“The Hindoos are very tenacious of their prerogatives, and India has

frequently been convulsed by sanguinary struggles occasioned by some one

of its castes refusing to conform to traditional custom. Terrible

conflicts have, ere now, been caused by an inferior caste attempting to

wear slippers of a certain shape, the privilege of a higher one, or

because it wished to use, in its religious rites, certain musical

instruments hitherto reserved for the worship of the superior

divinities.

“The Hindoos may lay claim to a refined politeness and elegant manners;

but the smallest concession in the respect to which their social

position entitles them, the least relaxation in the prescribed etiquette

are considered a sign of weakness and an avowal of inferiority.

“The conversational formulæ used towards a native vary according to his

station. Nothing is easier than to affront their susceptibility. Never

speak to an Oriental of his wife or of his daughters. To do so, is

contrary to custom. To use the left hand in bowing, in eating, or in

drinking, is to offer an insult; the right hand alone is reserved for

the higher uses, and the left, the ignoble hand, is used for ablutions.

“In Europe, it is a sign of respect to uncover the head, in the East, to

take off the turban is a disrespectful act. On entering a house,

conversely to us, they keep their heads covered, but leave their shoes

at the threshold. This habit seems to me a most sensible one. A white

cloth is stretched on the floor of their apartments, on cushions placed

on which they sit cross-legged. It appears to me that shoes were

invented to preserve the feet from the roughness of the ground, from the

mud and from the dust of the roads. Are they not then objectionable, or,

at any rate, useless in the interior of a well-kept house?

“When paying a visit, the Hindoo waits until his host bids him adieu.

They very properly suppose that a visitor can be in no hurry to leave

the friend whom he has purposely come to see. The host, on the contrary,

may have urgent business claiming his immediate attention. The forms of

this dismissal vary:--‘Come and see me often,’ or ‘Remember that you

will always be welcome.’ Presents of flowers and fruit generally

terminate these visits, and betel is invariably handed round.

“The usual food of the Hindoo is very simple, and their meals are of but

short duration. Rice boiled in water, and curry (a compound of

vegetables, ghee--a sort of clarified butter, spices, and saffron),

sometimes eggs or milk, a little fish, and occasionally coarse meal

cakes, bananas, and the fruit of the bread tree, form the morning and

evening meal of rich and poor. The leaves of the banana tree are used

instead of plates and dishes. In eating vegetables and rice, fingers are

used instead of spoons and forks; and the meat is torn by the teeth in

default of the absent knife. An European is rather likely to be

disgusted with the sauce trickling down the chins and the fingers of the

guests at a Hindoo meal. Water is the prevailing drink, and but little

use is made of arrack (a spirit extracted from the palm tree).

[Illustration: 161.--NAUTCH GIRL OF BARODA.]

“Faithful observers of their religious injunctions, which forbid them to

touch animal food under pain of being excluded from society and from the

bosom of their families, the high caste natives never eat meat; as for

the Pariahs, they eat all kinds of animals, and are very fond of arrack.

“Betel is incessantly used all over India. In hot countries, where the

inhabitants lead a sedentary life, their digestion becomes sluggish, and

can neither receive nor absorb the same quantity of nourishment as it

does in Northern countries. The vegetable diet of the Hindoos is not

very rich in azotic matter, and its continual use would cause an

internal formation of gas, without the alkaline stimulant used by all

the inhabitants of India to prevent its development. This stimulant is

the astringent areca nut, which they chew with a little lime placed on a

betel leaf.

“This mixture dyes the lips and the tongue red; it is pernicious in its

effect on the teeth, but it is certainly useful to the digestive

functions.

“Tobacco, rolled in a green leaf and lighted like a cigarette, is the

universal method of smoking.

“Many different languages are spoken in India. Philologists have

enumerated as many as fifty-eight, but not more than ten have an

alphabet and literature of their own. Sanskrit, a dead language, is more

or less mixed with all the dialects of India. In the north it forms

their incontestable basis, but in the south it is merely grafted on to

pre-existing tongues, and frequently but faint traces are found of it.

All the alphabets seem to have been invented separately, but they have

been improved by the regular and philosophical arrangement of the

_Devanagri_. This is the name of the Sanskrit alphabet, the most perfect

of all. The living languages have a very simple grammatical

construction.

“Hindostani, which is spoken in the province of Agra, is the most

cultivated and the most generally employed of all Indian languages. It

has received a large Persian element since the Mussulman conquest.

Besides the local dialect of each district, Hindostani is everywhere

spoken by the educated classes, and by all professing the Mussulman

faith.

[Illustration: 162.--A COOLIE OF THE GHATS.]

“The ties of caste replace in India the ties of family. Hindoos love

their wives and children; but this affection is subordinated to their

caste duties. Expulsion from the family is principally caused by

violation of religious ordinances or by the illicit connection of high

caste women with men of a lower rank. The Brahmins and the Sudras, and

even the Pariahs themselves, are divided into a number of sub-castes, a

member of one of which can neither eat, drink, nor intermarry with one

of another. If a Hindoo becomes degraded, if he loses his caste, he is

disowned by his relations; his wife is considered a widow, his children

orphans; he must expect no assistance, no pity, from those who hitherto

have surrounded him with the most considerate care.

“Europeans are ranked with Pariahs on account of their daily habit of

eating beef. It is true that the Brahmins consent to shake hands with an

European, but on their return home after doing so, their first care is

to undress and perform their ablutions so as to purify themselves from

the stain of such an impure contact; it is even asserted by them that

the mere gaze of a Pariah is enough to cause contamination.

“Every village in the Deccan is composed of two parts, separated by an

interval of a few yards. These are two distinct quarters, one reserved

for the men of caste, the other, surrounded by hedges, allotted to the

Pariahs. These miserable beings are not allowed to enter the streets of

the village without the consent of the inhabitants, and they must only

presume to draw water in the wells set aside for their particular use.

Where the Pariahs have no special wells, they place their _chatties_ by

the well-sides of the men of caste, and await humbly and patiently the

alms offering of a few glasses of water. It is always the women that

attend to this household care.

“The higher castes often make the Pariahs presents, which they

invariably place on the ground, for fear of contracting by mere physical

contact the moral leprosy with which in their eyes the Pariahs are

affected. A person of caste never accepts a gift from the hands of a

Pariah.

“If on the one hand the high-caste natives are physically and

intellectually superior to the Pariahs; on the other hand the latter are

more laborious, more docile, and more accessible to European influence.

In the Presidency of Madras they constitute the best and the most solid

nucleus of the native English army.

“If I wished to enumerate all the subdivisions of caste based on the

conduct, the calling, and the occupation of every one, if I described

in detail the clothes and the ornaments which vary ad infinitum

according to caste, if I attempted to recite all the existing prejudices

about food and the daily minutiæ of life, I should fill several volumes.

“The same tendencies are met with everywhere. The desire of making a

figure in the world, and the ambition for command without having taken

the necessary trouble to become worthy of it. Yet the existence of caste

has always prevented the formation of a really homogeneous nation. Caste

is the cause of the sharp rivalries, the endless hostilities, that have

always been fatal to national independence, and facilitated the

invasions of strangers.

[Illustration: 163.--PAGODA AT SIRRHINGHAM.]

“Besides the social consequences we have mentioned, the Hindoos believe

in religious ones. Their different castes cannot here below receive the

same education, nor be initiated into the same mysteries. These

differences, according to the dogmas of _Siva_, are to extend into the

next world.”

The preceding paragraphs refer to the inhabitants of the Deccan. It

would be too tedious to describe the other populations of the peninsula,

the Bengalese, the Rajpoots, the Mahrattas, &c. We will merely say a few

words about the Cingalese, or inhabitants of the island of Ceylon.

The Cingalese are entirely Indian in figure, in language, in manners, in

customs, in religion and in their government. Their features are not

widely different from those of Europeans, but they differ from them in

their colour, in their height, and in the proportions of their bodies.

The hue of their skin varies from light brown to black. Black is the

usual colour for their eyes and hair. They are shorter than Europeans,

but well made, with well defined muscles. Their chests and their

shoulders are broad, their hands and feet small. Their hair grows in

large quantity and to great length, but they have little on their faces.

Their women are, as a rule, well made.

The attractions which a lady ought to combine in order to be a perfect

beauty are, according to a Kandian fop, as follow: her hair should be as

bushy as the tail of a peacock, long enough to reach the knees, and

gracefully curled at the ends; her eyebrows arched as the rainbow, eyes

blue as sapphires, and her nose like a hawk’s beak; her lips must vie

with coral in redness and lustre, and small, even, and closely-set

teeth, resembling jessamine buds, should complete the picture.

Ceylon, as everybody knows, is indebted for its great prosperity to its

coffee plantations, a large trade being carried on between the English

and its inhabitants, who enjoy a well-earned reputation as cultivators

of that shrub.

“The Kandians,” says M. Alfred Grandidier, “possess more robust

constitutions, less feeble limbs, and features not so effeminate as

their countrymen of the coast; their lusty shoulders, broad chests, and

short but muscular legs, are a proof of the effect which climate can

produce on the development of the human frame.

“The habits of the mountaineers have undergone scarcely any change in

consequence of the foreign influences which have impressed a complex

character upon the manners of the people nearer the sea. Their primitive

customs, originated by the imperious necessities of life, are still

found in existence among them; and they have none of the timidity and

servility which are the attributes of the dwellers in the maritime

districts. The feudal state in which they have long lived has preserved

in them an energy and independence rare among Indian populations. The

configuration of the country enabled them, in fact, to retain their

freedom more easily than their brethren of the northern plains, either

when aggression came from their own ruler or from foreign intruders;

but, nevertheless, that indolence still prevails among them which comes

naturally to every people who are not obliged to contend against any

material obstacle in order to supply themselves with the necessities of

life. The tyranny of their masters, whether chiefs or kings, has

unhappily accustomed them to hypocrisy, and made them vindictive.

“Whilst the Cingalese of the coast have applied themselves to trade and

industry, those of the high regions always show repugnance to such

occupations. They have invariably shunned any connection with

foreigners; and so great, even at the present day, is their desire to

withdraw as much as possible from association with the English settlers,

that they conceal their villages in the middle of the jungle, and at a

distance of some hundreds of yards from the least frequented paths. A

rice-field in the midst of forests, or a glimpse of the tall tops of

cocoa-trees, alone indicate the presence of human beings in places that

would otherwise be thought uninhabited. In countries like these, where

nature has accumulated so many of her treasures, the relations of man

with man, which assuredly conduce to the happiness of all, are not

indispensable; and the natives love a solitude, where they enjoy

benefits of every kind in profusion.

“The Cingalese of the hills have a traditional respect for their chiefs,

and a deep attachment to ancient usages. Their costume differs from that

of the inhabitants of the plains, insomuch that they do not habitually

wear the vest, this garment being, in fact, exclusively reserved for

their nobles, who assume it on grand occasions; their hair is allowed to

grow to its full length, and is not confined by a comb. Sumptuary laws

and religious injunctions settle in other respects the clothing suitable

to each class, the greater part of these laws being, to the present day,

still in force among the Kandians, in spite of the abolition of castes

which has been decreed by the English administration.

“The length of the frock-like petticoats worn by men and women both in

the high and low lands, and which seem to be the part of the national

costume to which the greatest importance is attached, was formerly

proportioned according to the social position of the individual.

[Illustration: 164.--PALANQUIN.]

“The pariahs were not permitted to let this skirt come lower than the

knee, and males and females of inferior caste had the breast uncovered.

Among the chiefs themselves a difference existed, and still exists, as

to the method of wearing the _comboy_. After rolling it twice or three

times round the hips and legs, they form with it round the waist a more

or less bulky girdle, the dimensions of which depend upon their rank.

The nobles are also distinguished from the lower orders by their

extraordinary headgear, consisting of a sort of round, flat, white linen

cap, like that worn by the Basque peasantry, while the lower classes

merely surround the head with a silk handkerchief, leaving none of it

bare except the top. The king alone possessed the privilege of wearing

sandals. Prohibitions, such as one against wearing gold and silver

chains or ornaments, are still scrupulously observed by the Kandians,

who strenuously resist any encroachments of the inferior castes.”

