different explanation; and is supposed plainly to indicate those languages in which
it is displayed, however they may differ in some respects, to have sprung from a
common original. This analogy has been remarked more especially between the
Sanscrit, or the ancient language of India, and the Greek, Latin and German.”*
Without undervaluing these philological analogies, I am disposed to believe,
with Humboldt, that we shall never be able to tracé the afiliation of nations by a
mere comparison of languages ; for this, after all, is hut one of many clews by
which that great problem is to be solved. Dr. Prichard himself admits that
Europe was inhabited by “ a more ancient peoplé,” before the Asiatics made their
appearance ; and although the language of the former was modified by this
intercommunication, there is no satisfactory evidence that the physical character
of these primitive people sustained any obvious change by the gradual immigration
of the intruders from Asia. Dr. Prichard places the Celtic tribes among the
Indo-Europeans; while Sir William Betham, as we have seen, judging also from
similarity of language, pronounces the Celts to be of the Phenician branch of
Arabians. With these discrepancies before us, we may inquire whether the term
Indo-European is not more applicable to certain languages of Europe, than to the
inhabitants themselves?
4. TH E ARABIAN FAMILY.
The physical conformation of the Arabs proper is not very unlike that of
their neighbors the Circassians, although, especially in the women, it possesses
much less of the beautiful. Their skin is generally sallow, but is never black in
the unmixed race; and in those whose rank permits them to avoid exposure to the
sun, the complexion is a light and clear brunette. The Arab face is a somewhat
elongated oval, with a delicately pointed chin, and a high forehead. Their eyes
are large, dark and full of vivacity; their eyebrows are finely arched; the nose is
narrow and gently aquiline, the lips thin, and the mouth small and expressive.
Such at least is the appearance of the higher classes; but from these there is
every grade of exterior feature until, in the Arab of the desert, the traveller sees
all that is ferocious and repugnant in human nature. The Arabs in general are
below the middle stature; their persons are spare and often meagre, and yet they
possess an extraordinary vigilance and activity.
* Phys. Hist, of Man, I, p. 491.
The habits of the Arab are strictly pastoral and wandering. His tent is his
home, and he perpetually varies its location as his wants or caprice may prompt
him.
The moral character of this race blends some very opposite elements; they
are the children of impulse, at one moment raising the sword against the unresisting
traveller, and the next receiving, with open hospitality, the stranger whose
necessities have driven him to their tents. They are indolent excepting in their
wars and pastimes, and remarkable for their covetousness and duplicity. Vanity
is characteristic of all classes, from the chief of a tribe to the humblest Bedouin.
Their politeness is extreme, and sobriety is a national trait.
Their intellectual character is conspicuous for a fertile imagination, and the
successful cultivation of music, poetry and romance.;
The migratory disposition of the Arabians has led to their dispersion over
countries very remote from the parent land, so that at the present time Arabia
does not contain a twentieth part of the descendants of Ishmael. Africa, has
always been one of their favorite retreats, and history records three principal
irruptions, at distant periods from each other. The first was that of the Canaan-
ites who were expelled by Joshua, and established themselves in northern Africa,
and were the Mauri of the ancients : the second migration took place in the
first century of the Christian era, and the third and last great influx was in the
seventh and eighth centuries, by the Mahometan Arabs.
The Moors who inhabit the present kingdom of Morocco, and other parts of
Africa, are in part descended from the Mauri, and partly from the Saracens who
were expelled from Spain, together with the intruding Arabs of the different
epochs. But the term Moor is used in Barbary to designate the inhabitant of a
town or city, while Arab is the collective designation of the wandering tribes of
this family. The Moors are of the middle stature, with complexions varying
from black to white, owing to their intercourse with the negroes of Sudan. The
women of Fez, however, are fair as Europeans, with uniformly dark eyes and
hair. Those of Mequinez ajre even more beautiful, with remarkable grace and
suavity of manner.
The men of Duquella have regular features, and are tall and well limbed:
those .of Temensa and Shawia, are a strong, robust race, of a copper color.* The
nomadic Arah tribes live chiefly in tents; they are a restless and turbulent people,
who are engaged in constant broils with each other, and with the adjacent Berbers
Jackson, Morocco, p. 128. Am. ed.