Sounding bodies are of two kinds; those unelastic ones, which being struck, return but a single sound; and those more elastic returning a succession of sounds, which uniting together form a tone. This tone may be considered as a number of sounds produced one after the other by the same body, as we find in a bell, which continues to sound for some time after it is struck. A continuing tone may be also produced from a non-elastic body, by repeating the blow quick and often, as when we beat a drum, or draw a bow along the string of a fiddle.
Considering the subject in this light, we shall find the number of blows or quickness of repetition will have no effect in altering the tone, but only make it more even or more distinct,whereas if we increase the force of the blow by striking the body with double the weight, this will produce a tone twice as loud as the former. From hence we may infer, that all bodies give a louder and graver tone, not in proportion to the number of times they are struck, but to the force that strikes them. And if this be so, those philosophers who make the tone of a sonorous body, a bell, or the string of an harpsichord, for instance, to depend upon the number only of its vibrations, and not the force, have mistaken what is only an effect for a cause. A bell, or an elastic string, can only be considered as a drum beaten; and the frequency of the blows can make no alteration whatsoever in the tone. The largest bells, and the longest and thickest strings, have the most forcible vibrations; and, therefore, their tones will be more loud and more grave in proportion to the size and weight of the body with which they are struck.
If we strike a body incapable of vibration with a double force, or a double mass of matter, it will produce a sound doubly grave. Music has been said, by the ancients, to have been first invented from the blows of different hammers on an anvil. Suppose then we strikean anvil with a hammer of one pound weight, and then with a hammer of two pounds, it is plain that the latter will produce a sound twice as grave as the former. But if we strike with a two pound hammer, and then with a three pound, the last will produce a sound only one third more grave than the former. If we strike with a three, and then with a four, it will likewise follow that the latter will be a quarter part more grave than the former. Now, in the comparing between all those sounds, it is obvious that the difference between one and two is more easily perceived than between two and three, three and four, or any numbers succeeding in the same proportion. The succession of sounds will be, therefore, pleasing in proportion to the ease with which they may be distinguished. That sound which is double the former, or in other words, the octave to the preceding tone, will be the most pleasing harmony. The next to that, which is as two to three, will be most agreeable. And thus universally, those sounds whose differences may be most easily compared are the most agreeable.
It is most certain that the cause of pleasure in all our senses originates from the justness of proportion, and that disproportion never createsa pleasing sensation. The lad whom Mr. Chesselden restored to sights was at first most delighted with those objects which were regular and smooth on the surface; from this it is plain that the ideas we entertain of beauty from the eye originates from regularity and proportion; it is the same with the sense of feeling, smooth, round, and uniform bodies are more pleasing than those which are rough and irregular; why should not therefore the same preference be given by the ear to the proportion of sounds?
Sound has, in common with light, the property of being extensively diffused; and also admits of reflection. The laws of this reflection, it is true, are less understood: all we know is, that sound is reflected by hard bodies, and that their being hollow, sometimes increases the reverberation. A wall or a mountain sometimes reflects sounds so distinct that we are almost induced to suppose it proceeds from them rather than from an opposite quarter. Vaults and hollow rocks also produce distinct echoes.
The internal part of the ear is particularly formed for reflecting sounds, and may, in some measure, be compared to the cavern of a rock. In this cavity sounds are repeated, and by thatmeans conveyed to the membranous part of the lamina, which being an expansion of the auditory nerves transmits them to the mind. The internal cavity of the ear, which is fashioned out in the temporal bone, like a cavern cut into a rock, seems to be fitted for the purposes of echoing sound with the greatest precision.
One of the most common complaints in old age is deafness, which probably proceeds from the rigidity of the nerves in the labyrinth of the ear, augmenting as we advance in years, and when the membranous part of the lamina becomes ossified deafness is the consequence, and is in that case incurable. It sometimes happens from a stoppage of the wax, but it may then be relieved by art. In order to know whether the defect be an internal or art external one, let the deaf person put a repeating watch into his mouth, and if he hears it strike, he may be assured that his disorder proceeds from an external cause, and may be, in some measure, relieved.
It often happens, that people with bad voices, and unmusical ears, hear better with one ear than the other, and suspecting there might be some analogy between the ears and eyes, asthose who squint have more strength in one eye than the other, I made several experiments, and always found their defect in judging properly of sounds proceeded from the inequality of their ears, and their receiving by both at the same time unequal sensations, and those persons who hear false also sing false, without knowing it. They also frequently deceive themselves with regard to the side from whence the sound comes, generally supposing the noise to come on the part of the best ear. This, however, is only applicable to those who are born with a defect in the hearing.
Such as are hard of hearing reap the same advantage from the trumpet made for this purpose that short-sighted persons do from concave glasses. As the sight is affected with age so is the hearing, and equally requires the assistance of art. Trumpets for assisting hearing might be easily enlarged, so as to increase sounds, in the same manner that the telescope does bodies; but they could be used to advantage only in places of solitude and stillness, as the neighbouring sounds would mix with the more distant ones, and the whole would produce in the ear nothing but tumult and confusion.
Hearing is a much more necessary sense to man than to any other animal. In the latter it is only a warning against danger, or an encouragement to mutual assistance. In man, it is the source of most of his pleasures, and without it the rest of his senses would be of little benefit. A man born deaf must necessarily be dumb, and his whole sphere of knowledge must be bounded by sensual objects. We shall here notice a singular instance of a young man, who, born deaf, at the age of 24 suddenly acquired the faculty of hearing. The account, which is given in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, 1703, page 18, is in substance as follows:
“A young man, of the town of Chartres, aged about 24, the son of a tradesman, who had been deaf and dumb from his birth, began to speak of a sudden, to the utter astonishment of the whole town. He gave his friends to understand, that for three or four months before, he had heard the sound of the bells, and was greatly surprised at this new and unknown sensation. After some time a kind of water issued from his left ear, and he then heard perfectly well with both. During these three monthshe listened attentively to all he heard, and accustomed himself to speak softly the words pronounced by others. He laboured hard in perfecting himself in the pronunciation, and in the ideas attached to every sound. At length, supposing himself qualified to break silence, he declared that he could speak, though as yet but imperfectly. Soon after some able divines questioned him concerning his ideas of his past state, and principally with respect to God, his soul, the moral beauty of virtue and deformity of vice. Of these, however, he did not appear to have the slightest conception. He had gone to mass indeed with his parents, had learned to sign himself with the cross, to kneel down, and to assume all the external signs of devotion; but he did all this without comprehending the intention or the cause. He had no idea even of death, but led a life of pure animal instinct, and though entirely taken up with sensual objects, and such as were present, he yet did not seem to have made any reflections upon them. The young man was not, however, in want of understanding, but the understanding of a man deprived of all intercourse with society is so very confined, that themind is, in some measure, totally under the control of its immediate sensations.”
