The facts attesting the pertinacity with which the distinguishing
physical characters of the different races of men maintain themselves
through long periods of time, and under very varying conditions, are
as numerous as they are striking. The Arabian type of men, as
seen to-day upon the burning plains of Arabia, or in the fertile
regions of Malabar, Coromandel, and the islands of the Indian Ocean,
is identical with the representations upon the Egyptian monuments,
where, also, we find figures of the prognathous Hegro head, differing
not a whit from that type as it now exists. From their original home
in Palestine, the Jews have been scattered abroad through countries
differing most widely in climatic and geographical features,96 and, in
many instances, have departed from their primitive habits of life, yet
under every sky, and in every latitude, they can be singled out from
amidst other human types. In the streets of San Francisco or London,
on the arid wastes of Arabia, and beneath a cloudless Italian
sky, the pure unmixed Jew presents us with the same facial lineaments,
and the same configuration of skull. “ J’ai eu occasion,”
writes G o b in e a u , “ d’examiner un homme appartenant à cette dernière
catégorie (Polish Jews). La coupe de son visage trahissait
parfaitement son origine. Ses yeux surtout étaient inoubliables.
Cet habitant du Nord, dont les ancêtres directs vivaient, depuis
plusieurs générations, dans la neige, semblait avoir ete bruni, de la
veille, par les rayons du soleil Syrien.” The Zingarri or Gypsies
everywhere preserve their peculiar oriental physiognomy, although,
according to B orrow, there is scarcely a part of the habitable world
where they are not to be found ; their tents being alike pitched on
the heaths of Brazil, and the ridges of the Himalayan hills ; and
their language heard at Moscow and Madrid, in the streets of London
and Stamboul. Wherever they are found, their manners and customs
are virtually the same, though somewhat modified by circumstances
; the language they speak amongst themselves, and of which
they are particularly anxious to keep others in ignorance, is in all
countries one and the same, but has been subjected more or less to
modification ; their countenances exhibit a decided family resemblance,
but are darker or fairer, according to the temperature of the
climate, but invariably darker, at least in Europe, than the natives
of the countries in which they dwell, for example, England and
96 We find them scattered along the entire African Coast, from Morocco to Egypt, and
appearing in other parts of this continent, numbering, according to Weimar, some 504,000
souls. In Mesopotamia and Assyria, Asiatic Turkey, Arabia, Hindostán, China, Turkistan,
the Province of Iran ; in Russia, Poland, European Turkey, Germany, Prussia, Netherlands,
France, Italy, Great Britain, and America, they are numbered by thousands.
. * ¿juyaiutu characters oi tne present
Assyrian natmns identify them with those who anciently occupied
the-same geographical area, and who are figured on the monuments
of Persepohs, and the bas-reliefs of Khorsabad.
“ Notwithstanding the mixtures of race during two centuries,” says Dr. Pickekino -n o
one has remarked a tendency to a development of a new race in L United States’ 2
Arabia, where the mixtures are more complicated, and have been going on from time immemorial,
the Jesuit does not appear to have been different. On the Egyptian monument™ I
was unable to detect any change in the races of the human family Neither does written
history afford evidence of the extinction of one physical race of men, or of the dev loom nt
of another previously unknown.” »« ueveiopment
The population of Spain, like that of France, consists of several
races ethnically distinct from each other. From these different strata
so to speak, of the Spanish people, have been derived the inhabitants
of Central and South America. Of these settlers in the Hew World
H umboldt thus speaks:
“ The Andalusians and Carrarians of Venezuela, the Mountaineers and Biscavans of
auZ fft ^a“ °manS of Buenos considerable differences in their aptitude for
agriculture for the mechanical arts, for commerce, and for all objects connected wit“
the b B a g ! » . Each f i £ races has preserved in the New as in the Ol W ri
^ s h a d e s that constitute its national physiognomy; its asperity or mildness of cW c t e r
■ l l i l sordld feei7 v r .its " e ioTe N P to aw . U 6.............. 6 “ habitants of Caraccas, Santa Fé, Quito, and Buenos
Ayres, we staff recognise the features that belong to the race of the first settlers.” »
A remarkable instance of this permanence of physical character is.
shown m the Maragatos or Moorish Goths, whom, B orrow informs
us, are perhaps the most singular caste to be found amongst the
chequered population of Spain.
withTthfRhaVe’”r yS h6’ “ th6ir °Wn Pe°uliar Cllst0ms and dress, and never intermarry
M 8 5 I B 9 $ ™! v r ^
S B “ • 1 - find fidnnnn nnd f „ „ ¿
" ' 11 B I n . t™ , . f i f i « , „ „ J i
features, though for the most part well formed, are vacant and devoid of expression Thev
e slow and plain of speech, and those eloquent and imaginative sallies so common in th
f e d r r - ’ a
PenLu™ himself j f t j l
the entire commerce S | to » 3 ^ almost
1 8 ^ Í e r ¡ ¡í^ An A0C0Unt 0f the ^ Of Spain. By Geo. B o i ^ T ^ T ^
- Í S H I I E&3 » i t
00 Bible m Spain, Chnp. XXHI.