against disease. The story unfolded by it is of greater proportions
than all the mass of trivial gossip about kings and queens and the
accounts of futile dynastic wars and stupid religious controversies
which fill so large a space in his written political history. In the
latter, as told by historians, groping in obscurity and blinded by
their own preconceptions, men and events are often distorted out of all
proportions. A clever but prejudiced writer may pass base metal into
perpetual circulation as gold. Luther and the Reformation are accepted
as Divine by many people; they are reviled as diabolical by more.
Cromwell was long regarded as accursed; to-day he is half-deified. How
many of us are able to decide, on grounds of fact, not of fiction,
whether the Roman Empire perished because the Romans, becoming
luxurious, sinned against our moral code, as ecclesiastic historians
would have us believe, or because a disease of intolerance and
stupidity clouded the clear Roman brain and enfeebled the strong Roman
hand, as Gibbon would have us think? But the natural history of man
deals, without obscurity and without uncertainty, with greater matters.
Study it, and the mists clear away from much even of political history.
We see clearly how little the conscious efforts of man have influenced
his destiny. We see forces unrecognised, enormous, uncontrolled,
uncontrollable, working slowly but mightily towards tremendous
conclusions--forces so irresistible and unchanging that, watching them,
we are able even to forecast something of the future.
The mere political results of man’s evolution against disease are of
almost incalculable magnitude. The human races of one half of the world
are dying, and are being replaced by races from the other half. Not
all the wars of all time taken together constitute so great a tragedy.
A quite disproportionate part in this great movement has been borne
by our own race. It has seized on the larger part of those regions in
which the aborigines were incapable of civilisation, because incapable
of resisting consumption, and were undefended by malaria. In the void
created by disease it has more room to spread and multiply than any
other race.
[Sidenote: Disease Mightier than the Sword]
Other races may dream of foreign conquests, but the time for founding
permanent empires is past. There remains for them only temporary
conquest, in a few malarious parts of the world in which Europeans
cannot flourish and supplant the natives. Spain and Portugal lost their
opportunity when they turned from the temperate regions and chose the
tropics. France lost her opportunity on the Heights of Abraham. Germany
is more than a century too late in the start. Russia can conquer
only hardy aliens who will multiply under her rule and ultimately
assert their supremacy. In times now far remote in the history of
civilised peoples, the sword was the principal means for digging deep
the foundations of permanent empires. Its place was taken by a more
efficient instrument. A migrating race, armed with a new and deadly
disease, and with high powers of resisting it, possesses a terrible
weapon of offence. But now disease has spread over the whole world and
so is losing its power of building empires. The long era of the great
migrations of the human race, of the great conquests, is closing fast.
[Sidenote: Possibilities of the Black Races]
It is generally supposed by historians and others that races that
disappear before the march of civilisation are mentally unfitted for
it. The assumption is not supported by an iota of real evidence. To be
mentally incapable a race must be of very defective memory. Recently
a school of Australian natives, who belong to one of the “lowest”
of races, took the first place in the colony. Negroes occupy a very
inferior position in America, especially in Anglo-Saxon territories.
But they are stamped by glaring physical differences, are treated with
great contempt and jealousy by the whites, and their acquired mental
attitudes, therefore, do not develop under good conditions. It is very
possible that they are mentally inferior to the whites; but not so
inferior as is commonly believed.
Russian peasants, though not sharply differentiated by physical
peculiarities from the governing classes, are equally scorned by
them, and show a mental development hardly, if at all, superior
to the negroes of United States. The Latins of South America seem
very incapable of orderly government, but they are the heirs of a
civilisation older than our own. At any rate, while it is conceivable
the American negroes and some other races are incapable of building
up a highly-enlightened society by their own efforts, it is manifest
that they are able to persist and multiply when civilised conditions
are imposed on them. Not so the aborigines of the New World, some of
whom--for example, the Maoris and the Polynesians--are admittedly
of good mental type. They perish swiftly and helplessly of _bodily_
ailments.
Very clearly, then, human races are capable or incapable of
civilisation, not because they are mentally, but because they are
physically, fit or unfit.
