cows. Agriculture is practised on a limited scale. Their temperament
is turbulent and warlike, and many of them are cannibals. Their social
organization is military, but slavery is unusual. Singular to say, they
do not know the bow and arrow, their weapons being the war-club and a
lance called an _assegai_. Their religion is a fetichism, and polygamy
is universal. On the whole, they are on a higher level of culture than
the Negroes of the Sudan. All the Bantu tribes are mono-glottic, that
is, they speak dialects traceable to one original stem. These have a
peculiar alliteration, and form their words by means of prefixes of
elements placed before the root, this being their special method of
agglutination. It is divided into three principal dialects, and is the
most widely extended of any of the African linguistic stocks, except
the Libyan.
The vast basin of the Congo river, including over two million square
miles, is now mostly included in the “Congo Independent State.” Its
native inhabitants are connected by language with the Negroids of the
Bantu group, and several of them retain traditions of their immigration
into the districts they now inhabit. The Waganda, for instance, report
that their ancestors came from the northeast, the Watuta and Masiti
from near the Zambesi river. Many of them are of a light, bright brown,
and are devoid of the peculiar odor of the true negro. All the tribes
from Lake Tanganyika to the Atlantic speak dialects manifestly akin.
They are divided into independent nations, some of large extent, and
are subject to chiefs, who rule with despotic power. Their religion is
fetichistic, and though they generally are agricultural, and possess a
certain degree of culture, cannibalism is or was frequent among them.
Slavery also existed in some of its most deplorable forms, and up to
a very recent date, if not still, there was a regular trade in young
slaves to be fattened, killed and eaten on certain solemn occasions.
_General Observations on the Race._--Although the true Negroes
occupied but a small portion of the African continent, the infusion
of their blood into their Hamitic and Semitic neighbors, resulting in
the Negroid type, was to such a degree that these mixed stocks became
assimilated in character much more to the black than to the white race,
and were brought approximately to the mental level of the former.
Neither the Negroes nor the Negroids ever carried out a conquest of
lands occupied by the Hamites or Semites. We have vague histories of
bloody wars on a large scale among themselves, and the erection of
apparently powerful monarchies, but which soon fell to pieces.[126]
The low intellectual position of the Austafrican race is revealed by
the facts that in no part of the continent did its members devise the
erection of walls of stone; that they domesticated no animal, and
developed no important food-plant; that their religions never rose
above fetichism, their governments above despotism, their marriage
relations above polygamy. It is true that many of them practise
agriculture and the pastoral life, but it is significant that the
plants which they especially cultivate, the “durra” or sorghum, millet,
rice, yams, manioc, and tobacco, were introduced from Asia, Europe or
America.[127] Their cattle and sheep are descended from the ancient
stocks domesticated by the Egyptians, and differ from those represented
on the early monuments of Assyria and India. The brick-built cities of
the Sudan were constructed under Arab influence, and the ruins of stone
towers and walls in the gold-bearing districts of South Africa show
clear traces of Semitic workmanship.[128] The knowledge of smelting and
forging iron is of ancient date throughout Africa, and they can temper
steel with skill, but the art of the smith is regarded as degrading,
and their long acquaintance with this most useful of metals has not
lifted them from a condition of barbarism.[129]
In many of the useful arts they reveal considerable skill. The weaving
of grass into mats and cloth, the tanning and working of leather, the
preparation of salt and soap, dyeing and pottery, are occupations which
are wide spread. The true negroes are passionately fond of music,
singing and dancing, and the invention of one instrument, the marimba,
which is played by beating wooden keys with a stick, is attributed to
them.
The tendency of the negro race in Africa is that which we observe among
negro children in the public schools of the United States. Their powers
develop quite as rapidly as those of white children up to a certain
point, up to the age of thirteen or fourteen; but then there comes
a diminution, often a cessation, of their mental development. The
physical overslaughs the psychical, and they turn away from the pursuit
of culture. They are unwilling to undertake, they are unequal to, the
more arduous intellectual tasks.
I have already remarked that the Austafricans never of their own
volition made any serious inroad into the territory of the white race.
