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Show 274 TIIE CRANIAL CIIARACTERIS'l'ICS have not the necessary data to arrive at a positive conclusion as to the existence of a primary and peculiar cranial type among the Fig. 16. TunK. Tnrks. Nevertheless, if the reader will carefully inspect the accompanying figure of a Turkish cranium in the Blumenbachian collection, and compare it with our Kalmuck standard, I deem it highly probable that he will with me recognize for the Turkish region a sub-typical form, which, though closely related to tho Mongolic, diftcrs from it mainly in possessing a more oval face, and a more decidedly globular skull. BLUMENDACH thus describes the bead in his possession: "Tho cranium is nern·ly globular; the fornmon mngnum is pl110od nlmost at the posterior end of tho bnsis cmnii, so thnt there seems to be no occipnt; tho forchond broad; tho glabella prominent; tho malnr fossro gently depressed, and the proportions of the fttcc, upon the whole, symmetrical ancl elegnnt. 'l'he external occipital protuberance is but little dovolopod; the ocoi pitnl condyles very largo and convex: the aivoolar edge of tho superior maxilht very short, so that just beneath the nose it scarcely equals in height the bre11dth of tho little finger." Judging from the accounts of travellers, it would seem that among the most Eastern of the Turkish races, such as the Kirghis of Balkash and the irreclaimable nomades ofthe dreary plains of'l'urkistan, the Mongolic physiognomy more especially predominates. This, it will be recollected, is the region in which the Mongols proper and the Turks meet and overlap. The skull of a Kirghi.s, figured by DLUMENDAOII (Tab. XIII.) furnishes a good exemplification of the cranial form of this region. In a Don Cossack (Tab. IV.) the Mongolian tendency is equally manifest. The Yakuts of the Lena, before described, and the N ojai Tartars G udging from a :fi.gure in HAMILTON Mrrrr's work), also belong to this type.149 South of the Kirghis arc the Uzbecks, who, according to Lieut. Wood, resemble the former, but are better proportioned. Tho reader will obtain some general idea of' tho points of resemblance and di.ftcrence between the Uzbecks and their Eastern conquerors, by referring to the portrait of Sjah Mierza, an Uzbeck Tartar, in the "Ethnogeaphic Tableau" illustrating Mr. GLIDDON's Chapter VI. Through the skulls of the Osmanli Turks and the Tartars of the Kasan- especially the latter- the Turkish head. proper graduates uu Op. cit., plato 0, fig. 2. OF TilE RACES OF MEN. 275 into the European form. Both these tribes are among the most anciently civilized of the race. The high European forms so often seen Fig. 17. among the Osmanlis are no longer problematic. A knowledge of the heterogeneous additions accepted by their Seldjukian ancestors, and already referred to in sufficient detail, has served not a little to dissipate the mystery attached to this subject. Of the genealogical impurity of tho Turks I think there can be but little doubt. Their indiscriminate amalgamations are thus briefly hinted at by D'IIALLOY: TARTAR. "n pm·a1t," snys he, "d'apres los portro,its d'o,nciens pouplos turcs, quo !'on a trouves dans lea historions chinois, quo cos pouplcs avaient origin11ir~mont des chovcux rouss:ltr-cs, ot que leurs ycux etaicnt d'un gris vordf\tro; mais ces cnrnctcros so sont pordus, et m~tintcnant on remarque quo les Turcs qui bo,bitcnt au nord-c~t du C~tncn.sc, p~trticipent plus ou rnoins des caractercs d<*l Mongols, ot quo ceux etnblis au sucl-ouest presontcnt los formes do In rnco blanche d'une mauiore trC.s-prononc6e, nuda avec des cboveux ot des youx noirs; circonstanccs qui s'oxpliquent pnr le melange avec los Mongols pour lea premiers, ot par colui avec les Perscs ot les Arameens pour los seconds, d'11ntnnt plus que les 'rurcs, qui soot genernlement polygnmes, ont beaucoup de goO.t pour les femmes iitrnnghes." 150 Quite recently, Major ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM, of the Bengal Engineers, has given us an excellent account of the physical characters of tho Bhotiyahs, an interesting race occupyi11g a considerable portion of 'l'hibet and the IIim{tlayan range of mountains. "The face of tho Doti," says he, "is brond, flo,t, o,nd squo,ro, with high cheek-bones, largo mouth, and nllrrow forohoacl. The nose is broad and flat, and gonerl\lly much turned up, with wide nostrils, ami with little or no bridge. 1'he eyes arc small and narrrow, and tho upper eyelids usually have a peculit~r anti angular form that is espocit\lly ugly. 1'he eyes arc nenrly always black; but brown, and even blue eyes, arc seen occn~iouo,lly. The inner comers arc drnwn downwards by the tension of tho skin over tho lo,rgo check-bonos; the eyelids are therefore not in one slraigbt line, pamllel to tho mouth, 1\8 is the cnso with Europeans, but their lines meet in a highly obtnse anglo pointing downwat·ds. This gives an appearance of obliquity to tho eyes themselves that is very clisugroeuulo. Tho Ol\rs nro prominent, very largo, 1\nd very thick; they have lllso po,rticulm·ly long lobes, and ~tre nltogother about one-ho,lf lo,rger tho,n those of Europenns. 1'he moutlt is lnrgo, with fnll and somewhat prominent lips. Tho hair is black, coo,rso, and thick, ami usuo.lly strnight and et·isp. Dushy heads of hair o,re somolimos seen, but 1 boliove that the frizzly nppenrn. nce is not duo even in part to nuy naturnl tendency to curl, but solely to tho to,ngled and thickly agglomerated matting of the hair consequent upon its never having bot~n combed or washed from first to soconcl childhood." 161 lliO Op. cit., pp. 80, 90. 16.1 Lad(~k, I hysicnl, St~ttistical, nnd Historical, with Notices of the Surrouncling Countt~es, London, 1854, p. 206. |