It is possible, nevertheless, to communicate ideas to deaf men, and even to give them precise notions of general subjects, by means of signs, and by writing. A person born deaf, may be taught to read, to write, and even by the motion of the lips to understand what is said to him; a plain proof how much the senses resemble, and may supply the defects of each other.
On this subject it may not be improper to quote a fact, of which I was myself a witness. One M. Pereire, a native of Portugal, who had made it his particular study to teach persons born deaf and dumb, brought to my house a young man who was thus unhappily circumstanced. He was at the age of nineteen, in the month of July, 1746, when M. Pereire undertook to teach him to speak and read. More than four months had not elapsed, when he was capable of pronouncing syllables and words; and in the space of ten months, he perfectly understood, and could, with tolerable distinctness, pronounce about thirteen hundred different words. This education, so favourablybegun, was interrupted for nine months by the absence of the master; who then found him far less intelligent than he had left him. His pronunciation was vitiated, and of the words he had learned most of, he retained not the smallest remembrance. M. Pereire accordingly renewed his instructions in the month of February, 1748; and from that time he never left him till June 1749. At one of the meetings of the French Academy this young man was brought them, and had several questions proposed to him in writing. To these his answers, whether written or verbal, were highly satisfactory. His pronunciation, indeed, was slow, and the sound of his voice was harsh; but at these defects there is little cause to wonder, as it is by imitation alone that our organs are enabled to form precise, soft, and well-articulated sounds, and, as this young man was deaf, he could not be expected to imitate what he did not hear; but which harshness, by the assiduity and skill of his master, might, however, in some degree, be corrected afterwards.
In the above case, the expedition of the master, and the progress of the pupil, whoindeed seemed to be no wise deficient in point of natural ability and understanding, are an ample proof, that persons born deaf and dumb may, by art, be brought to converse with other men; and I am persuaded that, had this young man been instructed so early as at the age of seven or eight, he would have attained as great a number of ideas as mankind possess in general.
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE SENSES IN GENERAL.
The animal body is composed of different matters, of which some are insensible, as the bones, the fat, the blood, &c. and others, as the membranes and the nerves, appear to be active substances, on which depend the action of every member. The nerves arethe immediate organs of the mind, but which may be said to diversify from a difference in disposition, insomuch, that according to their position, arrangement, and quality, they transmit to the mind different kinds of sentiment, which have been distinguished by the name of sensations, and which appear, in effect, to have no resemblance to each other. Nevertheless, if we consider that all external senses are only nervous membranes, differently placed and disposed; that the nerves are the general organs of feeling, and that in the animal body, no other substance is possessed of this property, we shall be led to believe that the senses, having all one common principle, and the nerves proceeding from the same substance, though in various forms, the sensations which result from them are not so essentially different as they at first appear.
The eye ought to be regarded as an expansion of the optic nerve, whose position being more exterior than that of any other nerve, has the most quick and the most delicate sensation. It will be moved, therefore, by the smallest particles of matter, as those of light; and will consequently give us sensations of distant bodies, provided they produce orreflect those small particles. The ear is not placed so exteriorly as the eye, and in which there not being so great an expansion of nerves, will not be possessed of the like degree of sensibility, nor will it be affected by particles more gross, as those which form sounds, and will give us sensations of such distant objects as can put those particles in motion. As they are much grosser than those of light, and have less quickness, they cannot extend themselves so far; and consequently the ear will not give us sensations of objects so distant as those which the eye communicates. The membrane, which is the seat of smell, being still less furnished with nerves than the ear, it will only give us sensations of particles of matter which are more gross and less remote, such as the odour from bodies, which may be said to be the essential oils which exhale and float in the air, as light bodies swim upon the water. As the nerves are also in less quantity, and more divided over the tongue, and palate, and the odoriferous parts are not strong enough to affect them, the oily or saline parts must detach themselves from other bodies, and lodge upon the tongue to produce the sensation of taste. This sense differs materially from that of smelling,because the last brings to us sensations of things at a certain distance, but the former requires a kind of contact, which operates by the means of the fusion of certain parts of matter, such as salts, oils, &c. In short, as the nerves are minutely divided, and as the skin affords them but a very thin covering, no particles of matter so small as those which form light, sound, or odours, can affect them; and the sense of feeling gives us no sensation of distant objects, but of those only whose contact is immediate.
It appears, therefore, that the difference between our senses is occasioned by the more or less exterior position of the nerves, and of their greater or smaller quantity in the different organs. It is for this reason that a nerve, when irritated by a stroke, or uncovered by a wound, gives us often the sensation of light, without the assistance, of the eye; and from the same cause we often experience sensations of sound, though the ear be not affected by any thing exterior.
When the particles of luminous or sonorous matters are re-united in great quantities, they form a kind of solid body, that produces different kinds of sensations, which appear not tohave any relation with the first. The particles which compose light being collected in great quantities, affect not only the eyes but also the nervous parts of the skin, and produce the sensation of heat, which is a sentiment, different from the first, though originating from the same cause. Heat, then, is a sensation arising from a contact with light, which acts as a solid body, or as a mass of matter in motion. The action of light, like other matters in motion, is evident when we expose, light bodies to the focus of a burning glass; the action of the light communicates before even it heats them, a motion by which they are disturbed and displaced. Heat, then, acts as solid bodies act upon each other, since it is capable of displacing light matters, and communicating to them a movement of impulsion.
The like happens when the sonorous particles are collected in great quantities; they produce sensible agitation, which is very different from the action of sound upon the ear. Any violent explosion, as a loud clap of thunder, shakes us, and communicates a kind of trembling to all the neighbouring bodies. Sound then also acts as a solid body, for it is not the agitation of the air which causes thistremulous motion, since even at that time we do not remark that it is accompanied with the wind; besides, however strong the wind may be, it never produces such violent agitations. It is by this action of the sonorous particles that a cord in vibration sets the next in motion; and we ourselves feel, when the noise is violent, a kind of fluttering very different from the sensation of sound by the ear, although it be an effect of the same cause.
All the difference in our sensations are produced by the greater or smaller number, and by the more or less exterior position of the nerves, which is the cause that some of our senses, as the eye, ear, and smell, may be affected by the small particles which exhale from particular bodies; others, as tasting and feeling, require actual contact, or more gross emanations, so as to form a solid mass; and it is this feeling which gives us the sensation of solidity, or fluidity, and of the heat of bodies.
A fluid differs from a solid, because it has not any particles gross enough to admit us to grasp it on different sides at one time. The particles which compose fluids cannot touch each other but at one point, or so few points, that no part can have any considerable adliesionwith another. Solid bodies, reduced even into an impalpable powder, do not absolutely lose their solidity, because the parts, touching each other by many sides, preserve a degree of cohesion; and this is the reason why we can make them up in masses, and squeeze them together.
