“The younger women were often gracefully formed, with pleasing

expressions of countenance, though not what we should consider handsome

features. The girls had their hair rather long, but the women had almost

all their hair cut short, with a bushy ridge over the top, to which

they, singularly enough, gave the same name as to pieces of

tortoise-shells, namely, kaisu. Many of the elder women had their heads

shaved quite smoothly, and we never saw a woman wearing a wig, or with

the long ringlets of the men. At our first landing, all the younger

women and girls kept in the back-ground, or hid themselves in the bush.

On strolling to the back of the huts, we found a small native path,

along which we went a short distance till we came to a rude fence in

front of a plantain-ground, where the men objected to our going further,

and we heard the voices of the women among the trees beyond.

“There were four huts at this spot, all bee-hive shaped, sixteen feet in

diameter, and as much in height. They stood in small court-yards,

partially surrounded by fences formed of poles of bamboo, stuck upright

in the ground, close together, and connected by horizontal rails, to

which they were tied by withies. Inside the huts were small platforms

covered with mats, apparently bed-places; and over head were hung up

bows and arrows, clubs, calabashes, rolls of matting, and bundles

apparently containing bones, which they did not like our examining.

Outside the huts were one or two small open sheds, consisting merely of

a raised flat roof, to sit under in the shade, and a grove of very fine

cocoa-nut trees surrounded the houses.”

The arms of the natives were the bow and arrow, and in holding the

former, especial care was taken that the part of the wood which was

uppermost as the tree grew, should be uppermost when used as a weapon.

Rough imitations of the human figure were common; but whether they

served as idols or not was uncertain. The use of tobacco was general.

On the part of the females, the reserve and decorum of manner formed a

striking contrast with the very different habits of the Polynesians.

B. _The Australians._--These are taken from life; two natives of the

parts about Cape York having been taken up in an English vessel and

brought with it to England. They passed a fortnight under the same

roof with Mr. Thomson, and were well observed by both the artists

engaged on the figures, and the present writer. The thinness of the

legs is by no means exaggerated. It is just what the plates of Dr.

Prichard’s “Varieties of Man” make it. On the other hand, the chest

was well developed, and the arms comparatively--though only

comparatively--strong. They told the story of their being on board the

ship that brought them over, in dumb show, but they told it in a way

that the most consummate professional actor might admire. But this was

about all the talent they showed.

They ran neither faster nor slower than the Englishman they came in

contact with; but swam as adepts. By no means insensible to such

kindnesses as they received, they evinced quite as much kindness to

their English house-mates as they did to one another. So silent, indeed,

were they, that until we took a vocabulary of their language, we thought

that they belonged to two different tribes who had carried their

hostility with them across the Pacific, and nourished it in Sydenham.

Smoking, or rather swallowing smoke, was their chief delight.

Tom, the livelier and less saturnine of the two, has a throwing-stick in

his hand, which he is about to project.

In the group of two he re-appears. When Dick, the gloomier, had a

headache, Tom could scarcely be withheld from scarifying his temples

with such pieces of glass or flint as he could pick up.

Dick and Tom are Northern Australians--Northern Australians from the

parts about Cape York.

Observe the points of difference and likeness between them and the

Louisiade Papuans. As both are dark-skinned, they have been dealt with

as branches of one and the same family; for which a name (or rather a

pair of names) derived from the Greek has been applied--_Melanesian_ and

_Kelnonesian_. _Nesos_ means _island_; _kelnos, dark_; _melas

(melan-os), black_. The latter compound is the better. They are

certainly dark coloured; and it is equally certain that both New Guinea

and Australia are islands. The exact relationship, however, is less

certain. Nevertheless, the name _Kelnonesian_ is adopted.

It has been said that the Papuan contrasts favourably with the

Australian; the latter being the better known of the two.

The differences between the different Australian languages have long

been known and definitely insisted upon.

Less marked differences in frame and physiognomy between the different

Australian tribes, have also been long known and definitely insisted

upon.

Differences of customs and manners have been similarly noticed and

considered. Notwithstanding all this, however, there is no opinion more

generally admitted than the fundamental unity of the Australian

population from Swan River to Botany Bay, from the Gulf of Carpentaria

to Bass’s Straits. Captain Grey, Schurman, Teichelman, and all who have

devoted average attention to the language, have given their evidence to

this; and they have supplied facts of various kinds, of their own

collection, towards the proof of it. No man is less inclined to disturb

this view than the present writer.

As to the physical conformation of the Australians, I believe that it is

so uniform throughout the island, that it has never been made the basis

of a division;--indeed I am inclined to believe that the _similarity_ of

external appearance has been over-rated; nevertheless, it is certain

that there are deviations from the general slim and underfed condition

of the body; and (which is of more importance), from the usual straight

character of the hair. Such is the case, according to Mr. Earl, with the

trepang fishers of Arnhem Bay. Then as to the hair--with the Jaako, or

Croker Island tribe, it is coarse and bushy (the whiskers being thick,

and curly) and so short, crisp, and abundant about the breast and

shoulders as to conceal the skin; whereas, on the other hand, the Oitbo,

or Bidjenelumbo, have straight silky hair, arched eyebrows, fair

complexion, and occasionally the oblique eye.

The lowest form of humanity has been sought for in Australia, whilst the

physical condition of the country and the absence of those animals and

herbs that supply human food, have made it a likely quarter to exhibit

it. Whether, however, so low a rank in the scale of human development

be, upon the whole, a fact or exaggeration, it is certain that, upon

several points, there has been considerable over-statement. One sample

of this sort is the accredited opinion as to the absolute incapacity of

the Australian of forming even the rudest elements of a mythology--an

opinion which engenders the notion that their intellects are too

sluggish for even the evolution of a superstition.

That this was not the case was indicated some years back by Captain

Grey, and that there is _some_ exponent of the religious feeling in the

shape of a rude form of shamanism, has been shown in the account of the

American Exploring Expedition; where the first published details of the

Australian mythology, if so it may be called, are to be found:--“It is

not true, however, as has been frequently asserted, that the natives

have no idea of a Supreme Being, although they do not allow this idea to

influence their actions. The Wellington tribes, at least, believe in the

existence of a Deity called _Baiamai_, who lives on an island beyond the

great sea to the East. His food is fish, which come up to him from the

water when he calls them. Some of the natives consider him the maker of

all things, while others attribute the creation of the world to his son

_Burambin_. They say of him, that _Baiamai_ spoke, and _Burambin_ came

into existence. When the missionaries first came to Wellington, the

natives used to assemble once a year, in the month of February, to dance

and sing a song in honour of _Baiamai_. This song was brought there from

a distance by strange natives, who went about teaching it. Those who

refused to join in the ceremony were supposed to incur the displeasure

of the god. For the last three years the custom has been discontinued.

In the tribe on Hunter’s River, there was a native famous for the

composition of these songs or hymns; which, according to Mr. Threlkeld,

were passed from tribe to tribe, to a great distance, till many of the

words became at last unintelligible to those who sang them.

“_Dararwirgal_, a brother of _Baiamai_, lives in the far west. It was he

who lately sent the small-pox among the natives, for no better reason

than that he was vexed for want of a tomahawk. But now he is supposed to

have obtained one, and the disease will come no more. The _Bálumbal_ are

a sort of angels, who are said to be of a white colour, and to live on a

mountain at a great distance to the south-east: their food is honey, and

their employment is to do good ‘like the Missionaries.’

“It is possible that some of these stories owe their origin to

intercourse with the whites, though the great unwillingness which the

natives always evince to adopt any customs or opinions from them,

militates against such a supposition. But a being who is, beyond

question, entirely the creation of Australian imagination, is one who is

called in the Wellington dialect, _Wandong_; though the natives have

learned from the whites to apply to him the name of devil. He is an

object not of worship, but merely of superstitious dread. They describe

him as going about under the form of a black man of superhuman stature

and strength. He prowls at night through the woods around the

encampments of the natives, seeking to entrap some unwary wanderer, whom

he will seize upon; and, having dragged him to his fire, will there

roast and devour him. They attribute all their afflictions to his

malevolence. If they are ill, they say _Wandong_ has bitten them. No one

can see this being but the _nújargir_, or conjurors, who assert that

they can kill him, but that he always returns to life. He may, however,

be frightened away by throwing fire at him (though this statement seems

inconsistent with that respecting his invisibility), and no native will

go out at night without a firebrand to protect him from the demon.

“There is some difference in the accounts given of this character. By

the tribe of Hunter’s River he is called _Koin_ or _Koen_. Sometimes,

when the Blacks are asleep, he makes his appearance, seizes upon one of

them and carries him off. The person seized endeavours in vain to cry

out, being almost strangled. At daylight, however, _Koin_ disappears,

and the man finds himself conveyed safely to his own fireside. From this

it would appear that the demon is here a sort of personification of the

nightmare,--a visitation to which the natives, from their habits of

gorging themselves to the utmost when they obtain a supply of food, must

be very subject.

“At the _Muruya_ River the devil is called _Túlugal_. He was described

to us, by a native, as a black man of great stature, grizzled with age,

who has very long legs, so that he soon overtakes a man; but very short

arms, which brings the contest nearer an equality. This goblin has a

wife who is much like himself; but still more feared, being of a cruel

disposition, with a cannibal appetite, especially for young children. It

would hardly be worth while to dwell upon these superstitions, but they

seem to characterise so distinctly the people, at once timid, ferocious,

and stupid, who have invented them.

“Their opinions with regard to the soul vary: some assert that the whole

man dies at once, and nothing is left of him; others are of opinion that

his spirit still survives, but upon this earth, either as a wandering

ghost, or in a state of _metempsychosis_, animating a bird or other

inferior creature. But the most singular belief is one which is found at

both Port Stephens and Swan River, places separated by the whole breadth

of the Australian continent. This is, that white people are merely

blacks who have died, passed to a distant country, and having there

undergone a transformation, have returned to their original homes. When

the natives see a white man who strongly resembles one of their deceased

friends, they give him the name of the dead person, and consider him to

be actually the same being.”

It is difficult to take an exact measure of the extent to which one

superstition is grosser than another;--hence, all that can be said

respecting the Pantheon, of which _Baiamai_ and _Wandong_ are portions,

is that it is as low in the scale of mythologies as any that has fallen

under the notice of the writer.

_Incomplete Numeration of the Australians._--The import of an Australian

having no more than the three, four, or five first numerals, and being

thereby as unable to count the number of the fingers of his hands, as

that of the hair of his head, is less equivocal. It speaks, at once, to

a _minimum_ amount of intellectual power. Nevertheless, the same

inability occurs elsewhere; especially in certain languages of South

America. The only vocabulary of Australia where the numerals run beyond

five, is that of King George’s Sound, as given in Mitchell’s Australia.

The political constitution (if so it may be called) of the Australians

is preeminently simple, exhibiting a society of families rather than of

tribes; and of the facts connected with the evidence in favour of the

unity of the Australian division of mankind is the remarkable

distribution of families bearing the same name. The principal of these

are the Ballaroke, the Tdondarup, the Ngotok, the Nagarnook, the

Nogonyuk, the Mongalung, and the Narrangar. Now, persons bearing one or

other of these names, may be found in parts of the country five hundred

miles apart. Nor does this appear to be the effect of migration, since

each tribe is limited by the jealousy of its neighbours to its own

hunting-ground, beyond which it seldom passes.

Polygamy in Australia is what we find, and expect to find. The practice

of circumcision is what we find, perhaps, without expecting it. The

habit of the children taking the name of the mother, will occur again in

the south of India. The rule that a man cannot marry a woman of his own

family-name will also re-appear, and that amongst the Indians of North

America.

_The Kobong._--“Each family among the Australians adopts some animal or

plant, as a kind of badge or armorial emblem, or, as they call it, its

_kobong_. A certain mysterious connection exists between a family and

its kobong, so that a member of the family will not kill an animal, or

pluck any plant of the species to which his kobong belongs, except

under particular circumstances. This institution again, which in some

respects resembles the Polynesian _tabú_, though founded on a different

principle, has its counterpart in the customs of the native Americans.

Captain Gray observes, citing Mr. Gallatin, that among the Hurons, the

first tribe is that of the bear; the two others, those of the wolf and

turtle. The Iroquois have the same divisions, and the turtle family is

divided into the great and little turtle. The Sioux are named on a

similar principle. According to Major Long, one part of the

superstitions of these savages consists in each man having some totem,

or favourite spirit, which he believes to watch over him. The totem

assumes the shape of some beast, and therefore they never kill or eat

the animal whose form they suppose their totem to bear.”