M. Guillaume Lejean has published some interesting particulars of his

travels in Cashmere and the Punjaub. It is not our intention to follow

the learned wanderer in his rapid journeys across Hindostan, but we

should like to draw attention to a novel opinion which has been

expressed by him as to the ethnology of the Indian population.

M. Lejean believes that he has re-discovered in Hindostan the Aryans,

that is to say, the primitive people from whom the Aryan or Caucasian

race is descended. The features of these peoples, our own genuine

ancestors, are regular and of an European type. Their complexion is not

browner than that of the inhabitants of Provence, Sicily, or Southern

Spain. This statement does not apply to the lower castes, whose skin

grows darker and darker, until it reaches the sooty tint of the Nubian.

The country people have long and slightly wavy hair, blacker and more

brilliant than jet. Though not effeminate in appearance, the race is

deficient in muscular vigour, an effect attributed by the traveller to

the torrid heat of the climate. The women are generally of middle

height, with pleasing but expressionless countenances of little

originality; their eyes are large, black, and submissive, and their

hands delicately beautiful.

In the opinion of M. Lejean, the fine, symmetrical heads, small,

well-formed hands, and regular features of the natives of Scinde, remind

one completely of the white European race, and allow us to identify the

inhabitants of that part of Asia with the ancient Aryans, who were the

colonizers of primitive Europe, and who springing, as is said, from the

regions of Persia, spread themselves over our own continent and that of

Asia.

This is an opportune moment for alluding to a race, sprung seemingly

from Hindoos of the lower classes, which had probably abandoned its own

land, and from which those detached groups that traverse the entire

globe, without ever fixing themselves anywhere, or ever losing their

peculiar characteristics, derive their origin. Under this category come

the wandering tribes, commonly known in different languages, as Gipsies,

Bohemians, Zingari, Gitanos, &c., who wander over countries either as

beggars or in pursuit of the lowest callings. These Gipsies and

Bohemians, who are especially numerous in the South of France, and enjoy

a considerable repute as horse-clippers and tinkers, who are invariably

vagrants, and now and then thieves, appear to be descended from

low-caste Hindoos. They are travelling Pariahs. Such, at least, is the

opinion entertained by some modern ethnologists.

MALABAR FAMILY.

The Malabar Family inhabiting the Deccan differs in many respects from

the Hindoo, and the peoples included in it are very dark and sometimes

black in complexion. This branch is divided into three principal

divisions: the _Malabars_ proper, who dwell in the country of that name;

the _Tamuls_, in the Carnatic; and the _Telingas_, in the north-east.

Neither the language nor the customs of the tribes composing this group,

exhibit peculiarities sufficiently important to induce us to stop to

describe them.

CHAPTER II.

ETHIOPIAN BRANCH.

The African populations which we class with the Brown Race have a

resemblance in the formation of the body to those of the White Race, but

their skin is darker in colour, being intermediate between that of the

Negro and that of the White. The natives constituting this branch have

never attained to any appreciable degree of civilization, and there is a

complete void of positive notions as to their origin or migrations,

while even the different languages in use among them, are partly unknown

to us. We shall distinguish in the Ethiopian branch, two great families,

the _Abyssinian_ and the _Fellan_.

ABYSSINIAN FAMILY.

[Illustration: 165.--ABYSSINIAN.]

That portion of Eastern Africa which bears the name of Abyssinia,

contains several tribes, speaking different languages. These tribes are

ranked by many ethnologists as belonging to the White Race, and their

complexion, though darker invariably than that of the European, is

fairer than that of the negro. Their hair, which is generally frizzled,

their lips usually thick, and their nose less flat than that of the

Negro, are so many characteristics which assign to them a place

intervening between the Black and the White races. These tribes

doubtless spring from a union of black inhabitants, aborigines of the

country, with the Orientals who conquered them.

[Illustration: 166.--NOUERS OF THE WHITE NILE.]

We shall instance among the principal groups belonging to this family,

the _Abyssinians_, the _Barabras_, the _Tibbous_, and the _Gallas_,

about any of whom, with the exception of the first named, little is as

yet known.

* * * * *

_Abyssinians._--Most authors place this people in the White Race and the

Semitic family. There is, in fact, reason to believe that Abyssinia was

many times overrun, and perhaps civilized, by the nations of Western

Asia; but the colour of their skin, which is very much darker than that

of the Arameans, is a proof that the conquerors intermarried with the

conquered, and that from this union the present Abyssinian race has

sprung.

According to Dr. Rüppel, there are two predominant types existing among

the people of this country, the more widely spread approaching to that

of the Arabs, while the second approximates closely to the Negro.

The Abyssinians forming the first group, are finely formed, showing

resemblance to the Bedouins in feature and expression of countenance.

Their peculiar characteristics are, an oval face, a long, thin, finely

cut nose, a well proportioned mouth with lips of moderate thickness,

lively eyes, regular teeth, slightly crisp or smooth hair, and a middle

stature. Most of the people dwelling on the high mountains of Samen, and

the plains surrounding Lake Tzana, belong to this branch, which also

includes the _Falæshas_, or Jews, the _Garnants_, who are idolators, and

the _Agows_.

The second type is chiefly distinguishable by a shorter and broader

nose, slightly flattened; thick lips; long eyes, with little animation

in them; and very curly and almost woolly hair, which is so close, that

it stands straight out from the head. A portion of the population along

the coast, in the province of Hamasen and other neighbouring districts,

belongs to this second group.

The results of Baron Larrey’s comparison of the Abyssinian with the

Negro, are, that the eyes of the former are larger and of a more

agreeable look, and have the inner angle slightly more inclined. In the

Abyssinian the cheek-bones and the zygomatic arches are more prominent

than in the Negro; the cheeks form a more regular triangle with the

angle of the mouth and the corner of the jaw; the lips are thick without

being turned out like a Negro’s; the teeth are handsome, well set and

less projecting; and the alveolar ridges are not so prominent. The

complexion of the Abyssinian is not so black as that of the Negro in the

interior of Africa. Baron Larrey adds, that the features which he has

described above, belonged to the genuine Egyptians of olden times, and

that they are to be found in the heads of Egyptian statues, and above

all in that of the Sphinx.

[Illustration: 167.--A NOUER CHIEF.]

[Illustration: 168.--CHIEF OF THE LIRA.]

In the account which he published in 1865, of his journey through

Abyssinia two years previously, M. Guillaume Lejean has given

considerable information as to this part of Africa and its inhabitants,

and the victorious enterprise undertaken by England in 1866, afforded an

opportunity of establishing the accuracy of the French traveller’s

statements.

At the moment when the British expedition was directed against him, the

army of the Abyssinian potentate, the Negus Theodorus, numbered about

40,000 men. The infantry carry a spear, shield, and long curved sabre,

and they attack their enemy impetuously at close quarters. The light

cavalry is excellent. The horsemen, when charging, let go their bridles,

fight with both hands, and guiding and urging their horses with leg and

knee only, make them perform the most prodigious feats. Each man has a

sword and two lances; the latter always hit the mark, and their wound is

deadly. They are used like javelins, and are about two yards long. Every

horseman is followed by an attendant retainer, whose duty it is to dash

among the enemy, sword in hand, in order to recover his master’s weapon,

and bring it back to him. These horsemen charge headlong against an

infantry square, making their horses bound into its midst over the heads

of the soldiers, and then backing them in order to break its formation.

The skirmishers are Tigré mountaineers, of cool, resolute courage, and

their aim is remarkably good.

The Emperor Theodorus seldom occupied his palace. His real capital was

his camp, which he kept incessantly moving from one end of his dominions

to the other. He maintained strict discipline in his household and on

his staff, among the members of which the bastinado was often liberally

used.

Two fifths of the Abyssinian population are in the service of the

wealthier classes, and probably there is no country in the world where

servitude is more widely spread. A person possessed of an income equal

to £160 a year, keeps at least eight dependants. M. Lejean had no fewer

than seventeen attendants during his journey, and his travelling

companion, an Englishman, as many as seventy.

The religion of this country forms a rare exception in Africa, as the

inhabitants are Christians. The head of the Abyssinian church is styled

the “Abouna,” and his theocratic powers are almost boundless. King and

pontiff entertain a mutual hatred of one another, each dreading his

rival and keeping close watch upon his movements. Whichever of the two

possesses greater courage and energy gains the upper hand.

Monks and priests are common in Abyssinia.

The natives take a decoction of _kousso_ once a month as a cure for the

tapeworm. The fact is, that in consequence of some local circumstances,

the meat used in the country is full of cysts, which, getting into the

stomach along with the food, generate in the intestines this troublesome

guest that must be got rid of from time to time. This remedy for

tapeworm has been recently introduced into Europe.

* * * * *

_Barabras._--The Barabras are the natives of Nubia. They occupy that

part of the valley comprised between the southern frontier of Egypt and

Sennaar, that is to say, Nubia.

This race differs widely from the Arabs, and all adjoining nations. They

dwell on the banks of the Nile, and, wherever the soil is found

favourable, plant date trees, sink wells for irrigation, and sow various

kinds of leguminous plants.

Blumenbach was forcibly struck with the resemblance of the Barabras to

the figures and paintings to be met with on the different monuments of

ancient Egypt. This people, like the Egyptians, have a reddish black

skin, but of a much darker tint. The characteristic features of the pure

Barabras are oval and somewhat long faces, with aquiline noses, very

well formed and slightly rounded towards the point, lips thick without

being protruding, a receding chin, thin beard, animated eyes, very curly

but never frizzled hair, a body perfectly in proportion and usually of

the middle height, and lastly a bronze-coloured skin.

The Barabras are classed in three groups, each of which has a dialect of

its own, namely, the _Noubas_ or _Nubians_, the _Kenous_, and the

_Dongoulahs_; all of whom inhabit the Nile valley.

According to Burckhardt the Noubas differ in many respects from the

Negroes, especially in the softness of their skin, which is very smooth

and flexible, while the palm of a genuine Negro’s hand is rough and as

hard as wood. Their noses, too, are less flat, their lips less thick,

and their cheek-bones less prominent than those of a Negro. Pritchard’s

opinion is that the Barabras probably migrated from Kordofan.

A description of this race is also to be found in the “Voyage en

Egypte,” by MM. Henri Cammas and André Lefèvre, by whom the country was

explored in 1860, and from its pages we take the following extract:--

“We are in Nubia, and Arabic is no longer spoken. The inhabitants,

though usually inoffensive, have nevertheless a warlike gait; the dagger

hanging by a strap to their arm, their ironwood bow and their buckler of

crocodile hide are the tokens and protectors of their liberty. Their

rulers obtain nothing from them except by force.

“The moment the river recedes, these vigorous husbandmen dispute with it

for the fertilizing slime which suffices for a fourfold harvest.

“Do not imagine that they labour: it is enough for them when they have

sown pinches of corn in shallow holes, for nature does all the rest.

“So favoured a climate, as may well be imagined, does not impose on the

Nubian the inconvenience of having to wear clothing. The majority carry

nothing more upon them than a few weapons and their dusky skins. The

women’s costumes are oddly fashioned. They stain their lips and twist

their hair into numberless tiny plaits, which are not re-made every day.

Egyptian females would look on them as indecent, for allowing the lower

part of the face to be seen; and more than that even, the girls, up to

the time of their marriage, wear no covering beyond a narrow girdle. The

villages are rather near each other, and seldom consist of more than

fifteen or twenty earthen huts, having flat roofs thatched with palm

branches. In front of the cabins are ranged, as at Dolce for instance,

large jars, in which the corn is kept stored.

“Ruins belonging to all ages and every ancient divinity are to be found

in Nubia.”

The inhabitants of Eastern Nubia are merely wandering tribes who

traverse the country included between the Nile and the Red Sea; the

dwellers in the northern part are known as the _Ababdehs_.

The _Bicharyehs_ spread themselves as far as the Abyssinian frontiers,

and the _Hadharebs_ are still more to the south, reaching to Souakin on

the Red Sea. The _Souakins_ belong to the last-named race.

