beauties of Georgia have long been accounted among the handsomest women
of the race, and many of the men are remarkably noble in feature.
Intellectually, however, they have never taken a high rank.
Of them all, the Georgian tribes have the oldest culture, the
traditions reaching as far back as 1200 B. C., and some trustworthy
data as far as 700 B. C. They were among the early converts to
Christianity, and about the beginning of this century voluntarily
accepted the sovereignty of Russia.[113]
The Georgian girls have long been celebrated for their beauty, and
merit their renown; but they age very rapidly. The Circassian women
are also celebrated, but are less perfect beauties. Both have black
eyes and dark hair, the complexion a brunette sometimes to brownness.
The Circassian girls were those who principally supplied the harems of
Constantinople. They went willingly, and their families saw nothing
shameful in such a transaction.
Their traits and geographical location have gained for the Caucasians
the credit of being the oldest as well as the purest type of the white
race, which indeed has been often called the “Caucasian” race. Recent
archæological researches, however, have shown that the Caucasus was not
inhabited until the close of the neolithic period.[114] An examination
of the geological condition of these mountains proves that they were
covered with glaciers until a late period, especially on the southern
slope, and no vestige of human occupation previous to the neolithic
period has been found in this alleged cradle of the human race, and
pretended place of origin of some of our domestic animals.[115]
LECTURE VI.
THE AUSTAFRICAN RACE.
CONTENTS.--Former geography of Africa. Area of characterization of
the race. Its early extension. Divisions.
I. THE NEGRILLOS. Classical tales of Pygmies. Physical characters.
Habits. Relationship to Bushmen. Description of Bushmen and
Hottentots.
II. THE NEGROES. Home of the true negroes. 1. The Nilotic Group. 2.
The Sudanese Group. 3. The Senegambian Group. 4. The Guinean group.
III. THE NEGROIDS. Physical traits. Early admixtures. 1. The Nubian
Group. 2. The Bantu group.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE RACE. Low intellectual position. Origin
of negroes in the United States; in Arabia.
We have seen that the African continent at the period of its first
occupancy was divided by the sea (now desert) of the Sahara into two
unequal portions, the northern being properly an appendix of Europe.
The southern portion began at the Mediterranean on the north, where the
tertiary plateau of Tripoli rises above the sea, included the valley
of the Nile above the Delta, and the remainder of the continent as it
now is, together with the island of Madagascar, with which it was then
connected by a land bridge. As the Sahara sea evaporated to become
a desert, its vast tracts and also the lower Nile valley and the
eastern coast nearly to the Equator were occupied by the Hamitic stock
of the white race. The remainder of the continent was in the possession
of the Austafrican or black race.
_Scheme of the Austafrican Race._
{1. Equatorial Group. {Akkas, Tikkitikkis, Obongos, Dokos, Vouatoans,
{ { _Kimos_ of Madagascar.
I. Negrillo Branch. {
{2. South African Group. Bushmen, Hottentots, Namaquas, Quaquas.
{1. Nilotic Group. Shillaks, Dinkas, Bongos, Kiks, Baris, Nuers.
{2. Sudanese Group. Haussas, Battas, Bornus, Kanoris, Ngurus, Akras.
II. Negro Branch. {3. Senegambian Group. Serrerus, Banyums, Wolofs, Foys.
{
{4. Guinean Group. {Ashantis, Dahomis, Fantis, Yorubas,
{ Mandingoes, Veis, Krus.
{1. Nubian Group. {Nubas, Barabras, Dongolowis, Pouls, Tumalis,
{ { Nyam Nyams, Monbuttus.
III. Negroid Branch. {
{2. Bantu Group. {Caffirs, Zulus, Bechuanas, Sakalavas, Damas,
{ Herreros, Suahelis, Ovambos, Bassutos,
{ Barolongs, Bengas, Duallas, Wagandas.
This race is divisible into three quite different types or branches,
resembling each other in possessing a very dark skin, black eyes,
woolly hair, a prognathic face, and generally a dolichocephalic
skull, but differing widely in many minor traits. These types are the
_Negrillos_, the _Negroes_, and the _Negroids_.
