When it is said, that the Indians are of one uni form red colour, this must be understood with some exceptions. The Esquimaux, who inhabit the most northerly region of America, and who, though a wretched people, distinguish themselves by the name of Kerabit, or Men, arc of a lighter hue, and approach, in their complexion, to that of the Greenlanders, from whom their origin is unquestionably to he derived. In the Isthmus of Darien, there are men to be found entirely white, and separated from the other natives of the wes tern hemisphere by many qualities peculiar to them selves. (Wafer, Discrip. of Istb. ap. Dampier, iii. p. 346.) Their skin is covered with a down of a milky hue, but without the ruddy look which gives so much beauty to the European complexion. The hair of their heads, their eye-brows and eye-lashes, are of the same chalky colour. Their eyes are so weak, that they can not endure the light of the sun ; but they see well by moon-light, and are active and playful in the night. Notwithstanding these peculiarities, however, they are not to be regarded as a distinct species, but resemble those individuals in Africa, who are called Albinos by the Portuguese, and are of a white colour, in the midst of a people whose complexion is black. They do not propagate their kind : and the parents, both of the whites in the Isthmus of Darien, and of the Albinos in Africa, have the same colour and the same tempera ment with the other inhabitants of their respective coun tries. Their peculiar hue is to be considered as the effect of some disease in their parents or in themselves, rather than as a circumstance which characterizes them as a separate race. See ALBINO.
It is particularly deserving of notice, that among the rude natives of America, there is not an individual to be seen who is lame or deformed ; or at least who is known to have been so from his infancy. This was at first ascribed to the ease with which the Indian women pro duce their children : and it was supposed that nature, when unrestrained and free in her operations. accom plished her work in the most regular and perfect man nee. It is allowed that the Indian women bring their children with great ease. I historians relate.
be lore the arrival of the Spaniards, they had bey( • heard of midwif es at Peru. But though something may be ascribed to this eircunistance, the great cause of the perfect formation which was observed among the savages of America, is, that they expose, or put to death, such of their children as are weak, or delormed in their bodily configuration. The same practice existed among the Lacedannonians of aii(.iy nt tunes, and for reasons which are nearly the same. A child, whose organization is feeble or defective, cannot support itself when it is grown, by fishing or hunting. It is an runihrancc, rather than an advantage, to the community.
This is foreseen by the native-, of America ; sod, in order to prevent it, they destroy all those,iu their who,e form renders th.nn incapable of exertion. Ilcuce none arc permitted to live, bUt such as ale duly propor tioned : and hence the perfection of bodily. structure, which appeared so wonderful to the first settlers in the continent of America.
The whole race of Indians is distinguished by a peculiar thickness of the skin. Anatomists have ex amined it, and found it so. This is a qualhy which is natural to the people of America ; though it may be ascribed, in some degree, to the practice of besmearing themselves with ointments and paint ; a practice, which, as •c have mentioned already, is general in every quar ter of the New World. From this thickness of the skin, the small-pox, one of the most desolating of the eruptive diseases, was particularly fatal to the inhabitants of America, when it was introduced among- them by the Europeans. The morbific matter escaped with difficulty, because the pustules were not easily formed ; and thou sands of the Indians perished under the ravages of that wasting disorder.
Another peculiarity of the American Indians is, that they have no beards, and no hair on any part of the body, except the head. The want of those tokens, which indicate a manly firmness of constitution, was given as an evidence by the Spaniards, that the inhabi tants of the New World were of a different species from those of the Old ; that they were beneath the level of human nature, and ought to be treated in the same manner with the brutes. To this idea, the debility of frame, which marked the natives of the islands first visited by the Europeans, contributed not a little, as well as their astonishing ignorance of the most common arts and inventions, and their total want of curiosity. Ac in the famous bull, promulgated by Paul III. in 1586, it was stated, that though the settlers in .America had regarded the natives uti brute they were to be considered as real men : and, in the same mandate of the pope, they were declared to be capable of receiving the doctrines, and enjoying the advantages of the Christian faith. A more intimate acquaintance with the New World has taught us, that the Indians are not beardless by nature ; but that it is their constant practice to pull out the hairs by the roots as soon as appear. The instrument which is used for this purpose is a split stick, between the columns of which the hairs are introduced, and eradicated by force. (.1ragazin de Got duple, torn. i. via ; et Cayen. p. 26:2.) Nor are all the inhabitants of the western continent des titute of beards. The hair on the chins of the Esquimaux is long and bushy ; and this circumstance. as well as their language and manners, points them out as a race 1.,A,div from the other natives of that quarter of the globe.