The sense of feeling is spread over the whole body, but employs itself differently in different parts. The sensation which results from feeling is excited by the contact of some foreign body to that of our own. If we apply a foreign body against the breast or shoulder we shall feel it, but without having a single idea of its form, because the breast or shoulder touches but one side only. It is the same with respect to all other parts which cannot bend themselves round or embrace at one time many parts of foreign bodies. Those parts of our body, which, like the hand, are divided into many flexible and moveable parts, and can apply themselves at one time upon different sides of a foreign body, are those only which can give us the ideas of their form and size.
It is not, therefore, because there are a greater quantity of nervous tufts at the extremity of the fingers than in any other part of thebody, that the hand is, in effect, the principal organ of feeling, but merely because it is divided into many parts all moveable, all flexible, all acting at the same time, and are all obedient to the will; and which alone gives us distinct ideas of the figure and form of bodies. Feeling is no more than a contact of superficies, and the superficies of the hand are greater, in proportion, than that of any other part of the human body, because there is not any one which is so greatly divided. This advantage, when added to those derived from the flexibility of the fingers, suffices to render this part the most perfect organ to give us the exact and precise ideas of the form of bodies, and, if the hand had twenty fingers, it is not to be doubted but that the sense of feeling would be infinitely more perfect; and if we should suppose that it were divided into an infinity of parts we should have, even in the very moment of the touch, exact and precise ideas of the figure and difference of bodies, however small. If, on the contrary, the hand were without fingers, we should have but very imperfect and confused knowledge of the objects which surround us.
Animals which have hands appear to be the most acute; apes do things so resembling themechanical actions of man that they seem to be actuated by the same sensations; but those animals which are deprived of hands having not any part divided and flexible enough to be able to twist round the superficies of bodies, they cannot have any precise notion either of the form or size of them. It is for this reason that we often see them frightened at objects which they ought to be the best acquainted with. The principal organ of their feeling is the muzzle, because it is divided in two parts by the mouth, and because the tongue serves them for touching bodies, and turning them, which they do over and over again, before they take them between their teeth. It may also be conjectured, that animals, which, as the scuttle-fish, the polypus, and many insects, have a great number of arms or paws, which they can unite and join, may also have an advantage over others, in knowing how to chuse what is most agreeable to them. Fishes, therefore, whose bodies are covered with scales, ought to be the most stupid of all animals, for they cannot have any knowledge of the form of bodies; and their sense of feeling must be very obtuse, since they cannot feel but through the scales. Thus all animals, whosebodies have no divided extremities, as arms, legs, paws, &c. will have much less sense of feeling than others. Serpents, however, are less stupid than fishes, because, although they have no extremities, and are covered with a hard and scaly coat, they have the faculty of bending round foreign bodies, and by that means obtaining some conception of their form and magnitude.
The two great obstacles to the exercise of the sense of feeling then are, first, the uniformity of the figure of the body of the animal, or the defect of the different divided and flexible parts; and secondly, the cloathing of the skin, whether with hair, feathers, scales, shells, &c. The more this cloathing is hard and solid, the less the sentiment of feeling will be; and the finer and more delicate the skin, the sense of feeling will be the more quick and exquisite. Women, among other advantages over men, have their skin more fine, and the sense of feeling more delicate.
The fœtus in the womb of the mother, has a very delicate skin; it must therefore feel every exterior impression in the most acute manner; but as it swims in a liquid, and asliquids break the action of all the causes which may occasion any shock, it can but very seldom be injured, and never without some violent shock be received by the mother. Although the sense of feeling depends, in a great measure upon the fineness of the skin, yet, as it can have but little exercise in the fœtus state, so can it have but little sensation arising from feeling.
In a new-born infant, the hands remain as useless as in the fœtus, because, by swaddling they are not permitted to make use of them, till the end of six or seven weeks; by this absurd custom, we retard the unfolding of this important sense on which all our knowledge depends; and therefore we should act more wisely, were we to allow the infant the free use of its hands the moment of its birth, as it would then sooner acquire ideas of the form of things; and who knows how far our first ideas have an influence over our subsequent ones? One man, perhaps, possesses more ingenuity, or capacity than another, merely because in his earliest infancy he was allowed to make a greater and readier use of this sense. As soon as children are indulged with the liberty of their hands, they endeavour to touch whatever ispresented to them. They take pleasure in handling every thing they are capable of grasping; they seem as if desirous to find out the form of bodies, by feeling them on every side; and they amuse or instruct themselves in this manner with new objects. And which predilection for novelty remains our favourite amusement through life.
It is by feeling alone that we can attain any complete and certain intelligence, and it is by that alone, all the other senses are prevented from being perpetual sources of illusion and error. But in what manner is this important sense developed? In what manner are our first ideas attained? Have we not forgot every thing that passed during the cloud of infancy? How shall we trace our thoughts back to their origin? Even in attempting thus to trace them, is there not presumption? There is, and were the object in view of less importance, with justice might it be stigmatized, but as the mind cannot be employed in a more noble research, every effort may surely be exerted in so important a contemplation.
Let us suppose, then, a man newly brought into existence, whose body and organs were perfectly formed, but who, awaking amidst theproductions of Nature, is an utter stranger to himself and every thing he perceives. Of a man thus circumstanced what would be the first emotions, the first sensations, the first opinions? Were he himself to give us a detail of his conceptions at this period, how would he express them? Might it not be in some measure as follows? And here let us suppose such a man to speak for himself.
“Well do I recollect that joyful, anxious moment, when I first became conscious of my own existence; I knew not what I was, where I was, nor from whence I came. On opening my eyes, what an addition to my surprise! The light of day, the azure vault of heaven, the verdure of the earth, the transparency of the waters, all employed, all animated my spirits, and filled me with inexpressible delight.
“At first, I imagined that all those objects were within me, and formed a part of myself. Impressed with this idea, I turned my eyes toward the sun, whose splendour instantly dazzled and overpowered me. Involuntarily I closed my eye-lids, though not without a slight sensation of pain; and, during this short interval ofdarkness, I imagined that I was about to sink into nothing.
“Full of affliction and astonishment at this great change, I was roused by a variety of sounds. The whistling of the breezes, and the melody of birds, formed a concert, of which the soft impression pervaded the inmost recesses of my soul. I continued to listen, and was persuaded, that this music was actually within me.
“So much was I engrossed with this new kind of existence, that I entirely forgot the light part of my being, which I had known the first, till again I opened my eyes. What joy to find myself once more in possession of so many brilliant objects! The present pleasure surpassed the former, and for a time suspended the charming effect of sound.
“I turned my eyes upon a thousand different objects, I soon found that I could lose and restore them at pleasure; and with a repetition of this new power I continued to amuse myself.
“I began to see without emotion, and to hear without confusion, when a light breeze, communicated a new sensation of pleasures bywafting its perfumes to my nostrils, and excited in me a kind of additional self-love.
“Occupied by these different sensations, and impelled by the various pleasures of my new existence, I instantly arose, and was transported by perceiving that I moved along, as if by some unknown, some hidden power.