Yet there are to-day probably more than twenty millions of them,
including the mulattoes, living among the whites, seven millions of
whom are in the United States. This extraordinary condition is the
result of the enormous deportation of the blacks as slaves, which has
been going on for thousands of years.
The origin of the negroes in the United States may be traced partly
by the physical appearance, partly by the few words of their mother
tongues which have survived the acquisition by them of the English
language. These words are generally connected with the Mande stem
of tongues spoken by the Mandingoes and their neighbors, whom I
have already referred to as dwelling in Senegambia and the Western
Sudan.[130] They were a nation of some importance, and having early
become in great part adherents of the Mohammedan faith, established
the monarchy of Melli, which in the thirteenth century extended from
Timbuctoo to the coast, and forced many of the subjected tribes to
learn the Mande tongue.
_Scheme of the Asian Race._
{ 1. Chinese Group. Chinese.
I. Sinitic { 2. Thibetan. Thibetans, Ladakis, Nepalese, Bhotanese.
Branch.
{ Birmese, Siamese, Annamese, Cambodians,
{ 3. Indo-Chinese Group. { Cochin-Chinese, Tonkinese.
{ 1. Tungusic Group. Tungus, Manchus.
{ 2. Mongolic Group. Mongols, Kalmucks.
II. Sibiric { 3. Tartaric Group. { Turcomans, Yakouts, Turks (Osmanli),
Branch. { Usbeck, Kirghis, Cossacks, Huns.
{ Finns, Lapps, Esthonians, Ugrians,
{ 4. Finnic Group. { Magyars, Mordvins, Samoyeds, Ostyaks,
{ Voguls, Livonians, Karelians.
{ 5. Arctic Group. { Chukchis, Koraks, Kamschatkans,
{ Namollos, Ghiliaks, Ainos.
{ 6. Japanese Group. Japanese, Koreans.
LECTURE VII.
THE ASIAN RACE.
CONTENTS.--Physical geography of Asia. Physical traits of the Race.
Its branches.
I. THE SINITIC BRANCH. Sub-divisions. 1. The Chinese. Origin
and early migrations. Psychical elements. Arts. Religions.
Philosophers. Late migrations. 2. The Thibetan Group. Character.
Physical traits. Tribes. 3. The Indo-Chinese Group. Members.
Character and culture.
II. THE SIBIRIC BRANCH. Synonyms. Location. Physical appearance.
1. The Tungusic Group. Members. Location. Character. 2. Mongolic
Group. Migrations. 3. The Tartaric Group. History. Language.
Customs. 4. The Finnic Group. Origin and migrations. Physical
traits. Boundaries of the Siberic Peoples. The “Turanian” theories.
5. The Arctic Group. Members. Location. Physical traits. 6. The
Japanese Group. Members. Location. History. Culture. The Koreans.
If you observe the relief of the continent of Asia, you will note
that from the lofty plateau of Pamir, called by the orientals “The
Roof of the World,” two tremendous mountain chains diverge, the one
to the northeast, finally reaching the sea of Ochotsk, the other to
the southeast, meeting the southern ocean on the west of the bay of
Bengal. The region between them is one of high and arid table lands,
intersected by mountain ranges, and giving birth to streams which flow
in circuitous courses to the eastern sea. Along the coast the land
sinks to alluvial plains, and north of this triangle, the endless
forests, steppes, and “tundras” of Siberia and Turkestan continue to
the Arctic sea.
The region thus described is the continent of Asia in the proper
geological and zoölogical sense; the valleys of the Oxus, of
Mesopotamia, and the land to the west of them, properly belong to
Europe, and in fact, are included by naturalists in that continent,
under the name “Eurasia.”[131]
Asia proper is thus divided into two contrasted geographical areas,
that of the table-lands and mountains on the south, and that of the
plains on the north. These features have been decisive in directing
the migrations of its inhabitants, and to some extent in modifying
their traits. The vast majority, however, are distinctly recognizable
members of one race, which has been variously termed the Asiatic, the
Mongolian, or the Yellow race.