_The ceremony of initiation._--“When the boys arrive at the age of

puberty (or about fourteen), the elders of a tribe prepare to initiate

them into the duties and privileges of manhood. Suddenly, at night, a

dismal cry is heard in the woods, which the boys are told is the _Bubu_

calling for them. Thereupon all the men of the tribe (or rather of the

neighbourhood) set off for some secluded spot previously fixed upon,

taking with them the youths who are to undergo the ceremony. The exact

nature of this is not known, except that it consists of superstitious

rites, of dances representing the various pursuits in which men are

engaged, of sham fights, and trials designed to prove the

self-possession, courage, and endurance of the neophytes. It is certain,

however, that there is some variation in the details of the ceremony, in

different places; for among the coast tribes, one of these is the

knocking out of an upper front tooth, which is not done at Wellington,

and farther in the interior. But the nature and object of the

institution appear to be everywhere the same. Its design unquestionably

is, to imprint upon the mind of the young man the rules by which his

future life is to be regulated; and some of these are so striking, and,

under the circumstances, so admirable, that one is inclined to ascribe

them to some higher state of mental cultivation than now prevails among

the natives. Thus, the young men, from the time they are initiated, till

they are married, are forbidden to approach or speak to a female. They

must encamp at a distance from them at night, and if they see one in the

way, must make a long detour to avoid her. Mr. Watson told me that he

had often been put to great inconvenience in travelling through the

woods, with a young man for his guide, as such a one could never be

induced to approach an encampment where there were any women. The moral

intent of this regulation is evident.

“Another rule requires the young men to pay implicit obedience to their

elders. As there is no distinction of rank among them, it is evident

that some authority of this kind is required, to preserve the order and

harmony of social intercourse.

“A third regulation restricts the youth to certain articles of diet.

They are not allowed to eat fish, or eggs, or the _emu_, or any of the

finer kinds of opossum and kangaroo. In short, their fare is required to

be of the coarsest and most meagre description. As they grow older, the

restrictions are removed, one after another; but it is not till they

have passed the period of middle age that they are entirely unrestrained

in the choice of food. Whether one purpose of this law be to accustom

the young men to a hardy and simple style of living may be doubted; but

its prime objects and its result certainly are to prevent the young men

from possessing themselves, by their superior strength and agility, of

all the more desirable articles of food, and leaving only the refuse to

the elders.

“The ceremony of marriage, which, amongst most nations, is considered so

important and interesting, is with this people one of the least

regarded. The woman is looked upon as an article of property, and is

sold or given away by her relatives without the slightest consideration

of her own pleasure. In some cases she is betrothed, or rather promised,

to her future husband in the childhood of both; and in this case, as

soon as they arrive at a proper age, the young man claims and receives

her. Some of them have four or five wives, and in such a case, they will

give one to a friend who may happen to be destitute. Notwithstanding

this apparent laxity, they are very jealous, and resent any freedom

taken with their wives. Most of their quarrels relate to women. In some

cases, the husband who suspects another native of seducing his wife

either kills or severely injures one or both of them. Sometimes the

affair is taken up by the tribe, who inflict punishment after their own

fashion. The manner of this is another of the singularities of their

social system.

“When a native, for any transgression, incurs the displeasure of his

tribe, their custom obliges him to ‘stand punishment,’ as it is called;

that is, he stands with a shield, at a fair distance, while the whole

tribe, either simultaneously or in rapid succession, cast their spears

at him. Their expertness generally enables those who are exposed to this

trial to escape without serious injury, though instances occasionally

happen of a fatal result. There is a certain propriety even in this

extraordinary punishment, as it is very evident that the accuracy and

force with which the weapons are thrown will depend very much upon the

opinion entertained of the enormity of the offence.

“When the quarrel is between two persons only, and the tribe declines to

interfere, it is sometimes settled by a singular kind of _duello_. The

parties meet in presence of their kindred and friends, who form a circle

round them as witnesses and umpires. They stand up opposite one another,

armed each with a club about two feet long. The injured person has the

right of striking the first blow, to receive which the other is obliged

to extend his head forward, with the side turned partially upwards. The

blow is inflicted with a force commensurate with the vindictive feeling

of the avenger. A white man, with an ordinary cranium, would be killed

outright, but, owing to the great thickness of their skulls, this seldom

happens with the natives. The challenged party now takes his turn to

strike, and the other is obliged to place himself in the same posture of

convenience. In this way the combat is continued; with alternate

buffets, until one of them is stunned, or the expiation is considered

satisfactory.

“What are called wars among them may more properly be considered duels

(if this word may be so applied) between two parties of men. One or more

natives of a certain part of the country, considering themselves

aggrieved by the acts of others in another part, assemble their

neighbours to consult with them concerning the proper course to be

pursued. The general opinion having been declared for war, a messenger

or ambassador is sent to announce their intention to the opposite party.

These immediately assemble their friends and neighbours, and all prepare

for the approaching contest. In some cases, the day is fixed by the

messenger, in others not; but, at all events, the time is well

understood.

“The two armies (usually from fifty to two hundred each) meet, and after

a great deal of mutual vituperation, the combat commences. From their

singular dexterity in avoiding or parrying the missiles of their

adversaries, the engagement usually continues a long time without any

fatal result. When a man is killed (and sometimes before), a cessation

takes place; another scene of recrimination, abuse, and explanation

ensues, and the affair commonly terminates. All hostility is at an end,

and the two parties mix amicably together, bury the dead, and join in a

general dance.

“One cause of hostility among them, both public and private, is the

absurd idea which they entertain, that no person dies a natural death.

If a man perishes of disease, at a distance from his friends, his death

is supposed to have been caused by some sorcerer of another tribe, whose

life must be taken for satisfaction. If, on the other hand, he dies

among his kindred, the nearest relative is held responsible. A native of

the tribe at Hunter’s River, who served me as a guide, had not long

before beaten his own mother nearly to death, in revenge for the loss of

his brother, who died while under her care. This was not because he had

any suspicions of her conduct, but merely in obedience to the

requirements of a senseless custom.”

Another fact connected with the decease of an Australian deserves

notice. When one of them dies, those words which are identical with his

name, or, in the case of compounds, with any part of it, cease to be

used; and some synonym is adopted instead; just as if, in England,

whenever a Mr. _Smith_ departed this life, the parish to which he

belonged should cease to talk of _blacksmiths_, and say _forgemen_,

_forgers_, or something equally respectful to the deceased, instead.

This custom reappears in Polynesia, and in South America; Dobrizhoffer’s

account of the Apibonian custom being as follows:--“The Abiponian

language is involved in new difficulties by a ridiculous custom which

the savages have of continually abolishing words common to the whole

nation, and substituting new ones in their stead. Funeral rites are the

origin of this custom. The Abipones do not like that anything should

remain to remind them of the dead. Hence appellative words bearing any

affinity with the names of the deceased are presently abolished. During

the first years that I spent among the Abipones, it was usual to say

_Hegmalkam kahamátek_, when will there be a slaughtering of oxen? On

account of the death of some Abipon, the word _Kahamátek_ was

interdicted, and, in its stead, they were all commanded by the voice of

a crier to say, _Hemalkam négerkatà_? The word _Nihirenak_, a tiger, was

exchanged for _Apanigehak_; _Peú_, a crocodile, for _Kaeprhak_, and

_Kaáma_, Spaniards, for _Rikil_, because these words bore some

resemblance to the names of Abipones lately deceased. Hence it is that

our vocabularies are so full of blots occasioned by our having such

frequent occasions to obliterate interdicted words, and insert new

ones.”

GROUP VI.

DANAKIL AND NEGRO OF THE EASTERN COAST OF AFRICA (THE DANAKIL

LIGHT-COLOURED); FROM THE PARTS BETWEEN THE ENTRANCE TO THE RED SEA

AND THE HIGHLANDS OF SOUTHERN ABYSSINIA.

Attention is directed to the Danakil figures. They are African; but they

are not negro. They are Africans from one of the very hottest parts.

They are other than negro, nevertheless. Their hair is longer than the

negro’s; their lips thinner; their colour lighter; their nose more

aquiline. Travellers who have been struck by their appearance have

called them _Caucasians_, by which they mean that they approach the

European type. Others have compared them with the Arabs--others with the

Jews; and this has led them further. The coasts of Arabia are not far

off; so why should there not be Arab blood amongst them? This has more

than once been assumed. The assumption, however, is unnecessary--nay, it

is incorrect. The negro of the next group--the negro from the Delta of

the Niger, the negro in his most extreme form--is not more truly

indigenous and aboriginal to the soil of Africa than are these Danakil;

who are not only Africans, in the strictest sense of the term, but also

members of a large family, falling into divisions and subdivisions. So

far are they from being exceptional, or in any respect peculiar.

The other members of this family are (_a_) the Somauli, on the coast of

the Pacific Ocean, about Cape Guardafui and (_b_) the Gallas, or

Ilmorma, a pastoral people spread over a vast area to the south of

Abyssinia, and who so encroach upon that country that they are in a fair

way of reducing it altogether.

The Gallas, like the Danakil, and the Danakil, like the Somauli and

Gallas, are a pastoral people--pastoral, locomotive, wild, and

intractable--with manners that remind us of the Arab of Asia, the Kaffre

of Southern Africa, or of the Berber of the Desert of Sahara; and it is

these whom they resemble, more or less closely, in their forms--more or

less closely in their social constitution. Like all such populations,

they fall into numerous tribes, each under the influence of their chief;

with the spirit of blood, or pedigree, running strong amongst them.

Every man belongs to his tribe, or class, and is proud of being attached

to it. Of the Danakil alone, more than fifty of these tribual divisions

are known by name.

In respect to creed the Danakil are what the neighbourhood of Arabia

leads us to expect, Mahometans, more or less incompletely converted; and

this is the general rule for the eastern coast of Africa--the _coast_,

but not the interior. In the interior we get amongst pagans. On the

other hand, Abyssinia and some of the parts about it are Christian. Dr.

Beke considered that he found traces of a corrupt and displaced

Christianity among the Gallas.

The fact of the neighbourhood of Arabia having determined a large

portion of the eastern coast of Africa to Mahometanism explains the

meaning of the words _Kaffre_, and _Caffraria_, or _Kafferland_.

_Kaffre_, in the mouth of an Arab, means _Infidel_. It means

_Infidel_ not only in the mouth of an Arab, but in that of any

Mahometan. In different languages it takes different forms, and is

applied to different populations. In Persia it expressed the old

_Fire-worshippers_, since _Guebre_ is but another form of it. In Cabul

it denotes the occupants of a district to the north of Peshawur, wherein

the natives still reject Mahometanism, and, so doing, are _Kafirs_,

their country being _Kaferistan_. In Turkey it generally means a

Christian--since _Giaour_ is neither more nor less than _Kafir_ in the

mouth of a Turk.

But to return to Eastern Africa. Where the Arab influence ceases, the

land of the _Kaffres_ begins.

Of these Kaffres more may be seen in group VII.

The black figure (modelled from life) is evidently more negro than aught

else. The hair is crisp, to say the least of it, and the skin black; the

open and patulous character of the nostrils, and their lateral position,

claim attention. They are by no means exaggerated.

The youth from whom the figure was taken belonged to the Msegurra tribe;

of which I can only state that it is an occupant of some part of the

back of the coast of Zanzibar, or Mozambique.

The present group prepares us for a Kaffre; let it also prepare us for a

negro one. That all Africans are not negroes may be seen from the

figures before us. The negro form is by no means universal--not even in

the hottest parts of Africa--not even between the tropics: it is only in

the lower levels that the true negro is to be found. Look for him

amongst the high pastures of the mountains, look for him even on the hot

but arid plateaus of the desert, and you search in vain. Tribes with

dark skins you may find, tribes with hair more or less wavy, or

frizzly, tribes with features heavy, massive, and coarse--but the true

and typical negro, with his short woolly hair, and his thick projecting

lips you will not find. Wherever he is the occupant, the soil is

alluvial, and the heat of the atmosphere is combined with moisture.

Wherever the land gets high and dry, the inhabitant is brown rather than

black, and long-haired rather than frizzly headed. His features, too,

become more prominent.

GROUP VII.

NEGROES,--2. LIGHT-COLOURED. FROM THE LOWER NIGER.

In the Delta of the Niger we find the best opportunity for contrasting

the negro with the European, the black man with the white; inasmuch as

it is in the Delta of the Niger where the points wherein the African

differs from the rest of the world are found in the most marked form.

The climate is tropical (well nigh equatorial), the soil swampy and

alluvial, the atmosphere surcharged with damp warm vapours. Under these

conditions the negro is found in his most extreme form. Let us ask what

it is. In the true and typical negro (the negro from whom the current

notions of the black man are derived), over and above the colour of the

skin, there is a woolly, cottony, or frizzy head of hair, there is a

yellow tinge over the white of the eye (the sclerotica), and there are

thick lips, with a projecting mouth--a muzzle rather than a mouth, in

its more exaggerated form. This is because the teeth are set obliquely,

_i. e._ they slant somewhat forward. Then there is the forehead, which

is described as being narrow, and retiring, and receding, or sloping

backwards. There is some exaggeration in this, though upon the whole the

negro character is well marked; the hair, the skin, and the lips, being

the chief points. To the notice of these it should be added that the

nose is generally flat and depressed, with the nostrils _thrown out_, so

to say, sideways. Rarely, very rarely indeed, is the bridge sufficiently

curved to give what is called the _Roman_ or _aquiline_ nose; whilst it

is almost as rare to find a Grecian one, _i. e._ one where the nasal

bones are raised but straight. Then there is the proportion which the

different parts of the face bear to each other. A [34]German writer of

eminence as a naturalist, has lately been taking measurements from

amongst the negroes of Brazil, and states that instead of the parts

between the chin and nose (the nasal portion of the face), and the

forehead forming a third, each, of the whole physiognomy, the forehead

forms _less_ than a third, the nasal part more than the forehead, and

the chin, &c. more than the nasal; in other words, the lower we go the

greater the mass of the several parts of the face, and the nearer we

approach the brain, the smaller. I can neither verify nor deny this

statement.