“Hardly had I advanced one step, when the novelty of my situation rendered me immoveable. My surprise returned; for I supposed that all the objects around me were in motion, and the whole creation seemed once more to be in disorder.
“I carried my hand to my head, I touched my forehead, I felt my whole frame. Then I found my hand to be the principal organ of my existence. All its informations were so distinct, so perfect, and so superior to what I had experienced from the other senses, that I employed myself for some time in repeating its enjoyments. Every part of my body, which I touched with my hand, seemed to touch my hand in turn, and actually gave back sensation for sensation.
“It was not long before I perceived that this faculty of feeling was expanded over my whole frame, and I began to discover the limitsof my existence, which at first I had supposed of an immense extent, and diffused over all the objects I saw.
“Upon casting my eyes upon my body, I conceived it to be of a size so enormous, that all other objects seemed to be, in comparison, as so many luminous particles. I gazed upon my person with pleasure. I examined the formation of my hand, and all its motions; and my hand appeared to be more or less large, in proportion as it was more or less distant from my eyes. On bringing it very near, it concealed, I found, almost every other object from my sight.
“I began to suspect there was some fallacy in the sensation I experienced from the eye, because as I perceived my hand was only a small part, I could not conceive how it should appear so large; I therefore resolved to depend for information upon the touch, which as yet had never deceived me. This precaution was highly serviceable. I renewed my motions, and walked with my face turned toward the heavens. Happening to strike lightly against a palm-tree, I was dismayed, and laid my hand, though not without fear, upon this object, and found it to be a being distinct frommyself, because it did not return double sensation as my own body had done. Now it was that, for the first time, I perceived there was something external, something which did not form an actual part of my own existence.
“From this new discovery I concluded that I ought to form my opinion with respect to external objects, in the same manner as I had done with respect to the parts of my body. I resolved, therefore, to feel whatever I saw, and vainly attempted to touch the sun, I stretched forth my arm and found nothing but an airy vacuum. Every effort I made, as each object appeared to me equally near, led me from one fit of surprize into another, nor was it till after an infinite number of trials that I was enabled to use the eye as a guide to the hand, and that I perceived there were some objects more remote from me than others.
“Amazed and mortified at the uncertainty of my state, and the endless delusions to which I seemed subjected, the more I reflected the more I was fatigued and oppressed with thought; I seated myself beneath a tree loaded with delicious fruit, within my reach. On stretching forth my arm, and gently touching it, the fruit instantly separated from the branch; I seized it,and being able to grasp in my hand an entire substance, which formed no part of myself, appeared of great importance. When I held it up its weight, though in itself trivial, seemed like an animated impulse, in conquering which I found another and a greater pleasure.
“I held the fruit near my eye, and I considered its form and its colours. Its fragrance prompted me to carry it near my lips, and with eagerness did I inhale that fragrance. The perfume envited my sense of tasting, which I found to be superior to that of smelling. What savour, what novelty of sensation, did I now experience. Nothing could be more exquisite. What before had been pleasure was how heightened into luxury. The power of tasting gave me the idea of possession. I imagined that the substance of this fruit had become a part of my own, and that I was empowered to transform things without me at will.
“Charmed at the idea of this new power, and incited by the sensations I had already experienced, I continued to pluck the fruit and to eat. At length, however, an agreeable languor stealing upon my senses, my limbs became heavy, and my soul seemed to lose itsactivity. My sensations, no longer vivid and distinct, presented to me only feeble and irregular images. In the instant, as it were, my eyes became useless, closed, and my head, no longer borne up by the strength of the muscles, sunk back, and found a support upon the verdant turf beneath me.
“To every thing around me I was now lost and insensible. Of my very existence I retained not the smallest sensation. How long I continued thus asleep I know not, for as yet I had not formed the smallest idea of time. My awaking appeared like a second birth, and I only felt that my existence had experienced a certain interruption. This short annihilation produced in me a sensation of fear, and I began to conclude that I was not to exist for ever.
“In this state of doubt and perplexity I also began to suspect that sleep had robbed me of some part of my late powers, when turning around, in order to resolve my doubts, with what astonishment did I behold another form similar to my own? I took it for another self; and I imagined that, far from having lost any thing during my late state of annihilation, my existence was in reality doubled.
“Over this new being I carried my hand, and found, with rapture and astonishment, that it was not a part of myself, but something more; something more charming, something more glorious! nor could I help supposing that my existence was about to be transfused entirely into this, as it were, second part of my being. New ideas and new passions now arose, took possession of my soul, and excited my curiosity. By the touch of my hand I found her to be animated; expression and vivacity darted from her eyes and impressed my soul, and love served to complete that happiness which was begun in the individual, and every sense was gratified in its full variety.”
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE VARIETIES IN THE HUMAN SPECIES.
Every thing which we have hitherto advanced relates to man as an individual. The history of the species requires a separate detail, of which the principal facts can only bederived from the varieties that are found in the inhabitants of different regions. Of the varieties, the first and the most remarkable is the colour, the second is the form and size, and the third is the disposition. Considered in its full extent, each of these objects might afford materials for a volume. Our remarks, however, shall be general, and confined to such points as have been established on undoubted testimony.
In examining the surface of the earth, and beginning our inquiries from the north, we find in Lapland, and in the northern parts of Tartary, a race of small-sized men, whose figure is uncouth, and whose physiognomy is as wild as their manners are unpolished. Though they seem to be of a degenerate species they yet are numerous, and the countries they occupy are extensive.
The Danish, Swedish, and Muscovite Laplanders, the inhabitants of Nova-Zembla, the Borandians, the Samoiedes, the Ostiacks of the old continent, the Greenlanders, and the savages to the north of the Esquimaux Indians, of the new continent, appear to be of one common race, which has been extended and multiplied along the coasts of the northernseas, in deserts and climates, considered as uninhabitable by every other nation. These people have broad faces and flat noses; their eyes are of a yellowish brown, inclining to black, their eye-lids are drawn toward the temples, their cheek-bones are extremely prominent, their mouths are large, the lower part of their countenances is narrow, their lips thick and turned outward; their voices are shrill, with heads bulky, hair black and straight, and skin of a tawny colour. They are small in stature, and though meagre, they are yet of a squat form. In general their size is about four feet, and the tallest exceed not four feet and a half. Among these people, if there is any difference to be found, it depends on the greater or less degree of deformity. The Borandians, for example, are still less than the Laplanders. The white of their eye is of a darker yellow, and they are also more tawny; and their legs, instead of being slender, like those of the latter, are thick and bulky. The Samoiedes are more squat than the Laplanders; their heads are larger, their noses longer, their complexion more dark, their legs shorter, their hair longer, and their beards more scanty. The Greenlanders have the most tawny skin,its colour being that of a deep olive, and it is even said that some of them are as black as those of Ethiopia. Throughout them all it is to be observed, the women are as unseemly as the men; and so nearly do they resemble each other, that at first it is not easy to distinguish them. The women of Greenland are very small, but well proportioned; their hair is more black, and their skin softer, than those of the Samoiede women: their breasts are of such length that children are able to receive the nipple, which is of a jet black, over the mother’s shoulder. Some travellers say they have no hair but upon the head, and that they are not subject to the periodical complaints common to the sex. Their visage is large, their eyes small, black, and lively, and their feet and hands are short. In every other respect the Samoiede and the Greenland women are similar. The savages north of the Esquimaux, and even in the northern parts of Newfoundland, bear a resemblance to the Greenlanders; their eyes, it is true, are larger, but, like them, they are of small stature, have flat noses, and large and broad faces.