The Bicharyehs are savage and inhospitable, and it is asserted that they

drink the still warm blood of living animals. They are chiefly nomadic,

and maintain themselves on the flesh or the milk of their flocks. All

travellers agree in representing them as fine men with regular features,

large, expressive eyes, light, elegant frames, and a dark

chocolate-coloured complexion. Their method of wearing the hair is very

curious. Those who possess it in sufficient length to reach below the

ear, allow it to hang in straight, tangled locks, each of which

terminates in a curl. This headgear is impregnated with grease, and is

so much matted that there would be a difficulty in getting a comb

through it. They refrain, besides, from touching it, and in order not to

spoil its arrangement are always provided with a bit of pointed stick,

like a large needle, which they put into requisition whenever scratching

becomes necessary.

The head-dress of the Souakins is equally extraordinary, and the

scratching pin is also an obligatory accompaniment of their toilet.

The Ababdehs have hair from two and a half to three inches long; their

lips are slightly thick, their noses rather long, and in complexion they

are almost black. They are nomadic, and live in the same way as the

Bedouins.

* * * * *

_Tibbous._--The Tibbous, who wander over the country to the east of the

Sahara, have been looked upon as belonging to the Berber family, but

their complexion is darker and they do not speak the Arab tongue. Their

noses are aquiline, their lips but slightly thick, they have intelligent

faces, and are of slender build. Their activity is very great and they

are addicted to robbing caravans.

* * * * *

_Gallas._--The Gallas are strangers to civilization, the majority

scattered over the plains which extend to the south of Abyssinia,

leading a pastoral and nomadic life. They are divided into a great many

independent tribes, being kept united, however, by origin and language.

They are warlike, cruel, and given to plunder. Their colour is very

handsome and their hair usually curly or woolly; they have coarse, short

features and large lips. Islamism has been embraced by a few tribes, but

the greater number remain attached to the old African Paganism.

FELLAN FAMILY.

The _Fellans_, who are also called Fellatahs, Pouls, or Peuhls, have not

been long known except by some tribes who inhabit Senegambia and who

sometimes penetrated the Soudan. Their skin is extremely dark, inclining

sometimes to a reddish, and sometimes to a copper colour, but being

never really black; they have rather long hair, smooth and silky; their

nose is not flattened; the shape of their face is oval; their stature

tall and slight; the extremities of the limbs delicate and small; their

step light and commanding.

We class among the Fellan family the people dwelling in the western part

of Africa, such as the inhabitants of Nigritia and Bambara.

The capital of Nigritia, Sego or Segou, is a tolerably large town

situated on the Niger.

Probably many other nations of Western Africa ought to be placed side by

side with the Fellans and a comparison should also be established

between them and the people of Madagascar, the _Owas_.

All these races differ from the Negroes, although dwelling on the

confines of the country belonging to the latter branch, with which some

authors erroneously confound them, but the physical characteristics that

mark them as distinct are well-established.

CHAPTER III.

MALAY BRANCH.

This branch approaches closely to the Indo-Chinese. The races composing

it are of medium height, regularly made and with well-proportioned

limbs; their skin varies from an olive-yellow to a brown hue, and their

hair is smooth, black, or occasionally brown. They appear susceptible of

civilization and are often divided into regular nations.

Dumont d’Urville has distinguished among these races three divisions

which he has designated by the appellations of _Malays_, _Polynesians_,

and _Micronesians_; and these groups will be treated here as so many

families.

MALAY FAMILY.

The Malay family, which inhabits Malaysia and the peninsula of Malacca,

is made up of a vast number of nations, the widely varied

characteristics of which partake more or less of those of the

Indo-Chinese, the Hindoos, and even the Negroes. We shall specify in

this family the Malays, Javanese, Battas, Bugs, or Bougis, the

Macassars, Dyaks, and Tagals.

* * * * *

_Malays._--The Malays constitute the most numerous and remarkable branch

of this family. They are spread over the peninsula of Malacca, the

islands of Java, Borneo, Sumatra, and Celebes, and in the Moluccas,

etc. This group of islands was formerly known as the Indian Archipelago,

and owes its name of Malaysia to the naturalist Lesson.

The chief characteristics of the Malays are a lithe and active body,

medium stature, somewhat slanting eyes, prominent cheekbones, a flat

nose, smooth glossy hair, and a scanty beard. Their limbs are elegantly

formed and their hair is black and curling. The flatness of their noses

is attributable to an artificial cause, as, immediately on the birth of

an infant, this feature is compressed until the cartilage is broken, for

a broad flat face is considered a point of beauty, and a projecting nose

would be looked on as a snout. Their lips are deformed by the inordinate

chewing of the betel leaf, and become ultimately repulsive in appearance

on account of their exaggerated redness and the extravasated blood

beneath their surface. The yellow colour of their skin is heightened

still more by artificial means, for it is regarded as an attraction, and

is the aristocratic tint; daily rubbing with henna or turmeric bring it

to a saffron tinge. The natural complexion of the women is pale and

dull; brown is predominant among the men. The princes and dignitaries

stain a dark yellow every part of the body exposed to view.

A Malay’s clothing is of a very light description, consisting, both for

men and women, of two large pieces of stuff skilfully arranged and

confined at the waist by a scarf. Princes and moneyed persons alone wear

a kind of drawers.

The indolence of the Malays is excessive. With the exception of the

slaves, no one works. They are in fact an utterly demoralized people;

murder, pillage, and outrage are familiar to them, they possess neither

honour nor gratitude, and have no respect for their pledged word. Play

is with them a passion, a frenzy. They gamble away their property, their

wives and children, everything, in fact, except their own persons. They

are victims of opium and the betel plant. Nevertheless some laws have

existence among them, for murder and robbery are punishable by fines and

corporal punishments.

The Malays of the Malacca peninsula are not, like the inhabitants of the

Archipelago, violent, passionate, and lazy. They are an energetic,

provident, trading, industrious race, but quite as rapacious and as

tricky as the others. Like the inhabitants of Malaysia, too, they are

prone to vengeance, and when under the influence of opium this sentiment

becomes inflamed, and turns into a kind of fury, directed not only

against the person of the offender but also against harmless passers-by.

The Malay who is a prey to this double paroxysm of opium and frenzy,

snatches up a sharp weapon, dashes forth furiously, shouting “Kill!

Kill!” and strikes everyone who crosses his path.

[Illustration: 169.--MALAY “RUNNING A MUCK.”]

The police of the country employ a small body of very strong and active

men whose special duty it is to seize these raging maniacs. They hunt

the miserable wretch through the streets, and having caught him by the

neck in a kind of fork, throw him on the ground and pin him there until

a sufficient reinforcement arrives to enable them to tie him hand and

foot, when he is brought before a court of justice and nearly always

sentenced to death (fig. 169).

* * * * *

_Javanese._--These people, who inhabit the island of Java, are rather

light in complexion, and bear a close resemblance to the Indo-Chinese.

For the following information about the population of this wonderful and

splendid country, we are indebted to M. de Molins, who made a stay of

two years there, and whose notes have been arranged and published by M.

F. Coppée, in the “Tour du Monde.”

The stranger traversing Batavia, the chief town of Java, cannot be an

uninterested observer of the motley crowd perpetually renewing itself

before his eyes. Among the numberless half-clothed men he sees none but

brawny shoulders and wiry, muscular frames. He is struck by the dull,

dark brown complexion of the Indian, whose hue appears to vary with the

district where he happens to be located; for his skin which seems

brick-red on the sea coast assumes a violet and pinkish tinge near

masses of vegetation, and becomes almost black in a dusty region. The

perfectly naked children gambolling in the full rays of the sun look

like fine antique bronzes, so graceful are their attitudes and so

faultless their mould. The Malay in his turban, tight-fitting green

vest, and grey petticoat striped with whimsical patterns, has quite a

handsome head. His face is oval with eyes of almond shape and a thin,

straight nose; the mouth is shaded by a slight, glossy black moustache

and his high broad forehead is admirably formed. All do not perhaps

possess so many advantages, but they are without exception finely made,

with beautiful black, smooth, and silky hair.

The Javanese wear hats of bamboo, the plaiting of which is perfect.

These are of all patterns, large and small, round, pointed, or made in

the shape of shields, extinguishers, or basins. Their costume varies;

some of the men wear Arab vests and wide trousers; some would be naked

but for a sort of drawers; while a few swathe their loins in a piece of

Indian calico which displays the form; and others are clad in a very

narrow petticoat that produces a most picturesque effect. The natives

make all their garments out of a broad piece of stuff manufactured in

the country, the devices and colours of which manifest extraordinary

variety and astonishing taste.

The women’s head-dress consists of a handkerchief which is tied and

arranged in a more or less artistic manner.

[Illustration:

_P. Sellier, p.^{t}_

_Imp. Dupuy, 22, R. des Petits Hôtels_

_G. Regamey, lith._

POLYNESIAN

MALAY

BROWN RACE]

At Sourabaya the traveller mingled in the throng, composed of a

sprinkling of Chinese, Malays, and natives of Madura, but throughout

which the Javanese element predominated. The typical costume of the

country may be said to consist of the long-folded _sahrong_, a very

close-fitting vest, and a kind of sunshade on the head, covered in blue

cloth interwoven with gold and silver thread, and lined with red. The

colours used here are not very gaudy, and the priests may at once be

recognized by their ample turbans and white muslin vests. A few

palanquins were moving about through the crowd; those of the Javanese

are formed of a hammock suspended from a bamboo cross-stick and

sheltered from the rays of the sun by a little roof of bamboo or

palm-leaf matting. Long boats laden with cargo and having gracefully

curved prows were passing up and down the river.

On fête days all the components of this motley multitude are drawn

together by the performances of the Javanese bayaderes, or dancing girls

(fig. 172).

[Illustration: 170.--MALAY.]

When visiting the cemetery M. de Molins saw the native Prince of

Soerabaya, who had come there to pray at the tomb of his forefathers.

His excessively simple costume was only distinguished from that of

ordinary Javanese by a loop of diamonds stuck in the very small turban

enveloping his head, and by a beautiful gold clasp fastening the belt of

his sahrong.

[Illustration: 171.--JAVANESE.]

In the Javanese _Kampong_ our traveller saw copper articles; such as

betel-roll boxes, bowls, and water vases; which were ornamented in

charming and fantastic taste with engraved arabesques representing the

flowers, fruits, and animals of the country; and he was struck with

surprise at the goldsmiths being able to form such marvellous trinkets

with tools of the most primitive description. He went to see one of the

large manufactories where are made the curious sahrongs worn by the

inhabitants, the shades of colour in which rival those of the most

valuable cashmeres in brilliancy, harmony, and richness. The process of

making these fabrics is a slow and difficult one. A fine sahrong is

worth more than £4 and does not exceed two and a half yards in length by

one yard in width.

[Illustration: 172.--JAVANESE DANCING GIRLS.]

In one of his excursions M. de Molins met a wedding procession. The

happy couple, who belonged to two equally rich families, were in a very

pretty palanquin surmounted by a canopy ornamented with palm leaves and

a trellis-work of bamboos and reeds. The garments of the newly married

pair were of red silk brocaded with gold embroidery, and their heads,

necks, arms and hands were covered with jewellery. Children ran

alongside and in front shouting and making the air resound with the

noise of gongs, tom-toms, and cymbals (fig. 173). Four men in yellow

breeches, with blue and white girdles, their hips adorned by long

pointed strips of blue and yellow silk, and their heads bound with a

tightly-fitting turban of the same colours, carried at the end of long

poles, bright, waving bouquets made of tiny rosettes of blue, yellow,

and white paper attached to thin canes. Relatives, friends, and all

those who expected to partake of the repast which was generously

provided, followed the palanquin.

Ceremonies of different kinds precede this solemn procession; and for

several days before it takes place the betrothed couple are obliged to

submit to a public exhibition and general hubbub, and are condemned to

remain nearly completely motionless and in almost total abstinence, lest

they should in any way damage their clothes.

This marriage festival is the grand occasion for displaying all the

resources of Javanese culinary art. The fruits are served at the

beginning of the banquet, and steamed rice only slightly cooked forms

the principal dish.

The feast would be a sorry one, if the bill of fare did not include

pickles, salt fish dried in the sun while alive, half-hatched eggs also

salted, a hash of meats perfumed with roses and jessamine, the seeds of

various plants, and slices of cocoa-nut rolled in pimento. The first

time a European tastes these dishes he feels a dreadful sensation of

burning, which passes from the mouth to the stomach and seems to be ever

increasing. But people soon appear to grow accustomed to these spicy

ragouts; and M. de Molins says that in a short time this kind of

cookery, which greatly tends to stimulate the appetite, becomes

indispensable.