_Physical Traits of the Asian Race._--As the last mentioned adjective
intimates, the prevailing color is yellowish, tending in different
regions toward a brown or white, but never reaching the clear white of
the western European. The hair is straight, coarse and black, abundant
on the head, scanty on the face, almost absent on the body. The
stature is medium or undersized, the legs thin, and the muscular power
inferior to that of the Eurafrican race. The skull has a tendency to
the globular form (meso- or brachycephalic), the face is round, the
cheek bones prominent, the nose flat at the bridge and depressed at the
extremity, the eyes are small and black, and the lids do not open fully
at the inner angle, giving the peculiar appearance known as the oblique
or Mongolian eye. This last trait is not uncommon in the children of
Europeans, but it is generally outgrown. It is in the adult an arrest
of muscular development, although in some instances it seems related to
the bony confirmation of the orbit.[132]
[Illustration: ETHNIC CHART OF EURASIA AND ASIA.]
_Subdivisions._--These are the general traits of the Asian race,
recurring more or less prominently wherever its members of pure descent
are found. It is divisible, however, into two branches, corresponding
roughly with the two geographical divisions of the continent to which I
have alluded. The first of these branches I call the Sinitic, from the
old Greek form of the word China, the other the Sibiric, an adjective
from the proper orthography of the name Siberia (Sibiria). These
branches are contrasted not only in geographical location, but quite
as much so in language. The Sinitic peoples speak isolating, tonic,
monosyllabic languages, while the tongues of the Sibiric population are
polysyllabic and agglutinative.
I. THE SINITIC BRANCH.
This branch includes the people of the Chinese empire and Farther
India. They are separable into three groups:--
1. The Chinese proper;
2. The Thibetans; and
3. The Indo-Chinese of Siam, Anam, Burmah, and Cochin China.
The languages of all these have peculiar features and such affinities
that they all point to one ancestral stock.
_1. The Chinese._
The population of China as we know it at present is the result of a
fusion of a number of tribes of connected lineage. Those who claim
the purest blood relate that somewhere about five thousand years ago
their ancestors came from the vicinity of the Kuen-lun mountains,
east of the Plateau of Pamir, and following the head waters of the
Hoang-ho and Yang-tse-Kiang entered the northwestern province of China,
Shen-si. Here they found a savage people, the Lolo and the Miaotse,
whom they subjected or drove out, and pursuing the river valleys,
reached the fertile lowlands along the coast. Their authentic annals
begin about 2350 B. C. Even then they had attained a respectable stage
of civilization, being a stable population, devoted to agriculture,
acquainted with bronze, possessing domestic animals, and constructors
of cities. The hoariest traditions speak of the cultivation of the “six
field fruits,” which were three kinds of millet, barley, rice, and
beans. The sorghum, wheat, and oats now common in parts of China are of
comparatively recent introduction.
It is interesting to inquire whether these ancient arts possessed by
the Chinese were self-developed, or were borrowed in part from the
Eurafrican peoples of Iran or Mesopotamia. The former opinion is that
defended by Peschel and some other ethnographers. They claim that the
culture of the Chinese was developed independently in the secluded
and fertile valleys of their great rivers, and owed nothing to the
evolution of other civilizations until commerce and travel brought them
together within historic times. The individual character of Chinese
ancient culture speaks strongly for this view; certainly the Chinese
system of writing is one based entirely on their range and method of
thought; their domestic animals are of varieties formerly unknown in
western Asia; and the growth of many undoubted local industries, silk
for instance, for which they were celebrated in the days of the prophet
Ezekiel, prove an ancient capacity for self-development not inferior to
the Eurafrican race.
On the other hand, their astronomical system, which was in use 2300 B.
C., is practically identical with that of the Arabs and Indo-Aryans,
and points for its origin to the Chaldees of Babylonia. In later
days, that is, since the beginning of our era, undoubtedly much that
has been looked upon as the outcrop of Chinese culture is due to the
Indo-Aryans. My own conclusion is that in all important elements
the ancient Chinese civilization was a home product, a spontaneous
growth of an intellectually gifted people, but one whose capacity of
development was limited, and that later generations were satisfied to
borrow and appropriate from the nations with whom commerce brought them
into contact.
