antero-posterior section of the head, the area of the face will be more considerable in proportion
to that of the cranium, in such a skull, than in the fine European forms .The
larger and stronger jaws require more powerful muscles. The temporal fossa is much
larger; the ridge which bounds it rises higher on the skiill, and is more strongly marked,
than in the European. The thickness of the muscular mass may be estimated from the
bony arch, within which it descends to the lower jaw. The zygoma is larger, stronger,
and more capacious in the Negro; the cheek-bones project remarkably, and are very
strong, broad, and thick: hence they afford space for the attachment of powerful mas-
seters. — The orbits, and particularly their external apertures, are capacious. — Both
entrances to the nose are more ample, the cavity itself considerably more capacious, the
plates and windings of the ethmoid bone more complicated, the cribriform lamella more
extensive, than in the European. The ossa nasi are flat and short, instead of forming the
bridge-like convexity which we see in the European. They run together above into an
acute angle, which makes them considerably resemble the single .triangular nasal bone
of the monkey. . . . The superior maxillary bone is remarkably prolonged in front; its alveolar
portion and the included incisor teeth are oblique, instead of being perpendicular, as in
the European. The nasal spine .at the entrance of the. nose is either inconsiderable, or
entirely deficient. The palatine arch is longer and more elliptical. The,¡alveolar edge
of the lower jaw stands forward, like1 that of the upper; and this part in both is narrow,
elongated, and elliptical. The chin, instead of projecting equally with the teeth, as it
does in the European, recedes considerably like that of the monkey.'*—The characters
of the Ethiopian variety, as observed in the geniiine Negro tribes, may be thus summed
up: 1. Narrow and depressed forehead; the entire cranium contracted anteriorly: the
cavity less, both in its circumference and transverse measurements. 2. Occipital foramen
and condyles placed farther back. 3. Large space for the temporal muscles. 4. Great
development of the' face. 5. Prominence of the jaws altogether, and particularly of their
alveolar margins and teeth; consequent obliquity of the facial line. 6. Superior incisors
slanting. 7. Chin receding. 8. Very large and strong-zygomatic arch projecting towards
the front. 9. Large nasal cavity. 10. Small and flattened ossa nasi, sometimes consolidated,
and running into a point above. — In all the particulars just enumerated, the' Negro
structure approximates unequivocally to that Of the Monkey. It not only differs from the
Caucasian model, but is distinguished from it in two respects; the intellectual characters
are reduced, the animal features enlarged, and exaggerated. In such a skull as that represented
in the eighth plate, which, indeed, has been particularly selected, because it is strongly
characterized, no person, however little conversant with natural history or physiology, could
fail to recognize a decided approach to the animal form. This inferiority of organization
is attended with corresponding inferiority of faculties; which may be proved, not so much
by the unfortunate beings who are degraded by slavery, as by every fact in the past history
and present condition of Africa.” 248
Thus much for the cranial physique of the genuine tropical Negro.
The tribes of'Western Africa present us with higher forms of the
skull, and less degraded physical and intellectual traits. These
tribes, divided by a recent writer and zealous missionary, the Rev.
J. L. Wilson, into the Senegambians, and the Northern and Southern
Guineans,247 for the most part dwell in small isolated communities,
each composed of a few villages, and having an aggregate population
varying from two to thirty thousand. Even the kingdoms of Ashantee
816 Op. cit., pp. 242, 3, 4-6.
117 Ethnographic View of Western Africa.
and Dahomey, the largest political organizations of Western Africa,
are not superior in population and extent of territory to some of the
smaller European kingdoms. According to W ilson, the inhabitants
of this region have fixed habitations, cultivate the soil, have herds
of domestic animals, and have made very considerable progress in
most of the mechanic arts. That the various tribes differ remarkably
from each other in physiognomical characters, will be seen from the
following condensed notice' of some of the principal families.
The Mandingoes, a commercial people occupying the country in
which the Niger takes its rise, extending through the kingdoms of
Bambouk, Bambara, and Wuli, and, in smaller or larger groups, covering
all the1 country from Jalakonda to the sea-coast, are described by
W ilson as “men of tall stature, slender, but well-proportioned, black
complexion, and woolly hair, but with much more regular features
than belong to the true Negro.” According to G oldBerry, they
resemble more the blacks of India, than those of Africa.2*8 “ The
appearance of the Mandingoes,” says Major L a ing, “ is engaging;
their features are regular and open; their persons well-formed and
comely, averaging a height rather above the common.”
The Eulahs inhabit Fuladu, north-west of Manding, the region
between the sources of the Senegal and Niger, and the three large
Senegambian provinces, Futa-Torro, Futa-Bondu, and Fuia-Jallon,
extending also towards the heart of Soudan. The origin and purity
of this peculiar people have been much discussed. Linguistically
and physically, they are distinct from the surrounding tribes over
whom they rule. They deny their Negro origin, and consider themselves
a mixed race. However, “ their physical type of éharácter is
too permanent, and of too long standing, to admit of the idea of an
intermixture. In all mixed races, there is a strong and constant
tendency to one or the other of the parent types, and it is difficult to
point out a mixed breed that has held an intermediate character for
any considerable time, especially when it has been entirely cut off’
from the sources whence it derived its being. But the Fulahs are
now, in all their physical characteristics, just what they have been
for many centuries. And it would seem, therefore, that their complexion,
and other physical traits, entitle them to as distinct and
independent a national character as either the Arab or Negro, -from
the union of which it is supposed that they have received their
origin.” 248 G oldberry informs us that the color of their skin is a
kind of reddish black; their countenances are regular, and their
hair is longer, and not so woolly, as that of the common Negroes;
} Travels in Africa, Yol. I. p. 74. } Wilson, op. cit.; p. 7.