[Illustration: 173.--JAVANESE WEDDING.]

During this gentleman’s stay at Soerabaya, the Dutch Governor-General of

Java was there on his tour of inspection of the island, which takes

place every five years. High festivities had been ordered for the

reception of this exalted personage, and M. de Molins gives us a sketch

of the princes who were present at a grand revel. The skin of many was

blue; their perfectly delicate and regular features bore the melancholy,

stamp peculiar to Orientals, and their movements were full of ease and

grace. Their sahrong, woven in silk of the most beautiful shades, was

fastened at the waist by a flowing girdle that fell over extremely tight

pantaloons, and sparkled with gold embroidery; their chest, shoulders,

and arms were left naked, and had been thickly coated with

saffron-coloured powder for the occasion. Their head-gear consisted of a

truncated cone, either blue, red, or black, braided with gold or silver

lace; and their ears were adorned with a kind of wing, in goldwork of

the most exquisite finish and lightness. The princes were accompanied by

the officers of their suite, among whom the Umbrella-Bearer was

conspicuous. The enormous sunshades carried by those functionaries bear

a double resemblance to a shield and a lance, and are at once

warlike-looking and foppish. They are gilt or silvered, green, blue, or

black, and produce the most uncommon effect.

* * * * *

_Battas._--The Battas, who inhabit the island of Sumatra, exhibit a very

singular mixture in their habits, as they unite with ideas of order and

civilization practices quite as ferocious as those of the most savage

people.

* * * * *

_Bougis and Macassars._--The Bougis and Mankasses (Mangkassars, which

Europeans have turned into Macassars) occupy the Celebes Islands, and

are renowned for their courage.

The former nation is looked on as the most ancient and enlightened race

in the Celebes group. Not only have they a secret and sacred language,

but a second idiom which is familiar to all classes, and in addition a

written tongue. They possess a system of writing, and even a literature.

These men are upright, faithful to their promise, and thoroughly loyal

in diplomatic and commercial dealings. Their mere word is of more value

than the most solemn oaths of the inhabitants of Java, Sumatra, and

Borneo.

* * * * *

_Tagales._--The Tagales and Bissayes who dwell in the Philippines, the

former in Luzon, and the latter in the centre group, speak dialects very

different from those of the Malays, properly so-called. The anonymous

author who has described the voyage of the Austrian frigate Novara, has

supplied us with some details as to the varied and amusing aspect of the

population of Manilla, the chief town of Luzon.

The _padres_, in long black soutanes, and spout-shaped felt hats, stroll

under the shade of the palm trees; Christian Brothers jostle

Confraternities of the Virgin and Fathers of the Conception and of the

Nativity. Make way for grey, yellow, and brown-frocked monks, and for

those who discipline themselves with hair shirts and whips!

Galley-slaves, chained two and two, are quietly moving hither and

thither with pails of water. Charming senoritas, mostly Spanish

half-bloods, with mantillas falling like a cascade of black lace along

their raven and glossy tresses, in which green leaves and scarlet

blossoms intertwine, compel us to admire their listless mien and their

well-arched eyebrows shading their almond-shaped eyes. After the

half-breeds, come the native Tagales, of pure or of mixed blood; Chinese

women; and little negresses selling fruit and bouquets, or lounging

about with cigarettes in their mouths.

The Tagales whom M. de Molins saw at Manilla, were small and weak. Their

faces were by no means disagreeable, their colour a little lighter than

that of other Malays, and their hair black without being woolly. The

combinations of this race with the Negroes and Chinese, appeared to him

most interesting.

Many travellers have described the natives of the Philippines. They are

well-made men, of elegant, easy figure, and medium stature. Their feet

and hands are small, exhibiting extreme delicacy at the point where they

join the limbs. They have oval faces, with small but regular noses,

well-coloured lips, and teeth that are long and white until they become

spoiled by chewing the betel-leaf. The men’s hair is silky and curled;

that of the women, soft, fine, and glossy.

The brown tint of the complexion is very changeable among these

islanders, varying from the dark shade which belongs to those living in

the open air, such as fishermen, hunters, and tillers of the soil, to

the fair skins of the upper and sedentary classes. That portion of the

people which has not been subjected to foreign influence is ingenious,

industrious, and active. The men are warlike, and make excellent

boat-builders. Their junks made of plaited bamboo, and manned by a

couple of hundred warriors and rowers, spread such powerful sails and

possess such speed, that they are the envy of the Spanish ship-builders.

* * * * *

_Dyaks._--There are some tribes living in the vicinity of the people of

whom we have just spoken and especially in the interior of the countries

of which the Malays occupy the coasts, who are generally distinguished

by the name of _Alfusus_. They have been often regarded as members of a

separate stock, and a connexion has even been traced between them and

the black race, but the greater part of these tribes ought to be

considered as forming part of the Malay family. Among them are the

_Dyaks_, a numerous people inhabiting the interior of Borneo, and the

_Turajas_ who dwell in the Celebes Islands.

The Dyaks (fig. 174) have well-made bodies, and the women’s faces are

mild and agreeable in expression, but the men’s far from attractive. The

constant warfare which they carry on with the Malays of the coast may be

the cause why their features become ultimately so changed under the

combined influences of fear, passion, and revenge.

The Dyaks who occupy the plains, and those living on the borders of

rivers or in the woods, may be separately classed. Both groups are of

similar stature, possess features alike, and the same lank, black hair,

with large curls, which is however never woolly or frizzled; but those

occupying the dense forests rising from the river banks have fairer

complexions. Mutual hatred has been sworn between the two races, and

they abandon themselves to incessant conflicts, and have ever to be on

their guard against terrible surprises in which many heads are cut off.

No Dyak would venture to present himself to a girl, without being able

to show her the head of an enemy who had been overcome and sacrificed by

him. A warrior’s renown depends on the number of heads he has acquired,

and skulls dried in the fire form the ornaments and trophies of his hut.

These cutters off of heads are very cleanly, and bathe twice a day

regularly. They have extremely severe laws, by which murder, outrage,

and robbery are punished in the same way. They profess great veneration

for old age as well as towards the dead. Their chronological system is

based upon the _yongas_, or ages, as among the Hindoos, and they believe

the present to be the age of misfortune. Their notion is, that some day

during an eclipse of the sun or moon, a dragon will devour the stars;

consequently whenever such phenomena occur, they make a terrific uproar

in order to scare the monster away, a proceeding which has been

invariably successful!

In her travels along the rivers Lappas and Kapouas (western side of

Borneo) Madame Ida Pfeiffer visited a tribe of independent Dyaks, who

are called “Head-Cutters” by the English and Dutch. She saw an immense

cabin about sixty yards long, in the verandah of which fabrics made of

cotton or of plaited bark of trees, splendid mats and baskets of every

shape and size, were displayed. Drums and gongs hung on the walls, and

large piles of bamboos, bags of rice, and dried pork, showed that the

Dyaks had exhibited all their wealth for the occasion.

Nor were their own persons by any means forgotten. They had loaded their

necks down to the breast with glass beads, bears’ teeth, and shells;

brass rings covered the lower part of their legs, reaching half-way to

the knee, their arms were adorned in the same way to the shoulders, and

similar decorations were in their ears. Some wore a sort of red stuff

cap, embellished with pearls, shells, and little flat bits of brass;

others had wound round their heads a fillet formed of a piece of bark,

the deeply fringed ends of which stuck out like feathers. A man decked

out in this fashion, covered with ornaments from head to foot, presents

a rather comical appearance.

The women had fewer adornments; they wore no earrings, nor bears’ teeth

collars; a few displayed some glass beads; but more were satisfied with

an incalculable number of brass or leaden rings.

Madame Pfeiffer, while among the Dyaks, witnessed a sword-dance, which

was executed in the most skilful and elegant manner.

This travelled lady also visited another tribe located higher up the

river, where she observed the same things, and in addition saw two human

heads lately cut off. When showing them to Madame Pfeiffer, the Dyaks

spat in their faces, and the children cuffed them, and spat on the

ground.

[Illustration: 174.--DYAKS.]

The shocking custom of decapitation owes its origin to superstition. If

a rajah falls ill, or sets out on a journey among another tribe, he and

his subjects undertake to sacrifice a human head in case of his recovery

or safe return; and should he die, they chop off a skull or two. The

heads which they have sworn to immolate must be obtained at any cost.

The Dyaks hide themselves in the long jungle grass, behind felled

branches of trees, or under the dry leaves, and lie in wait for entire

days. If anybody, man, woman, or child, comes in sight, they shoot a

poisoned arrow at him, and rush like tigers on their prey. At one blow

the head is severed from the body, and placed in a little basket

reserved for this purpose, and ornamented with human hair.

These assassinations frequently give rise to bloody wars; for the tribe,

a member of which has been thus sacrificed to the law of chance, takes

up arms, and never lays them down until the most terrible reprisals have

been exacted. Severed heads are borne back in triumph and solemnly hung

up in the place of honour, the retaliation being celebrated by

festivities which last for a month.

On one occasion, when Madame Pfeiffer had been received with profuse

respect by a tribe, she found a freshly cut off head suspended over her

bed, along with others already dried. She could not close her eyes. She

felt in a perfect fever at being thus encompassed by frenzied men, at

being smothered by the odour of these human remains, and at being lulled

to rest by the sinister sound of skulls jangled together by the wind.

Yet in spite of chopped-off heads and festoons of human skulls, this

lady considers the Dyaks to be honest, prudent, and endowed with some

good qualities. She places them higher in the scale than the other

tribes with which she had an opportunity of coming in contact. Their

domestic life, which is truly patriarchal in its nature, is alluded to

by her with pleasure, as are also their morality, the love they bear

their offspring, and the respect evinced by the children towards their

parents.

The independent Dyaks are richer than those living subservient to the

Malay yoke. They cultivate rice, maize, tobacco, and sometimes the sugar

cane; find in the woods Dammana resin which answers lighting purposes,

and gather large harvests of sago, yams, and cocoa-nuts. Some of these

productions are exchanged by them for pearl beads, brass, salt, and

cloth. Their houses, or huts, are clean and well-kept (fig. 175).

A Dyak can take to himself as many wives as he pleases, but he usually

contents himself with one, whom he treats well and does not burden with

work. Their habits are purer and better than those of the Malays. They

have no system of writing. Madame Pfeiffer did not see among them either

temples or idols, priests or religious sacrifices.

[Illustration: 175.--A DYAK HUT.]

POLYNESIAN FAMILY.

The tribes included by Dumont d’Urville under the name of Polynesians

inhabit the entire eastern part of Oceania, namely, the Sandwich

Islands, the Marquesas, the Friendly and Society groups, the Low

Archipelago, New Zealand, etc.

The people of all these bear the closest affinity to each other. Their

complexion is olive, verging on brown, but not copper-coloured; they are

tall in stature, and have sinewy limbs, high foreheads, black, lively,

and expressive eyes, and but slightly flattened noses. Their lips are

generally larger than those of the whites, but they nevertheless have

handsome mouths and splendid teeth. Their hair is black and frizzled.

Throughout the whole vast expanse occupied by them they speak the same

language.

Most of the tribes belonging to the Polynesian family are thorough

savages, but their stock is diminishing day by day, and the final result

of neighbouring civilization will be to replace the native element by

European races. Meanwhile, the most cruel customs prevail among them,

and even cannibalism is practised by some.

“Taboo” holds universally an important place among the populations of

Oceania.

This word expresses a state of interdiction, during which the object

struck with it is placed under the immediate control of the divinity. No

man can infringe upon its power without becoming exposed to the most

disastrous consequences, that is, unless he has impaired its action by

certain formalities.

Thus, the piece of ground consecrated to a god, or which has become the

burial place of a chief, is “tabooed,” and they place under the same

spell a canoe which they desire to render safer for long voyages. To

fight in a spot subjected to “taboo” is forbidden, and in order to

prevent certain productions from becoming scarce, they are placed under

similar protection. Anyone guilty of robbery or other crime, commits a

fault against “taboo,” and the man who touches the dead body of a chief

or anything he was in the habit of wearing, falls under a like ban,

which time alone can remove, etc.

We shall allude chiefly to the aborigines of New Zealand, giving also

some details about the natives of the Sandwich Islands, as well as about

the Tongas, or Friendly Islanders.

