PERMANENCY OF TYPES.
The language of Holy Writ in favor of common origin--The permanency
of their characteristics separates the races of men as effectually
as if they were distinct creations--Arabs, Jews--Prichard's
argument about the influence of climate examined--Ethnological
history of the Turks and Hungarians.
The believers in unity of race affirm that types are different in
appearance only; that, in fact, the differences existing among them are
owing to local circumstances still in operation, or to an accidental
peculiarity of conformation in the progenitor of a branch, and that,
though they all, more or less, diverge from the original prototype, they
all are capable of again returning to it. According to this, then, the
negro, the North American savage, the Tungoose of North Siberia, might,
under favorable circumstances, gain all the physical and mental
attributes which now distinguish the European. Such a theory is
inadmissible.
We have shown above that the only solid scientific stronghold of the
believers in unity of species is the prolificness of human hybrids. This
fact, which seems at present so difficult to refute, may not always
present the same difficulties, and would not, by itself, suffice to
arrest my conclusions, were it not supported by another argument which,
I confess, appears to me of greater moment: Scripture is said to declare
against difference of origin.
If the text is clear, peremptory, and indisputable, we must submit; the
most serious doubts must disappear; human reason, in its imperfection,
must bow to faith. Better to let the veil of obscurity cover a point of
erudition, than to call in question so high and incontestable an
authority. If the Bible declares that mankind are descended from the
same common stock, all that goes to prove the contrary is mere
semblance, unworthy of consideration. But is the Bible really explicit
on this point? The sacred writings have a much higher purpose than the
elucidation of ethnological problems; and if it be admitted that they
may have been misunderstood in this particular, and that without
straining the text, it may be interpreted otherwise, I return to my
first impression.
The Bible evidently speaks of Adam as the progenitor of the white race,
because from him are descended generations which--it cannot be
doubted--were white. But nothing proves that at the first redaction of
the Adamite genealogies the colored races were considered as forming
part of the species. There is not a word said about the yellow nations,
and I hope to prove, in my second volume, that the pretended black color
of the patriarch Ham rests upon no other basis than an arbitrary
interpretation. At a later period, doubtless, translators and
commentators, who affirmed that Adam was the father of all beings called
men, were obliged to bring in as descendants of the sons of Noah all the
different varieties with whom they were acquainted. In this manner,
Japheth was considered the progenitor of the European nations, while the
inhabitants of the greater portion of Asia were looked upon as the
descendants of Shem; and those of Africa, of Ham. This arrangement
answers admirably for one portion of the globe. But what becomes of the
population of the rest of the world, who are not included in this
classification?
I will not, at present, particularly insist upon this idea. I dislike
the mere appearance of impugning even simple interpretations if they
have the sanction of the church, and wish merely to intimate that their
authority might, perhaps, be questioned without transgressing the limits
established by the church.[139] If this is not the case, and we must
accept, in the main, the opinions of the believers in unity, I still do
not despair that the facts may be explained in a manner different from
theirs, and that the principal physical and moral differences among the
branches of the human family may exist, with all their necessary
consequences, independently of unity or plurality of origin.
The specific identity of all canines is acknowledged,[140] but who would
undertake the difficult task of proving that all these animals, to
whatever variety they may belong, were possessed of the same shapes,
instincts, habits, qualities? The same is the case with many other
species, the equine, bovine, ursine, etc. Here we find perfect identity
of origin, and yet diversity in every other respect, and a diversity so
radical, that even intermixture can not produce a real identity of
character in the several types. On the contrary, so long as each type
remains pure, their distinctive features are permanent, and reproduced,
without any sensible deviation, in each successive generation.[141]
This incontestable fact has led to the inquiry whether in those species
which, by domestication, have lost their original habits, and contracted
others, the forms and instincts of the primitive stock were still
discernible. I think this highly improbable, and can hardly believe that
we shall ever be able to determine the shape and characteristics of the
prototype of each species, and how much or how little it is approached
by the deviations now before our eyes. A very great number of vegetables
present the same problem, and with regard to man, whose origin it is
most interesting and important for us to know, the inquiry seems to be
attended with the greatest and most insurmountable difficulties.
