Indigenous Races of the Earth

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550 'l'lll~ MONOGENISTS AND ~;amples for proper illustration of a zoological aubj ct; and pera<l­v 'lliur exclaim that a decollated negro, upon whose featur s arc stamp d the ]aRt agoni .s of violent d ath, is not a fit cxpon nt of Llte typ I call "Saharran-negro" unLil its natural province bo made known, my rejoinder would be simply this:- our BiBlcreean, from tho snme r gions and iu "spoci s" id ntical, seemr; to have bee11 in full blossom when ltis portrait was taken at Algi err;; aud, on tl10 other hand, I claim tlmt some allowance of similar kind ougllt, h1 fairness, to be made in bel1alf of a poor l10micided Gorilla, whoso facial expression al hol has doubtless distorted and contmctcd. lll'g onH and phyHi ian s, when elaborating fa ts in tlteir medical pnhlicatioHs, habitually leave aside" scntim nt" as merely oh truc­tivo to knowledge. It is time, I think, that ethnographers should imitate Rnch example. The diRgnisition ac ompanying our Monlcey-cltart explains some geographical coin •idences between species of tho simiadro and some races of mankind; but, by way of anticipation, it is r markable that this type of anthro1 omorplJous apes actually dwells in Afri •a not a thousmtd miles from tho rogi n inhabited by tho above typo of n gr·o. But there arc still lower forms of tho n gro typo precisely in tltose regi ns around tho Bight of Benin whore the two high st species of Afri an anthropoidro, viz., tho Gorilla and the Oltimpanzee, overlap each other in geographical distribution. Th b st of a.uthor·itios on tJJO latter subject, Prof. Jofli·ios Wyman, of llarvard University,421 wrote long ago: "Whilst it is thus easy to demonstrate the wide sepm·ation be­tween tho anthropoid and the human races, to assign a tt·uo poilition to tho former among themselves is a more diflicult task. Mr. Owen in his earlier memoir, regarded the T. niger as making tho ncar s~ appr~ach to man; b~t the more recently discovered T. goriJla, he is now mduced to behove, approaches still nearer; and regards it as 'tho most anthropoid of tho known brutes.' This inference is derived ft·om tlro study of tho crania alone, without any reference to the rest of the skeleton. "After a careful examination of tho memoir just referred to, I am forced to tho conclusion that the preponderance of evidence is Ull­e: Iuivoca~ly oppos?d. to the opinio.n there recorded; and, after placing s1do by s1dc the ddl rent anatomwal peculiarities of the two species, th r~ so ms ~o be no alternative but to regard tho chimpanzee as hold111g the h1ghest place in the brute creation." m Crania of.tlte Euy~-ma (Troglodytes gorilln, Snvn.ge) .fronl Gaboon, .A..frico, rend befo1·e the Doston SocJ~ty of Nrllurn.l IIi story, Oct. 8, 184.9 ;-from tho Amcricar1 Journal of Scie11Cd q.nd A riB, 2d scmos, vol. ix; p. 9. TilE POLYGENISTS. G5L On tho other hand, lrof. Agassiz remarked, in our former work; 4 zl "rrhe chimpanzee and gorilla do not uifl'er more ouc from the oth t' than tlte .Mandiugo and tho Gui nea 11 gro: they to rct!tor do not diner more from tho orang than tho Malay or white man differs from the negro :"-and again, in tho pr sent ["soc Pr f. Rem."]: "A comparison of the full and b autifully illustrated descriptions which Owen has published, of the skeleton and especially of the skulls of those species of orangs, with tho descriptions and illustrations of the different races of man, to be found in almost very work on Llri~; subject, shows that tho orangs diffct· from oue another in tho same maunor as the rae s of men do; so much so that, if these orangs a1·c diflcrent species, tho difl:cront races of men which iulmbit. tho same couutries, the Malays and theN cgrillos, must be considered also as distinct species." ))'or evidence that, in tho same west-African localities, there exist inferior grades of nogl'Ocs, lower than anyw!toro else known, there is an unexceptionable and recent authority, in a good othn·oJogisL, the missionary W.rLSON/23 who describes those "degenerate branches" -a sort of negro-gyp ies-with great unction and precision. .But we posses~:~ still later information, aud from a daring and rcliaulc naturalist, M. DuouAILLU,-descrvedly lauded in Dr. Meigs's chapter [supra, p. 324, note 243]. I was present at that mooting of out· Academy, and fortunate enough to hear Mr. Cassin read Du­ohaillu's long and very matter-of-fact report. Au interesting dif:lClH!­sion then arose, opened by some critical comm nts of Mr. Pa.l'lcet· Fonlkc, arnon()' the members present; whence two facts wore clicile<l: 1st, that, neae Capo Lopez, Duchaillu had shot both Gorilla an<l Oltimpanzee, the skins, &o., of which arc on their way to the Aca­demy; and, 2d, that he had just visited (his letter boat'S date Oct., 1856), up tho Muni river, north of tho Gaboon, two cxtraordinar·y negro-tribes, viz., the Pauein (whom Wilson calls the "Pangwec"­diftcrcnt from the M'pongwce) and the Osltebo, whose l1ahitats arc divided by that stream. As Mr. Foulke observed, they arc the 1i rRt historical instance of cannibaUsm elevated into marketing tra:flie; fot· the Pauein do not eat their own dead, but exchange them, acrOI:lf:l this ri vcr, for the carcases of the Oshebo! M. DucLaillll q uiotly observes that he couldn't eat meat in that country. m 'l'ljpt8 o.f Mankind, p. lxxv. ':!8 Anouymou6, "J~thnogmphio View of Western Africa," n. pn.mphlct of 34 p1\ges, New York, 1856; p. 23. It is from Dr. Meige's chapter (suprn., p. 82G) tun.t [ Jen.rn t.he nn111e of this clever writer; who inndvertently quotes, as if he hnd found·, in tho oxcellont wo1·k~ of Mr. w. D. lfooosoN, what he C!Ln find nowhere else thn.n in my Otia .I.Egyptiaca, n.nd in our Typa of .lfankind.