* * * * *

_New Zealanders._--The inhabitants of New Zealand, sometimes designated

by the name of Maoris, are tall, robust, and of athletic frames. Their

stature is generally from five feet seven inches to five feet eight

inches, seldom lower, and their skin scarcely differs in colour from

that of the people of the South of Europe. The expression of their

countenance almost always indicates a gloomy ferocity. The face is oval,

the forehead narrow, the eye large, black, and full of fire. The nose is

sometimes aquiline, but oftener broad and flat, the mouth wide, the lips

big, and beneath them rows of small, beautifully enamelled teeth.

The New Zealanders wear their hair long and falling in scattered locks

over the face; chiefs alone take the trouble to comb it back on the head

in a solitary tuft. It is rough and black, and seems occasionally

reddish, because some individuals sprinkle it with powdered ochre.

Women who are not slaves possess strong vigorous figures, and are rarely

under five feet and a few inches in height. The young girls have a broad

face, masculine features, coarse lips frequently stained black by

tattooing, a large mouth, flat nose, and uncombed hair hanging about

them in disorder. Their bodies are disgustingly filthy, and impregnated

with an odour of fish or of seal oil, which is revolting in the extreme.

They possess a few advantages as a set-off against the repulsiveness of

this picture. The teeth of a New Zealand female are of excessive

whiteness, and her black eyes beam with intelligence and fire, but

household work and the birth of a family soon cause these attractions to

disappear. The women have, moreover, the most deeply-rooted dirty

habits. A thick layer of mud covers their bodies, which are nearly

always smeared with seal or porpoise oil. Both sexes are capital

swimmers.

There is little difference between the costume worn by males and

females. The natives know how to weave very elegant textures from the

fibres of the _Phormium tenax_ (or New Zealand flax), and a broad mat

of this material floats carelessly over their shoulders and body, while

another is wrapped round the waist, descending to the knee. In winter

they throw over the former garment a thick, heavy cloak generally made

from the peelings of a kind of osier, but which, in the case of chiefs,

consists of dogskins sewn together. These fabrics are also varied in

design, some being smooth and without any pattern, while others are

covered with very delicate ornamentation. The slave girls stick

unthreshed slips of the _Phormium tenax_ in their skirts, thus giving

immoderate fulness to their bodies.

A warrior’s rank and bravery are denoted by a great number of little

pins made of bones or green talc, which are worn across the breast at

the edge of the matting. The original use of these articles was to

scratch the head and kill the insects on it.

Like all the other races, the New Zealanders have a fancy for personal

ornaments. They like to stick plumes in their hair, and a tuft of soft

white feathers is thrust into the ears. Their unkempt locks are seldom

covered by any kind of head-dress; but Lesson, the naturalist, from whom

we derive these details, saw a few young girls in whom a coquettish

taste was more developed, and who wore graceful wreaths of green moss.

The women adorn themselves with shell necklaces, from which little dried

hippocamps are sometimes suspended. They are very fond of blue glass

beads of European make. The most precious ornament of this people,

however, consists of a green talc fetish, which hangs on the breast

attached to some portion of a human bone. There are religious ideas

connected with this amulet, and it is worn by men only.

One of the Zealanders’ superstitions is to fasten a shark’s sharp tooth

to one of their ears, with the point of which the women lacerate their

bosoms and faces when they happen to lose a chief or one of their

relations. The greatest value attaches to these objects when they have

been handed down from ancestors, and have become “tabooed,” or sacred;

the happiness of a native’s whole existence seems bound up in their

possession; yet they are rated as completely worthless when derived from

a slain enemy.

Tattooing plays an important part among the New Zealanders, and they

submit annually to the painful operation which it requires. This marking

usually covers the face all over, and, as it is renewed very often,

produces deep furrows stamped in regular rings, that impart the oddest

expression to the countenance. Circles, one within the other, are also

punctured on the lower part of the loins, and the women have a broad

zone of lozenge-shaped figures engraved round their waist. Deep black

lines are cut in the lips, and a design like a spear-head is traced at

the angles of the mouth and in the middle of the chin. The young men

draw large flies on their noses, staining them black, and the girls

sketch similar insects in blue. None but slaves and persons of the

lowest class are without tattooing of some sort, and it is considered a

downright disgrace to have the skin in its natural state.

[Illustration: 176.--NEW ZEALAND CHIEF.]

In a region subject to the terrible storms of the Southern Hemisphere,

the dwellings ought to be, and are in fact, small and low. Villages are

never found in a plain, because there they might be surprised and

pillaged, but are situated in steep localities difficult of access; the

huts cannot be entered except on all fours; families sheltered by them,

sleep huddled together on the straw in a narrow space; and there is no

furniture inside, beyond a few carved boxes, and some red wooden vessels

thickly covered with designs.

The industry for which these islanders are chiefly noted, is the

manufacture of matting; we have already alluded to the beautiful

materials made from the fibres of the _Phormium tenax_ by the women and

girls.

The soil of New Zealand does not, like that of Equatorial Asia, furnish

a large supply of edible substances. The basis of the inhabitants’ food

consists of the root of a fern tree, resembling our _Pteris_, which

covers all the plains. The natives catch a large quantity of fish in the

bays along the coast, and dry or smoke the greater portion of it, in

order to guard against famine in time of war, and to be provided with

sustenance whenever the fury of the elements makes it impossible for

them to launch their boats. Europeans have introduced several vegetables

among them, which grow readily in the easily tilled and fertile land.

Their cookery is as simple as their food; they drink nothing but pure

water, and hate strong liquors. Their victuals are laid on the ground,

and each one eats with his fingers; the warriors, however, sometimes use

instruments, made of human bones, and Lesson bought from one of them a

four-pronged fork, fashioned from the large bone of a man’s right arm,

minutely carved, and adorned with many raised ornaments in

mother-of-pearl.

New Zealand canoes are remarkable for the carving which embellishes

them. Most of these boats are hollowed from the trunk of a single tree,

and are generally about forty feet long. Lesson measured a specimen,

made in this way from one piece, the depth of which was three, the

breadth four, and the length sixty feet. They are painted red, and have

their sides festooned with birds’ feathers. The stern rises to a height

of about four feet, and is covered with allegorical carvings; the prow

exhibits a hideous head, with mother-of-pearl eyes and a tongue

protruding to an inordinate extent, in order to show contempt for an

enemy. These canoes are capable of holding about forty warriors. The

oars are sharp pointed, and can be used, in case of need, as weapons

against an unforeseen attack. The sails consist of reed mats, coarsely

woven, and triangular in shape.

Although they are eminently warlike, the New Zealanders possess no great

variety of destructive implements. Arrows are unused by them: a

_paton-paton_, or tomahawk, of green talc, which is fastened to the

wrist by a strap of hide, is the weapon above all others with which they

smash or scalp the skull of their enemy. They rush headlong one against

the other, and conquer by dint of sheer weight and force. The badge

which betokens a priest’s functions is a heavy whalebone stick, covered

with carvings. Their _tokis_ are hatchets, also made of talc, with

carefully worked handles decorated with tufts of white dog’s hair. A

great many of their clubs are of extremely hard polished red wood.

In latter days the numerous tribes inhabiting the islands resorted to by

English and American whalers, receive firearms in exchange for the fresh

provisions with which they supply the European vessels.

The chant of the New Zealanders is solemn and monotonous, made up of

hoarse, drawling, and broken notes. It is always accompanied by

movements of the eyes and well-practised gestures that are very

significant. Most of those chants turn upon licentious subjects. Their

dance is a pantomime in which the performers seldom move from one place,

and consists of postures and motions of the limbs, executed with the

greatest precision. Each dance has an allegorical meaning, and is

applicable to declarations of war, human sacrifices, funerals, &c.

The only musical instrument that Lesson saw in the hands of the New

Zealanders was a tastefully worked wooden flute. The language of these

tribes is harsh: some poems of high antiquity have been transmitted to

them by oral tradition. They possess a religion, a form of worship,

priests, and ceremonials. Marriages are made by purchase; a chief who

had some dealings with the crew of the ship to which Lesson belonged,

had bought his wife for two firelocks and a male slave.

The friendship which the aborigines of the same tribe entertain for each

other is very warm, and Lesson has depicted for us the strange manner in

which they evince it. When one of them came on board, and met there an

intimate whom he had not seen for some time, he went up to him in solemn

silence, applied the end of his own nose against that of his friend’s,

and remained in that attitude for half an hour, muttering some confused

sentences in a doleful tone. They then separated, and remained for the

rest of the time like two men utter strangers to each other. A similar

formality was observed by the women among themselves.

No race cherishes the desire of avenging an insult longer than that of

which we are sketching an account; consequently, eternal hatreds and

frequent wars desolate their islands.

The loss of a chief is deeply felt by the whole tribe. The funeral

obsequies last for several days: should the deceased be of high rank,

captives are sacrificed who will have to attend him in the other world,

and the women, girls, and female slaves tear their bosoms and faces with

sharp sharks’ teeth. Each tribe forms a sort of republic. The districts

are ruled by a chief who has a special kind of tattooing, and who is the

most generally esteemed for bravery, intrepidity, and prudence.

Lesson declares that the New Zealanders are openly and cynically

cannibals; that they relish with extreme satisfaction the palpitating

flesh of enemies who have fallen at their hands, and regard as a

festival the day on which they can gorge themselves with human flesh. A

chief expressed to Lesson the pleasure which he experienced in eating

it, and indicated the brain as being the most delicate morsel, and the

buttock as the most substantial.

After a victory the bodies of the chiefs who have been killed in the

fight are prepared for serving up at this horrible banquet. The head

belongs to the victor, the fleshy parts are eaten by the men of the

tribe, and the bones are distributed among them to be made tools of.

Common warriors are scalped, chopped into pieces, roasted, and devoured.

Their heads, if they had any reputation, are sold to the Europeans in

exchange for a little powder.

A chief’s head is preserved. If the victorious clan wishes to make peace

it sends this trophy to the defeated tribe. In case the latter raises

loud shouts, a reconciliation will take place, but should it preserve a

gloomy silence, it is a sign that preparations are being made to avenge

the chief’s death, and hostilities are recommenced. When a tribe has

regained the head of its chief it preserves it religiously and venerates

it; or else, knowing that it will bring a respectable sum, sells it to

the Europeans.

* * * * *

M. Hochstetter during a recent voyage visited these same islanders. A

chief of Ohinemuta, named “Pini-te-Kore-Kore” came to see the

travellers. He was attired in European fashion, wore a cloak and straw

hat, and carried a white banner which bore in blue letters the

inscription, “Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.” He was a Christianized

chief, and modified as to exterior appearance. He had been brought up at

the missionary school, was about thirty years of age, and tattooed only

on the lower part of the face. He had acquired much from his French

masters both in manner and demeanour, and being extremely communicative

gave M. Hochstetter some curious particulars about the horrible wars to

which his forefathers had devoted themselves.

For the last thirty years the conflicts have not been carried on as they

were formerly, that is to say, they consist no longer in a series of

duels, as it were, but of musketry firing kept up by bodies of troops,

from a distance, in the European style.

The traveller had occasion to pay a visit to the Maori king

“Potateau-te-Whero-Whero,” before the door of whose dwelling was posted

a solitary sentinel clad in a blue uniform cloak with red facings and

brass buttons, forming the whole guard of the palace. About twenty

persons were assembled in a hut, where his Majesty, who was blind and

bent double, sate upon a straw mat. His face, though overloaded with

tattooings, was fine and regular, and a deep scar on his forehead

bespoke him as a warrior who had taken part in severe battles. He was

wrapped in a blanket of a dark brown colour. Like Homer’s Nausicaa, the

daughters of this supreme chief of a proud and warlike race were engaged

in washing. His son, seated near him, was a young man with black and

sparkling eyes.

The Maori tribes had risen in rebellion a few years previously, with a

desire of founding a national government as soon as they had recovered

their independence. But the natives were overcome after much bloodshed,

and fell again under the yoke of their former ruler.