The general characteristics of the Austafrican race are the most
positively marked of any of the varieties of our species, and as it
is certainly the lowest in zoölogical analogies, by some writers it
has been considered the oldest of all. This reasoning is erroneous.
The black race developed quite locally, under the influence of intense
heat and humidity. Its original habitat must have been where alone its
purest representatives have always been permanently residing, that is,
on the lowlands of western central Africa, between the equator and
12° north latitude, and from lake Tchad to the Atlantic. The hot and
moist depression watered by the great river Niger, may be named as the
probable “area of characterization” of the distinctive physical type of
this race.
How far from this center was its maximum extension has been variously
estimated. There is no evidence that the blacks ever occupied the lower
Nile valley, the area of ancient Egypt. On the oldest monuments they
are represented as slaves, and the Egyptian type discloses no sign of
admixture with Negro blood. They occupied at one time the southern
oases of the Sahara, but their dominion never extended as far north
as Fezzan. The presence of Negro colonies and mixed breeds which is
visible in the northern oases, is owing to the importation of the
Soudanese as slaves, and also to the extensive migrations they are
still in the habit of making. I learned when visiting some of these
oases, that many black families are constantly moving from one to
another in pursuit of their various callings.
It is an historical fact that from the beginning of the Christian era
at least, and probably much longer, the whole of the southern Sahara
and the northern portion of the Niger valley have been under the
absolute control of the Berbers, members of the Eurafrican race. They
founded in those lands the extensive monarchies of Ghanata and Melle,
which maintained their supremacy through many centuries.
On the east it is not likely that the Negroes ever gained prolonged
control east of the White Nile. That portion of the continent between
this river and the Arabian gulf has been held by the same peoples since
the time the ancient Egyptians sent their trading ships to “the land
Punt,” the name under which they knew it; and these peoples were not of
the Austafrican type or race.
The general tendency of migration in central as in southern Africa, so
far as it can be traced in historic times, has been westerly and
southwesterly. The densest population has been near the Atlantic coast,
as if the various tribes had been crowded to the impassable barrier of
the ocean.
[Illustration: ETHNIC CHART OF AFRICA.]
Whether the basin of the Congo was ever held by the true Negro race,
is an undecided question. If so, they were completely driven thence
in proto-historic times. South of that region they certainly never
penetrated, as the Hottentot and Bushman type cannot be considered as a
derivative from the true Negro, but only as a descendant from a common
ancestor, unlike either, and is perhaps a much older member of the
family. Hence I shall begin the description of the race with
I. THE NEGRILLOS.
This diminutive form of the Spanish word _negro_, black, is applied
to an unusually small variety of the race, which by several careful
writers is believed to be the oldest of all the African varieties, and
at one time to have occupied the most of the continent. Herodotus and
other classical authors speak of the Pygmies of Ethiopia, and there is
sufficient evidence to show that in his day they dwelt in localities as
far north as the 18th degree of latitude.[116]
For a long time modern skepticism assigned these statements to the
realms of fable, but the rapid exploration of Central Africa in this
century proves their general correctness. Many travellers, especially
Du Chaillu, Schweinfurth, Stanley, and Emin Bey, have seen and
described these dwarfs, and a few of them have been brought to Europe.
At present they are not found more than two degrees north of the
equator, whence they extend southward into the territory of the
Congo. Their various tribes are known by different names, as Akkas,
Tikkitikkis, Batuas, Dokos, Obongos, Vouatouas, etc.
The height of the male is four feet six to eight inches, the body is
symmetrical and remarkably agile, the facial angle is exceedingly low
(about 60°-65°), the face markedly prognathic, the chin retreating, the
lips protruding, and the ears large and ugly. The color is not black,
but a dark reddish brown, and the skull has a tendency to a globular
form. The nose is flat (about 55°), and there is a strong odor to
the skin. The hair is woolly, and in tufts, and the body is covered
with coarse short hairs, “so that the surface feels like a piece of
felt.”[117]
These extraordinary people have no settled abodes, build no towns,
cultivate nothing. They depend entirely on hunting and fishing, and the
barter of the products of the chase to agricultural tribes. They are
skilful in the use of the bow, employing small poisoned arrows, and
also manufacture spears. Voracious cannibals and unerring marksmen,
they are looked on with dread by the negroes around them.