Nor is it alone in deformity, in diminutiveness, and in the colour of the hair and eyes,that these nations resemble each other, but also in their inclinations and manners. Incivility, superstition, and ignorance, are alike conspicuous in them all.
The Danish Laplanders have a large black cat, which they make a confidant in all their secrets, a counsellor in all their difficulties, and whom they consult on all occasions. Among the Swedish Laplanders, there is in every family a drum, for the purpose of consulting the devil; and though they are robust and nimble, they are yet so timid and dastardly, that no inducement can bring them into the field of battle. Gustavus Adolphus undertook, but undertook in vain, to form a regiment of Laplanders. Indeed there is reason to suppose that they cannot live but in their own country, and in their own manner. In travelling over the ice and snow, they use skates made of fur, which are in length about two ells, and half a foot broad, and which are raised and pointed before, and fastened to the foot by straps of leather. With these they make such dispatch on the snow, that they easily overtake the swiftest animals. They also use a pole, pointed with iron at one end, and rounded at the other. This pole servesto push them along, to direct their course, to keep them from falling, to stop the impetuosity of their career, and to kill what game they overtake. With their skates they descend the steepest precipices, and scale the most craggy mountains; nor are the women less skilful in such exercises than the men. They are all accustomed to the bow and arrow; and it is asserted, that the Muscovite Laplanders launch a javelin with so much dexterity, that at the distance of thirty paces they are sure to hit a mark no larger than a silver crown, and with such force, that it will transfix a human body. They hunt the ermine, the fox, the lynx, and the martin, whose skins they barter for brandy and tobacco. Their food consists principally of dried fish, and the flesh of the bear and rein-deer. Of the bones of fishes, pounded and mixed with the tender bark of the pine or birch-tree, is their bread composed. Their drink is either train-oil or brandy and when deprived of these, their favourite beverage is water, in which juniper-berries have been infused.
Examined in a moral sense, the Laplanders have few virtues, and all the vices of ignorance. Immersed in superstition and idolatry, of aSupreme Being they have no conception; nor is it easy to determine which is most conspicuous, the grossness of their understandings, or the barbarity of their manners, being equally destitute of courage and shame. Boys and girls, mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, bathe together naked, without being in the smallest degree ashamed. When they come out of their baths, which are warm, they immediately go into the rivers. It is the custom among all these people to offer their wives and daughters to strangers, and are much offended if the offer is not accepted.
In winter, the Laplanders, clothe themselves with the skin of the rein-deer, and in summer with the skins of birds. To the uses of linen they are utter strangers. The women of Nova-Zembla have the nose and ears pierced, and ornament them with pendants of blue stone; and to add a lustre to their charms, they form blue streaks upon their forehead and chin. The men wear no hair on the head, and cut their beards round. The Greenland women dress themselves with the skin of the dog-fish: they also paint their faces with blue and yellow, and wear pendants in their ears. They all live underground, or in huts almost so, coveredwith the bark of trees, or the bones of fishes. Some of them form subterraneous trenches, from one hut to another, by which, during the winter months, they can enjoy the society of their neighbours without going out. A continued series of darkness for several months obliges them to illuminate their dreary abodes with lamps, in which they burn the same train oil they use as drink. In summer they have scarcely more comfort than in winter, being obliged to live perpetually in a thick smoke, which is the only device they have contrived for the destruction of gnats, which are perhaps more numerous in these regions of frost, than in those of the most scorching heat. Under all these hardships they are subject to few diseases, and they live to a prodigious age. So vigorous indeed are the old men, that they are hardly to be distinguished from the young. The only infirmity they experience is that of blindness, which is very common among them. Perpetually dazzled by the strong reflection of the snow in winter, and enveloped in clouds of smoke in summer, few when advanced in years are found to retain the use of their eyes.
As all the different tribes or nations, therefore, resemble each other in form, inshape, in colour, in manners, and even in oddity of customs, they are undoubtedly of the same race of men. The practice of offering their women to strangers, and of being pleased when they are thought worthy of caresses, may proceed from a consciousness of their own deformity as well as that of their women. In appearance, the woman, whom a stranger has accepted, they afterwards respect for her superior beauty. At any rate it is certain, although remote from each other, and separated by a great sea, the custom is general in all the above countries. We even meet with it among the Crim Tartars, the Calmucks, and among several other nations of Siberia and of Tartary, where personal deformity is almost as conspicuous as in those of the North. In all the neighbouring nations, on the other hand, as in China, and in Persia[C], where the women are remarkable for beauty, the men are also remarkable for jealousy.
[C]La Boulai tells us, that in order to prevent all cause of jealousy, when the women of Schach die, the place of their interment is industriously kept secret, in like manner as the ancient Egyptians delayed the embalment of their wives for several days after their decease, that the surgeons might have no temptation.
[C]La Boulai tells us, that in order to prevent all cause of jealousy, when the women of Schach die, the place of their interment is industriously kept secret, in like manner as the ancient Egyptians delayed the embalment of their wives for several days after their decease, that the surgeons might have no temptation.
In examining the different nations adjacent to this extensive territory, which the Laplanders occupy, we find they have no affinity. Alone are they resembled by the Ostiacks and the Tongusians, whose situation is to the south and south-east of the Samoiedes. The Samoiedes and Borandians bear no resemblance to the Russians; nor do the Laplanders to the Fins, the Goths, the Danes, or the Norwegians. The Greenlanders are likewise entirely different from the savages of Canada, who are tall and well proportioned, and though the tribes differ from each other, they do more so from the Laplanders. The Ostiacks, however, seem to be a less ugly and taller branch of the Samoiedes. They live on raw fish or flesh, and for drink they prefer blood to water. Like the Laplanders and the Samoiedes they are immersed in idolatry; nor are they known to have any fixed abode. In fine, they appear to form a shade between the race of Laplanders and the Tartarians; or rather, indeed, may it be said that the Laplanders, the Samoiedes, the Borandians, the Nova-Zemblians, and perhaps the Greenlanders, and the savages to the north of the Esquimaux Indians, are Tartars reduced to the lowest point of degeneracy;that the Ostiacks are less degenerated than the Tongusians, who though to the full as ugly, are yet more sizeable and shapely. The Samoiedes and Laplanders live in the latitude of 68 or 69, the Ostiacks and the Tongusians in that of 60. The Tartars, who are situated along the Wolga, in the latitude of 55, are gross, stupid, and beastly; like the Tongusians, they have hardly any idea of religion, nor will they receive for their wives any women until they have had an intercourse with other men.