G. ARCHDALL REID
[Illustration: AN ALPHABET OF RACES
BEING A HANDY DICTIONARY OF MANKIND
BY W. E. GARRETT FISHER]
An attempt is made in these pages to compile a dictionary of the main
existing races of the world, arranged in alphabetical order. The
accompanying Ethnological Chart on page 352, will enable the reader
to see at a glance the relationship of the various main divisions,
families, and stocks under which these races are distributed. The
Dictionary and the Chart, if used in conjunction, will thus supply
information about any race named in the list, and will tell the
inquirer to what branch of the human race it belongs. It is obviously
impossible to make the Dictionary inclusive of every tiny and
out-of-the-way tribe of Africa or South America, but all important
races are included. If the reader wants to know something about the
Abyssinians, he will look them up in the Dictionary, and find that they
are partly Semitic Himyarites, partly Hamitic Gallas, etc. The Chart
will then show him that the Hamitic and Semitic families belong to the
great Caucasic Division of mankind, that the Himyarites are one of the
main stocks of the Semitic family, and that the Gallas belong to the
Eastern branch of the Hamitic family. The student should familiarise
himself with the names and places of the families and chief stocks of
mankind, as given in the Chart, and so greatly facilitate the task of
reference. The intention of both Chart and Dictionary is, of course, to
serve as a kind of index to the History proper, which must be consulted
for further information. As far as can be discovered, no previous
attempt has been made to summarise the conclusions of modern ethnology
in this convenient form. The illustrations depict some of the most
interesting races.
=Ababua.= A tribe of Sudanese negroes in Central Africa. See
WELLE GROUP.
=Abaka.= See NILITIC GROUP.
=Abkhasians.= A Western Caucasian tribe occupying the Black
Sea coast from Pitzunta to Mingrelia, akin to CIRCASSIANS
(_q.v._).
=Abo=, or =Ibo=. See NIGERIAN GROUP.
=Abors.= An Assamese tribe in the Brahmaputra Valley,
belonging to the Tibetan branch of the Southern Mongolic family.
Wild jungle-dwellers.
=Absarakas.= See SIOUAN.
=Abukaya.= A negro tribe in the Sudan. See NILITIC
GROUP.
=Abunda.= A settled and fairly civilised race of Bantu
Negroes, occupying the seaboard and inland districts of Portuguese
West Africa, south of Ambriz.
=Abyssinians.= A mixed race of Hamitic, Semitic, and Negro
stock, inhabiting Abyssinia (from Arabic _habashi_--mixed). The
main racial element--Abyssinians proper--consists of brown-skinned
Semitic Himyarites, who probably emigrated from Arabia in
prehistoric times, and profess themselves descended from the
Queen of Sheba. Since the sixteenth century Abyssinia has been
over-run by the Hamitic Gallas (_q.v._), who have largely mingled
their blood with this older element. There is also a considerable
admixture of Sudanese Negro blood. Since the fourth century the
religion of Abyssinia has been a corrupt form of Christianity; the
mediæval myth of Prester John perhaps relates to this fact.
=Acadians.= French settlers of seventeenth century in Nova
Scotia.
=Achcæans.= See ARGIVES.
=Achinese.= A warlike Malay race of Sumatra, long at war with
the Dutch colonists.
=Accras.= See GA.
=Achuas=, or =Wochua=. A pygmy Negrito race,
well-proportioned, though dwarfish, inhabiting the forests of
the Welle and Aruwimi districts in Central Africa, and living by
hunting.
=Adamawa Group.= A group of Sudanese Negro tribes inhabiting
the district of the Upper Benue in Northern Nigeria.
=Adansis.= Negro tribe on Guinea coast. See TSHI.
=Æolians.= See HELLENES.
=Aetas.= A Negrito race of the Philippine Islands, belonging
to the Oceanic family of Ethiopic Man. Short of stature,
black-skinned, with woolly hair, they present many points of
resemblance to the Negritoes of Central Africa. There are many
crosses between Aetas and Malays.
=Afars.= A nomadic Turki tribe of Persia. See also
DANAKILS.
=Afghans.= A race of Iranian stock, belonging to the great
Aryan family, who form about half the population of Afghanistan.
They are divided into various tribes, of which the Duranis are the
dominant one, the Ghilzais the most warlike, and the Yusufzais the
most turbulent. There are also large tribes known as Pathans, who
are of the same stock as the Afghans, but are classed separately.
The Afghans are a handsome and athletic race, inured to war from
their childhood, lawless and treacherous, but sober and hardy.
Throughout the nineteenth century they were a constant source of
trouble to British India, but a new era seems to have opened under
the present Amir. For non-Afghan inhabitants of Afghanistan, see
HAZARAS, KIZIL-BASHIS, and TAJIKS.
=Afridis.= A warlike and turbulent Pathan race, occupying the
neighbourhood of the Khyber Pass, and often at war with the English.
=Afrikanders.= Persons of European descent born and living in
South Africa.
=Agaos.= An indigenous Hamitic race of Northern Abyssinia.
=Ahoms.= Primitive inhabitants of Assam, belonging to the
Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family.