Each race is convinced that its progenitor had precisely the
characteristics which now distinguish it. This is the only point upon
which their traditions perfectly agree. The white races represent to
themselves an Adam and Eve, whom Blumenbach would at once have
pronounced Caucasians; the Mohammedan negroes, on the contrary, believe
the first pair to have been black; these being created in God's own
image, it follows that the Supreme Being, and also the angels, are of
the same color, and the prophet himself was certainly too greatly
favored by his Sender to display a pale skin to his disciples.[142]
Unfortunately, modern science has as yet found no clue to this maze of
opinions. No admissible theory has been advanced which affords the least
light upon the subject, and, in all probability, the various types
differ as much from their common progenitor--if they possess one--as
they do among themselves. The causes of these deviations are
exceedingly difficult to ascertain. The believers in the unity of origin
pretend to find them, as I remarked before, in various local
circumstances, such as climate, habits, &c. It is impossible to coincide
with such an opinion, for, although these circumstances have always
existed, they have not, within historical times, produced such
alterations in the races which were exposed to their influence as to
make it even probable that they were the causes of so vast and radical a
dissimilarity as we now see before us. Suppose two tribes, not yet
departed from the primitive type, to inhabit, one an alpine region in
the interior of a continent, the other some isolated isle in the
immensity of the ocean. Their atmospheric and alimentary conditions
would, of course, be totally different. If we further suppose one of
these tribes to be abundantly provided with nourishment, and the other
possessing but precarious means of subsistence; one to inhabit a cold
latitude, and the other to be exposed to the action of a tropical sun;
it seems to me that we have accumulated the most essential local
contrasts. Allowing these physical causes to operate a sufficient lapse
of time, the two groups would, no doubt, ultimately assume certain
peculiar characteristics, by which they might be distinguished from each
other. But no imaginable length of time could bring about any
essential, organic change of conformation; and as a proof of this
assertion, I would point to the populations of opposite portions of the
globe, living under physical conditions the most widely different, who,
nevertheless, present a perfect resemblance of type.
The Hottentots so strongly resemble the inhabitants of the Celestial
Empire, that it has even been supposed, though without good reasons,
that they were originally a Chinese colony. A great similarity exists
between the ancient Etruscans, whose portraits have come down to us, and
the Araucanians of South America. The features and outlines of the
Cherokees seem to be perfectly identical with those of several Italian
populations, the Calabrians, for instance. The inhabitants of Auvergne,
especially the female portion, much more nearly resemble in physiognomy
several Indian tribes of North America than any European nation. Thus we
see that in very different climes, and under conditions of life so very
dissimilar, nature can reproduce the same forms. The peculiar
characteristics which now distinguish the different types cannot,
therefore, be the effects of local circumstances such as now exist.[143]
Though it is impossible to ascertain what physical changes different
branches of the human family may have undergone anterior to the historic
epoch, yet we have the best proofs that since then, no race has changed
its peculiar characteristics. The historic epoch comprises about one
half of the time during which our earth is supposed to have been
inhabited, and there are several nations whom we can trace up to the
verge of ante-historic ages; yet we find that the races then known have
remained the same to our days, even though they ceased to inhabit the
same localities, and consequently were no longer exposed to the
influence of the same external conditions.
Witness the Arabs. As they are represented on the monuments of Egypt, so
we find them at present, not only in the arid deserts of their native
land, but in the fertile regions and moist climate of Malabar,
Coromandel, and the islands of the Indian Ocean. We find them again,
though more mixed, on the northern coasts of Africa, and, although many
centuries have elapsed since their invasion, traces of Arab blood are
still discernible in some portions of Roussillon, Languedoc, and Spain.
Next to the Arabs I would instance the Jews. They have emigrated to
countries in every respect the most dissimilar to Palestine, and have
not even preserved their ancient habits of life. Yet their type has
always remained peculiar and the same in every latitude and under every
physical condition. The warlike Rechabites in the deserts of Arabia
present to us the same features as our own peaceable Jews. I had
occasion not long since to examine a Polish Jew. The cut of his face,
and especially his eyes, perfectly betrayed his origin. This inhabitant
of a northern zone, whose direct ancestors for several generations had
lived among the snows and ice of an inhospitable clime, seemed to have
been tanned but the day before, by the ardent rays of a Syrian sun. The
same Shemitic face which the Egyptian artist represented some four
thousand or more years ago, we recognize daily around us; and its
principal and really characteristic features are equally strikingly
preserved under the most diverse climatic circumstances. But the
resemblance is not confined to the face only, it extends to the
conformation of the limbs and the nature of the temperament. German Jews
are generally smaller and more slender in stature than the European
nations among whom they have lived for centuries; and the age of puberty
arrives earlier with them than with their compatriots of another
race.[144]
This is, I am aware, an assertion diametrically opposed to Mr.