[34] Burmeister--_The Black Man_, a pamphlet.

Other points, more or less characteristic, real or supposed, are to be

found in the relations of the limbs to the trunk--the former being

longer in proportion to the latter than is usual with Europeans.

It is more important, however, to investigate the amount of difference

indicated by the difference of colour, and to do this we must look to

the structure of the skin. The structure of the negro’s skin differs

from that of the white man in degree only, the one containing much, the

other but little colouring matter; this colouring matter being deposited

in a particular layer, called the _mucous layer_, the _stratum

Malpighii_, or the _rete mucosum_. The character of this _mucous layer_,

or _rete mucosum_, is well given in the forthcoming plates, which, along

with the description, is taken from [35]Kölliker’s Manual. It differs in

some degree from the one which occurs in the ordinary works on

Ethnology.

[35] Translated by Messrs. Busk and Huxley for the Sydenham Society.

The external integument of all men alike consists of the _cutis_ or true

skin, and the _epidermis_, or scarf-skin, the latter consisting of cells

only, the former of cells, vessels and nerves.

As far as the _cutis_ is concerned, the blackest and whitest of mankind

are alike; so that it is in the scarf-skin or _epidermis_ that the

difference lies. This consists of two layers, an external and an

internal.

The internal layer is the _rete mucosum_. It lies immediately upon the

true skin, and consists solely and wholly of cells, being equally

destitute of vessels and nerves. Here begin the first discrepancies in

the opinion of writers. Some deny that it belongs to the epidermis,

looking upon it as a separate substantive tissue, neither skin nor

scarf-skin, but intermediate to the two. Others find it only in the

coloured families of mankind. It occurs, however, universally; being of

a yellowish-white colour in Europeans, and dark brown or black in

negroes, Indians, and the so-called dark races. Hence, the real

difference is not in the existence of an additional tissue, but in a

greater amount of colouring matter. Similar in respect to the two

layers of their cutis, similar in respect to the two layers of their

epidermis, the black man and the white differ in the extent to which the

second layer of the scarf-skin is charged with a black deposit.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The accompanying figure represents a section through the skin and

scarf-skin of the ball of the thumb; wherein _a_ is the outer layer of

the epidermis; _b_, the inner, or _rete mucosum_; _c_, and _d_, the

cutis; _e_, glands, ducts, &c.

The next gives us the epidermis only--_a_, being the outer; _b_, the

inner layer (_rete mucosum_;) _c_, the cutis, to the outline of which

the _rete mucosum_ adapts itself.

It is in the deepest parts of the inner layer, in the parts more

immediately in contact with the true skin, that the most colouring

matter is accumulated. Hence, the horny, or outer part of the epidermis

is white or yellowish, all the world over. A blister, in popular

language, _raises the skin_; in reality, it only raises the outer layer

of the epidermis. Now blisters rise equally _white_ with the African and

with the European.

It is not until after birth that the colouring matter of the second

layer of the scarf-skin becomes deposited. A negro child is born of

somewhat deeper red colour than an European, but he is not born black.

The edges of the nails and the nipple of the breast darken first; the

body having darkened by the third day, there or thereabouts.

As the hue of the skin attains its deepest tinge with the groupe before

us, the structure that exhibits it has been enlarged upon.

What is the moral and social state of these negroes of the Delta of the

Niger? what their habits, customs, and creeds?

We cannot follow the account of any observer for these parts, without

discovering that, overpowering as is the heat, and swampy as is the

ground, unfavourable, in one word, as are the conditions of soil and

climate, the whole of the low country represented by the groupe before

us teems with human life; neither is there the absence of human

industry. We first hear of villages of from twenty to thirty, from

thirty to forty, from fifty to seventy huts; to each of which we may

give, upon an average, some six occupants. Then there are large towns

like Iboh and Iddah, wherein the inhabitants are counted by the

thousand; where there are regular market-days, and where there is a

king with his court, such as it is. It is with these kings that the

treaties have to be made against the slave-trade, these kings who, as in

the late case at Lagos, have disputes as to the “succession”; these

kings who give licenses to trade, and who make the access to the

interior part of the country practicable or the contrary. There are

kings and viceroys--viceroys with kings over them, so that there is a

sort of feudal chain of vassalage and sovereignty. King Emmery, for

instance, was, at the time of the Niger Expedition, the chief of a

village on the river Nun, himself being a subject to King Boy of Brass

Town. Then there is the kingdom of Iddah, with its subordinate

kingships, whilst Kakanda and Egga are the dependencies of a really

consolidated monarchy at Sakkatu.

At best, however, the African monarch, except in the Mahometan kingdoms,

is but a sorry potentate; a drunken, sensual, slave-dealing polygamist.

When Drs. McWilliam and Stanger visited this same King Emmery, his dress

was a uniform coatee that had belonged to a drummer[36] in some English

regiment, a plain black hat, and a blue cotton handkerchief for the

lower man--a blue cotton handkerchief for drawers, trowsers and

stockings, collectively; the dress of the ordinary natives being limited

to a simple shirt, with a cloth round the middle. In this we get one of

the measures of the amount of English influence and trade.

[36] A drummer’s uniform is a favourite dress elsewhere. In the

Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen, Professor Thompson can show no

marriage-garment for a _male_ Esquimaux, although of female

wedding-gear, and that a truly native and characteristic kind, he has

abundance. But there are no male equivalents. The reason of this lies

in the fact of a Danish Drummer’s dress having been left as a sort of

general property to the community, to be lent or hired, as the case

may be whenever a marriage ceremony takes place, to the utter

obliteration of the old costume, and with a great disregard to fit.

The huts are of clay, arranged in squares rather than in rows, and when

the soil is low and liable to be flooded, they are raised some feet from

the ground on a foundation of wooden pillars, in which case a ladder

leads to the principal opening. The King’s palace is an assemblage of

such huts; a miniature town; one side of the square which they form

being the “women’s quarters.” Here reside the numerous wives,

half-wives, and ex-wives of the sovereign, the number of which is always

considerable, since the rank of the man regulates it. The following

table gives us, in the first column, the names of the different members

of the Court of King Obi of Iboh in 1840; in the others, their age, and

the numbers of their wives and families--

+----------------------------------+----+-----------+-----------+

| | | WIVES. | CHILDREN. |

| | +-----+-----+-----+-----+

| | | Liv-| | Liv-| |

| |Age.| ing.|Dead.| ing.|Dead.|

| +----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

|1. Ajeh, king’s brother | 40 | 80 | 40 | un- | un- |

| | | | | cer-| cer-|

| | | | |tain.|tain.|

|2. Amorara, judge and king’s mouth| 40 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 |

|3. Ozama, headman | 35 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 |

|4. Omenibo, headman | 32 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 |

|5. Amebak, headman | 28 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 |

|6. Magog, bugler | 34 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 |

|7. Ambili, headman | 35 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 |

|8. Ogrou, headman | 30 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |

|9. Obi, king | 44 | 110 | uncertain. |

+----------------------------------+----+-----+-----------------+

Let us see something more of this female quarter, which, in the negro

parts of Africa, presents a social scene, in the way of barbarism, which

the harems of Asia--bad as they are--far fall short of. Obi’s

establishment was seen to advantage; for his wives were amused at the

faces and dresses of the Europeans who visited their lord and master,

and they flocked in swarms to laugh at them. Their mirth then

“brought[37] out about twenty damsels of more mature age, who were

superannuated wives, permitted to live within the precincts of the

palace.” What will be the ultimate fate of these old and young, active

and superannuate? Even this--that when the king dies, they will be

sacrificed to his manes.

[37] Dr. McWilliam--Medical History of the Niger Expedition.

This practice is common throughout the districts under notice. At Old

Calabar, the south-eastern angle of the Delta, the death of a

well-known chief or caboceer,[38] named Ephraim, caused the death of

some hundreds of men, women, and children who were immolated at his

burial--decapitation, burning alive, and the administration of the

poison-nut, being the methods resorted to for terminating their

existence.

[38] From the Portuguese _Cabocero--Captain_.

Again, when King Eyeo, father of the present Chief of Creek Town, died,

an eyewitness, who had only arrived just after the completion of the

funeral rites, informed me that a large pit had been dug, in which

several of the deceased’s wives were bound and thrown in, until a

certain number had been procured; the earth was then thrown over them,

and so great was the agony of these victims, that the ground for several

minutes was agitated with their convulsive throes. So fearful, in former

times, was the observance of this barbarous custom, that many towns

narrowly escaped depopulation.[39]

[39] Dr. Daniell on the Natives of Old Calabar, “Transactions of the

Ethnological Society.”

The savage character of the negro warfare is on a level with such

practices as these--the slave trade being the chief incentive to them.

When these take place, and when the burial-place of a king is known to

the enemy, they rifle his grave for his remains; and having obtained his

scull, keep it as a trophy. For this reason the tombs of royalty are

kept concealed.

But there is another peculiarity. In more than one part of the western

coast, the woman serves as a soldier, or even as a captain. In Akkim, on

the Gold Coast, the notice of a female _colonel_, when first made,

excited as much incredulity as surprise. The fact, nevertheless, has

been confirmed by respectable testimony, by Mr. Duncan, and Captain

Forbes, more especially; inasmuch as in the kingdom of Dahomey, there is

a whole regiment consisting exclusively of females--a large proportion

being the ex-wives of the king. The following song, given on the

authority of the last-named author, shows the temper and spirit of the

unsexed Amazons:--

1.

“When Yoribah[40] said she could conquer Dahomey;

When we meet we’ll change their night into day;

Let the rain fall:

The season past, the river dries.

Yoribah and Dahomey!

Can two rams drink from one calabash?

The Yoribahs must have been drunk to say

Dahomey feared them,

They could conquer Dahomey.

2.

“There’s a difference between Gezo and a poor man;

There’s a difference between Gezo and a rich man.

If a rich man owned all,

Gezo would still be king.

All guns are not alike;

Some are long, some short, some thick, some thin.

The Yoribahs must be a drunken nation,

And thus we will dance before them.

3.

“Gezo is king of kings!

While Gezo lives we have nothing to fear.

Under him we are lions, not men.

Power emanates from the king.

4.

“Let all eyes behold the king!

There are not two but one--

One only, Gezo!

All nations have their customs,

But none so brilliant or enlightened,

As those of Dahomey.

People from far countries are here:

Behold all nations, white and black,

Send their ambassadors.

AMAZONS’ CHORUS.

“With these guns in our hands,

And powder in our cartouch-boxes,

What has the king to fear?

When we go to war, let the king dance,

While we bring him prisoners and heads.

GENERAL CHORUS.

“Let the king grant war speedily!

Do not let our energies be damped.

Fire cannot pass through water.

The king feeds us;

When we go to war.

Remember this!

“We are clothed and fed by Gezo;

In consequence, our hearts are glad.””

[40] A neighbouring kingdom on the East.

War and slavery engender each other; war leading to slavery, and slavery

stimulating to war. And slavery takes three forms, all bad--bad, but one

worse than the other two. This is the slavery of the _traders_. An

expedition is undertaken against some neighbouring tribe, weak enough,

or unprepared enough, to divest the attack of half its danger. Captives

are taken, driven to the coast in groups, shut up in barracoons, and

then sold for transportation to the new world. It is this form of

slavery that engenders the miseries and atrocities of the middle

passage.

The second form is that of simple domestic servitude, wherein the slave,

although under constant compulsion, forms a part of his master’s family,

and is ensured against removal from his native soil.

The third is like that of the _Nexi_ of ancient Rome, and occurs when a

negro, in order to raise a particular sum of money, sells himself as a

labourer for a certain period--pawns his body, so to say, or borrows

money on himself.

The administration of justice is on the same low level as the other

institutions; the punishments being cruel, and the rules of evidence

barbarous.[41] Two methods, as may be expected, predominate, the ordeal

and the torture. The commonest form of the latter is “what is called

tying Guinea-fashion. In this the arms are closely drawn together behind

the back, by means of a cord tied tightly round them, about midway

between the elbows and shoulders. A piece of wood to act as a rack

having been previously introduced, is then used so as to tighten the

cord, and so intense is the agony, that one application is generally

sufficient to occasion the wretch so tortured to confess to anything

that is required of him.”

[41] From the United Service Journal, November, 1850.

Another form consists in “tying the head and hands, in such a way that

by turning the body backwards, they may be drawn together by the cords

employed. Another is securing the wrist or ankle to a block of wood by

an iron staple. By means of a hammer any degree of pressure may thus be

applied.”

