[Note: I've divided this lengthy article into separate sections. This section covers pages 57 to 87, which begins with Buffon's account of the peoples of the northern climates, moves through China and Japan, and ends as he begins to discuss peoples of the Pacific islands. The Section heading listed below is as it appears in the Smellie edition.]
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What we have hitherto remarked concerning the generation of man and
the structure of his body, constitutes only the history of the
individual: That of the species requires a separate detail, the
principal facts of which must be collected from the varieties that
appear among men in different regions of the earth. These varieties
may be reduced to three heads: 1. The colour; 2. The figure and
stature; and 3. The dispositions of different people. Each of these
heads, if extensively considered, might afford materials for a
volume; but we shall confine ourselves to those which are most
general and best ascertained.
With this view, we shall survey the surface of the earth, commencing
with the northern regions. In Lapland, and on the northern coasts of
Tartary, we find a race of men of an uncouth figure, and small
stature. Their countenances are equally savage as their manners.
These men, who appear to be a degenerated species, are very nume-
[57] rous, and occupy vast regions. The
Danish, Swedish, and Muscovite Laplanders, the inhabitants of Nova
Zembia, the Borandians, the Samoiedes, the northern Tartars, the
Ostiacks of the Old Continent, and the Greenlanders and savages to
the north of the Esquimaux Indians in the New Continent, appear to be
all the same race, who have extended and multiplied along the coast
of the north sea, in deserts, and under climates which could be
inhabited by other nations. All these people have broad large faces
*, and flat noses. Their eyes are of a
yellowish brown colour, inclining to black +;
their eye-lids extend towards the temples ++;
their cheek-bones are very prominent; their mouths are large, and
their lips thick and reflected; the under part of their face is
narrow; they have a squeaking voice; the head is large, the hair
black and smooth; and the skin of a tawny or swarthy hue. Their size
is diminutive; but though meagre, their form is squat. Most of them
are only four feet high; and their tallest men exceed not four feet
and a half. This race is so different from all others, that it seems
to constitute a distinct species; for, if there be among them any
distinction it arises only from a great- [58] er or less
degree of deformity. The Borandians, for example, are still less than
the Laplanders. The iris of their eyes is of the same colour; but the
white is of a reddish yellow: Their skin is more tawny; and their
legs, instead of being slender, like those of the Laplanders, are
very thick, and shapeless. The Samoiedes are more squat than the
Laplanders; their heads are larger; their noses are broader, and
their complexion darker; their legs are shorter; their hair is
longer, and the beards are more scanty. The skin of the Greenlander
is more tawny than that of the other nations, being of deep olive
colour; and, it is said, that some of them are as black as the
Æthiopian. Among all these people, the women are fully as ugly
as the men, and resemble them so much, that the distinction is not
easily perceived. The women of Greenland are very short; but their
bodies are well proportioned. Their hair is blacker, and their skin
softer than those of the Samoiede females. Their breasts are so long
and pliable, that they can suckle their children over their
shoulders. Their nipples are black as jet, and their skin is of a
very deep olive colour. Some travellers alledge that these women have
no hair but upon their heads, and they are not subject to the
menstrual evacuation. Their visage is large; their eyes small, but
black and lively; and their feet and hands are short. In every other
respect, they resemble the Samoiede [59] females. The savages
north of the Esquimaus, and even in the northern parts of the island
of Newfoundland, have a great resemblance to the Greenlanders. Like
them, their stature is small, their faces broad, and their noses
flat; but their eyes are larger than those of the Laplander.