This insufficiency of development is the weak point of Chinese
character, and is strikingly illustrated by the little use they made
of important discoveries. They were acquainted as early as 121 A. D.
with the power of the magnet to point to the north; but the needle was
never used in navigation, but only as a toy. They manufactured powder
long before the Europeans, but only to put it in fire-crackers. They
invented printing with movable type in the eleventh century, but never
adopted it in their printing offices. They have domesticated cattle for
thousands of years, but do not milk the cows nor make butter. Paper
money has been in circulation for centuries, but the scales and weight
still decide the value of gold and silver, coins of these precious
metals being unknown. Their technical skill in the arts is astonishing,
but the inspiration of the beautiful is wholly absent.
These historic facts disclose the psychical elements of Chinese
character. Its fundamental traits are sobriety, industry, common sense,
practicality. The Chinaman regards solely what is visibly useful,
materially beneficial. His arts and sciences, his poems and dramas, his
religions and philosophies, all revolve around the needs and pleasures
of his daily life. Such terms as altruism, the ideal, the universal,
have for him no sort of meaning, and an explanation of them he would
look upon as we do on the emptiest subtleties of the schoolmen--a
_chimera bombinans in vacuo_. Such an action as the martyr dying to
atone for the sins of others he could understand only as the action of
a deranged mind.
Their mental character is well shown in their religions. Originally,
the Chinese combined a simple worship of the powers of nature with that
of the spirits of their ancestors. The principal deity was Tien, the
Heaven or Sky, in union with whom was the Earth, and from this union
all nature proceeded. This natural and sexual dualism extended through
all things. The affairs of life are governed by countless demons and
spirits, whose tempers should be propitiated by offerings and prayers.
Days and seasons are auspicious or the reverse, and most of the rites
at present in use are divinatory rather than devotional.
The Buddhist religion was introduced into China about two centuries
before Christ, and was officially recognized as a state cult by the
Emperor Ming-ti in the year 65 A. D. Its spirit is, however, quite
different from the Buddhism of Ceylon, as it has degenerated into a
polytheism, a worship of the Bodhisattvas, or saints who have reached
the highest stage of perfection, and might enter Nirvana, but do
not, out of compassion for men. In general, it may be said that the
philosophical and moral principles taught in the Buddhistic classics
are not known and would not be admitted as representing their faith by
Chinese Buddhists.[133]
The teachings of the celebrated philosopher, Confucius (Con-fu-tse),
which are a substitute for religion among the most intelligent Chinese,
are in reality wholly agnostic. He declined to express himself on any
question relating to the gods or the possible after life of the soul,
asserting that the practical interests of this life and the duties of
a man to his family and the state are numerous enough and clear enough
to occupy one’s whole time. When asked for some model or code of such
duties, he replied by the sententious expression “When you are chopping
out an axe-handle, the model is near you,” meaning that it is in the
hand, and that in a similar manner in practical life we always have the
rule of right action in our own mind, if we choose to look for it.
The second great philosopher of China was Lao-tse, who lived in the
generation following Confucius (about 500 B. C.). His doctrine was
pantheistic and obscure, and his writings are considered the most
difficult to decipher of all the old Chinese classics. Nor can his
doctrine be called a religion. It was rather a mystical speculation
on the universe. All-Being, he taught, is born of Not-Being, and
existence, therefore, is an illusion.
Practically, all religions are looked upon as equally true. The
Confucian will frequent the Buddhist temples, and the Buddhist priest
will perform rites in the “house of reason,” as the Confucian holy
place is termed; or he will distribute tracts for the Christian
missionaries. The government is absolutely neutral in all religious
questions, and the persecutions which have been carried on against the
Christian missionaries have not been the promptings of fanaticism, but
dislike of foreigners and suspicion of their intentions. The official
documents of the Chinese government speak with equal contempt of every
form of religion, and the rulers would never dream of interfering in
any such question.[134]
Many of the Chinese are Mohammedans, Islam having been introduced
by sea and land within the first century of the Hegira. The Chinese
converts learn to repeat the Koran in Arabic, as it has not been
translated into their tongue; but few understand much of it. Their
rites and doctrines are learned by the verbal instruction of their
religious teachers. The Chinese Mohammedans, however, recognize as
their chief ruler the Khalif or Sultan, and not the Emperor at Pekin,
and hence the bloody revolutions which have from time to time broken
out among them.