=Ainus.= An aberrant family of Caucasic Man in the Far East.
They were probably the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan, but are
now few in number, and confined to Yezo, the Kurile Islands, and
part of Sakhalin. They have regular and often handsome features
of Caucasic type, but are of low stature, and characteristically
marked by an abundance of coarse, black, wavy or crisp hair on
head, face, and body, whence they are commonly called the “Hairy
Ainus.”
=Akawais.= See CARIBS.
=Akkas.= A pygmy Negrito race of the Welle district in Central
Africa, akin to the Achuas (_q.v._), who are specially interesting
because they are represented on Egyptian monuments of 3400
B.C., with their existing racial characters.
=Akkads=, or =Akkadians=. An extinct Mesopotamian
race, founders of the oldest known civilisation in Babylonia,
who belonged to the Northern Mongolic family, and probably to
the Turki or Finno-Ugrian stock. They invented the cuneiform
alphabet, which was adopted by their Semitic successors--see
BABYLONIANS--and it is thought that they may have been the
ancestors of the Chinese.
=Akpas.= See NIGERIAN GROUP.
=Alani.= A warlike nomadic race, probably belonging to the
Turki stock of the Northern Mongolic family, and allied to the
Tartars (_q.v._). In the fifth century they made settlements in
Gaul and Spain, where they were absorbed by the Vandals and the
Visigoths respectively. The remnant left in the East of Europe were
conquered in the thirteenth century by the Golden Horde, and their
name disappeared from history.
=Albanians=, or =Arnauts=. The warlike race of
mountaineers who inhabit Albania, on the western coast of the
Balkan Peninsula. They are semi-civilised, live in a perpetual
state of tribal warfare, and make admirable soldiers, forming the
best part of the Turkish Army. They are probably the oldest of the
Balkan races, and represent the earliest Aryan immigrants into
Europe [see ILLYRIANS]. They are partly Christian, partly
Mohammedan.
=Albigenses.= A heretical sect, mostly of Provençal descent,
who appeared in the South of France about the eleventh century, and
were rigidly persecuted until they became extinct in the middle of
the thirteenth century.
=Alemanni.= An ancient German tribe on Upper Rhine, of
Teutonic stock, from whom the modern Swabians and Swiss are in
great part descended.
=Aleutians.= Natives of Aleutian Islands, belonging to Eskimo
stock of Northern American family.
=Alfuros.= A half-breed race between Malays and Papuans: in
Malaysia, a term given by Malays to their rude non-Mohammedan
neighbours.
=Algonquian.= A group of North American Indian tribes,
formerly inhabiting the Central and Southern States of America,
east of the Rocky Mountains, and as far south as South Carolina,
now gathered into Indian Reservations. They include the Algonquin,
Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Fox, Illinois, Massachusett,
Mohican, Ojibway, Sac, Shawnee, and many smaller tribes.
=Alibamus.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
=Ali-Elis.= See TURKOMANS.
=Alsatians.= Natives of Alsace, of High German stock, allied
to the Swabians (_q.v._).
=Amadis.= See WELLE GROUP.
=Ama.= Prefix of many Bantu racial names, as Ama-Zulu,
Ama-Xosa. See ZULU, etc.
=American.= One of the four main divisions of the human race,
comprising three families, occupying North, Central, and Southern
America respectively. Typically red-skinned, with lank, black hair,
retreating foreheads, high-bridged noses, and either long or broad
skulls--dolichocephalic or brachycephalic.
=Americans.= The English-speaking white inhabitants of the
United States, mainly of Anglo-Saxon descent. See also LATIN
AMERICANS.
=Amharas.= Natives of Central Abyssinia, of Hamitic descent.
=Amorites.= A branch of the ancient Libyan race, of Semitic
origin, inhabiting Canaan before the arrival of the Israelites from
Egypt.
=Anatolian Turks.= See TURKS.
=Andamanese.= Natives of Andaman Islands, a race belonging to
the Oceanic Negrito family, possibly representing the primitive
type from which both Negroes and Papuans have sprung. They exhibit
the lowest stage of civilisation.
=Andis.= See LESGHIANS.
=Angles.= A Teutonic race of Low German stock, who formerly
inhabited the country round Schleswig, in North Germany. In the
fifth century they migrated in large numbers to Britain, and with
the Jutes and Saxons formed the stock of the Anglo-Saxon or English
people.
=Anglo-Saxons.= A general name now given to the
English-speaking races of English, Scotch, and even Irish and Welsh
descent, who inhabit the British Empire; in a wider sense, to all
people of British descent.
=Annamese.= Natives of Annam, or Cochin-China, belonging to
the Indo-Chinese stock of the Southern Mongolic family; now under
French rule.