These people not only resemble each other in deformity, in smallness
of stature, and in the colour of their eyes and hair, but also in the
dispositions and manners: They are all equally gross, superstitious,
and stupid. The Danish Laplanders have a large black cat, to which
they communicate their secrets, and consult in all their important
affairs; such as, whether this day should be employed in hunting or
fishing. Among the Swedish Laplanders, a drum is kept in every family
for the purpose of consulting the devil; and, though they are a
robust and nimble people, such is their pusillanimity, that they
never could be persuaded to face a field of battle. Gustaphus
Adolphus endeavored to embody a regiment of Laplanders; but he was
obliged to relinquish the project. They cannot, it would appear,
exist but in their own country, and in their own manner. To enable
them to travel on the snow, they use skates, made of fir-wood, about
two ells long, and half a foot broad. These skates are raised before,
with a hole in the middle for tying them firm on the foot. With these
they run on the snow with such rapidity, that they easily overtake
the [60] swiftest animals. They carry with them a pole
pointed with iron at one end, and rounded at the other. This pole
serves to push them along, to direct their course, to preserve them
from falling, to stop their impetuosity, and to kill the animals they
overtake. With these skates they descend the most frightful precipes,
and climb the steepest and most rugged mountains. The skates used by
the Samoiedes are shorter, seldom exceeding two feet in length. Among
all these people, the women use skates as well the men. They likewise
employ the bow and crossbow; and, it is said, that the Muscovite
Laplanders dart a javelin with so much force and dexterity, that, at
the distance of 30 paces, they are certain of hitting a mark not
larger than a crown-piece; and that, as the same distance, they will
transfix a human body. They hunt the ermine, the lynx, the fox, and
the martin, and barter their skins for brandy and tobacco. Their food
consists principally of dried fish, and of the flesh of the rein-deer
and bear. Their bread is composed of the pounded bones of fishes,
mixed with the tender bark of the pine, or birch three. Most of them
make no use of salt. Their usual drink is whale-oil, or water in
which juniper berries have been infused. They seem to have no idea of
religion, or of a Supreme Being. They are mostly idolaters, and
exceedingly superstitious. More gross than savages, they have neither
courage, dignity, nor a sense of shame. [61] The manners of
these abject people serve only to render them despicable. They bathe
naked, and promiscuously, boys and girls, mothers and sons, brothers
and sisters, without feeling the smallest sense of impropriety. When
they come out of the baths, which are extremely warm, they
immediately plunge themselves into cold rivers. They offer their
wives and daughters to strangers, and esteem it the highest affront
if the offer be rejected. This custom is universal among the
Samoiedes, the Borandians, the Laplanders, and the inhabitants of
Greenland. In winter, the Laplanders clothe themselves with the skin
of the rein-deer, and, in summer, with the skins of birds. The use of
linen is unknown to them. The women of Nova Zembla piece their noses
and their ears, and ornament them with pendants of blue stone; and,
to increase their charms, they draw blue streaks across their
forehead and chin. Their husbands cut their beards into a round form,
and wear no hair on the head. The Greenland women clothe themselves
with the skin of the dog-fish. They likewise paint their faces blue
and yellow, and wear pendants in their ears. They all live under
ground, or in huts almost sunk below the surface, and covered with
the bark of trees, or bones of fishes. It is a common practice with
them, during winter, to make subterraneous communications from hut to
hut, by which they ca visit their neighbours without going abroad.
[62] A night, consisting of several months, obliges them to
illuminate their dreary abodes with lamps, in which they burn the
same whale-oil that serves them for drink. In summer they have hardly
more ease than in winter; for they are obliged to live perpetually in
a thick smoke. This is the only means they have hitherto contrived to
guard themselves against the bite of the gnats, which are, perhaps,
more numerous in this frozen country than in the Torrid Zone.
Notwithstanding this melancholy and hard mode of living, they are
seldom or never sick, and all arrive at extreme old age. Even the old
men are so vigorous, that it is difficult to distinguish them from
the young. Blindness, which is very frequent among them, is the only
malady to which they are subject. As their eyes are perpetually
dazzled with the reflection from the snow in winter, autumn, and
spring, and involved in smoke during summer, few of them retain their
sight after they are advanced in years.