The chief form of ordeal is, what is called on the Gold Coast, the

_dhoom_ test, but which appears and reappears all along the

intertropical parts of Western Africa. The _dhoom_ is a kind of wood

with poisonous and emetic properties. The innocent man drinks and ejects

it: the guilty one drinks and dies. In Old Calabar the seeds of an

aquatic legume replace the _dhoom_ wood. Unless emetic, they are

poisonous.

Partaking of the nature of the ordeal, as a means of investigation in

criminal matters, is the application to priest, sorcerer, medicine-man,

or _Fetish_-man; but as the principles of belief that this practice

involves one illustrated in the Zulu group, we only make a passing

allusion to it. The notice, too, of the festivals as connected with

religion, will similarly stand over.

What applies to one of the negro populations of the western coast,

applies, more or less, to all. There are, of course, differences,

nevertheless the general character of the social and political

institutions, of their habits and superstitions, is alike; so that the

description of one tribe is the description of several others besides;

the chief distinctions consist in the creeds. I do not mean by this that

the particular form of the native and indigenous superstition is of much

importance. They are all low and debasing, and even when an African form

of faith aspires to the character of a mythology, it is a mythology of

an unpoetical, unimaginative, and poverty-stricken character, never

indicating much play of feeling, never any vigour or activity of

imagination, never inspiring either art or poetry. Of such things we

must not think here.

The difference I allude to, and which is one of practical and of ever

increasing importance, is that between the Pagan and the Mahometan

population, between those which hold to their original Fetishism, to

their snake-worship and the like, and those who, having adopted the

creed of Islam, are (whatever else they may be) at least, Monotheists.

The Mahometans of the African states must always be separated from the

Pagans.

The negro districts of the western coast begin with the country of the

_Wolofs_ or _Jolofs_, as far north as the southern border of the Desert,

and the lower course of the river Senegal. There are no better-shaped

negroes than these same _Wolofs_, for they are tall, well-made, active,

and intelligent men; Pagans, however, according to their original creed,

rather than Mahometans.

The _Sereres_ of Cape Verde, and the _Scrawoolli_ in the interior, are

in the same predicament.

The _Mandingoes_, like the Wolofs, are negroes but not Pagans. They are

amongst the first and foremost of the Mahometan negroes: but this

applies only to the Mandingoes in the limited sense of the term--the

Mandingoes of the Gambia. In the wider sense of the word, the great

Mandingo class comprises more than twenty different populations, some of

which are as Pagan as the most grovelling snake-worshippers of Dahomey.

Then come the tribes of the islands between the Gambia and Sierra Leone;

as also of the lower part of the rivers Grande, Nuñez, Casamanca, &c.

Under the names of _Felups_, _Papels_, _Nalus_, _Sapis_, _&c._, and we

have some of the rudest, but at the same time, the least known of the

western negroes.

Between Sierra Leone and Cape Palmas, along with several populations

more or less akin to the Mandingo, lie the _Krumen_, whom a writer

already quoted, calls the Scotchmen of Africa. The Kruman leaves without

hesitation or reluctance his own country to push his fortune wherever

he can find a wider field. He is ready for any employment which may

enable him to increase his means, and ensure a return home in a state of

improved prosperity. There the Kruman’s ambition is to purchase one or

two head of cattle, and one or two head of wives, and to enjoy the

luxuries of rum and tobacco. Half the Africans that we see in Liverpool

and London are Krumen, who have left their own country when young, and

taken employment on board a ship, where they exhibit a natural aptitude

for the sea. Without being nice as to the destination of the vessel in

which they engage, they return home as soon as they can; and rarely or

never contract matrimony before their return. In Cape Coast Town, as

well as in Sierra Leone, they form a bachelor community quiet and

orderly; and in that respect stand in strong contrast to the other

tribes, around them. Besides which, with all their blackness, and all

their typical negro character, they are distinguishable from most other

western Africans; having the advantage of them in make, features, and

industry. Hence, a Kruman is preëminently the _free labourer_ of Africa;

quick of perception and amenable to instruction. His language is the

_Grebo_ tongue, and it has been reduced to writing by the American

missionaries of Cape Palmas.

The Gold Coast gives as the chief populations the _Fantis_, and the

_Ashantis_, pagan and negro; the latter remarkable for the consolidation

of one of the more powerful kingdoms of Africa.

In _Dahomey_ we reach the _nadir_ of Negro rudeness; in Dahomey, where

the wars are the cruelest, the slave trade the most rife, and the

heathenism, at one and the same time eminently debasing in itself, and

eminently unmodified by Mahometanism.

In the neighbouring kingdom of _Yoruba_, this is not so much the case,

where the influence of the Fellatas has made itself felt.

This brings us to the Delta of the Niger, the chief population of which

is the _Ibo_.

South of the Delta come the negroes of the Gaboon, and south of these

those of Loango, Angola, and Benguela. Between this last-named country

and Walvisch Bay, the type changes to that of the browner-coloured

Caffres, and the Hottentots. The _language_ changed long before--in the

parts between the Gaboon and the old Calabar rivers.

I do not profess that scientific imperturbability which enables me to

write about such abominations as human sacrifice, and such follies as

snake-worship, without branding them and the nations that adopt them as

barbarous. They belong, however, to the darker side of the picture. The

brighter gives us something better; warmth of domestic feeling, aptitude

for such commercial dealings as their circumstances develop, adaptation

to the habits of the European, susceptibility to the ameliorating

influences both of Mahometanism and Christianity, are all negro

characteristics.

We have noticed the character of the Kruman, we will now notice a negro

tribe wherein an _alphabet_ has been evolved. A man of the _Vey_

country, to the back of Liberia, a truly negro locality, named Doala

Bakara, having seen both Arabic and English books, conceived the idea of

producing an alphabet for his own tongue. This idea, as he tells the

story himself, haunted him in a dream, wherein he was shown a series of

signs of letters. These he forgot in the morning; but remembered the

impression. So he consulted his friends; and they and he, laying their

heads together, coined new ones. The king of the country made its

introduction a matter of state, and built a large house as a day-school.

The effect of this has been, that a book in the Vey tongue has been

deciphered by an English scholar, and that several Vey natives, of both

sexes can read and write. The alphabet itself is a _syllabarium_; _i.e._

there is a separate sign or letter, for the different _syllables_ of

which a word consists--not for the different elementary sounds.

The darker individuals of the group before us have furnished a text upon

which a general sketch of the negro population of Western Africa has

been the commentary. Let us now turn to the men of the lighter

complexion, and the less prominent lips. They are _Fellatas_,

_Fellatahs_, or _Falatiya_. Sometimes they are called _Fellatiya Arabs_;

but they have nothing to do with the Arab of Arabia except so far as

they are Mahometans in creed, and somewhat light-complexioned in respect

to their colour.

The metropolis of the Fellatas is Sakkatu, visited by Clapperton, from

whom the following remarkable history is taken:--Towards the end of the

last century a vast number of wandering pastoral tribes spread over that

part of Central Africa, which is called _Sudania_--underwent a change in

respect to the social and political organisation, which Prichard

compares with that of the Arabs at the time of Mahomet. Many--but not

all--of them embraced Mahometanism, and that with more than ordinary

zeal and devotion. They visited the more civilised parts of Barbary,

they performed pilgrimages to Mecca, they recognised in one of their

sheiks, called Danfodio, a prophet with a mission, to preach, to

convert, to conquer. Under his inspiration they attacked the pagan

population of the countries around--Guber to the north, and Kubbi to the

south, Zamfra, Kashna, and parts of the Houssa country to the east.

Their war-cry was _Allah Akbar_; their robes and flags white, emblematic

of their purity. Kano was conquered without a blow, so was Yaouri, so

was the town of Eyo or Katunga on the Niger, so was part of the Nufi or

Tapua country--even the frontier of Bornou was violated.

Danfodio’s death, which took place in 1818, was preceded by fits of

religious madness; not, however, before he had consolidated a great

Fellatah kingdom, and become the terror to the states around. It was in

vain that a portion of his conquests revolted. The present Sultan of

Sakkatu, Mohammed Bello, is the most powerful prince of Africa, whether

pagan or Mahometan.

Most of these Fellatas are Mahometans, some retaining their original

paganism; but whether pagan or Mahometan, they are still the same

people. Their features are the same, their pastoral habits the same,

their language the same. This is one of the most isolated tongues of

Africa; with plenty of miscellaneous, but no very definite or special

affinities.

In _Borgho_, _i. e._ in the parts about Boussa, and Wawa, visited by

Lander, there are two populations, one speaking a language akin to the

_Yoruba_, one akin to the Fellatah; so that there Fellata offsets in

Borgho. But here, according to Lander, they have been in the country

from time immemorial. Here, too, they hold themselves as a separate

people from the Fellatas of Sakkatu, dominant and powerful as that

branch is, and respectable as would be the connexion. Such, at least, is

Lander’s statement. Their name, too, undergoes a slight modification,

and is _Filani_. They have neither idea nor tradition as to the

origin--not at least the _Filani_ of Borgho.

All this looks as if Borgho were the original country of the Fellata

stock, the starting-point from which they spread themselves abroad, If

so, their movement must have been from south to north.

But we have yet to hear the whole of their history. Under the names of

_Fula_, _Fulahs_, _Foule_ or _Peule_, they appear elsewhere. Where?--As

far north as the Wolof (or Jolof) country--as far north as the parts

between the Senegal and the desert--as far north as 17 N. L. Here

between Galam and Kayor is a vast Fula district--the district of the

Fulas of the Siratik. There on the south bank of the river lie the

Fulas of Foutatorro, an elevated tract of land forming the watershed to

the Senegal and the Gambia.

Thirdly, far in the interior, on the high ground over which Park passed

from the drainage of the Senegal to that of the Niger, is a Fula-_du_,

or country of the Fulas, between Bambuk and Bambarra.

Fourthly, there are the Fulas to the south of Bammakoo, in the parts

called Wasselah, on the Niger itself.

Fifthly, in 11 N. L., on the head-water of the Rio Grande, is the large

kingdom of the Fouta-jallo Fulahs, of which Timbu is the metropolis,

surrounded by dry and rocky deserts, and exposed mountain pastures,

prolific with sheep, oxen, goats, and horses. Here, although the use of

the plough is unknown, the occupants cultivate the soil, and exercise

more than one of the mechanical arts. They forge iron and silver, weave,

and tan, and support schools and mosques. To the south lies the Sulimana

tribe, more or less akin to the Mandingoes. From these, Laing learnt,

that the acquisition of the country about Tembu by the Fulas of

Futa-jallo was an event of no great antiquity, having taken place about

A.D. 1700.

There are other Fula, Fellata, and Filani localities, but an enumeration

of the foregoing has been sufficient. It shows the vast space of ground

covered by the population so-called. It shows, too, the difficulty of

ascertaining the original mother country. Indeed, upon the whole, this

is a point upon which good writers are satisfied to suspend their

judgment--no one having committed himself very decidedly to a preference

for one district over another.

The main facts lie in the superiority of their organisation over the

ordinary negro, and their higher civilisation--this being chiefly due to

their Mahometanism. There is no doubt as to either. Although, the

particular shade of the particular colour which best suits the Fula is

not a matter upon which authors write with unanimity; the testimony of

all observers goes to the fact that, whether Filani or Fellata, Fellata

or Fula, whether pagan or Mahometan, whether Sudanian or Senegambian,

whether mountaineer or desert-born, the Fula is something different from

the typical Negro. Sometimes his complexion is intermediate to that of

the African and the Moor; sometimes he is described as being tawny, with

soft hair, and lips by no means prominent: sometimes the skin is of a

reddish-black, the countenances being regular. “The tribe of Fulas,”

writes Golberry, “which under the name of Foules or Peuls, have peopled

the borders of the Senegal between Podhon and Galam, are black with a

tinge of red or copper colour; they are in general handsome and

well-made; the women are handsome, but proud and indolent.”

To the Fula-jallo Fulas the very definite and suggestive term “Red

Peuls” has been applied; to which the name “Black Peuls” stands in

opposition, this meaning the Fulas of the north bank of the lower

Senegal.

What is our inference from these discrepancies of description--what our

inference from the points of agreement? Even this[42]--that the Fula

complexion varies with the physical conditions of the Fula locality. In

the high and exposed tracts of Fula-jallo it is the least, in the lower

levels of the parts about lake Kayor, it is most like that of the negro.

[42] For further details, see Prichard, _Researches, &c._, vol. ii.

pp. 66-73, and 121-125.

GROUP VIII.

SOUTHERN AFRICA.--NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE CAPE.--PORT NATAL.

A. ZULUS. (THE TALLER AND DARKER.) B. BUSHMEN. (THE SHORTER AND

BROWNER.)

A. The Zulu group is taken from life--from the men lately exhibited at

St. George’s Hall. The story told is the search for some lost article.

When this is the case, a _Fetish-man_, _medium-man_, _mystery-man_, or

_conjuror_ (we may choose our name), is called in, and set upon the

suspected parties, who sit round in a circle. The conjuror then works

himself, like the Pythoness of the old oracles, into a state of rabid

excitement, and keeps it up until he fixes upon the culprit.