Prichard's opinions. This celebrated physiologist, in his zeal to prove
the unity of species, attempts to prove that the age of puberty in both
sexes is the same everywhere and among all races. His arguments are
based upon the precepts of the Old Testament and the Koran, by which the
marriageable age of women is fixed at fifteen, and even eighteen,
according to Abou-Hanifah.[145]
I hardly think that biblical testimony is admissible in matters of this
kind, because the Scriptures often narrate facts which cannot be
accounted for by the ordinary laws of nature. Thus, the pregnancy of
Sarah at an extreme old age, and when Abraham himself was a centenarian,
is an event upon which no ordinary course of reasoning could be based.
As for the precepts of the Mohammedan law, I would observe that they
were intended to insure not merely the physical aptitude for marriage,
but also that degree of mental maturity and education which befit a
woman about to enter on the duties of so serious a station. The prophet
makes it a special injunction that the religious education of young
women should be continued to the time of their marriage. Taking this
view, the law-giver would naturally incline to delay the period of
marriage as long as possible, in order to afford time for the
development of the reasoning faculties, and he would therefore be less
precipitate in his authorizations than nature in hers. But there are
some other proofs which I would adduce against Mr. Prichard's grave
arguments, which, though of less weighty character, are not the less
conclusive, and will settle the question, I think, in my favor.
Poets, in their tales of love, are mainly solicitous of exhibiting their
heroines in the first bloom of beauty, without caring much about their
moral and mental development. Accordingly, we find that oriental poets
have always made their lovers much younger than the age prescribed by
the Koran. Zelika and Leila are not, surely, fourteen years old. In
India, this difference is still more striking. Sacontala, in Europe,
would be quite a small girl, a mere child. The spring-time of life for
a Hindoo female is from the age of nine to that of twelve. In the
Chinese romance, _Yu-Kiao-li_, the heroine is sixteen; and her father is
in great distress, and laments pathetically that at so advanced an age
she should still be unmarried. The Roman writers, following in the
footsteps of their Greek preceptors, took fifteen as the period of bloom
of a woman's life; our own authors for a long time adhered to these
models, but since the ideas of the North have begun to exert their
influence upon our literature, the heroines of our novels are full-grown
young ladies of eighteen, and very often more.[146]
But arguments of a more serious character are by no means wanting.
Besides what I said of the precocity of the Jews in Germany, I may point
out the reverse as a peculiarity of the population of many portions of
Switzerland. Among them the physical development is so slow, that the
age of puberty is not always attained at twenty. The Zingaris, or
gypsies, display the same physical precocity as their Hindoo ancestry,
and, under the austere sky of Russia and Moldavia, they preserve,
together with their ancient notions and habits, the general aspect of
face and form of the Pariahs.[147]
I do not, however, wish to attack Mr. Prichard upon all points. There is
one of his conclusions which I readily adopt, viz.: "_that the
difference of climate occasions very little, if any, important diversity
as to the periods of life and the physical changes to which the human
constitution is subject_."[148] This conclusion is very well founded,
and I shall not seek to invalidate it; but it appears to me that it
contradicts a little the principles so ably advocated by the learned
physiologist and antiquary.
The reader must have perceived that the discussion turns solely upon
permanency of type. If it can be proved that the different branches of
the human family are each possessed of a certain individuality which is
independent of climate and the lapse of ages, and can be effaced only by
intermixture, the question of origin is reduced to little importance;
for, in that case, the different types are no less completely and
irrevocably separated than if their specific differences arose from
diversity of origin.
That such is the case, we have already proved by the testimony of
Egyptian sculptures with regard to the Arabs, and by our observations
upon the Jews and gypsies. Should any further proofs be needed, we would
mention that the paintings in the temples and subterraneous buildings of
the Nile valley as indubitably attest the permanence of the negro type.
There we see the same crisped hair, prognathous skull, and thick lips.
The recent discovery of the bas-reliefs of Khorsabad[149] has removed
beyond doubt the conclusions previously formed from the figured
monuments of Persepolis, viz.: that the present Assyrian nations are
physiologically identical with those who formerly inhabited the same
regions.
If similar investigations could be made upon a greater number of
existing races, the results would be the same. We have established the
fact of permanence of types in all cases where investigation is
possible, and the burden of proof, therefore, falls upon the dissenting
party.