It is therefore apparent, that the Samoiedes, the Zembians, the
Borandians, the Laplanders, the Greenlanders, and the savages to the
north of the Esquimaus, are the same race of men; because they
resemble one another in figure, in stature, in colour, in manners,
and even in singularity of customs. The custom of offering their
wives and daughters to strangers, and of being vain when the offer is
accepted, may pro- [63] ceed from a sense
of their own deformity, as well as that of their females, whom they
are apt to think the more handsome, because they are not despised by
strangers. At any rate, it is certain, that this practice is general
among all these nations, though very distant from each other, and
though separated by a great sea. We meet with it among the Crim
Tartars, the Calmucs, and several other nations in Siberia and
Tartary, who are almost equally ugly as the inhabitants of the more
northern regions. In all the neighbouring nations, on the contrary,
as China and Persia *, where the women are
beautiful, the men are remarkable for their jealousy.
In examining the different nations adjacent to that vast tract of
land occupied by the Laplanders, we find no relation between them and
the race last mentioned. The Ostiacks and Tongusians, who border on
the Samoiedes on the south and south-east, are the only people who
have any resemblance to them. The Samoiedes and Borandians have no
similarity to the Russians. The Laplanders resemble not, in any
manner, the Fins, the Goths, the Danes, or the Norwegians. The
Greenlanders are totally different from the savages of Canada, who
are large [64] and well made; and, though
the tribes differ from one another, yet none of them have any analogy
to the Laplanders. The Ostiacks, however, seem to be a less ugly, and
a taller branch of the Samoides *. They feed
upon raw flesh or fish; they eat all kinds of animals without
distinction; they prefer blood to water for their drink; like the
Laplanders and Samoiedes, they are mostly idolaters; in a word, they
appear to be the line which divides the Lapponian and Tartarian
races; or, rather, the Laplanders, the Samoiedes, the Borandians, the
Nova Zembians and perhaps the Greenlanders, and the Dwarfs of North
America, may be considered as Tartars reduced to the lowest degree of
degeneracy. The Tongusians seem to be less degenerated than the
Ostiacks; because the former, though sufficiently ugly, are taller
and better proportioned. The Samoiedes and Laplanders lie under the
68th or 69th degree of latitude, but the Ostiacks under the 60th. The
Tartars, who are situated along the Wolga, in the latitude of 55, are
gross, stupid, and brutal. Like the Tongusians, they have no idea of
religion; and they will not marry girls till they have had
intercourse with other men.
The Tartars occupy immense regions in Asia. The spread over that vast
tract of country extending from Russia to Kamchatka, a space of
[65] 11 or 12 hundred leagues in length,
by more than 750 in breadth, which is a territory more than 20 times
larger than the kingdom of France. The Tartars border with China, the
kingdoms of Boutan, and of Alva, and the Mogul and Persian empires,
as far as the Caspian Sea, on the north and west. They spread along
the Wolga and the west coast of the Caspian, as far as Daghestan;
they have penetrated to the north coast of the Black Sea, and have
establishments in Crimea, in Little Tartary near Moldavia, and in the
Ukraine. all these people, even in their youth, have large wrinkled
foreheads; their noses are thick and short, and their eyes small and
sunk *; their cheek-bones are very high, and
the lower part of the face is very narrow; their chin is long and
prominent, and the upper jaw falls in; the teeth are long and
distinct from each other; they ey-brows are thick, and cover the
eyes; the face is flat; the skin is tawny or olive; and the hair is
black. Their bodies are of a middle stature,but strong and robust.
They have but little beard, and the hairs are disposed in tufts, like
the beards of the Chinese. Their thighs are thick, and their legs
short. The Calmuck Tartars are the most ugly; there is even something
frightful in their countenance. They are all wandering vagabonds,
living in tents made of cloth or of skins. They eat the [66]
flesh of horses, and of other animals, either raw, or a little
softened by putrifying under their addles, and likewise fishes dried
with the sun. Their common drink is mares [sic] milk
fermented with with flour of millet. They all shave the head,
excepting a little tuft which they allow to grow, in order to form
two tresses, one of them to hang on each side of the face. The women,
who are as ugly as the men, wear their hair, in which they fix little
pieces of copper, and other ornaments of the same nature.