The Tartars occupy the greatest part of Asia, and in fact extend from Russia to Kamtschatka, a space in length from 11 to 1200 leagues and from 700 to 750 in breadth; a circumference twenty times larger than the whole kingdom of France. The Tartars terminate China, the kingdoms of Boutan and Alva, and the empires of Mogul and Persia, even to the Caspian Sea, on the north and west. They spread along the Wolga, and over the west coast of the Caspian Sea, even to Daghestan. They have penetrated to the north coast of the Black Sea, and formed settlements in the Crimea, and in the neighbourhood of Moldavia and the Ukraine. All these people have the upper part of their face very large andwrinkled even while yet in their youth. Their noses are short and flat, their eyes little, and sunk in their head; their cheek-bones are high; the lower part of their face is narrow; their chin is long and prominent; their teeth are long and straggling; there eye-brows are so large as to cover the eyes; their eye-lids are thick; the face broad and flat; their complexion tawny, their hair black; they have but little beard, which is disposed like the Chinese; they have thick thighs and short legs, and though but of middling stature, they are remarkably strong and robust. The ugliest of them are the Calmucks, in whose appearance there seems to be something frightful. They are all wanderers and vagabonds; and their only shelter is that of tents, made of hair or skins. Their food is horse-flesh, and flesh of other animals, either raw or a little softened by being between the horse and the saddle. They eat also fish dried in the sun. Their most common drink is mare’s milk, fermented, with millet ground into meal. They all have the head shaved, except a tuft of hair on the top, which they let grow sufficiently long to form into tresses on each side of the face. The women, who are as ugly as the men, wear theirhair, which they bind up with bits of copper, and other ornaments of the same nature.
The majority of these tribes are alike strangers to religion, morality, and decency. They are robbers by profession; and those of Daghestan, who live in the neighbourhood of civilized countries, sustain a great traffic of slaves, whom they carry off by forte, and afterwards sell to the Turks and the Persians. Their wealth consists chiefly of horses, which are more numerous, perhaps, in Tartary than in any other part of the world. They live in the same place with their horses, and are continually employed in training, dressing, and exercising them, whom they reduce to such implicit obedience, that they actually appear to understand, as it were, the intention of their riders.
To attain a knowledge of the particular differences which subsist in the race of Tartars, we have only to compare the descriptions that travellers have given of their different tribes. The Calmucks, who are situated in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, between the Muscovites and the great Tartars, are, according to Tavernier, robust, but the most ugly and the most deformed of all humanbeings. Their faces are so flat and so broad that their eyes, which are uncommonly small, are from five to six inches asunder; and their noses so flat that two holes are barely perceivable instead of nostrils. Next to the Calmucks, the natives of Daghestan rank in the class of deformity. The little Tartars, or the Tartars of Nogai, who dwell near the Black Sea, are less ugly than the Calmucks, though their faces are broad, their eyes small, and in their figures there is a great resemblance. From their intermixture with the Circassians, the Moldavians, and other neighbouring nations, it is probable that this race have lost much of their original ugliness. The Tartars of Siberia have, like the Calmucks, broad faces, short flat noses, and small eyes; and though their language is different, yet they bear so strong a resemblance to each other, that they can only be considered as the same people. The further we advance eastward we find the features of the Tartars are gradually softened, but the characteristics essential to the race still remain. The Mongou Tartars, according to Palafox, who conquered China, and who were the most polished, though they are the least deformed, yet, like all the other tribes, theireyes are small, faces broad and flat, scanty beards, either black or red; their noses compressed and short, and their complexions tawny. The people of Thibet, and the other southern provinces of Tartary, are also of a more agreeable aspect. Mr. Sanchez, formerly first physician to the Russian army, a gentleman distinguished by his abilities, has obligingly communicated to me in writing the remarks he had made in the course of his travels through Tartary.
In the years 1735, 1736, and 1737, he visited the Ukraine, the banks of the Don to the sea of Zabach, and the confines of Cuban to Asoph. He traversed the deserts between the countries of the Crimea and Backmut; he went among the Calmucks, who wander about without any fixed habitation, from the kingdom of Casan to the banks of the Don; as also the Crimea and Nogai-Tartars, who wander between the Crimea and the Ukraine, and likewise the Kergissi and Tcheremissi-Tartars, who are situated to the north of Astracan, between the latitude of 50 and 60. These according to him are more diminutive and squat, less active and more corpulent; their eyes are black, complexions tawny, and their faceslarger and broader than those we have mentioned. He adds, that among these Tartars, he saw numbers of men and women who had no resemblance to them, but were as white as the people of Poland. They have many slaves among them, brought from among the Russians and Poles; and as their religion admits a number of wives and concubines; and as their Sultans, and Murzas or nobles, prefer the women of Georgia and Circassia for their wives, the children produced from such alliances are less ugly, and more fair than from connections among themselves. There is even a whole tribe of Tartars, called Kabardinski-Tartars, who are remarkable for their beauty. Of these Mr. Sanchez sawthree hundredon horseback, who were going to enter into the service of Russia; and he declares that he never saw men of a more noble and manly figure; their complexions were fair, fresh and ruddy; their eyes were large and black, and they were tall and well proportioned. He was assured by the Lieutenant-general of Serapikin, who had made a long residence at Kabarda, that the women were equally handsome; but this tribe, so different from all the Tartars around them,came originally from the Ukraine, and removed to Kabarda about the beginning of the last century.
Though the Tartar blood is intermixed, on one side with that of the Chinese, and on the other with that of the Oriental Russians, yet there is sufficient characteristics of the race remaining to suppose them of one common stock. Among the Muscovites are numbers, whose form of visage and body bear a strong resemblance to those of the Tartars. The Chinese are totally different in their dispositions, manners, and customs. The Tartars are naturally fierce, warlike, and addicted to the chace, inured to fatigue, fond of independence, and to a degree of brutality uncivilized. Altogether opposite are the manners of the Chinese; they are effeminate, pacific, indolent, superstitious, slavish, and full of ceremony and compliment. In their features, and form, however, there is so striking a resemblance, as to leave a doubt whether they did not spring from the same race.
Some travellers tell us, that the Chinese are large and fat, their limbs well formed, their faces broad and round, their eyes small, eye-browslarge, their eye-lids turned upwards, and their noses short and flat; that upon the chin they have very little beard, and upon each lip not more than seven or eight tufts of hair. Those who inhabit the southern provinces are more brown and tawny than those in the northern; that in colour they resemble the natives of Mauritania, or the more swarthy Spaniards; but those in the middle provinces are as fair as the Germans.
