It is noteworthy that the language of the Bongos has a feminine, as also that of their neighbors the Djurs; butt the forms of these languages are so independent that an influence of one on the other is not to be thought of. In this they are like the Logone and Hausa, which are distinguished by the same peculiarity. The principle of forming the feminine by the change of the vowels, and more rarely, but only in the third person, by a change in the first sound, is common to all. The Dinka bears resemblance in its vocabulary to the western languages, and has many other common properties with them.
Physical Characteristics of The Ncgro: Form and true Negro type is found at but few places, and not universally. The doliehocephalic head with the small globular forehead (b/. S9, figs. 10-12; pl. 93,11g. 3) rests on a thick fleshy neck and hangs a little forward, as the occipital foramen is farther back than that of the European, while the spinal column is straighter, because the pelvis is not curved toward the front, but is per pendicular. This explains why the knees arc generally curved, and why the calves are far up, projecting a little to the side, and not much devel oped. As the muscles of the upper leg arc also undeveloped, and the legs are proportionately longer than those of Europeans, the stature of the Negro appears slender. The pelvis, although broader than that of the Bushmen, is comparatively narrow and small: Plate t (Jig. n e) shows the outline of the pelvis of a Negress.
The foot is often flat, and the heelbonc projects. Both the upper arm and the forearm, especially the latter, arc longer than with Europeans; the hands of the Negroes, according to measurements by Wcisbach, are not extraordinarily long; the hardness of the palm of the hand is pro duced by the peculiar formation of the skin. The skin is thick, on account of the abundance of papillce (p1. I, 9), velvet-like, soft, and always cool; in spite of its dark pigment, which varies from slate-color or leather-brown to the darkest black, it is sensitive to the heat of the sun.
Hair.—Down is almost absent, and there is but little hair generally; the beard grows late, and only about the mouth and chin (p1. 93,fig. 3). The hair of the head, invariably black and glossy, is distinctly marked, well defined as to its limits, mostly short, rather hard, and on account of its close curl of a woolly appearance. Sometimes it grows in tufts, the single tufts and strips being separated by bare spots, as is seen among the South Africans.
stature is generally large, and not rarely attains a height of iSo centimetres (70.87 inches); i6o centimetres (63 inches) is the average height; but there are entire tribes, especially in the east, which are much smaller—only 130 to 140 centimeters (51 to 55 inches). The bones are thick and heavy, especially those of the skull, whose extreme hardness makes it insensible to injuries which would be fatal to whites; in quarrels the combatants not unfrequently butt each other with the head.
Brain, and brain, although not the small est of the species, is inferior to that of the European both in size and in the number of its convolutions. The form of the skull, the vertex being highly curved, is (Welcker); the cheekbones project broadly (pl. 89, figs. 1o, IT); the jawbones are decidedly prognathic (p1. 89, figs. II, 12); the teeth, which are large and of an opaque white, are inclined forward toward each other (pl. 89, figs. to, 12). The chin is broad (p1. 89, fig. to), but not very long (pl. 89, fig. 12). The eyes are narrow (p1. 91, fig. I), the iris black, the white is yellowish (reddish) and dim; the auricles of the ear stand away from the head and are flat and large; the fleshy nose is broad and flat, with wide nostrils; the mouth is everted, the thick lips project (comp. pl. 91, figs. 1, 9; fii. 93, fig. 3) and are of a reddish-brown color.
type—which, as Waitz says, would appear to many Negro tribes of finer physique as a caricature of themselves—is, according to the statement of most writers, the true type of the Negroes, on which the better forms have been ingrafted by means of commixtures. But this is certainly an erroneous opinion. We find the type as described in the lowlands along the coasts and in the swampy regions of the inte rior: on the coast, for instance, among the Papel, the Feloops, the Susns, the Ashantees, the Fantis, the inhabitants of the Niger Delta, and those at the mouth of the Calabar; in the interior among a few Mandingo tribes, the tribes on the lower Niger, and many tribes on the White Nile, among the Dinkas, the Shilluks (p1. 96, fig. 2), the Nuers (pl. 97, fig. 5), the Elliabs, the Baris (p1. 94, figs. 4, 6), etc. Where the Negroes dwell in healthier, drier, and higher regions, where they and their civil ization are more developed, their type becomes better; and it must he said that the type is more pronounced among the lower classes than among the higher.