Nothing is less peculiar than this practice throughout

Africa--throughout, indeed, most savage countries; nor is it without its

value. Writing about the same practice on the Gold Coast, an author

already quoted, after stating the “superstitious rites employed by the

Fetish-men for the detection of crime,” adds, “and whether it is that

these people really possess such powerful influence over their wretched

dupes, as to frighten into confession of his guilt the perpetrator of

crime, or whether it is that they manage by their numerous spies to

obtain a clue sufficient in most cases to lead to the detection of the

person, is more than I can venture to assert; but, be the means

employed what they may, a Fetish-man will assuredly very often bring a

crime home to the right person, even after the most patient

investigation in the ordinary way has failed to elicit the slightest

clue.”

The Zulus come from the part about Port Natal. They are closely allied,

in language, at least, to the Kaffres--the Kaffres of the Amakosa,

Amaponda, Amatembu, and other tribes, but too well known to the Cape

Colonist and the English tax-payer.

They are similarly allied to the Bechuana tribes of the interior. The

Bechuanas, however, are browner in colour, as is expected from their

locality, which is high and dry.

The Fingoes are also an allied population.

The differences between the Proper Kaffres, the Bechuanas, the Fingoes,

and the Zulus, lie within a small compass, so that the general likeness

is pretty clear. But neither the differences nor the likenesses between

the populations akin to the Kaffres end here.

The word (the derivation of which has been given elsewhere) has two

meanings. It means, in its more limited sense, the Kaffres of Caffraria,

chiefly of the Amakosa tribe, the men who have given so much trouble to

the colonists. But it also has a wider or more general signification,

and in this case it serves as the designation of a large family of

allied populations--and a very large family--one of the largest in

Africa.

The connecting link between its numerous branches is the language, of

which the structure has (amongst others) the following characteristic

peculiarities. Suppose that in English, instead of saying

_M_an’s _d_og, we said _d_an _d_og,

_S_un’s _b_eam--_b_un _b_eam,

_F_ather’s _d_aughter--_d_ather _d_aughter,

_D_aughter’s father--_f_aughter _f_ather;

in such a case we should accommodate the sound of the word in the

possessive case to that with which the word in the nominative case

began. And if we did this, we should assuredly do something very

remarkable in the way of speech. Now the Kaffre tongues _all_ do this.

It is done by the Amakosa, the Zulu, the Fingo, the Bechuana. It is done

by the languages on the _western_ coast as far as the Cameroons, _i.e._,

to the north of the equator--by the languages of Benguela, Angola,

Congo, Loango, and the Gaboon, &c. It is done by the languages on the

_eastern_ coast as well; indeed, it was very probably done by the

language of the Moegurras. It is done, so far as we know, by all the

languages of the interior south of the equator--save and except those of

the Hottentot class. It is certainly done by the languages of the Great

Lake Ngami.

The Kaffre division, then, is a large one; and it is based, chiefly, on

similarity of language. In physical form, the range of difference is

great. Some of the Kaffres are truly negro, others brown in colour, and

with lips of moderate thickness. The Zulus before us certainly approach

the negro.

On the other hand, more than one good writer has enlarged upon the

points of contrast; and such there certainly are, if we take the more

extreme forms--the typical Kaffre and typical Negro. In the latter, for

instance, the skin (as aforesaid) may be brown rather than black. Then

the cheek-bones may project outwards; and where the cheek-bones so

project beyond a certain limit, the chin appears to taper downwards, and

the vertex upwards. When this becomes exaggerated, we hear of

_lozenge-shaped_ skulls. Be this as it may, the breadth in the malar

portion of the face is often a remarkable feature in the Kaffre

physiognomy. This he has in common with the Hottentot. Sometimes, too,

the eye is oblique; the opening generally narrow.

An opinion often gives a better picture than a description. Kaffres,

that have receded in the greatest degree from the negro type, have been

so likened to the more southern Arabs, as to have engendered the

hypothesis of an infusion of Arab blood.

The manners of the Kaffres of the Cape are those of pastoral tribes

under chieftains; tribes which, from their habits and social relations,

are naturally active, locomotive, warlike, and jealous of encroachment.

It would be strange indeed if the Kaffre life and Kaffre physiognomy had

no peculiarities. However little in the way of physical influence we may

attribute to the geography of a country, no man ignores them altogether.

Now Kaffreland has very nearly a latitude of its own; inhabited lands

similarly related to the southern tropic being found in South America

and Australia only. And it has a soil still more exclusively

South-African. We connect the idea of the _desert_ with that of sand;

whilst _steppe_ is a term which is limited to the vast tracts of central

Asia. Now the Kaffre, and still more the Hottentot, area, dry like the

desert, and elevated like the steppe, is called a _karro_. Its soil is

often a hard, cracked, and parched clay rather than a waste of sand, and

it constitutes an argillaceous table-land.

Their polity and manners, too, are peculiar. The head-man of the village

settles disputes, his tribunal being in the open air. From him an appeal

lies to a chief of higher power; and from him to some superior, higher

still. In this way there is a long chain of feudal or semi-feudal

dependency.

The wife is the slave to the husband; and he _buys_ her in order that

she should be so. The purchase implies a seller. This is always a member

of another tribe. Hence the wish of a Kaffre is to see his wife the

mother of many children, girls being more valuable than boys.

Why a man should not sell his offspring to the members of his own tribe

is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the practice of doing so makes

marriage between even distant relations next to impossible. To guard

against the chances of this, a rigid and suspicious system of restraint

has been developed in cases of consanguinity; and relations must do all

they can to avoid meeting. To sit in the same room, to meet on the same

road, is undesirable. To converse is but just allowable, and then all

who choose must hear what is said. So thorough, however, has been the

isolation in many cases, that persons of different sexes have lived as

near neighbours for many years without having conversed with each other;

and such communication as there has been, has taken place through the

medium of a third person. No gift will induce a Kaffre female to violate

this law.

B. The Bushmen, too, are taken from life, the two children being in

England at the present time.

Just as the Zulu belongs to the Kaffre, the Bushman belongs to the

Hottentot family--the latter family being a large one; not so large,

however, as the former. The present Hottentot districts, wholly

surrounded by the Kaffre, lie on the _western_ rather than _eastern_

side of South Africa, and extend from the parts about Valvisch Bay to

the Cape; the original population of the last-named locality having

become well-nigh extinct.

How has this extinction been effected? In two ways. By the European

settlers of the colony---Dutch and English, English and Dutch; by the

Kaffres, who have ever spread southwards. Before these encroachments had

taken effect, there were Hottentot tribes on the eastern as well as the

_western_ coast, on _both_ sides of South Africa. Now there are none,

either on the side of the Pacific, or in the parts about the Cape

itself--except (of course) so far as they are mixed up with the colonial

population.

The names (all or some) of the extinct branches of the Hottentot family

are as follows:--

1. Gunyeman, nearest the Cape.

2. Kokha_qua_, north of the Gunyeman.

3. Sussa_qua_, Saldanha Bay.

4. Odi_qua_.

5. Khirigri_quas_, on Elephants’ River.

6. Koopmans.

7. Hessa_quas_.

8. Son_quas_, east of the Cape.

9. Dun_quas_.

10. Dama_quas_.

11. Guari_quas_.

12. Honteni_quas_.

13. Khantouers.

14. Heykoms, as far on the north-east as Natal. Now replaced by Amakosah

Kaffres.

The chief divisions still existing are the _Gonaquas_, the _Koranas_,

the _Namaquas_ (between Valvisch Bay and the Orange River), the _Soun

Darmup_, of the Dammara Country (to the back of Valvisch Bay), and the

_Saabs_, or Bushmen.

The Koranas are the best-shaped and best-looking of the Hottentots; the

Bushmen the worst. The latter, indeed, are the starvelings of the

family. They belong to the most miserable part of the _Karroo_, and they

have neither flocks nor herds.

The Laplander of Lapland is not more strongly contrasted with his strong

and sturdy neighbour of the Duchy of Finland than are the Korana and the

Saab. The former are well-grown men, though of the Hottentot family. The

Saabs are described as having constitutions “so much enfeebled by the

dissolute life they lead, and the constant smoking of _dacha_, that

nearly all, including the young people, look old and wrinkled;

nevertheless, they are remarkable for vanity, and decorate their ears,

legs, and arms with beads, and iron, copper, or brass rings. The women

likewise stain their faces red, or paint them, either wholly or in part.

Their clothing consists of a few sheepskins, which hang about their

bodies, and thus form the mantle or covering, commonly called a

_kaross_. This is their only clothing by day or night. The men wear old

hats, which they obtain from the farmers, or else caps of their own

manufacture. The women wear caps of skins, which they stiffen and finish

with a high peak, and adorn with beads and metal rings. The dwelling of

the Bushman is either a low wretched hut, or a circular cavity, on the

open plain, into which, at night, he creeps with his wife and children,

and which, though it shelters him from the wind, leaves him exposed to

the rain. In this neighbourhood, in which rocks abound, they had

formerly their habitations in them, as is proved by the many rude

figures of oxen, horses, serpents, &c. still existing. It is not a

little interesting to see these poor degraded people, who formerly were

considered and treated as little better than wild beasts in their rocky

retreats. Many of those who have forsaken us live in such cavities not

far from our settlement, and we have thus an opportunity of observing

them in their natural condition. Several who, when they came to us from

the farmers, were decently clothed and possessed a flock of sheep, which

they had earned, in a short time returned to their fastnesses in a state

of nakedness and indigence, rejoicing that they had got free from the

farmers, and could live as they pleased in the indulgence of their

sensual appetites. Such fugitives from civilised life, I have never seen

otherwise occupied than with their bows and arrows. The bows are small,

but made of good elastic wood; the arrows are formed of small reeds, the

points furnished with a well-wrought piece of bone, and a double barb,

which is steeped in a potent poison of a resiny appearance. This poison

is distilled from the leaves of an indigenous tree. Many prefer these

arrows to fire-arms, under the idea that they can kill more game by

means of a weapon that makes no report. On their return from the chase,

they feast till they are tired and drowsy, and hunger alone rouses them

to renewed exertion. In seasons of scarcity they devour all kinds of

wild roots, ants, ants’ eggs, locusts, snakes, and even roasted skins.

Three women of this singular tribe were not long since met with, several

days’ journey from this place, who had forsaken their husbands, and

lived very contentedly on wild honey and locusts. As enemies, the

Bushmen are not to be despised. They are adepts in stealing cattle and

sheep; and the wounds they inflict when pursued, are ordinarily fatal if

the wounded part is not immediately cut out. The animals they are unable

to carry off, they kill or mutilate.

“To our great comfort, even some of these poor outcasts have shown

eagerness to become acquainted with the way of salvation. The children

of such as are inhabitants of the settlement, attend the school

diligently, and of them we have the best hopes.

“The language of the Bushman has not one pleasing feature; it seems to

consist of a collection of snapping, hissing, grunting, sounds, all more

or less nasal. It is this language that shows that the Saab and

Hottentot belong to the same family.”

We now move to the parts on the _left_ of the entrance, and begin with

the parts opposite the Zulus and Bushmen. These give us the southern

parts of South America--not, however, the extreme south.

GROUP IX.

BOTOCUDOS AND PAMPA GIRL.

The word _Botocudo_ means _plugged_; and it belongs to the Portuguese

language. It is applied by the Brazilians to the populations of this

group, from the fact of their perforating their lips and ears, and

inserting pieces of wood in the openings. In their quarrels, these are

torn out, and shreds of the lip or ear to which they belong left

hanging. One of these quarrels described and sketched in the Travels of

Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, is here represented, the faces being taken

from casts in the possession of Professor Retzius, and the drawings in

the Travels of Spix and Von Martius. The native name--the name by which

the Botocudos designate themselves--is _Engraecknung_.

Their country lies to the north of Rio Janiero--between eighteen and

twenty degrees N.L. It never touches the sea-coast now, whatever it may

have once done. On the contrary, it lies inland, and is limited to the

mountain-range called _Tierra dos Aymores_; wherein lie the sources of

the rivers Doce and Pardo.

On each of these we find Botocudos; those of the latter having been

induced to abandon, along with some of their more barbarous habits,

their inveterate hostility to the Portuguese. The other still retain

their original and notorious barbarism. They have ceased, however, to be

formidable; though, in the sixteenth century, they carried on a

destructive warfare against the settlers in the Government of Porto

Seguro. They have the credit of being cannibals.

The language is peculiar, and different from the other Indians of the

same range. Of these the Machacaris, the Patachos, the Camacans, the

Malali, are the chief.

The girl in the bullock’s hide is one of the Pampa Indians; the face

being taken from a cast of Professor Retzius.

The Pampas are vast plains to the south of the Rio Plata, destitute of

trees, free from hills, and without rivers. They are traversed by

innumerable herds of oxen and horses, in every stage of domestication or

of wildness. The Indians, whose habits are determined by these physical

conditions of the soil, are rude, ferocious, and independent; hardy

even for Indians; and very Centaurs for their skill in horsemanship.

They range over the whole district between the frontier of Buenos Ayres

and the western foot of the Andes of Chili.

GROUP X.

INDIANS OF THE AMAZONS.