Of their religion we have no knowledge further than that they have an
extreme dread of strange objects, lest some malignant influence lurk in
them.
In the south of Africa we find another group of tribes, the Bushmen
and Hottentots, also of small stature, and in many respects resembling
the Akkas. They are equally far removed from the true negroes, and it
is the opinion of some very competent observers, notably the German
travelers, Schweinfurth and Fritsch, that all these dwarf tribes belong
to the same stock.[118] The objection to this chiefly is that the
Bushmen are often dolichocephalic, but so also are some of the Akkas,
and at any rate this consideration is not alone of sufficient weight to
be decisive. There is little doubt but that this dwarf stock extended
over Madagascar, where they were known as Quimos or Kimos, and are
believed still to exist in the southern part of the island.[119]
The Bushmen are much better known than the Akkas. They dwell in and
around the great Kalihari desert, usually in a half-famished condition,
and on the lowest social scale. They are wandering hunters, making use
of the bow and arrow, and are not cannibals.
The Hottentots are a mixture of the Bushmen and the Negroid-Bantu
tribes in their vicinity. They are taller than the Bushmen, better
nourished, and lead a pastoral life, possessing herds of cows and
fixed habitations. Their language is remarkable for the number of
its “inspirates,” or “click” sounds, to form which one must draw in
the breath, similar to some we use in urging horses. In form it is
agglutinative. In these respects and in others, it resembles the
dialects of the Bushmen, and those who are competent to speak on the
subject believe that both can be traced to a common source.[120]
The Hottentot is rather a hopeless case for civilizing efforts. He
hates profoundly work, either physical or mental, and is passionately
fond of rum and tobacco, or failing the latter, he will stupefy himself
by smoking the wild hemp. He is too indolent to attempt agriculture,
and is content to live on milk, raw roots, and the product of the chase.
Some of the English travellers, on the other hand, say the Hottentots
have as much wit as their neighbors, the Dutch boors! Certain it is
that before they were oppressed by the whites, they possessed herds of
cows, goats and sheep, dressed hides, dug wells, manufactured pottery,
in some places tilled the ground and built fixed villages or kraals.
The oft-repeated assertion that they are destitute of religion is,
like all such, utterly false. On the contrary, they have quite a
developed mythology, perform rites and say prayers. Their principal
deity is Tsunigoam, to whom they appeal as “the father of all things”
and “our master.” At the rise of certain stars they hold festivals in
honor of the gods of light, and they believe the spirits of the dead
wander about and should be placated.[121] Their cult, indeed, compares
favorably with that of classic Greece.
II. THE NEGROES.
The true Negroes of Africa are confined to what the Arabs call _Beled
es Sudan_, the Land of the Blacks, the Sudan, and adjacent parts. It
is therefore an error to look on that continent as mainly inhabited by
negroes. At least a third of it has always been principally peopled by
the whites, and another third by tribes not of pure negro stock. The
true negro type, such as I have described it in my first lecture (see
page 48), is scarcely seen in resident tribes south of the Equator or
north of the tropic of Cancer. Within that limit they may be divided
for purposes of study into four groups, the Nilotic, the Sudanese, the
Senegambian and the Guinean.
_1. The Nilotic Group._
These begin with the Changallas, east of Sennaar, in the Egyptian
Sudan, between the 10th and 15th degree of north latitude. To the
south of them along the White Nile are the Dinkas, the Chilluks, the
Nuers, Kiks, Baris, and other tribes. These are wholly black and in a
rudimentary stage of culture, depending chiefly on hunting and fishing.
They go naked, the women at most wearing little aprons. Some of them
are cannibals, and all are of savage dispositions. As a rule they are
tall and powerful, and brave in war.
The Nuers are spoken of as of fine physical traits, and building
handsome and durable houses. Their bows and arrows, and the helmets of
their warriors, resemble those depicted on ancient Egyptian monuments.
It is probable that they are of mixed blood, their hair being less
woolly than that of their neighbors. The Baris, who live on the White
Nile, are described as an intelligent people. They cultivate millet
and tobacco, understand the reduction of iron and copper from the ores
found in their country, and are skilful merchants, making long voyages
to exchange their wares.