Christianity was introduced by the Nestorians in the eighth century,
and now may be freely taught in any part of the realm. It has, however,
had little success. There are perhaps half a million Roman Catholic and
Protestant members. They belong to the lowest classes, and can occupy
no official position, owing to the conflict of their dogmas with the
teachings of Confucius and the agnostic principles of the government.
Within the last generation or two the Chinese have displayed an
unwonted desire for emigration. They have swept down in hundreds of
thousands on the islands of Malasia, Australia, the Sandwich Islands,
Mexico, and the United States. We have as a nation felt so impotent
before them that, in open contradiction to the principles of our
government we have closed our ports to them, and warned them from
our shores. This feeble and ignoble policy is a disgrace to us. Far
better to admit them, and to train earnest men among us in the Chinese
language and customs, so that these foreigners could be brought to a
knowledge of the superiority of our religions and institutions, and
thus be united with us in the advancement of mankind.
_2. The Thibetan Group._
The mountain-ringed land of Thibet is an arid region from 10,000 to
20,000 feet in height, thickly inhabited by a people whose principal
interests in life are religious. It is the centre of northern Buddhism,
and at the holy city of Lhasa the living incarnation of the founder
of that cult is supposed to live. In the numerous monasteries, some
on almost inaccessible mountain sides, tens of thousands of monks
pass their lives in religious exercises. They are vowed to celibacy,
and throughout the land it is looked upon as a distinct degradation
to marry. The natural result is that the relations of the sexes are
relaxed, and their morals debased. Polygamy is not uncommon, and in
Thibet, more than anywhere else, we find the peculiar institution of
polyandry, where a woman has two, three or four recognized husbands.
It is usual for several brothers thus to have the same wife.
The women are small but well made, and exercise an unusual control in
the affairs of life. The physical traits of both sexes are Mongolian,
though the eyes are rarely oblique. The culture is rather low, the
Thibetan not being an ardent agriculturist, but preferring the pastoral
life. He milks his cows and makes butter, which with hides and fleece,
leather and some local fabrics, are his principal articles of trade.
In the Himalayan valleys to the south are several nations in which the
Asian blood dominates, such as the Ladakis of Cashmere, the Nepalese,
the inhabitants of Bhotan and numerous others. They are generally mixed
with Dravidian or Aryac blood, but speak dialects of the Sinitic type.
_3. The Indo-Chinese Group._
The regions we call Farther India and Cochin China are at present
inhabited by peoples speaking tonic, monosyllabic languages, who are,
however, generally of mixed descent. Some of them have crimpled hair
and a dark complexion, suggesting the presence of some Nigritic blood;
others have features more Aryac than Mongolian, hinting at an ancient
fusion of Hindoostanee strains. These form the modern nations of Birma,
Siam, Annam, Cambodia, Tonkin, and Cochin China.
The Birmans have a well marked round head (about 83°), oblique eyes,
prominent cheek bones, and are of medium stature and sturdy. Their
color is a brownish yellow or olive. In religion they are Buddhists,
but they are by no means celebrated for honesty and morality. By a
curious freak of fashion, the dress of the women is open in front, but
it is the height of immodesty to show the naked foot.
The Siamese call themselves “Thai,” under which designation come also
the Laos. They are a mild mannered people, without much energy, but
willing to be taught.
The Annamese and Tonkinese are somewhat superior in culture to their
neighbors, and of well marked Asiatic physiognomy. The Cambodians,
called Khmers, are a mixed people, descended partly from Mongolian
ancestry, partly from Dravidian and Aryac conquerors who occupied their
country about the third century, and left behind remarkable vestiges of
their presence in ruins of vast temples and stone-built palaces.
II. THE SIBIRIC BRANCH.