The tribes of so vast a river as the Amazons are numerous, even if we go

no further than the main stream--much more so if we look to those on its

feeders.

At the same time they are fragmentary, and most imperfectly known.

Neither are they free from intermixture--Spanish intermixture on the

western, and Portuguese on the eastern.

All the tribes, however, illustrated by the figures before us, belong to

Brazil, _i.e._, to _Portuguese_ America.

Their history is that of aborigines in general; there is their period of

independence, their period of oppression, their period of mitigated

persecution--of reaction.

Let us look at the history of the parts about the rivers Negro and

Madeira--the one joining the Amazons from the north, the others from the

south.

In 1671, a company of soldiers was stationed to protect the Portuguese

trade, and the foundation of the Villa da Barra de Rio Negro was laid by

Antonio de Albuquerque Coelho. This was the area of the Juripixunas, or

Juruuna--Indians--the _Blackfaces_, so called because they tattooed

themselves black. These also were numerous, and not intractable; handy

with their canoes, and active on the water. As many as 1000 at a time

found their way to the slave-market at Pera. Sometimes they were stolen

without the disguise of a quarrel--stolen, because the man-stealer was

the stronger. But, at times, there was a clever piece of villany put in

practice. The slave-hunter would get a cross, the symbol of his

religion, lay it somewhere in the track of the Indians, look for it some

days afterwards, miss it, and then make a charge of sacrilege against

the Indians of the locality. Out of practices like these rose regular

slave-hunting settlements, with barracoons, after the fashion of the

negro slave-trade. There was the usual practice, with the usual

incentives, the usual organisation, the usual wars to follow, violence,

unscrupulousness, cruelty, blood. The enemy to the Indian was the

trader; his best friend the priest.

[Illustration: Weapons, &c., from the Amazons.]

When King John IV., in 1652, wished to enact a favourable code for the

aborigines, the governors of Maranham and Para instigated the population

of their respective governments to uproarious manifestations.

In A.D. 1661, the Jesuits were expelled; in A.D. 1679 reinstated. The

interval was a time of sorrow to the Indians; the restoration a time of

joy. The establishment of missions now began.

A settlement or village, _Aldea_, was founded in some favourable

situation, and the Indians of the neighbourhood induced to put

themselves under the tutelage of the resident and directorial father.

They were then taught to cultivate the soil or to weave--taught as

children, and, when the temper was not that of the wilder and more

independent tribes, this training answered. They were also instructed in

the Christian creed, the medium being the Tupi language. Their own

dialects were numerous--too numerous to make the cultivation of them in

detail practicable; and in each _aldea_ the variety of such dialects was

considerable, each being spoken by but a few individuals. To learn a

difficult language for the sake of so few, was an unnecessary

expenditure of time for the Jesuits; whilst Portuguese was a difficult

language for the Indians. The surer plan, then, of taking the most

prevalent Indian tongue and making it into a kind of common medium, a

lingua franca, was devised. This prevalent tongue was the Tupi, and the

name it took was the Portuguese one of _Lingoa Geral_--_general

language_. Until A.D. 1757, the _Lingoa Geral_ was used in the

law-courts of Gram Parà. This state of things lasted till A.D. 1759,

when the Jesuits were expelled; from Parà and Maranham as many as 112.

In 1718, the number of _aldeas_ was as follows:--

Jesuits 19

Capuchins 15

Carmelites 5

Officers called Directors took the places of the Jesuits. In many

respects their orders were those of their predecessors. They were to

teach and convert; but they were also to get some work out of the

Indians in the way of public service, _e. g._, in the arsenals as

pilots, as a kind of police in the case of Indian warfare and

bush-ranging. And beside these points of difference, the Tupi, or

_Lingoa Geral_, was to be replaced by the Portuguese. In the localities

where the intercourse with the whites was important, judges were

appointed to settle disputes. Kidnapping however continued, and things

went ill with the Indians until the separation of Brazil from Portugal;

and they have gone ill since. The Indians and the negroes form the

lowest part of the not elevated population of Parà, the half-blood

between them (the Indians) and the whites being called Cafusos. Both the

Cafusos and the full-blooded Indians are free, but they are not

flourishing. They drink and live lives of idleness. They live, in short,

much as all the coloured races when the whites are in contact with them.

This prepares us for the necessity of seeking the Indian in his

unmodified state on the feeders of the Amazons, rather than the main

stream. Mr. Wallace has described those of the Uaupés--which falls into

the Rio Negro from the west, and lie just under the equator.

He remarks upon the extent to which they are a truly unsophisticated

population, and also upon the extent to which they differ from the

Indians lower down, _i.e._, between Barra and Para, the junction of the

Rio Negro and Amazons, and the mouth of that latter river. His

description (founded on personal observation) is one of the best we

have. I quote it freely:--“All the tribes of the Uaupés,” he writes,

“construct their dwellings after one plan, which is peculiar to them.

Their houses are the abode of numerous families, sometimes of a whole

tribe. The plan is a parallelogram, with a semicircle at one end. The

dimensions of one at Jauarité were one hundred and fifteen feet in

length, by seventy-five broad, and about thirty high. This house would

hold about a dozen families, consisting of near a hundred individuals.

In times of feasts and dances, three or four hundred are accommodated in

them. The roof is supported on fine cylindrical columns, formed of the

trunks of trees, and beautifully straight and smooth. In the centre a

clear opening is left, twenty feet wide, and on the sides are little

partitions of palm-leaf thatch, dividing off rooms for the separate

families: here are kept the private household utensils, weapons, and

ornaments; while the rest of the space contains, on each side, the large

ovens and gigantic pans for making caxirí, and, in the centre, a place

for the children to play, and for their dances to take place. These

houses are built with much labour and skill; the main supporters, beams,

rafters, and other parts, are straight, well proportioned to the

strength required, and bound together with split creepers, in a manner

that a sailor would admire. The thatch is of the leaf of some one of the

numerous palms so well adapted to the purpose, and is laid on with great

compactness and regularity. The walls, which are very low, are formed

also of palm thatch, but so thick and so well bound together, that

neither arrow nor bullet will penetrate it. At the gable-end is a large

doorway, about six feet wide and eight or ten high: the door is a large

palm-mat, hung from the top, supported by a pole during the day, and let

down at night. At the semicircular end is a smaller door, which is the

private entrance of the Tushaúa, or chief, to whom this part of the

house exclusively belongs. The lower part of the gable-end, on each side

of the entrance, is covered with the thick bark of a tree unrolled, and

standing vertically. Above this is a loose hanging of palm-leaves,

between the fissures of which the smoke from the numerous fires within

finds an exit. In some cases this gable-end is much ornamented with

symmetrical figures painted in colours.

“The furniture consists principally of maqueiras, or hammocks, made of

string, twisted from the fibres of the leaves of the _Mauritia

flexuosa_: they are merely an open network of parallel threads, crossed

by others at intervals of a foot; the loops at each end have a cord

passed through them, by which they are hung up. The Uaupés make great

quantities of string of this and other fibres, twisting it on their

breasts or thighs, with great rapidity.

“They have always in their houses a large supply of earthen pots, pans,

pitchers, and cooking utensils, of various sizes, which they make of

clay from the river and brooks, mixed with the ashes of the caripé bark,

and baked in a temporary furnace. They have also great quantities of

small saucer-shaped baskets, called ‘Balaios,’ which are much esteemed

down the river, and are the subject of a considerable trade.

“Two tribes in the lower part of the river, the Tariános and Tucános,

make a curious little stool, cut out of a solid block of wood, and

neatly painted and varnished; these, which take many days to finish, are

sold for about a pennyworth of fish-hooks.

“Their canoes are all made out of a single tree, hollowed and forced

open by the cross-benches; they are very thick in the middle, to resist

the wear and tear they are exposed to among the rocks and rapids; they

are often forty feet long, but smaller ones are generally preferred. The

paddles are about three feet long, with an oval blade, and are each cut

out of one piece of wood.

[Illustration: Weapons, &c., from the Amazons.]

“These people are as free from the encumbrances of dress as it is

possible to conceive. The men wear only a small piece of tururf passed

between the legs, and twisted on to a string round the loins. Even such

a costume as this is dispensed with by the women: they have no dress or

covering whatever, but are entirely naked. This is the universal custom

among the Uaupés Indians, from which, in a state of nature, they never

depart. Paint, with these people, seems to be looked upon as a

sufficient clothing; they are never without it on some parts of their

bodies, but it is at their festivals that they exhibit all their art in

thus decorating their persons: the colours they use are red, yellow, and

black, and they dispose them generally in regular patterns, similar to

those with which they ornament their stools, their canoes, and other

articles of furniture.

“They pour the juice of a tree, which stains a deep blue-black, on their

heads, and let it run in streams all down their backs; and the red and

yellow are often disposed in large round spots upon the cheeks and

forehead.

“The use of ornaments and trinkets of various kinds is almost confined

to the men. The women wear a bracelet on the wrists, but none on the

neck, and no comb in the hair; they have a garter below the knee, worn

tight from infancy, for the purpose of swelling out the calf, which they

consider a great beauty. While dancing in their festivals, the women

wear a small tanga, or apron, made of beads, prettily arranged: it is

only about six inches square, but is never worn at any other time, and

immediately the dance is over, it is taken off.

“The men, on the other hand, have the hair carefully parted and combed

on each side, and tied in a queue behind. In the young men, it hangs in

long locks down their necks, and, with the comb, which is invariably

carried stuck in the top of the head, gives to them a most feminine

appearance: this is increased by the large necklaces and bracelets of

beads, and the careful extirpation of every symptom of beard. Taking

these circumstances into consideration, I am strongly of opinion that

the story of the Amazons has arisen from these feminine-looking warriors

encountered by the early voyager. I am inclined to this opinion, from

the effect they first produced on myself, when it was only by close

examination I saw that they were men; and, were the front parts of their

bodies and their breasts covered with shields, such as they always use,

I am convinced any person seeing them for the first time would conclude

they were women. We have only therefore to suppose that tribes having

similar customs to those now existing on the river Uaupés, inhabited the

regions where the Amazons were reported to have been seen, and we have a

rational explanation of what has so much puzzled all geographers. The

only objection to this explanation is, that traditions are said to exist

among the natives, of a nation of ‘women without husbands.’ Of this

tradition, however, I was myself unable to obtain any trace, and I can

easily imagine it entirely to have arisen from the suggestions and

inquiries of Europeans themselves. When the story of the Amazons was

first made known, it became of course a point with all future travellers

to verify it, or if possible get a glimpse of these warlike ladies. The

Indians must no doubt have been overwhelmed with questions and

suggestions about them, and they, thinking that the white men must know

best, would transmit to their descendants and families the idea that

such a nation did exist in some distant part of the country. Succeeding

travellers, finding traces of this idea among the Indians, would take it

as a proof of the existence of the Amazons; instead of being merely the

effect of a mistake at the first, which had been unknowingly spread

among them by preceding travellers, seeking to obtain some evidence on

the subject.

“Tattooing is very little practised by these Indians; they all, however,

have a row of circular punctures along the arm, and one tribe, the

Tucános, are distinguished from the rest by three vertical blue lines on

the chin; and they also pierce the lower lip, through which they hang

three little threads of white beads. All the tribes bore their ears, and

wear in them little pieces of grass, ornamented with feathers. The

Cobeus alone expand the hole to so large a size, that a bottle-cork

could be inserted; they ordinarily wear a plug of wood in it, but, on

festas, insert a little bunch of arrows.

“The men generally have but one wife, but there is no special limit, and

many have two or three, and some of the chiefs more; the elder one is

never turned away, but remains the mistress of the house. They have no

particular ceremony at their marriages, except that of always carrying

away the girl by force, or making a show of doing so, even when she and

her parents are quite willing. They do not often marry with relations,

or even neighbours,--preferring those from a distance, or even from

other tribes. When a young man wishes to have the daughter of another

Indian, his father sends a message to say he will come with his son and

relations to visit him. The girl’s father guesses what it is for, and,

if he is agreeable, makes preparations for a grand festival: it lasts

perhaps two or three days, when the bridegroom’s party suddenly seize

the bride, and hurry her off to their canoes; no attempt is made to

prevent them, and she is then considered as married.

“Some tribes, as the Uacarrás, have a trial of skill at shooting with

the bow and arrow, and if the young man does not show himself a good

marksman, the girl refuses him, on the ground that he will not be able

to shoot fish and game enough for the family.

“The dead are almost always buried in the houses, with their bracelets,

tobacco-bag, and other trinkets upon them; they are buried the same day

they die, the parents and relations keeping up a continual mourning and

lamentation over the body, from the death to the time of interment; a

few days afterwards, a great quantity of caxirí is made, and all friends

and relatives invited to attend, to mourn for the dead, and to dance,

sing, and cry to his memory. Some of the large houses have more than a

hundred graves in them, but when the houses are small, and very full,

the graves are made outside,

“The Tariánas and Tucános, and some other tribes, about a month after

the funeral, disinter the corpse, which is then much decomposed, and put

it in a great pan, or oven, over the fire, till all the volatile parts

are driven off with a most horrible odour, leaving only a black

carbonaceous mass, which is pounded into a fine powder, and mixed in

several large couchés (vats made of hollowed trees) of caxirí: this is

drunk by the assembled company till all is finished; they believe that

thus the virtues of the deceased will be transmitted to the drinkers.