Their arguments, indeed, are in direct contradiction to the most obvious
facts. Thus they allege, although the most ordinary observation shows
the contrary, that climate _has_ produced alterations in the Jewish
type, inasmuch as many light-haired, blue-eyed Jews are found in
Germany. For this argument to be of any weight in their position, the
advocates for unity of race must recognize climate to be the sole, or at
least principal, cause of this phenomenon. But the adherents of that
doctrine elsewhere assert that the color of the eyes, hair, and skin, no
ways depends upon geographical situation or the action of heat and
cold.[150] As an evidence of this, they justly cite the Cinghalese, who
have blue eyes and light hair;[151] they even observe among them a very
considerable difference of complexion, varying from a light brown to
black. Again, they admit that the Samoiedes and Tungusians, though
living on the borders of the Frozen Ocean,[152] have an exceedingly
swarthy complexion. If, therefore, climate exerts no influence upon the
complexion and color of hair and eyes, these marks must be considered as
of no importance, or as pertaining to race. We know that red hair is not
at all uncommon in the East, and at no time has been so; it cannot,
therefore, create much surprise if we occasionally find it among the
Jews of Germany. This fact cannot be adduced as evidence either in
favor of, or against, the permanence of types.
The advocates for unity are no less unfortunate in their historical
arguments. They furnish but two; the Turks and the Magyars. The Asiatic
origin of the former is supposed to be established beyond doubt, as well
as of their intimate relationship with the Finnic branches of the
Laplanders and Ostiacs. It follows from this that they must originally
have displayed the yellow skin, projecting cheek bones, and low stature
of the Mongolian races. This point being settled, we are told to look at
the Turks of our day, who exhibit all the characteristics of the
European type. Types, then, are not permanent, it is victoriously
concluded, because the Turks have undergone such a transformation. "It
is true," say the adherents of the unity school, "that some pretend
there had been an admixture of Greek, Georgian, and Circassian blood.
But this admixture can have taken place only to a very limited extent;
all Turks are not rich enough to buy their wives in the Caucasus, or to
have seraglios filled with white slaves; on the other hand, the hatred
which the Greeks cherish for their conquerors, and the religious
antipathies of both nations, were not favorable to alliances between
them, and consequently we see them--though inhabiting the same
country--as distinct at this day as at the time of the conquest."[153]
These arguments are more specious than solid. In the first place, I am
greatly disposed to doubt the Finnic origin of the Turkish race, because
the only evidence that has hitherto been produced in favor of this
supposition is affinity of language, and I shall hereafter give my
reasons for believing this argument--when unsupported by any other--as
extremely unreliable, and open to doubt. But even if we suppose the
ancestors of the Turkish nation to belong to the yellow race, it is easy
to show why their descendants have so widely departed from that type.
Centuries elapsed from the time of the first appearance of the Turanian
hordes to the day which saw them the masters of the city of Constantine,
and during that period, multifarious events took place; the fortune of
the Western Turks has been a checkered one. Alternately conquerors or
conquered, masters or slaves, they have become incorporated with various
nationalities. According to the annalists,[154] their Orghuse ancestors,
who descended from the Altai Mountains, inhabited in Abraham's time the
immense steppes of Upper Asia which extend from Katai to the sea of
Aral, from Siberia to Thibet, and which, as has recently been
proved--were then the abode of numerous Germanic tribes.[155] It is a
singular circumstance, that the first mentioning by Oriental writers of
the tribes of Turkestan is in celebrating them for their beauty of face
and form.[156] The most extravagant hyperboles are lavished on them
without reserve, and as these writers had before their eyes the
handsomest types of the old world with which to compare them, it is not
probable that they should have wasted their enthusiasm on creatures so
ugly and repulsive as are generally the races of pure Mongolian blood.
Thus, notwithstanding the dicta of philology, I think serious doubts
might be raised on that point.[157]
But I am willing to admit that the Turcomannic tribes were, indeed, as
is supposed, of Finnic origin. Let us come down to a later period--the
Mohammedan era. We then find these tribes under various denominations
and in equally various situations, dispersed over Persia and Asia Minor.
The Osmanli were not yet existing at that time, and their predecessors,
the Seldjuks, were already greatly mixed with the races that had
embraced Islamism. We see from the example of Ghaïased-din-Keikosrew,
who lived in 1237, that the Seljuk princes were in the habit of
frequently intermarrying with Arab women. They must have gone still
further, for we find that Aseddin, the mother of one of the Seljuk
dynasties, was a Christian. It is reasonable to suppose, that if the
chiefs of the nation, who everywhere are the most anxious to preserve
the purity of their genealogy, showed themselves so devoid of prejudice,
their subjects were still less scrupulous on that point. Their constant
inroads in which they ranged over vast districts, gave them ample
opportunities for capturing slaves, and there is every reason to believe
that already in the 13th century, the ancient Orghuse branch was
strongly tinctured with Shemitic blood.
To this branch belonged Osman, the son of Ortoghrul, and father of the
Osmanli. But few families were collected around his tent. His army was,
at first, little better than a band of adventurers, and the same
expedient which swelled the ranks of the first builders of Rome,
increased the number of adherents of this new Romulus of the Steppes.