According to Dampier and others, the Chinese are not all fat and bulky, but they consider being so as an ornament to the human figure. In speaking of the island of St. John, on the coast of China, the former says, that the inhabitants are tall, erect, and little encumbered with fat; that their countenances are long, and their foreheads high; their eyes little, their nose tolerably large, and raised in the middle; their mouths of a moderate size, their lips rather thin, their complexion ash-colour, and their hair black; that they have naturally little beard, and even that they pluck out, leaving only a few hairs upon the chin and upper lip.
According to Le Gentil, the Chinese have nothing disagreeable in their countenance, especially in the northern provinces. In thesouthern ones, when necessarily much exposed to the sun, they are swarthy. That in general their eyes are small and of an oval form, their nose short, their bodies thick, and their stature of a middling height; he assures us that the women do every thing in their power to make their eyes appear little and oblong, that for this purpose it is a constant practice with young girls, instructed by their mothers, forcibly to extend their eye-lids. This, with the addition of a flat nose, ears long, large, open, and pendent, is accounted complete beauty. He adds, their complexion is delicate, their lips of a fine vermilion, their mouths well proportioned, their hair very black, but that chewing beetle blackens their teeth, and by the use of paint they so greatly injure their skin, that before the age of thirty they have all the appearance of old age.
Palafox assures us that the Chinese are more fair than the oriental Tartars; that they have also less beards, but that in every other respect their visages are nearly the same. It is very uncommon, he says, to see blue eyes either in China or in the Philippine islands; and when seen, it is in Europeans, or in those of European parents.
Inigo de Biervillas asserts, that the women of China are better made than the men. Of the latter, he says, their visages are large and complexions rather yellow; their noses broad, and generally compressed, and their bodies are of a thickness greatly resembling that of a Hollander. The women, on the contrary, though they are generally rather fat than otherwise, are however of a free and easy shape; their complexion and skin are admirable; and their eyes are incomparably fine; but from the great pains taken to compress it in their infancy, there are few to be seen of whose nose the shape is even tolerable.
All the Dutch travellers allow that the Chinese have in general broad faces, small eyes, flat noses, and hardly any beard; that the natives of Canton, and the whole of the southern coast, are as tawny as the inhabitants of Fez, in Africa, but that those of the interior provinces are mostly fair. Now if we compare the descriptions we have already given, from the above authors, of the Chinese and Tartars, hardly will a doubt remain that, although they differ a little in stature and countenance, they originate from one stock, and that the points in which they differ proceed entirelyeither from the climate, or the mixture of races. Chardin says, “the size of the little Tartars is commonly smaller than the Europeans by four inches, and they are thicker in the same proportion. Their complexion is of the colour of copper; their faces are flat, large, and square; their noses compressed, and their eyes are little. Now these are exactly the features of the inhabitants of China; for I have found, after the most minute investigation, that there is the same conformation of face and body throughout the nations to the east and north of the Caspian Sea, and to the east of the peninsula of Malacca. From this circumstance I was inclined to believe that, however different they may appear either in their complexion or manners, they proceed from one stock, for difference of colour depends entirely upon the quality of the climate and the food; and difference in manners is determined by the nature of the soil, and by the greater or less degree of opulence.”
Father Parennin, who lived long in China, and whose observations are so accurate and so minute, tells us, that the western neighbours of the Chinese, from Thibet northward to Chamo, differ from the Chinese in manners,language, physiognomy, and external conformation; that they are a people rude, ignorant, and slothful, charges that cannot be laid to the Chinese; and that when any of these Tartars go to Pekin, and the Chinese are asked the reason of this difference, they answer, that it proceeds from the water and the soil; in other words, that it is the nature of the country which produces this change upon the bodies and dispositions of the inhabitants. He adds, that this remark seems to be more applicable with respect to China than to any other country he ever saw; that following the emperor northward into Tartary, to the latitude of 48, he found Chinese from Nanquin who had settled there, whose children had become actual Mongous, being bow-legged, with their heads sunk into their shoulders, and a countenance which created disgust.
So strongly do the Japanese resemble the Chinese, that we can hardly scruple to rank them in the same class. Living in a more southern climate they are more yellow or more brown. In general their stature is short, their face, as well as nose, broad and flat, their eyes small, their hair black, and their beard little more than perceptible. They are haughty,fond of war, full of dexterity and vigour, civil and obliging, smooth-tongued, and courteous, but fickle and vain. With astonishing patience they sustain hunger, thirst, cold, heat, fatigue, and all the other hardships of life. Their ceremonies, or rather grimaces, in eating, are numerous and uncouth. They are laborious skilful artificers, and, in a word, their dispositions, manners, and customs are the same as the Chinese.
One singular custom which they have in common, is, so to contract the feet of the women, that they are hardly able to support themselves. Some travellers mention, that in China, when a girl has passed her third year, they bend the foot in such a manner that the toes are made to come under the sole; that they apply to it a strong water, which burns away the flesh; and then they wrap them up in a number of bandages. They add, that the women feel the pain of this operation all their lives; that they walk with great difficulty; and that their gait is to the last degree ungraceful. Other travellers say that they only compress the foot with so much violence as to prevent its growth; but they unanimously allow, that every woman of condition,and even every handsome woman must have a foot small enough to enter with ease the slipper of a child of six years old.
The Japanese, and the Chinese, we may therefore conclude, proceed from the same stock, that for their civilization we must recur to a very distant part of antiquity, and that they differ more from the Tartars in their manners than their figure. To this civilization, the excellence of the soil, the mildness of the climate, and their vicinity to the sea, have perhaps greatly contributed; while the Tartars, from their inland situation, and being separated from other nations by high mountains, have remained wanderers over their vast deserts, which are situated under a climate to the last degree inclement, especially towards the north. The country of Jesso, which is to the north of Japan, and of which, from its situation, the climate might be expected to be temperate, is however cold, barren, and mountainous, and its inhabitants are altogether different from those of China and Japan. They are ignorant and brutal, without manners, and without arts. Their bodies are short and thick; their hair long, their eyes black, their foreheads flat; and their complexions, though yellow, are rather less so than that of the Japanese. Overtheir bodies, and even the face, they have much hair; they live like savages, and their food consists of the oily parts of whales and other fishes. They are to the last degree indolent and slovenly; their children go almost naked; nor have their women devised any external ornament beyond that of painting their eye-brows and lips of a blue colour. The sole occupation and pleasure of the men are hunting and fishing; and though they have some customs similar to the Japanese, as that of quavering when they sing, yet in general they bear a much more striking resemblance to the northern Tartars, or to the Samoiedes, than to the Japanese.
In examining nations adjacent to China, on the south and west, we find that the Cochin-Chinese, who inhabit a mountainous region to the southward of China, are more tawny and more ugly than the Chinese; and that the Tonquinese, whose country is more fertile, and whose climate is more mild, are in every respect proportionally more handsome.
