, the Dalai-Lama,
residing at Lassa, is at the same time the sovereign of Thibet.
' Cf. Prjevalsky, TrStie, etc. (Third Journey in Central Asia), St.
Petersburg, 1883; and/««-. Geo;;. Soc, 1886-87; Rockhill, The Land of
the Lamas, London, 1891 ; Ethiwl. 0/ Tz'to, Washington, 1895; and i?e/.
U.S. Nat. Mus. for i8gj, p. 665 ; Desgodins, Le Tibet, 2nd ed., Paris,
1885 ; Waddell, Buddhism of Thibet, London, 1895; and Among the
Himalayas, London, 1899.
° See Dalton, Descrip. Ethnol. of Bengal, p. 13 et seq., Calcutta, 1872.
We leave untouched the peoples sprung from the intermixture of the
Thibetans with the Mongols (Kara-TangtUs of the Kuku-Nor), with the
Iranians and the Hindus (Balti, of Cashmere, etc.), with the Punjabi
li'mAus [Gttrkhas, Ncpalese), with the Assam peoples {Dophlas, Miris, etc.).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 381
From the somatological point of view the Thibetans exhibit
certain sufficiently marked variations. The Bothia are below
the average stature (im. 62 or im. 63); the Lepchas are short
(im. 57); and the Thibetans of Nepal vary as regards average
stature from im. 59 (Mangars) to im. 67 (Murmis). The
head is mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 80.7 on the liv. sub.), but
sub-dolichocephalic or sub-brachycephalic forms are frequently
met with. As a general rule, side by side with the Mongoloid
type may be seen among the Thibetans, singly or united, the
traits of another type, a somewhat slender figure, thin, promi-
nent, often aquiline nose, straight eyes with undrooping eyelids,
long and sometimes wavy hair, reminding one, in short, of the
Gypsy type.i This type, moreover, is found beyond Thibet.
The Lo-lo or Nesus, as they call themselves, of western Sechuen
and the north-east of Yunnan, with whom we must connect
the Kolo or Golyk of the country of Amdo (east of Thibet),
perhaps represent it in its purest form, if the portrait of them
drawn by Thorel is correct. With slight figure, brownish com-
plexion, they have a straight profile, oval face, high forehead,
straight and arched nose, thick beard even on the sides of the
face and always frizzy or wavy hair.^ Their language, however,
fixed by a hieroglyphic mode of writing, appears to belong to
the Burmese family.^ The Lo-lo not under Chinese rule are
of a gay disposition; they love dancing and singing. Woman is
held among them in great respect ; there are some tribes even
whose chiefs belong to the weaker sex.
We must connect with the Lo-lo a multitude of other tribes,
less pure in type: the various Miao-ts'e, mountaineers of the
southern part of the province of Hunnan, of Kwei-chow, of
' Prjevalsky, loc. cit.; Risley, " Tribes and Castes of Bengal," Anthr.
Data, Calcutta, 1891, 2 vols.; Rockhill, loc. cit.; Dutreuil de Rhins, loc.
cit.
^ Fr. Gamier, Voyage . . . en Indo-Chine, Paris, 1873, vol. i. , p. 519,
and vol. ii, , p. 32 (Memoir of Thorel).
s Colb. Baber, "Travels ... in West China," Supp. Pap. Geogr. Soc,
vol. i., London, 1882; Colquhoun, Across Chryse, London, 18S3,
vol. ii-, Appendix.
382 THE RACES OF MAN.
the northern part of the Kwang-si, the north-west district of
Kwang-tung, more or less intermixed with the Chinese ; the
Lissus of the Lu-tse-Kiang (Upper Salwen) and the Lantsan-
Kiang (Upper Mekong), near to the new boundary of Chma
and British India; the Mosso or Nashis of the district of Li-
Kiang to the east of the Lissus, related to the latter and
having an iconomatic writing; lastly, the Lu-ise or Kew-ise,
who call themselves Melams or Anoogs, to the west of the
Lissus and separated by an inhabited tract from the Mishmee, the
Sarong and other Thibeto-Indonesian tribes. The language of
the Lu-tse differs from that of any of the neighbouring peoples,
and their physical type places them between the Lissus and
the Indonesians, such as the Naga for example; they are short
(im. 56 according to Roux), but strong and vigorous; their
hair is frizzy.^ The Mtt-ise mentioned by Terrien de Lacou-
perie, the Lawa or Does described by Holt Hallet, the Muzours
of T. de Lacouperie or the Musos of Archer, the Kas-Khuis of
Garnier, scattered between the Mekong and the Salwen from
the twentieth to the twenty-fifth degree of north latitude, are
probably akin to the Lo-lo and the Mossos.^
III. Populations of Eastern Asia. — The far east of Asia
is inhabited by three nations of mixed origin; Chinese, Coreans,
Japanese.
I. The Chinese form by themselves alone more than the
third, if not the half of the population of Asia. They occupy
in a solid mass the whole of China properly so called, and
^ Roux, Le Tour du Monde, 1897, 1st half, p. 254. The adorning of
the body and limbs with rings, so characteristic of the Dyaks and other
Indonesians, is also found among the Lu-tse ; they wear around the
loins and limbs numerous iron wire rings coated with black wax and fastened
together in two places with metal rings. Great phalanstery-like houses, 40
metres long, similar to those of certain Indonesians and Polynesians, and
used by several families, in which men and women sleep promiscuously, are
met with among the western Kew-ise on the boundary of their country with
the Khamti (see p. 40).
'^ Terrien de Lacouperie, The Languages of China before the Chinese,
p. 92, London, 1887; Fr. Garnier, he. cil.; II. Hallet, Proc. Geogr. Soc,
p. I, London, 1S86 (with map).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 383
Stretch in isolated groups far beyond the pohtical limits of the
"eighteen provinces." Manchuria, Southern Mongolia, Dzun-
garia, a portion of Eastern Turkestan and Thibet have been
invaded by Chinese colonists ; and outside of the Empire it is
estimated there are not less, than three millions of " Celestials "
who have emigrated to Indo-China, Malaysia, the two Americas,
and even to the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Africa.
The Chinese people have sprung from manifold intermixtures,
and indeed there are several types to discover in this nation,
the anthropological study of which is scarcely more than out-
lined ; as it is, however, according to historical data we may
presume that five or six various elements enter into its com-
position.
We know from the books of Shu-King that the primitive
country of the Chinese was the north of the present province
of Kan-su. Thence the agricultural colonists moved (about
the year 2200 B.C., according to a doubtful chronology) into
the fertile valley of the Houng-ho and its tributary the Wei or
Hwei. Little by little, the Chinese colonists spread along
other valleys, but it took them centuries to conquer the
aboriginal tribes (the Djoong, the Man, the Pa, the Miao-tse).
Again in the seventh century B.C. (when exact chronology
commences) the territory occupied by the Chinese scarcely
extended beyond the valley of the lower Yang-tsi on the
south and that of the Pei-ho on the north, and comprised
within these limits several aboriginal tribes like the Hoai, of the
valley of the same name, or the Lai of the Shantung peninsula,
who maintained their independence. However that may be,
the Chinese succeeded, little by little, in driving back the first
occupiers of the soil into the mountains of the west and south,
where they are still found under the names of Man-ise, Miao-
tse, I-gen, Mans, Thos, etc.^
While this work of driving back was carried on in the south,
the Turkish tribes, the Tunguses, the Mongols, the Manchus,
1 See the summary of the data in this respect in Richthofen, China, vol.
i,, Berlin, 1875, and in Redus, Geogi: Univ., vol. vi., Paris, 1882.
384
THE RACES OF MAN.
invaded in turn the north of the country. Thence resulted a
marked difference between the northern and the southern
Chinese, while the Chinese of the central parts have perhaps
best preserved the original type (Fig. 119). The Chinese
of the south belong very largely to the southern Mongolian
race (p. 293); they are short, sub-brachycephalic, except in
Kwang-si, where mesocephaly predominates, in consequence,
Fig. 118. — Educated Chinaman of Manchu origin,
interpreter to Embassy, twenty-one years old, height
nn. 75. (Coll. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
probably, of intermixtures with the aborigines of Indonesian
race (H. Girard); while the Chinese of the north are on the
contrary almost tall of stature; the head is sub-brachycephalic
with a tendency towards mesocephaly in the north, towards
brachycephaly in the south (Fig. 118). The skin is lighter
among the former than among the latter, the face more
elongated, etc. One of the peculiarities of the Chinese skull ig
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
38S
the retreating forehead, and the contraction at the level of the
temples. 1
The multiplicity of dialects is equally great. The Chinese
of the various provinces would have long since ceased to under-
stand one another had they not possessed as a medium of
communication the common signs of the written language (p.
141), which the mandarins read in their own dialects and
Fig. Iig. — Leao-yu-chow, Chinese woman, born at
Foo-chow, eighteen years old, height Im. 52. (Coll.
Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris.)
languages not only in China but also in Corea, in Japan, and
Indo China. We distinguish the Mandarin, or northern, dialect
(with which we connect the Hakka speech employed in
Kwang-tung) and that of the south, then the dialects of Fu-
^ See in the appendices the statistics of stature, ceph. index, etc.,
from the works of Girard, Hagen, Janka, Poyarkof, Ten Kate, Weisbach,
Zaborowski. and my own observations.
25
386 THE RACES OF MAN.
Kian, of Che-Kiang, etc. The peculiarities of the Chinese
character— filial love, attachment to the soil, aptitude for
agriculture and commerce, peaceful disposition, love of routine,
respect for letters, observance of form, etc. — are sufficiently
known.i Most of them are the corollaries of ancestor-worship,
of the very rigorous patriarchal regime and the constitution of
the commune (p. 248), the basis of the whole social fabric
of the Chinese Empire, which, let it be said by the way,
exhibits less organic cohesion than is generally supposed. The
frequent co-existence of belief in three reLigions, Taoism, Con-
fucianism, and Buddhism or Foism, in one and the same
individual is one of the remarkable facts of Chinese sociology.
Another fact, not less interesting, is the administrative and
political mechanism inspired theoretically by very wise and moral
ideas, but leading in practice to peculation and carelessness on
the part of public officials of which we find it difficult to form
any idea in Europe.
2. The Coreans, who by their civilisation are connected with
China, have in all probability sprung from the intermixture of
Tunguse, Indonesian, and Japanese elements. The men are of
tall stature,^ strong, with sub-brachycephalic head (ceph. ind.
on the liv. sub. 82.3, according to Elissieef, Koganei, and
Bogdanof). The women are more puny, and are not conspi-
cuous for beauty; they have a yellowish complexion, small
eyes, prominent brow, and very small feet, but not deformed
like those of the Chinese (p. 175). The Corean values only
one physical charm in woman, and that is her abundant head
of hair and eyebrows, " fine as a thread " (Mme. Koike).
Besides, woman is of no account in Corean society; she
• Note also the inferior position of woman, her ability to move about
limited by deformation of the feel (p. 175).
2 The exact figures for the height of Coreans are contradictory : Dr.
Koike (Inlernat. Arch. Ethnogr., vol. iv., Leyden, 1891, Parts I. and 11.)
gives the excessively high stature of im. 79 as the average of seventy-five
men measured; while Elissieef {" Izvieslia" Kuss. Geogr. Soc. St.
Petersburg, 1890) found im. 62 the average height, but according to the
measurements of ten men only.
RACSS AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 387
is an instrument of pleasure or work; she is kept strictly
apart from men, rarely leaves the house, and must veil her
face.
The Corean language belongs to the Uralo-Altaic family,
and is closely related to the Southern Tunguse dialects. Its
mode of writing, called wen-mun, differs from the Chinese, and
appears either to have been invented or derived from the Sanscrit
by the Buddhist monks (M. Courant).
The Coreans have no state religion. Buddhism, introduced
towards the close of the fourth century, has not taken root
among them, and is more and more in danger of extinction.
Most Coreans live in a sort of irreligion tempered with some
animistic practices: sacrifices to the spirits of the forests and
mountains, etc. The Corean civilisation was borrowed entire
from China of the fifth or sixth century. The associative tend-
ency, and regard for form and ceremony, are perhaps stronger
in Corea than in China. Further, enslavement for debt, crime,
etc., exists as a regular thing in the country.^
3. The Japanese exhibit, like so many other peoples, a
certain diversity in their physical type; the variations fluctuate
between two principal forms. The fine type (Figs. 16 and
120), which may chiefly be observed in the upper classes of
society, is characterised by a tall, slim figure; a relative doli-
chocephaly, elongated face, straight eyes in the men, more
or less oblique and Mongoloid in the women, thin, convex or
straight nose, etc. The coarse type, common to the mass of the
people, is marked by the following characters': a thick-set
body, rounded skull, broad face with prominent cheek-bones,
slightly oblique eyes, flattish nose, wide mouth (Balz).^ These
^ W. Carles, Life in Corea, London, 1888; Gottsche, " Land. u. Leute
in Korea," Verh. Ces. Erdk., p. 245, Berlin, 1886; A. Cavendish and
Goold- Adams, Korea, London, 1894; ^ogio, Korea, trans, from the
Russian, Vienna and Leipzig, 1895; L. Chastaing, " Les Coreens,"
Rev. Scienlif., p. 494, 1896, second half-year; Maurice Courant, Bibliogr.
Coreeniie, Inlroduc, vol. i., Paris, 1895; and Tiansacl. As. Sac. Japan,
vol. xxiii., p. 5.
^ See Appendices I. and IIL for the measurements given from Miss
Ayrton, Balz, Koganei, etc.
THE RACES OF MAtI.
Fig. 120. — Young Japanese women taking tea; fine type. (Phot,
lent by Collignon. )
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 389
two types may have been the result of crossings between
Mongol sub-races (northern and southern) and Indonesian
or even Polynesian elements. The influence of the Ainu
blood is shown only in Northern Nippon. '^
In a general way the Japanese are of short stature (im. 59
for men, im. 47 for women), rather robust and well propor-
tioned. The colour of the skin varies from pale yellow, almost
white, to brownish yellow. The Japanese have no colour
in their cheeks, even when their skin is almost white; at birth
there is an accumulation of pigments on the median line of
the belly and pigmental spots (see p. 51). The pilous system
is scantily developed, except in cases where an admixture of
Ainu blood may be suspected. The head is mesaticephalic as
a rule (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 78.2), with a tendency to
brachycephaly in the gross type, to doHchocephaly in the
fine type. The skull, which is capacious, exhibits two pecu-
liarities: the OS japonicum (p. 68) and the particular confor-
matioii of the upper jaw^ which is very low and broad, without
the canine fossa. With regard to Japanese writing, see
p. 141.
The most striking traits of the Japanese character are polite-
ness and aptness in concealing the emotions; it must not be
inferred from this that their nature is bad; on the contrary,
they are honest, hard-working, cheerful, kind, and courageous
(Mohnike, Mechnikof).^ European civilisation and the re-
' It might be supposed that the representatives of the first type were
the descendants of tribes who had come by way of Corea and the Tsu-
shima and Iki-shima islands in the south-west of Nippon at some period
unknown, but at any rate very remote. As to the coarse type, its repre-
sentatives are perhaps descended from the warriors who invaded about the
seventh century B. c. (according to a doubtful chronology) the west coast
of the island of Kiu-siu and then Nippon. These invaders, intermixing
with the aborigines of unknown stock, founded the kingdom of Yamato,
and drove back the Ainus towards the north (see p. 372).
^ The ancient practice of suicide in case of injury {Harakiri), now
abolished, also denoted great courage; sometimes it was a disguised form
of vendetta, for the relatives of the suicide were bound in honour to
exterminate the offender.
390 THE RACES OE MAN.
forms introduced into Japan since 1868 have appreciably
modified the manners and customs, but the essential traits of
the national character remain unaltered, as they were previously
unmodified by the introduction of the Chinese civihsation.
The ancient chivalrous spirit of the aristocracy, holding trade
Fig. 121. — Tong King artisan of Son-ta:, twenty-three
years old. i^Phot. Pr. Rd. Bonaparte. )
in contempt, still survives at the present day, and partly
explains the ardour with which persons of this class have flung
themselves into political life, since Japan obtained a parlia-
mentary administration (1889). The Japanese have two
religions, Shintoism, or the national worship of the Kami (native
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 39 1
divinities), and Buddhism ; but they are fundamentally very
sceptical on the subject of religion. ^
The islanders of the Ltu-Kiu or Loo-choo archipelago re-
semble the Japanese (Chamberlain), but they have a thicker
beard and a darker complexion (Balz); they are of short stature
(im. 58, according to Dr. Furukawa), and VVirth has even
noted among them a tribe of pigmies im. 30 in height in the
island of Okinava.
As to the natives of Formosa, the Chinese, who have colonised
half of the island, divide them into Pepo-hoan (" mellowed " or
tamed savages) and Sek-kuan or Che-hoan (raw or uncivilised
savages). The former are met with almost everywhere, but
chiefly in the north and west of the island, the latter have
been driven back into the mountains of the interior and to
the south coast. The Che-hoan are split up into several
tribes {Atayal, Vonum in the north, Pai-ivan, Sarisen, Butan in
the south, Amia on the east coast, etc.), and remind us of
the Indonesians by their type as well as by several customs
(skull-hunting, tattooing, ear-ornaments, house in common or
"Palankan"). Some of these "savages'' are acquainted with
agriculture, others live by the product of the chase. The
languages of all these Formosans belong to the Malay family,
especially approximating to the Tagal.^
IV. Populations of Indo-China. — We must distinguish in
the transgangetic peninsula the probable Aborigines and the
peoples sprung from the interminglings of these aborigines
with the invaders coming from the adjoining countries, and
whose migrations are at least partly known to history. These
' Mohnike, Die Japaner, Munster, 1872; Balz, loc. cit.; J. J. Rein,
Japan, Leipzig, 1881-86, 2 vols.; Mechnikof, V empire J aponais, Paris-
Geneva, 1882; B. Chamberlain, Things Japanese, Yokohama, 1891;
" Tokyo Jinruigaku," etc. (fotirn. Anthr. Soc. Tokio, in Japanese),
1888-98.
^ Dodd, Jottr. Sir. Br. As. Soc, No. 15, p. 69, Singapore, 1S85;
I. Ino, " Distrib. geog. tribu. P'ormose," Tolzyo Jinruigaku, p. 301, l8g8
(analysed in V Anthropologie, 1899); Imbault-Huart, L'tle de Formose,
Paris, 1893 ; A. Wirth, " Eingeborn. Stamme auf Formosa u. Liu-Kiu,"
Felertn. Mitt., p. 33, 1898.
392 THE RACES OF MAN.
mixed populations are the Annamese, tlie Thais, the Khmers
or Cambodians, the Burmese, and the Malays.
(i) r/ze ^^oni'-Zi^w.— The numerous populations scattered
almost all over Indo-China having a right to this name may
be mustered into eight groups, of which I proceed to give
a short account.
a. The Mots. — We designate by this name the numerous
so-called " savage tribes " dispersed over the table-lands and
mountains between the Mekong and the Annamese coast,
from the frontiers of Yun-nan to Cochin-China (district of
Baria). In spite of ihe various names given to the Mois by
the adjoining nations (they are called Mots in Annam, Peu-
nongs in Cambodia, Khas in Laos, etc.), and of the multi-
tude of tribes into which they are divided (the Mo, the Sas,
the Bru7is, the Bolovens, the Lcve, the Bannars, the Rde, the
Late, the Thioma, the Trao, etc.), the Mois exhibit a remark-
able uniformity in physical type and manners (Neis). They
are as a rule short (im. 57), and dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on
the liv. sub. 77); their skin is tan-like white in colour, reddish;
their hair is more or less wavy, they have straight eyes, etc.
In short, they differ as much from the Annamese as the Thai,
and in all probability belong for the most part to the Indo-
nesian race. Hunters or primitive husbandmen (the crop is
gathered by picking with the hand the rice from the stalk; the
cooking of the rice is effected in bamboos, which roast on the
fire, etc.), they go almost naked and use only primitive arms,
spears, poisoned arrows, etc. They are of fairly peaceful
habits. 1
b. The Kiiis. — This name distinguishes two ethnic groups
of Indo-China : one in the south-east of Siam and the north-
west of Cambodia, the other in the country of Kieng-Tung or
Xieng-Tong (Shan States, under British protection). The former
appear to be aborigines like the Mois ; the latter are simply a
' Dourisboure, Les Sauv. Ba-Hnars, Paris, 1873; Neis, Excurs. el
Reconn., Saigon, Nos. 6 (1880), lO (i88t), and Bull. Soc. Ciogr., p. 372,
Paris, 1884; Harmand, he. cit., and Tottr du Monde, 1S79 and 1880;
Pinabel, Bidl. Soc. Chgr., p. 417, Paris, 1884.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
393
branch of the Lo-lo or Mosso (?,&& p. 381). The Kuis of Cam-
bodia are in stature under the average (im. 6-^, sub-brachy-
cephaiic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 82), and have a darker
skin than the Laotians (Harmand). Nearly all of them can
Fig. 122. —Khamli of Lower Burma, Assam frontier.
{Coll. Ind. Mus., London.)
speak Cambodian and are forgetting their mother-tongue ; they
have the reputation of being skilful smiths.^
c. The Mons or Talaing are the remnants of a population
which formerly occupied the whole of lower Burma, and have
been driven back into the unhealthy region of the deltas of
'^ Aymonier, "Voyage dans le Laos," Ann. Mtis. Guimet. (Bibl,
d'Etude, vol. v.), vol. i., p. 38, Paris, 1895; Harmand, loc. cil.
394 THE RACES OF MAN.
the Irrawaddy, Sittong, and Salwen rivers ; their territory has
mostly been taken by a population sprung from the inter-
mingling of the Mons with the Burmese.
The three groups of tribes which we have just enumerated
speak monosyllabic dialects correlated as regards their vocabu-
laries, at least so far as the words indicating numbers, the parts
of the body, trades, etc., are concerned. These dialects further
present analogies with the Khmer (p. 398) and Khasia
languages (p. 380). ^
d. The Tsiam or Chiam, on the other hand, are closely allied
to the Malaysian linguistic family. Their language, fixed by
writing of Indian origin, reminds us of the dialects of the
Philippines. About 130,000 in number, they inhabit the pro-
vince of Binh-Tuan and several other points of Southern
Annam, as well as Cochin-China (province of Baria, etc.) and
Cambodia. They represent all that remains of a once powerful
people, the founders of the empire of Champa, which extended
over the whole of Annam, as it now is, and the southern part
of Tong King. A section of the Tziam are Mussulmans, but the
majority are animist. The physical type is handsome; nose
almost aquiline, eyes without the Mongoloid fold, wavy or
frizzy hair, dark skin. Contrary to what exists among other
peoples of Indo-China, among the Tziams it is the woman who
asks the hand in marriage.^
e. The Karens, who inhabit the upper valley of the Me Ping
and the mountainous districts of Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim,
the country between the Sittong and the Salwen [red Karens),
probably came into Burma at a later date than the Mons;
they maintain that they came thither from Yunnan about the
fifth century of the present era. In stature they are under the
average (im. 64, according to Mason), and they exhibit traits
1 E. Kuhn, Sitzungsberichte, FIiil.-hi$t. Kl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. p.
289, Munich, 1889.
^ Aymonier, Excm-s. et Reconn., .Saigon, Nos. 8 and 10 (1881), 24 (1885)
chap, viii., No. 32 (1890), and Rev. d'Elhtwgr., 1885, P- 158; Bergaigne,
/ourn. Asiat., 8th series, vol. xi., 188S; Maurel, Mem. Soc. Anthr., 1893,
vol. iv., p. 486,
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 395
intermediate between tiiose of tiie Malays and the Thai (see
below). Numbering about a million, they are speedily becom-
ing civilised while striving at the same time to preserve their
independence. 1
The Khyens or Chin of the mountains of Arakan and the
Tung-iu of Tenasserim are Karens crossed with Burmese and
Shans (p. 401). The Lemets, the Does, and the Khmus of Fr.
Garnier {Kanm and Kamet of MacLeod) who inhabit the east
of Luang-Prabing (French Laos), and perhaps the Lavas cr
Does of H. Hallet, mountaineers of West Siam, are related to
the Karens or Khyens.
f. The Nagas of Manipur and the mountains extending to
the north (Patkoi, Barai) of this country are Indonesians more
or less pure both in physical type (Frontispiece and Fig. 17)
and manners and customs. They may be sub-divided into
Angami, Kanptii, etc., wearing the petticoat or apron, of the
west ; into Lhota, Ho, etc., wearing the plaid, of the centre ; and
into Nangta, or naked, of the east. Various ethnic peculiarities,
skull-hunting and multicoloured hair or feather ornaments, long
shields (Frontispiece), breast-plates, method of weaving, and
houses in common {Morong), connect them with the Dyaks
and other Indonesians. Tattooing prevails only among the
tribes with a monarchical organisation (Klemm). The Lushai,
who live at the south of Manipur, are Nagas mixed with Kyens
and Burmese of Arakan. They may be sub-divided into several
tribes : the Kuki, subject to the English, very short (medium
height im. 57); the Lushai properly so called, partly in sub-
jection (41,600 in Assam), somewhat slender (im. 63), with
brown skin, flat nose, prominent cheek-bones, husbandmen ; ^
the Saks, Kamis, and Shendons or Shows. West of the
^ Mrs. Mason, Civilising Moun!ain Men, etc., London, 1862, and
other works of this author. Smeaton, The Loyal Karen, etc., London,
1886.
^ There exists among them a strange custom : the men experience great
pleasure in putting into their mouths and then spitting out the juice from
the narghiles smoked by the wives. The offer of tobacco juice is one of
the first duties of hospitality.
396
THE RACES OF MAN.
Lushai dwell the Tippera and the Mrows, tribes of short stature
(im. 5g), still more pronouncedly intermingled with the
Burmese.^
g. The ^/kw^j- are also regarded as Indonesians; numbering
but a thousand in all, they live in their canoes in the Mergui
archipelago, wandering from island to island like veritable
gypsies of the sea, after the manner of the Orang-Sktar of the
Fig. 123. — Black Sakai of Gunong-Inas (Perak, Malay
Peninsula). {Phot. Lapicqne.)
Straits of Singapore, now quite disappeared. In the same
category we may also place the natives of the Nicobar islands,
' J. Butler, "Angami Nagas,''yOT/r. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xliv., p. 216,
Calcvitta, 1S75; Woodtliorpe, "Notes . . . Naga Hills," [our. Anihro.
Inst., vols. ix. (1S82) and xix. (i8go); Reid, Chin-Lushai Land, Calcutta,
1893; Peal, " Naga,"yu««-. Anthr. Inst., vol. iii., 1874, p. 476; Natttre,
20th May iZ<)T, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. Ixv. , part 3, p. 17, Calcutta,
1897; and " Ein Ausflug, etc.," Zeit. f. Ethn., 1898, p. 281 (trans, by
Klemm, with notes and bibliog.); Miss Godden, "Naga, etc.," Jour.
Anthr. Inst., vols. xxvi. and xy.'fa. {1896-97).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 397
though among the latter we must distinguish (i) the Nicoharese
of the small islands and the coasts of Great Nicobar who
have intermixed with the Malays, and (2) the Shom-Pen of
the interior of the latter island, savages of a somewhat pure
Indonesian type.^
h. We must also include in this long list of the aboriginal
peoples of Indo-China the Negritoes,''' belonging to a distinct
race, chiefly characterised by short stature, black skin, and
frizzy or woolly hair (see p. 288). As genuine representatives
of this race, only three tribes are known ; the Acta, who inhabit
the Philippine islands (p. 483); the Sakai oi the interior of the
Malay peninsula; and the Mitikopis of the Andaman islands.
The Minkopis or A?idamanese (Fig. 124), of very short stature
(im. 49), sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82.6 average on the
skull and on the liv. sub.), are in the lowest scale of civilisation.
They live in "chongs" — small roofs on four stakes (p. 160), go
naked, and procure the strict necessaries of life by hunting,
making use of a peculiar kind of bow (p. 263). In number
they scarcely exceed five thousand (E. Reclus).
t. The pure Sakai, Semangs or Menik (as for example those
of Gunong-Inas, Fig. 123) are the same height as the Min-
kopis (im. 49), but their head is less round and their face more
angular than those of the latter ; they live likewise by hunting
and by the gathering of honey, camphor, india-rubber, and other
products of tropical forests, which they exchange with the
Malays for tools, arms, etc. Several populations of the Malay
peninsula, particularly the Mintra, the Jakhuns of Jokol, are
Sakai-Malay half-breeds, as is shown by the light colour of
their skin, their stature, higher than that of the Sakai, but still
very short (im. 54), their frizzy hair, etc.
' J. Anderson, The Sehmgs, Lond., 1890; Lapicque, Bull. Soc. Anthr.,
1894, p. 221, and "A la rech. des Negritos," Le 7'otirdn Monde, 1S95, 2nd
half-year, and 1896, ist half-year; MaM, Journ. Anlhr. Insl., vol. xiv.,
1886, p. 428; Roepstorff, Zeitschr.f. Ethnol., 1882, p. 51.
' Man, "Aborig. Andam. Isl.," four. Antlir. Inst , vol. xi., 1882; De
Quatrefages, Zes Pygmies, Paris, 1887; Lapicqne, loc. cil., and "La
race Negrito," Ann. de Ceogr., No. 22, Paris, 1896.
398 THE RACES OF MAN.
2. Let us pass on to the mixed populations of Indo-China,
springing from the probable cross-breeds of the autochthones
and the invaders.
The Cambodians or Khmers have the first place by seniority.
At the present day they inhabit Cambodia, the adjoining parts
of Siam, and the south of Cochin-China, but they formerly ex-
tended much farther. Two centuries ago, before the arrival
of the Annamese, they occupied the whole of Cochin-China,
Fig. 124. — Negrito chief of Middle Andaman, height im. 49;
cephalic ind. 83.4. {Phot. Lapicqiie.)
while to day they are found in any considerable number only
in the unhealthy and marshy regions of the Rach-gia, Soktrang,
and Tra-Vinh districts, where their number equals or exceeds
that of the Annamese. It may be conjectured that the
Khmers have sprung from the intermixing of the Malays and
Kuis, with an infusion of Hindu blood at least in the
higher classes of society. The Cambodians are taller (im. 65)
than the Annamese and the Thai, but almost as brachy-
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 399
cephalic (ceph. ind. on the Hv. sub. 83.6); their eyes are rarely
obliqiie, their hair is often wavy, etc. This population has
preserved much of its primitive savagery in spite of the influence
of several successive civilisations, of which remain the splendid
monuments of Angkor-Vat, Angkor-Tom, etc.i
The population which chronologically succeeds the Cam-
bodians is that of the Annamese (Fig. 121), the inhabitants of the
delta in Tong King, of the coast in Annam, and most of Cochin-
China. Some Annamese colonies are also found in Cambodia,
in Laos, and among the Mois. The Annamese people, fifteen
to seventeen millions strong at the present time, is the outcome
of numerous interminghngs. Of western origin, according to
its traditions, that is to say akin to the Thai peoples, it came
at an early period into the country which it now occupies. It
found already installed there the Mois, the Khmers, and the
Malays, which it succeeded in assimilating or pushing back into
the mountains and the unhealthy regions ; but it has had to
support in its turn the continual immigrations of the Chinese
who brought their civilisation to it. In spite of these complex
interminglings the Annamese type is very uniform (Harmand).
The men are short in stature (im. 58), with slender limbs,
brachycephalic head (ceph. ind. 82.8), of angular visage with
prominent cheek-bones, and Mongoloid eyes.
The Annamese of Tong King are a little taller (im. 59) and
darker than those of Cochin-China and Annam (height im. 57);
they have also a broader and flatter nose, the result perhaps of
intermixture with the Thos mountaineers (p. 401) who live near
them.^ The social life of the Annamese is modelled on that
of the Chinese; the village community and the patriarchal
family form the base of it, in the same way as ancestor-worship
is the religious foundation. Annamese Buddhism is only a
colourless copy of Chinese Foism and has no great hold of the
' Moura, Royaume de Camhdge, Paris, 1883, 2 vols. ; Aymonier,
Geographie dii Cambodge, Saigon-Paris, 1876; L. Fournereau and Porcher,
Les Ruins d' Angkor, etc., Paris, 1890; Morel, Mem. Soc. Anthr., vol. iv. ,
Paris, 1893.
2 Deniker and Laloy, "Races exot.," V Anthropologie, 1890, p. 523.
400 THE RACES OF MAN.
people. Very docile, the Annamese are intelligent, cheerful,
and well gifted, without being exempt from certain defects
of character, common to all Asiatics of the far East, such as
dissimulation, hypocrisy, and perfidy.
The Burmese or Mramma made a descent on Indo-China
perhaps at the same time as the Annamese, from their original
country, which is supposed to be the mountains of the south-
east of Thibet. To-day they occupy Upper Burma, Pegu, and
Arakan. In the last-mentioned country they bear the name of
Mag or Arakanese, and differ a Httle from the true Burmese of
Upper Burma, who are the purest representatives of the Burmese
people. Lil^e the Annamese, they have attained a certain
degree of civilisation, mainly due to the influence of India.