Every desperate adventurer or fugitive, of whatever nation, was welcome
among them, and assured of protection. I shall suppose that the
downfall of the Seljuk empire brought to their standards a great number
of their own race. But we have already said that this race was very much
mixed; and besides, this addition was insufficient, as is proved by the
fact that, from that time, the Turks began to capture slaves for the
avowed purpose of repairing, by this means, the waste which constant
warfare made in their own ranks. In the beginning of the 14th century,
the sultan Orkhan, following the advice of his vizier, Khalil
Tjendereli, surnamed the Black, instituted the famous military body
called Janissaries.[158] They were composed entirely of Christian
children captured in Poland, Germany, Italy, or the Bizantine Empire,
who were educated in the Mohammedan religion and the practice of arms.
Under Mohammed IV., their number had increased to 140,000 men. Here,
then, we find an influx of at least half a million male individuals of
European blood in the course of four centuries.
But the infusion of European blood was not limited to this. The piracy
which was carried on, on so large a scale, in the whole basin of the
Mediterranean, had for one of its principal objects the replenishment of
the harems. Every victory gained increased the number of believers in
the Prophet. A great number of the prisoners of war abjured
Christianity, and were henceforth counted among the true believers. The
localities adjacent to the field of battle supplied as many females as
the marauding victors could lay hold of. In some cases, this sort of
booty was so plentiful that it became inconvenient to dispose of. Hammer
relates[159] that, on one occasion, the handsomest female captive was
bartered for _one boot_. When we consider that the Turkish population of
the whole Ottoman empire never exceeded twelve millions, it becomes
apparent that the history of so amalgamated a nation affords no
arguments, either for or against, the permanency of type. We will now
proceed to the second historic argument advanced by the believers in
unity.
"The Magyars," they say, "are of Finnic origin, nearly related to the
Laplanders, Samoiedes, and Esquimaux, all of which are people of low
stature, with big faces, projecting cheek-bones, and yellowish or dirty
brown complexion. Yet the Magyars are tall, well formed, and have
handsome features. The Finns have always been feeble, unintelligent,
and oppressed; the Magyars, on the contrary, occupy a distinguished
rank among the conquerors of the earth, and are noted for their love
of liberty and independence. As they are so immensely superior,
both physically and morally, to all the collateral branches of the
Finnic stock, it follows that they have undergone an enormous
transformation."[160]
If such a transformation had ever taken place, it would, indeed, be
astonishing and inexplicable even to those who ascribe the least
stability to types, for it must have occurred within the last 800 years,
during which we know that the compatriots of St. Stephen[161] mixed but
little with surrounding nations. But the whole course of reasoning is
based upon false premises, for the Hungarians are most assuredly not of
Finnic origin. Mr. A. De Gérando[162] has placed this fact beyond doubt.
He has proved, by the authority of Greek and Arab historians, as well as
Hungarian annalists and by indisputable philological arguments, that the
Magyars are a fragment of that great inundation of nations which swept
over Europe under the denomination of Huns. It will be objected that
this is merely giving the Hungarians another parentage, but which
connects them no less intimately with the yellow race. Such is not the
case. The designation of Huns applies not only to a nation, but is also
a collective appellation of a very heterogeneous mass. Among the tribes
which rallied around the standards of Attila and his ancestors, there
were some which have at all times been distinguished from the rest by
the term _white Huns_. Among them the Germanic blood predominated.[163]
It is true, that the close contact with the yellow race somewhat
adulterated the breed; but this very fact is singularly exhibited in the
somewhat angular and bony facial conformation of the Hungarians. I
conclude, therefore, that the Magyars were _white Huns_, and of Germanic
origin, though slightly mixed with the Mongolian stock.
The philological difficulty of their speaking a non-Germanic dialect is
not insurmountable. I have already alluded to the Mongolian Scyths who
yet spoke an Arian tongue;[164] I might, moreover, cite the Norman
settlers in France who, not many years after their conquest, exchanged
their Scandinavian dialect, in a great measure, for the Celto-Latin of
their subjects,[165] whence sprang that singular compound called
Norman-French, which the followers of William the Conqueror imported
into England, and which now forms an element of the English language.
There is, therefore, no reason to suppose that the agency of climate and
change of habits have transformed a Laplander, or an Ostiak, or a
Tunguse, or a Permian, into a St. Stephen or a Kossuth.