=Apaches.= See ATHABASCAN.
=Appalachis.= See MUSKHOGEAN.
=Arabs.= One of the main branches of the Semitic family,
inhabiting the Arabian peninsula. They are usually divided into
two branches, the Ishmaelites of the north and the Joktanides of
the south. The latter probably represent the oldest Arab stock,
and may be of African origin. The primitive Arabs were nomadic
horse-breeders and shepherds, very warlike, and of fine physical
development. Under Islam they reared an enduring religious
civilisation, which has had the greatest influence on the world
after Christianity.
=Arakanese.= Natives of Arakan, in Lower Burma, of
Indo-Chinese stock.
=Aramæans.= One of the main groups of the Semitic family,
Syro-Chaldeans, who anciently inhabited Syria, Palestine, and the
Euphrates Valley. The modern Syrians (_q.v._) belong to it.
[Illustration: A LITTLE GALLERY OF RACES
REPRODUCED FROM THE FAMOUS DRAWINGS
BY SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A.]
[Illustration: A NATIVE OF BRITISH INDIA]
[Illustration: A CIRCASSIAN LADY]
[Illustration: A SPANISH CHILD WITH HER NURSE]
[Illustration: A PERSIAN PRINCE AND HIS NUBIAN SLAVE]
[Illustration: A DRAGOMAN AT BEYROUT]
[Illustration: A TRAVELLING TARTAR]
[Illustration: AN ARAB SHEIK]
[Illustration: A LETTER-WRITER OF CONSTANTINOPLE]
=Araucanians.= The chief Indian race of Chili, possessing an
ancient civilisation like those of Peru and Mexico, though less
advanced. The Araucanians are probably the finest native race of
the New World. They are a fierce and warlike people, who have
always preserved their independence.
=Arawaks.= A group of South American Indian tribes in the
Guianas, including Maypuris, Wapisianas, Atorais and others.
=Arcadians.= A race of ancient Greece, inhabiting the central
highlands of the Peloponnesus, whose seclusion from the world
caused them to be identified with the quality which we still call
Arcadian simplicity.
=Arecunas.= See CARIBS.
=Argentines.= White natives of the Argentine Republic in South
America, mainly of Spanish descent.
=Argives.= Natives of Argos, the most important state of
Homeric Greece: hence a generic term for Greeks or Hellenes in the
Homeric Age. Achæans is another term similarly used.
=Armenians.= Natives of Armenia, the mountainous country round
Mount Ararat, now divided between Russia, Persia, and Turkey.
They belong to the Iranian stock of the Aryan family, blended
with Semitic blood, and with a still older unknown but probably
non-Aryan element. They are not warlike, but of quick intelligence
and specially successful in commerce.
=Arnauts.= See ALBANIANS.
=Aryans.= The most important family of Caucasic Man, to
which all the chief civilisations of modern times belong. A
tall, fair-skinned, long-headed race, whose origin is still
doubtful--though it was probably in Central Asia--and who
spread in prehistoric times over the whole of Europe and parts
of Asia and Africa. Almost all modern Europeans are of Aryan
descent. The family is also called INDO-EUROPEAN or
INDO-GERMANIC, but these names are open to objections from
which the term Aryan is free.
=Ashantis.= See TSHI.
=Assamese.= Natives of Assam, between India and Burma,
belonging to the Hindu stock of the Aryan family.
=Assinaboins.= See SIOUAN.
=Assyrians.= One of the main branches of the Semitic family.
The Assyrians founded a great empire in the northern part of
Mesopotamia, of which Nineveh was the capital, and afterwards
conquered the older Babylonian state (710 B.C.) and Egypt
(671 B.C.), thus forming the first world-empire known to
history. Within a century Assyria had become a Median province, and
its people ceased to have an independent existence.
=Athabascan= or =Tinney=. A group of North American
Indian tribes, formerly inhabiting Alaska and the greatest part of
Canada. It includes the Apaches, Chippewayans, Hupas, Kutchins,
Navajos, Tacullis, and Umbquas.
=Athenians.= The most important race of ancient Greece, whose
city of Athens was the earliest centre of civilisation in the
historical age of Europe.
=Australians.= The aborigines of Australia, a branch of the
Oceanic Negro family. Their numerous tribes present a general
uniformity of physical and mental development, under which two main
types may be recognised. The earlier of these is probably that
shown by the extinct Tasmanians (_q.v._), one of the lowest races
in point of culture yet discovered, who were probably still in
the earliest stage of the Stone Age. The other type was perhaps
akin to the Dravidians of India, or to a very low Caucasic race.