_2. The Sudanese Group._
The Central Sudan is the site of the most important negro states, the
monarchies of Bornu, Bagirmi and Wadai. The two former are in the
fruitful depressions which surround Lake Tchad, a large fresh water
sea in the center of one of the most delightful tropical basins in the
world. The natives are known as Kanoris, Kanembus, Marghis, Haussas,
Biddumas, etc. They are true negroes, very black, and of strong body.
Further to the west commences the watershed of the Niger, the great
river of Central Africa, describing in its course a vast semicircle
more than two thousand miles in length. On its banks are numerous
kingdoms and some cities of magnitude, as Sansandig, with 30,000
inhabitants, and the better known Timbuctoo, with 20,000. Many of their
houses are built of sun-dried bricks, and an active commerce is carried
on. But it must be added that these houses and this commerce have been
created by the Arabs, Tauregs, and mixed races, not by the negroes
themselves. These are principally tillers of the soil, hunters, fishers
and warriors. They nominally govern the states of Gando, Sokoto,
Fellata and others, but Arab influence is visible everywhere, and the
beneficent results of the introduction of the Mahommedan religion in
this part of Africa is strongly attested even by English travellers.
The Haussas, the Todas, and the Tibbus, tribes near the border of the
desert, are principally of negro blood, but with a visible strain of
Hamitic descent in them. The last mentioned, indeed, should properly be
classed with the Berber stock.
_3. The Senegambian Group._
The country south of the Senegal river to the coast of Sierra Leone is
known as Senegambia, or the western Sudan. It is claimed by the French,
who own the shadow of a sway there. The tribes near the coast are the
Sereres, the Wolofs, the Baniuns, and many others, all in a low stage
of culture. To the east is the important nation of the Mandingoes,
occupying an extensive territory adjoining western Guinea on the
south, and stretching east to the heights near Timbuctoo.
The Wolofs present a pure type of the Negro race, perfectly
homogeneous, and, according to Dr. Tautain, it is impossible to find
among them a single physical character hinting at an admixture of
any other blood. Their faces are prognathic, and the women have the
projecting gluteal region, so marked a trait in the Austafrican. Their
language is agglutinative, and is an independent stock. Most of the
Wolofs are Mohammedans, and in social organization they maintain a
rigid system of castes, based principally on occupation.[122]
The principal divisions of the Mande or Mandingo nation are the
Mallinki, the Soninki, and the Bambaras. They are not so pure in
blood as the Wolofs, many among them having regular features, light
complexions, and straighter hair. These traits are doubtless owing to
their long contact with the Arabs and the Berbers, the latter of whom
have controlled their country more or less for two thousand years. They
are active in commerce, and cultivate the soil, the men working with
the women in the fields.
_4. The Guinean Group._
Most of the tribes of the coast of Guinea are in a condition of
savagery, and have deteriorated by their contact with the whites. The
petty kingdoms of Ashanti, Fanti, and Dahomey are heard of from time to
time in our newspapers as the scene of some particularly bloody rite
or massacre. For generations this was the central point of the slave
trade, and the encouragement it gave to devastating wars led to the
destruction of all progress. It is here, on what is called the Pepper
Coast, that we established the Republic of Liberia, where about 20,000
negroes from the United States are carrying out a moderately successful
experiment of returning to their native continent.
III. THE NEGROIDS.
A large portion of the African continent is occupied by tribes of dark
hue, but lacking some of the most prominent traits of the true negro.
These are the “Negroids,” who are probably the products of a long and
close fusion of the Negro with the Hamitic and Semitic types. Their
color is not black, but a dark, reddish, coppery brown; the hair is
crisp and frizzly, but not woolly; the nose is straight and better
formed than that of the negro; the lips are thick, the skull long, and
the peculiar odor of the negro is absent.
We find these traits in two groups, both of which unquestionably had
their historic origin along the Nile, above the first cataract, and in
the region drained by its tributaries--in other words, the locality
where for ten thousand years or more the Hamites and the Negroes have
been in constant contact.