Having thus, I think, refuted the only two historical instances which
the believers in unity of species adduce, of a pretended alteration of
type by local circumstances and change of habits, and having, moreover,
instanced several cases where these causes could produce no alteration;
the fact of permanency of type seems to me to be incontestably
established.[166] Thus, whichever side we take, whether we believe in
original unity, or original diversity, is immaterial; the several groups
of the human species are, at present, so perfectly separated from each
other, that no exterior influence can efface their distinctive
peculiarities. The permanency of these differences, so long as there is
no intermixture, produces precisely the same physical and moral results
as if the groups were so many distinct and separate creations.
In conclusion, I shall repeat what I have said above, that I have very
serious doubts as to the unity of origin. These doubts, however, I am
compelled to repress, because they are in contradiction to a scientific
fact which I cannot refute--the prolificness of half-breeds; and
secondly, what is of much greater weight with me, they impugn a
religious interpretation sanctioned by the church.
FOOTNOTES:
[139] For the arguments which may be deduced from the language of Holy
Writ, in favor of plurality of origins, see Appendix _C_.--H.
[140] Among others, FRÉDÉRIC CUVIER, _Annales du Muséum_, vol. xi. p.
458.
[141] The reader will be struck by the remarkable illustration of the
truth of this remark, which the equine species affords. The vast
difference between the swift courser, who excites the enthusiasm of
admiring multitudes, and the common hack, need not be pointed out, and
it is as well known that either, if the breed be preserved unmixed, will
perpetuate their distinctive qualities to a countless progeny.--H.
[142] A free mulatto, who had received a very good education in France,
once seriously undertook to prove to me that the Saviour's earthly form
partook, at the same time, of the characteristics of the white and the
black races; in other words, was that of a half-breed. The arguments by
which he supported this singular hypothesis were drawn from theology, as
well as Scriptural ethnology, and were remarkably plausible and
ingenious. I am convinced that if the real opinion of colored Christians
on this subject could be collected, a vast majority would be found to
agree with my informant.--H.
[143] Our author here gives evidence of a want of critical study of
races--the resemblances he has traced do not exist. There is no type in
Africa south of the equator, or among the aborigines of America, that
bears any resemblance to any race in Europe or Asia.--N.
[144] Müller, _Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen_, vol. ii. p. 639.
[145] Prichard, _op. cit._, pp. 484, 485.
[146] An exception, however, must be made in the case of Shakspeare,
while painting on an Italian canvas. In _Romeo and Juliet_, Capulet
says:--
"My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride."
To which Paris answers:--
"Younger than she are happy mothers made."
[147] According to M. Krapff, a Protestant minister in Eastern Africa,
among the Wanikos both sexes marry at the age of twelve. (_Zeitschrift
der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, vol. iii. p. 317.) In
Paraguay, the Jesuits had established the custom, which subsists to this
day, of marrying their neophytes, the girls at the age of ten, the boys
at that of thirteen. It is not rare to find, in that country, widowers
and widows eleven and twelve years old. (A. D'ORBIGNY, _L'Homme
Américain_, vol. i. p. 40.) In Southern Brazil, females marry at the age
of ten and eleven. Menstruation there begins also at a very early age,
and ceases equally early. (MARTIUS and SPIX, _Reise in Brasilien_, vol.
i. p. 382.) I might increase the number of similar quotations
indefinitely.
[148] Prichard, _op. cit._, p. 486.
[149] Botta, _Monumens de Ninive_. Paris, 1850.
[150] _Edinburgh Review_, "Ethnology, or the Science of Races," Oct.
1844, p. 144, _et passim_. "There is probably no evidence of original
diversity of race which is so generally and unhesitatingly relied upon
as that derived from the _color of the skin_ and the _character of the
hair_; ... but it will not, we think, stand the test of serious
examination.... Among the Kabyles of Algiers and Tunis, the Tuarites of
Sahara, the Shelahs or mountaineers of Southern Morocco, and other
people of the same race, there are very considerable differences of
complexion." (p. 448.)
[151] _Ibid._, _loc. cit._, p. 453. "The Cinghalese are described by Dr.
Davy as varying in color from light brown to black, the prevalent hue of
their hair and eyes is black, but hazel eyes and brown hair are not very
uncommon; gray eyes and red hair are occasionally seen, though rarely,
and sometimes the light-blue or red eye and flaxen hair of the albino."
[152] _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ "The Samoiedes, Tungusians, and others living
on the borders of the Icy Sea, have a dirty-brown or swarthy
complexion."
[153] Edinburgh Review, p. 439.
[154] Hammer, _Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches_, vol. i. p. 2.