Among most of these tribes, no marks of religion, or of decency in
their manners, are to be found. They are all robbers; and the Tartars
of Daghestan, who border on civilized nations, have a great trade in
slaves, whom they carry off by force, and then sell them to the Turks
and Persians. Their wealth consists chiefly of horses, which are,
perhaps, more numerous in Tartary than in any other country on the
globe. These people live perpetually with their horses, and are
continually occupied in training, dressing, and exercising them. They
manage them with such address, that a stranger would imagine both
creatures to be animated with the same mind. These horses not only
obey the gentlest motions of the bridle, but they seem to know the
very intention of their riders.
To learn the particular differences which subsist among the race of
Tartars, we have only to compare the descriptions given by travellers
of [67] their different tribes. We are informed by Tavernier,
that the Calmucks, who live in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea,
between Muscovy an Great Tartary, are robust men, but the most ugly
and deformed beings under Heaven. Their faces are so large and so
flat, that their eyes, which are generally small, are situated five
or six inches asunder [sic]. Their noses are so low, that,
instead of nostrils, two holes are only to be seen; and their knees
bend outward, and their legs inward. after the Calmucks, the Tartars
of Daghestan hold the next rank in deformity. The Little Tartars, or
those of Nogai, who live near the Black sea,are not so ugly as the
Calmucks, though they have flat faces, and small eyes, and resemble
the Calmucks in their general figure. By their intercourse with the
Circasians, the Moldavians, and other adjoining nations, this race of
Tartars have perhaps lost a part of their original deformity. The
Tartars of Siberia, though, like the Calmucks, they have broad faces,
short flat noses, and small eyes, and though their language be very
different, there is still so great a similarity between them, that
they ought to be regarded as the same race of people. The Tartars of
Bratski are considered by Père Avril as of the same race with
the Calmucks; and, in proportion as we advance eastward, and approach
Independent Tartary, the features of the Tartars gradually soften;
but the characters essential to their race are never obliterated.
Lastly the [68] Mongou-Tartars, who
conquered China, and were the most polished, though their features be
less disagreeable, yet, like all the other tribes, they have small
eyes, large flat faces, thick black or red beards *,
short sunk noses, and a tawny complexion. The people of Thibet, and
of the other southern provinces of Tartary, are also less deformed.
Mr [no period] Sanchez, first physician to the Russian army,
a man of great learning and ability, has obliged me with the
following remarks made by him in travelling through Tartary.
In the years 1735, 36, and 37, he visited the Ukraine, the banks of
the Don as far as the sea of Zabach, and the confines of Cuban as far
as Asoph. He traversed the deserts which lie between the country of
the Crims and Backmut. He journeyed among the wandering Calmucks from
the kingdom of Casan to the banks of the Don, among the Tartars of
Crimea and Nogai, who wander between the Crimea and the Ukraine, and
likewise among the Tartars of Kergissi and Tcheremissi, who are
situated to the North of Astracan, from the 50th to the 60th degree
of latitude. He remarked, that the Tartars of Crimea and of the
province of Cuban, were of a middle stature; and that they had broad
shoulders, narrow flanks, strong nervous limbs, black eyes, and a
tawny complexion. The Tartars of Kergissi and Tcheremissi are smaller
are more squat; they are grosser, and less agile; [69] they
have black eyes, a tawny hue, and faces still broader than the
former. He observed, among these Tartars, several men and women who
had no resemblance to them, and of whom some were as white as the
inhabitants of Poland. As these nations abound with slaves, both male
and female, who are carried off from Russia and Poland; as their
religion permits a plurality of wives and concubines; and as their
Sultans, Murzas, or Nobles, bring their wives from Circassia and
Georgia, the children who spring from such alliances are less
deformed, and whiter than those of the unmixed natives. There are
even among the Tartars a whole nation, that of the Kabardinksi, who
are remarkably beautiful. M. Sanches saw no less than 300 of those
men in the Russian service; and he assures us, that he never saw men
make a more handsome figure. Their countenances were as fresh and
white as any in Europe; they had large black eyes; and they were tall
and well proportioned. He adds that the Lieutenant General of
Serapikin, who had lived long in Kabarda, informed him, that the
women were equally beautiful. But this nation, so totally different
from the other Tartar tribes with which they are surrounded ,
continued M. Sanches, are said to have come originally from the
Ukraine, and had been transported into Kabarda about 150 years
ago.
