2. Mongolian variety. Olive colour ; black, straight, strong,and spare hair; head of a square form ; broad and flattened face, with the features running together ; the glabella (interval between the eye brows) flat and very broad ; nose small and flat ; rounded cheeks projecting ex ternally ; narrow and linear aperture of the eyelids ; slight projection of the chin.
This includes the rest of the Asiatics, (excepting the :Malays); the Finnish races of the colder parts of Europe, as the Laplanders, &c.; and the tribes of Esquimaux, extending over the northern parts of America, from Bhering's Strait to the extremity of Greenland.
The Mongolians, widely scattered over the continent of Asia, have generally, but erroneously, been included with some of very different origin and formation, un der the name of Tartars ; whereas the last-mentioned tribes, properly so called, belong to the first division of the human race. The Cal mucks, and other Mongo lian nations, which overran the Saracen empire, under Zenghis Khan, about the middle of the thirteenth century, and had entered Europe, are described in the "Historia Major" of Matthew Paris un der the name of Tartars, whereas that name (or, as it should be spelled, Tatars) properly belongs to the western Asiatics, who had been vanquished by the Mon guls. The error, however, arising from this source, has been propagated down to the present day, so that in the works of the most approved naturalists, as Buf fon and Erxleben, we find the characters of the Mongolian race ascribed to what they call the Tartars.
The Tartars indeed are connected by the Kirgises, and neighbouring tribes, to the Monguls, in the same way as the lat ter are joined by the inhabitants of Till bet to the Indians ; by the Esquimaux, to the Americans ; and by the Philippine islanders, with the Malays.
3. Ethiopian variety. Black skin; black and woolly hair ; head narrow, and com pressed laterally; arched forehead; cheek bones standing forwards ; prominent eyes; thick nose, confused with the extended jaw ; alveolar arch narrow, and elongated anteriorly ; the upper front teeth project ing- obliquely ; the lips, and particularly the upper one, thick ; the chin receding; knees turned in in many instances. The remaining Africans, besides those classed in the first variety, belong to this.
Several of the observations in the pre ceding parts of this article strew how ill founded is the opinion of those who con sider the Africans as a distinct species, merely because his colour, a very striking character, is so unlike our own. The ob servation, that Negroes resemble mon keys more than those of the other varie ties, is true in the same sense as it might be said, that the variety of the pig, which has a solid hoof, resembles the horse more nearly than other pigs ; but the comparison itself is not a very important one, since it has been made, even by ac curate observers, of several nations in the other varieties ; as the Laplanders, Esqui maux, Caaiguas of South America, the in habitants of the island Mallicollo, &c.
4. American variety. Red colour ; black, straight, strong, and thin hair ; short fore head ; deep eyes ; nose somewhat flat tened, but prominent; a broad, but not flattened face, with the cheeks standing out, and the different features projecting distinctly and separately ; the forehead and vertex often deformed by art. This variety includes all the Americans, with the exception of the Esquimaux.
Several idle tales have been propagated concerning the distinguishing characters of this race. Some have denied the ex istence of a beard in the male, and that of the menstrual discharge in the female ; and others have ascribed an uniform colour and countenance to all the inhabi tants of this vast continent. The con curring testimonies of all accurate modern travellers prove clearly that the Ameri cans have naturally beards ; that it is a very general custom with them, as it has been with several Mongolian and Malay tribes, carefully to eradicate this excres cence ; but that various hordes in diffe rent parts of the continent preserve it as other men do. From a cloud of unani mous reports on this subject we select the following statement of the immortal Cook, respecting the natives of Nootka Sound. " Some have no beards at all, and others only a thin one on the point of the chin. This does not arise from an original deficiency of hair in those parts, but from their plucking it out by the roots : for those who do not destroy it have not oniy considerable beards on every part of the chin, but also whiskers, or mustachios, running from the upper lip to the lower jaw obliquely down wards." (Last Voyage, vol. ii. p. 240.) The observation concerning the menses has arisen from the women being seclud ed during their appearance. The red ness of the skin is not so constant, but that it varies in many instances towards a brown, and approaches likewise in some temperate situations to the white colour. Cook states, that the natives about Nootka Sound are little inferior in fairness to Europeans ; and Bouguer makes the same observation of the Peruvians on the Andes. It is also fully ascertained at pre sent, that the Americans possess the same varieties of feature which are observed in the other races.