* * * * *

_Tongas._--The inhabitants of the Tonga or Friendly Islands resemble

Europeans, but their physiognomy presents such varied expressions that

it would be difficult to reduce them to a characteristic type. At the

first glance flatness of the nose seems a distinguishing mark of their

race, but according as we examine a large number of individuals we find

the different shapes of that organ grow more numerous. It is the same

with the lips, which are sometimes fleshy and sometimes thin. The hair

is black; but brown and light chestnut are also to be met with. The

colour of the complexion is equally changeable. Women and girls of the

better classes who avoid the rays of the sun are but little coloured;

the others are more or less dark.

The population of these islands has been carefully described by Dumont

d’Urville in an account of the voyage which he made in command of the

_Astrolabe_, during the years 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829.

“The natives of the Tonga Islands,” he says, “are in general tall,

well-made, and of good proportions. Their countenances are agreeable and

present a variety of features that may be compared with those observable

in Europe. Many have aquiline noses and rather thin lips, while the hair

of nearly all is smooth. Finally, the colour of their skin is only

slightly dark, especially among the chiefs. Women may be seen whose tall

stature, stately step, and perfect forms are united to the most delicate

features and a nearly white or merely dusky complexion.”

Cook and Forster had previously affirmed that the women of the Tonga

Islands might serve as models for an artist.

In their first dealings with Europeans these aborigines displayed

themselves in the most favourable light. Tasman, Cook, Maurelle, and

Wilson bore witness to their gentleness, politeness, and hospitality;

Cook even gave the name of “Friendly” to their islands. The crew of the

_Astrolabe_ was at first led astray by these appearances; but the

natives gave many and repeated proofs that at the very moment when they

were overpowering the navigators with caresses and marks of friendship,

they were meditating how to attack and plunder them.

These men are also endowed with a force of character and energy by no

means common. Their bravery often approaches the most reckless temerity,

and they do not recoil an inch from the greatest danger. They possess,

nevertheless, a general tone of suavity and courtesy, and a natural ease

of manner, which no one would in the least expect to find among a people

verging so closely upon the savage state. Their intelligence is more

developed than that of the Tahitians. They treat their wives with

kindness, have great love for their children, and profess deep respect

for old age.

They make canoes which are remarkable for their proportions and the

elegance and finish of their handiwork; carve whales’ teeth for

necklaces, and incrust their various instruments with the same material;

know how to construct houses, as well as stone vaults for the burial of

their chiefs; and trace delicate chasings on their clubs with a

sharpened nail fastened in a handle. The culinary art has advanced to a

higher degree among them than among any other of the Polynesian

islanders. They prepare from thirty to forty different dishes,

consisting of pork, turtle, fowl, fish, bread-fruits, bananas,

cocoa-nuts, &c., mixed according to certain processes, and dressed in

different methods. The peasants till the land by means of stakes

flattened and sharpened at the extremity, and furnished a little way

from the end with a stirrup for supporting the foot.

The manufacture of cloth, mats, and reed baskets is the special

occupation of the women. In order to make the cloth in most common use,

they take a certain quantity of the inner bark of the paper-mulberry

tree properly prepared, beat it flat, stain it with different vegetable

colours, and print patterns of all kinds upon it. Mats of the finest

quality are woven from leaves of the Pandanus; others, stronger, are

made from the bark of a kind of banana-tree; those resembling horsehair

are worn by the common people in the canoes to protect them against wet.

Mattings of other descriptions, ornamented in different patterns, and

formed from the young leaves of the cocoa-tree, are used to preserve

the walls of their buildings against the inclemencies of the weather.

Women of a certain rank amuse themselves by making combs, the teeth of

which are formed from the ribs of cocoa-leaves. The manufacture of

thread appertains to females of the lower classes, and the material for

it is extracted from the bark of the banana-tree.

These islanders tattoo their bodies in various places, especially the

lower part of the stomach and the thighs, with designs which are really

elegant and present a vast variety of patterns, but they leave the skin

in its natural state. Their tattooing never exhibits deep incisions and

does not seem to be a sign of distinction or of warlike prowess. The

women only tattoo the palms of their hands.

Their houses are neatly and solidly built; the master and mistress sleep

in a division apart, while the other members of the family lie upon the

floor without having any fixed place. The beds and their covering are

composed of matting.

The clothing of the men, like that of the women, consists of a piece of

cloth six feet square, which envelopes the body in such a way as to make

a turn and a half round the loins, where it is confined by a belt.

Common people are satisfied with wearing an apron of foliage, or a bit

of narrow stuff like a girdle.

The natives of the Friendly Islands bathe every day. Their skin,

besides, is constantly saturated with perfumed cocoa-nut oil. When

preparing themselves for a religious feast, a general dance, or a visit

to the residence of a personage of high rank, they cover themselves with

oil in such profusion that it drips from their hair.

The ornaments of both sexes consist of necklaces composed of the red

fruit of the Pandanus, or fragrant flowers. Some of them hang from their

necks little shells, birds’ bones, sharks’ teeth, and pieces of carved

and polished whalebone or of mother-of-pearl, and high up on the arm

they wear bracelets of the last material or of shells. They have also

mother-of-pearl or tortoise-shell rings, and hanker greatly after glass

beads, especially those of a blue colour. The lobe of their ears is

pierced by large holes for the reception of small wooden cylinders about

three inches in length, or of little reeds filled with a yellow powder

used by the women as paint.

They have flutes and tom-toms for beating time. The most ordinary form

of the former instrument is a piece of bamboo closed at both ends and

pierced by six holes, into which they blow with the right nostril while

the left is stopped with the thumb.

Their chants are a kind of recitative which has for its subject some

more or less remarkable event; or else consist of words intended to

accompany different descriptions of dances or ceremonies.

The inhabitants of these islands recognize a host of divinities, who

possess among themselves various degrees of preeminence. Of these gods,

those of elevated rank can dispense good or evil in proportion to their

relative powers. According to the natives’ notion the origin of these

divine beings is beyond the intelligence of man, and their existence is

eternal.

“Taboo” reigns as despotically in these islands as it does in New

Zealand.

There is a barbarous ceremony in use here, by which a child is strangled

as an offering to the gods and to gain from them the cure of a sick

relation; the same rite also takes place when a chief inadvertently

commits a sacrilege which might draw down the anger of the divinities

upon the whole nation.

In other cases, they cut off a joint of the little finger in order to

obtain the recovery of a parent who is ill, and consequently crowds of

people may be seen who have lost in succession the two joints of the

fourth finger of each hand, and even the first joint of the next.

Charms and signs occupy a prominent place in the religion of this

people. Dreams are warnings from the divinity; thunder and lightning are

indications of war or of some great catastrophe.

Sneezing is an act of the worst possible omen. A chief was near clubbing

to death a traveller who had sneezed in his presence at the moment when

the native was going to fulfil his duties at his father’s tomb.

* * * * *

_Tahitians._--Tahiti and the whole group of the Society Islands

are almost exclusively inhabited by the same branch of the

Malaysio-Polynesian race. The people of these islands have become

celebrated in France by the charming and interesting accounts of their

manners and habits, which have been published by Bougainville. We have

taken the details which follow from Lesson, the naturalist, who made a

somewhat lengthened stay in this island.

The natives of Tahiti are all, with scarcely an exception, very fine

men. Their limbs are at once vigorous and graceful, the muscular

projections being everywhere enveloped by a thick cellular tissue, which

rounds away any too prominent development of their frames. Their

countenances are marked by great sweetness, and an appearance of good

nature; their heads would be of the European type but for the flatness

of the nostrils, and the too great size of the lips; their hair is black

and thick, and their skin of light copper-colour and very varying in

intensity of hue. It is smooth and soft to the touch, but emits a

strong, heavy smell, attributable, in a great measure, to incessant

rubbings with cocoa-nut oil. Their step wants confidence, and they

become easily fatigued. Dwelling on a soil where alimentary products,

once abundantly sown, harvest themselves without labour or effort, the

Tahitians have preserved soft effeminate manners, and a certain

childishness in their ideas.

The seductive attractions of Tahitian women have been very charmingly

painted by Bougainville, Wallis, and Cook, but Lesson assures us, on the

contrary, that they are extremely ugly, and that a person would hardly

find in the whole island thirty passable faces, according to our ideas

of beauty. He adds, that after early youth all the females become

disgusting, by reason of a general flabbiness, which is all the greater

because it usually succeeds considerable stoutness. There is room for

believing that the good looks of the race have deteriorated in

consequence of contagious diseases since the first European navigators

landed in this island, a very fortunate one in the magnificence of its

vegetation and the mildness of its temperature.

Tahitian girls before marriage have full legs, small hands, large

mouths, flattened nostrils, prominent cheek-bones and fleshy lips; their

teeth are of the finest enamel, and their well-shaped prominent eyes,

shaded by long, fringed lashes, and sheltered by broad black eyebrows,

beam with animation and fire. Too early marriage and suckling, however,

very soon destroy any charms which they may possess. Their skin is

usually of a light copper-colour, but some are remarkable for their

whiteness, particularly the wives of the chiefs.

Family ties are very strong among the Tahitians. They have great love

for their children, speak to them with gentleness, never strike them,

and taste nothing pleasing without offering them some of it.

The women manufacture cloth, weave mats or straw hats, and take care of

the house. The men build the huts, hollow canoes, plant trees, gather

fruits, and cook the victuals in underground ovens. Essentially

indolent, the Tahitians generally go to bed at twilight.

[Illustration: 177.--NATIVE OF TAHITI.]

All the members of the family live huddled together in the same room, on

mats spread upon the ground; chiefs, alone, reposing upon similar

textures stretched on frames. The siesta is also one of their habits,

and they invariably sleep for three hours after noon.

Flesh-meat, fruits, and roots constitute their usual sustenance; but

the basis of their food is the fruit of the bread-tree. They venerate

the cocoa-tree.

Their ordinary drink is pure water. They have an unrestrained fancy for

European garments, and seek by every imaginable means to get themselves

coats, hats, silk cravats, and especially shirts. But as they do not

possess sufficient of our manufactures to dress themselves completely in

our style, they frequently exhibit a sort of motley attire. The women

when within-doors are almost naked; some pieces of cloth, skilfully

arranged and half-covering their bosoms, form a kind of tunic, while

their feet are bare. They have a great liking for chaplets of flowers,

and bright blossoms of the _Hibiscus Rosa sinensis_, or China rose,

adorn their foreheads. They pass through the lobe of their ears the long

tube of the white and perfumed corolla of the _gardenia_, and protect

their faces from the fiery rays of the sun with small leaves of the

cocoa-tree.

The chief employment of the Tahitians is the manufacture of cloth. By

very simple means they form fabrics from various barks, with which they

clothe themselves in a manner as ingenious as it is comfortable. The

paper-mulberry tree, the bread-tree, the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_, &c., are

the plants of which they generally use the inner bark. They dye these

stuffs with the red juice extracted from the fruit of a species of

fig-tree, or in canary-yellow.

Their garments are not the only things which these people embellish in

brilliant colours and with different patterns. They have a passionate

love for tattooing, but, nevertheless, do not bear a single device on

their faces. The parts on which they trace indelible marks are the legs,

arms, thighs and breast. Everything leads to the conclusion that

tattooing, which is forbidden by the missionaries under the severest

penalties, was, and is doubtless still, the symbol of each individual’s

functions and the emblazonment of the armorial bearings of families, for

its designs are always varied.

The Tahitians of former days constructed canoes ornamented with very

carefully executed emblematic carvings, but since iron tools have taken

the place of their imperfect implements, they do not give signs of the

same pains in adorning their workmanship. Their ancient weapons are also

greatly neglected since they have acquired firearms. Heretofore, they

had long spears with pointed ends, slings formed from the husk of the

cocoa-nut, basalt axes of perfect shape, and files made out of the

rasp-like skin of a skate.

They have a passionate love for dancing. The instrument they use for

beating the measure is a drum, the cylinder of which consists of a trunk

of a tree scooped very thin. The dog-skins which constitute the

drum-head are stretched by ribbons of bark. They blow with the nose into

a little reed flute having three holes at its open end, and one only at

that which is furnished with a diaphragm, and produce deep, monotonous

tones from it.

The Tahitians are hospitable, and display great civility in guiding

travellers in the middle of the woods, and in their mountains.

Christianity has modified their habits a little. They attend the

Protestant churches because they are obliged to do so, but they have

little religion. Among themselves property is sacred; that of strangers

is, however, eagerly coveted.

