ture of those parts of the bodily organization which are
most immediately connected with the exercise of the mental
faculties in the Arabs :-4-
“ We have observed,” says M. Larrey, “ first, that the
convolutions of the brain, whose mass is in proportion to
the cavity of the cranium, are more numerous, and the
furrows which separate them are deeper, and the matter
which forms the organ is more dense or firmer, than in
other races ; secondly, that the nervous system, proceeding
from the medulla oblongata and the spinal chord, appears
to be composed of nerves more dense in structure than are
those of Europeans in general ; thirdly, that the heart and
arterial system display the most remarkable regularity and
a very perfect developement ; fourthly, that the external
senses of the Arabs are exquisitely acute and remarkably
perfect: their sight is most extensive? in its ranges;,, they
hear at very great distances ; and can, through a ;very extensive
region, perceive the most subtile odour/’ -
The muscular or locomotive system is strongly marked :
the fibres are of a deep red colour, firm, and -very,telastic ;
hence the great agility of thispeople. This physical : perfectibility
is very far from being equalled by the mixed
nations of a part of Africa and of America, and especially
by the northern nations of Europe.
“ Upon the whole,” says Baron Larrey, “ I am convinced
that the cradle of the human family is to be, found in the
country of this race.’||||
The complexion of the Arabs displays great diversities
in the different countries inhabited by them. Volney says
that some of the Bedouins are black. Niebuhr and De
Pagès assure us that the colour of the lower orders is naturally
a dusky or yellow brown. According to Burck-
hardt, the Arabs in the low countries of the Nile bordering
on Nubia are black. This traveller carefully distinguishes
the Arabs from Negroes and Nubians. Higher up the Nile
than Dongola are the Shegya Arabs, of whom we have
an excellent description from an English traveller. “ The
general complexion of the Shegya Arabs,” says Mr. Wad-
dington,j;Jf is a jet. black. The Shegya,” he adds, “ as Ï
have already mentioned, are black,—a clear, glossy, jet
black, whldh appeared to my then unprejudiced eyes to be
the finest-colour thatoould be selected for a human being.
They are distinguished in every respect from the Negroes
by the brightness of their colour ; by their hair and the
Regularity of their; features ; b.y^the'.mild and dewy lustre
of their eyes»;, anRjby, the softness of their touch, in.which
last respect they yield not to. Europeans.” It appears from
Ithe account given by /Burckhardt and RUppell that the
Arabs on the Nile dp' not (intermarry with the natives.
The blackness of their complexion is, therefore, owing to
climate alone.*
Physical' Ghhfacters of the.
The Jews have assimilated in physical characters to the
nations among whom they have;long resided,- though still to
be recognised by some minute pèculiarities qf physiognomy.
In the northern.-countries of Europe, they are fairer x&n-
thousit Blumeyesj, and flaxen hair, are,semi in English Jewsi
and imisqme parts of Germany the red beards of the Jews
are very conspicuous. The Jews of Portugal are very dark.
Jews, as it is well known, have been spread from early
times-through many countries in the eastern parts of Asia,
—in China, Tartary, and the northern parts? of India.
There are many of them in towns^of Cochin and the interior
of Malabar. They hold communication with each other
in their eastern colonies, which appear to be of one stock or
migration ; but at what era they?reached these countries it
is unknown. Theiy residence in Cochin appears to have
been from ancient times ; and they are now black, and so
completely like the native inhabitants-in jtheir complexion,
that Dr. Claudius Buchanan says he could not always distinguish
them from the Hindoos.+ He has surmised that
* For a fuller account of the Shakié o rS h e g y a Jl may refer to the second
volume of my “ Reasearches In lh tlj^ iffi^ ic à l HistorV of Mankind,” third
édition.
. t There is àt Mattacheri, àtoWn of Cochin, a particular colony of Jews, who
arrived at a later date in that country, and are called Jerusalem or White Jews.