We find existing among them monogamy, the order of castes,
and Buddhism of the south but slightly altered. The Mag are
mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 81.8) and of short stature (im. 61).^
The Thai. — The numerous peoples speaking different Thai
dialects were the last arrivals in Indo-China. Their migrations
may be followed from the first century B.C., when the Pa-y
tribes came from Sechuen into Western Yunnan to found
there the kingdom of Luh-Tchao. Another kingdom, that of
Muang-ling, was founded more to the south-west in Upper
Burma, etc. The recent researches of Terrien de Lacouperie,
Colquhoun, Baber, Hosie, Labarth, Billet, H. Hollet, Bourne,
Deblenne, and of so many others besides, enable us to show the
relations which existed between these various Thai peoples and
to assign the limits with sufficient exactitude to their habitat,
which extends from Kwei-chow to Cambodia, between the 14th
and the 26th degrees of N. latitude.^
^ Risley, loc. cit.
'■^ Terrien de Lacouperie, loc. cit.\ Colquhoun, loc. cit., Appendix and
Preface by T. de Lacouperie ; Bomne,' J'arli'ani. Pap., C, 5371, London,
1888 ; C. Baber, loc. cit. ; Hosie, Tliree Years' Jour, in Western China,
London, 1890; Labarth, " Les Muongs," Bu'l. Soc. Ghgr. hist, el descr.,
Paris, 1886, p. 127; H. Hollet, loc. cit.; Aymonier, loc. cit., ch. vii ;
Billet, " Deux ans dans le Haut Tonkin," Bull. Scient. de la France
et de la Belgiqne, vol. xxviii. , Paris, 1S9698; Deblenne, Mission
Lyonnaise en Chine, p. 34, Lyons, 1898.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 40I
Four principal Thai peoples may be distinguished in this
territory : the Thos-Muong in the north-east (Tong King and
China), the Shans in the north-west (Upper Burma), the
Laotians in the south-east (French Laos), and the Siamese in
the south-west (Siam).
We put together, under the name of Thos-Muong, all the
natives of Upper Tong King and the Tong King hinterland
(except the mountain summits occupied by the Mans, allied
probably to the Lo-lo), as well as the primitive inhabitants of
Kwang-si, Southern Kwei-chow, and Eastern Yunnan, now
driven back to the mountains. The Thos inhabiting Tong
King to the east of the Red River (basin of the Claire River),
are sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82.5), of lofty stature
(im. 67),' having elongated face, straight non-Mongoloid eyes,
and brownish complexion. They partly recall the Indo-
nesians, and partly the still mysterious race to which the
Lo-lo belong (p. 381). They are husbandmen, living in
houses on piles, and wearing a very picturesque costume
different from that of their ancient masters the Annamese.
The Muongs of Tong King to the west of the Red River
(basin of the Black River), the Pueun and the Pu-Thai of
Annamese Laos resemble them both in type and in language,
which is a Thai dialect very much altered by Chinese and
Annamese. The Tu-jen, the Pe-miao, the Pa-i, forming
two-thirds of the population of Kwang-si, and found in the
south of Kwei-chow and the north-west of Kwangtung, as well
as the Pe-jen or Minkia of Yunnan, are Thos slightly crossed
with Chinese blood in the same way as the Nongs of Tong
King, the neighbours of the Thos. Most of these peoples
have a special kind of writing, recalling that of the Laotians.
The latter, as well as the Shans, differ somewhat from the Thos
in regard to type, in which we may discern interminglings with
the Indonesians, Malays, Mois, and Burmese. Among the
Shans we must distinguish the Khamti (Fig. 122), a very pure
race, and the Sing-po with the Kackyen or Katchin, somewhat
' From Dr. Girard, quoted by Billet, loc. cit., p. 69.
26
402 THE RACES OF MAN.
intermixed with the Burmese, both of them races of moun-
taineers of the northern parts of Upper Burma, between the
Lu-Kiang (upper Salwen) and the Lohit-Brahmaputra. The
upper valley of the latter river is inhabited by the Assamese or
Ahoins, cross-breeds between the Shans and Hindus, speaking
a particular dialect of the Hindi language. The Laotians are
sub-brachycephalic (83.6) and of short stature (im. 59); those
of the north tattoo their bodies like the Shans. They are
husbandmen, shepherds, and hunters. ^
It is perhaps among the Siamese that the primitive Thai
type has been most changed by intermixture with the Khmers,
Kuis, Hindus, and Malays. In stature above the average
(im. 61), very brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 85.5) with olive com-
plexion, they have prominent cheek-bones, lozenge-shaped
face, and short fiattish nose. They are fervent votaries of
southern Buddhism, and are the most civilised of the Thai.
They have succeeded in preserving their relative independence
and forming a state in which several reforms of European
character have been attempted in recent times.
V. The Population of India represents about a third of the
inhabitants of Asia (287,223,431 inhabitants according to the
census of 1891). It is sub-divided into a hundred tribes or
distinct peoples, but this multiplicity of ethnic groups is rather
apparent than real, and they may easily be incorporated into
a small number of somatic races or linguistic families; these
groups frequently represent castes alone.
Caste is indeed an institution peculiar to India. Of ancient
origin, this institution has developed very considerably, assum-
ing the most varied forms. Springing from a Hindu or
Brahman source, it penetrated little by little the other ethnic
and religious groups of the peninsula, and one might say that
it is the basis of the social organisation for four-fifths of the
population of India, despite of the fact that its power is
declining at the present day beneath the strong hand of British
rule. About 2000 castes may be enumerated at the present
* Ilarmand, loc. cit. ; Aymonier, loc. cit. (Voyage au Laos).
RACES AND PEOPLES OE ASIA.
463
day, but year by year new ones are being called into existence
as a certain number disappear.^
The names of these castes are derived either from hereditary
occupations (tanners, husbandmen, etc.); from a geographical
source (Pathani, etc.), or a genealogical one — from a supposed
common ancestor; or, especially among the Dravidians, from
Fig. 125. — Gurkha of the Kus or Khas tribe, Nepal; mixed
Indo-Thibetan type. (Coll. Ind, Mns., London.)
objects or animals singled out as totems (p. 247). The essen-
tial characteristics of all castes, persisting amid every change
' The so-called primitive division into four castes : Brahmans (priests),
Kshatriya (soldiers), Vaisyas (husbandmen and merchants), and Sudra
(common people, outcasts, subject peoples ?), mentioned in the later texts
of ihe Vedas, is rather an indication of the division into three principal
classes of the ruling race as opposed, in a homogeneous whole, to the
conquered aboriginal race (fourth caste).
464 THE RACES OF MAN.
of form, are endogamy within themselves and the regulation
forbidding them to come into contact one with another and
partake of food together (Sdnart). Endogamy within the limits
of the caste implies, as a coroUay, exogamy among the
sections of the caste. The typical form of these sections is the
"gotra," an eponymous group reputed to be descended from a
common ancestor, usually from a rishi, a priest or legendary
saint.
Outside of this endogamic rule marriage is forbidden in all
castes between relatives to the sixth degree on the paternal
side and to the fourth degree on the maternal side. Caste has
no religious character; men of different creeds may belong to
it. It is ruled by a chief and a council {panchayet), and has
not limits as rigid as is commonly supposed; the way is smoothed
by compromises and liberal interpretations of rules for rich and
clever people to pass from a lower to a higher caste.
In this way or some other a man may rise from one caste
to another : in Mirzapur many Ghonds and Korvars have
become Rajputs, etc. (Crooke). Employment is by no means
the criterion of caste, as is very often supposed. " Those who
have seen Brahmans,'' says Senart, "girdled with the sacred
cord, offer water to travellers in the railway stations of
India, who have seen them drilling among the sepoys of the
Anglo-Indian army, are prepared for surprises of this kind."^
And in conclusion the castes do not always agree with ethnic
and somatic divisions.^
Side by side with caste another characteristic institution of
■* Senart, "Les Castes dans rincle,"v4««. ^/2«. Guiinet.,Bibl. de Vtilgar,
Paris, 1896 (sums up the question). To tlie bibliograpliic references to
castes wliich are found in this excellent book must be added the "Intro-
duction " to the work of W. Crooke, already quoted ; it appeared
subsequently.
2 The ingenious deductions of Risley (he. cil., Ethnogr. Glossary, vol. i..
Preface, p. 34, Calcutta, 1892), which may be summed up in the aphorism,
" The nasal index increases in a direct ratio to the social inferiority of the
caste," have been criticised by Crooke (loc. cit., p. iig), who however is
too absolute in his statements, and does not take any account of the
seriation of anthropometric measurements.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
405
s
g
I
o
s
u
■a
a.
3
o
o
fA "■^^ miM'^
406 THE RACES OF MAN.
the Cisgangetic Aryan or Aryanised peoples must be noted ;
it is the village (grama) with common proprietorship of the
Fig. 127.— Young Iiiila girl. {P/ioi. Thurston.)
soil and family communities, on which I cannot dilate for
want of space (see p. 247).
India was the cradle of two great religions which have
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
407
become international, Brahmanism and Buddhism. This fact
deserves to be boTne in mind on account of the impress left on
these two religions by the national Hindu character. The
foundation of both is formed of those characteristically
Hindu beliefs, — the ideas of metempsychosis, final deliverance,
and the doctrine of the moral world, which form a contrast with
the Semitic religions. Brahmanism is professed by about
three-fourths (72 per cent.) of the inhabitants of India, while
Fig. 128. — Santal of the Bhagalpur hills.
( Coll. India Museum, London. )
Buddhism and its derivative Jainism only number, apart from
the island of Ceylon, three per cent, of the total popula-
tion of the peninsula. The most widespread religion after
Brahmanism is Islamism (20 per cent, of the whole population
of India).
From the somatological point of view it may be affirmed to-
day, after the excellent works of Risley, Crooke, Thurston,
Sarasin, Schmidt, Jagor, Mantegazza, etc., that the variety of
types found in the country is due to the crossing of two
408 THE RACES OF MAN.
indigenous races, Indo-Afghan and Melano-Indian or Dravidian,
with the admixture here and there of foreign elements : Turkish
and Mongol in the north, Indonesian in the east, Arab and
Assyroid in the west, and perhaps the Negritoid element in the
centre. The Indo-Afghan race, of high stature, with hght
brown or tanned complexion, long face, wavy or straight hair,
prominent and thin nose, dolichocephalic head, predominates
in the north-west of India; the Melano-Indian or Dravidian
race, also dolichocephaHc but of short stature, with dark brown
or black complexion, wavy or frizzy hair, is chiefly found in the
south. In it two sub-races may be distinguished: &plaiyrhinian
one, with broad flat nose, rounded face, found in the moun-
tainous regions of Western Bengal, Oudh and Orissa, also at
several points of Rajputana and Gujarat, then in Southern
India, arid in the central provinces to the south of the rivers
Narbada and Mahanadi. The other sub-race, hptoihinian,
with narrow prominent nose, and elongated face may be noted
in some particular groups, especially^mong the Nairs, the
Telugus, and the Tamils. ^
I. ATelano-Indians or Dravidians. — This group, at once
somatological and linguistic, includes two sub-divisions, based
on differences of language : the division of Kolarians, and that
of Dravidians properly so called.
a. Kolarians. ''• — The numerous tribes speaking the languages
of the Kol family and belonging to the platyrhinian variety of
the Melano-Indian race, more or less modified by inter-
minglings, occupy the mountainous regions of Bengal and the
provinces of the north-west. Certain of these tribes, of the
purest type, like the Juang or Patua of Keunjhar and Dhen-
kanal (Orissa), are distinguished by very short stature (im. 57),
1 E. -Schmidt, "Die Anlhrop. Indiens,'' Globus, vol. Ixi. (1S92), Nos. 2
and 3. For the measurements of the different peoples of India see
Appendices I. to III.; the figures are chiefly borrowed from Risley, loc. cit.,
Crooke, loc. cit., Jagor, Thurston, loc. cit., Sarasin, loc. cit., E. Schmidt
loc. cit., Deschamps, Au pays des VedJas, Paris, 1892, with pi.
^ Jellinghaus, " Sagen, Sitten . . . der Miinda-Kolhs," Z«V. y; Ethn
vol. iii., 1872, p. 328; Dalton, loc. cit., p. 150; Risley, /o,:. cit., Ethnogr.
Glossary ; Crooke, loc. cit.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 409
zygomatic arches projecting outwards, and flat face, as well
as by certain ethnic characters; they go nearly naked, live on
the products of the chase and the fruits and roots gathered;
they also practise a little primitive cultivation by burning the
forests, etc. The Kharia of Lohardaga (Chota Nagpur), who
resemble the Juang in type, language, and tattooings (three lines
above the nose, etc.), are partly civilised; some cultivate the
ground with a plough, have a rudimentary social constitution,
etc. The other Kols are, for the most part, still further
advanced. Such are the Santah or Sonthah (Fig. 128) of
Western Bengal, of Northern Orissa, and of Bhagalpur, who
call themselves "Hor"; the Munda or Horo-hu of Chota
Nagpur; the Ho or Lurka-Koh of the district of Singbhum
(Bengal) ; lastly, the Bhiimij of Western Bengal, all probably
sections of one and the same people, formerly much more
numerous.! The Kols of the north-west provinces (height
im. 64; ceph. ind. 73.2, according to Risley and Crooke) are
closely allied to the groups which I have just mentioned. The
Savaras or Saoias, scattered over Orissa, Chota Nagpur,
Western Bengal, and as far as the province of Madras, speak a
language which Cunningham, Cust, and Fr. Miiller consider
Kolarian, while, according to Dalton, it belongs to the
Dravidian family properly so called. Physically, they resemble
the Maid Dravidians, and exhibit the tolerably pure type of
the platyrhinian sub-race of the Melano-Indians.^ The same
' The word Ho (Hor or Horo), which recurs in the name of all these
tribes, signifies everywhere "man," and indicates their close linguistic
relationship; their manners and customs are also alike, especially in regard
to the constitution of the community. Religion among them all is an
animism blended with very vague polytheism. In their physical characters
there are some differences ; the Munda and the Bhumij are short (im. 59)
and very dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 74.5 and 75), the
Santals are below the average height (im. 61) and a little less dolichocephalic
(76. l). The Ho, among whom we may assume a greater infusion of Indo-
Afghan blood, are of somewhat high stature (im. 68). The number of
these four tribes, united under the name of Santals in the census of 1891,
amounted to a million and a half.
'^ BaW, Jungle Life in India, p. 267; Fawcet, " The Saoras of Madras,''
Journ. Ant. Soc. Bombay, vol. i., 1888, p. 206; E. Dalton, loc. cit., p. 149.
4IO THE RACES OF MAN.
doubt exists in regard to the linguistic affinities of tlie Bhtls
of Central India and the north-west provinces.
b. Dravidians properly so calkd.— They may be divided into
two groups, those of the north and those of the south.
Dravidians of the North. — These are in the first place the
Male (plural Maler) or Asal Paharia of the Rajmahal hills
(Bengal), probably one of the sections of the Savara people
(see above);! the Oraons (523,000 in i8gi), several tribes of
which are also found in the north-west of Chota Nagpur ;
lastly, the Gonds (three millions) of the Mahadeo mountains
and part of the central provinces situated farther south, between
the rivers Indravati and Seleru, tributaries of the Godavari.
To the east of the Gonds dwell the Khands and the Khonds
(600,000), who have spread into Orissa.
All these tribes have scarcely got beyond the stage of
hunters or primitive husbandmen, who set their forests on fire
in order to sow among the ashes. In this respect the Korwa
of Sarguja, of Jashpur (Bengal), and Mirzapur (north-west
province) resemble them, if they are not even more un-
civilised. They are unacquainted with clothes of any kind,
obtain fire by. sawing one piece of wood with another, and
have an animistic religion much less developed than that
of the Gonds or Oraons.^
Dravidians of the South. — To the south of the Godavari
dwell five black, half-civilised peoples, having a particular form
of writing, professing Brahmanism, and showing an interming-
ling of two varieties of the Melano-Indian race. Side by side
with them, and among them, are found a number of small
! They must not be confused with the Ma'-Paharia, who dwell farther
to the south in the same district of Santhal Parganos (Bengal), and whose
affinities are still obscure ; from the somatic point of view there is, how-
ever, hardly any difference between the two groups.
- They must not be confounded with the Kharwar or K/iai~var,
Dravidians of Chota Nagpur, the southern parts of Behar and Mirzapur ;
these are half-civilised husbandmen, having a particular social organisation.
Their higher castes have an infusion of Hindu blood, while the type of
the lower castes recalls that of the Santals. The A'iirs of the Mahadeva
hills are closely allied to the Kharwar.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 41I
tribes more or less uncivilised and animistic, having somatic
types of considerable variety.
The five half-civilised Dravidian peoples are the Telingas or
Tehigus of the Coromandel coast, of Nizam and Jarpur (some
twenty millions) ; the Kanaras of the Mysore table-land (about
ten millions) ; the Aialayalim of the Malabar coast (nearly six
millions)^ the 7m/?« of Mangalore (350,000); lastly, the Tamils,
occupying the rest of Southern India and the north of Ceylon
(about fifteen millions).
As to the uncivilised tribes, some occupy the Anamalli
hills (the Kader, the Madavars), others inhabit Travancore
{Pulaya, Faligars, lir, Shattar, etc.). Also to be noted are
the Ckoligha, at the foot of the Mysore hills, the Paniyans
(Fig. 126) of Vainad or Vinad (Malabar coast), very short
(im. 57), dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on the hv. sub. 74),
and very platyrhine (nas. ind. 95 i) ; lastly, the very interest-
ing tribes of the Nilgiri hills; the /; ulas (Fig. 127) and, above
these, the Ktirumbas (Fig. 8), on the southern and northern
slopes j the Badagas, the Kofas, and the Todas on the plateau
crowning these heights.^
The Kuncmbas and the Irulas (58,503 in 1891) are of
short stature (im. 58 and im. 60), dolichocephalic (ceph. ind.
on the liv. sub. 75.8), and platyrhine (nas. ind. 87 and 85).
They are the half-savage tribes of the jungles.
As to the tribes of the plateau, they are distinguished
according to their occupation and type. The Badagas (29,613
in 1891) are husbandmen, the Kotas (1,201) are artisans,
and the Todas (Figs. 7, 129, and 130) shepherds. The two
former approximate to the other Dravidians in type ; they are
of average height (im. 64 and im. 63), hyper-dolichocephalic
(ceph. ind. on the hv. sub. 71.7 and 74. i), and mesorhine
(nas. ind. 75.6). But the Todas present a particular type:
' Cf. 'Stioxii, Account of the Tribes of the Nili^hiris, 1S68; Marshall,^
Phrenologist among the Toda, London, 1873 ; Elie Recliis, Primitive Folk,
ch. v.; Thurston, Madras Gov. Mtiseum Bullet., vol. i., No. i, and
vol. ii., No. 4; G. Oppert, The Original Inhabitants of India, London,
1S94, and Zeil. f. Ethnol., 1896, pt. 5.
412
THE RACES OF MAN.
high stature (im. 70), associated with dolichocephaly (ceph.
ind. on the liv. sub. 73.1) and mesorhiny (nas. ind. 74.9),
somewhat light tint of skin, and the pilous system very
developed (Figs. 129 and 130). In short, they appear to
belong to the Indo-Afghan race, with perhaps an admixture
of the Assyroid race. Besides, a number of customs and
manners (group marriage, aversion to milk, rude polytheism.
Fig. 129.— An oldTodamanofNilgirihills. (Phot. Thurston.)
etc ) differentiate them from the other populations of India.
They are a very small tribe, which, however, increases from
year to year (693 individuals in 1871, 736 in 1891).
2. The Aryans of India form the greatest portion of the
population to the north of the Nerbada and Mahanadi ; they
speak different dialects of the neo-Hindu language (ancient
Bracha language, branch of the Prakrit or corrupt vulgar
Sanscrit). The following are the principal dialects: t°he
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 413
Hindi, BengaH, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Guzrati, and Sindi. We
distinguish several ethnic groups by these dialects, or the
generic names designating aggregations of castes : Brahmans,
Rajputs {\o\w\X\oi\5), Jats and Gujars (9 millions altogether),
Katis (42,000); or by their religion, as the Sikhs, renowned for
their warlike disposition, and recognising, at least theoretically,
no castes.'
The root-stock of all these populations is formed by the Indo-
Afghan race. This race we find again in almost a pure state
among the Sikhs (stature im. 71, ceph. ind. in the liv. sub. 72.7,
nas. ind. on the liv. sub. 68.8), and a little weakened among
the Punjabi (height, im. 68, ceph. ind. 74.9, nas. ind. 70.2).
Among the Hindus of Behar, of the north-west provinces and
Oudh, among the Mahratis between the river Tapti and Goa,
the type is still more changed in consequence of interminglings
with the Dravidians; the stature becomes shorter (im. 63 and
im. 64), the head rounder (ceph. ind. 75.7), the nose broader
(nas. ind. 80.5 and 74), the complexion darker, etc.^ With
the Indo-Aryans are grouped, according to their type and
language, the Kafirs or Siahposh of Kafiristan, and the Dardi
or Dardu, occupying the countries situated more to the
east, between the Pamirs on the north, Kashmir on the south,
Kafiristan to the west, and Baltistan to the east — that is to
say, Chitral, Dardistan (Yassin, Hunza, Nagar), Gilghit,
Chilas, Kohistan. The Dardis are divided into four castes
or tribes (Biddulph); that of the Cliins, forming the majority
of the people, is distinguished by its short stature and its
dark complexion, and recalls the Hindus of the north-west
provinces (Ujfalvy) ; while another tribe, called Yeshkhun,
speaks a language which, according to Biddulph, has affinities
with the Turkish languages, and, according to Leitner, is a
^ The name Rajpiils is only honorary, and is attached to a crowd of
tribes and castes varying in origin, in mode of life, and in dress. The
Jats of the Punjab, of which the Silihs are only a section, are constituted
of a mixture of strongly differentiated populations.
2 Risley, loc. cit. ; Crooke, loc. cit. ; Fonseca Cardoso, "O indigena de
Satory," Rtvista de Scien. Naturces, vol. iv. , No. 16, Oporto, 1S96.
414
THE RACES OF MAN.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 41S
non-Aryan agglutinative language presenting analogies with
Dravidian dialects. The Yeshkhuns inhabit Dardistan. Bid-
dulph affirms that one may often encounter among them
individuals with light aid especially red hair. The forty-four
Yeshkhuns and Chins measured by Ujfalvy were below the
average height (im. 61), dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. 75.8),
with black wavy hair, fine shaped nose, and rather dark skin;
while nineteen "Turki-Bardi" of Hunza-Nagar and Yassin
measured by Risley and Capus give a stature above the
average (im. 69), and the cephalic index almost mesocephalic
(77). They are thus closely allied to the Chitiali (stature
im. 67, ceph. ind. 76.9 from six subjects only, measured by
Risley).! Most of the Dardu tribes are endogamous ;
polygamy is general. In certain tribes there are to be found
survivals of polyandry and of the matriarchate.^
The Baltis, neighbours of the Dardus on the east, speaking a
Thibetan dialect, and the Pakhpiduk of the other side of the
Kara-Korum (upper valley of the Karakash), speaking a Turkish
tongue (Forsyth), are a mixture of Indo-Aryan and Turkish
races. On the other hand, in the Himalayan region, the
Nepalese (the KuIu-LahuU and Paharias on the west, the
Khas, the Mangars and other Gurkhas, Fig. 125, on
the east), speaking a neo-Hindu language, have sprung
from the intermingling of Indo-Afghan and Mongolic races
(by the Thibetans). There are in India other peoples
among whom linguistic or somatological afifinities with the
Indo-Aryans are found. Such are the Nairs of Malabar, a
conglomerate of various castes and tribes, well known by their
marriage customs (p. 232), many of these tribes forming a
1 Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo- Koosh, Calcutta, 1880; De Ujfalvy,
Alls dem XVestl. Himalaya, Leipzig, 1884 ; Leitner, The Hiinza ami
Nagar Handbook, London, 1893; Capus, Manuscript Notes; Risley,
loc. cit.
2 The brother of the dead husband may marry all the latter's widows,
and none of them has the right to marry again without the consent of her
brother-in-law. There is no term in the Chin and Yeshkhun languages to
denote nephews and nieces— they are called " sons or daughters " ; aunts
on the maternal side are called " mothers."
4i6
THE RACES OF MAN.
contrast with the Dravidians by their fine type, their hght
complexion, their thin and prominent nose.^
Fig. 131. — Singhalese of Candy, Ceylon, twenty-seven years old;
ceph. ind. 72.4. {Phol. Delisle.)
The Singhalese (Figs. 131 and 132) of the south of Ceylon
speak a fundamentally Aryan language. They have certain
1 De Ujfalvy, " Les Koulou," ^(^//. Soc. Anthr., 1882, p. 217; Forsyth,
Yarkand Mission, Calcutta, 1875; S. Mateer, Native L'fe in Travancore,
London, 1883; EHe Reclus, loc. cit , p. 143 (Nairs); E. Schmidt,
"Die Nairs," Globus, vol. Ixviii. (1895), No. 22; Waddell, loc. cit. (Am.
Himal.], chap. ix.
RACES AND PEOPLES OE ASIA.
417
traits in common with the Indo-Afghans and the Assyroids,
but their type has been affected by the neighbourhood of a
Fig. 132. — Same subject as Fig. 131, seen in profile.
{Phot. Delisle.)
small mysterious tribe, that of the Veddahs (Figs. 5, 6, and
133), driven back into the mountains of the south-west of
Ceylon. This is the remnant of a very primitive population
whose physical type approximates nearest to the platyrhine
variety of the Dravidian race, at the same time presenting
certain peculiarities. The Veddahs are monogamous; they
27
4i8
THE RACES OF MAN.
live in caves or under shelters of boughs (p. i6o), hiding them-
selves even from the Singhalese.^
VI. Peoples of Anterior Asia. — The multitude of peoples,
tribes, castes, colonies, and religious brotherhoods of Iran,
Arabia, Syria, and Asia Minor, this crossing-place of ethnic
migrations, are chiefly composed in various degrees of thfi
Fig. 133. — TiUti, Veddah woman of the village of Kolonggala, Ceylon;
twenty-eight years old, height Im. 39. (Phol. Bi-olhers Sarasi'n.)
three races — Indo-Afghan, Assyroid, and Arab, with the
addition of some other foreign races, Turkish, Negro, Adriatic,
Mongohc, etc.
From the linguistic point of view, this multitude may perhaps
be reduced to two great groups: the Eranians or Iranians and
^ Sarasin, loc. cit., gives bibliog. ; Deschamps, Ceylan, loc. cit.
the measurements of these peoples, see the Appendices I. and II.
For
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 419
the Semites, if we exclude some peoples whose linguistic
affinities have not yet been estabhshed.
I. The Iranians or Eranians occupy the Iranian plateau
and the adjoining regions, especially to the east. They speak
different languages of the Eranian branch of the Aryan
linguistic family. In physical composition the main characters
are supphed by the Assyroid race (Fig. 22) with admixture of
Turkish elements in Persia and Turkey, Indo-Afghan elements
in Afghanistan, and Arab and Negroid elements in the south
of Persia and Baluchistan.
Among Iranian peoples the first place, as regards number
and the part played in history, belongs to the Persians. They
may be divided into three geographical groups. If within the
approximate limits of Persia of the present day a line be
drawn running from Astrabad to Yezd and thence towards
Kerman, we shall have on the east the habitat of the Tajiks,
on the west that of the Jlajemis (between Teheran and
Ispahan 1), and that of the Parsis or Pharsis (between Ispahan
and the Persian Gulf). The Tajiks, moreover, spread beyond
the frontiers of Persia into Western Afghanistan, the north-
west of Baluchistan, Afghan Turkestan and Russian Turkestan,
as far as the Pamirs {Galchd), and perhaps even beyond. In
fact, the Polu and other "Turanians" of the northern slope of the
Kuen Lun, while speaking a Turkish language, bear a physical
resemblance to the Tajiks (Prjevalsky). Like the Sartes, settled
inhabitants of Russian Turkestan, and the Tats of the south-
west shore of the Caspian, and the Aderbaijani of the
Caucasus, they are Persians more or less crossed with Turks,
whose language they speak.
The Tajiks are brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 84.9), above the
average height (im. 69), and show traces of intermixture
with the Turkish race,^ while the Hajemis (Fig. 22), and in
^ The Hajemis of the Caspian littoral are called more particularly
Talych and Mazandarani.
2 The interminglings with the Turks must be of recent date; for if we
may still discuss the "Turanian" characters of the Sumero-Acadian
language, there is no indication of the existence of the Turkish race in
420 THE RACES OF MAN.
some measure the Parsis, who are dolichocephalic (77-9)i
and of average height (im. 65), are of the Assyroid or Indo-
Afghan type.
The Parsis are not very numerous in Persia. Most of them
emigrated into India after the destruction of the empire of the
Sassanides (in 634); they form there an important and very
rich community (89,900 individuals in 189 1), having still
preserved their ancient Zoroastrian religion. This community,
if chiefly composed of bankers, has also many men of letters.
The education of women in it is specially looked after, the
first woman to obtain the diploma of Doctor in Medicine in
India being a Parsi.^ Physically they are of the mixed Indo-
Assyroid type, the head sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82,
according to Ujfalvy).
After the Persians come the Pathan Afghans ^ or Pashtu.
They form the agricultural population of Afghanistan, and are
divided into Duranis (in the west and south of the country),
Ghilzis{ya. the east), and into several other less important tribes:
the Swatis, the Khostis, the M'aziris, the Kakars, etc. The
Afghans of India and the Indo-Afghan frontier are divided
into several tribes, of which the principal ones are the Afridis
near the Khyber pass and the Yusafzais near Peshawar.^
The Baluchis or Biloch of Baluchistan and Western India
speak an Eranian dialect akin to Persian; physically they belong
to the Indo-Afghan race, but mixed with the Arabs on the
south and the Jats and the Hindus on the east, with the Turks
Asia Minor in ancient times. The famous sculptured head of Tello (in
the Louvre) has a, false Turkish air, owing to the head-dress and the
broken nose; three other statuettes from the same locality, preserved at
Paris, have a fine and prominent nose and meeting eyebrows: Assyroid
characters (see De Clercq, Album des Antiq. de la Chaldh, Paris, 18S9-91;
Maspero, Hist, des peupl. Orient. Class., vol, i., p. 613, Paris, 1895; and
E. de Sarzec, Decouvertes en Chaldie, published byHeuzey, Paris, 1885-97).
' D. Menant, " Les Parsis," Ann. Mus. Gtiin., Bibl. Et., vol. vii.,
Paris.
^ E. Oliver, Across the Border, Pathan and Biloch, London, 1890.
" For the measurements of the Iranians see Appendices I. to IIL (from
Danilof, Houssey, Ujfalvy, Bogdanof, Chantre, Troll, Risley).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
421
on the north and the Negroes on the south-west. The Mekrani
of the coast of Baluchistan and partly of Persia are a mixture
of Indo-Afghan, Assyroid, and Negro races (Fig. 134). The
Rinds ("Braves") of the sanxe coast of Mekran, who claim to
be pure Baluchis, are only Arabs of the Kahtan tribe.^ The
nomadic Brahms of Eastern Baluchistan, especially those of
the environs of Kelat, resemble the Iranians. It is said that
Fig. 134. — Natives of Mekran (Baluchistan): on the right, Afghan type;
on the left, the same with Negro intermixture. [Phot. Laficque.)
their language has some affinities with the Dravidian dialect.
In reality, the ethnic place of this population, predominant in
Beluchistan, is yet to be determined.
With the Iranian group it is customary to connect, especially
from linguistic considerations, the Kurds, the Armenians,
and the Ossets (p. 356). The first-mentioned people, in-
fluenced here and there by interminglings with the Turks,
' Mockler, "Origin of Bahich," Proc. As. Soc, Bengal, 1893, p. 159,
422 THE RACES OF MAN.
physically resemble the Hajemis : sub-dolichocephalic head,
78.5 when it is not deformed (p. 176), height above the average
(im. 68), aquiline nose, etc. They occupy in a more or less
compact mass the border-lands between Persia and Asia Minor;
but they are found in isolated groups from the Turkmenian
steppes (to the north of Persia) to the centre of Asia Minor (to
the north-west of Lake Tiiz-g61). As to the Armenians or Hai,
they are found in a compact body only around Lake Van and
Mount Ararat, the rest being scattered over all the towns of the
south-west of Asia, the Caucasus, the south of Russia, and even
Galicia and Transylvania. It is a very mixed and hetero-
geneous ethnic group as regards physical type. The stature
varies from im. 63 to im. 69 according to different localities,
but the cephalic index is nearly uniformly brachycephaHc (85
to 87). The predominant features are however formed by the
Indo-Afghan, Assyroid, and perhaps Turkish and Adriatic races.
