Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/95

Rh how can we say that the differences among the brown colored and other dark people which are no greater in degree constitute them to be Varieties of the Human Species? Were there any difference in the number, the arrangement or shape of the limbs or features or character of the senses we possess in common, then there might be some ground for such a term, but it is clear that color is in a great measure if not altogether dependent upon climate, which has a great effect also upon other parts of the frame. Even as regards the shape of the skull, upon which some Physiologists have laid such stress as indicating differences of races, Dr. Prichard on the other side in his last Anniversary Address to this Society Vol. I of our Journal p. 307, points out the fact that "they would thus establish distinctions in the form of the skull among nations who though for many ages separate are known historically to have descended from the same original stock." To which consideration in denial of the doctrine we may further add the evident difficulty of being able to take the average size or shape of skull of any people from a few isolated crania that may come into the possession of the most pains-taking philosopher, to say nothings of the possibility of his being deceived by erroneous information. Again it has been said that the Papuan negroes are a distinct class of Negroes from the African on account of the different nature or disposition of the woolly hair they bear naturally or artificially. But this is an erroneous supposition also. The Negroes of Dongola wear their hair exactly as the mopheaded Papuans, as may be seen by the frontispiece to Waddington's Travels, and it is often to be noticed among Africans that they have their hair in tufts or twined spinally or in rows as we find the Papuans described. These people of all shades all the writers to whom I refer tell us live, "in, the fastnesses of the mountains in enmity with the civilized races of the plains" and the "most deadly feuds and animosities between the various tribes" exist also. Under these circumstances it is difficult to imagine how any intercourse can take place between them of a nature to have any effect on their languages. Mr. Crawfurd who from his long residence in the East among the Malays and from his evidently industrious study of their languages is entitled to our grateful thanks, and first consideration distinctly assents the existence of Malay words in all the negro languages, p. 2 of his Dissertation and again p. 170. He differs from Dr. Latham as to the Samang and says it is a different language from the Malay p. 166, but acknowledges himself to be totally unacquainted with the languages