(_History of the Ottoman Empire._)
[155] Ritter, _Erdkunde Asien_, vol. i. p. 433, et passim, p. 1115,
etc. Lassen, _Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, vol. ii. p.
65. Benfey, _Encyclopædie_, by Ersch and Gruber, _Indien_, p. 12.
Alexander Von Humboldt, speaking of this fact, styles it one of the most
important discoveries of our times. (_Asie Centrale_, vol. ii. p. 649.)
With regard to its bearings upon historical science, nothing can be more
true.
[156] Nouschirwan, whose reign falls in the first half of the sixth
century of our era, married Scharouz, the daughter of the Khakan of the
Turks. She was the most beautiful woman of her time. (Haneberg,
_Zeitschr. f. d. K. des Morgenl._, vol. i. p. 187.) This is by no means
an isolated instance; Schahnameh furnishes a number of similar ones.
[157] The Scythes, though having adopted a language of the Arian
classes, were, nevertheless, a Mongolian nation; there would, therefore,
be nothing very surprising if the Orghuses had been an Arian nation,
though speaking a Finnic dialect. This hypothesis is singularly
corroborated by a passage in the relations of the traveller Rubruquis,
who was sent by St. Louis as ambassador to the sovereign of the Mongols.
"I was struck," says the worthy monk, "with the prince's resemblance to
the deceased _M. John de Beaumont_, whose complexion was equally fresh
and colored." Alexander Von Humboldt, justly interested by this remark,
adds: "This physiognomical observation acquires importance, when we
recollect that the monarch here spoken of belonged to the family of
Tchinguiz, who were really of Turkish, not of Mogul origin." And
pursuing this trace, the great _savant_ finds another corroborating
fact: "The absence of Mongolian features," says he, "strikes us also in
the portraits which we possess of the Baburides, the conquerors of
India." (_Asie Centrale_, vol. i. p. 248, and note.)
[158] It will be seen that Mr. Gobineau differs, in the date he gives of
the institution of the Janissaries, from all other European writers, who
unanimously ascribe the establishment of this corps to Mourad I., the
third prince of the line of Othman. This error, into which Gibbon
himself has fallen, originated with Cantemir: but the concurrent
testimony of every Turkish historian fixes the epoch of their formation
and consecration by the Dervish Hadji-Becktash, to the reign of Orkhan,
the father of Mourad, who, in 1328, enrolled a body of Christian youths
as soldiers under this name (which signifies, "new regulars"), by the
advice of his cousin Tchenderli, to whose councils the wise and simple
regulations of the infant empire are chiefly attributed. Their number
was at first only a thousand; but it was greatly augmented when Mourad,
in 1361, appropriated to this service, by an edict, the _imperial fifth_
of the European captives taken in the war--a measure which has been
generally confounded with the first enrolment of the corps. At the
accession of Soliman the Magnificent, their effective strength had
reached 40,000; and under Mohammed IV., in the middle of the seventeenth
century, that number was more than doubled. But though the original
composition of the Janissaries is related by every writer who has
treated of them, it has not been so generally noticed that for more than
two centuries and a half not a single native Turk was admitted into
their ranks, which were recruited, like those of the Mamelukes, solely
by the continual supply of Christian slaves, at first captives of tender
age taken in war, and afterwards, when this source proved inadequate to
the increased demand, by an annual levy among the children of the lower
orders of Christians throughout the empire--a dreadful tax, frequently
alluded to by Busbequius, and which did not finally cease till the reign
of Mohammed IV.
At a later period, when the Krim Tartars became vassals of the Porte,
the yearly inroads of the fierce cavalry of that nation into the
southern provinces of Russia, were principally instrumental in
replenishing this nursery of soldiers; and Fletcher, who was ambassador
from Queen Elizabeth to Ivan the Terrible, describes, in his quaint
language, the method pursued in these depredations: "The chief bootie
the Tartars seeke for in all their warres, is to get store of captives,
specially young boyes and girles, whom they sell to the Turkes, or
other, their neighbours. To this purpose, they take with them great
baskets, made like bakers' panniers, _to carrie them tenderly_; and if
any of them happens to tyre, or bee sicke on the way, they dash him
against the ground, or some tree, and so leave him dead." (_Purchas's
Pilgrims_, vol. iii. p. 441.)
The boys, thus procured from various quarters, were assembled at
Constantinople, where, after a general inspection, those whose personal
advantages or indications of superior talent distinguished them from the
crowd, were set aside as pages of the seraglio or Mamelukes in the
households of the pashas and other officers, whence in due time they
were promoted to military commands or other appointments: but the
remaining multitude were given severally in charge to peasants or
artisans of Turkish race, principally in Anatolia, by whom they were
trained up, till they approached the age of manhood, in the tenets of
the Moslem faith, and inured to all the privations and toils of a hardy
and laborious life. After this severe probation, they were again
transferred to the capital, and enrolled in the different _odas_ or
regiments; and here their military education commenced.--H.
