The Negroes have little invention, but strong powers of imitation, so that
they readily acquire the mechanic arts. They have a great.talent for music, and
all their external* senses are remarkably acute.
With respect to their intellectual character, there is much diversity of opinion;
some authors estimate it at a very low scale, whilst others insist that the germ of
mind is as susceptible of cultivation in the Negro as in the Caucasian. That
there is considerable difference in this respect in the different tribes is pretty
generally admitted; but, up to the present time, the advantages of education havé
been inadequately bestowed on them, and instances of superior mental powers
have been of extremely rare occurrence.
Note.—The great antiquity of the Negro race admits o f no question, and has even léd some
philosophers to surmise that it was the primitive stock of mankind, and that all the other-varieties
may have been derived from this one by the action o f physical causes. A few facts are sometimes of
more weight than a host of hypotheses; and it may not be irrelevant to put this question, as well as
the converse of it, to a chronological test, in the words of a distinguished author. “ According to
accredited dates,” says hè, “ it is four thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years since Noah and
his family came out of the ark. They are believed to have been of the Caucasian race; and the
correctness of the belief there is no ground to question. • We shall assume it, therefore, as a truth,
. without adducing the reasons which seem to sustain it. Three thousand four hundred and forty-five
years ago a nation of Ethiopians is known to have existed. Their skins, of course, w ere dark, and
they differed widely from Caucasians in ihany other particulars. They migrated from a remote
country and took up their residence in the neighborhood of Egypt. Supposing that people to have
been o f the stock of Noah, the change must have been completed, and a new race formed, in seven
hundred and thirty-three years, and probably in a much shorter period.” *
The recent discoveries in Egypt give additional force to the preceding statement, inasmuch as
they show beyond all question, that the Caucasian and Negro races were as perfectly distinct in that
country upwards of three thousand years ago as they are now: whence it is evident that if the
Caucasian was derived from the Negro, or the Negro from the Caucasian, by the action of external
causes, the change must have been effected in at most a thousand years; a theory which the
subsequent evidence of thirty centuries proves to be a physical impossibility; and we have already-
ventured to insist that such a commutation could -be effected by nothing short of a miracle.
18. THE CAFFRO-AFRICAN FAMILY.
The country of the Caffers, now called Caffraria, is of indeterminate extent.
On the eastern coast it extends from the Keiskamna river (which separates it from
the Cape colony) to the south of Delagoa bay. On the west it touches Orange
Caldwell, Thoughts on the Unity of the Human Species, p. 72. Philad. 1830.
river; but its inland or northern limit is unknown, but is probably not less than
two hundred leagues.* Thus the Caffers are interposed between the Hottentots
on the south and the common Negroes on the north. Caffer, though now
generally adopted among Europeans as the national designation of these people, is
an Arabic word signifying infidel. Their true name appears to be Amakosa.
They are divided into many tribes, of which the principal are the Amakosa,
Amatimba, Amaponda and the Zoulah.f The difference of physical appearances
among these tribes is inconsiderable. They are tall, athletic and extremely well
proportioned, and possess much natural grace of manner. Their physiognomy is
remarkable for its combination of European and Negro character. The head, for
example, is large, the forehead full and vaulted, the nose salient and aquiline, and
the face a well formed oval: but on the other hand the mouth projects, the lips
are large and fleshy, the hair black and more or less woolly, and the skin mostly
black, though occasionally a dark brown. The Caffer women are much smaller
than the men, seldom exceeding five feet in height, with a sleek, soft skin, and
features which are strongly expressive of cheerfulness and content.
Lichtenstein, who was long among the Caffers, declares that he never saw
one of these people “ sneeze, yawn, cough or h a w k a fact which he found
supported by the observations of his fellow travellers and others. This is truly
a physiological anomaly.
If we may judge from the statements of some travellers, the Caffers are as
much above the genuine Negro in morals and intelligence as in physical appearance.
The tribes resident near the English colony are less cruel and superstitious than
some others; -but their appeals to pretended sorcery in punishing crimes and in
settling disputes, and the despotic sway of their chiefs, are evidences of a great
degree of barbarism.
It is very remarkable that the Caffers should have nations of genuine Negroes
on both sides of them, and yet themselves possess so few Negro characteristics.
Among other speculations is that of Mr. Barrow, who believes them to be of
Arabic origin. “ Their pastoral habits and manners,” says he, “ their kind and
friendly reception to strangers, their tent-shaped houses, the remains of Islamism
discoverable in one of its strongest features, the circumcision of male children,
universally practised among the Caffer hordes, all denote their affinity to the
Bedouin tribes. Their countenance also is Arabic; the color only differs, which
* Wolf. Trans. Roy. Geog. Soc. I ll, p. 200. t Steedman, in same Journal, V , p. 322.
% Trav. in Africa, I, p. 252.
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