“The Cobeus alone, in the Uaupés, are real cannibals: they eat those of

other tribes, whom they kill in battle, and even make war for the

express purpose of procuring human flesh for food. When they have more

than they can consume at once, they smoke-dry the flesh over the fire,

and preserve it for food a long time. They burn their dead, and drink

the ashes in caxirí, in the same manner as described above.

“Every tribe and every ‘malocca’ (as their houses are called) has its

chief, or ‘Tushaúa,’ who has a limited authority over them, principally

in war, in making festivals, and in repairing the malocca and keeping

the village clean, and in planting the mandiocca-fields; he also treats

with the traders, and supplies them with men to pursue their journeys.

The succession of these chiefs is strictly hereditary in the male line,

or through the female to her husband, who may be a stranger: their

regular hereditary chief is never superseded, however stupid, dull, or

cowardly he may be. They have very little law of any kind; but what they

have is of strict retaliation,--an eye for an eye and a tooth for a

tooth; and a murder is punished or revenged in the same manner and by

the same weapon with which it was committed.

“They have numerous ‘Pagés,’ a kind of priests, answering to the

‘medicine-men’ of the North American Indians. These are believed to have

great power: they cure all diseases by charms, applied by strong blowing

and breathing upon the party to be cured, and by the singing of certain

songs and incantations. They are also believed to have power to kill

enemies, to bring or send away rain, to destroy dogs or game, to make

the fish leave a river, and to afflict with various diseases. They are

much consulted and believed in, and are well paid for their services. An

Indian will give almost all his wealth to a pagé, when he is threatened

with any real or imaginary danger.

“They scarcely seem to think that death can occur naturally, always

imputing it either to direct poisoning or the charms of some enemy, and,

on this supposition, will proceed to revenge it. This they generally do

by poisons, of which they have many which are most deadly in their

effects: they are given at some festival in a bowl of caxirí, which it

is good manners always to empty, so that the whole dose is sure to be

taken. One of the poisons often used is most terrible in its effects,

causing the tongue and throat, as well as the intestines, to putrefy and

rot away, so that the sufferer lingers some days in the greatest agony:

this is of course again retaliated, on perhaps the wrong party, and thus

a long succession of murders may result from a mere groundless suspicion

in the first instance.

“I cannot make out that they have any belief that can be called a

religion. They appear to have no definite idea of a God; if asked who

they think made the rivers, and the forests, and the sky, they will

reply that they do not know, or sometimes that they suppose it was

‘Tupánau,’ a word that appears to answer to God, but of which they

understand nothing. They have much more definite ideas of a bad spirit,

‘Juruparí,’ or Devil, whom they fear, and endeavour through their pagés

to propitiate. When it thunders, they say the ‘Juruparí’ is angry, and

their idea of natural death is that the Juruparí kills them. At an

eclipse they believe that this bad spirit is killing the moon, and they

make all the noise they can to frighten him away.

“One of their most singular superstitions is about the musical

instruments they use at their festivals, which they call the Juruparí

music. They consist of eight or sometimes twelve pipes or trumpets, made

of bamboos or palm-stems hollowed out, some with trumpet-shaped mouths

of bark and with mouth-holes of clay and leaf. Each pair of instruments

gives a distinct note, and they produce a rather agreeable concert,

something resembling clarionets and bassoons. These instruments however

are with them such a mystery, that no woman must ever see them on pain

of death. They are always kept in some igaripé, at a certain distance

from the malocca, whence they are brought on particular occasions: when

the sound of them is heard approaching, every woman retires into the

woods, or into some adjoining shed, which they generally have near, and

remains invisible till after the ceremony is over, when the instruments

are taken away to their hiding-place, and the women come out of their

concealment. Should any female be supposed to have seen them, either by

accident or design, she is invariably executed, generally by poison, and

a father will not hesitate to sacrifice his daughter, or a husband his

wife, on such an occasion.

“They have many other prejudices with regard to women. They believe that

if a woman, during her pregnancy, eats of any meat, any other animal

partaking of it will suffer: if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will

die; if a dog, it will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even

a man will be unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the

future. An Indian, who was one of my hunters, caught a fine cock of the

rock, and gave it to his wife to feed, but the poor woman was obliged to

live herself on cassava-bread and fruits, and abstain entirely from all

animal food, peppers, and salt, which it was believed would cause the

bird to die; notwithstanding all precautions however the bird did die,

and the woman got a beating from her husband, because he thought she had

not been sufficiently rigid in her abstinence from the prohibited

articles.”

Few ethnological phenomena deserve more attention than the re-appearance

of similar customs in the distant parts of the world, where, however,

the physical conditions are alike.

Borneo and the Uaupés country, both are under the equator; and the same

mode of building large houses for joint occupation prevails in both.

Observe, too, the use of the blow-pipe; it appears equally on the

Amazons and in Borneo.

The details of the group before us are as follows:--

The tattoed and painted individual with the skull of a slain enemy on a

pole, is a Mundrucu, of the River Tapajos, the most formidable,

numerous, and independent of the Brazilian Indians.

When a Mundrucu has slain an enemy, he cuts off his head, extracts the

brain through the occipital _foramen_, washes the blood away, fills the

skull with cotton, and then converts the whole into a kind of mummy, by

drying it before the fire. The eyes he gouges out, and he fills up the

orbits with colouring matter. Thus prepared, the head is placed outside

his hut. On festive occasions it is placed at the top of a spear. Such

is the history of the head of an enemy. Those, however, of friends and

relations are preserved, and kept--though with certain differences of

detail. Thus, on certain days dedicated to the obsequies and memory of

the dead, the widow of the deceased takes his skull, seats herself

before the cabin, and indulges either in melancholy lamentation, or in

fierce encomium--the assembled friends meanwhile dancing round her.

The one behind is a Mura; the Muras being a numerous tribe, and from the

vast extent of country over which they are spread, or rather scattered,

a tribe whose number seems greater than it is. Settled habitations they

have none; but, just as necessity or inclination takes them, they wander

from wood to wood, from stream to stream. Taking the different divisions

of them altogether, their number may amount to between 6000 and 7000

“bows,” (this “bow” meaning “fighting-man;”) the rest of the population

being in proportion. This gives us from 20,000 to 30,000 persons. The

lower Madeira was their original area, but the lower Madeira was vexed

and harassed by tribes of the powerful and hostile Mundrucus; and the

Mundrucus and Muras are ever at war with each other. At present the

Mundrucus are the superior population. They are bigger in body, and they

are more closely allied to the Portuguese. Indeed the Portuguese used

them as a sort of military police against the Muras; who fear them so

much that the presence of a single Mundrucu on board Von Martius’ canoe

terrified a whole family of Muras.

The incursions, then, of the Mundrucus dispersed the Muras of the lower

Madeira over vast districts on the Solimoes, and on the Rio Negro. Here

they are formidable as pirates. The Muras, with their associates, the

Toras (or Torayes), harass the navigation of the Amazons, where the

settlers and traders know them as the _Indios de Corso_, and attempt

their extermination accordingly. When the stream gets narrow, and the

current strong, and the canoe has to labour slowly against the stream of

a mighty river, the Mura places himself on the banks, and lies in wait,

_turé_ in hand. The _turé_ is an instrument, half wood and half reed,

made out of the bamboo, the transverse septum of which is pierced in its

centre. Here is inserted a second piece of cane, split. The _turé_ is

heard at a considerable distance, and the watchman that blows it has a

tree for a watch-tower. The _turé_, too, is the instrument to which they

dance, and sing, and drink, at their festivals.

Less formidable than they once were, the Mura is still shy, indocile,

intractable, and impracticable as a labourer. Nothing but liquor will

tempt him; and liquor tempts him but little in the way of work. He hunts

skilfully, and he fishes skilfully; but he is rarely provident enough to

economise the results of any successful exertions for the future. He

gorges himself when he is in luck, and starves when out of it; he thinks

of the passing time only.

As a general rule, the Indians of the Amazons neither respect the female

sex, nor vex themselves with jealousy on account of them. The Muras are

said to be exceptions. The number of wives is two or three, and of these

the youngest is the favoured one. The other is little more than a

domestic drudge. To win them, the Mura must have fought at fisticuffs;

for a battle of this kind always takes place whenever a young lady

becomes marriageable. Those who enter into the list for possession,

fight, and the winner carries her off.

Their language is harsh and guttural, and their speech is accompanied

with gesticulation. It is peculiar, at least it is different from the

_Lingoa Geral_, which but few Muras understand. It has been stated that

the Mundrucus are their chief enemies. Besides these there are the

Mauhes, and the Catauxis--hostile also.

The use of the _paricá_ is one of the characteristic customs of the

Muras. The _paricá_ is a powder. It is made from the dried seeds of a

kind of Inga. It is a narcotic stimulating in the first instance,

sedative or depressing afterwards. Once a year there is a _paricá_

feast, where the “snuff” is indulged in to excess, and where the

additional stimulants of dance, and song, and fermented liquors are

superadded.

The other Indians are from the northern bank, on the frontier of Brazil

and Bolivia. They cannot be said to represent any particular tribe. If

they give an idea of the general character of a South American Indian of

the parts in question it is sufficient. All the current descriptions are

of this general character. The figures before us approach, however, the

_Ticunas_ Indians of Osculati, the nearest. Ticunas, however, is a term

of a somewhat lax import; inasmuch as it means any of the Indians who

use the Ticunas poison, or come from the country which produces it.

[Illustration: Weapons, &c., from the Amazons.]

GROUP XI.

INDIANS FROM BRITISH GUIANA.

These are from casts taken from life during Sir R. Schomburgk’s

expedition. All belong to the great Carib stock, and speak dialects of

the widely-spread Carib language.

This is a point of importance. In _Brazil_ the predominant language is

the one alluded to under the name of _Tupi_--the basis of the _Lingoa

Geral_ (_General Language_) or _Lingua Franca_.

In other respects, the leading characteristics are the same, or similar;

the details being more or less different. Some tribes, for instance,

flatten the head, or tattoo the body; which the others do not. Some

burn, others bury the dead. With the Carabisi, for instance, in ordinary

cases the hammock in which the death took place, serves as a coffin, the

body is buried, and the funeral procession made once or twice round the

grave; but the bodies of persons of importance are watched and washed by

the nearest female relations, and when nothing but the skeleton remains,

the bones are cleaned, painted, packed in a basket and preserved. When,

however, there is a change of habitation they are _burned_; after which

the ashes are collected, and kept.

The _Macusi_, on the other hand, buries his dead in a sitting posture

without coffins, and with but few ceremonies.

The Arawak custom is peculiar. When a man of note dies, his relations

plant a field of cassava. They lament loudly. But when twelve moons are

over, and the cassava is ripe, they reassemble, feast, dance, lash each

other cruelly, and severely with whips. The whips are then _hung up_ on

the spot where the person died. Six moons later a second meeting takes

place; and this time the whips are _buried_.

GROUP XII.

NORTH AMERICANS DANCING.

This group gives us the general character of the more typical North

American Indians, rather than the details of any particular division;

the chief sources being the portraits in McKennedy’s Gallery, and some

well-executed daguerreotypes taken at St. Louis, and kindly placed at

the disposal of the Crystal Palace Company by Mr. Fitzherbert of New

York.

The prominence of the features, along with the red or copper tinge of

the skin, characterises the Americans before us. This contrasts them

with the Eskimo. Their size, on the other hand, distinguishes them from

the majority of the South American tribes. Nevertheless, the size

decreases as we go southward; and the Eskimo configuration (along with

the Eskimo habits) is approached as we move westward of the Rocky

Mountains.

Nine-tenths, and perhaps a larger proportion of the Indians of the

northern half of the United States are referable to one of three great

groups--the _Algonkin_, the _Iroquois_, the _Sioux_; each of which falls

into divisions and subdivisions.

I. The _Algonkin_ is the greatest; greatest in respect to the number of

its divisions and subdivisions, greatest in respect to the ground it

covers, and greatest in respect to the range of difference which it

embraces.

The whole of the Canadas, with one small exception, the whole of New

Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward’s Isle, was

originally Algonkin, as were Labrador and Newfoundland to a great

extent.

To the Algonkin stock belonged and belong the extinct and extant Indians

of New England, part of New York, part of Pennsylvania, Delaware,

Maryland, Virginia, part of the Carolinas, and part of even Kentucky and

Tennessee.

The Pequods, the Mohicans, the Narragansetts, the Massachuset, the

Montaug, the Delaware, the Menomini, the Sauks, the Ottogamis, the

Kikkapùs, the Potawhotamis, the Illinois, the Miami, the Piankeshaws,

the Shawnos, &c. belong to this stock--all within the United States.

The Algonkins of British America are as follows:--

1. The _Crees_; of which the _Skofi_ and _Sheshatapúsh_ of Labrador are

branches.

2. The _Ojibways_; falling into--

_a._ The _Ojibways Proper_, of which the _Sauteurs_ are a section.