Their language differs appreciably from the other Eranian
tongues.!
2. The Semite linguistic group is represented by Arabs,
Syrians, and Jews.
The Arabs occupy, besides Arabia, a portion of Mesopotamia,
the shores of the Red Sea, the eastern coast of the Persian
Gulf, and the north of Africa. The pure type, characterised by
dolichocephaly (ceph. ind. 70), prominence of the occiput,
elongated face, aquiline nose, slim body, etc., is still preserved
in the south of Arabia among the Ariba Arabs, among the
mountaineers of Hadramaout and Yemen (country of the
ancient Himyarites or Sabeans), and among the Bedouins,
' Chantre, Rech. Anthr. As. Occid. Transcaucasie, Asie Alin. et Syrie,
Lyons, 1895 (with pi. and fig.); and " Les Kurdes," j5;i//. Soc. Anthr.
Lyons, 1897. The Liirs of Western Persia living south of the Kurds are
akin to the latter ; they may be divided into Luri-Kuchucks (250,000) or
little Lurs in Luristan, and into Luri-Buzury, farther south, in Hazistan, a
part of Fars. Their best known tribes are those of the Bakhtyari and
Maaviaseni. The Lurs are above the average height (im. 68), and sub-
brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 84.5), according to Houssay, Duhousset, and
Gautier. Cf. Houssay, "Les Peuples de la Vexse," Bull. Soc. Anthr,
Lyons, 1887, p. loi ; and Pantiukhof, loc. cit.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 423
descendants of the Ismaeliles of the interior of Central and
Northern Arabia; but the tribes which have drawn nearer tlie
coast or the valleys of Mesopotamia show signs of inter-
minghngs with populations of a predominant Assyroid or
Turkish type, without taking into account, as at Haza and on
the coast of Yemen, the Negro and Ethiopic influence. Typical
nomads, having in the religion founded by Mahomet a national
bond of union, the Arabs make their influence widely felt over
the world. Traces of the Arab type are met with not only over
the whole of Northern Africa (see p. 432), but also in Asia
Minor, the Caucasus, Western Persia, in India; while numerous
traces of the Arab language ^ and civilisation are found in
Europe (Malta, Spain), in China, Central Asia, and in the
Asiatic Archipelago. The Melkits and the Wahabits are two
religious sects of Arabs.
The people of Syria and Palestine, known by the name of
Syrians in the towns, of Kufar in the country, is the product
of the interminglings of Arabs with descendants of Phoenicians
and with Jews. It also forms the basis of numerous ethnic
groups connected solely by religion, and of constituent
elements often very heterogeneous: such are the Maronites of
Western Lebanon, the Nestorians, the Druzes of Hermon and
Djebel Hauran (Kurdish elements), among whom woman
occupies a higher position than among other Asiatics; the
Metouali (Shiah sect) of Tyre ; the Nazareans or Ansarieh,
who perhaps represent, along with the Takhtaji (Gypsy
elements), the Kizilbashes and the Yezides or Yezdi (Kurdish
elements) of Mesopotamia, the remains of the primitive popu-
lation of Asia Minor, akin, according to Luschan, to the
Armenians.^
The Jews are not very numerous (250,000) in Asia, and
are found scattered in small groups throughout the world.
1 The Arab tongue of the present day includes three dialects : Western,
extending from Morocco to Tunis ; Central, spoken in Egypt ; and
Eastern, spoken in Arabia and Syria.
'^ Petersen and Von Luschan, lieisen in Lykien, etc., chap, xili., Vienna,
1889; Chantre, loc. cit.
424 THE RACES OF MAN.
Even in the country which was formerly a Jewish State,
Palestine, they scarcely exceed 75,000 in number at the
present day. They are found in compact groups only in
the neighbourhood of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and at the
foot of the mountain-chain of Safed.
It is well known that to-day the Jews are scattered over
the whole earth. Their total number is estimated at eight
millions, of which the half is in Russia and Rumania, a
third in Germany and Austria, and a sixth in the rest of the
world, even as far as Australia. The great majority of Jews
are unacquainted with Hebrew, which is a dead language; they
speak, according to the country they inhabit, particular kinds
of jargon, the most common of which is the Judeo-German.
Physically the Jews present two different types, one of which
approximates to the Arab race (Fig. 21), the other to the
Assyroid. Sometimes these types are modified by the
addition of elements of the populations in the midst of
which they dwell ;^ but, even in these cases, many traits,
such as the convex nose, vivacity of eye, frequency of
erythrism (p. 50), frizzy hair, thick under lip, inferiority of
the thoracic perimeter, etc., show a remarkable persistence.
The Arab type is common among the Spanish Jews who
practise the Sefardi rite, among the native Jews of the
Caucasus, very brachycephalic however (85.5 ceph. ind., accord-
ing to Erckert and Cliantre),^ and among those of Palestine,
while the Assyroid type dominates among the Jews of Asia
Minor, Bosnia, and Germany. These last, like the Jews of
Slav countries, practise the Askenazi rite. The Jews of
1 It is known, in fact, that the isolation of the Jews from the rest of the
population is not always absolutely complete. There have been peoples of
other races converted to Judaism ; the Khasars in the seventh century, the
Abyssinians (present Falacha), the Tamuls or "black Jews" (p. 115,
note), the Tauridians of the Karaite sect, etc. (p. 222). Cf. J.
Jacobs, "Racial Charact. . . . Jews," Journ. Anth. Inst., vol. xv.
(1885-86), p. 24; and Jacobs and Spielmann, ibid., vol. xix. (1889-90).
2 The Aissors or Chaldeans who migrated to the Caucasus are probably
allied to these "Jews of the mountains"; they are also very brachycephalic
(ceph. ind. 88) and of rather high stature (im. 67) (Erckert, Chantre).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA. 425
Bosnia, called Spaniels, coming from Spain by Constantinople,
are under average heigh.t (im. 63) and mesocephalic (ceph.
ind. 80.1, Gluck); those of Galicia, Western Russia, and
Russian Poland are shorter (im. 61 and 62) and sub-
brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82) ; those of England are of the
same stature (im. 62), but mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 80). 1
Along with the Jews we must put another ^iegple, also
dispersed over nearly the whole earth, and of Asiatic origin,
probably from India, to judge by the affinities of its language
with the Hindu dialects — the Gypsies. They are found in
India (Banjars, Nats, etc.), Persia and Russian Turkestan
{Lull, Mazang, Kara-Luli, etc.), in Asia Minor (where are also
found their congeners, the Yuruks); then in Syria (Chingane),
in Egypt {Phagari, Nuri, etc.), and all over Europe, with
the exception, it is said, of Sweden and Norway; they are
found in considerable numbers in Rumania (200,000), Turkey,
Hungary, and the south-west of Russia. In all they number
nearly a million. The pure so-called " Black Gypsies " are
of the Indo-Afghan race (stature im. 72, ceph. ind. on the
liv. sub. 76.8), but very often they have intermingled with the
populations in the midst of which they dwell. ^
' See the art. " Juifs" in the Diet. Giog. Univers. of Vivien de Saint-
Martin and Rousselet, vol. ii., Paris, 1884 (with bibliog.); Andree,
Zur Volkerktinde der Juden, Bielefeld, 1881, with map; and publications
of the Soc. des Etudes Jtiives, Paris. The measurements given in the
Appendices are after Ikof, Chantre, Jacobs and Spielmann, Gluck,
Kopenicki, Weissenberg, Weisbach, etc.
2 See my art. " Tsiganes," in the Diet. Giog. Univ., quoted above,
vol. vi., 1893; Paspati, Etude sur les TchinghianS, Constantinople, 1870;
A. Colocci, Gli Zingari, Turin, 1889, with map ; H. von Wlislocki,
Voin . . . Zigeuner-Volke, Hamburg, 1890; and the publications of the
Gypsy-Lore Society, London (1886-96).
CHAPTER XL
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA.
Ancient Inhabitants of Africa — Succession of races on the " dark
continent" — Present Inhabitants of Africa — i. Arabo-Berher or
Semiio-Hamite Group : Populations of Mediterranean Africa and
Egypt — II. Ethiopian or Kushilo-Hami/e Croup: Bejas, Gallas,
Abyssinians, etc. — III. Fula/t- Zandeh Group: The Zandeh, Masai,
Niam-Niara populations of the Ubangi-Shari, etc., Fulbe or Fulahs —
IV. Nigritian Group: Nilotic Negroes or Negroes of eastern
Sudan — Negroes of central Sudan — Negroes of western Sudan and
the Senegal — Negroes of the coast or Guinean Negroes, Kru,
Agni, Tshi, Vei, Yoruba, etc. — v. Negrillo Group: Differences of
the Pygmies and the Bushmen — vi. Bantu Group : Western Bantus
of French, German, Portuguese, and Belgian equatorial Africa —
Eastern Bantus of German, English, and Portuguese equatorial Africa
— Southern Bantus: Zulus, etc. — vii. Hottentot-Bushman Group:
The Namans and the Sans — VIII. Populations of Madagascar : Hovas,
Malagasi, Sakalavas.
The term " Black Continent " is often applied to Africa, but it
must not therefore be supposed that it is peopled solely by
Negroes. Without taking into account the white Arabo-
Berbers and the yellow Bushmen-Hottentots, which have
long been known, it may now be shown, after a half-century
of discovery, that the population of Africa presents a very
much greater variety of types and races than was formerly
imagined.
Ancient Inhabitants of Africa. — We are only just
beginning to know something about prehistoric Africa. Egypt,
that classic land of the oldest historic monuments of the
earth, has yielded in late years, thanks to the excavations of
Flinders Petrie, D'Amelineau, and above all, of De Morgan, a
large quantity of wrought stone objects, similar in character to
426
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 427
those of Europe, and if certain objections may still be raised
in regard to the palaeolithic period of Egypt, which is not
dated by a fauna, we can scarcely deny the existence of the
neolithic period in this country, the period which preceded or
was contemporaneous with the earliest dynasties of which
monuments have yet been discovered.^
Hatchets, knives, and scrapers of very rude pateolithic and
neolithic types have been discovered in Cape Colony (W.
Gooch, J. Sanderson); flint arrow-heads and implements of
the Chellean type in the country of the Somalis, in the
Congo Free State ;2 ironstone arrow-heads in the country
of the Monbuttus (Emin Pacha). Numerous stone imple-
ments and weapons of various palaeolithic types, much finer
than the preceding, as well as neolithic hatchets, have
been found in Algeria (at Tlemcen), in South Algeria (at
El-Golea, etc.), and as far as Timbuctoo (Weisgerber, Lenz,
Collignon, etc.). Lastly, Tunis presents a progressive series
of palaeolithic implements absolutely similar to those of
Europe in several stations (at Gafsa and, in a general way,
west from the Gulf of Gabes).^ But all these finds are very
isolated and too far removed one from another to enable us to
' Fl. Petrie and Quibell, Nagada and Ballas, London, 1896 ; De
Morgan, Recherches stir les Origines de tEgypte, Paris, 1897-98, 2 vols.
See for summary of the question : S. Reinach, L' AnthropoL, 1897, p. 322 ;
and J. Capart, Rev. University, Brussels, 4th year (1898-99), p. 105.
Let us remember while on this point that at the quaternary period lower
Egypt was still covered by the sea, and that the climate of Egypt and the
Sahara was much more humid than to-day (Shirmer, Le Sahara, p. 136,
Paris, 1893). Most of the prehistoric finds in Egypt have been made
on the table-lands, not covered by the alluvial soils of the Nile.
^ W. Gooch, Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. xi. (1882), p. 124; Seton Karr,
"Discov. of Evid. Paleolith. Age in Somaliland," yo«r». Anthr. Inst.,
vol. XXV. (1896), p. 271 ; X. Stainier, " L'age de la pierre au Congo,"
Annales Mus. du Congo, 3rd series (Anthr.), vol. i., part 1, Brussels, 1899
(with plates).
3 R. Collignon, " Les ages de la pierre en Tunisie," Mater. Hist. Nat.
Homme, 3rd series, vol. iv., Toulouse, 1887; Couillault, "Station
prehist. Gafsa," L'Anthropologie, vol. v., 1894, p. 530; Zaborowski,
"Period neolith. Afr. du nord," Rev. Ec. Anthr., Paris, 1899, p. 41.
428 THE RACES OF MAN.
infer from them the existence of one and the same primitive
industry over the whole continent.^ Numerous facts on the
contrary, particularly the absence of stone implements among
the^ most primitive of the existing tribes of Africa (with the
exception of the perforated round stone with which the
digging-stick is weighted, as well as the stone pestles met
with among some Negro tribes), and the rarity of super-
stitions associated with stone implements, lead us to suppose
that the stone age only existed on the dark continent in a
sporadic state and in virtue of local and isolated civilisations.
Further, the absence of bronze implements, outside of Egypt,
leads us to suppose that the majority of the peoples of Africa,
with the exception of the inhabitants of Egypt and the
Mediterranean coast, passed from the age of bone and wood
to that of iron almost without transition.
Several palseethnologists go so far as to think that the iron
industry was imported into Europe from Africa. At all events
skilful smiths (Fig. 135) are found in the centre of Africa
among Negro tribes somewhat backward in other respects.
Historic data are lacking in regard to most of the peoples
of Africa, especially for remote periods, except in Egypt. How-
ever, combining the various historic facts known to us with
the recent data of philology and those, still more recent, of
anthropology, we may assume with sufficient probability the
following superposition of races and peoples in Africa.
The primitive substratum of the population is formed of
Negroes, very tall and very black, in the north; of Negrilloes,
brown-skinned dwarfs, in the centre; of Bushmen, short,
yellow, and steatopygous, in the south. On this substratum
was deposited at a distant but indefinite period the so-called
Hamitic element of European or Asiatic origin, the supposed
continuators of the Cro-Magnon race.^ This element has
been preserved in a comparatively pure state among the
1 See for details, R. Andree, " Steinzeit Afrikas," Globus, vol. xli.
(1882), p. 169; and X. Stainier, loc. cit., p. 18.
^ Recent discoveries of stone objects in Egypt have revived the question
of Asiatic or European influence in Africa. While Flinders Petrie, De
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 429
Berbers, and perhaps has been transformed by interminglings
with the Negroes, into a new race, analogous to the Ethio-
pian, with which we must probably connect the ancient
Egyptians. The Berbers drove back the Negroes towards the
south, while the Ethiopians, a little later, filtered through the
Negroid mass from east to west. This infiltration continues at
the present day.
A new wave of migration followed that of the Hamites.
These were the southern Semites or Himyarites who crossed
from the other side of the Red Sea. Probably as far back as
the Egyptian neolithic period they began the slow but sure
process of modifying the Berbers, Ethiopians, and Negroes of
the north-east of Africa.
The Negro populations driven back towards the south were
obliged to intermingle with the Negrillo pygmies, the Ethio-
pians, and Hottentot-Bushmen, and gave birth to the Negro
tribes composing to-day the great linguistic family called
Bantu. Bantu migrations, at first from the north to the
south, then in the opposite direction and towards the
west, have been authenticated.^ As a consequence of the
interminglings due to these migrations, the Negrilloes and the
Hottentots have been absorbed to a great extent by the
Bantus, and the rare representatives of these races, still existing
in a state of relative purity, are to-day driven back into the
Morgan, and others suppose that Pelrie's "new race" of the neolithic
period which preceded Egyptian civilisation in the Nile valley is related to
the Libyans coming from the north-west of Africa, and perhaps from
Europe, Schweinfarth (Zeitsk.f. EthnoL, 1897; VerhandL, p. 263) thinks
that these neolithic people were immigrants from Arabia (Semites?), who
had come into the Nile valley from the south, through Nubia. The recent
discovery of chipped flints in the country of the Sonialis, as well as con-
siderations of a botanic character, confirm this supposition, without
excluding, however, the possibility of the arrival of the Libyans of the
north-west in the palseolithic period, and the tribes of Syria and Mesopo-
tamia in historic times. (Evidence: the " Hyksos " of the Egyptian annals,
the presence of cuneiform tablets at Tel-el-Amarna, upper Egypt, to
which attention was drawn by Sayce, etc.)
1 Barthel, " Volkerbewegungen . . . Afrikan. Kontin.," Mitlheil.
Verein Erdkunde, Leipzig, 1893, with map.
430
THE RACES OF MAN.
<u S>
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 43 1
most unhealthy and inhospitable regions of Central and
Southern Africa. The last important invasion of alien peoples
into Africa was that of the Northern Semites or Arabs. It was,
rather, a series of invasions, ranging from the first century B.C.
to the fifteenth century, when the climax was reached. The
Arab tribes have profoundly modified certain Berber and
Ethiopian populations from the somatic point of view as well
as the ethnic. Moreover, the Arab influence under the form
of Islamism continues to the present time its onward march
over the dark continent, making from the north-east to the
south-west. The Guinea coast, the basin of the Congo, and
Southern Africa alone have as yet remained untouched by this
influence. Let us note in conclusion the Malay-Indonesian
migration towards Madagascar, and the European colonisation
begun in the seventeenth century.
Existing Populations of Africa. — Putting on one side
the Madagascar islanders and the European and other colonists,^
the thousands of peoples and tribes of the "dark continent"
may be grouped, going from north to south, into six great
geographical, linguistic, and, in part, anthropological units: ist,
the Arabo-Berbers or Semito-Hamites; 2nd, the Ethiopians or
Kushito-Hamites; 3rd, the Fulah-Zandeh; 4th, the Negrilloes
or Pygmies; 5th, the Nigritians or Sudanese-Guinea Negroes;
6th, the Bantus; 7th, the Hottentot-Bushmen. ^
^ Jews and Maltese on the coast of the Mediterranean; Persians and
Hindus on the east coast and the islands ofif it; a few hundred Chinese
introduced into the Congo State and the Mauritius and Reunion islands.
Among the Europeans, the Boers of Cape Colony, of the basin of the
Orange river, and the Transvaal, as well as the Portuguese of Angola and
Mozambique, are more or less intermingled with the natives. The English
of the Cape, and the French of Algeria-Tunis, and the "Creoles" of the
island of Reunion have kept themselves more free from intermixture.
Finally, let us note the Spanish of Algeria-Morocco and the Canary Isles,
the latter the hybrid descendants of the prehistoric Guanches, which are
perhaps connected with the European Cro-Magnon race. (See S. Berthe-
lot, " Les Guanches," Metn. Soc. Ethnol., Paris, vols. i. and ii., 1841-45;
Verneau, Iks Canaries, Paris, 1 89 1.)
2 Hartmann, " Les Peuples de I'Afrique," Paris, 1880 [Bibl. Iniernai.),
a work written from a different standpoint from the present chapter.
432 THE RACES OF MAN.
I. The Arabo-Berber or Semito-Hamitic group occupies the
north of Africa as far as about the isth degree of lat. N., and
is composed, as its name indicates, of peoples having as a base
the Arab and Berber races. Under the name of Berbers are
included populations varying very much in type and manners
and customs, speaking either Arabic (Semitic language) or
Berberese (Hamitic language). Three-fourths of the " Arabs "
of Northern Africa are only Berbers speaking Arabic, and are
the more "Arabised" in regard to manners and customs as
they are nearer to Asia. The nomads of the Libyan desert
and Tripoli have preserved fairly well the Berber type,
but they have become Arabs in language and usages. In
Tunis and Algeria the Arab influence is still very much felt
in the south; in Morocco it is very trifling. From the social
point of view, the contrast is great between the settled Berber
and the nomadic Arab. To give but one example, the
democratic regime of the former, based on private property,
bears no resemblance whatever to the autocratic regime of the
latter, founded on collective property. But all the Berbers are
not of settled habits (example: the Tuaregs), and several tribes
have adopted the Arab mode of life.^
Physically, the Algero-Tunisian Berber also differs from the
Arab. His height is scarcely above the average (im. 67), while
the Arab is distinguished by his lofty stature. The Berber
head is, generally speaking, not so long as the Arab, although
both are dolichocephalic. The face is a regular oval in the
Arab, almost quadrangular in the pure Berber. The nose is
aquiline in the former, straight or concave in the latter, and
moreover, the Berbers have a sort of transverse depression on
the brow, above the glabella, which is not seen in the Arabs; on
the other hand, they have not so prominent an occiput as
the latter. This characterisation is quite general; in reality,
' See for details, Hanoteau and Letourneux, La Kahylie, etc., Paris,
1872-73; Quedenfeld, " Berberbevblkeriing in Marokko." Zeits.f. Ethn.,
vol. xx.-xxi., 1888-89; Topinard, " Les types de . . . I'AIgerie," BtcU. Soc.
Anthr. Paris, 1881; Villot, Mmirs, coutumes . . . des indig. del' Algeria,
Algiers, 1888; Ch. Amat, "Les Beni-Mzab," A'ez;. Anthr., 1884, p. 644.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA.
433
among the Arabs, and especially among the Berbers, there
is a very great variety of type. According to Collignon,i four
Berber sub-races or types must be recognised, (i) The Djerba
sub-race, characterised by short stature, globular head (ceph.
ind. on the living sub. 78 to 81.7), is well represented in the
populations of the south-east and the east Tunisian coast, as
well as by certain Kabyles, by the Mzabs,'^ and the Shawias of
the Aures. (2) The Elks type, dolichocephalic, with broad
face, oecupies the centre of Tunis and the east of Kabylia.
Fig. 136. — Tunisian Berber, Oasis type. Ceph. ind. 70.
(After Collignon.)
(3) The dolichocephalic Berber sub-race, with narrow face and
stature above the average, forms the present type in Algeria-
Tunisia. (4) The Jerid or Oasis type (Fig. 136), of some-
what lofty stature and dark complexion, is well represented
around the Tunisian "Shotts."
Among the nomadic Berbers we must mention separately
' Collignon, " Ethn. gh\. de la Tunisie," Bull. Glogr. hist, et descr.,
Paris, 1887. Of. Bertholon, " La population de la Tunisie," Rev. gin. des
Sc, Paris, 1896, p. 972 (with fig.).
^ It is to be noted that these last belong, like the islanders of Djerba, to
the Ibadite sect, an offshoot of orthodox Islamism.
3§
434
THE RACES OF MAN.
the Tuaregs or Imoshagh, as they call themselves,^ with
their manifold divisions {Azjars, Haggars, etc.) spread over
the western Sahara. Very characteristic of their costume is
the black veil which covers the head leaving only the eyes
free, the stone rings on the arms forming also a very national
ornament. They employ certain characters in writing peculiar
to themselves. In the Maghrebi, who roam over the plateaus
situated to the west of the Nile, the Arab strain is very
Fig. 137.— Trarza- Moor of the Senegal. {Phot. Collignon.)
Strongly marked.^ On the other side of the great African river,
towards the Red Sea, the Berbers have entirely disappeared and
the population is formed of Arabs more or less unmixed. The
Bedouins of Egypt (237,000 in 1894) are Berber-Arabs divided
into numerous tribes {Aulad-Ali, Gavazi, Eleikaf, etc. ).
The nomadic or settled Moors (Fig. 137) of the western
Sahara, extending from Morocco to the Senegal (the Trarza,
' Duveyrier, Le; Touareg du Nord , Paris, 1864; Schirmer, loc. cit.
* Rohlfs, Quer dttrch Africa, vol. i., Leipzig, 1888.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 435
the Brakita, etc.), speak Arabic and "Zenagha," which is a Berber
dialect. These are Berbers more or less crossed with Negro
blood. It must further be observed that the name of Moors
is very wrongly applied to the Mussulman inhabitants of the
towns of Algeria and Tunis and to the Riffians of Morocco. '
The Fellaheen, Mussulmans (635,600 in 1894) of the lower
■ valley of the Nile (as far as the first cataract), mixed descendants
of the ancient Egyptians, must be included among the Arabo-
Berbers because they have abandoned the speech of their
ancestors, adopting that of the Arabs, but many of them have
preserved intact the type of the primitive Egyptians, funda-
mentally Ethiopian, so well represented on various monuments
in the valley of the Nile.^ The ancient Egyptian language
is preserved, however, under the form of the Coptic dialect
which, until quite recent times, served as the liturgical language
to the Christian section of the inhabitants of Lower Egypt,
known by the name of Copts (500,000 in 1894; cephalic index
76, according to Chantre).
We must likewise add to the Arabo-Berber group the Barabra
(in the singular Berberi) inhabiting to the number of about
180,000 the part of the Nile valley situated between the first
and the fourth cataract. It is a people sprung from the inter-
' Faidherbe, "Les Berbers . . : du %tnig&\," BuU.'Soc. Anlhr. Paris,
1864, p. 89; R. Collignon and Deniker, "Les Maures du Senegal,"
V Anlhrofologie, 1895, p. 287.
^ According to the best preserved monuments, the ancient Egyptians had
a brownish-reddish complexion of skin, long face, pointed chin, scant beard,
straight or aquiline nose like the Ethiopian race (see p. 288). The
hair of the mummies makes us think of the black and frizzy hair of the
Ethiopians themselves. Lastly, the few ancient Egyptian skulls examined
are meso- or dolicho-cephalic. See Pruner-Bey, Mem. Soc. Anthr. Paris,
vol. i., 1863; Ha.r\.m3.n, Zeiis. piir Eihnol., vols. i. andii., 1869-70, and Die
Ni^^itier, Berlin, 1876; E. Schmidt, Arch. f. Anthr., \o\. xvii.,1888; S.
Foole, /oiim. Anthr. Inst., vol. xvi., 1886, p. 371 ; S. Berlin, Hid., i88g,
vol. xviii., p. 104; Phot. Coll., Fhnders-Petrie (Brit. Assoc. 1887);
Sergi, Africa Aiitropol. delta stirpe camitica, Turin, 1897. Virchow
(Sitzungsb. Preuss Akad. JViss., 1888) has endeavoured to show that the
most ancient type of the Egyptians was brachycephalic, but his deductions
are disputable, being based on measurements of statues.
436 THE RACES OF MAN.
mingling of Ethiopians, Egyptian Fellaheen, and Arabs (ceph.
ind. 76). One of the most commercial tribes of this ethnic group
is that of the Danagla inhabiting the country of Dongola.
II. The Ethiopians or Kushito-Hamites, who are some-
times called Nuba or Nubians,''- inhabit the north-east of Africa,
from the 25th degree lat. N. to the 4th degree lat. S. They
occupy almost all the coast land of the Red Sea, and that of
the Indian Ocean from the Gulf of Aden to Port Durnford or
Wubashi. Their territory is bounded on the west by the Nile,
the Bahr-el-Azrek, the western edge of the Abyssinian plateau.
Lake Rudolf and Mount Kenia.^
In the northern part of this territory dwell the Bejas or
Nubians, the different tribes of which, Bejas or Bisharin,
Hamrans (Fig. 138), Hadendowas, Hallengas, etc., are stationed
one after another between the Red Sea and the Nile, from the
first cataract to the Abyssinian plateau. Certain Beja tribes,
like the Ababdeh (19,500), to the north in Upper Egypt,
partly of settled habits, the Beni-Amer to the east, the Jalin
to the west, are in a large measure Arabised, but still speak
a Hamitic language, while side by side with them dwell
Semitised Ethiopian tribes, speaking only Arabic like the
Habab and the Hassanieh of the Bayuda steppe or the
Abu-Rof and Shukrieh of the lower basin of the Blue Nile.^
^ Sometimes the Barabras are also similarly designated, in my opinion
wrongly, for this leads to a triple confusion, " Nuba" being still the name
of a Negro tribe (see p. 444). It would be more correct to employ this
term as a synonym of Northern Ethiopian ; besides, according to Strabo
(Book XVII.), Eratosthenes refers to the "Nubians" in his time as a
people distinct from the Negroes and Egyptians. The Barabras are not
so dark, have not such frizzy hair, and are not so tall as the Bejas, the
Hamrans, and other Ethiopians their neighbours, and consequently
belong, not only by their language, but also by their physical type, to the
Arabo-Berber group.
'^ For general works see Paulitschke, Beitrage Ethnogr. u. Anthr. d.
Somdl. Galla, Leipzig, 1886, and Ethnogr. Nordost Africas, Berlin,
1893-96, 2 vols.; Sergi, loc. cit. [Africa).
^ Hartmann, "Die Bedjah," Zeii. f. Ethnol., vol. xi., 1879, p. 117-
Virchow, Zeii. f. Ethn., vol. x., 1878 (Verb. p. 333, etc.), and vol. xi.,
1879 (Verb. p. 389); Deniker, Bull. Soc. Anthr. Paris, 1S80, p. 594.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA.
437
It is in the same category of Semitised Ethiopians, but
speaking the Amharinga and Tigrenga dialects, etc., which
have sprung from a different Semitic language, Gheez, that we
must place the inhabitants of the north and east of Abyssinia,
as well as the natives of Kaffa and the east of Shoa, who have
sprung from the intermingling of the Gallas (see below) with
the Arabs.
Fig. 138. — Hamran Beja of Daghil tribe; height,
Im. 79, 25 years old. Hair arrangement char-
acteristic of Ethiopians. [Author s coll.)
The y/;/;/^ar/«^a language is spoken in Amhara and Godjam;
the Tigrenga farther to the north, in Tigre ; the Curaghek,
derived from the ancient Amharinga, to the west of Lake
Zuwai and to the south of Shoa, and the sources of the
Hawash. The term "Abyssinian" has only a political
signification, like that of "Austrian" for example; it is a
corruption of the word ' ' Habeshi" (" mixed"), which the Arabs
formerly gave in derision to the inhabitants of the Abyssinian
plateau united together into a Christian state. The sub-
43^ fHE RACES OF MAN.
stratum of the population of the Abyssinian plateau is formed
by the Agaw, Ethiopian in type, Hamitic in language, but the
Abyssinians of the higher classes are strongly Semitised. The
national religion of the Abyssinians is monophysite Christianity,
closely allied to the Coptic religion, but impregnated with
Mussulman, Judaic, and indigenous animist elements.
To the south of the Abyssinian plateau, from the neighbour-
hood of Lake Tsana to the extreme limits of the extension of
the Ethiopian peoples to the south and west is the territory of
the Gallas or Oroma, representing the purest Ethiopian type.
To the east of the Gallas, from about the 42nd degree long, east
of Greenwich, dwell the Somalis, probably only Gallas more or
less intermingled with the Arabs, who for several centuries
have overrun the country. They occupy the whole of the
seaboard from Cape Jibuti (at the southern extremity of
Obok) to the mouth of the Jeb, or Jubba, and the plain of
Aji-Fiddah, which extends below the equator, but in the
interior of their country, especially in the north, numerous
Galla tribes are found.
To the north of the Gallas, between Abyssinia and the
coast (from Cape Jibuti to Hamfila Bay), are the Afar (in the
plural Afard) or Danakil {Dankali is in the singular), who
form the bulk of the population of the French colony of Obok-
Tajura. Physically they resemble the Somalis, but they are
less Arabised. To the north of the Danakil there is a
population akin, it is said, to the Agaw, or aborigines of
Abyssinia, and known by the name of Saho or Shako. It
occupies the southern part of the country of Massowah, the
northern being taken by the Ethiopian tribes known by the
collective name of Massowans.i
From the somatological point of view, the Ethiopians are
characterised by a rather high stature (im. 67 on the average),
a brownish or chocolate-coloured complexion with a reddish
tinge, by an elongated head (average ceph. ind., 75.7 to 78.1
^ Revoil, La Vallie du Darrar, Paris, 1882; Paulitschke, loc. cii. ;
Sergi, loc. cit., p. 178; Santelli, Bull. Soc. Anthr. Paris, 1893, p. 479.
RACES AiSfD PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 439
on the living subject, according to Chantre), frizzy hair,
intermediate between the curly hair of the Arabs and the
woolly hair of the Negroes, and lasdy by the face elon-
gated to a perfect oval, and the prominent, straight or
convex, very narrow nose.i Thin and slender, the Ethiopians
have fine ankles and wrists, long and very sinewy limbs
(especially the fore-arm), broad shoulders, and conical-shaped
trunk hke the ancient statues of Egypt. In short, they are
good representatives of the Ethiopian race.
