acuteness of understanding displayed.by the Amazuluh, Ama-
kosah, Bechuana, and other Kafir nations. And if the alleged
inferiority of organization and of capacity in the; skull is .the
ground on which deficiency of intellect is ascribed to the woolly
haired nations, this at least does not apply to the Kafirsy
many of whom have a form of the head, and particularly an
expansion of the anterior parts of the skull, resembling the
heads of Europeans.
A similar objection to this doctrine might, indeed, be1 furnished
by many black races between the tropics; and ainong
those tribes who are considered as genuine Negroes. I . need
not repeat what I have said respecting the physical and the
intellectual characteristics of the Mandingos;and the people
of Guber, Hausa, and other nations.
But if the allegation of intellectual inferiority is Scarcely to
be maintained with respect .to the woolly-haired nations’considered
as one class, it will be still more difficult to uphold it,
with any degree of probability, when we extend yet further
the limit by which the African family or department of iaatldns
is defined. I am aware that the facts which I have.been able
to collect relating to the languages of the African nations are
very incomplete, and that far more extensive yeseardhes must
be instituted before the subject can be said to have-been
elucidated in a satisfactory manner. Yet I think I have collected
evidence sufficient to prove that the languages of many
African nations, including particularly the Egyptian and the
Kafir and Kongoese nations, belong to one- department of
human idioms. The divisions constituted by difference of
language are, perhaps, not less important or leSS permanent
than those depending, on physical characters." jj| If it should'
be allowed that the native races of Africa constitute, by the
analogy of their languages, one department of nations, and
that the ancient Egyptians are included in this class, no person
will maintain their universal and permanent inferiority of
intellect.
This assertion has not, in fact, beeii made so extensively.
Apish stupidity and resemblance to the orang and macaueo
have been predicated of the Hottentots, and chiefly of some
nations on- the western coast, of those tribes particularly who
display in their conformation the peculiarities of the Negro in
a strongly-marked or exaggerated degree. %
If these tribes ;are, as I have endeavoured to prove, not a
distinct class hfinations, but only the offsets of stems differing
widely from them when existing under more favourable circumstances;
if tile apparent inferiority in their organization,
their ugliness, thin and meagre and deformed stature, are
usually connected with physical conditions unfavourable to the
developement of bodily vigour^thète will be no proof of original
inferiority in anythingtthàtrtcân be*-adduced respecting-
them. Their personal deformity and intellectual weakness, if
these attributes really "belong to them, must be regarded as individual
varieties-# Similar - rdçfeèfsf.are produced in every
human race by the agency of.physical circumstances parallel
to those under which thé tribes in question are known to exist.*
If these were-reversed, it is probable that a few-generations
would obliterate the effect which has resuLted from them.
• An interesting remark, which bears upon thfi subject, has been made respecting
the natives of some parts of Ireland :4 A 0 h the plantation of Ulster, and afterwards
on'the successes of the British against the rebels of 1641 and 1689, great multitudes
of the native Irish were driven from Armagh and the south of Down into the
mountainous tract extending from thebarony of Flews eastward to the sea;—on the
other side of the kingdom the same race were expelled into Leitrim, Sligo, and
Mayo. “ Here they have been almost ever since,’ exposed to the worst effects of
hunger and ignorance, the two great brutalizers of the human race.” The descendants
of these exiles fire now distinguished physically from their kindred in Meath,
and in other districts where they are not in a state of physical degradation. They
are remarkable for “ open projecting mouths, with prominent teeth and exposed
gums: their advancing cheek-bones and depressed noses bear barbarism on their very
front.” “ In Sligo and the northern Mayo the consequences of two centuries of
degradation and hardship exhibit themselves in the whole physical condition of the
people, affecting not only the features^ but the frame, andgiving such an example
of human deterioration from known causes as almost compensates, by its value to
future ages, for the suffering and debasement which past generations have endured
in perfecting its appalling lesson.” “ Five feet two; inches upon, an average, potbellied,
bow-legged, abortively featured; their clothing a wisp of rags, &c.—these
spectres of a people that once were well-grown, able-bodied, and cöfiiely^ stalk
abroad iftto}the day-light of Civilization, the annual apparitions oftlrish ugliness
and Irish wants” In other parts of the island, where the population has never undergone
the influence of the saroe causes of physical degradation, it is well known
that the same race furnishes the most perfect specimens of human beauty and vigour,
both mental and bcxlily.”—See an paper on the Population, &c. of Ireland,
in the Dublin University Magazine, No. xlviii; p. 658—675.