_b._ The _Ottawas_ of the River Ottawa.

_c._ The original Indians of Lake _Nipissing_; important because it is

believed that the form of speech called _Algonkin_, a term since

extended to the whole class, was their particular dialect. They are now

either extinct or amalgamated with other tribes.

_d._ The _Messisaugis_, to the north of Lake Ontario.

3. The _Micmacs_ of New Brunswick, Gaspé, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and

part of Newfoundland; closely allied to the--

4. _Abnaki_ of Mayne, and the British frontier; represented at present

by the _St. John’s Indians_.

5. The _Bethuck_--the aborigines of Newfoundland.

6. The _Blackfoots_, consisting of the--

_a._ _Satsikaa_, or _Blackfoots Proper_.

_b._ The _Kena_, or _Blood Indians_.

_c._ The _Piegan_.

To these must be added numerous extinct tribes.

II. The _Iroquois_ class has been larger than it is now, many of its

members being extinct. It still, however, contains the _Wiandots_, or

_Hurons_, of the parts between Lakes Simcoe, Huron, and Erie; the once

famous and formidable _Mohawks_, the _Senekas_, the _Onondagos_, the

_Cayugas_, the _Oneidas_, and the _Tuskaroras_.

III. To the _Sioux_ class belong the Assiniboins of the Red River, and

the Osages of Arkansas; tribes widely distant. It is the great Sioux to

which nine-tenths of the Valley of Missouri originally belonged--Sioux,

whose original hunting-grounds included the vast prairie-country from

the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi, and who again appear as an

isolated detachment of Lake Michigan; Sioux, known under the names of

Winebagoes, Dahcotas, Yanktons, Tetons, Upsarokas, Mandans, Minetaris,

Missouris, Osages, Konzas, Ottos, Omahaws, Puncas, Ioways, and Quappas.

None of the Sioux tribes came in contact with the sea. None of them

belonged to the great _forest_ districts of America. Most of them hunt

over the country of the buffalo. This makes them warlike migratory

hunters; with fewer approaches to agricultural or industrial

civilisation than any Indians equally favoured by soil and climate.

It is the Iroquois, the Sioux, and certain members of the Algonkin

stock, upon which the current and popular notions of the American

Indian, the _Red Man_, as he is called, have been formed.

GROUP XIII.

GREENLANDERS.

Greenland is occupied by the same family that occupies the coast of

Labrador. It does more. It extends all along the northern coast of North

America; all along the shores of the Arctic Sea, both east and west. It

extends to Russian America, and beyond it to the other side of Behring’s

Straits, and to the Aleutian Islands. Hence, there are certain members

of the family to which the Greenlanders belong in Asia.

The general name for this is _Eskimo_, a word, which, like _Malay_ and

_Mongol_, is used in a general, as well as a particular sense. It

denotes a large family, and it means the special occupants of the coast

of Labrador, and the coast of the Arctic Sea.

The Eskimo is the only family common to the Old and the New World.

The large Greenland tent, with its furniture, and a canoe, is from one

of the few ethnological museums in existence,--that of Copenhagen; from

which it has been liberally and courteously supplied to the Crystal

Palace. The details are due to the skill and care of Professor Thomsen

of that capital.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. For the TIBETANS, &c., TURNER’s Embassy; Works on the Himalayas, by

THOMSON and HOOKER; CUNNINGHAM’s Ladakh.

2. The Aborigines of India, by B. HODGSON; Papers in Asiatic Researches;

Transactions of the Asiatic Society; Transactions of the Asiatic Society

of Bengal, &c. &c.

3, 4. MARSDEN’s Sumatra; RAFFLES’ History of Java; CRAUFURD’s Indian

Archipelago; Papers in Journal of the Indian Archipelago; SIR JAMES

BROOKE’s writings.

5. JUKES’ Voyage of Fly; MCGILLIVRAY’s Voyage of Rattlesnake; The

Papuans, by WINDSOR EARL; Works of COLLINS, KING, MITCHELL, &c.; Journal

of Indian Archipelago; United States’ Exploring Expedition.

6. Travels in Abyssinia by JOHNSTONE, HARRIS, MANSFIELD, PARKYNS, &c.

7. THE NEGROES, &c. Medical History of the Niger Expedition, by Dr.

MCWILLIAM; On the Natives of Old Calabar, by Dr. DANIELL.

8. LICSHTENSTEIN’s Travels; GALTON in Journal of Geographical Society;

_The Caffres and Bushmen_.

9, 10, 11, 12. Travels of Prince MAXIMILIAN of NEUWIED, of SPIX, and VON

MARTIUS; SIR R. SCHOMBURGK, in Geographical Transactions; WALLACE’s

Travels on the Amazon; SQUIER’s Nicaragua.

13. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.--Archæologia Americana, Vol. ii.;

Transactions of American Ethnological Society; Works of SCHOOLCRAFT,

SQUIER, &c.; Smithsonean Contributions to Knowledge.

14. Papers by Dr. KING on the Industrial and Intellectual character of

the Eskimo, in Transactions of Ethnological Society; Accounts of the

Arctic Expedition, by PARRY, ROSS, &c. &c.

For Ethnology in general--PRICHARD’s Natural History of Man, five

volumes; Ditto, one volume.

* * * * *

The large Greenland hut, boat and furniture, kindly supplied by the

Curator of the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen (Professor Thomsen)

reached us after the present pages were in print.

PART II.

ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

Animals and plants are not scattered indifferently over the earth’s

surface, but are grouped together in assemblages of different kinds. The

animals and plants of the British Isles, for example, are wholly

distinct from those of the West Indies, and these again from the East

Indian kinds. Naturalists, after a long study of the distribution of

organised beings, have been enabled to divide the earth’s surface into

provinces, each characterised by its peculiar set of inhabitants. The

assemblage of organised beings in each province exhibits, when viewed

_en masse_, a general aspect, or _facies_, independent of its being

composed, in part, of kinds of creatures different from those found in

any other province. This facies depends on combinations of colour,

sculpture, texture, and often minute and insignificant characters, when

regarded separately, but when presented in coordination, becoming of

importance through their constancy and their influence in determining

the leading features of a fauna or flora, or both combined. Even when

comparatively few of the characteristic animal and vegetable types of a

province are brought together, within a limited space, some notion may

thus be conveyed to the spectator of the _facies_, or aspect of life in

that region. This has been attempted in the arrangement of the

Geographical Garden in the Crystal Palace.

Organised beings are distributed over the earth and in the sea

_horizontally_ and _vertically_. On their horizontal distribution depend

their geographical life-provinces; on their vertical distribution, their

arrangement in altitudinal and bathymetrical zones or belts. If we

ascend any high mountain, we rise through successive belts of

vegetation, each frequented by its favourite form of animal life. We are

reminded during our ascent of the successive faunas and floras that we

should pass amongst, were we proceeding from the mountain’s base to the

pole. If the mountain be sufficiently high, we at length reach a region

where all life ceases. So likewise in the sea--if we explore the depths

of ocean, and commence our examination on the borders of the shore, we

shall find that the animal and vegetable population of the waters are

not dispersed indifferently through their depths, but occupy successive

levels, or zones. If we go deep enough, vegetable life first disappears,

and animal species become so few, comparatively, that we cannot but

conclude that we are approaching a point beyond, or rather below which

all is desert.

As yet, no attempt has been made in the Crystal Palace to display the

zones of altitude, though it is quite possible to do so, by means of a

miniature mountain encircled by belts of alpine vegetation, amid which

the characteristic animals of the zones might be placed in relative

order of elevated dwelling-places. This may be looked forward to, as a

worthy object for carrying out hereafter. A slight and partial

indication of the phenomena of distribution of marine animals in depth,

is exhibited in cases representing the sea-population of a few regions;

especially the British, the West Indian, and Australian seas. In these

the spectator will observe that the law of distribution in provinces

holds good among marine animals as among terrestrial. And if we regard

the peculiar features of the contents of the West Indian case,

contrasting it with that filled with British sea-animals, a striking

example of the difference of _facies_, or general aspect, in a temperate

province as contrasted with a tropical one, is too evident not to

attract our notice. Differences of the same kind are displayed in the

contrasts of form and colour presented by the birds of different

regions, inclosed in the cases placed at intervals among the plants, and

always in connection with the other illustrations of the portions of the

globe to which they belong.

EASTERN OR OLD WORLD.

The Boar-hunt, one of the relics of the Great Exhibition of 1851, placed

beyond this Court, must be accepted as a type of Europe--a region so

familiar to all, that no space has been spared for its fuller

illustration. The OLD WORLD Court is consequently devoted to African and

Asiatic illustrations. The several provinces of Africa are fairly

typified, but those of Asia, great and important though they be, have,

for the present, an inadequate share of space assigned.

The southernmost portion of this Court is occupied by the south

extremity of Africa; to this we pass southwards through the northern

African provinces of Egypt and Barbary, brought into unavoidable

proximity with the tropical countries of Asia. Central and Eastern

Africa follow, the latter having affinities with Asia through Arabia.

The visitor when beside the North African section of the Court must

suppose the proximity of Southern Europe, and by doing so, bear in mind

the close affinity that exists between the mass of vegetation that he

then sees around him, and the floras of Italy and Spain.

CENTRAL ASIA.

The yak and Ovis Ammon stand as representatives of the central regions

of Asia. The former is a characteristic animal of Tibet, and does not

thrive except at high elevations. Here, too, is placed the Bactrian

camel. The vegetation among which these animals are grouped is mainly

Himalayan, and may be regarded as representing the flora of the verge of

this great province.

Beyond the northern bounds of the Central Asiatic region, we pass

rapidly amid European types, mingling, as we proceed eastwards, with

Boreal American forms. The vegetation, like the animal life, puts on a

mixed aspect, and one of a transatlantic character. In the main, the

Siberian fauna and flora are linked with those of eastern Europe.

The arctic portion of Asia presents the characteristic assemblage of

polar animals, white bears, seals, walruses, narwhals, dolphins, gulls,

and cormorants, whilst along the shores range reindeer, arctic foxes,

lemmings, ptarmigans, and snowy owls; more inland, wolves and otters,

with fur-bearing animals abound. This is the linking region of the Old

and New Worlds.

INDIA.

The group of the Tiger-hunt indicates some of the zoological features of

the low country and jungles of India and the warm regions of Asia. The

tiger is indeed one of the most characteristic animals of the Tropical

Asiatic provinces, as is also the Indian elephant. The one-horned

rhinoceros, the Indian hyæna, humped oxen of various kinds, a few

peculiar deer, the scaly ant-eater, the bonnet-monkey, the Hoonuman

(_Semnopithecus entellus_), and the wanderoo, are all well-marked and

conspicuous Indian mammals. Some of the larger quadrupeds are common to

Europe and Africa. The birds of India are numerous, and often very

beautiful.

By bamboos and orange-trees, and a few forms of vegetation capable of

cultivation under the conditions and within the space of our Garden, a

very slight indication indeed is afforded of the general Indian flora.

But in the back-ground of the Indian group, the rich assemblage of

Indian rhododendrons and azaleas, the _Juniperus recurva_ and the _Ficus

elastica_, serve to represent one of the most beautiful floras in the

world, that of the mountain ranges of India, whilst on its eastern-side,

camellias, tea-plants, Carphon laurels, and magnolias exemplify the

change in Asiatic vegetation with the great Chinese province.

NORTH AFRICA.

The portion of this continent, north of Sahara, west of the Libyan

desert, and including the chains of the Atlas, is clothed with a very

different vegetation, and peopled by a distinct set of land animals from

those occupying the greater and more characteristic African regions. In

many respects, it has more affinity in its natural history and features

with the southern countries of Europe, especially Spain and Sicily, than

with Africa. Even its most characteristic mammal, the Barbary ape, has

apparently an indigenous stronghold in Gibraltar. The wild boar, genet,

porcupine, and fallow deer, the last alone of its tribe in Africa,

indicate European affinities, whilst southern relations are marked by a

few forms of antelope and by the lion. Some small rodents are peculiar.

The traveller passing from temperate Europe to Barbary, sees in the

domesticated camel and many plants--the date-palm, the opuntia, and the

agave--distinguishing and peculiar features of its landscape; yet none

of these is an original native of the region. Even the date-palm belongs

properly to the countries south of the Atlas. The truly characteristic

plants--such as the carob, fig, and palmetto, are all of Mediterranean

types and South European forms. The sea that separates Europe and Africa

has an uniform population nearly throughout; and, in the main, is not

more than a colony of the Atlantic.

NORTH-EASTERN AND EASTERN AFRICA.

Egypt is a truly African province, and is linked by many of its

productions with Nubia, Abyssinia, and the countries that border on the

Indian Ocean. The crocodile and the hippopotamus, now confined to the

higher portions of the Nile, are essentially African types. The fishes

of the Nile have close affinities with those of the rivers of the

Senegal streams. Among them the polypterus is remarkable for its

approach to the ancient and extinct forms of ganoids. From Sennaar,

southwards, we find the elephant and one-horned rhinoceros. Monkeys,

species of _Cercopithecus_, occur in the same region.