III. Fulah-Zandeh Group. — Under this term we include
the whole series of populations resulting from the intermingling
of the Ethiopians and the Nigritians (or Sudanese Negroes),
and extending from east to west across the whole of Africa,
over a belt of 5 to 6 degrees in width. This belt passes
through the following regions, starting from the east : The
country of the Masai (between Lake Rudolf and the 6th
degree of latitude S.) ; the region comprised between the
upper valleys of the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Arab
on the one hand and the basin of the Ubangi-Welle on the
other ; Darfur, Dar-Runga, Wadai, Baghirmi, and Bornu ;
Dar Banda and the upper basin of the Shari ; a good part of
the basin of the Niger-Benue and the whole of the basin of
the Senegal. This territorial zone may be divided from the
ethnographical point of view into two distinct portions by the
line of the watershed between the basins of the Nile and
Congo on the one hand and the basins of the Chad, Niger,
and Senegal on the other. To the east of this line dwell,
in compact groups, the Zandeh or Niam-Niam, Masai, and
other populations who have sprung from the intermingling of
the Ethiopians with the Negroes of the eastern Sudan (Nilotic
Negroes), and in some rarer cases with the Negrilloes and
Bantus. To the west, on the contrary, we find, scattered
over an immense tract, isolated groups of one population only,
that of the Fulahs or Peuh, sprung from the crossings of
' See Appendices I. to III. for the measurements given from the works
already quoted of Deniker, Paulitschke, Santelli, Serpi, and Virchow.
44<i tHE kACES OF MA^f.
Ethiopians with the Negroes of the central and western Sudan,
and further impregnated with a strain of Arabo-Berber blood.
In the eastern group, which I propose to call provisionally
the Zandeh group, we find the Masai and the Wakuafi
peoples of an Ethiopian type modified by intermingling with
the Nilotic Negroes of the north, with the Bantus and perhaps
with the Bushmen of the south, to judge by the photographs
published by Luschan. The Masai speak a Nilotic-Negro
language. On the north-east they touch the habitat of the
Gallas, and are surrounded on every other side by Bantu tribes,
except on the north-west, where, between Lake Rudolf and
the upper Bahr-el-Jebel, exist populations still imperfectly
known, the Latukas, the Tiirkan, the Lurems, who are probably
half-breeds in various degrees of Ethiopians and Nilotic
Negroes,! as are the Drugu and the Lendu of the region of the
sources of the Ituri, the Loggos and the Momvus or Mombutius
(who must not be confounded with the Matigbattus) of the
upper valley of the Kibali.^
To the west of these tribes, in the basin of the Ubangi-
Welle, we find a compact group of several peoples who, under
various names, have however a certain family likeness in their
physical type, manners and customs, and language. These
are, in the first place, the Niam-Niam or Zandeh, who with
their congeners the Banja dwell to the north of the Welle.
They extend beyond the ridge which divides this river from
the White Nile, in the upper valleys of the Sere, the Jube,
and other tributaries of the great river. We also find a few
isolated Zandeh groups to the south of the Welle, but the
greater part of the country watered by the left tributaries of
this waterway is the domain of the Ababuas, the Abarmbos,
and the Mangbattus or Monbuttus, remarkable for their light
' J. Thomson, Through Masai Land, 2nd ed., London, 1887; Sluhl-
mann, MU Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika, Berlin, 1894; F. von
Luschan, Beitr. zur Volkerk. d. Deutsch. Schutzgebiet, Berlin, 1897, with
meas. and phot.
= W. Junker, Reisen in Afrika, Vienna and Olmiitz, 1S89-91 ; and
Ergdnzungsh. Peter. Mit., Nos. 92 and 93, Gotha, 1888-89.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 44 1
skin, as well as the lighter shade of their hair compared with
that of the other Zandehs (fair hair in five per cent). The
Niam-Niam extend to the eastward to the country of the
Makaraka (tribes of Bombeh, Idio, etc. ), where they intermingle
with the Mundics and the Babukurs. On the north-west the
Zandeh are in contact with tribes still little known, like the
Krej (basin of the upper Bahr-el-Arab), the Bandas, and
the N' Sakkaras, who, however, seem to be closely related. ^
The Niam-Niam and the Mangbattus, who may be taken as
types of Zandeh populations, suggest physically the Ethiopians;
however, strains of Nilotic-Negro blood are manifest among
them. They have a civilisation well characterised by several
traits in their material life : anthropophagy (see p. 147), gar-
ments of bast (p. 183), ornaments worn in the nostrils and in
the lips perforated for the purpose, spiral-shaped bracelets,
weapons of a particular kind (pp. 259 and 269), partly borrowed
from the Egyptians, as were perhaps their harp, bolster, and
so many other objects. They are cultivators using the hoe
(p. 192), fetichists partly converted to Islamism and forming
little despotic states.^
The populations encountered by the travellers Crampel,
Dybowski, and Maistre westward of the countries peopled by
the Zandeh, between the Ubangi and the Grinbingi (one of
the principal branches of the Shari), must also be connected
with the Zandeh group. These are, going from south to
north, the Bandziri, the Ndris, the Togbo, the Languasst, the
Dakoa, the Ngapu, the Wia- Wia, the Mandjo, the Awaka,
and the Akunga. The physical type of these tribes suggests
that of the Niam-Niam, except the stature, which is higher,
(im. 73, according to Maistre). The language common to all
these peoples, Ndris, differs from the Bantu dialects spoken
on the Congo, and appears to approximate to the Zandeh
1 Schweinfurth, "Die Monbuttu," Zeits.f. Ethn., 1873, p. I, and Aries
Africans, Leipzig, 1875; Junker, he. cit.; P. Comte, Les N' Sakkaras,
Bar-le-Duc, 1S95.
■ 2 See Schweinfurth, loc. cit. {Artes Africance], and The Heart of Africa,
2nd ed., London, 1878; Junker, loc. cit.
442
THE RACES OF MAN.
language. As to their material culture and civilisation, these
are almost the same as among the Zandeh tribes.^
The western group of the great Fulah-Zandeh division, of
which I have spoken above, is formed of a population more
homogeneous in type and language than the Zandeh, but dis-
persed in isolated groups in the midst of the Negroes. These
Fig. 139. — Yoro Combo, fairly pure Fulah of Kayor (Futa-Jallon); height,
im. 72; ceph. ind., 68.3; nas. ind., 81.2. {Phot. Collignon.)
are the Fulbes or Fulahs ^ speaking the Fulah tongue, their true
name being Pul-be' (in the singular FuZ-o, which means "red "
^ Crampel, Ze Tour dtt Monde, 1S90, 2nd half-year, p. i ; Dybowski,
La Route du Tchad, Paris, 1893; Maistie, De POubanghi h la Binoui,
Paris, 1895.
- Berarger-Feraud, Peuples de la Senaganibie, chap. iii. , Paris, 1879;
and the works of Faidherbe, Binger, Tautin, P. C. Meyer, quoted later.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 443
or "light-brown" in the Fulah tongue). The Mandingans call
them Fulbe, the Hausas Fellani, the Kanuri Fellaia. It is a
mixed population, the substratum of which is Ethiopian but
with a predominance either of Arab and Berber, or Negro
elements.^
The favourite occupations of the Fulahs, stock-breeding
and war, lead them away on more or less distant migratory
journeys and expeditions ; thus it happens that they are found
dispersed among the Nigritian populations over a large
tract of country comprised between the lower Senegal and
10° latitude N. on the one part, and from Darfur to the
hinterland of the Cameroons on the other part A fact to
be noted in regard to their geographical distribution is that
they have not yet reached any point on the coast of the
Atlantic. They are especially numerous in the valleys of the
Senegal and the Niger-Benue, as well as in Futa-Jallon and
Darfur. The latter country is probably the primitive country
of the Fulahs, whence they set out towards the west and the
south; their migrations from the Senegal towards the east are
of recent date and continue to the present day.
IV. The Nigritians. — We include under this name all the
Negro populations who do not speak the Bantu dialects ; these
populations exhibit as a rule the classic traits of the Negro:
lofty stature (from im. 70 among the Mandingans to im. 73
among the Furs and the Wolofs, according to Collignon,
Deniker, Felkin, Verneau, etc.), very marked dolichocephaly
(ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. reaching from 73.8 among the
Toucouleurs to 76.9 among the Ashantis, according to the
same authors), black skin, woolly hair in a continuous mat, large
and fiat nose (nas. ind. varying from 96.3 among the Negroes
of Tunis to 107.5 among the Ashantis), forehead bulging on
the median line and often retreating, thick lips projecting
outward, frequent prognathism. The territory of the various
peoples composing the Nigritian group may be defined as
1 Stature, im. 75; ceph. ind., 74.3; nas. ind., 95.3 (Collignon and
Deniker on 32 subjects).
444 THE RACES OF MAN.
follows : on the north, a wavy line which at first, going from the
mouth of the Senegal to the great bend of the Niger, then
deviates little from the fourteenth parallel going to the Bahr-el-
Ghazal and the Nile; on the south, the coast of the Gulf of
Guinea to the Cameroons, then the mountain ranges of
Adamawa and the seventh degree of latitude N., to the
countries occupied by the peoples of the Fulah-Zandeh group,
and farther to the east to the basin of the upper Nile. The
latter constitutes the eastern limit, while to the west this limit
is clearly indicated by the Atlantic Ocean. i
Among the Nigritians we also class the Tibus or Tedas of the
country of Tibesti, which extends in the midst of the Sahara
between the encampments of the Tuareg on the west and the
Libyan desert on the east. But it is a population already
much mixed with Berber and Arab elements.^
The Nigritian group maybe divided into four great sections:
(7, the Nigritians of the Eastern Sudan (Anglo-Egyptian) or
Nilotic Negroes; b, those of the Central Sudan (French), that
is to say the Hausa-Wadai group, with the Tibu already
mentioned; c, the Nigritians of the Western Sudan (French)
and the Senegal; lastly, d, the Nigritians of the coast or Negroes
of Guinea.
a. The Nigritians of the Eastern Sudan or Nilotic Negroes
speak various dialects having a certain relationship, and brought
together under the name of "Nilotic" languages. These
populations are Negroes in every acceptation of the word,
except the not uncommon instances where they are inter-
mingled with the Ethiopians (chiefly in the east) or with the
Arabo-Berbers (principally in the north). Thus the Nuba and
the Funje of Fazokl are connected by several facial charac-
teristics to the Ethiopians; they have besides even adopted a
Hamitic dialect, just as the Negroes of Kordofan, intermixed
^ It follows from what has been said previously that in many places the
northern portion of the Negro territory is invaded by the Ethiopians, the
Fulah-Zandeh, and the Arabo-Berbers.
^ Nachtigal, Sahara el Soudan, vol. i. (trans, into French), p. 245,
Paris, 1 88 1.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 445
with the Arabs, have exchanged their language for the Semitic
mode of speech. The Negroes of Darfur (the Furs or Furava
and the Dajo), of high stature, and very black (Nachtigal),
are much purer; they speak a Nilotic-Negro dialect. In the
west of the country they are mixed with the Fulahs, and
Arab tribes surround them on all sides. The predominant race
is descended from pure Arabs established first in Tunis, who
achieved the conquest of Darfur only in the nineteenth century.^
To the south-east of Darfur, separated from this country by the
encampments of the Bahr-el-Huer or Bagarra, Arabised
Nilotes, dwell other Nilotics of a well-marked negro type.
These are, first, the Niters of the right bank, and the Shilluks
(about a million) of the left bank of the Bahr-el-Ghazal from
Mechra-et-Reg to Fashoda; then the F>inka, Denka, or Jang ha
(about a million) of the low country watered by the right-
hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and by the Bahr-el-Jebel
or Upper Nile. All these tribes are shepherds, sometimes
also fishers or husbandmen.
The upper valleys of the right-hand tributaries of the Bahr-el-
Ghazal are occupied by the Bongo Negroes, divided into several
tribes : Moru, Mittu, Bongo (said to be steatopygous). Slightly
blent with the Ethiopians, they have an almost red skin,
of the colour of the soil of their country, impregnated with
ore. They are accomplished smiths and good agriculturists.
Between the Bongo of the west, the Dinkas of the north, and
the Niloto-Ethiopian tribes like the Latuka of the east, there
are established in the country traversed by the Bahr-el-Jebel
the Nilotic Negroes called Bart. As to the upper basin of the
Bahr-el-Jebel, it is occupied by the Madi (not to be confounded
with the A-Madi of the Welle), the Shueli or Shuli (whose
speech connects them with the Shilluks), and the Luri, who
are, like the Dinka and Shilluks, true representatives of the
Negro race. Very tall and shm, they resemble, with their long
limbs, the wading birds of the marshes whose approaches they
inhabit; for the most part their head is elongated and com-
' Nachtigal, Sahara nnd Sudan, Berlin- Leipzig, 1879-89, 3 vols.
446 THE RACES OF MAN.
pressed, the forehead retreating, their skin is black, and they are
blubber-lipped; the face is the prognathous face of the Negroes,
such as, in accordance with convention, they used generally to
be represented. They are settled cattle-breeders and tillers of
the soil.i
b. The Nigritians of Central Sudan present almost the same
type as the Nilotes. Such, for instance, are the Negroes of
AVadai (the Tama, the Massalits) and of Baghirmi (the
Barmaghe'), or at least those among them who have remained
free from intermixture, either with the Fulahs or the Arabs. As
much cannot be said of the nomadic Tibu or Teda of Tibesti
(p. 444), nor of their neighbours the Kanem^ to the north of
Lake Chad, and the Kanuri of Bornu and of the north of
Adamawa, who closely resemble them, but who are tillers of the
soil. The great nation of the Hausas prevails in the region
situated between the Benue, Bornu, the middle course of the
Niger, and Sahara (Sokoto, etc.); it extends even farther, into
Adamawa. Their language has become the language of com-
merce in those parts of the country limited by the bend of the
Niger, into which Fulah has not yet penetrated ; it extends
also into Bornu and Adamawa to the east, and into the country
of the Mossi and the Kong to the west. The Hausa nation
comprises a large number of peoples and tribes, with a greater or
lesser Arab and Fulah intermixture, among whom also should
probably be classed the Sara and their near relatives the Tumok
between the Shari and the Logone. The Sara are distinguished
by tall stature (average im. 77, according to Maistre), very
dark colour, and globular head (average cephalic index on the
living subject, 82).^
c. The Nigritians of Western Sudan and of Senegal. — This
' Schweinfurth, loc. cit., vol. i., chaps, vii. andlciv. ; Stuhlmann, loc. cil.,
chap. xxii. ; Frobenitis, Die Heiden-Neger, Berlin, 1893; E. de Martonne,
Annates de Giogr., Paris, 1896, p. 506, and 1897, p. 57.
^ Nachtigal, toe. cit.; Barlh, Reisen . . . in Nora ti. Centr. Afr.,
Golha, 1857-58, 5 vols.; Monteil, De Saint-Louis H Trifoti, Paris, 1S95;
Maistre, toe. cit.; Staudinger, Int Herzen der Haitssat'inder, Berlin, 1SS9,
2 vols.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 447
group, going from east to west, comprises: ist, various mixed
tribes, dwelling between the Niger and the basin of the upper
Black Volta; 2nd, the Mandd or.Mandingan peoples; 3rd,
the Toucouleur; and, 4th, the Wolofs.
ist. The peoples living between the Hausa on the east and
the Mandingans on the west are still little known, and seem to
be much mixed. Quite to the north, in the bend of the Niger,
below Timbuctoo, are found the Songhai or Sonrhays, who speak
a language apart, and in the north are mixed with the Ruma
"Moors," emigrants from Morocco, and in the south with the
Fulahs. To the south of their territory live the Tombo, partly
speaking Mandd, and the Mossi, whose language also has
affinities with Mandd. To the north of Wagadugu, the Mossi,
interblent with the Fulahs, speak their language, while south of
this town, they are of purer type and have a knowledge of the
Hausa dialect. To the east of the Mossi, in the region of
the sources of the White Volta, live the Gurma; while the
upper basin of this river, as well as that of the Red Volta, is
occupied by the Gurunga who previously formed the Grussi
(or Gurunssi ?) ' state. Farther to the south, in the territory
made neutral by a treaty between Germany and England, are
found the Dagomba, the Mampursi, and their congeners the
Gonja; these last, whose centre is at Salaga, have exchanged
their primitive language for " Guang," which appears to be a
dialect of the Ashanti tongue (Binger). In commercial relations
they employ also the Hausa and sometimes the Mandd and
Fulah languages, just as do the Dagomba and the Gurunga.
The Bariba, natives of Borgu, the hinterland of Dahomey, have
affinities with peoples we have just enumerated.
2nd. The Mandd, Mandingan,^ or better Mand^nkd (the word
' The Diumma or Diammo, to the north-east of the bend of the Black
Volta, are probably a branch of the Gurunga ; only having for long been
subject to the Ashantis they have adopted their language, which is the only
one they use in addressing strangers. (Binger, Du Niger au golfe de
Guinie, Paris, 1892.)
■ Beranger-Feraud, loc. cit., ch. v., a.xid Rev. Anthr., 1874, p. 444;
Binger, loc. cit.
448-
THE RACES OF MAN.
nke signifying "people" in the Mandd language) form a compact
linguistic group whose domain extends from the Senegal and
Upper Niger to that portion of the West African coast comprised
between Saint Louis and Monrovia. The domain of the
Mandd language extends much farther to the east than the
territory of the Manddnke peoples properly so called ; it en-
circles Timbuctoo, the countries of the Gurma and the Diumma,
where it competes with the dialect of the Fulahs, and
encroaches even on the domain of the Dogomba and the
Fig. 140. — Bonna M'Bani, Mandingan-Sosse ; height, im. 74; ceph.
ind., 74.7; nasal index, 102. i^Phot. Collignon.)
Gonja (to the north of Salaga), where the Hausa speech
prevails. The Manddnk^ properly so called includes a large
number of tribes, which may be divided into two great
clans: the Bamma or Bambara, whose "tennd" or totem
is the crocodile, and the Malinke (hippopotamus totem).
The Manddnkd are Mussulmans, except the clan Bamma
or Bambara of the basin of the upper Niger, which has remained
fetichist. Related to the Manddnkd, according to their dialects,
are the Sonink'e of the interior and many other populations of
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 449
the coast of Senegal. The Soninke or Sarakoles 1 inhabit the
right bank of the Senegal, above Matam and the margins of the
Niger,and below the Bamako as far as the vicinity of Timbuctoo;
they are crossed with the Torodo, Bambaras, and Fulahs. As
to the populations of the coasts, the following, proceeding from
north to south, are the chiefs First, the Diola,^ between
Casamanze and the Gambia, who have remained fetichist.
They are tall (im. 70) and dolichocephahc (cephalic index, 74.5
according to Collignon and Deniker). The principal tribe,
that of the Felups, has imposed its dialect on all the others.
To the south of the Diola are the Balantes and the Bagnoris, a
bellicose and turbulent people ; the Papels, one of the tribes
of which, the Mandjacks, is the most in harmony with its
masters, the Portuguese; the Bujagos of the Bissagos islands ;
the Biafares, the Nalus, the Landumans, fetichists of Rio
Nunez, having afifinities with the Hausa ; finally, the Baga of
the Compong delta, half-savage fishers, fetichist like the two
preceding, but of much fairer skin and more pacific* To the
south of the Pongo river are met the Sussus or Soss6 (Fig. 140),
driven from Futa-Jallon by the Fulahs. Their language is
spoken fluently in French Guinea, and even among the Nalus
and Landumans. To the south of Mellacory, in Sierra Leone,
the Timni take the place of the Sussus; then come the Vei or
Way, who extend as far as Monrovia ; alone among Negroes,
they appear to possess a special mode of writing. All the Mande
peoples bear a strong likeness to each other in physical type
(high stature, im. 70, dolichocephalic, colour black, etc.), and
the different tribes are only to be distinguished by tattooings
and other signs of an ethnographic kind, and by their dialects.'
' Faidherbe, " Les Sarakoles," Rev. de Linguist., 18S1, p. So.
^ For details see C. MadroUe, En Guitiee, Paris, 1895.
^ They must not be confounded with the Diula of the regions of Kong
and the upper Niger, one of the first Mandenke tribes converted to
Islamism, at the same time one of the least fanatic, perhaps because the
most given to trade. (See M. Monnier, loc. cit.)
* Coffinieres de Nordeck, Tour da Monde, vol. li., p. 273, 1886.
5 Binger, loc. cit.; Tautin, "Les Castes des Mandingues," Rev. Ethnogr.,
vol. iii. , Paris, 1884.
29
450 THE RACES OF MAN.
3rd. The Toucouleur or Torodo, regarded by some as
Fulahs intermixed with Wolofs (see below), inhabit the left
bank of the Senegal, from Dagana to Medine. They are to
be found also in the Segu Sikoro country and in the basin of
the upper Niger, in the midst of the Sonink^ and Fulah
shepherds, to whom these agricultural populations are subject.
The Toucouleur are tall (im. 73), and very doHchocephalic
(ceph. ind. on living subject, 73.8).
4th. The Yolofs, Wolofs, or Jolofs of Lower Senegal, with
their congeners the Leybu and the Serers of Lower Gambia,
are perhaps the most black of all Negroes; these are dis-
tinguished by tall stature (im. 73, according to Collignon,
Deniker, and Verneau), and by moderate dolichocephaly
(index on the living sub, 75.2). Their language is very wide-
spread in Senegal and Guinea, for they are good merchants
as well as tillers of the soil.^
d. The Littoral Nigritians or Guineans occupy all the coast
of Guinea from Monrovia to the Cameroons, and exhibit a
great uniformity of physical type. Less tall, in general, than the
Senegalese and the western Sudanese, the head is more elongated
and the complexion fairer. Notwithstanding this uniformity,
they are divided into several tribes, which, according to their
linguistic affinities, may be grouped into five great sections.
I. First, the tribes speaking the various dialects of the Kru
language — that is to say, Kru properly so called or Krumen,
Bassa in Liberia, and Grebo in French Guinea (to the east of
Cape Palmas).
The Kru are less tall (im. 69), less dark, but more hairy
than the Senegalese; the head barely dolichocephalic (75.1
ceph. index on living subject).^ Of all Negroes these are the
' For details in regard to the Wolofs, the Toucouleur, etc., see Beranger-
Feraud, loc. cit., chap, i., and Rev. Anlhr., 1875; Tautin, "Etudes . . .
ethnol. peuples Senegal," liev. Etitnogr., 1885 ; Deniker and Laloy, loc.
cil., p. 259; Collignon and Deniker, unpublished notes ; Verneau, " Serer,
Leybou, Ouolofs," VAnlliropoL, 1895, p. 510.
^ Deniker and Laloy, loc. cit. ; Ten Kate and Serrurier, Music Ethnogr.
Leyden, Notices Aiith., No. I., undated (1891 ? ), in fol.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 45 1
best factory workers, the best man-of-war's men and ordinary
seamen. They are obedient, faithful, and courageous; they
enter readily into engagements, and make a fair bargain. They
retain in their hands a good part of the trade of their country. '
2. To the east of the Grebo, between San Pedro and
Apollonia, live people speaking different dialects of the Agni
language. These are the Assinians or Okin (stature, im. 75),
the Agni of Krinjabo or Sanwy (Fig. 9), the Apollonians or
Zemma, the handsomest of the Negroes, who formerly
furnished to Brazil its thousands of slaves ; finally, the
Pai-pi-bri, between San Pedro and Lahu, whom Admiral
Fleuriot de Langle took for a white race. These Negroes are
really of a bronzed tint, much fairer than, for example, the
Okin. Other somatic traits (projecting nose, lips not thrust
out, etc.), as well as ethnic traits (bark clothing, etc.), together
with the recent arrival in the country of the Pai-pi-bri, have led
it to be thought that they have a kinship with the Zandeh
peoples.2 Their neighbours to the east, the Jack-Jack or
Jacks, hve opposite Dabu, on a narrow tongue of land
separating the lagoon from the sea; they call themselves
Awekwom, and speak, like their Ebrie and Attie neighbours,
a dialect of the Tshi language. They are excellent traders,
nearly all knowing English.
3. But the Awekwom and their congeners form only a
linguistic parish in the Agni country. The true domain of
the populations speaking the languages of the Tshi or Ochi
family begins only on the east of Apollonia. In the interior
are encountered the Ashanti and Ton shepherds and tillers —
that is to say in the ancient kingdom of Ashanti (now an
English possession), — and the Fanti traders on the coast, in the
region of Elmina.'^
^ Buttikofer, ReisebilJer aus Liberia, vol. ii. , Leyden, 1S90.
''■ Fleuriot de Langle, Le Tour du Monde, 1873, 2nd half-year; Binger,
be. cit., 2nd vol. ; Delafosse, " Les Agni," L' Anthropologic, 1893, p. 40J.
* Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples, etc., London, 1887, and llie
Ewe-speaking Peoples, ete., London, 1S90; Foa, Le Dahomey, Paris,
1895; D'Albecca, Le Totir du Monde, Feb. 1896; F. von Luschan,
loe. cit. (Beitr. Dcutsch. SchiUzg. . . .).
452 THE RACES OF MAN.
The Accredians of the coast, between the town of Accra and
the mouth of the Volta, formed a mixed population whose
language is not yet classed.
4. The Volta provides the approximate limit between the
Tshi t6ngues and the Eve or Ewe dialects. The bulk of
the people speaking Ewe occupy the German colony of
Togo and the west of the French colony of Dahomey. In
this group are distinguished six dialectic families : The Anlo
or Anglo of the coast between the Volta and Togo, whose
dialect is the best known ; the Krdpis, mountaineers of the
Akposso, to the north of the preceding, who speak the Anfueh
language ; the Ana, of Atakpamd ; the Fon or Fawins, better
known as Dahomese, to the east of the Anlo and'Krepis, who
speak the Jeji or Jege dialect ; the Ewe properly so called, or
Henhud, to the north of the preceding, especially around the
town of Wida (Gle-ewe, "land of the Ewes"); lastly, the
Mahi or Maki, entirely to the north, speaking the purest Ewe
dialect, and coming, as they say, from the banks of the Niger.i
e. The River Wami separates in the east the Ewes from the
peoples speaking the Yoruba tongues, and who are, from west
to east : the Egba or Ikba of the Abeokuta country, the Nago
of Porto Novo, the Ikelu and the Jebu of Lagos. The
Yoruba originally occupied all the region comprised between
the Slave Coast and to about the ninth latitude N. ; but they
have been driven back towards the coast and into the east by
the Ewe peoples, who, towards the beginning of the eighteenth
century, invaded the present country of the Dahomese, and
later (in 1772), the Togo and the ancient kingdoms of Porto
Novo and Wida (formerly Juida). In this last the Jege or
Fon (of Ewe stock) have imposed their dominion on the
Nagos (of Yoruba stock). Most of the Nagos have been
reduced to slavery ; they, together with the Mina, emigrants
from Ashanti, formed, while the slave-trade flourished, the
bulk of the black cargoes consigned to Brazil.^
' Rev. Dennis Kemp, Nine Years on the Gold Coast, London, 1898.
^ The name Mina was applied in Brazil without distinction to all
Negroes imported from the Slave Coast, while those from the Gold Coast
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 453
The Ewes and the Yorubas are shorter in stature (im. 64
and im. 65) than Nigritians in general, and are often
brachycephahc or mesocephalic. These two characters, com-
bined with the comparatively fair colour of the skin, observed
by all travellers, and the great development of the pilous
system, are, I consider, sufficiently indicative of the presence
in these people of Negrillo elements, of which I shall
presently speak.i
The Protectorate of the Niger coast and the delta of this
river are occupied by populations related to the Yorubas, but
much intermixed. The Benin, in the interior, whose kingdom,
where human sacrifices were much in vogue, has lately been
destroyed by the English ; then on the coast the active-trading
Jakris tribe, the Bonky and the Calabaris, who formerly
furnished so many slaves ; finally, the Idzo or Ijos, of the
delta of the Niger, divided into several tribes — Brass, Patani,
etc., good ship-builders, but very turbulent, — who have attacked
time after time the settlements of the Niger Company.^ In
the interior of the territory of this Company are found the
Igbera, mountaineers, forming several independent little states
(about a million and a half individuals) between Adimpa on
the lower Niger and Sakun on the middle Niger, as well as
on the Benue, and sub-divided into "Sima" of the towns
and "Panda" of the forests. Their neighbours the Igara,
speaking Yoruba, occupy the left bank of the Niger and
lower Benue, where they are more or less subdued, while
in the interior they remain wild hunters. In the Cameroons,
the Bantu, like the Dualas and the Bakokos, have driven
into hinterland the Bobondi, Buyala, and other Nigritian
tribes.
were called ApoUonians. Batty, "" Ycrouba Country," /«<?-«. Anthro.
Jnst., vol. ix. (1890), p. 160; Moloney, ibid., p. 2i3;'^:Ei''f:^u_r/i£ Yoruba-
speaking Peoples, London, 1894
1 Deniker, " Les Dahomeens," Rev. gin. Sciences, 1891, p. 174;
Deniker and Laloy, loc. cit.
^ See, about these populations, the ist Appendix, by Comte de Cardi,
in West Afric. Stud., by Miss M. Kingsley, London, 1899.
454 THE RACES OF MAN.
V. The Negrilloes} — The pigmy black populations are dis-
persed over a large zone extending from three degrees north
and south of the equator, across the entire African continent,
from Uganda to the Gabun. The Akkas or Tiky-Tiky of the
upper Nile and of the country of the Niam-Niam, the Afififi of
the country of the Momfu (between Kibali and Ituri), the
Wambutti of the Ituri, the Watwa or Batua living to the south of
the great curve of the Congo and the valleys of its tributaries
on the right, the Chuapa-Bussera and the Lomami, the O-B'ongo
(plural Ba-Bongo), the Akua, the Achango of the French Congo,
the Boyaeli and Bayago of the Cameroons, the Ba-Bengaye of
Sanga, are the principal rings of this chain of dwarf peoples
stretched between the region of the great lakes and the Atlantic
ocean. But Negrilloes have also been noted outside these
limits. Without stopping to "consider the evidence of the
traveller Mollien (1818), who speaks of dwarfs in the Tenda-
Maie country, near the sources of the Niger, where modern
explorers have never met with anything of the kind, we may,
however, bring together a certain amount of serious testimony
to the existence of dwarfs in the basin of the upper Kasai, as
well as more to the east, as far as Lake Tanganyika, and lastly
to the north of the Lakes Stefanie and Rudolf (English East
Africa), near the borders of Kaffa, 7° latitude north, where
pigmies have been described by older travellers under the name
^ Sch\veinfiirLh, loc. cit.; Stanley, Tn Darkest Africa^ London, 1890;
Wolff, Zeil.f. Ethn., 1886 (Verb., p. 25); De Quatrefages, loc. cit. (Les
Pygnihs), p. 253; De Quatrefages and Hamy, Cran. Ethn., p. 3^4;
FalUenstein, Zeil. f. Ellin., 1S77 (Verh., p. 194 and pi. xii.-xiv.); W.
Ylovizx , Joiirn . Anthr. Inst., vol. xviii. (iSSg), p. 3 ; Deniker and Laloy,
loc. cit., p. 28S ; Emin Bey (afterwards Pasha), " Sur les Akka, etc.," Zeit.
f. Ethn., 1886, p. 145 ; Junker, loc. cit.; Nebout, Tour ciu Monde, 1892,
vol. i., p. 64; Crampel, " Les .Bayagas," Conipte rend. Soc. Geogr.,
Paris, 1 890, j>r. 5-7(3-;' CK Lenz, Ueler Zwergvoiker Afr. , Vienna, 1 894 ;
Detj-iUir, Bull. Soc. Anthr., 1894, p. 440; Dybovvski, La Nature, 1894,
2nd half-year; Stuhlniann, loc. cit., pi. xvi.-xvii., p. 436; Schlichter
" Pyginy of Africa," Scot. Geog. Mag., 1S92, p. 289, and Petcrni. Mitteil.
1896, p. 235 ; Donaldson .Smith, Geog, Join n., London, 1896, pp. 225 and
235 ; Burro\\'s, loc. cit.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 455
of Dogbo, and where, in 1896, they were indeed discovered
by D. Smith. They call themselves Dumes, are about im. 50
(4 ft. II in.) in height, and resemble other pigmy tribes. Accord-
ing to Schlichter, other tribes of short stature live more to the
north, in Kaffa and Shoa : the Bonno, the Aro, and the Mala;
these last two are probably the same tribes as those spoken of
by the old explorers, D'Abadie and L. des Avranches, under
the name of Areya and Maltha.
According to Stuhlmann, the populations of the upper basin
of the Ituri are a blend of Pigmies with Bantus (the Vambuba,
the Vallessi), or with Nilotes (the Momfu).
Several authors confound in one group of Pigmies the
Negrilloes and the Bushmen. Nothing, however, justifies their
unification. The colour of the skin in Bushmen is a fawn yellow,
while in Negrilloes it is that of a chocolate tablet or of coffee
slightly roasted; the hair of the former is black and tufted,
while the hair of the latter is like extended fleece and
often of a more or less Hght brown. The face of the Bushman
is' lozenge-shaped, the cheeks are prominent, and the eyes are
often narrowed and oblique, which traits are not met with at all in
Pigmies. Steatopygy (see p. 40-41), a special trait of the Bush-
man race, has not been noted among Negrilloes, except in
individual cases among the women, and to a less degree than
among Bushmen, as, for example, is proved by the two
portraits of Akka women published by Stuhlmann. At the
same time the profile of the sub-nasal space, always convex in
the Akkas according to Stuhlmann, is often to be observed
among Bushmen. Thus, therefore, a slight degree of steatopygy
in individual cases and the profile of the sub-nasal space would
be the sole characters connecting the two races. In support
of this connection, shortness of stature has also been adduced.
