OCR Text |
Show 54 MAMMALIA. mino-led their blood with that of those they c_onquered, many traces f "h. h . tl'll be found among the inhabitants of lesser Tartary. 0 w 1c mays . It is to the east of this Tartar branch of the Caucasian race that the Mongolian race begins, whence it exten~s to the eastern ocean. Its branches, the Calmucs, &c. still wandermg ~hepherds, are constantly traversing the desert. Thrice did their ancesto~s undet· Attila, Genghis, and Tamerlane, spread f~r-t~1e terror of their name. The Chinese are the earliest and most c1v1hzed br~nch not only of this race, to which they belong, but of all the natwns upon eart~. A third branch, the Mantchures, recently conquered, and sttll govern China. The Japanese, Coreans, and _nearly all ~he hordes which extend to the north-east of Siberia, s.U~Jec: to Russia, ~re also t be considered in a great measure, as ongmatmg from this race; 0 ' • • 1 . nd such also is esteemed the fact, with regard to the origma ·mha- ~itants of various islands of that Archipelago. With the exception of a few Chinese literati, the different nations of the Mongoles are universally addicted to Buddism, or the religion of Fo .. The origin of this great race appears to have b_ee~ m th_e m~untains of Atlai, but it is impossible to trace the fihatwn of Its different branches with the same certainty as we have done those of the Caucasian. The history of these wandering nations is as fugitive as their establishments, and that of the Chinese, confined exclusively to their own empire, gives us nothing satisfactory with respect to their neighbours. The affinities of their languages are also too little known to direct us in this labyrinth. The languages of the north of the Peninsula beyond the Ganges, as well as that of Thibet, are somewhat allied to the Chinese, at least in their monosyllabic structure, and the people who speak them have features somewhat resembling other Mongoles. The south of this Peninsula, however, is inhabited by Malays, whose forms approximate them much nearer to the Indians, whose race and language are extended over all the coasts of the islands of the Indian Archipelago. The innumerable little islands of the southern ocean are also peopled by a handsome race, nearly allied to the In· dians, whose language is very similar to the Malay; in the interior of the largest of these islands, particularly in the wilder portions of it, is another race of men with black complexions, crisped hair, and negro faces, called Alfourous. On the coast of New Guinea, and in the neighbouring islands, we find other negroes, nearly similar to those of the eastern coast of Africa, named Papuas ;( 1) to the latter, (1) With respect to the various nations of the Indian and Pacific oceans, see the dissertation of Messrs Lesson a~d Garnot in the Zoologie du Voyag:.e de Ia BIMANA. 55 are generally referred the people of Van-Diemen's land, and those of New Holland to the Alfourous. These Malays, and these Papuas are not easily referable to either of the three great races of which we have been speaking but the 1r ormer be c Ie arI y dI' stm. gu1. shed from their neigh.b ours ' the cc an_ cas·ta n Hm' do _os an d the Mongolian Chinese? As for us, w' e confeasus we cannot discover any sufficient characteristics in them for that ~urpose. A:e the Papuas Negroes, which may formerly have strayed mto the Indian ocean ? We possess neither figures nor descri f ffi · 1 • p Ions su ctent y prectse to enable us to answer this question. The northern inhabitan.ts of both continents, the Samoiedes, the Laplanders, and the Esquimaux spring, according to some, from the Mongolian race, while others assert that they are mere degenerate offsets from the Scythian and Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the . races of the eastern continent; still, they have no precise nor cons. t ant character which can entitle them t(} be considerecl as a par-thic u· lar one. Their copper coloured complexion is not suffi · t· 1 c1en , t etr genera Iy black hair and scanty beard would induce us to refer them to the Mongoles, if their defined features projecting· nose, I~rge and open eye, did not oppose such a theory, ~nd correspond With the features of the European. Their languages are as numberles.s as th~ir tribe_s, and no demonstrative analogy has as yet been obtamed, either Wlth each other, or with those of the old world. (I) ORDER II. QUADRUMAN.A. . Independently of the anatomical details which distinguish lt from man, and which have been given, this family differs ~rom o?r species in a very remarkable way. All the animals elongmg to it have the toes of the hind feet free and oppo- Coquille p. 1 113 , suit th ' . · - · For the languages of the Asiatics and their affinities, con-e AsJa Polyglotta of M. Klaproth. Mi~!L~~e the Voyage de M. de Humboldt, and the dissertations of Vater and ,. |