We can only speculate on the numberless wars and marriages, on the
extensive slave trade and commercial intercourse which throughout this
period have blended the races into so many intermediate types that
it becomes impossible in many cases to say with which a given tribe
should be classified. To add to the confusion, a large Semitic element
was added at two epochs, one when the Abyssinian branch of the Semites
moved across from Arabia to occupy Abyssinia, the other when, under the
impulsion of the fanaticism of Islam, the Arabs followed up the Nile in
their proselyting campaigns.
The latter event began in the seventh century of our era and has
continued ever since. The former probably began in earnest in the
height of the power of the Himyaritic states of southern Arabia, which
we may roughly put at seven centuries before Christ. A century or two
later than this, negro tribes from the Sudan overran the decaying
cities of the upper Nile and established a temporary control along its
banks; and the emperor Diocletian induced many of them to settle as
far north as Assuan.[123] These various influences combined to produce
the numerous mixed types which one sees along the Nile, rendering its
ethnography peculiarly obscure.
Under the pressure of increasing population and external inroads, these
mixed peoples divided into two groups, one, the Nubian, remaining in
the original district, the other, the Bantu, removing to the south and
southwest.
_1. The Nubian Group_
Includes the Nubas proper, who are partly a mixed people, while some
of them are pure negroes from Kordofan; the Barabras, who dwell on
both sides of the Nile between the first and second cataracts; the
Fundjas and Bertas, further south; and the Monbuttus and Nyam Nyams,
or Sandehs, near Lake Victoria Nyanza, besides many tribes of less
note. Most of them are more or less agricultural, and live in small
villages. Their clothing is very slight, and many tattoo the skin.
The Sandeh and Monbuttu are cannibals, and even eat those who die of
disease. Nevertheless, they have a knowledge of metals, and are skilful
iron-smiths.
The physical appearance of most of these tribes differs equally from
the Arab and the negro. They are generally of medium stature with thin
limbs and flat feet. The hair is crisp, but not woolly, and the color
varies from a black to a white brown. The beard is meagre and the skin
hairless. The features are not of the negro cast, but assimilate rather
those of the European.
Most of them are agriculturists in a small way. They raise the “caffre
corn” and millet, and make some efforts to irrigate their fields where
it is necessary. Their dwellings are wretched huts, and their arts are
of the rudest.
Not many centuries ago there was a large number of so-called Christians
among them, but their religion seems to have left little impression on
their character.
At present they are professedly Mohammedans, but really either
fetichists or indifferent. Their morals are not well-spoken of, though
it is also said that the class with whom travellers usually come into
contact are not favorable specimens of the population--as is apt to be
the case everywhere.
The Puls, or Fellahs, and the Fans, who live to the west in the Sudan,
removed to the regions they now occupy from the Nile valley, and
belong to the Negroid type. They have made extensive conquests in the
vast unexplored country between Timbuctoo and the equator. Abstaining
from alcohol and tobacco, condemning music and dancing, and blindly
adhering to the precepts of the Koran, they are unpopular among their
negro neighbors, but have brought many of them under subjection. Their
occupations are both pastoral and agricultural, while as commercial
travellers, and wandering smiths, they roam from one end of the Sudan
to the other. They weave cotton cloth, tan and dye leather, and work
it into various articles of use which are widely celebrated for their
excellence, and in times past were among the most extensive slave
dealers of Central Africa.
The languages of this group belong to four diverse linguistic stocks,
all of the agglutinative character. It has been called the equatorial
family of central Africa. They are usually agreeable to the ear, the
verbs are simple, and the syntax not complicated.[124]
_2. The Bantu Group_
Occupies nearly the whole of Africa south of the equator, except the
territory of the Bushmen and Hottentots. It includes the Suahelis,
the Mazimbas and the Caffres on the east coast, the Sakalavas of
Madagascar, the Bechuanas west of the Caffres, the Zulus, and nearly
all the numerous tribes of the Congo basin, the Angola and Zambesi
rivers.[125]
Their ancestors at one period resided to the northeast, probably
somewhere in Ethiopia, where a prolonged fusion of Hamitic blood with
the genuine Negro produced their physical type. They are usually tall
and well built, the color is a dark coppery brown, the head is long
(74), the hair is frizzly, and the nose rather straight.