At first sight this last appears feasible, but rigorous measure-
ments on a sufficient number of subjects are still lacking. In
the various series of Bushmen the figures vary from im. 37 to
im. 57, and in those of Negrilloes from im. 36 to im. 51.
These figures, however, are based on only from 3 to 6
individuals, except in three cases : a series of 50 Bushmen
45^ THE RACES OF MAN.
of Kalahari, measured by Schinz, which gives the average
height as im. 57 — that is to say, the same as the Japanese or
Annaniese; another series of 30 Akkas (by Emin Pasha)
giving an average height of im. 36; and a third series of 98
Watvvas (by Wolff) giving an average of im. 42.'- On com-
paring these three large series, the only ones deserving atten-
tion, a difference of om. 18 (7 inches) in height in favour of
Bushmen is shown. As to the cranial form, it varies also.
Notwithstanding the paucity of documents, it may be said
that the Negrilloes are, in general, sub-dolichocephalic or
mesocephalic (average index of q living subjects, 79.7);
while Bushmen are undoubtedly dolichocephalic (average
index of 11 living men, 75.8). Let me add in conclusion
that the Negrilloes are covered with a fairly thick down over
the entire body (Emin Pasha, Yunker, Stanley, Stuhlmann),
and that nothing analogous has been noted in Bushmen.
The Negrilloes live in the midst of other peoples (Bantus,
Nilotes, etc.), either as isolated individuals (for the most
part slaves) or in little groups (up to about 800 individuals),
hidden in the deepest thickets. These little hunters have
established a sort of modus vivetidi with the agricultural
populations surrounding them : they exchange with them the
produce of their chase, or of their gathering, for foods and
objects in metal ; they also pay for the protection of their
powerful neighbours by doing service, for the benefit of the
latter, as clearers of the forest, where it is a critical matter to
meet them on account of their arrows, poisoned with the juice
of a certain Aroidea, or with certain putrid animal matters
derived especially from the ant. The bow and arrows which
they use are the same as those of their protectors, only
proportioned to their stature.
VI. The Bantu group comprises the numerous peoples' of
Central and Southern Africa whose dialects form the Bantu
^ Schinz, loc. cit.; Emin, he. cit.\ Wissmann, Wolff, Von Fia.n9ois, and
Miiller, /;« Innern. Afrik., Leipzig, 1888, Appendix IV., and Zeil. f.
Etkit., 1884, Verh , p. 725.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA.
457
linguistic family, without having any analogy with the Nigritian
languages. They have all an agglutinative structure, and are
especially characterised by the exclusive use of prefixes. Each
principal prefix indicates an entire category of objects or
ideas ; such a prefix is I\P, Um, or Union (according to dialect),
denoting the singular; Ba, IFa, or Va, denoting the plural.
Thus the root JV/u (man) united to the prefix Union means
Fig. 141.— Catrai, Ganguela-Banlu ; height, Im. 73; ceph.
inch, 75.8; nasal index, 107. (Phot. Prime Roland
Bonaparte. )
"a man" {Unioti-Ntu), and with the prefix Ba "men"
{Ba-Ntii). It is superfluous to say that physically the
Bantus present a great variety of types. This is due especially
to intermixture with the Negrilloes and Ethiopians to the
north and with the Bushmen-Hottentots to the south.
Nevertheless, there may be discerned a probably primitive
type, which, while being fundamentally Negro, yet is dis-
458 THE RACES OF MAN.
tinguishable from the Nigiitian type. In this type the
stature is generally not so high, the head less elongated, and
prognathism also less; the median convexity of the brow often
disappears, and the nose is more prominent and narrower.
We may divide the Bantus, according to their ethnographic
and linguistic characters, into three large sections: western,
eastern, and southern.
I. The territory occupied by the Western Group'^ covers
almost exactly the south-east of the Cameroons, French Congo,
Angola, and Belgian Congo, except those parts of these states
situated to the north of the Congo. The Dwala (28,000
individuals, stature im. 69; ceph. ind. 76.2, according to Zint-
graff) and the Bakunda of the Cameroons, relatively civilised,
are found up to the point of junction of the Bantu and Nigritian
peoples, where the African coast changes its westerly direction
and becomes nearly north by south. Like their neighbours of
the south, the Mungos or Minihd of the north-west, and the
Balongs, who live in large phalansteries, they are intermixed
with Nigritian elements. East of the Dwala are found the
Basas and the Bakoris; these last are notable for their spirit
of solidarity, for the practice of the taboo and worship of
ancestors. PVom the somatic point of view, a great difference
is to be observed among them in the stature of men and
women. Like the Divala, they use the drum language
(see p. 134). The M'Fan or Fang, called Pahuins'^ by the
^ Dybowski, he. cit.; Maistre, he. cit.; Clozel, Totir dii Monde, 1896,
vol. ii. ; Guiial, Le Congo Franfais, Paris, 1889; Deniker and Laloy, he.
cil., p. 274; Biicliner, Kainerun, Leipzig, 1887; Morgen, Durch Kamerun,
Leipzig, 1893; Zinlgraff, Nord-Kaniernn, Berlin, 1S95, and " Congo-
Volk.," Z.f. Elhn., 1886, Verb., p. 27, and 1S89, p. 90; F. von Luschan,
he. cil. (Beilr., etc.); V. Jacques, " Le Congolais de I'expos. d'Anvers,"
Bull. Soe. Anthr., p. 2S4, Brussels, 1894; J. Wauters, L'Etat Indep. du
Congo, Brussels, 1899; Mcns^, " Volk. Mittl. Kongo," Z. f. Ethn., 1897,
Verb., p. 624.
2 The Oshyeba are a section of the Fan people; they may be divided
into Makima (in the Upper Ogowe) and into Mazuna (of the Gabun).
They are a people of famous warriors, composed of 200,000 individuals,
which number is increasing with extraordinary rapidity.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 459
Negroes of the Gabun, occupy the country situated between the
3rd degree of N. latitude and the Ogowe, and its right tributary
the Ivindo. But it is probable that their habitat extends
farther to the east, for the Botu, whom Mizon had met with in
the basin of the Sanga, appeared to be of the same race.
The Fans touch the sea-board of the Atlantic only at a few
points. With the Gabunese {Betiga, Kvmbe, etc.) and the
M' Pongives of the coast (whose language, which is very rich,
has been adopted by other tribes), they form almost the whole
of the population of French Congo to the north of the Ogowe.
It is supposed that the Fans, certain traits and manners and
customs of whom recall the Zandeh, have immigrated quite
recently, perhaps at the end of the last century, into their present
region, coming from Upper Ubangi, where the Zandeh tribes
live (see p. 441).
In the valley itself of Low Ogowe are found the Baloa or
Galois, and, farther to the south, between the Muni and
Sette Camma, \h.& Bakalai ox Bahele (about 100,000 according
to Wilson), former nomads, who have become carriers and
merchants. Ascending the Ogowe are met successively the
Apingi, the Okanda, the Aduma, the Okoia, etc. All these
tribes speak the same language as the islanders of Corisco, and
are for the most part very tall and dolichocephalic (average
stature of the Okandas im. 70, and ceph. ind. on the living sub.,
74.2, according to Deniker and Laloy). But there are met with
also among them tribes like the Aduma, who on the contrary
are short (im. 59) and sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 80.8,
according to the same authorities), which indicates inter-
mixtures with the Negrillo race, represented in the vicinity by
the Obongos or Ashangos to the east (Du Chaillu), and by the
Akoas to the west (Touchard and Dybovvski). The Adumas,
who are slave merchants (Guiral), are good boatmen. To the
south of Bakel, in the basins of the coast rivers, Rembo,
Nyanga, etc., are found the Balumbo, the Bavili, on the
coast, and the Ashira in the interior. The basin of the
lower Kuilu or Niari is occupied partly by Mayombe and the
Loatigo (height im. 65, ceph. ind. 77.5), mixed tribes, who are
460 THE RACES OF MAN.
dispersed equally over the coast from the river Nyanga to the
north to Landana to the south.
As to the upper basin of the Niari, it is inhabited by the
Bakuni or Bakimghe to the north, and by the Bakdmba
(height im. 69, according to Maistre) to the south. These
populations resemble the Loangos and somewhat also the
Kacongo (height im. 65, ceph. ind. 75.6, according to
Zintgraff). Farther to the south are the Basundo, savages
with, it is said, red hair, and the Babembe (height im. 72,
according to Maistre) and the Babuendi, recognisable by the
tattoo of a crocodile on the breast, who people the right bank
of the Congo from the mouth to Brazzaville. Among their
neighbours the Bacongo or Bafyof, who thickly populate
the opposite bank, the influence of the old Portuguese Chris-
tians is still to be recognised in many spots by processions
with the crucifix, but the supreme god has become feminine,
having relation both to the Virgin Mary and to the " Earth-
mother of All."^ This goddess, called Nzambi, is the principal,
personage of a trinity, the other members of which are a son,
and a third spirit, Deisos. The Bacongo have also as an
institution popular guardians of justice (p. 253), whom they
call pagasarios. Above Brazzaville, on the right bank of
the Congo, as far as Bolobo, are met various Bateke tribes,
distinguished by their short stature (im. 64), marked dolicho-
cephaly (73.6, according to Mense), powerful trunk, and
tattoo marks of several rows of parallel strokes on the cheeks.
They extend to the west as far as 10° long. E , and occupy to
the north all the basin of the upper Alima. The Batekes,
who, with their neighbours the Baboma and the anthropo-
phagous BaHali, were the first to submit to French dominion,
are travellers and, though practising anthropophagy, a temperate
people. The Ashikuya of the region of the sources of the
Nkheni, neighbours of the Batekes, are celebrated as the
best weavers of the Congo. The lower valley of the Alima,
1 A. Basllnn, Zeitschr. f. Elknol., vol. vi., 1S74 ; E. Reclus, Geogr.
Univers., vol. xiii. , p. 125, Paris, 18S8.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 461
as well as the right bank of the Congo as far as the mouth of
the Ubangi and even above, are occupied by the Bangi,
Bubangis, or Bapfuru (height, im. 73, according to
Maistre), differing from other tribes by their mode of head-
dress and their tattoo : a large sweUing of flesh on each
temple and on the middle of the brow. Their number is
estimated at about a million.^ North of the Bangis, between
the Congo and the Ubangi, live their congeners the Baloi
and the Bonjos, veritable athletes and proved to be cannibals
(Dybowski). The river M'Poko, which enters the Congo
opposite the town of Bangi, marks to the north the limit of
the Bonjos, as of the Bantus generally of this part of Africa.
Their immediate neighbours to the north, the Bandziris, are
more like the Zandeh than the Bantus.
To the south of the Congo the various Bantu tribes are still
little known.^ On the coast, between the mouth of the Congo
and the Kunene, the collective name of Angolese is given to
various much-intermingled tribes: Mushikongo (im. 66, ceph.
ind. 72.5), Kiamba, Kissama, Mondombe (plural, Bandombe;
im. 67, ceph. ind. 76.8), Bakiss'e (1.66, 75.5), etc. The
mountainous region situated more to the east — that is to
say, Bangala, the basin of the Kulu, the left tributaries of the
Kasai (ancient kingdom of Muata-Yamvo), the region of the
source of the Zambesi — is inhabited by populations who
have preserved the Bantu type in purer form. These
are, starting from the south, the Ganguela, occupying the
table-land bordered on the east by the upper valley of
the Kwando, on the south by the right tributaries of the
^ It is supposed that the Bubangis arrived at the north of French Congo
about the eighteenth century, and their migration towards the south,
stayed for the time being by the Batekes, has gone on to the present day.
^ Pogge, Im Reiche d. Mtiata Jamwo, Berlin, 1880, and Mittheil.
Afrik. Cesell., vol. iv., 1883-85, p. 179; Wolff, Verh. Cesell. Erdkunde,
Berlin, 1887, No. 2; A. J. Wauters, UElat independant du Congo,
Brussels, 1899, p. 257 et seq. ; Serpa Pinto, How I Crossed Africa, 2
vols., London, 1S81, with figs. ; Wissmann, Wolff, Von Francois, and
Miiller, Im Inneren Afrikas, Leipzig, 1888, with figs. ; Jacques, Les
Congolais.
4^2 THE RACES OF MAN.
Zambesi, and on the west by the Mubungo tributary
of Lalce Ngami ; they are excellent smiths, supplying articles
in iron to their neighbours, who are the Amboella, the
Kimbande, and the Kioko or Akioko. These last, scarcely
thirty-five years ago, taking up a position to the east of
the Ganguelas, have to-day advanced to the loth degree of
S. latitude, into the western part of Muata-Yamvo. But the
basis of the population of this ancient kingdom is constituted
by the Lunda tribes, whose territory extends from the
Kwango (affluent of the Kasai) to lakes Bangweolo and Moero.
They occupy the basin of the Kasai (Kalunda), the swampy
plains to the east of the upper Zambesi (the Bahinda, the
Lobale), and are distinguished by their peaceable habits and
hospitality. Their women enjoy a certain freedom.
The Baluba, who form an important nation, occupy the
territory between the Kasai, the chain of the Mitumba moun-
tains and the 6th degree of S. latitude. They appear to have
many analogies with the Lunda. Of tall stature (im. 70),
their head is more globular and complexion less dark than
with most Negroes (ceph. ind. 79, according to Wolff). The
original country of these tribes is the upper basin of the
Congo. Many of the Baluba are mixed with the Bashilange
aborigines who dwell between the middle valley of the Kasai
and that of its right affluent, the Lulua, and form a separate
population, relatively civilised, who emigrate as far as the
Congo, where they become engaged as carriers. These are a
lively people; the head is slightly elongated (stature, im. 68,
cephalic index 76.9, according to Maistre). About 1870
they underwent a politico-religious revolution and introduced
the hemp or "Riamba" cult, in accordance with which all the
smokers of Riamba declare themselves friends, the duty of
mutual hospitality is acknowledged, the sale of girls inter-
dicted, etc. Crimes are punished by excessive administrations
of the drug, which in the end stupefy the criminal (Pogge,
Wolff). Their neighbours to the north, the Bakuba of the
great bend of the Sankuru, who speak a different language,
are more sedentary and busy themselves in trade and the
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 463
cultivation of their fields, with the assistance of NegriUoes who
live among them. The Basongo, their neighbours to the
north, are redoubtable man-eaters.
All these populations, who, as we have seen, are characterised
by stature above the average and by moderate dolichocephaly,
are distinguished also by fairer complexion than their neigh-
bours the Bantus of the Congo (Maistie, Serpa Pinto,
Deniker and Laloy). The region they hold has frequently
(from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century) been invaded
by the " Djaga," armed bands in the service of certain families
of the Balunda people. The invaders intermingled with the
aboriginal race, which is probably allied to the Bushmen and
Hottentots ; at least, there are till now to be met with in the
country individuals of very pure Bushman type, above all
among the Kiokos.
The populations to be found between the great bend of the
Congo and the sth degree of south latitude, known collectively
as the Mongo or Balolo, and Bayombe, seem to possess traits
intermediate between the Lunda and the natives of French
Congo. They are degenerate tribes. Such cannot be said of
the Bayanzi of the right bank of the Congo, between Bolobo
and Lake Tumba, nor of the Banga, between the Congo and
the Ubangi, who are very alert, active, and intelligent. Their
mode of head-dress, in which the hair is plaited into horns, is
entirely characteristic.
Most of the western Bantu of French Congo and Congo
Free State wear ornaments in the lips, file or pull out the
incisor teeth, tattoo, and build small square dwellings.^
b. The group of Eastern Bantus includes numerous
tribes often having an intermixture of Ethiopian blood,
and ranging from the region of the sources of the Nile
to 15° S. latitude, between the east coast of Africa and the
1 L. Frobenius {Der Ursprung der Afrik. Ktdlurcn, Berlin, 1898) sees
in this last-cited fact a proof of the supposed influence of the Malays;
E. RecUis {Geogr. Univers., vol. xiii., p. 271) regards it as the result of
imitation of the European factories which have been established for three
centuries on the coast.
464 THE RACES OF MAN.
great lakes. German ethnographers distinguish among them
the ancient and modern Bantus, according to their immigra-
tion from the south or north, (see p. 429). On the coast,
between Cape Delgado and Port Durnford, the Bantus are
interblent with the Arabs and form a compound population
speaking the Kiswahili language.^ This Bantu dialect has,
owing to the simplicity of its structure, become the lingua
franca of almost the entire region occupied by the eastern
Bantus. To the west of the Swahili live, in Unyamwesi and
the surrounding countries, the Usambara and the Unyamwesi,
belonging to the "ancient Bantus,'' and having, like them,
migratory tendencies towards the north.
As to the Bantus of the Lake Region, the tribes of which
are dispersed between the south of Unyoro and Lake
Tanganyika, they are not more free from intermixture. But
they speak the dialect derived from that primitive Bantu
language, "Kirundi," or "Kikonjo," which to-day is preserved
in its original purity only in a narrow tract of some fifty
kilometres, extending from the foot of Mount Ruwenzori to
the northern extremity of Lake Tanganyika. Mixed with
Nilotes in Unyoro, with Wahuma Hamites elsewhere, the
language of these "ancient Bantus" was adopted by their
conquerors. The most southern tribe of this group is that of
the Makua, who extend to 16° S. latitude. The tribes who
people Uganda (to the north-west of Lake Victoria Nyanza)
have probably sprung from the same stock, but speak a
different language.
The peoples speaking Bantu to be met with south of Kilima
Njaro, on the Iramba table-land, the Wakamba, Wataita, Waka-
guru, and Wagogo, are Hamito-Bantus who have adopted the
manners and customs of the Masai. These " Bantus of recent
immigration " have come from the north-east, from the country,
of the Gallas, where their remaining fellows are still to be
found under the name of Wapokompo in the upper valley
' The prefix Ki means "language," a3 U means "country," and
Va-Ua, or Ba, " people," or " men."
RACES AND PEOPLES OE AFraCA. 465
of the Tsana, and Watakosho, speaking Galla, near Lake
Rudolf. Among the eastern Bantus are provisionally classed the
AVavira, who perforate the lips like the western Bantus; the
Wahuma, who are of Ethiopian type; and the other tribes who
dwell between the middle Congo and the lakes, from the
equator to 5" lat. S., who are also called Waregga (People of
the Forest). These are cannibals who have come from the
south-west; their language differs from that of their neighbours,
the Manyuema, who are of Ethiopian type. The tribes living to
the south of the Ituri valley, the Wambuba, the Wallessi, etc.,
appear to be a hybrid of Negrilloes and Bantus.
The group of Southern Bantus^ is composed of Kafir-Zulus
to the east, of Bechuana to the centre, and of Herrero to the
west. The Zulus (Fig. 47), of which the most southern tribe or
" Ama," the Amaxosa or Kafirs (Fig. 135), live in the eastern
part of Cape Colony, and have of recent times advanced
towards the north, far from the country of their origin, up
to the region of Usagara. Among the chief Zulu tribes should
be noted the Banyai, the Bakalaka, the Baronga, the Swazi
(Fig. 142), and the Tonga, between Delagoa Bay and the
Transvaal; the "Ama" Mpondo of Pondo, the "Ama" Tembu
of Kafirland; the Makong, neighbours of the Shinia (Foa) on
the banks of the middle Zambesi, etc. Except these Kafirs,
who have a special language, all the other Zulus speak the
Takesa tongue.
The Bechuana, separated from the Zulus by the chain of
the Drakensberg Mountains, are infused more or less with
Hottentot blood; they are divided into Eastern Bechuana or
Basuto, among whom Bantu traits predominate, and the
Western Bechuana or Bakalahari, who show a more marked
' Fritsch, Die Eiiigeborenen Sud-Afrikas, Breslau, 1872, with atlas;
Ilolub, Siehenjahre in Sud-Afrika, Vienna, 1881, vol. ii., figs, and maps,
and "Die Matabele," Zeitschr. f. EthnoL, vol. xx., 1S93; Kiopf, Das
Volk d. Xosa-Kaffern, Berlin, 1889 ; Wood, loc. cit., vol. i. ; Macdonald,
"Manners . . South-African Tribes," yi?«r«. Anth. Inst., vol. xix.,
p. 264, and vol. xx., p. 123 (1889-90); Johnston, British Central Africa,
London, 1897; Junod, " Les Ba-Ronga," Bull. Soc. Neuchateloise de
Geo^r., vol. x., 1898.
3°
466
THE RACES OF MAN.
intermixture of Hottentot elements. To the north of tlie
Bechuanas, in the upper basin of the Zambesi, hve the Barotse,
a people related to the Zulus, of which one tribe is known as
the Mashona. Finall)', two other Bantu tribes extend to the
south of the Kunene, surrounding the table-land inhabited by
the Hill Damaras or Haw-Koin (see below); these are the
Fig. 142. — Swazi-Banlu woniLin ami girl. (Co!/. Aiilhr. Ins/, deal
JU'ila/n. )
Ovambo or Ovampo, tillers of the soil (over 100,000), to the
north between 16,30° and 20" lat. S,, and the Ova-Herrero or
Damara shepherds, of a fine Bantu type, to the west and south.
Physically the Zulus are of high stature (im. 72, accord-
ing to Fritsch) and dolichocephalic (average ceph. ind.
of 86 skulls 73.2, according to Fritsch, Hamy, and
Shrubsall). They have these traits in common with the
RAPES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA.
467
Nigritians/ but they are not
so dark as the latter, and are
less prognathous. The face
also is square and the nose
prominent, although some-
what coarse.
VII. The Bushmen -Hot-
tentots" probably occupied
formerly the whole of South
Africa from the 15th degree of
south latitude to the Cape of
Good Hope. Hardly pressed
for three centuries by Bantus
in the east and north, and
for a century by Europeans
in the south, they are reduced
to-day to a few thousands of
families, wandering or se-
dentary, in the uncultivated
country of Namaqualand, in
the desert of Kalahari, and
in some points of the hinter-
land of the Cape, To the
north of 18° S. latitude are
found only a few islets of
^ The Bechuana are a liUle
shorLer (im. 68, according to
Fritsch) and more dolichocephalic
{ceph. ind. of four skulls, 70.9,
according to Ilamy, "DocunieirLs
Cafrerie," Arch. Mm. His/. Nal.,
p. 357, Paris, 1SS2). Siirubsall
{fourn. Anth. Ins/ , N.S , vol. i.,
l8g8) gives the ceph. index as
71.3 for the BasuLo skulls. The
Herrero and Dannara skulls have
the indices, 71 and 72.
- Fritsch, loc. cil.; Schinz, loc.
ci/.; Von Luschan, loc. ci/-
Fi I4j — Ivknjii,! hninof
the region of Lake Ngamr ; 40
years old; height, Im. 44;
ce[.h. ind., 77.2; nas. ind.,
97 5. (Phol. Coll. Anlhr. Soc,
J'an's. )
468 THE RACES OF MAN.
Hottentots, and towards the south they are no longer met
with in compact groups within sixty miles from the coast.
To the east, their habitat is limited at about 23° longitude E.
of Greenwich. And further, we must gather within these
limits the territory between the Herrero country and 18°
S. lat. of the Hill Daraaras or Haw-Koin, who, although
speaking a Hottentot dialect, possess a quite special physical
type; they are notably much darker than the Hottentots, and
recall rather the Negroes of Guinea. They are miserable
savages who live by hunting and plunder.
In addition to the Hill Damaras there are to be noted
in the group of which we are treating; ist, the Naman,
called Hottentots by Europeans (modification of the Dutch
word " hiittentiit,'' meaning of little sense, stupid), inhabiting
the west of the territory we have just defined (Fig. 24) ; 2nd,
the San ("Sab" in the masculine singular), called "Bosjesmen"
or " Bushmen " by Europeans, in the east of this territory
(Fig. 143). It should be remarked, however, that the word
Bosjesman(in Dutch, " man of the bush") is often applied to Hot-
tentot populations, or to Hottentot-Bushmen like, for instance,
tlie mixed breeds of Namaqualand who speak a Hottentot
dialect. In certain works the name Koi-Koin is applied to the
whole group before us. This is incorrect, for the Koi-Koin, or
better, the Hau-Khoin, are no other than a Hottentot tribe,
just as are the Nama, Gorana, and others (about 20,000).
There are numerous likenesses between the San and the
Naman, who are both representatives of the Bushman race'
(see pp. 287 and 455), but there are also numerous
differences. The Hottentot language is of the same stock
^ The Bushmen represent the race ahnost in its purity, while the
Hottentots show the traits of this race somewhat modified. The stature
of the latter is higher, the head more dolichocephalic, the complexion
darker, and the hands are not so small as is the case with Bushmen.
Their features are more negroid, and it has been suggested that contact
with the neighbouring Bantu tribes has had something to do with this.
(See Deniker, " Les Hottentots," Rev. d'An/hrop., 1889, p. i.) The
skin of the Hottentots, however, is still of a hue of yellow, and their
steatopygy is almost as pronounced as with the Bushmen.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 469
as that of the Bushmen ; and both are characterised by
the presence of certain articulations known as " chcks."
But the Hottentot dialects, which closely resemble each
other, possess four palato-dental clicks, while the Bushmen
dialects, differing much from each other, have besides these
four clicks another guttural click, as well as a certain articula-
tion which is not effected by inhalation as are the clicks
proper, but by rapid and repeated expirations made between
the two half-opened rows of teeth.
The two peoples differ equally in manners and customs.
Let it suffice to recall that the Bushmen live in the woods and
are nomadic hunters, who do not practise circumcision, but
whose custom it is to cut the finger-joints in sign of mourning.
(See pp. 181, 204, 211, and 228 for other particulars.)
The Hottentots, on the contrary, are nomadic shepherds ;
they live in the steppes, practise circumcision, and are
unacquainted with the custom of ablation of the phalanges.
Besides, they have lost all ethnic individuality; they dress in
the European fashion, speak Dutch or English, and live like
the white colonists. Children born of marriages between
Hottentots and Europeans are called "Bastards," a title which
in Africa is not regarded as discreditable.
Vin. The population of the island of Madagascar^ may be
divided into three great groups : the Hovas in the middle,
the Malagasies of the east coast, and" the Sakalavas of the rest
of the island. There is further to be noted the Arab infusion,
especially on the north-east and south-east coast.
The Hovas, or better, Huves, who occupy the high table-
land of Imerina (from which comes their true name, "Anta-
1 For particulars see Sibree, Great Afric. Island . . . ifadai^ascar,
1880; M. Leclerc, " Les peuplades de Madagascar," Kev. <fEthiiog7-.,
vol. v., 1886, p. 397, and vol. vi., 1887, p. i ; Catat, Voyage d.
Madagascar, Paris, 1895, in quarto; Grandidier, " Les Hovas,'' Kev. gUi.
des Sciences, No. for 1st June, 1895 ; A. Jolly, V Anthropologic, 1894, p.
385; Besson, ibid., p. 674; '' Le Madagascar," Rev. gen. des Sciences,
Paris, No. for iSth Aug., 1895, fig.; Last, Joiirn. Anthr. Ins/., 1896, p.
47; Bouchereau, V Anthr., 1897, p. 149; J. Carol, Chez les Hovas, Paris,
1898.
470 THE RACES OF MAN.
Imerina"!) are Indonesians more or less intermixed with
Malay stock ; their skin is olive-yellow, their hair straight or
slightly wavy, their eyes sometimes narrow; their stature is
short, their head globular, the nose prominent and somewhat
sharp (Fig. 144).^ They preserve many manners and customs
Indonesian in character— their square houses on piles, sarong,
instruments of music, fadi or iaboo for diet, infanticide, poly-
gamy, canoe with balance-pole, cylindrical forge bellows, form
of sepulture, etc. A half-civilised people, they are tillers of
the soil, shepherds, and traders. The Sakalavas, on the
contrary, are almost pure Bantu Negroes, black, dolicho-
cephalic, of high stature, with frizzy hair and flat noses. They
have preserved some features of Negro life (palavers, fetichism,
etc.), but are adopting more and more the mode of life of the
Hovas or the Malagasies. These last present traits inter-
mediate between the two groups ; of chocolate-brown com-
plexion, with frizzy hair, of medium height, they have other
features so modified as to recall sometimes the Hovas, some-
times the Sakalavas.
The Hovas arrived in Madagascar only seven or eight
centuries ago (Grandidier), and succeeded in subjugating the
Sakalavas and the mixed populations. Up to the period of
the French occupation (1896) they were masters of the island,
with the exception of the west coast and some points in the
south. They have imposed their language on the subjugated
populations, and all the peoples of the island, notwithstanding
their diversity of origin, of type, and of manners and customs,
speak Malagasy, which is a dialect of the Maleo-Polynesian
linguistic family with some intermixture of Bantu elements.
It is supposed that before the advent of the Hovas other
Malay and Indonesian incursions took place in the island,
' The prefix An/an or A7ila (in some dialects Ta) in Malagasy language
means " people of," and is found in the nomenclature of all the tribes and
people of the island.
= See the mea.surements given in Appendices I. to III., according to
Bouchereau, loc. cit., and my own unpublished observations made in
conjunction with Dr. Collignon.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 47 1
though nothing certain is known in regard to this ; that the
arrival of the Negroes was due to their own action is problem-
atical, notwithstanding the relative nearness (250 miles)
of the coast of Mozambique, the notorious incapacity of the
Negroes as navigators being taken into account. It is possible
that the Negroes were introduced into the island entirely by
the Maleo-Indonesians, who have always been good seamen.
The Arab invasions date back hardly five or six centuries.
The constitution of Hova society up till recently was divided
into nobles (Andriatia), freemen {ffovas), and slaves {Andevd).
The abolition of Royalty and slavery, after the French
occupation, have to a certain extent modified this hierarchy.
For thirty years converts to Protestantism, at bottom the
Hovas are very indifferent in religious matters, but cling to
their ancient animistic beliefs. To the Hovas should be
joined the Betsileo, who live to the south of the Iraerina
table-land ; they are not of such pure race as the Hovas, while
they are less intermixed than are the Malagasies.
Among these last must first be distinguished the popula-
tions of the coast : the Betsimasaraka and the Antambahoaka
to the north of the 20th degree of S. latitude; the Antaimoro,
the Antaifasina, the Antaisaka, and the Antanosi to the south
of this latitude ; then the population of the interior : the
Antsihanaka to the north of Imerina, the Bezanozano in the
centre of the island, the Antanala or Tanala, and the Bara and
Antaisara to the south.
The Betsimasaraka are dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. 76.3,
according to Collignon and Deniker), and of stature below the
average (im. 64). The Antambahoaka and the Antaimoro
claim an Arab origin, but they hardly differ from the other
Malagasies ; they are rather backward in culture and emigrate
from their country readily, but with the idea of returning.
The Antaifasina (who number about 200,000) have close
affinities with the Antaisaka, their warlike neighbours
on the coast, in closer proximity to Vangaindrano ; both
have many customs of Arab-Mussulman origin, and are con-
nected, according to all' probability, with the Bara tribe. This
472
xrir; races of man.
last lives inland, to the south of Betsilco, side by side with the
Antaisara, said to be true savages, but among whom are never-
theless observed signs of Arab blood (Scott Eliott). The
Antanosi are grouped round Fort Dauphin, but some of this
tribe has emigrated to the interior, extending as far as the
neighbourhood of the west coast, where it has assimilated the
customs of the Bara people. As a race the Antanosi are less
negroid than the other Malagasies, and recall rather the
Fig. 144. — Iloia uf Tanaiiaiivo ; 21 years old; licight, im. 62; ccph.
ind., 70 3. [Pho.'. ColIi,^-non.)
Betsimasaraka. They have curly or almost smooth hair
(Catat), and complexion of liglit chestnut. They are a
peaceable and intelhgent people, of cleaner habiis than the
other Malagasies. l^ke most of the tribes of the south of
Madagascar, even the Sakalavas (as, for example, the Anta-
vandroi), they wear garments of matting plaited with straw,
except on the coast, where ICuropean fafirics have now re-
placed the native garments.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 473
The Sakalava tribes are numerous. The best known are
the Menabe, Milaka, Ronondra, and MahafaH. In the north
of the island the Sakalavas are mixed with the Betsimasaraka,
and form the Antankar or Antankara people, wild shepherds
and tillers of the soil, recalling the Bantus ; their centre is
at Diego-Suarez. In the south, blended with the Bara,
they enter into the composition of the Antandroy population
(about 20,000), almost savage, who depend largely for sus-
tenance on the cactus berries of their sterile country, live by
cattle-raising, and have many manners and customs borrowed
from the Bara.
CHAPTER XII.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA.