The Australians are among the lowest of savage races, and present
many features which have thrown light on the manners, customs and
beliefs of primitive man.
=Australians.= White inhabitants of Australia, mostly of
Anglo-Saxon descent.
=Austrians.= Inhabitants of the Austrian empire, including
a great diversity of races. The name is properly applied only to
the German-speaking people, of High-German Teutonic stock, who
predominate in Austria proper.
=Auvergnats.= Natives of Auvergne, in Central France. A short,
sturdy, dark, round-skulled race, formerly regarded as typical
Aryan Celts, but possibly descended from an older non-Aryan people.
Much employed in Paris as porters.
=Avars.= See LESGHIANS.
=Avars.= A Tartar tribe, belonging to the Turki stock of the
Northern Mongolic family, who appeared in the district round the
Caspian Sea about the fourth century, and later made predatory
raids over a large part of Eastern Europe. They were subdued by
Charlemagne, and disappeared from history in the ninth century.
They seem to have been closely allied to the Huns, whom they
resembled in physical characteristics and warlike qualities.
=Awawandias.= Bantu Negroes of the Nyassa plateau in British
Central Africa.
=Aymaras.= A race of South American Indians in Bolivia,
probably related to the Incas (_q.v._) and perhaps their ancestors.
=Azandeh=, or =Niam-Niam=. Sudanese Negroes of the Welle
group. Notorious cannibals.
=Aztecs.= The dominant Indian race in Mexico at the arrival
of the Spanish invaders. They entered the country about the end of
the thirteenth century, and founded the city of Mexico in 1325.
Around it they reared a remarkable civilisation and a sanguinary
religion. They were warlike, ferocious and cruel, but had a
considerable aptitude for the arts of peace. Their empire was
destroyed by Cortes in 1521, and annexed to Spain. Every trace of
Aztec nationality was suppressed, but their name still lingers
among the Nahuan Indians, and their blood is mixed with that of
the conquerors. Many attempts have been made to find an Old World
origin for Mexican culture, but they are not convincing.
=Babylonians.= The Semitic race which founded one of the
greatest of ancient civilisations in the rich alluvial plains of
Chaldæa and on the arid plateau of Mesopotamia. Their history is
too long to summarise here, but it may be stated that the Semitic
peoples, variously known as Babylonians, Chaldæans, Elamites,
Medians, and Assyrians, invaded and dispossessed at different times
the primitive Mongolic race of Akkads (_q.v._). Their earliest
settlement seems to have been at Ur of the Chaldees, on the right
bank of the Euphrates. Babylon and Nineveh were afterwards the
seats of the Babylonian and Assyrian powers, whilst Elamite and
Median conquerors intervened at various times. These powerful
Semitic races made great advances in art, science, literature,
religion, and social policy. Their first incursion, probably
from Arabia, into the Euphrates Valley dates back to about 3800
B.C.
=Baggaras.= A fierce and warlike race settled in the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and formerly dominant under the Mahdi.
=Baghirmis.= See LAKE CHAD GROUP.
=Bakairi.= See CARIBS.
=Bakatla=, =Bakwena=. Bantu Negroes of Bechuana stock.
=Bakwiri.= Bantu Negroes settled in the Cameroons.
=Balinese.= A Malayan race of the East Indian Archipelago.
=Balolo.= Bantu Negroes of the Middle Congo; one of the finest
negro races.
=Balong.= Bantu Negroes of West Africa.
=Baltis.= A hardy Tibetan race, inhabiting the Alpine valley
of the Upper Indus.
=Baluba=, or =Basonge=. A dominant Bantu Negro race of
the Kassai basin in Equatorial Africa.
=Baluchis=, or =Beluchis=. Natives of Baluchistan, south
of Afghanistan, of Iranian (Aryan) descent, with a mingling of
Tartar (Mongolic) blood. The dominant race of the country is the
Brahui, aboriginals who are probably of Mongolic descent, allied to
the Dravidians (_q.v._) of India. The Brahui are of Mongolic type,
short, with round flat faces, hospitable and generous. They are the
more settled portion of the inhabitants. The Baluchis are chiefly
nomads, taller, with more Aryan features, a warlike and predatory
people.
=Balunda.= Bantu Negroes of South Central Africa, occupying
the Congo-Zambesi divide.
=Bamangwato.= Bantu Negroes of north Bechuanaland; Khama’s
semi-civilised people.
=Bambaras.= See MANDINGAN.
=Banandi.= Bantu Negroes of apish type, in the Semliki forests.
=Bangalas.= Bantu Negroes of Middle Congo, on the Ubangi river.