According to Dampier, the Tonquinese are of a middling height; and though their complexion is tawny, their skin is so delicate and smooth, that the smallest change is perceptiblein their countenance, when they happen either to grow pale, or to redden; a circumstance in which they differ from all other Indians. In common their visage is flat and oval; their nose and lips are thick; and they use every art, in order to render their teeth as black as possible.
These nations, therefore, differ but little from the Chinese. They resemble the natives of the southern provinces in colour; if they are more tawny, it is because they live in a warmer climate; and though their faces are less flat, and their noses less contracted, we yet cannot help considering them as a people of the same origin.
Thus it is also with the natives of Siam, of Pegu, of Aracan, of Laos, &c. Of all these the features have a considerable resemblance to those of the Chinese; and though they differ from them in colour, yet their affinity to the Chinese is greater than to the other Indians. The size of the Siamese, says Loubère, is rather small, their bodies are well proportioned, their faces are large, and their cheek-bones prominent, their forehead is suddenly contracted, and terminates in a point like the chin; their eyes are small and oblique; the white of theeye is somewhat yellow; their cheeks are hollow, from the elevation of the cheek-bones; their mouths are large, their lips thick, their teeth black, their complexion is coarse, and of a brown colour mixed with red, or, according to some travellers, of an ash colour, to which the continual sultriness of the air contributes as much as the birth; their nose is short and rounded at the point; their ears are large, and the bigger they are the more they are held in estimation.
This taste for long ears is highly prevalent in the east; in different places different arts are used to render them so, and in some they draw them down almost to the shoulders. As for the Siamese, however, their ears are naturally larger than ours; their hair is thick, black, and straight; and both sexes wear it so short, that it does not descend lower than the ear. They anoint their lips with a kind of perfumed pomatum, which makes them appear very pale; they have little beard, and that they pluck out by the roots; nor is it customary with them to pare their nails.
Struys says, that the Siamese women wear pendants in their ears of such mass and weight, that the holes become so large the thumb maybe put through them. He adds, that the complexion of both sexes is tawny; that though not tall, they are shapely; and that the Siamese are in general a mild and a civilized people.
According to Father Tachard, the Siamese are exceedingly alert, and have among them tumblers, &c. not less expert and skilful than those in Europe. He says, that the custom they have of blackening the teeth, proceeds from an idea that it is not becoming in man to have teeth white like the brute creation; that it is for this reason they begrime them with black varnish, and then abstain from meat for several days, that it may thoroughly adhere.
The inhabitants of the kingdom of Pegu and Aracan are more black, yet bear a strong resemblance both to the Siamese and the Chinese. Those of Aracan put great value upon a forehead large and flat, and to render them so, they apply a plate of lead to the forehead of their children the minute they are born. Their nostrils are large, their eyes are small and lively, and their ears are of such length as to hang over their shoulders. They feed without disgust on mice, rats, serpents,and fish, however corrupted. Their women are tolerably fair, and their ears are as long as those of the men. The people of Achen, who are situated further north than those of Aracan, have also flat visages, and an olive-coloured skin; they allow their boys to go quite naked, and their girls have only a slight plate of silver to conceal what Nature dictates.
None of these nations differ much from the Chinese, and all resemble the Tartars in the smallness of their eyes, the largeness of their visage, and the olive colour of their skin. In proceeding southward the features begin to change more sensibly. The inhabitants of Malacca, and of the island of Sumatra, are black, diminutive, lively, and well proportioned. Though naked from the middle upward, a little kind of scarf excepted, which they wear sometimes over the right and sometimes over the left shoulder, their aspect is fierce. They are naturally brave, and even formidable when they have swallowed a certain quantity of opium, which intoxicates them with a kind of fury.
According to Dampier, the inhabitants of Sumatra and Malacca are of the same race; they speak nearly the same language, and theyhave the same bold and haughty disposition. They are of a middling stature, their visage long, their eyes black, their noses of a moderate size, their lips thin, and their teeth are blackened.
In the island of Pugniatan, or Pissagan, within 16 leagues of Sumatra, the natives are tall, and of a yellow complexion, like the Brazilians; their hair is long, and they go completely naked. Those of the Nicobar islands, which lie northward of Sumatra, are of a tawny or yellowish colour, and they also go naked. In speaking of these last islanders, Dampier says, that they are tall and well proportioned; that their visage is long, their hair black and straight, and their noses of a moderate size; that the women have no eye-brows, which it is probable they do not suffer to grow. In Sombreo, an island north of the Nicobar islands, the inhabitants are very black, and they paint their faces with green, yellow, and other colours.
These natives of Malacca, of Sumatra, and of the little adjacent islands, though different from each other, are much more so from the Chinese and the Tartars, and seem to have sprung from another race. The inhabitants ofJava, nevertheless, have not the smallest resemblance to those of Sumatra and Malacca, while to the Chinese (the colour alone excepted, which, like the Malaccas, is red mixed with black) they seem to be intimately related. Pigafetta describes them as a people not unlike the Brazilians. Their complexion, says he, is coarse, and their bodies are square and muscular, though in size they are neither very tall nor very short; their visage is flat, their cheeks flabby, their eyes small, their eye-brows inclined to the temples, and their beards thin and short. Father Tachard says, that the people of Java are well made and robust; that they are lively and resolute; and that the extreme heat of the climate obliges them to go almost naked. From other descriptions it appears, that the inhabitants of Java are neither black nor white, but of a purplish red, and that they are mild, familiar and courteous.
Legat informs us, that the women of Java, who are not exposed to the rays of the sun, are less tawny than the men, that their countenance is comely, their breasts prominent and shapely, their complexions beautiful, though brown; their hands delicate, their hair soft, their eyes brilliant, their smile agreeable, andthat numbers of them dance with elegance and spirit.
Of the Dutch travellers, the generality allow, that the natives of this island are robust, well proportioned, nervous, and full of muscular vigour; that their visage is flat, their cheek-bones broad and prominent, their eye-lids large, their eyes small, their hair long, and their complexion tawny; that they have little beard; that they wear their hair and their nails very long; and that in order to beautify their teeth, they polish them with files. In a little island fronting that of Java, the women are tawny, their eyes small, their mouths large, their noses flat, and their hair long and black.
From all these accounts we may infer, that the inhabitants of Java greatly resemble the Tartars and Chinese; while those of Malacca, Sumatra, and of the neighbouring little islands differ from them equally in the features of the face, and in the form of the body. This may have very naturally happened; for the peninsula of Malacca, the islands of Sumatra and Java, as well as all the other islands of the Indian Archipelago, must have been peopled by the nations of the neighbouring continents, and even by the Europeans, who have had settlementsthere for these three hundred years. This must have occasioned a very great variety in the inhabitants both in the features and colour, and in the form of the body and proportion of the limbs. In the island of Java, for example, there is a people called theChacrelas, who are altogether different, not only from the natives of the island, but even from all the other Indians. The Chacrelas are white and fair, and their eyes are so weak that, incapable of supporting the light of the sun, they go about with them lowered and almost closed till night, when their vision becomes more strong.