The Stone Age in Oceania— I. Australians : Uniformity of the Australian
race — Language and manners and customs of the Australians — Extinct
Tasmaiiians — II. Populations of the Asiatic or Malay Archipelago:
Papuan and Negrito elements in the Archipelago — Indonesians and
Malays of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, etc. — iii. Melanesians: Papuans
of New Guinea — Melanesians properly so called of the Salomon
and Admiralty Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, etc. — iv.
Polynesians : Polynesians properly so called of Samoa, Tahiti, and
Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, etc. — Micronesians of the Caroline
and Marianne Islands, etc. — Peopling of the Pacific Islands and of
the Indian Ocean.
" Oceania " appears to me the term best adapted to designate
comprehensively all the insular lands scattered in the immensity
of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These in their entirety are,
from the ethnographic point of view, divided into a continent,
Austraha, which shelters a distinct race, the Australians, and
into two groups of islands. The western group, that of the
Asiatic Archipelago, formed especially of large islands, is
peopled principally by Indonesians, pure and mixed. As to
the eastern group, it falls into two regions: one region con-
sisting of New Guinea (which, after Greenland, is the largest
island of the world), together with the neighbouring archi-
pelagoes peopled by the Melanesian race; and the other region
formed of the innumerable islands, islets, rocks, and atolls
situated farther east, and occupied by the Polynesian race.
I shall describe separately the populations of these four
regions, but I must say a few words in advance in regard
to \ht prehistoric periods of Oceania.
474
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 475
With the exception of Sumatra, Java, and perhaps Borneo,
still connected with Asia at the end of the tertiary period, the rest
of Oceania formed an insular world apart, of ancient geological
origin. Except the discovery of the Pithecanthropus in Java
(see p. 360), hardly any finds relating to quaternary man can
be pointed to in this part of the world. The objects in chipped
or polished flint noted here and there in Malaysia, Australia, or
New Zealand, as having been found at a certain depth of earth,
have no fixed date, and, seeing that all Oceania, except West
Malaysia, was up to the end of the last century still in the
" stone age," and remains in that age yet at several places, it will
be understood that these finds may hardly be dated back
further than some tens or hundreds of years, and have no
connection with geological periods. ^ As to the megalithic
monuments, — the ruins of " Morai " and other erections in
Oceania, of which the best known are those of Easter Island,
but which exist also in the Marquesas, Tahiti, Pitcairn, and
Caroline Islands, — a precise date can with no greater certitude
be assigned to them.^
The long duration of the stone age in Oceania may be
explained especially by the absence of metallic deposits
in Polynesia, and by the relative difficulty of working the
iron and copper ores of New Zealand and of the rest of
Oceania.^
The contemporary stone age, together with the affinity of
the Malay, Polynesian, and Melanesian languages (Von
■ For particulars see C. Pleyte, "De prahist. steenen wapenen . . .
Oost-Indish. Archipel.," 5i;'rfr. /. d. Taal-Land-en Volkenk. van Nederl.
Ind., Batavia, 5th series, vol. ii., p. 586; Wilken, loc. cit., p. 83; Ethe-
ridge, " Has Man a Geological History in Australia?" Proc. Linn. Soc.
N. S. Wales, 1890, p. 259; B. Smyth, loc. cit., vol. i., p. 239, and vol. ii.,
p. 234; R. Chapmann, 7'rans. N. Zeal. Inst., 1891, p. 479.
' See W. Thomson Smith, loc. cit.; Tautain, "Monuments des Mar-
quises," L'Anlhropol., 1897, p. 4 ; F. Christian, "On Micronesian
Weapons,"y«<rK. Anthr.Inst., N.S., 1899, vol. i., p. 288, pi. xx. and xxiv.
'^ Besides, the Maoris of Nevf Zealand know nothing of pottery, notwith-
standing their clay deposits, nor of weaving, notwithstanding the presence
in their island of Formium and other textile plants.
476
THE RACES OF MAN.
Gabelentz), are perhaps the most characteristic traits of
Oceanic ethnography.
I. x^usTRALiA. — The Austrahans form a distinct ethnic
group, even a race apart from the rest of mankind. Notwith-
standing some local differences, they exhibit great unity, not
only from the somatic point of view, but also from the point of
view of manners, customs, and speech. Up to a certain point
Fig. 145. — Ambit, Sundanese of Java (Preanger prov. ),
30 years old; height, im. 67; ceph. ind., S5 7;
nas. ind., SS.6. [Phot. Pr. Rohvid Bonaparte.)
this unity may be explained by the fact that the nature and
surface of the soil, as well as the climate, the fauna and
flora, vary to a relatively slight degree throughout the whole
extent of the continent.'
' The division, based on physical characleis, of tribes of the interior,
composeil of a strong people of high stature and regidar featiucs, and of
tribes of the coast, formed of a little, ugly, and puny people, a division
proposed by Topinard (Bull. Soi. Aiitliro., 1S72), has not been confirmed
by later investigations.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 477
Formerly owners of the entire face of their country, the
Australians are now driven back farther and farther into poor,
sterile, and unhealthy regions. Those who remain in contact
with the invading European colonists are debased and
degenerate, and disappear rapidly. The tribes of purest type,
those of the mid-region and of the north coast, have recently
been well studied by Stirling, Baldwin Spencer and Gillen,
and W. Roth.i
The census of 1851 included 55,000 natives in Australia;
that of 1881 declared only 31,700; and that of 1891, no doubt
better compiled and including newly-discovered districts, gives
a return of only 59,464 natives and cross-breeds.^
Between 1836 and 1881 the number of natives in Victoria
fell from 5000 to 770; the tribe of the Narrinyeri in South
Australia, which in 1842 was composed of 3,200 members, was
by 1875 reduced to only 511 individuals. But no positive
proof has been obtained of diminution in the number of the
natives of the interior, nor of those of the west and north
coasts.
Most Australians exhibit the sufficiently pure type of the
Australian race as I have already described it (p. 285): dark
chocolate-brown skin, stature above the average (im. 67);
frizzy or wavy hair, very elongated dolichocephalic head (av,
ceph. ind., 71.2 in skulls, and 74.5 on the living subject),
' " Report . . . Horn Scientif. Exped. Centr. Austr.," Part IV., Anlhro-
pohzy, by E. Stirling, London-Melbourne, 1896; Baldwin Spencer and F.
Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Ausira/ia,'LoT\Ao\\, 1899, pl.;W. E.
Roth, Elhno\ Stud. . . . N.-PW. Centr. Queens/. Ahorig., Brisbane-
London, 1897. For tribes of the east and south, see E. Curr, The
Australian Race, Melbourne, 1886, 3 vols, with atlas; Lumholtz, Among
Cannibals, London, 1890; and the works already quoted of Hewitt, Fison,
and B. Smyth. The measurements given in the Appendices are obtained
from the works of Stirling and Gillen, Houze [Bull. Soc. Anihr. Bruxelles,
vol. iii., 1884-85); Cauvin, " Les Races de rOceanie,"^rc/;. Miss. Scienl.,
3rd series, vol. iii., Paris, 1882; Topinard, loc. cit.\ Turner, loc. cit., etc.
'^ These natives and mixed breeds are apportioned by colonies, thus: —
Victoria, 565; New South Wales, 8,280; South Australia, 23,789; West
Australia, 6,245; Queensland, 20,585 (of which 12,000 are pure aborigines).
478 THE RACES OF MAN.
prominent superciliary arches, nose flat and often convex,
sunken at tlie root, where it is very thin, but much enlarged on
the level of the nostrils, thick and sometimes protruding lips,
etc. The cranial capacity is rather low (see p. 99). The
pilous system is well developed over the whole body (Figs. 14,
15, 149, 150). Some of these characters, the dolichocephaly
and crooked nose, are common both to the Austrahans and the
Melanesians of the archipelagoes extending north-east of the
continent; while other traits (wavy or frizzy hair, etc.) differen-
tiate these two races, and connect the Australians with the
Veddahs of Ceylon and with certain of the Dravidian popula-
tions of India.
Deviations from the type just described are very slight, and
have been attributed, without, I think, much justice, to inter-
mixtures with Malays and Papuans on the coasts; elsewhere
deviations are quite limited.
The Australians have great powers of endurance, are
temperate and fairly agile; they climb trees readily with the
aid of a rattan rope, in the style of natives of India, of the
Canacks and the Negroes (p. 275 and Fig. 81).
Most travellers agree in regard to the low intellectual develop-
ment of the Australians. However, they have sufficiently
complex social customs, an extensive folk-lore,^ and their
children have been known, in the missionary schools, to learn
to read and write more quickly than European children;
arithmetic only appearing to be outside the limits of their
intelligence. It should be remarked in regard to all Australian
dialects that they have special words only for the figures one
and two, occasionally for three and four; but most frequently
"two and one" is used for "three," and "two and two" for
"four " (see p. 223).
The Australian languages present great resemblances to each
other; they all belong to a single family, having no affinity
with any other linguistic group. All these languages are
1 See L, Parker, Australian Legendary Tales, London and Melbourne,
1897, and More Australian Tales, ib., 189S; Spencer and Gillen, he. cit.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA.
479
agglutinative. The various forms of the words are produced
by the addition of suffixes, while in the INfalay and Papuan
Fig. 146. — Natives of Livuliri (near Larantuka, Floris). Indonesian race
witli intermixture in varying degrees of Papuan blood. Height from
Im. 55 to Im. 64; ceph. ind., 76.6 to 86.9. (Pliot. ami particulars,
Lapicque. )
4So
THE RACES OF MAN.
languages they are produced by means of prefixes. iVbbrevia-
tions, slovenliness of pronunciation, and neologisms are very
constant, and rapidly lead to changes in these dialects.
Gesture language is fairly developed, especially as an ideo-
graphic mode of communication between trilje and tribe.
Very often a gesture completes the i)hrasc, even in a colloquy
between two members of the same tribe; certain of these
gestures recall those of European children, such as lightly
Fig. i^y. — Tluii, a Solorian nf Ailnnara Uland (close to Flciris);
Mussulman. Ilt-ight, Im. 64; ccph. ind., 85. 1. {Pliol.
and p.irliiitla's, Lapiiqitc.)
rubbing the stomach to si;.;nify "I have had enough" (\V.
Roth).
The Australians are typical hunters (for their weapons, see
pp. 259 and ^67, and I'igs. 75 and 78). They know notliing
of cattle-raising; their only domestic animal, the dingo, is half
wild. Fruit gathering and the digging up of roots of wild
plants arc the principal occupations of the women. Into.xi-
cating drinks, apart from the regions penetrated by colonists,
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA.
4S1
are unknown; the custom of chewing " pituri " leaves {Diihoisia)
as a narcotic is fairly widespread.
Most of the tribes live under such shelters as nature affords,
or in huts made of leafy branches, hemispherical or semi-ovoid
in shape, and very low (p. 161); even these they do not take the
trouble to put up if they have other means of protecting them-
selves from cold, such as the woollen blankets distributed by
the Colonial Governments.
Fig. 14S. — Same subject as Fig. 147, seen in profile;
a striking blend of Melanesian and Indonesian traits.
{Phot. Lapuque. )
Sundry particulars have already been given in regard to
the ornaments of the Australians (p. 178, and Figs. 59, T49,
and 150), in regard to their marriage customs (p. 232), their
system of affiliation (p. 234), the " corroborees," and their
ceremonies of iniliaiioii (p. 241), at which time are practised
the circumcision and urethral sub-incision (inika operation,
p. 239) of the young people. On p. 210, et seq., I have already
31
482 THE RACES OP MAN,
given some details in regard to the music, poetry, and arts of
these people.
In most ethnographical works, the extinct Tasmanian
people are described side by side with the Australian. The only
reason of this lies in the proximity of their habitat, for really
the Tasmanians recall rather the Melanesians, both in somatic
traits and in mode of life. The language of the Tasmanians,
which is agglutinative with prefixes and sufifixes, presents no
analogy either with Australian or Melanesian tongues. The
Tasmanians appear to have been of stature below the average
(im. 66); head, sub-dolichocephalic (ceph. ind., 76 to 77);
broad and prognathous face; flattened and very broad nose;
frizzy hair (which last constituted their chief difference from
the Australians).^
II. Asiatic Archipelago or Malaysia.— The population
of this part of Oceania may be separated into four great ethnic
groups : Malays, Indonesians, Negritoes, and Papuans. The
first two form the basis of most of the ethnic groups of the
Archipelago, while the Negrito element is represented only in
the Malay peninsula (which from the ethnic point of view
may be associated with the Archipelago), in the Andaman
Islands (see p. 397), in the Philippines, and perhaps in Riu-
Linga ; and the Papuan element in the Aru and Ke Islands,
and in a lesser degree in the South- West Islands, Ceram, Buru,
Timur, Floris, and the neighbouring islets. It has long been
supposed that the interior of the Malay Islands is occupied
by negroid races akin to the Negritoes or Papuans ; but no
1 Estimated at 1000 in 1S17, the Tasmanians numbered 340 in 1824
(first census). The number fell to iii in 1834, to 51 in 1842, to 16 in
1854, to 4 in 1865 (H. Hull, Statist. Summary of Tasmanians, 1866).
The last representative of the Tasmanian people, a woman called Truganina,
died in 1876. Miss F. C. Smith, still living, and described as a Tasmanian,
in 1889, is a Tasmano-European half-breed (Ling Roth, Journ. Anthr.
Inst., vol. xxvii., p. 451, 1897-98).
" In his work. The Aborigines of Tasmania, 2nd ed., London, 1899,
with figs.. Ling Roth has conscientiously summarised all that has been
published about the Tasmanians.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 483
explorer of Sumatra, Borneo, Java,i or Celebes has yet
encountered Negritoes there, although the centres of these
islands have repeatedly been traversed ; hence there is little
hope of discovering negroid races in them. Besides, the
assumed Negritoes of the Mergui Archipelago, of Nicobar
and of Engano, described by Anderson, Lapicque, Man,
Sherborn and Modigliani, have been shown to be simply
Indonesians. The existence of true Negritoes has been
affirmed only in the extreme north of the Archipelago, in the
spots named above, the Andaman Islands, etc. If there be
any trace whatever of intermixture with these races, it should
not be necessary to search beyond the north parts of Sumatra
and Borneo — in other words, beyond the equator going south.
I have already given some particulars in regard to the
Negritoes of Malacca and the Andamanese (p. 397). As
to the people of the Phihppines,^ known under the name of
Aeta or Aita (a corruption of the Malay word " hitam,"
meaning black), they occupy the interior of Luzon Island in
little groups, and are to be met with also in the Mindoro,
Panay, and Negros islands, and in the north-east part of
Mindanao. They are shorter (im. 47) than the Andamanese
and the Sakai, but are very like them generally. They are
uncivilised hunters ; in certain districts where they are crossed
with Tagals they have begun to till the soil.
The Papuans (see p. 493) are still less numerous than the
Negritoes in the Asiatic Archipelago. They are to be found,
more or less pure, only in the Aru, Salawatti, and Waigiu
Islands, etc. All these islands form part of the Archipelago only
from the political point of view ; they belong by their climate,
their flora and fauna, to the New Guinea and Australian
1 There is no justification for supposing that the Kalangs of Java are
Negritoes, as A. R. Meyer has assumed in his memoir [Leofolciina, part xiii. ,
Nos. 13-14, 1877). See on this point, Kohlbrugge, " L'Anthr. des
Tenggerois," V An:hropologie, p. 4, 1898.
^ See Montano, "Mission aux PhiHppines,'' Arch. Miss. Scient., 3rd
series, vol. xi., with iigs., Paris, 1885; De Quatrefages, /iJf. cit. [Les
Pygmees); Schadenberg, Zeilschr.f. EtknoL, 1880.
4 §4
THE RACES OF MAN.
world. There are also tribes which recall the Papuans in
Ceram and Buru, in the Ke and Tenimber islands ; but in the
remainder of the Moluccas, and in Floris and Timur islands,
I IG. 149. — 'Jjilly, (Queensland Auilialian ; heii;ht, ini. 51 ; ceph. ind.,
70.4; nas. ind., 107.5. [P/tot. Prince Roland BoiiaJ arte.)
only traces of Papuan or Melanesian blood can be discovered,
generally in the form of intermixture with or modification of
the Malay or Indonesian type (see p, 491, and I'igs. 46 to 48).
Such at least is the conclusion to which lead the researches of
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA.
4«5
Ten Kate and Lapicque,i the only anthropologists who have
studied the question on the spot.
There remain the two principal groups of the population of
Fig. 150. — Same subject as Fij 149, m piulile Tattooini; b)
cicatrisation {PhoL Pi niie Kolaiid BonapaTte )
' Ten Kate, " L'Antliropologie d'Oceanie,'' V Anlhyopologie, vol. iv. ,
1S93, p. 279; " Verslag eener Reis in Tiniorgrcep," TijdscJir. Nederl.
Aardrijk, sk. Geiioot., Amsterdam, \-ob xi., 1S94, \sith summary in
French ; and Aiilhropo!. Problent in pisitlhniic . . Fe^tbuudtd . . .
Dr, P. Veth aan^ehodeu, p. 212, Leyden, 1S94; Lapicque, loc. cit.
( Tour du Monde).
486 THE RACES OF MAN.
the Archipelago : the Indonesians and Malays, who differ from
each other much less than till recently was supposed.
It has been said and frequently repeated, though without
precise documents to warrant the assertion, that the Indonesians
resemble the Polynesians, and the Malays the Mongols, but
recent anthropological research has proved that this is not the
case.'' The Indonesians, which is the collective name under
which, since Junghuhn, Logan, and Hamy,^ have been com-
prised the little intermixed inland populations of the large
islands (Dyaks of Bornea, Battas of Sumatra, various "Alfurus"
of Celebes and certain Moluccas, etc.), have none of the special
characters of Polynesians. They are of very short stature
(im. 57 on the average), mesocephalic or dolichocephalic
(av. ceph. ind., 78.5 on the liv. sub.), while the Polynesians
are very tall (ira. 72 on the average) and brachycephalic ; and
if the yellow colour of the skin and the nature of the hair
(straight or slightly curled) are almost the same in the two
races, the form of the nose, of the lips, of the face, as well as
various other traits, present notable differences.
On the other hand, the Indonesians singularly resemble the
Malays. Speaking generally, the Malays are somewhat taller
(av. height, im. 61) and brachycephalic (av. ceph. ind., 85
on the liv. sub.), but there is a great variety of type in this
group, which is much more mixed than the Indonesian. It is
even possible that the Malays (that is to say, the Malays
properly so called of Malacca and of Menangkabau in
Sumatra, as well as the Javanese, Sundanese, and the
riverine "Malays" of the other islands) are a mixed nation,
sprung from the intermixture of Indonesians with various
Burmese, Negrito, Hindu, Chinese, Papuan and other elements.
^ Modigliani, !oc. cit., and L'isola ilelle Donne . . , Engano, Milan,
1894; Danielli, " Cranii di Engano," Archiv. p. Tanthr., vol. xxiv. See
also the works already quoted of Montano, Hagen (as well as his
Anlhropolog. Alias Ostasiat . . . Volk., Wiesbaden, 1898), Ten Kate
Deniker and Laloy, Lapicque, Kohlbrugge, etc.
^ Junghuhn, Battalander anf Sumatra, vol. ii. , p. 375; Hamy, " Les
Alfourous de Gilolo," Bull. Soc. Geogr. Paris, 6th ser., vol. xiii., p. 490.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 487
In this case, the Indonesians would be of the pure Malay type,
the real Protomalays. Intermixtures of Indonesians and
Chinese are especially pronounced in Java, in the north of
Bornea, and in the Philippines of the north ; while in
Mindanao, in Sulu and Palawan islands, Arab elements
{Moras) dominate, and Hindu elements in certain parts of
Java, Sumatra, Bali, and of the south of Borneo. As to
intermixtures with Negrito blood they are, as I have already
said, specially notable in the north of the Archipelago, while
Papuan influence predominates in the south-east.
Apart from some savage tribes like the Olo-ot, the Punan of
Borneo, and the Kubus of Sumatra, all the Indonesians and
. Malays are tillers of the soil, using the hoe. The plant most ex-
tensively cultivated is rice, a foreign importation; it has replaced
the indigenous plant, millet {Panicum italicum), which only
some backward Dyak tribes, the Alfurus of Buru, and the
natives of Timur continue to cultivate. Mention has already
been made of the use of siri or betel (p. 158), and of geophagy
and anthropophagy (p. 145, et seq.) in the Archipelago. The
characteristic dress of the Indonesians and Malays is the kditt,
a piece of stuff passed round the loins and between the legs; also
the "sarong," which appears to have been imported from India
■ — a piece of stuff enveloping the body (Figs. 126 and 146),
worn by both sexes; the women wear besides the javat or
chastity belt. Among other ethnic characters special to the
Malay-Indonesians should be mentioned the quadrangular
houses on piles,i the use of the "sumpitan" (p. 261), the bow
being of foreign importation, either from India (in Java and
Bali) or from Melanesia (in the islands of the south-east and
south-west, in Timur, and the east of Floris); the national
weapon, the "kris," an inlaid dagger with slightly bent handle
and sheath in the form of an axe; the large quadrangular or
hexagonal shield (Fig. 79); tattooing, practised among the
Dyaks, the Igorrotes of the Philippines, the inhabitants of
Ceram, of Timur Laut, the Tenimber Islands, etc. ■
^ The dwellings in trees at Sumbawa, among the Mandayas of Mindanao
(Philippines), among the Lubu of Sumatra, should also be noted.
488 THE RACES OF MAN.
Among the customs of the family life should be noted the
alterations of names (the father at the birth of a son takes the
name of " the father of so-and-so ''); exogamy in relation to the
clan (the " saku " of the Malays of Sumatra, the "marga" of
the Battas), practised everywhere in Malaysia except by the
Dyaks and the Alfurus to the north of Celebes; the patriar-
chate, existing everywhere except in the " Padangshe Boven-
landen" (upper Padang district, Sumatra), among the Nias
and the Alfurus of Baru and Ceram; the universal custom of
carrying off the bride and the indemnity paid at once to
the relatives ("halaku" of the Dyaks, the "sompo" of the
Bugis). The barbarous practice of head-hunting, either
to be assured of servitors in the other world, or to lend
importance there (see p. 251), is in vogue with the Dyaks, the
Nias, the Alfurus of Minahassa (north Celebes), the Toradja
(mid Celebes), as well as in Ceram and Timur islands.^
Family property exists almost throughout the Archipelago,
side by side with individual property.
The- Malay languages, which form part of the Malayo-
Polynesian family, are of agglutinative structure, with prefixes'
and suffixes; by the introduction of infixes they have a
tendency towards flexion. Many words, however, do not
change at all, and represent at the satae time noun, verb,
adjective, etc. Among the dialects, Tagal is the richest in
affixes and gives to its words the finest shades; then comes
the Batta dialect, the dialect of the Alfurus of Minahassa,
and lastly, Javanese (see also p. 133). The dialect least
complicated grammatically is the Malay properly so called; it
has become the lingua franca and official language of the
Mussulmans throughout the Archipelago. Among other dialects
may be mentioned Mangkassarese and the "Behasa tanat " of
the Moluccas.
The Javanese make use of a special alphabet; the inhabitants
of the south of Sumatra have a hooked mode of writing,
different from the rounded writing of the Battas; finally, the
1 Pleytte, "DeGeogv. Otbreiding v. h. Koppensnellen, eLc," Tijdschr.
V. h. Aardrijksk. Genoots, p. 908, Amsterdam, 1891.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 489
Bugis and Mangkassars of Celebes, as well as the Bisayans and
Tagals of the Philippines, have special forms of writing derived
probably from the Devanagari. The Malays employ the
Arabo-Persian alphabet.
I will now add some particulars of the population of each of
the large islands of Malaysia.'
The interior of the island of Sumatra is inhabited by in-
dependent populations, known in the north under the name of
Battas (with whom should probably be associated the Ala and
the Gaja of the interior of Achin), and under the name of
Kubu and Lubu in the south. All these tribes, who are
primitive tillers of the soil, are famous as man-eaters and head
hunters. As to the regions contiguous to the east and west
coasts, they are inhabited (as well as in part the middle of the
island, between the Kubu and the Batta) by the so-called
Menangkabau Malays (the name of the ancient native king-
dom). The north coast is taken up by the Achinese, a mixed
Arabo-Indonesian people; while the south part of the great
island is occupied by, other compound populations, the Palen-
bangs or Javanese of Sumatra, the Rejangs (Malayo-Javanese),
the Passumahs (Indonesians intermixed with Javanese blood),
and finally the Larapongs, cross-breeds of Passumahs with
Sundanese (see below) and the natives of the south, such
as the Orang-Abong, who have to-day almost disappeared.
The islands skirting west Sumatra are peopled with tribes
resembling the Battas, like the islanders of Nias, of Engano
(p. 486, note), etc. The islands to the east are peopled
by Malays, except Riu and the middle of Biliton, which
are occupied by the Baju, a tribe perhaps of Negrito race.
The island of Bangka is occupied mostly by a branch of the
Passumahs.
In Java are to be noted the Sundanese in the west, the
Javanese in the east, the former being less affected by Hindu
' For the anthropometry of some of the peoples enumerated below, see
Appendices I. lo III. The figures there given are derived from the works
of Hagan, Ten Kate, Lapicque, Deniker and Laloy, Kohlbrugge, Jacobs,
Weisbach, Lubbers and Langen.
490 THE RACES OF MAN.
elements. The Madurese of Madura and Bavean islands, as
well as the Balinese of Bali, are like the Javanese. In the less
accessible mountains of the province of Bantam (west of the
island) live the Baduj, and in those of the east (province of
Pasuruan) the Tenggerese. These are two fairly pure Indo-
nesian tribes, who have preserved their heathen customs in
the midst of the Mussulman population of Java. There are
people like them in Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa.^
In Borneo, the coast is occupied by Malays, except the
north-east part, where are found Suluans (Arabised Indonesians
from the Sulu Islands), Bugis, and the Bajaus or Sea Gypsies,
analogous to those of Riu and Mergui (p. 396).
The interior of the large island is, however, the exclusive
domain of the Dyaks, the numerous tribes of which may be
divided into two great groups, the one of stationary, the other
of nomadic habits. The sedentary tribes, more or less inter-
mixed with immigrant elements, Chinese, Malay, and Bugi,
are more or less civilised. First come the Kayans, the Bahau,
and the Segai; then the Tagans, among whom, it is said, the
practice obtains of girls being deflowered by their fathers; and,
lastly, the Dusuns or Sun Dyaks, the Baludupis, the Land
Dyaks, and the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, etc. Second, the
nomads, who are purer than the fixed tribes, and sometimes
half savage, as, for example, the Punan and Olo-ot of the
middle of the island, are still httle known.^
The Philippine archipelago ' contains, besides Negritoes
(p. 483), a crowd of Indonesian tribes, which, from the lin-
' See J. Jacobs, De Badoejs, S'Gravenhage, 1891, and Kohlbrugge, he.
cit., and " De heilige bekers A. Tenegerezen," Tijdschr. v. Ind. Taal-
Land-in Volkenk, vol. xxxiv. , 1896. Among the Tenggerese some vestiges
of Buddhism may be discovered.
^ See Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak, 2 vols., London, 1896, and
Jour. Anthr. Inst., vols. xxi. and xxii. (1892-93).
^ Blumentritt, " Versuch. einer Ethnographic der Philip.," .ffA-^aBzaw^j.
heft, Peterm. Mitteil., No. 67, Gotha, 1887, with map; Montano, &.
cil.; Virchow, "Die Bevolker. d. Philip.," Sitzungsber. Berlin Acad.
IViss., 1897, p. 279, and 1899, p. 14; Brinton, "The Peoples of Philip."
(short summary), Amer. Anthropologist, October, 1898.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 49I
guistic and ethnic point of view, may be grouped as follows: —
Starting in the north-east we meet first the Cagayanes or Ibangs
around Lake Cagayan in the island of Luzon, and their
neighbours the Ifugaos, who are hunters of skulls; then
farther south we find the Igorrotes and their congeners; then
the Tagals; then, still farther south, in the interior, on all the
east coast of Luzon, as well as on the coast of Mindoro,
are found the savage Mangianes. At many points these
peoples are intermixed with Chinese blood. The west coast
of Luzon is occupied by the Ilocanos, who are bold colonists,
and, farther south, towards Manilla, tribes of the Zambales and
Pangasinanes. The quite southern extremity of Luzon is
occupied by the Bicols, nearly related to the Tagals, whom
one finds again also scattered over the islands (Catanduanes
Islands, north Masbate Island, etc.). West Mindanao is taken
up by the mixed population (Arabo-Negrito-Indonesian) of
pirates, Mussulman fanatics, known by the name of Moros;
the east of this island being inhabited by several tribes as yet
little -known, such as Mandayas in the south, Bogobos in the
north, etc., and the Caragas tribe of Bisaya or Vissaya.
Most of these last people occupy the rest of the archipelago
north of Mindanao, as far as and including the south of Masbate
and Samar and Tablas islands. They are met again beside the
Moros in Palawan Island between the Philippines and Borneo.
The Tagaloc language is largely superseding other dialects in
the archipelago; it has already displaced Bicol in the north of
the province of Camarine, Bisayan on Marinduque Island, etc.
Besides, Tagals emigrate to the other parts of the archipelago
and even to Marianne Islands. Most of the Tagals are
Christians; many can read and write Spanish, and not a few
have received a superior education.
Celebes Island is peopled in the north (Minahassa province)
by the Alfurus ; in the south by Mangkassars and Bugis, and
by various tribes (Toraja, Gorontolo, etc.), who as yet have
been little studied, in the middle. The Moluccas are inhabited
by other " Alfurus,'' with a greater strain of Papuan blood.
Timur, apart from its Malay or Indonesian coast populations,
492
THE RACES OF MAN.
contains also tribes imbued with Papuan blood ; such are the
Emabelo of the middle of the island; the Timur-Atuli of the
east coast; the Helong-Atuh in Samu Island opposite Kupang,
the capital of Timur; and lastly, the Rottinese of Rotti
Island, south-west of Timur, etc.
In Floris Island, the Sikanese of the central isthmus and
Fig. 151. — Young Papuan woman of the Samarai people (Dinner
Island, Moresby group, south of the south-east extremity of
New Guinea). Mixed type (Papuan-Melano-Polynesian).
[Phof. Haddon.)
the east part possess traits intermediate between Papuans and
Indonesians, while the Ata-Krowe of Koting and the Hokar
mountaineers are almost pure Papuans. The Lios to the
west of the Sikanese present again a mixed type, as do also
the inhabitants of the region of Larantuka (Fig. 146), among
RACES AND PEOfLES OP OCEANIA. 493
whom may be found all the degrees between Indonesian and
almost pure Papuan. This applies also to the Solorese of
the Solor Archipelago, east of Floris (Figs. 197 and 198). 1
III. Melanesi.\. — The Melanesians are a well-characterised
race. However, they exhibit in somatic type differences
sufficiently marked to separate the Melanesian race into two
sub-races. The one, Papuan, with elongated face and hooked
nose, is especially spread over New Guinea ; the other, or
Melanesian properly so called, with broader face, straight or
concave nose, has a geographical area which covers (from
north-west to south-east) the Admiralty Islands, New Britain
(Bismarck Archipelago), Solomon, Santa-Cruz, and Banks
Islands, the New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, and the Fiji
Archipelago. Further, there are a certain number of ethnic
characters which also justify the separation of the Papuans
from the Melanesians properly so called. (See pp. 494-495.)
The Papuans^ are found in the large island of New Guinea
and the coast islets ; for the most part they present the more
or less uniform type of the Papuan sub-race (long face, convex
nose, etc.), but the Melanesian type properly so called is also
_ ^ For the populations of Celebes, Timur, Floris, etc. , see Max Weber,
jydsch. Aardrijksk. Genools., 2nd ser. , vol. vii. , Amsterdam, 1890, and
Inter. Arch. Ethnogr., suppl. to vol. iii., Leyden, 1890, pi.; Brothers
Sarasin, Verh. Ges. Erdk. Berlin, 1894, 1895, and 1896; Ten Kate,
"Reis in de Timor groep," TijJ. Aardr. GenooL, 2nd ser., vol. xi.,
p. 199, Amsterdam, 1894, and VAnthiopologie, 1893, p. 279; Lapicque,
loc. cit,
^ See my summary of what was known of the Papuans in 1882 in the
/iev. cCAnlhr., 1883, p. 484, and the following works which have since
appeared : Chalmers, Pioneering in New Guinea, London, 1887, and
other works; De Clercq and Schmeltz, Ethnogr. Beschrijving van de iV.
en N. Nederl. New Guin., Leyden, 1893; Finsch, Samoafahrten,
Leipzig, 1888, and his articles in the Ann. naturh. Hofmus., Vienna, 1888
and 1891, in the Kev. d' Ethnogr., 1886, etc.; Haddon, " Decorat. art
Brit. N. Guin.," Ctmningham Memoirs, vol. .\., Roy. Irish Acad., 1894;
and " The Ethnography of Brit. New Guinea," Science Progress, vol. ii.,
1894, pp. 83 and 227, London, with map and bibliog.; Macgregor, Proc.