[159] _Erdkunde, Asien_, vol. i. p. 448.
[160] _Ethnology_, etc., p. 439: "The Hungarian nobility ... is proved
by historical and philological evidence to have been a branch of the
great Northern Asiatic stock, closely allied in blood to the stupid and
feeble Ostiaks, and the untamable Laplander."
[161] St. Stephen reigned about the year 1000, nearly one century and a
half after the first invasion of the Magyars, under their leaders, Arpad
and Zulta. He introduced Christianity among his people, on which account
he was canonized, and is now the tutelary saint of his nation. It may
not be known to the generality of our readers, that the Magyars, though
they have now resided nearly one thousand years in Hungary, have, with
few exceptions, never applied themselves to the tillage of the soil.
Agriculture, to this day, remains almost exclusively in the hands of the
original (the Slowack or Sclavonian) population. The Magyar's wealth
consists in his herds, or, if he owns land, it is the Slowacks that
cultivate it for him. It is a singular phenomenon that these two races,
though professing the same religion, have remained almost entirely
unmixed, and each still preserves its own language.--H.
[162] _Essai Historique sur l'Origine des Hongrois._ Paris, 1844.
[163] It appears that we shall be compelled henceforward to considerably
modify our usually received opinions with regard to the nations of
Central Asia. It cannot now be any longer doubted that many of these
populations contain a very considerable admixture of white blood, a fact
of which our predecessors in the study of history had not the slightest
apprehension. Alexander Von Humboldt makes a very important remark upon
this subject, in speaking of the Kirghis-Kazakes, mentioned by Menander
of Byzant, and Constantine Porphyrogenetus; and he shows conclusively
that the Kirghis (~cherchis~) concubine spoken of by the former
writer as a present of the Turkish chief Dithubùl to Zemarch, the
ambassador of Justinian II., in A. D. 569, was a girl of mixed
blood--partly white. She is the precise counterpart of those beautiful
Turkish girls, whose charms are so much extolled by Persian writers, and
who did not belong, any more than she, to the Mongolian race. (Vide
_Asie Centrale_, vol. i. p. 237, _et passim_, and vol. ii. pp. 130,
131.)
[164] Schaffarick, _Slawische Alterthümer_, vol. i. p. 279, _et passim_.
[165] Aug. Thierry, _Histoire de la Conquite de l'Angleterre_. Paris,
1846, vol. i. p. 155.
[166] In my introductory note to Chapters VIII. and IX. (see p. 244), I
have mentioned a remarkable instance of the permanency of
characteristics, even in branches of the same race. An equally, if not
more striking illustration of this fact is given by Alex. Von Humboldt.
It is well known that Spain contains a population composed of very
dissimilar ethnical elements, and that the inhabitants of its various
provinces differ essentially, not only in physical appearance, but still
more in mental characteristics. As in all newly-settled countries,
immigrants from the same locality are apt to select the same spot, the
extensive Spanish possessions on this continent were colonized, each
respectively, by some particular province in the mother country. Thus
the Biscayans settled Mexico; the Andalusians and natives of the Canary
Islands, Venezuela; the Catalonians, Buenos Ayres; the Castillians,
Peru, etc. Although centuries have elapsed since these original
settlements, and although the character of the Spanish Americans must
have been variously modified by the physical nature of their new homes,
whether situated in the vicinity of coasts, or of mining districts, or
in isolated table-lands, or in fertile valleys; notwithstanding all
this, the great traveller and experienced observer still clearly
recognizes in the character of the various populations of South America,
the distinctive peculiarities of the original settlers. Says he: "The
Andalusians and Canarians of Venezuela, the Mountaineers and the
Biscayans of Mexico, the Catalonians of Buenos Ayres, evince
considerable differences in their aptitude for agriculture, for the
mechanical arts, for commerce, and for all objects connected with
intellectual development. _Each of these races has preserved, in the
new, as in the old world, the shades that constitute its national
physiognomy_; its asperity or mildness of character; its freedom from
sordid feelings, or its excessive love of gain; its social hospitality,
or its taste of solitude.... In the inhabitants of Caracas, Santa Fé,
Quito, and Buenos Ayres, we still recognize the features that belong to
the race of the first settlers."--_Personal Narrative_, Eng. Trans.,
vol. i. p. 395.--H.