No. 29. —CAFFE.
[“ Umbaribu (young Zulu in dancing costume) —G. F r e n c h A n g a s , Kafirs Illustrated, London
fol., 1849.]
For good d e sc r ip tion sle ss tinctured with “ Exeter -Hall” philanthropy
than current English reports^—see Delgorgue ( Voyage dans VAfrique Australe
— “ Cafres Amazoulous et Makatisses,” Paris, 1847, 2 vois. 8vo) ; who has
likewise exhibited these nations in their true light, in “ Note sur les Cafres”
(Bulletin Soc. de Ethnologique de Paris, 1847, pp. 132-48).
Contrast Louis Al b e r t i (Description physique et historique des Cafres, Amsterdam,
8vo, 1811, p. 29), and Le Vaillant, (2d Voy. dans VIntérieur de
VAfrique, Paris, 1783-5, II, Pl. XXI, III, pp. 33-189), with Licht enst e in
(Travels in South Africa, London, 4to, 1812), who overthrows Barrow’s Sinico-
Hottentot predilections, whilst substantiating, ad pugnandum, this last naturalist’s
deductions. P atterson’s Narrative (London, 1789), Sparrman’s Cap
de Bonne Espérance (Paris, 1787), and Salt’s Abyssinia (London, 1814) furnish
ample materials for Polygenists. •
No. 30. —HOTTENTOT.
[Portrait of a Hottentot, aged el 52 ans—costume naturel—à en 10 enfans”—exhibited at Paris,
1854-5; photographed by M. L. Rousseau— Galerie Anthropologique du Muséum d?Histoire
Naturelle:—y ide infra, pp.'.608],
My friend, Mr. J. Barnard Davis, having shown me the two full-size colored
casts of “ Bushmen,” male and female, in the Royal College of Surgeons, I am
free to say that they differ as much from anything human I ever saw, as a pure
Laconian greyhound does from a “ pug.”
Colored from PI. 2 4 o f P éron, Voy. et Dêcouv. aux Terres Australes
(Baudin’s). ‘ .
Excellent drawings, showing the .gradations of feature in Hottentots, Kaffrs,
Bosjesmans, Booshwanas, ;&Q. in Da n iell (¿Sketches representing the Native Tribes,
Animals and Scenery of Southern Africa, London, 4to, 1820) ; who, speaking of
the female Hottentot, adds (p. 29) that, when young she is symmetrical, but
“ gradually degenerates into those deformities which are too well known to
require a particular mention.”
No. I assert that these peculiarities—which incontestably prove the Hottentots
to be a distinct “ species”— are not only little known, but that the facts
have been suppressed—and by Cu v ier himself—in order not to alarm Monoge-
nists! The subject (s^ Types of Mankind, p. 431, wood-cut 276) is not fitted
for elucidation in a popular work like the present ; but the President of our
Academy of Nat. Sciences, Mr. Ord, possesses the suppressed plates (which he
has kindly shown me)., and knows where the original colored drawings made at
the Cape by P éron and L esueur are preserved. [See Or d, .“ Memoir of
Charles Alex. Lesueur,^-^-Silliman’s Journal, 2d series, 1849, VIII, pp. 204-5,
210:—and take note that, of the plates beautifully engraved for the “ Voyage
aux Terres Australes,” 4 (exhibiting the “ Tablier” with amazing minuteness,
and at all ages,) were suppressed, by Cuvier’s order, in the 1st ed. 1816, and in
the 2d, 1831; because the livi* of Mr. Ord’s unique copy has 28 (1 with 2
figures); whereas that published by Arthus Bertrand contains only 25
plates.] A more disgraceful case of unscientific pandering to the “ Unity of
the human species” can nowhere be found. Polygenists will, notwithstanding,
get at these truths some day; and, in the interim, can gather an osteological
difference between Hottentots and other “ species” from Knox [Races, Philad.
ed., 1850, pp. 152, 157) ; as well as read the comments of Vir e y [Hist. Nat.
du Genre Humain, Paris, 1824, I, pp. 224,'244-53).
It is to the injudicious observations of J ohn B arrow (French translation by
Cast5ra, Voyage en Chine, Paris, 1805, I, pp. 77-82, PI. IV, Atlas,)—and to his
alone that a notion has got abroad that the Chinese and the Hottentots resemble
each other! P ick e r in g (Races, 4to, p. 219), forty years later, frankly
states, “ I am not sure that I have seen Hottentots of pure race.”
V.
AMERI CAN REALM.
(Nos. 37,38,39,40,41,42.)
To ourselves, in Amerioa this being naturally the most interesting, we may devote to its
consideration a few more paragraphs than space admitted for the others.
“ In fine, our own conclusion,, long ago deduced from a patient examination of the facts
thus briefly and inadequately stated, is, that the American race is essentially separate and
peculiar, whether we regard it in its physical, its moral, or its intellectual relations. To us
.there are no direct or obvious links between the people 'of the old world and the new; for, even
admitting the seeming analogies to which we have alluded, these are so few in number and
evidently so casual as not to invalidate the main position; and even should it be hereafter
shown, that the arts, sciences, and religion of America can he traced to an exotic source, I
maintain that the organic characters of the people themselves, through all their endless
ramifications of tribes and nations, prove them to belong to one and the same race, and
that this race is distinct from all others" (Morton, Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal
Race of America, Philadelphia, 8vo, 2d éd., 1844, pp. 35-6). I
The Spanish Conquistadores had long ago remarked that “ he who has seen one tribe of
Indians, has seen all:” but, it must be also remembered that Uil o a , who first uses this
sentence, was speaking ofCentral and South American aborigines ; and not of thë Northern,
or Barbarous (as distinguished from Toltecan), races,—with whom he was wholly un-
acquainted.
I . “ The batf-flad Fuegian, shrinking from his dreary winter, has the same characteristic
lineaments, though in an exaggerated degree, as the Indians of the tropical plains ; and
these, again, resemble the tribes which inhabit the region West of the Rocky Mountains__
those of the great Valley of the Mississippi,' and those, again, which skirt the Eskimaux on
the North. All possess alike the long, lank; black hair, the brown or cinnamon-colored
skin, the heavy brow, the dull and sleepy eye, the full and compressed lips, and the salient,
but dilated nose. . . . The same conformity of organization is not less obvious in the osteological
structure of these people, as seen in the square or rounded head, the flattened or
vertical occiput, the large quadrangular orbits, and the low, receding forehead. . . . Mere
exceptions to a general rule do not alter the peculiar physiognomy of the Indian, which is
as undeviatingly characteristic as that of the Negro ; for whether we see him in the athletic
Charib or the stunted Chayma, in the dark Californian or the fair Borroa, he is an Indian
still, and cannot be mistaken for a being of any other race” (Morton, Op, cit. pp. 4—5 : Tvves
of Mankind, p. 439). ?
While lately at Paris, my friend M. Maury favored me with the loan of a book then
just issued from the press of (Cherbuliez) Geneva,—by M. F . de R odoemont (Lepeuple
primitif, sa religion, son histoire et sa civilisation, 2 vols. 8vo, 1855). As learned as the works
of Count de Gib e l in , De P auw, De Guignes, De F ourmont, Bailly, Warburton or
Du po is , it far surpasses that of F ab er (Origin of Pagan Idolatry) in the immensity of its
geographical range and the variety of its literary-sources: Having been, in due course of
time, reviewed by M. Maury himself fAthenaeum Français, 6 Octobre 1855), some passages
of his article; bearing upon, the literary character of our earliest post-Columbian authori-
ties for American history, are here introduced.