R. Geogr. Soc., 1890, p. 191, and his official reports; Thomson, Brit. Neio
Guinea, London, 1892.
494 THE RACES OF MAN.
to be found among them. The frequency of individuals with
a skin relatively fair, chocolate colour, especially in the
south-east of the island (British New Guinea), joined to the
frequency of wavy and straight hair, which, in the case of the
children, is sometimes chestnut or sandy at the ends and black
at the roots, has given the impression that there was a strong
infusion of Polynesian blood in the veins of the Papuans ; but
this idea has been refuted by all ethnologists who have
studied the populations on the spot — Miklukho-Maclay,
Finsch, Haddon. According to the last, the evidence is in
favour of some intermixture with the Melanesians, who, in
general, are fairer than the Papuans, and have often wavy
hair.i Some anthropologists (Miklukho-Maclay, Meyer, Hamy,
Mantegazza) have also pointed out the presence of Negritoes
or Negrito Papuan cross-breeds in New Guinea, basing their
opinion on the study of skulls. These Negrito-Papuans
appear to be localised at a single spot on the island, at the
mouth of the river Fly.^
It should also be said that some Polynesian customs,
kava drinking, tattoo by pricking, the possession of outrigger
^ It is also to be noted that the supposed Papuan-Polynesian cross-breeds
of the south-east of New Guinea neither drink kava nor know the art of
pottery, unlike true Polynesians. Besides, their language approximates
more nearly to the Melanesian dialects and presents no affinities with
Polynesian languages (Ray, " Languages of Brit. N. Guinea," Journ.
Anthr. Inst., vol. xxiv., p. 15, 1894).
''■ Papuan skulls are generally very dolichocephalic (av. ceph. ind. 73),
and the presence of brachycephalic skulls in the series of New Guinea
origin is certainly of significance, only their proportion is very slight. Out
of 500 New Guinea skulls described I have been able to find only 36
brachycephalic, or seven per cent. More than half of these skulls come
from one and the same locality, the Kiwai and Canoe Islands in the delta
of the Fly. Either a Malay colony may therefore be assumed there, a
remnant of Negritoes, or that it was a centre of the custom of deforming the
head, a custom which in fact obtains in the neighbourhood of the mouth of
the Fly. On this question see my summary of 1882 cited above, and
Haddon, loc. cit.; Schellong, "Anthr. d. Papus," Zeit. f. E/hn., p. 156,
1891 ; J. Chalmers, " Anthropometr. observ., eic," Journ. Anthr. Inst.,
vol. xxvii. (1897).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 49S
canoes, etc., to be met with at certain points of New Guinea,
are equally to be found in Melanesia (New Hebrides, Fiji,
etc.). Many ethnic characters may be brought forward which
are proper to the Papuans, or in which either Indonesians or
Australians resemble them — large phalanstery-houses (up to 300
feet) on piles with roofs of the shape of a reversed boat ; the
ceremony of initiation for the young of both sexes ; the use of
the bull-roarer and of very elaborate masks in religious cere-
monies, the seated attitude of limbs crossed tailor-fashion, in
which last they differ from the Melanesians, who rest squatting.
The Papuans (perhaps a million in all) are divided into a
great number of tribes. In the west (Dutch) portion are the
Mafors or Nofurs; the Varopen or Vandamenes in Geelvink
Bay and the islands lying within it ; the Arfaks, their neigh-
bours of the interior; then, on the north coast, the Amberbaki,
the Karons, one of the tribes practising anthropophagy (tolerably
rare among Papuans) ; lastly, the Talandjang, near Humboldt
Gulf; the Onimes in the neighbourhood of McClure Gulf, and
the Kovai farther to the south. The Papuans of German
New Guinea present linguistic differences : those of Astrolabe
Bay do not understand the natives of Finsch Haven, etc.
In British New Guinea the following tribes are known : the
Daudai to the west of the mouth of the Fly, the Kiwai in the
mouth of this river; the Orokolo and the Motu-Motu or
Toaripi in the Gulf of Papua; the Motu or Kere-
punu (Fig. 152) of Port Moresby ;i the Koitapu and the
Kupele more in the interior of the country, near the Owen
Stanley range ; the Loyalupu and the Aroma to the south of
the foot of Moresby ; finally, the Massim of the extremity of
the peninsula, the Samarai (Fig. 151) and their congeners of
the Entrecasteaux Islands and the Louisiade archipelago. ^
1 The Kerepunu are good agriculturists; their mode of working is
quite remarkable (Fig. 152). The soil is turned up at the word of com-
mand by a row of men, each of whom thrusts into the earth two pointed
sticks, then using these sticks as levers a layer of earth is raised and a
furrow is thus made.
2 ?Iamy, " Papous de la mer d'Entrecasteaux," Rev. Elhnog., 18S9.
496
THE RACES OF MAN.
kAdES AND tEOPLfiS 0# OCfeANIA. 497
The Papuans are tillers of the soil, and especially cultivate
sago, maize, and tobacco; occasionally they are hunters and
fishers, and are then very adroit in laying snares and poisoning
waters ; their favourite weapons are the bow and arrow with
flint heads. Excellent boat-builders, they merely do a coasting
trade, and while understanding well how to handle a sail, rarely
ever venture into the open sea. Graphic arts are developed
, among them (see p. 202, and Figs. 60 to 62). The practice of
chewing betel is universal. The dress of the men is a belt of
beaten bark (Fig. 60) ; that of the women an apron made of
dry grasses. Funeral rites vary with the tribe : burial, ej^posure
on trees, embalmment. Very- superstitious, living in dread of
" spirits " at the merest whispering of leaves in the forest, of a
bad augury at the least cry of a bird, the Papuans have no
rehgion properly so called any more than they have "chiefs";
all public matters are discussed at meetings where, however,
individual influences are always predominant. Among theiiv
principal customs may be noted the vendetta and the head-
hunt.
The inhabitants of Torres Straits very much recall
the Papuans; they have nothing in common with the
Austrahans.^
The Melanesians properly so called^ are for the most
part of the variety with large square or lozenge-shaped face,
with the straight or retrousse nose of the Melanesian race
' Haddon, _/ourii. Antlir. Inst., vol. xix., p. 297; S. Ray and Haddon,
"Languages of Torres Straits," Proceed. K. Irish Acad., 3id ser.,
vol. iv., 1897; Rev. Hunt, yo«r«. Aiithr. . . . lint., N.S., vol. i., p. 5,
1898-99.
'^ R. Codrington, The Melanesians, Oxford, 1891, fig.; Finsch, loc. cit..
Rev. Ethnogr., 1883, p. 49, and Anth'op. Ergcb. einer lieise in der
Sndsee, Berlin, 1884, with fig.; Flower, " Cran. caract. Fiji Islanders,"
Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. x., 1881, p. 153; IJagen and Pineau, " Les
Nouvelles-Hebrides," Rev. Ethnogr., 1888, p. 302; Guppy, The Solomon
Islands and their Natives, London, 1887; Hagen, "Les Indigenes des
Salomon," VAnthropoL, 1893, pp. I and 192; Aug. Bernard, La Nouvslle
Caledonie (thesis), p. 249 et seq., Paris, 1894; Luschan, loc. cit.; Schel-
long, loc. cit.
32
498
THE RACES OF MAN.
(Fig. 153). In general they are taller and more dolicho-
cephalic than the Papuans. (See Appendices I. and II.)
All tillers of the soil, cultivating especially the yam and taro,
Fig, 153. — Wuman of the Fualii clan (east coast of New Caledonia),
of pure Mclanesian race. (/Viol. E. Kobin.)
they practise huntmg and fishing only at times; the pig
is their only domestic animal. Most of the Melanesians
still live in the stone age, but the former fine axes of
polished serpentine, artistically hafted, are disappearing more
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. 499
and more. They also make many weapons and tools of
wood, of shells, and of human humerus bones. The favourite
weapons are the club, bow, and spear, this last being used
only in war (except in New Caledonia, where the bow is little
employed).
The arrow and spear heads are most often of human bone,
barbed, and sometimes poisoned with juices of plants or
microbes from the ooze of ponds or lagunes.
The Melanesians build outrigger and twin canoes, but they
do not sail far from the coasts. Pottery in certain islands is
unknown; the dwellings are little houses on piles, except in
New Caledonia, where circular huts are met with. Communal
houses ("Gamal") exist everywhere. Tattooing, little practised,
is most often done by cicatrices. The habit of chewing betel is
general, except in New Caledonia; but kava is almost unknown.
Anthropophagy is now indulged in only on the Solomon
Islands and in some islands of New Britain and New Hebrides,
although the custom of preserving the skulls of the dead, and
of hanging them near the hut side by side with those derived
from head-hunting, is general. As in New Guinea, there exists
a mob of dialects and tongues in each of the Melanesian
Islands, and even in different parts of the same island.
Melanesian women are very chaste and virtuous, and that not-
withstanding the absence of the sense of modesty, at least in
New Britain, where they go completely naked, as also do the
men. The men, in certain islands, wear only antipudic
garments (see p. 170). Taboo in Melanesia assumes a less
clear form than in Polynesia, where it amounts to simple inter-
diction without the intervention of mysterious forces. As in
Australia there are no " tribes " among the Melanesians
(except perhaps in New Caledonia), but in each island there
exists two or more exogamou|j "classes" or clans (as in
Australia), and the regulations of group marriage (p. 231) are
observed as strictly in the Solomon Islands as in Viti-Levu
(the largest of the Fiji Islands). Secret societies (Duk-Duk, etc.,
p. 253) flourish especially in Banks Islands, but are met with
also in the rest of Melanesia and even in the Fijis, where,
500 THE RACES OF MAN.
especially in the west islands, the population is already inter-
. mixed with Polynesian elements.^
IV. PoLYNESiANS.2— Seeing that the Polynesians are distri-
buted over a number of islands, and exist under the most varied
conditions, we might expect to find a multitude of types.
This is not the case; the Polynesian race shows almost the
same traits from the Hawaii Islands to New Zealand. This
fact is due to the constant migrations from island to island, and
the active trading conducted by all the Polynesians with each
other, the effect of which is to efface, by process of inter-
mixture, differences arising from insular isolation.
From the physical point of view the Polynesian is tall (im.
74, average of 254 measurements), sub-brachycephalic (ceph.
ind., 82.6 according to 178 measurements on the living subject,
79 according to 328 skulls), of a fair complexion (warm yellow or
brownish), with straight or curly hair, most often straight nose,
the cheek-bones fairly projecting, the superciliary arches little
marked, and, especiallyamong thewomen, something languorous
in the look (Figs. 154 to 156). The Polynesian therefore differs
completely from the Melanesian, whose stature is below the
average (im. 62 according to 295 measurements), and who is
doHchocephalic (ceph. ind., 77 according to 223 measurements
on living subject); he has dark skin, woolly or frizzy hair, con-
cave or convex nose, and, lastly, prominent superciliary arches,
' The number of Polynesians (2,310 in 1897) has diminished by half in
the Fijis since 1881, while that of the natives (100,321 in 1897) has hardly
varied. The Polynesian element is appreciable in the Aoba, Tanna, and
Espiritu Santo islands of the New Hebrides, but its importance has been
exaggerated so far as the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia are concerned
(see my note in the Bull. Soc. Anthr., p. 791, 1893).
^ Ellis, Polynesian Researches, 4 vols., London, 1853; Tautain, " Les
Marquisiens," L Anthropologie, 1^4, 1895, and 1898; Meinecke, Die
Inselen des stillen Oceans, 2 vols. , Leipzig, 1875; Markuse, Die Hawai-
schen /nselen, Bexlin, 1894; Lister, "Natives ofFakaofu (Bowditch Island),"
Journ. Anthr. Insl., vol. xxi., 1892, p. 43; Ch. Hedley, "The Atoll of
Fanafuti, EUice group," Australian Museum,, Memoir III., Sydney,
1897; H. Gros, " Les populations de la Polynesie franjaise en 1891,"
Bull. Soc. Anthr. Paris, 1896, p. 144 ; Ten Kate, loc. cit.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. SOI
which, combined with the pigmentation of the cornea, give
a fierce and suspicious look. The Polynesian is more subject
to obesity than the Melanesian. He is more lively, more
imaginative and intelligent, but also more dissolute in his
habits than the Melanesian.
Before the advent of Europeans, the Polynesians of the
upper volcanic islands were expert tillers of the soil (as witness
the ruins of irrigation works in Tahiti, New Zealand, and else-
where), and in the lower coral islands lived on the produce of
the cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees. Everywhere they were
accustomed to fish. They cooked their foods by means of heated
stones (p. 153), having (except in Micronesia, in the Tonga
and Easter Islands) no knowledge of pottery; they excelled
in the art of plaiting, in the preparation of tafa (p. 1 83), and
especially in navigation. Their light canoes with outriggers
(Fig. 82), or their large twin canoes connected by a platform
and always carrying a single triangular sail of mat,- furrowed the
ocean' in all directions. For weapons they had short javelins,
slings, and wooden clubs, but neither bow nor shield. They
made tools of shell and polished stone, and were proficient in
the art of wood-sculpture (Fig. 71). Pictography appears to
have been known only in Easter Island (p. 140). Kava (p. 158)
was their national drink; tattooing had reached the condition
of an art in New Zealand only. The custom of taboo (p. 252)
probably originated in Polynesia, where also two or three social
classes are to be met with. After the arrival of Europeans the
Polynesians, adopting the customs of the new-comers, under-
went rapid changes. For the most part Christians, especially
Protestants, they have modified their very rich old mythology
by the incorporation of Christian legends. In several islands,
in Hawaii, Samoa, and New Zealand, the Polynesians have
even risen to the height of having parliamentary institutions, in
the management of which they themselves take part. On the
other hand, civilisation, in ensuring peace, has had the effect
of making the Polynesians unenterprising and lazy, and more
inclined to dissipation than they were formerly. And the
population is diminishing, owing either to imported epidemic
qos
THE RACES OF iMAN.
diseases (particularly syphilis and tuberculosis), or to cross-
breeding.
In the Sandwich Islands, now subject to tiie United States,
the Hawaiians do not number more than 31,019 out of the
709,020 inhabitants registered by the last census (1S96), or 28
Fig. 154. — Tahitian woman of Papeete, hventy-six 3-ears old.
Polynesian race. (Fliol. J'rincc Kolaii i BonaparU.]
Pure
percent, of the population; while in 1S90 there were 34,436,
constituting 38 per cent, of the total population. The chief
causes of this reduction are phthisis and leprosy, as well as the
Sino-Japancse and European immigration. In the Marquesas
Islands, belonging to France, the native Polynesians numbered
RACES AND TEOPLES OF OCEANIA.
503
only 4,304 at the census of 1S94, while in 18S7 there were still
5,246; the principal cau?e of this diminution being tuberculosis
(Tautain). Tiie Moriori of Chatham Island (east of New
Zealand) are reduced to fifty in number; and the Maoris of
New Zealand, so celebrated for their tattooings, their legends.
j^^^S^^y'
<<
i^^^
4-
^S^^iH
%.
' «
mM
^^
m
p^J
'.'<&^k
k/^M
W
^m^
'^m''"
-fS"
&a^y
W^'
iiiskidv .
N *''^']^^H
Fig, 153. — Same subject as Fig. 154, seen in profile. (Fhol. Prince
Roland Bonaparte. )
and their ornamental art, do not count more than 41,933
(census of 1891), distributed over the northern island and
over the northern part of the southern island. They are also
losing their native originality, are growing civilised, and
intermix with the Europeans.
504
THE RACES OF MAN.
The Samoans (35,000), and their neighbours the Tongans
(25,000), who have frequent relations with the Fijians, seem
to remain stationary in nmnber. The native population (t,6oo)
of Tahiti has not varied since the establishment of the French
dominion. The Ilervey or Cook Islands shelter Sooo
Fig. 156. — Tahitian of Papeete ; pure Ft, l3-aes'ian race. {Phot.
Frvice KolaiiJ Bonaparte. )
Polynesians, the Tuamota Islands 7000, and the remaining
islands less than 2000 each.
The Polynesians of the western islands situated north of the
equator (Gilbert, 35,000; Marshall, 12,000; Caroline, 22,000;
INlarianne) are called IMicronesians. They differ slightly in
type from the Polynesians ; they are more hairy, are shorter,
RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA. SOS
their head is more elongated, and they possess some ethnic
characters apart : rope armour, weapons of shark's teeth,
special money (p. 271), etc.^
The peopling of the innumerable islands of the Pacific and
Indian oceans by three distinct races whose languages have
affinities with Malay dialects, forms one of the most interesting
problems of ethnology. Anthropologists have largely discussed
the point of departure of these races.^ According to common
opinion it is from the south-east of Asia, from Indo-China,
that the peoples now scattered from Madagascar to Easter
Island originally set out ; on the one hand driven by the
monsoons of the Indian Ocean, and on the other by the
monsoons of the Pacific, both of which, during a period of
the year, are contrary to the directions of the prevailing
winds. The peopling of Melanesia and Polynesia from west
to east becomes very probable if, as Bernard^ has justly
remarked, the distribution of lands and islands, the dis-
appearance of continents in proportion as we proceed east-
ward, is taken into account. It is in fact evident that migra-
tions were effected more easily across large islands fairly near
each other, like those of the Indian Ocean or the western
Pacific, even granted contrary winds and currents, than across
very small and very distant islands like those of the western
Pacific, even granted favourable currents. If it is a question
of involuntary migrations, the cyclones and tempests which
drive canoes afar amount to an inversion of normal winds,
and migrations of this kind are effected in all directions.* As
to voluntary migrations, they are also deliberately made in a
direction opposite to that of the prevailing winds. It was in
order to ensure their safe return that primitive peoples noted
the regular winds and currents, merely taking advantage of
' Kubary, loc. cit., and/otirn. Mus. Godeffroy, parts 2 and 4, 1873.
^ De Quatrefages, Les Folynesiens el leurs migrations, Paris, 1 866, with
maps.
* A. Bernard, loc. cit., p. 272.
* Sittig, " Unfreiwillige Wanderungen . . .," Pelerm. Mittheil, p. 61,
1890.
S06 THE RACES OF MAN.
some chance breeze in setting off Legends afford little help
to determine these migrations in detail, and, apart from some
historic facts, it is difficult to state precisely the origin of the
populations of each of the Oceanian islands.
CHAPTER XIII.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA.
The four ethnic elements of the New World — Origin of the Americans —
Ancient Inhabitants of America — Problem of pateolithic man
in the United States — Palasolithic man in Mexico and South America
— Lagoa Santa race ; Sambaquis and Paraderos — Problem of the
Mound-Builders and Cliff-Dwellers — Ancient civilisation of Mexico
and Peru — Present American Races — American languages.
Peoples of North America — i. Eskimo — ii. Indians of Canada and
, United States: a. Arctic — Athapascan group; ^. Antarctic — Algonquian-
Iroquois, Chata-Muskhogi, and Siouan groups ; c. Pacific — North-
west Indians, Oregon-California and Pueblo groups — III. Indians
of Mexico and Central America : a. Sonorian-Aztecs ; b. Central
Americans (Mayas, Isthmians, etc.) — Half-breeds in Mexico and the
Antilles .
Peoples of South America — i. Ancieans : Chibcha, Quechua, and other
linguistic families ; the Araucans — ii. Ajnazonians : Carib, Arawak,
Miranha, and Panos families; unclassed tribes — III. Indians of East
Brazil and the Central Region : Ges linguistic family ; unclassed
tribes (Puri, Karaya, Bororo, etc.); Tupi-Guarani family — iv. South
Argentine: Chaco and Pampas Indians, etc.; Patagonians, Fuegians.
At the present day about six-sevenths of the population of
the two Americas are composed of Whites and Half-breeds
of all sorts. The remainder is made up almost equally of
Negroes and natives, the latter improperly called Indians. ^
Notwithstanding the relatively small number of these last
(about 10 millions), I shall deal almost exclusively with them
^ A. von Humboldt, in his Evaluation numerique de la population du
Nouveau Continent, Paris, 1825, reckoned that in the Americas there were
13 millions of Whites, 6 millions of Half-breeds, 6 millions of Negroes, and
9 millions of Indians ; three-quarters of n century later (in 1895-97) it was
computed that there were 80 millions of Whites, 37 millions of Half-
breeds, 10 millions of Negroes and 10 millions of Indians in a total
population of 137 millions (1897).
507
So8 THE RACES OF MAN.
in this chapter, as they are especially interesting from the
ethnological point of view, besides having been the best studied
from this point of view. A few words will sufifice in regard to
the Whites and Negroes. The white colonists and their
uncrossed descendants belong for the most part to Anglo-
Saxon or Germanic peoples in North America, and to Neo-
Latin peoples in South America. Nine-tenths of the popula-
tion of the United States owe their origin to the Anglo-Scotch,
to the Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians, the fusion of which
with other European types and with half-breeds tends to pro-
duce the Yankee type, which, if not a physical, is at least a
social type. In Canada two-thirds of the white population are
Anglophones, and the rest Francophones. In Mexico, in the
Antilles, and in South America, nearly all the "white" popula-
tion is made up of Neo-Latins — in Brazil descendants of the
Portuguese, in Argentine of Italo-Spaniards, and elsewhere of
Spaniards. The Latins have also contributed to form the
half-breeds of America, of which several varieties exist. Half-
breeds are especially numerous in Mexico and in the countries
where the three elements, White, Indian, and Negro come
together, as in the Antilles, in Columbia, Venezuela, and in
Brazil. I shall give some particulars of the Half-breeds in con-
nection with the populations of these lands (pp. 542 and 545).
As to the Negroes of America, they are the descendants of slaves
imported, during more than three centuries, almost exclusively
from the West African coast, and particularly from Guinea.
('"^ee p. 452.) The Negroes are especially numerous in the
1 south of the United States and in the Antilles, as well as in
the north and on the east coast of South America, as far as
; Buenos Ayres.^
"" Origin of the Americans. — To-day the existence of an
American race, or rather a group of American races (p. 291), is
generally conceded, a group to which all the native populations
of the New World belong; but as to the origins of these races
unanimity of opinion is far from being reached. According to
/ ' Williams, Hist, of the Negro Race in America, -z vols., New York,
18S5 ; B. A. Gould, loc. cit.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 509
some authorities, the New World is a special centre of the
manifestation of species, the Homo Americanus having developed
on the spot; according to others, the ancestors of the present
Indians came from neighbouring countries — a few from every-
where: from Siberia and China (by Behring's Straits), from
Polynesia (driven by currents), from Europe (failing Atlantis,
by the table-land which in the quaternary period probably
stretched between England and Greenland). Unfortunately,
almost all these hypotheses are based on a confusion both of
time and space. It may without difficulty be conceded that
occasional Chinese and Japanese junks may have been driven
towards America, although the existence of this continent
remained unknown both to China and Japan till quite recent
times. We know positively that the Northmen visited the shores
of North America long before Christopher Columbus. And
there is reason to suppose that the Polynesians, who are
excellent navigators, may have ventured, urged forward by
currents, as far as the South American coast. But all these
occurrences would be too recent, and such migrations would
be in fact both too insignificant and too isolated, to account
for the peopling of a vast continent. The origins of American
man are much more distant in the past, and the migrations, if
migrations there were, must have taken place in the quaternary
epoch, and probably as much from the coast of Europe as
from the coast of Asia.
Ancient Inhabitants of America. — Just as is the case
with Europe, it is not certain that man existed in America
during the tertiary period,^ but it is certain that he appeared
^ The celebrated skull discovered by Whitney in the auriferous sands of
Calaveras (California), which has been said to belong to the pliocene age,
has been disputed both as regards its authenticity and the supposed date of
its bed; and it is the same with the pestles and mortars discovered in the
same neighbourhood by such geologists as Skertchly and C. King (cf. W.
Holmes, " Prelim. Revis. Evidence to Aurif. Gravel Man in Calif.," Am.
Anthrofologist, N.S., vol. i., Nos. i and 2, New York, 1899). The
imprints of human feet, or rather of moccasins, discovered at Carson
(Nevada), even granted that they are authentic, have in any case been
found in beds whose period is by no means tertiary.
SlO THE RACES OP MAN.
there during the quaternary age. This period, in the New
World as in the Old, had its glacial epochs. According to
Dawson, Wright, and Chamberlin, there were two or three great
movements of invasion and withdrawal of the American
glaciers. It is not known if these movements were synchronous
with those of Europe, but it is established that, as in Europe,
the first invasion of glaciers was also the more widespread.^
Chipped argilite tools, similar to the quaternary quartz tools
of sub-Pyrennean countries, have been found by Abbott in the
gravels of the Delaware, near Trenton (New Jersey), side by
side with quaternary animals (probably of the second glacial
period, notably the fragment of a jaw-bone). Other imple-
ments have been gathered on the spot by Haynes in New
Hampshire; by Dr. Metz. in the gravels of Little Falls (Minne-
sota), regarded by W. Upham as more recent than those of
Trenton; by Cresson at Medora (Indiana), and at Claymont
(mouth of the Delaware), in a more ancient deposit than the
Trenton one; by Wright and Volk at Trenton (in 1895); with-
out reckoning the thousands of finds either on the surface or
in lesser-known beds, which have been enumerated in a
special memoir by Wilson. If I dwell on these details, it is
because all these finds have latterly been vigorously attacked
in the United States, since Holmes, who had studied the
ancient quarries of the Indians, pointed out the great resem-
blances between the spoiled or waste argilite axes and arrow-
heads which he had found in these quarries, and the supposed
palaeolithic implements, particularly those of Trenton. Several
authorities, such as Chamberlin, MacGee, Brinton, have, like
' At this period Greenland, all Canada, a corner of Alaska, and a good
part of the United States were covered with glaciers almost uninterruptedly.
The limit of the moraine to the south may be indicated by a line which,
leaving New York, for Lake Erie, would follow the course of the Ohio as
far as the region of its junction with the Mississippi, and would be continued
along or a little to the west and to the south of the Missouri to coincide then
with the Canadian frontier. The fauna of the American quaternary period
differed somewhat from that of Europe : the Rhinoceros tichorhinus, for
instance, was missing, while the Mastodon ohioticus and several large
edentata, such as the Megatherium, Mylodon, etc., are met with.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 51I
Holmes himself, come to the conclusion that all the so-called
palaeolithic tools of America, and perhaps even those of Europe,
are only spoiled or waste tools of the same kind, and relatively
modern. This conclusion seems to overshoot the mark, seeing
that specialists like Wilson, Boule, etc., are almost unable to
distinguish undoubted quaternary tools of Europe from those
of Trenton, and that the beds of many American prehistoric
tools have been perfectly well ascertained not to have under-
gone any rehandling, and have been established as quaternary
by competent geologists.^
Outside the United States palaeolithic finds in the New World
are not very numerous, and often are questionable.
Palaeolithic tools of the Chellean and Mousterian type have
been found in Mexico by Franco and Pinart;^ other quaternary
tools, together with a fragment of a human jaw-bone, have
been described in the valley of Mexico by S. Herrera.^
In Brazil, on the shores of Lake Lagoa-do-Sumidoro
(province of Minas Geraes), Lund exhumed human skeletons
^ See for details, Abbott, Primitive Industry, Cambridge (Mass.), 18S1,
z.aA Evidence . . . Antiquity of Man in East N. America, 1S88; F. Wright,
The he Age in North America, New York, 1889, chaps, xxi. and xxii.,
and Meet. Ainer. Assoc. Adv. Sc. of Buffalo, 1896; Geikie, loc. cit. (chap,
li., written by T. Chamberlin); Metz, Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol.
xxiii., p. 242; W. Uphani, ibid., p. 436; Hille-Cresson, Proceed. Bost. Soc.
Nat. Hist., 1889; Holmes, loc. cit. {^Fifteenth Rep. Bur. Ethn.); Th. Wilson,
A Study of Prehist. Anihrop., Washington, 1890 {Extract from Rep. U.S.
Nat. Mus., 1887-88, p. 597). For the discussion, see Science for 1892 and
1898. Marcellin Boule has summarised most of the works quoted, and shows
the present state of the question in Revue d'Anihropologie, 1888, p. 647, and
iaL' Anthropologic, 1890 and 1892; see also Nadaillac, Z'v4«//i?-fl/u/£;f«, 1897
and 1898. I will merely note that the tendency of surface objects to sink
towards deep beds, brought forward by the opponents of Abbott, Wright,
etc., altogether fails to explain why other implements (in flint, jade, etc.)
or pieces of pottery have not similarly been carried down, and that only
argilite tools are ioundflat in deep beds.
^ Hamy, " Anthropologie du Mexique," Miss, scientifique du Mexiqtie
{Reck, zool., 1st part), p. 11, Paris, 1884.
2 S. Herrera, Proceed. Am. Ass. Adv. Sc, Madison, 1893, pp. 42 and
312 ; Th. Wilson, lac. cit. ; De Nadaillac, V Amerique prehistorique, Paris,
1883, and Revue (t Anthropol., 1879 and 1880.
512 THE RACES OF MAN.
and flint objects, together with remains of animals which, if
not quaternary, at least exist no longer in the country.
Ameghino^ also has collected in quaternary layers of the
Pampas of the Argentine Republic remains of primitive human
industries. I will only mention the numerous neolithic objects
found almost everywhere in America. Among these objects
it is necessary to give special attention to the " grooved
axes" which are entirely characteristic of the New World
(Wilson).
As to prehistoric human bones, investigation reduces them
to little. I have already said that the tertiary or quaternary
skull of Calaveras (brachycephalic) is classed as doubtful.
The skeleton of Pontimelo (with dolichocephalic skull), found
by Roth under the carapace of the glyptodon, an enormous
armadillo of the Pampas regions of the Rio Arrecifes,
a tributary of Rio de la Plata, also inspires but a limited
confidence in many authorities. Lastly, the skulls and
bones of Lagoa Santa, if not quaternary, at least very ancient,
afford special characters (dolichocephaly, short stature, third
trochanter), on the strength of which De Quatrefages has
established a special race,^ whose probable descendants
constitute my Falce-American sub-race. (See p. 292.)
Side by side with finds of stone objects and bones in very
ancient strata, it is necessary to note also the shell-heaps
and kitchen-middens scattered along all the coast of both
Americas, from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Louisiana
to Brazil, to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. In this last
country the present inhabitants, who subsist especially on
molluscs, contribute to the piling up of these heaps or to the
formation of new ones. This is enough to indicate that all the
kitchen-middens are not synchronous ; and if there be some
1 Araeghino, La Antigttedad del hombre en El Plata, Paris-Buenos-
Ayres, 1880, 2 vols.
^ De Quatrefages, " L'homme foss. de Lagoa-Santa," Izviestia Soc. of
Friends of Nat. Sc, Moscow, vol. xxxv., 1879; SSren Hansen and
Lutken, Lagoa Santa Racen, Copenhagen, 1889, extract from E Museo
Lundii, vol. iv. ; Hyades and Deniker, loc. cit., p. 163.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 513
which go far back into antiquity, on the other hand there
are some which are quite modern. The " Sambaquis," for
instance, of the mouth of the Amazon and of the province of
Parana must be very ancient; some of the skulls which have
■ been found in them recall the Palae-American or Lagoa Santa
race.i The paraderos, or elongated hillock graves, discovered
in the province of Entre Rios, in the valley of the Rio Negro
(Argentine Republic), by Moreno and R. Lista, enclose flint
tools (neolithic?) and numerous skulls, among which a certain
number also exhibit likenesses to those of Lagoa Santa.^
In North America, the Mounds, fortified enclosures or
tumuli of the most varied appearance, round, conical, and in
the shape of animals, have also for long attracted the attention
of archaeologists. But if the discoveries and excavations made
in these monuments have been many, an exact explanation of
their meaning was lacking till recent times. The groups of
mounds are scattered over an immense tract of country, from
the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Rocky
Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean ; but they abound particularly
in the valley of the Mississippi, along its left tributaries, in
Arkansas, Kansas, etc., as well as in the basin of the Ohio.
Farther west, towards the Rocky Mountains, as well as
towards the Atlantic coast, they become less frequent. Till
recently, the construction of these hillocks was attributed to
one and the same people, called by the not very compromising
name of " Mound-Builders." This people, tillers of the soil
and relatively civilised, must have lived from the most remote
antiquity in the region planted with these mounds, and must
have been destroyed by the nomadic and wild hordes
^ Lacerda and Peixoto, " Contribui9oes . . . ra9asindig. do Brasil," Ar-
chiv. do Mus. nac, Rio-de-Janeiro, vol. i. , 1876, and l\/em. Soc. Anthrop.,
Paris, 2nd ser., vol. ii., 1875-82, p. 535; H. von Iliering, '"A civilisa9ao
prehist. de Brazil merid.," Revista do Mtiseu-PauKsta, vol. i., p. 95, S.
Paulo, 1895.
