A cranium from an Indian burying-ground, supposed to have
belonged to an Illinois savage, which was presented to Blu-
menbach by Dr. Barton, approaches more nearly to the Caucasian
or European than to the Mongolian form: and M. de
Humboldt assures us, that some tribes of Indians have European
features.
I shall add further observations on particular tribes of
Americans, when I come to the ethnography of the New
World.
Section III.—Skulls o f the Quaiquce or Hottentot race.
Very little comparatively has been attempted towards the
elucidation of the physical history, and particularly the cra-
niology of the Quaiquae or Hottentot race. Few skulls belonging
to that people have been brought into European col?
lections. I t was formerly supposed that the Hottentots were
a tribe of Negroes. Mr. Barrow was the first who perceived
the resemblance which they bear to the Chinese and other
nations with broad and flat-faced skulls. The cranium of a
male Bushman is represented in Blumenbach’s last decade,
in which the lateral prominence and widespread of the zygoma
is very conspicuous, as well as the general unlikeness
to the skulls of the Negro nations. In the head of the Tei
male Bosjesman examined by Cuvier it is remarked* th a t the
u jaws are more projecting than in the Negro, the h|£e wider
than in the Kalmuk, and the nose flatter than in either.” In
Blumenbach’s, specimen of the same race, it is observed, that
the jaws are not at all prominent, and the incisor teeth, with
their alveoli, as well as the chin, on the same perpendicular
line. In this respect the female examined by Cuvier seems to
hayebeen an exception. In the latter, it is likewise observed that
“ the orbits arevery wide in proportion to their height, the
entrance of the nostrils has a peculiar form, the palate a larger
surface, the incisor teeth are oblique,, the temporal fossae more
extensive.” The occipital foramen is proportionally larger than
in other heads, which, says Cuvier, “ according to. the views
of Soemmerring would indicate an inferior nature.” This
trait, however, according to the Observation of Dr. Knox, is one
point of agreement with the Kalmuk rather than the , Negro
skull, and the wide orbits remind us of the Esquimaux.
' Thé last-mentioned writer has pointed out many remarkable
traits of resemblance between; the Hottentots and the
northern Asiatic nations, and he has drawn an inference similar
to that of Mr. Barrow, though without adverting to,
and perhaps without having noticed Mr. Barrow’s observation,
viz. that the Hottentots were a tribe of the Mongolian race.
The most striking particulars in which the Hottentots resemble
the Kalmuks and other Turanian nations are,
1. Their complexion is nearly the same.
2. The head in both is broad and square.
3. É The face,’’ says Dr. Knox, “ is in the Kalmuk broad,
flat, depressed, and the features, as it were confluent. The face
of the Hottentot resembles that of the Kalmuk, except in the
thickness of the lips.”
Mr, Burchell describes thus the face of the Hottentot :—-
Space between the two cheek-bones, flat; scarcely any perceptible
ridge o f the flose; end of the nose wide and depressed $
nostrils squeezed out of shape; chin long and forward j narrowness
of the lowér part of the face a character of the race.”
These traits apply equally to the northern Asiatic.
“ The nasal proceises of the superior maxillary bones are
large and broad.’’ Hence the breadth at the root of the nose
in the Bushman as well as in the Kalmuk.
4. I t was observed by Mr. Barrow, that, the« “ eyes of the
Hottentots are of a deep cbesnut colour, long and narrow,
distant from each other, the inner angle being rounded, as in
the Chinese, to whom the Hottentots bear, as he says, a
striking resemblance.”
■ 5. u The cheek-bones,” as the same writer observes, %are
high and prominent* viz, outwards* for.be;adds, that the narrow
pointed chin forms with them nearly a triangle.” Compare
what has been said above respecting the skulls of the
Esquimaux.. ?■
It was observed by Mr. Burchell,. that the eyes of the Hot-
tentokare so obliquely placed that lines drawn through the
comers of each would not coincide, b u t would intersect each