We cannot dwell here upon the sanguinary human sacrifices which their

priests formerly commanded the natives of this island to offer up, nor

upon their coarse mythology. The English missionaries of the Reformed

Church have long since caused these fiendish customs to disappear.

* * * * *

_Pomotouans_--The Pomotouans, who inhabit the low, flat islands known to

geographers and mariners by the name of the Dangerous Archipelago, are

constituted in a physical point of view like the Tahitians, to whom they

bear a close resemblance, but they do not possess the benevolent

character nor the affectionate manners of the latter. Their look is

fierce, and the play of the features savage. They cover their bodies and

faces with tattooing, the figures of which consist of lozenges and

numerous circles, and their nakedness seems quite to disappear beneath

the mass of these designs. As the islands they inhabit are poor in

alimentary productions, they only think of repelling by force any

navigators who attempt to enter into communication with them. Deriving

as they do their daily sustenance from the sea, they are daring sailors

and skilful fishermen. They form, from a very hard wood, javelins that

are sometimes fifteen feet long, and ornament them with carvings

executed with much taste; their paddles are also engraved in very

graceful patterns, as well as their axes, which are cut with coral. The

women wear on their throats pieces of mother-of-pearl, which are shaped

round and notched at the edges, making brilliant and elegant necklaces.

Our spirituous liquors are frantically sought after by the natives.

* * * * *

_Marquesans._--The aborigines of the Marquesas are closely allied to

those of the Society Islands, having similar features and a colour which

presents like varieties. Cook affirmed that they excelled perhaps all

the other races in the nobleness and elegance of their forms, and the

regularity of their lineaments. The men are tattooed from head to foot

and appear very brown, but the women, who are only lightly marked, the

children, and the young people, who are not so at all, have skins as

white as many Europeans. The men are in general tall, and wear the beard

long and arranged in different ways. Their garments are identical with

those of the Tahitians, and made from stuffs of the same materials.

* * * * *

_Sandwichians._--The colour of this people is that of Siena clay,

slightly mixed with yellow. Their hair would be magnificent if they

allowed it to grow, for it is as black and shining as jet. Their manners

are pleasing. They usually shave the sides of the head, allowing a tuft

to grow on the top, which extends down to the nape of the neck in the

form of a mane. Some, however, preserve their hair entire, and let it

float in very gracefully twisted locks about their shoulders. Their eyes

are lively and full of expression; their nose slightly flat and often

aquiline; their mouth and lips moderately large. They have splendid

teeth, and it is consequently a great pity when they extract a few on

the death of a friend or benefactor. Their chests are broad, but their

arms show little muscle, while the thighs and legs are sinewy enough,

and their feet and hands excessively small. They all tattoo their bodies

or one of their limbs with designs representing birds, fans,

chequer-work, and circles of different diameters. The same superstition

that deprives them of their teeth at the death of a relation or of a

friend also imposes upon them the obligation of cauterizing every part

of their bodies with a red-hot iron.

The women are not so well-made as the men, and their stature is small

rather than tall, but their ample shoulders, and the smallness of their

hands and feet, are generally admired. They have a great love for

coronets of green leaves. Princesses and ladies of high rank have

reserved to themselves the exclusive right of wearing flowers of

_vacci_ passed through a reed. Hardly any of them use more than one

earring, but they have a passion for necklaces, and make them of flowers

and fruits.

These details are derived from Jacques Arago, who published under the

title, “_Voyage autour du Monde_,” an account of the long and remarkable

journey which he made in 1817, and the three following years, on board

the French corvettes, _L’Uranie_ and _La Physicienne_, commanded by

Freycinet.

In a letter dated from Owhyhee, as was also that from which the

preceding information has been taken, the same traveller gives us the

following sketch of the “palace” of the Sovereign of the Sandwich

Islands, as well as of its occupants.

It was a miserable thatch hut, from twelve to fifteen feet in breadth,

and about five-and-twenty or thirty feet long, with no means of entrance

but a low, narrow door. A few mats were spread within, on which some

half-naked colossi--generals and ministers--were lying. Two chairs were

visible, destined on ceremonial days for a huge, greasy, dirty, heavy,

haughty man--the king. The queen, but half-dressed, was a prey to the

itch and other disgusting maladies. This tasteful and imposing interior

was protected by walls of cocoa leaves and a sea-weed roof, feeble

obstacles to the wind and rain.

* * * * *

M. de la Salle in his account of the voyage of the _Bonite_ (1836 and

1837), states that the natives of the Sandwich Islands generally possess

good constitutions; that their slender and well-formed figures are

usually above middle height, but far from equalling that of the chiefs

and their wives, who seem from their tall stature and excessive

corpulence to have a different origin from the common people. These

exalted personages appear in fact to be descended from a race of

conquerors, who, having subjugated the country, established there the

feudal system by which it is still oppressed. The same author adds that

the Sandwichians have mild, patient dispositions, are dexterous and

intelligent, and capable of bearing fatigue with ease.

Such is the state of misery in which the lower classes live, that the

unfortunate wretches have scarcely what will keep them from dying of

starvation. This distress is not the result of idleness alone; the ever

increasing exactions of the chiefs harass and discourage the labourer.

The voyagers in the _Bonite_ when drawing near the Sandwich Islands,

could think of nothing but the pictures of them which Captain Cook has

left us; of those wild, energetic, kind, simple men; those warriors in

mantles of feathers; those women full of grace and voluptuousness; of

whom the English explorer has given the most alluring descriptions. They

were first pleased by the neat and elegant shapes of the canoes as well

as by the expertness of the swimmers. They beheld the islanders as naked

as in the days of Cook, without any other attire than the traditional

“maro;” but these men did not now come, by way of salute, to crush their

noses against those of their visitors; they were profuse of handshaking

all round, in the English fashion, and affected the airs of gentlemen.

Bananas, potatoes, and other fresh provisions had been brought on board

by them, but when, as in olden times, they were offered necklaces,

bracelets, and ear-rings, the savages no longer showed the genuine

admiration and fierce eagerness which were looked for from them. After a

disdainful glance thrown at the beads, they asked for clothes and iron.

These men had ceased to be the artless islanders of the time of Captain

Cook!

[Illustration: 178.--NATIVE OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.]

One of the officers of the _Bonite_, M. Vaillant, was invited to come on

shore by a district chief, named Kapis-Lani, who happened to be a woman.

Her toilet did not in the least resemble that of the natives, consisting

of a white muslin robe confined at the waist by a long blue riband, a

silk kerchief rolled about her neck, and a head-dress of hair fastened

by two horn combs.

The former customs of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands have been

completely modified, from every point of view, by the English

missionaries, who, in order to gain their object have availed themselves

of the weapon heretofore so powerful in the hands of priests and of

kings,--“taboo.”

Formerly, when a ship arrived, a multitude of women used to come to take

it by assault, either in canoes or swimming, contending among

themselves, _per fas et nefas_, for the bounties of the strangers: the

missionaries declared the sea “tabooed” for the softer sex.

In order to restrain the laxity of morals, wives were proclaimed

“tabooed” for everyone except their husbands, and unmarried girls

“tabooed” for all. It was necessary to proscribe the passion for strong

drinks, and consequently brandy, wine, and other liquors were struck

with the same interdiction.

We should add that these reformers did not limit themselves to the moral

authority of “taboo,” but supported it by the stick and hard labour on

the roads.

By such means they have succeeded in altering the external and public

behaviour of the natives, but not in uprooting vice among them.

* * * * *

We shall borrow a few features from the picture which M. Vaillant has

sketched of his walk in a village of Hawaii.

Scarcely had he arrived when he heard himself called from the interior

of a large cabin in which were assembled about thirty persons, who

invited him to enter.

The dwelling was built of straw, and along its walls calabashes,

cocoa-nuts, and a few fishing utensils were to be seen hanging in

confusion.

A single apartment usually answered all purposes, but it was separated

into two parts. Some mats spread upon the ground at one side indicated

where the occupants slept; the ground opposite was bare, and in the

latter division the hearth was placed.

The officer seated himself on the matting in the same way as his hosts,

who surrounded him and overpowered him with questions. Men and women,

moreover, without giving a thought to decency or the civilization

introduced by the English missionaries, put themselves perfectly at

their ease, and were content with the very simple attire of their

forefathers; the “maro” formed the whole extravagance of their toilette.

The most apparent result of the efforts of the missionaries is that the

natives of the Sandwich Islands are for the most part able to read and

write. These perfectly naked savages possess a prayer-book, a treatise

on arithmetic, and a bible.

Any little presents which people liked to offer them were accepted by

the women with gratitude; after a few coquettish advances, in case a

person pressed them closely, they uttered slowly and distinctly, the

word, “taboo.”

When out-of-doors their costume consisted of a piece of cloth which they

draped around them not ungracefully; but they did not appear very pretty

to the eyes of the voyagers in the _Bonite_.

The governor of Hawaii, Kona-Keni, was a man of goodly presence and

pleasing face; his height was almost gigantic and his corpulence

enormous, so much so that he could scarcely support himself upon his

legs. His wife received M. Vaillant. She reclined on a heap of mats

forming a bed raised a foot above the ground, and was covered from head

to foot in a loose gown of blue brocaded silk. Her proportions also were

immense. Laid heavily on the piled-up mats her prodigious mass reminded

him of a seal basking in the sun. Around the bed of the lady paramount,

were ranged, squatted on mats, the numerous dames forming the court of

Kona, and who were clad in loose robes of cotton stuff with coloured

flowers. Their head-dresses consisted of hair only, in the American

style. Two of them were provided with fly-flappers, which they waved

incessantly round Kona’s head. The governor wore a straw hat, a vest and

shirt of printed calico, gray trowsers, and had his neck bare.

[Illustration:

_P. Sellier, p.^{t}_

_Imp. Dupuy, 22, R. des Petits Hôtels_

_G. Regamey, lith._

ABYSSINIAN

HINDOO

BROWN RACE]

MICRONESIAN FAMILY.

The Micronesian Family inhabits the small islands lying to the

north-west of Oceania, that is to say the archipelagos of the Marianne

(or Ladrone) Islands, as well as of the Caroline and Mulgrave groups,

&c. According to Dumont d’Urville these tribes differ from those

dwelling in the east by having a darker skin, thinner face, less widely

opened eyes, more slender forms, and altogether distinct dialects, which

vary from one group to another. Their manners are gentle. They do not

recognize “taboo.”

* * * * *

We shall avail ourselves of some interesting details which Lesson has

given of the Caroline islands, mentioning in the first place what he has

told us concerning the Gilbert group.

A solitary canoe containing three men ventured to approach his corvette,

and it was only after prolonged hesitation that these individuals made

up their minds to go on board. They had lank and miserable limbs; a dark

colour, and broad, coarse features; their hair was cut close by means of

a shell, and neither beard nor moustache was apparent. The only covering

they wore was a little round cap of plaited dry leaves of the cocoa

tree, and a roughly-made mat with a hole in the middle, for the

protection of the shoulders and breast. Their stomachs were bound round

with twists of a rope formed from the husk of cocoa-nuts.

Lesson and his companions were the first Europeans whom the natives of

the island of Oualan had seen. They made a ring round the voyagers,

touched them with their hands, and overwhelmed them with questions. This

race is generally of low stature. The men have high and narrow

foreheads, thick eyebrows, small oblique eyes, broad noses, large

mouths, white teeth, and bright red gums. Their black unfrizzled hair is

long, and their beard far from abundant. They possess rounded and

well-formed limbs, and a hard, light bronze-coloured skin. They are

spiritless and effeminate.

The women and young girls have agreeable countenances, their black eyes

being full of fire, and their mouths furnished with superb teeth; but

their figures are badly formed, and they have hips of immoderate size.

They go about in almost complete nudity. Both sexes have a habit of

making a large hole in the right ear, for the purpose of placing in it

everything that people give them, and sometimes articles very unfit for

earrings, such as bottles. Girls usually fill it with bouquets of

_pancratium_, a plant of the amaryllis family, and often detach a few of

these sweet-smelling flowers, and try to put them into a traveller’s

ears, while smiling graciously. The men also wear chaplets of brilliant

flowers or arum stalks.

These aborigines do not make use of any kind of garments as a protection

against the frequent rains of their climate, but they shield their heads

from the sun with a broad arum leaf.