^ Moreno, "Cimet. et paraderos prehist., etc.," Rev. Anthrop., 1S74,
p. 72; Verneau, "Cranes prAist. de Patagonie," VAnihropol., 1894,
p. 420.
33
514 THE RACES OF MAN.
represented by the present Indians. Such, at least, was the
prevailing hypothesis. However, an attentive study of these
mounds and the objects they covered has led little by little the
most competent authorities (Cyrus Thomas, Carr, H. Hale,
Shepherd, and the numerous members of the " Mound
Exploring Division") to distinguish several "types" of mounds,
the geographical distribution of which would serve to indicate
the settlements of diverse tribes. E. Schmidt, in a compre-
hensive worlc, has brought together all these investigations, and,
by the light of linguistic data furnished by Hale, Brinton and
others, has been able to state precisely who these various
tribes were.^
It may be said at once that these investigations have by no
means confirmed the great antiquity of the mounds; on the
contrary, objects of European origin (iron swords, etc.), found
in certain mounds, the tales of the early explorers which tell
us that the Indians raised these mounds, and the traditions
of the natives themselves, all force us to the conclusion that
the builders of these funereal monuments or fortified enclosures
were no other than the various Indian tribes whose remaining
descendants exist to-day in the reservations. These tribes were
tillers of the soil at the period of the discovery of America, as
indeed the tales of contemporary explorers bear witness, as do
also the traces of irrigation canals and other agricultural
operations around these mounds. But the- invasion of the
country by Europeans from the seventeenth century onward,
and the introduction of the horse, hitherto unknown, brought
so much confusion into the existence of these tribes, that such
of the Indians as survived the wars of extermination changed
1 E. Schmidt, Die Vorgeschichte Nord-Amerikas, Brunswick, 1894 ;
cf. Arch. f. Anthi-op., vol. xxiii., 1894. For details see Cyrus Thomas,
" Burial Mounds," Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., Washington, 1887 and
" Rep. Mound Explorat., Twelfth Rep. Bur. Ethn. for iSgo-gi, Washing-
ton, 1894; Carr, "Crania from Stone Graves, etc.," Eleventh Rep.
Peabody Mus.; Hale, " Indian Migration, etc. ," Atner. Antiquar., 1883;
Shepherd, Antiqiiities of State Ohio, Cincinnati, 1890; Brinton, Essays of
an Americanist, p. 90, Philadelphia, 1890.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 515
their mode of life and became hunters or nomadic shepherds.
If the distribution of the mounds be studied, three parallel
archsological zones may be' distinguished, extending from west
to east, between the Mississippi and the Atlantic Ocean, each
such zone presenting great differences in regard to the type of
mound it circumscribes.^ On comparing this distribution with
the ancient settlements of the tribes the following result is
arrived at: the mounds of the north have been built by the
Iroquois and Algonquians, except the mounds of animal shape,
which are due to Dakota-Siouan tribes; the mounds of the south
may be attributed to tribes of the Muskoki or Muskhogi family;
and, as regards the numerous monuments of the basin of the
Ohio, there is a strong presumption in favour of their having been
raised by the Shawnies and the Leni-Lenaps in the south, and
by the Cherokis in the north. The study of these mounds,
in connection with historic data, suffices to determine very
satisfactorily the migrations of all these tribes, to which I shall
refer later.
West of the Rocky Mountains no more mounds are met
with. Their place is taken by other monuments, structures of
stone erected among the rocks and along the canons. A large
number of these are found in the valley of San Juan, in that of
Rio Grande do Norte, of the Colorado Chiquito, etc. These
monuments are still more modern than the mounds. The
peoples who erected these structures, the " Cliff-Dwellers," are
still represented by the Moqui, Zuni, and other tribes who
inhabit the high table-lands of Arizona and New Mexico.
Tribes probably related to the Cliff-Dwellers erected in
Central America those immense phalansteries in stone or
adobe of several storeys, constructed to shelter the whole clan,
^ The northern zone, circumscribing the great lakes, is characterised by
monuments of rude form; the southern zone, between the Gulf of Mexico
and the basin of the Ohio, is distinguished by mounds in the form of a
truncated pyramid; while the middle zone, that of the basin of the Ohio,
presents a large number of mounds of peculiar and very perfected types.
In each of these zones special regions may be distinguished, characterised
by the shape of the mounds and by the nature of the objects immured in
them.
Sl6 THE RACES OF MAN.
which the conquering Spaniards called pueblos.^ Adobe
pueblos are still occupied by Zuiii people, descendants of the
Cliff-Dwellers.
While in North America among the Mound-Builders only
rude attempts at civiUsation are found, in Central America and
Mexico there flourished up to the period of the conquest a
relatively advanced civilisation. Various peoples, whom many
authors have sought to identify with the Mound-Builders,
formed more or less well-organised states in Mexico. Such
were the Mayas in the Yukatan peninsula; the Olmecs, and,
later, the Aztecs, on the high table-land. And on the west of
South America there developed a corresponding civilisation,
that of the Incas of Peru. The Incas were none other than
one of the tribes of the Quechua people, who, after having
brought into subjection the Aymara aborigines founded in
Peru a sort of communist-autocratic state. To the north, in
present Columbia, lived the Chibchas, who have equally
attained a certain degree of civilisation. Lastly, to the south
flourished the civilisation of the Calchaquis.
Existing American Races. — The natives of America, cut off
from the rest of the world probably since the end of the
quaternary period, form, as we have already seen, a group of
races which may be considered by themselves, in the same way
as the Xanthochroid or Melanochroid groups of races (see
Chap. VIIL). It must be borne in mind that there exists but
a single character common to these American races, that is
the colour of the skin, the ground of which is yellow. This
appears to conflict with the current opinion that the Americans
' Ciishing, C. R. Congr. Internat. des Ameticanistes, p. 150, Berlin, 1888;
V. Mindeleff, " Pueblo Architeclure," Eighth Report Bur. Ethnol. for
1886 St, p. I, Washington, 1891.93; C. Mindeleff, " Casa Grande Ruin,"
Thirteenth Report Bur. Ethn. for iSgi-gs, Washington, 1894; Nordens-
kiold and Retzius, The Cliff-Divellers, etc., Stockhohii, 1893, i" fol- L.
Morgan has sought to show in his monograph, " Houses and House Life
of Am. Aborigines," Contrib. N. Amer. Ethn., vol. iv , Washington,
1 88 1, that the phalanstery-houses were the typical form of dwelling-place
all of the North, and some of the South Americans, in association with
the communal organisation of the tribes.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. S17
are a red race, and yet it is the statement of a fact. None of
the tribes of the New World have a red-coloured skin, unless
they are painted, which often is the case. Even the reddish
complexion of the skin, similar, for example, to that of the
Ethiopians, is met with only among half-breeds. All the
populations of America exhibit various shades of yellow
colouring; these shades may vary from dark-brownish yellow to
olive pale yellow. 1 By the yellow colour of the skin, as well
as the straight hair common to most, but not to all, Americans,
they have affinities with the Ugrian and Mongol races ; but
other characters, such as the prominent, frequently convex nose,
and the straight eyes, separate them widely from these races.
As to the characters peculiar to the five races which I adopt
provisionally for the New World : Eskimo, North American,
Central American, South American, and Patagonian, with
their sub-races, they have been given in Chapter VIII., to which
I refer the reader.
American Languages. — Several authors are of opinion that,
as regards America, a more satisfactory classification of the
peoples may be obtained from linguistic than from ethnic and
somatological characters ; they even think that these linguistic
characters afford indications as to the races of the New World. ^
But opinions are divided on this point, as well as on the
question whether all the American dialects belong to one and
the same family. Brinton affirms that there exists, in spite
of diversity of vocabulary and superficial differences of
morphology, a common bond of union among all the
American languages. This bond is to be looked for in
^ I have always maintained this opinion, which is amply confirmed to-
day by the investigations made by Ten Kate {"Somatol. Observ. Ind.
South-west, "_/ip«/-«. Anicr. ElhiwI., vol. iii., p. 122, Cambridge, Mass.,
and Kev. (C Anthrop. , 1887, p. 48), from Canada to the Pampas. As to
South America, the prevalent yellow colouring has been further noticed by
A. von Humboldt, and recently confirmed l)y Ranke [Zeihch. f. Et/inoL,
1898, p. 61).
2 Gatschet, "Klamath Indians," Contrib. N. A. Elhwl, vol. ii..
Part I., p. 43, Washington, i8go; D. Brinton, Tlie American Race,
p. 57, New York, 1891 ; Ehrenreich, loc. cit.
5i8
THE RACES OF MAN.
the inner stmcture uf the dialects, a structure characterised
espcciahy by the development of pronominal forms, the
abundance of generic particles, the more frequent use of
ideas based on actions (verbs) than of ideas of existence
Fig. 157. — West Greenland Esknuu. (i'/ioL Soirii Hansen.)
(nouns), and as a consciiuencc the subordination of the
latter to the former in the proposition.' The latter feature
characterises the process called incorporation, all American
languages being polysynthetic (see p. 131) Does the simi-
' D. llrinton, "Certain Morph. Trails of Am. Languages," Aiiicr.
Anli:]ua)iaii, November, 1S94.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 519
larity of structure of the American languages (which might
further extend to other groups of agglutinative languages)
warrant the opinion that they all have sprung from a single
stock ? Competent philologists like Fr. Miiller and L. Adam
think it does not, and Powell,^ attributing much more
importance to similarity of vocabulary than to similarities
of grammatical form, arrives at the conclusion that the tribes
of North America do not speak languages related to each
other and springing from a single original stock ; on the con-
trary, they speak several languages belonging to distinct
families, which do not appear to have a common origin.
The number of languages spoken by the natives of both
Americas certainly exceeds a hundred, even without counting
the secondary dialects. Brinton estimates the number of
linguistic families known in the New World at 150 to 160;
this figure is probably not far short of the truth, for Powell
admits, merely for that part of the continent north of Mexico,
59 linguistic families, some of which comprise several dialects. ^
PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICA,
The greater part of the native population of North America
is composed of tribes called Indians or Redskins of the
United States and Canada. They touch on the north the
Eskimo and Aleuts, and on the south the Mexican and Central
American Indians. I shall briefly review these three great
divisions, going from north to south.
' Powell, "Indian Linguist. Families, zic.,''^ Sevetiih Rep. Btii: Ethii,
for 188^-86, Washington, 1891 (92), p. i (with map).
^ A curious fact is brought out by the study of the linguistic chart
published by Powell : that most of the families of different languages are
grouped in the western, mountainous part of North America. Thus, out of
59 linguistic families, 40 are found in the Hniited area between the Pacific
and the Rocky Mountains, while all the rest of the continent is divided
among 19 linguistic families only. The same fact is oljserved in South
America. We can reduce to a dozen groups the languages of the Atlantic
slope of this continent, while in the Andes and on the Pacific slope an
enormous number of linguistic families have been noted without any
apparent common connection.
520 THE RACES OF MAN.
I. The Eskimo,^ or Innuit as they call themselves (about
360,000 in number), afford the remarkable example of a people
occupying almost without a break more than 5000 miles of sea-
board, from the yist degree N. lat. (north-east of Greenland) to
the mouth of the Copper river or Atna (west of Alaska). A
section of this people has even crossed Behring's Strait and
inhabits the extreme north-east of Asia (see p. 370). Over
the whole of this extent of country nowhere do the Eskimo
wander farther than thirty miles from the coast. It is supposed
that their original home was the district around Hudson's Bay
(Boas) or the southern part of Alaska (Rink), and that from
these regions they migrated eastward and westward, arriving in
Greenland a thousand years ago, and in Asia barely three
centuries ago. Their migrations northward led them as far as
the Arctic Archipelago.^
Physically, the pure Eskimo — that is to say, those of the
northern coast of America, and perhaps of the eastern coast
of Greenland — may form a special race, allied with the
American races, but exhibiting some characteristics of the
* E. Petitot, Monogr. Esqtiim. Tchiglit du Mackenzie, Paris, 1876, 4to;
Dall, " Tribes of . . . extr. North-West," Contrib. to North Amer.
Ethnol., vol. i , p. I, Washington, 1877; Ray, Intern. Polar Exped.
Point Barrow, Washington, 1888; Soren Hansen, loc. cit., and " Ost
Grbnl. Anthropol.," Meddel om Groenland, vol. x. ; Boas, " The Central
Eskimo," Sixth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., 1888, p. 409; G. Holm, loc. cit.;
Rink, "The Eskimo Tribes," Meddelel. om Gronl., vol. xi., and other
works by this author in Danish, quoted by Bahnson, Ethnographien,
vol. i., p. 223, Copenhagen, 1894; F. Nansen, Eskimo Life, London,
2nd edit., 1894, figs.; Dix Bolles, Catal. Eskiino Collect. Rep. U.S.
Nation. Mus. for i8Sj, p. 335 ; R. Peary, Northward over the Great Ice,
2 vols., New York, 1S98.
''■ The most northern point now inhabited by the Eskimo is situated on
the Greenland side of Smith's Sound, 78° 8' N. lat. (see the description of
this tribe of 2,344 persons in Peary, loc. cit., vol. i., p. 479) ; but Greely
found traces of the permanent settlement of this people near Fort Conger,
in Greenland, 81° 44' N. lat. The most southern point occupied by the
Eskimo is Hamilton Inlet {55° N. lat.) in Labrador, but it is not long
since they reached as far as the straits of Belle- Isle in Newfoundland and
even farther south, to the estuary of the St. Lawrence (^0° N. lat.).
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 52 1
Ugrian race (short stature, dolichocephaly, shape of the eyes,
etc.). They are above average stature (im. 62), whilst the
Eskimo of Labrador and Greenland are shorter, and those of
southern Alaska a little taller (im. 66), in consequence perhaps of
interminglings, which would also explain their cranial configura-
tion (ceph. ind. on the living subject, 79 in Alaska, against
76.8 in Greenland), which is less elongated than among the
northern tribes (average cephalic index of the skull, 70 and
72). Their complexion is yellow, their eyes straight, and
black (except among certain Greenland half-breeds) ; their
cheek-bones are projecting, the nose is somewhat prominent,
the face round, and the mouth rather thick-lipped. The
Eskimo language differs little from tribe to tribe. Fishers and
peaceful hunters, the Eskimo have no chiefs, and know nothing
of war; they cultivate the graphic arts, are always cheerful,
and love dancing, singing, story-telling, etc.
I have already given, however, in the preceding pages
(see especially pp. 137, 151, 160, 245, 263 et seq.) several
characteristics of Eskimo life.^
The Aleuts, about 2000 in number, inhabiting the insular
mountain-chain which bears their name, speak an Eskimo
dialect, but differ from the true Eskimo in some respects,
having brachycephalic heads and several peculiarities of
manners and customs. Besides, the majority of them have
adopted the habits and religion of the Russians.^
II. The Indians, improperly called Red-skins^ occupy a terri-
tory of such vast extent that, in spite of a certain common like-
A great change in the habits of the Eskimo of Alaska will be effected
by the introduction of reindeer, through the agency of the United States
Government (see Jackson, Rep. Introd. Reindeer in Alaska, Washington,
1894 and 1895).
2 Erman, " Ethnol. Wahrnem Behring Meerss," Zeilsch. fiir Ethno!.,
vol. iii., pp. 159 and 205; Dall, Alaska, etc., London, 1870; Bancroft,
Native Races Pacif. St. of America, Washington, vol. i., 1875-76, pp. 87
and iir, and 1882, p. 562.
5 Brinton, loc. cit. (Amer. Race); Schoolcraft, loc. cit. ; Powell, loc. cit.
{Ind. Ling. Fam.)\ CatUn, Letters and Notes N. Amer. Ind., London, 1844
(cf. Reprt U.S. Nation. Mus., 1885).
THE RACES OF MAN.
FlO. 1 58. — Galiliigut-Valake (cliiel), a Uakola-Siouan Indian with
lomaliawk, 3S years old. (P/io/. Fiincc Roland Boiiaparlc.)
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 523
Fig. 159.— Siouan chief of Fig. 15S, front face. (/-"/«/, Pi iiice Koland
Bonaparlc, )
524 THE RACES OF MAN.
ness, considerable differences are noticeable among them,
according to the countries they occupy, the climate, configura-
tion, and fauna of which vary in a marked degree. We
can in the first place distinguish the Indians of the Arctic and
Atlantic slopes of Canada and the United States, belonging to
a taller and less brachycephalic race than that which pre-
dominates among the Indians in the northern part of the
Pacific slope. In the southern part of the Pacific slope we
note the appearance of the Central American race, short and
brachycephalic, and in the Californian peninsula perhaps the
Palas-American sub-race.^ Each of the slopes in turn afford
several " ethnographic provinces,"^ the boundaries of which
approximately coincide with those of the linguistic families
now about to be rapidly passed in review.
a. The Indians of the Arctic slope — that is to say, of the
low-lying country watered by the Mackenzie and the Yukon — -
belong to one and the same linguistic family, called Atha-
pascan.
The best known tribes are the Kenai in Alaska, the
Loucheux on the lower Mackenzie, the Chippeiuas, the
numerous Tinn^ clans between Hudson's Bay and the
Rocky Mountains, the Takullies to the west of these mountains,
etc. All these Athapascans, of medium height (rm. 66), and
mesocephalic, are skilful hunters ; they traverse the immense
forests of their country hunting fur-bearing animals in winter
on their snow shoes, in summer in their light beech-bark
canoes. The Athapascan linguistic family is not, however,
confined to the wooded region of Alaska and western Canada.
Members of this tribe have migrated to a far distant
part of the Pacific slope, where they have settled in two
1 Ten Kate, Bull. Soc. Anthrop., Paris, 1884, p. 551, and 1885, p. 241.
^ According to Powell, Siniihs. Rep., 1895, P- 658, the Atlantic slope
may be divided into four provinces : Algonquian, Iroquian., that of the
southern pa>t of the United States (Muskhogean), and that of W\s plains of
the Great West. The Pacific slope is split up in its turn into five provinces:
North Pacific, Columbia, Interior Basin, California-Oregon, and the
Pueblos region which encroaches upon Mexico.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA.
525
different districts. The Athapascans of the West, or the Hupas
who dwell in southern Oregon and northern California, differ
but little physically from the Athapascans properly so called,
but they are already Californians in ethnic character. The
Athapascans of i/ie south — that is to say, the Nai-ajos or Nodehs
Fin. 160. — Woman of Wichita tribe, Pawnee Nation,
Indian Territory, U.S.
and the Apaches (Fig. 161), taller (im. 69), more brachy-
cephalic (ceph. ind. 84) than their northern kinsfolk' — live in
the open country of the Pueblo Indians (Arizona, New
' The " Pueblos," Ziuiis, IVIoquis, etc., from whom these Athapascan.?
have conquered their territory, are short and brachycephalic. Interminglings
have modified only the form of the head of the Southern Athapascans ; but
it must be remembered that the practice of deforming the skull prevails
anion" them.
526 THE RACES OF MAN.
Mexico), from whom, however, they differ in regard to manners
and usages. They are husbandmen relatively civilised, fierce
warriors and bold robbers, whose name has been popularised
by the novels of Gustave Aimard and Gabriel Ferry. They
are more numerous- (23,500 in the United States)^ than the
Athapascans of the north (8,500) and the Hupas (scarcely
900). 2
b. The Indians of the Atlantic slope are divided into three
great linguistic families: Algonquian-Iroquoian, Muskhogean-
Choctaw, and Siouan or Dakota.
I. The Algonquians and h-oquoians occupy the "ethnographi-
cal province " which bears their name and extends over the east
of Canada and the north-east of the United States, between the
Mississippi and about the 36th degree of N. latitude. This
province is characterised by a temperate climate, abundance
of prairies, and broad water-ways; it affords facilities for the
chase and the gathering of wild rice and tobacco ; certain
usages are common to all the tribes inhabiting it (tattooing,
colouring the body, moccasins similar to those of the Atha-
pascans, etc.);
The original home of the Algonquians was the region around
Hudson's Bay, where the Cree tribe, which speaks the purest
Algonquian language, still exists. Leaving this region, they
spread as far as the Atlantic, the Mississippi, and the Alleghany
Mountains, driving back the Dakotas into the prairies of the
right bank of the Mississippi. The Abnakis of Lower Canada,
the Mianacs of Acadia and Newfoundland, the Leni-Lenape of
the Delaware, who fought so valiantly against the European
immigrants; the Mohicans, idealised by Cooper; the warlike
Shawnees, the Ojibwas or Chippewas (Fig. 30), who, to-
^ There are some Apache tribes in Mexico, the Lipans, the Jams, but
their numerical force is not known.
'^ See J. Stevenson, "Navajo Ceremonial," Eighlh Rep. Bur. EthnoL,
and articles by Matthews on the Navajos in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Reports
of the Bur. EihnoL; Ten Kate, Reizen en Ondezokongei in N. Amer.,
Leyden, 1885; cf. Bull. Soc. AnthropoL, 1S83, and " Soraatol. Observ.
Ind. South-west,"y'«(;-K. Amer. Ethnol, vol. iii., Cambridge, 1891.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 527
gether with the Lenapd, are alone among the Red-skins in
possessing a rudimentary writing; the Oliawas, the Black Feet,
the Cheyennes, and so many other tribes besides belonged to
this great Algonquian people. It has left traces of its
existence in the " mounds " as well as in a great number
of the geographical names of the region which it formerly
occupied. It is estimated that at the present day there are
not more than 95,000 Algonquians, of whom two-thirds inhabit
Canada. The most numerous tribe is that of the Chippewas
(31,000), while the "last" of the Mohicans were only 121 in
the census of 1890. Among the Algonquians ought probably
to be included a tribe which became extinct in 1827, that of
the Beothucs of Newfoundland, whose afiSnities with other
tribes have not yet been definitely established. ^
At the time when the Algonquians held a large part of
modern Canada and the United States, an isolated portion of
their territory was peopled with Iroquoians around Lakes Erie
and Ontario, as well as on the lower St. Lawrence. The Iro-
quoians, sprung from the same common stock as the Cherokis,
the ancient mound-builders of the Ohio basin, have dwindled
down to a few thousand families in the upper valley of the
Tennessee (H. Hale). They are divided into Hurons (between
Lakes Ontario and Huron) and Iroquois or Iroquoiatis properly
so called. The latter formerly comprised five nations : Mohawks,
Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and Caytigas, united into a demo-
cratic confederacy by the famous chief Hiawatha, of whom
Longfellow has sung. At a later date the Tuscaroras, who dwelt
farther to the south-west in Virginia, were also admitted into
the confederacy.^
1 Lloyd, "On the 'Beothuc?,," Joum. Anthropol. Inst. Great Britain,
vols. iv. and v. (1874-75); ^"'1 Gatschet, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, 1885-86,
and 1890.
- H. Hale, " The Iroquois Book of Rites," No. 2 of the Library of
Aborig. Amer. Lit. of Brinton, Philad., 1883, chaps, i. and ii. (history of
the confederation summarised from the standard works of Morgan, Golden,
etc.); G. Royce, "The Cherokee Nation, etc.," Fifth Rep. Bur. Eihn.
for 1883-84; Mooney, "Sacred Formula; of Cherokee," Seventh Rep. Bur.
Ethn. for 1883-86.
528 THE RACES OF MAN.
The wars in which the Iroquoians have been engaged have
singularly reduced their number; to-day there are only about
43,000, of whom 9000 are in Canada.
2. The Muskhogean group comprises several tribes: Apalacht,
Chata-Chodaw, Chicasaws, Creeks or Muskhogis, who formerly
dwelt between the lower Mississippi, the Atlantic, the Tennessee
River, and the Gulf of Mexico. To these we must add the
Seminoles who formerly occupied the Florida peninsula.'- The
habits of the Muskhogean tribes, of which Hernando de Soto
drew so vivid a picture in 1540, were those of husbandmen
somewhat advanced in civilisation; they had a hieroglyphic
writing (Brinton), but were unacquainted with the use of
metals, gold excepted. The southern portion of the United
States which these tribes occupied is a region with a sub-
tropical climate, favourable to the cultivation of the sugar-cane,
maize, and tobacco. The ancient Muskhogis wore garments
of special texture, and daubed their bodies like the Algonquians,
but were unacquainted with tattooing. At the present day
they have dwindled down to 25,500 individuals. Certain
tribes, like the Yamasis, have completely disappeared; in 1886
there were only three Apalachi women left. We include
among the Muskhogis the tribes who formerly lived in the
lower valley of the Mississippi, and whose dialects have not
been classified: the Natchez, idealised by Chateaubriand, a
score of whom still dwell among the Creeks and Cherokis;
the Atacapas, reduced in number to a dozen individuals, in the
Calcasieu Pass (Louisiana), etc.
3. The Siouans or Dakotas (Figs. 158 and 159) occupied at
the time of the discovery of America the whole country
extending to the west of the Mississippi, between the river
Arkansas on the south and the Saskatchewan on the north
as far as the Rocky Mountains. For a long time this was
believed to be their original home; but it has been found
^ The primilive population of Florida, the Timuquanans, appear to have
been exterminated in the eighteenth century. See MacCauIey, "The
Seminol Ind.," Fifth Rep. Bur. Ethn. for 188^-84., p. 467, Washington,
1887.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA.
529
necessary to modify this opinion since the discovery by Hale
and Gatschet of tribes speaking a Siouan tongue with archaic
forms east of the Mississippi. These tribes are the Tuielos of
Virginia, of whom but a score of individuals are left; the
Biloxis of Louisiana, and the Winnebagos. It is now admitted
Fig. 161. — Christian Apache Indian.
that the original home of the Siouans was the Alleghany Moun-
tains and the surrounding country; thence they were doubtless
forced back by the Algonquians into the prairies to the west
of the Mississippi, where they became buffalo-hunters.
The principal Siouan tribes are; the Assinahoins on the
Saskatchewan, the Alinnefaris on the Yellowstone river, the
34
530 THE RACES OF MAN.
Ponkas and the Omahas in Nebraska, the Osages of the borders
of Arkansas, the Hidatsas of Dakota, the Crows of Montana,
the Siouans or Dckotas properly so called (Figs. 26, 158, and
159) in the upper basin of the Missouri, etc. The total number
of the Siouans is estimated at 43,400 individuals, of whom
2,2oo are in Canada. ^
The Indians of the four groups just enumerated all resemble
each other in physical type: stature very high (from im. 68
among the Cherokis of the east, to im. 75 among the
Cheyennes and Crows), head sub-dohchocephalic or meso-
cephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub., from 79.3 among the
Iroquoians to 80.5 among the Cheyennes), face, oval.^ Near
the Siouans, in the same ethnographic region of the plains of
the Great West, dwelt the Pawnees or Caddoes, one of the tribes
of which, the Aricaras or Rikaris (450 individuals at the
present day), emigrated north towards the sources of the
Mississippi. As to the Pawnees properly so called they were
established in the valley of the Plata, whence they were trans-
ferred in 1878 into the Indian Territory; they numbered 820
individuals in the census of 1890. The rest of the nation, the
Wichitas (Fig. 160), the Caddoes, etc., have abandoned the
predatory habits of the true Pawnees and become good
husbandmen distributed over different reservations.
The Kiowas form a small linguistic group by themselves.
The neighbours formerly of the Comanches and the Shoshones,
these ex-robbers are at the present day installed, to the number
of 1,500, in the Indian Territory.
The Pawnees and Kiowas are tall and mesocephalic, with a
tendency towards brachycephaly.
^ R. Rigges, " Dictionary . . . and Ethnogr. of Dakota," Contrib. N.
Ainer. Ethn., vol. viii.; Dorsey, " Furniture and Implements of Omaha,"
Thirteenth Rep. Bnr. Ethn.\ "Omaha Sociology," Third Rep. Bur.
Elhn.; Mooney, " Siouan Tribes of the East," Bull. Bur. of Ellin., No.
24, Washington, 1894.
^ See Appendices I. to III.; the measurements there given are princi-
pally taken from Boas, Ten Kate, the American military commission, and
my own observations with Laloy.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 53 1
c. Indians of the Pacific slope. — The coast tribes of the
Pacific might be united into a single group in spite of the great
diversity of language existing among them.i In fact, most of
these Indians belong to one and the same sub-division of the
North American race, the Pacific sub-race. They are above
medium height (from im. 66 among the U/es to im. 69 among
the Chahaples), sub-brachycephalic (mean ceph. ind. from 82.7
to 84.7, except the Utes, whose index is 79.5), with rounded
face (Tsimshians and Haidas), or elongated (Kwakiutls) ; they
have straight eyes and their pilous system is well developed
(Boas). It is only in the region of the Pueblos that we can
detect the admixture of the short, brachycephalic Central
American race.^ Ethnic characters enable us to divide the
Indians of the Pacific into three groups : Indians of the north-
west, Indians of Oregon-California, and Pueblo Indians.^
I. The Indians of the north-west^ are divided into two slightly
' Not less than 39 linguistic families may be enumerated on that long but
narrow strip of land which extends from Alaska to California, between the
Rocky Mountains and the ocean. (Powell, loc. cit.)
^ The Moquis and Zunis are in fact 1 m. 62 in height, and have a ceph. ind.
of 83.3 and 84.9. We must, however, notice some exceptions in regard to
the somatic type of the Indians of the Pacific slopes : the Salishans of
the coast (with the exception of the Bilcoolas) are almost short and
brachycephalic, while those of the interior are almost tall and brachycephalic,
like the Bilcoolas, the Maricopas, the Mohares (Fig. 4).
^ The first of these groups occupies Powell's North Pacific and
Columbian " ethnographic provinces" {loc. cit.) ; the second, the province
of Oregon-California; the third, the Interior Basin and the region of the
Pueblos.
^ Gibbs, "Tribes of W. Washington and N.-W. Oregon," CoiUrib. N.
Am. Ethn., vol. i., p. 157, Washington, 18S7 ; Dall, "Tribes N.W.
Washington,'' ibid.; Petroff, Rep. on Populat. . . . of Alaska, Washington,
1884; Amerikas Nordweskiiste (VuhX. Ethn. Mus.), Berlin, 1883-84, 2 vols.,
fob; Krause, Die Tlinkit Indianer, Jena, 1885; "Reports , . . Com-
mittee, North-West Tribes . . . Canada" (in the Kep. Brit. Assoc, from 1885
to 1898 ; especially the reports by H. Hale and Wilson on the lilack-Feet in
1885 and 1887, and the full reports of Boas, 1888 to 1890, and in 1898,
partly summarised in Peterm. Mittheil., 1887 and 1896, and in the Transact.
Koy. Soc. Canada, 1888, 2nd sect.); Boas, "Die Tsimshian," Zeitsch. f.
Ethn., 1888, p. 231; Niblack, " CoaSt Ind. South Alaska and N. Biit.
Colomb.," Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus. for iSgS.
532 THE RACES OF MAN.
distinct groups by their ethnic characters. In the north, on
the indented coast of Alaska and British Columbia, as well as
in the innumerable rocky islands lying off it, dwell tribes of
fishers and hunters who form a very characteristic group by
their ethnic traits, of which the following are the principal :
garments of woven wool or of bark (before the arrival of the
Whites); communal barracks, near which are raised "totem
posts," usually of slate, ornamented with anthropomorphic
sculptures, grotesque or horrible, representing totems; plated
armour, composite bow of wood and bone, tattooing, etc.
The Pacific coast to the south of Vancouver and the Columbia
drainage area is occupied by another group of populations,
which, while having some traits in common with the former
(communal barracks but without "totem post," cooking by
means of heated stones, zoomorph masks, etc.), exhibits a
multitude of characters (garments of raw hides, cranial de-
formations, absence of tattooings, plain bow, etc.) which keep
them widely separate.
The first group comprises the following tribes, beginning at
Cape St. Elias and going towards the south : the Tlinkits or
Kolushes as far as the 55th degree of N. lat. (6,437 individuals
in 1880, according to Petroff) ; the Haidas or Skiitagets of the
Queen Charlotte Islands (2,500), skilful carvers in wood; the
Tsimshians of the coast situated opposite to these islands;
the Wakashes, sub-divided into Nootkas of Vancouver Island
and Kwakiuth of the adjacent coast. The second group is com-
posed of the remnants of the Saltshans, Selish, or Flat-heads
(12,000 in Canada, 5,500 in the "reservations" of the United
States); of the Shahapts or ^' Nez-perces" (300), to the south
of these ; and lastly, the Chenooks, well known for their cranial
deformations (p. 176).
2. The seaboard of Oregon and Ca!ifor?tia is a succession of
short, isolated valleys, abounding in fibrous plants, fruit, and
fish. These are excellent conditions for the formation of
little isolated ethnic groups ; thus it happens that the Indians
of this coast are divided into twenty-four or twenty-six distinct
linguistic families.
RACES AND PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 533
Of these the principal, as we go from north to south, are :
the Copehs of the right bank of the Sacramento ; the Pujunnas
or Pooyoonas of the left bank of the same water-way; the
Kulan