The chiefs seem to try not to expose themselves so much to the

influences of the heat, and are whiter and better made than the other

islanders. The patterns of their tattooing are their sole mark of

distinction; they fasten feathers, however, in the knot which confines

their hair, and whenever persons give them nails they stick them around

their forehead, arranging them regularly like a diadem. The women

appeared chaste; nay more, the men were anxious to keep them out of the

strangers’ sight, a feeling all the more remarkable because quite at

variance with the usual habits of the South Sea Islanders.

Oualan was governed at that time by one chief only, whom the people

encompassed with extraordinary reverence, never pronouncing his name

without veneration.

The prerogatives of the chiefs appear to rest upon religious ideas. They

differ in general from the people by an erect carriage, a more imposing

and solemn manner, as well as by the better executed tattooing which

indicates their rank. A great many chiefs rule in the districts of the

island, and appear to hold absolute rights over property, and, it may

be, over persons.

As regards industry, the only manufactures for which the natives of

Oualan are remarkable are cloth and canoes. They draw threads from the

leaves or the stems of the wild banana tree (_Musa textilis_), which

they know how to dye in red, yellow, or black, and with which they make

stuffs that are not greatly inferior to European textures.

They build their boats with hatchets formed of stone or shell, and

notwithstanding the imperfection of these implements, give to their work

a finish of finical nicety. The body of the canoe is hollowed from a

single tree, sometimes a very big one. They polish the wood with

trachyte, or by means of large rasps made from the skin of the

sea-devil. These little vessels are propelled by oars, without either

sails or masts.

Lesson, in alluding to the people of the Mac-Askill Islands, who bear

the closest analogy to the inhabitants of Oualan both in physical

characteristics and the state of their industry, remarks on the taste

which some savages display for flowers as an adornment of the person.

There were young females in these islands who wore on their heads crowns

of _Ixora_, the corollas of which are a brilliant crimson; a few had

passed through the holes in their ears leaves of flowers exhaling the

fragrant odour of violets, and white blossoms were twined in the hair of

others. These ornaments, adds the learned traveller, possessed a charm

more easy to feel than to express.

THE RED RACE.

This race is sometimes designated as the American, because in the

fifteenth century it formed in itself alone almost the whole population

of the two Americas. But Europeans, and especially the English of the

United States, constitute, at present, the greatest part of the

inhabitants of America. They have to a certain extent monopolised the

name of “Americans,” so much so that people generally call the nations

of the Red Race _Indians_, a title which was given to them by the

Spaniards, in the time of Christopher Columbus, in consequence of that

strange mistake of the great Genoese navigator, who discovered the New

World without knowing it, that is to say, while imagining that he had

simply found a new passage by which to reach the “Great Indies,” in

Asia.

The denomination of _Red Race_ is, besides, a defective one, in so much

that several tribes ranked in this group have no shade of red in their

colour. This division is, in fine, rather imperfect from an ethnological

point of view, but it possesses the advantage of fixing geographically

the _habitat_ of the nations included in it.

* * * * *

The _American Indians_ approach closely to the Yellow Race belonging to

Asia, in their hair, which is generally black, rough, and coarse, in

the scarceness of their beard, and in their complexion, which varies

from yellow to a red copper colour. Among one portion of them the very

prominent nose and large open eyes recall to mind the White Race. Their

forehead is extremely retreating, but no other race have the back part

of the head more developed, or broader eye-sockets. Though usually

hospitable and generous, they are cruel and implacable in their

resentments, and make war for the most frivolous causes. Two of these

nations, the primitive Mexicans and Peruvians, had formerly founded wide

empires, and had attained a somewhat advanced civilization, though lower

than that of Europeans of the same epoch. But these monarchies having

been swept away by their Spanish conquerors, progress was checked. The

Indians who escaped the destruction of their race, and submitted to the

victors, are now no better than husbandmen or artisans, while as for

those that remained independent, they wander in the woods and the

prairies, and are the last representatives of man in the savage or

semi-savage state. They live in the forests and savannahs, on the

produce of their hunting and fishing; their wives are kept by them in a

state of the greatest abjectness, and are loaded with the heaviest

labour; while certain tribes still continue to offer human sacrifices to

their idols.

A fact which deserves notice is, that the Indians who were already

settled and who were husbandmen when the Spaniards arrived, speedily

submitted to the strangers, but never has it been found possible to tame

those who have shown themselves, from the fifteenth century to this day,

rebels to foreign influence, and who have preferred to become masters of

the forest solitudes rather than accept the yoke and customs of the

Europeans. Moreover, the number and population of the wild tribes of the

two Americas diminish every year, especially in the north, a result

attributable to their continual wars, the ravages of the small-pox, and,

above all, to the fatal passion of these savage nations for brandy.

Anthropologists have taken great trouble to discover the real origin of

the Indians of America, and to establish their affinity with the other

human families, but up to the present their studies have led to no

satisfactory result. The Indians cannot be accurately brought into

connection with either the White, Yellow, or Brown Race; nor on the

other hand can the mingling of these three groups be explained, nor the

American Indian be recognized as a determinate original type.

The great differences, both in the shape of the skull and the colour of

the skin, which are known to exist among the Indian tribes, proclaim

numerous crossings. Many circumstances prove that in very remote times

some Europeans made their way into America by the north, and that they

found there one or many native races, whom they partially overcame, and

with whom they are mingled to the present day. The degree of

civilization that had been reached by the Mexicans and Peruvians of old,

when Columbus landed in the New World; the American tradition which

holds that the founders of their empires were foreigners; the existence

on the Northern continent of ruins announcing a state of things at least

as far advanced as that of the _Nahuath_ and the _Quichuas_, (the former

Mexicans and Peruvians); such are the facts which establish that a

blending formerly took place between the primitive Indians and Northern

Europeans.

The shape of the body peculiar to the Indians of the north-east, has

equally led to the supposition that they reckon some Europeans among

their ancestors, an idea which appears all the more admissible, because

in the tenth century the ancient Scandinavians undoubtedly had relations

with America.

Consequently, the original race which has peopled the Western Hemisphere

is almost impossible to be traced. Probably the population which existed

in the New World before the arrival of the Europeans was made up of

several types different from those that are extant at present in the

other regions of the globe, types having a great tendency to modify

themselves, and which were obliterated whenever they came in contact

with the races of Europe. But to re-ascend back to this primordial

population would now be impossible.

* * * * *

In commenting on the tribes of the Red Race, we shall separate the

Indians who inhabit North America from those dwelling in the southern

continent, for certain characteristics mark these two groups; in other

words, we shall distinguish in the Red Race two divisions--the southern

branch and the northern branch.

CHAPTER I.

SOUTHERN BRANCH.

The nations of the southern branch of the Red Race have affinity to

those of the Yellow Race. Their complexion, which is often yellowish or

olive, is never so red as that of the northern Indians; their head is

usually of less length and their nose not so prominent, while they

frequently have oblique eyes.

We intend to divide this branch into three families, named respectively

the _Andian_, _Pampean_, and _Guarani_.

ANDIAN FAMILY.

This family contains three different peoples:--firstly, the _Quichuas_;

secondly, the _Antis Indians_; and thirdly, the _Araucanians_.

The characteristics which the tribes belonging to this group possess in

common are an olive-brown complexion, small stature, low retiring

forehead, and horizontal eyes, which are not drawn down at the outer

angle. They inhabit the western parts of Bolivia, Peru, and the State of

Quito. These countries were completely subjugated by the Spaniards in

the sixteenth century, and the natives converted to Christianity.

We shall notice in the first division, _Quichuas_ or ancient _Incas_,

the _Aymaras_, the _Atacamas_, and the _Changos_.

* * * * *

_Quichuas_ or _Incas_.--The Quichuas were the principal people of the

ancient empire of the Incas, and they still constitute almost half the

free Indian population of South America. In the fifteenth century the

Incas were the dominant race among the nations of Peru, speaking a

language of their own, called Quichu.

The former Incas, those who lived before the Spanish invasion, were

possessed of a certain degree of civilization. They had calculated

exactly the length of the solar year, had made rather considerable

progress in the art of sculpture, preserved memorials of their history

by means of hieroglyphics, and enjoyed a well-organized government and a

code of good laws. Orators, poets, and musicians were to be found among

them, and their figurative melodious language denoted prolonged culture.

Their religion was impressed to the highest degree with a devotional

character. They recognized a God, the supreme arbiter and creator of all

things. This divinity was the sun, and superb temples were raised by

them to its honour. Their religion and their manners breathed great

sweetness. The fierce Spanish conquerors encountered this mild,

inoffensive race, and never rested until they had annihilated with fire

and sword these unsophisticated, peaceable men, who were of more worth

than their cruel invaders.

[Illustration: 179.--HUASCAR, THIRTEENTH EMPEROR OF THE INCAS.]

Figs. 179 and 180 represent types of Incas drawn from the genealogical

tree of the imperial family, which was published in the “_Tour du

Monde_,” in 1863.

According to Alcide d’Orbigny, the naturalist, who has given a perfect

description of this race, the Quichuas are not copper-coloured, but of a

mixed shade, between brown and olive; their average height is not more

than five feet two inches, that of the females being still lower. They

have broad, square shoulders, and an excessively full chest, very

prominent, and very long. Their hands and feet are small. The cranium

and features of this people are strongly characteristic, constituting a

perfectly distinct type, which bears no resemblance to any but the

Mexican. The head is oblong from front to back, and a little compressed

at the sides; the forehead slightly rounded, low, and somewhat

retreating; yet the skull is often capacious, and denotes a rather large

development of the brain. The face is generally broad; the nose always

prominent, somewhat long, and so extremely aquiline, as to seem as if

the end were bent over the upper lip, and pierced by wide very open

nostrils. The size of the mouth is large rather than moderate, and the

lips protrude, although they are not thick. The teeth are invariably

handsome, and remain good during old age. Without being receding, the

chin is a little short; indeed it is sometimes slightly projecting. The

eyes are of moderate size and frequently even small, always horizontal,

and never either drawn down or up at their outer angle. The eyebrows are

greatly arched, narrow, and thin. The colour of the hair is always a

fine black, and it is coarse, thick, long, and extremely smooth and

straight, and comes down very low at each side of the forehead. The

beard is limited to a few straight and scattered hairs, which appear

very late across the upper lip, at the sides of the mouth, and on the

point of the chin. The countenance of these men is regular, serious,

thoughtful, and even sad, and it might be said that they wish to

conceal their thoughts beneath the still, set look of their features. A

pretty face is seldom seen among the women.

[Illustration: 180.--COYA CAHUANA, EMPRESS OF THE INCAS.]

An ancient vase has been found on which is a painting of an Inca, who is

in every way so entirely like those of the present day as to prove that

during four or five centuries the lineaments of these people have not

undergone any perceptible alteration.

* * * * *

The _Aymaras_ bear a close resemblance, so far as physical

characteristics are concerned, to the Quichuas, from whom, however, they

are completely separated by language.

They formed a numerous nation, spread over a wide expanse of country,

and appear to have been civilized in very remote times. We may consider

the Aymaras as the descendants of that ancient race which, in far-off

ages, inhabited the lofty plains now covered by the singular monuments

of Tiagnanaco, the oldest city of South America, and which peopled the

borders of Lake Titicaca.

The Aymaras resemble the Quichuas in the most remarkable feature of

their organization, namely the length and breadth of the chest, which,

by allowing the lungs to attain a great development, renders these

tribes particularly suited for living on high mountains. In the shape of

the head and the intellectual faculties, as well as in manners, customs,

and industry, both peoples may be compared, but the architecture of the

monuments and tombs of the former race diverges widely from that of the

Incas.

* * * * *

Two nations inferior in numbers to those of which we have just spoken,

may be mentioned here; they are the _Atacamas_, occupying the western

declivities of the Peruvian Andes, and the _Changos_, dwelling on the

slopes next the Pacific. Both one and the other are like the Incas in

physical characteristics, but the colour of the skin of the Changos is

of a slightly darker hue, being a blackish bistre.

* * * * *

_Antis._--The Antis Indians comprise many tribes, namely, the Yuracares,

Mocéténès, Tacanas, Maropas, and Apolistas, races which inhabit the

Bolivian Andes. Their complexion is lighter than that of the Incas, they

have not such bulky bodies, and their features are more effeminate.