The blood of the Tartars is mixed on one side with the Chinese, and,
on the other, with the [70] oriental Russians. But the
characteristic features of the race are not entirely obliterated by
this mixture; for, among the Muscovites, the Tartarian aspect is very
frequent; and, though the former have sprung from the common European
race, we still find many individuals with squat bodies, thick thighs,
and short legs, like the Tartars. But the Chinese have so great a
resemblance to the Tartars, that it is uncertain whether they be not
of the very same race: The most remarkable difference arises from a
total disparity in their dispositions, manners, and customs. The
Tartars are fierce, warlike, and fond of hunting. They love fatigue
and independence; and they are hardy and brutally gross. But the
manners of the Chinese are the very reverse. They are effeminate,
peaceable, indolent, superstitious, submissive, ceremonious, and
parasitical. In their features and form, however, they have a great
resemblance to the Tartars.
The Chinese, says Hugon, are large and fat men, with
well-proportioned limbs, round broad faces, small eyes, large
eye-brows, high eye-lids, and small sunk noses. They have only seven
or eight tufts of hair on each lip, and very little on the chin.
Those who live in the southern provinces are browner and more tawny
than those in the northern parts; and their colour resembles that of
the people of Mauritania, or the more swarthy of the Spaniards: But,
in the [71] middle provinces, they are as white as the
Germans. According to Dampier, and others, they are not all large and
fat, though they regard these properties as great ornaments to the
human figure. speaking of the inhabitants of the island of St
[sic, no period] John, on the coast of China, Dampier informs
us, that they are tall, erect, and not incumbered with fat; that they
have a long visage and a high forehead; that their eyes are small,
their nose pretty large and elevated in the middle, their mouth of a
moderate size, their lips thin, their complexion ash-coloured, and
their hair black; that they have naturally little beard; and that
they pull out all the hairs, except a few on the chin and upper lip.
According to Gentil, the Chinese have nothing disagreeable in their
aspect, especially in the northern provinces: Those whom necessity
exposes to the sun, in the southern provinces, are tawny. In general,
they have small oval eyes, short noses, and thick bodies of a middle
stature. He assures us, that the women use every art to diminish
their eyes; and the young girls, instructed by their mothers,
continually extend their eye-lids, in order to make their eyes small
and oblong, which, when joined to a flat nose, and large, open,
pendulous ears, constitute a perfect beauty. He adds, that their
complexion is fine, their lips of a beautiful red, their mouths
well-shaped, and their hair exceedingly black; but that the chewing
of betle blackens their teeth, and their con- [72] stant use
of paint so greatly inures their skin, that they have the appearance
of old age before they arrive at 30 years.
We are assured by Palafox, that the Chinese are whiter than the
oriental Tartars; that they have also less beard; but that, in every
other respect, there is little difference in the visages of these two
nations. It is very uncommon, he says, to see blue eyes either in
China or the Philippine Islands, excepting the Europeans, or those
born of European parents.
It is alledged by Innigo Biervillas, that the women of China are
better made than the men. The faces of the latter, he observes, are
large, and their complexions yellowish; their noses are broad and
compressed; and their bodies are thick and coarse like those of
Dutchmen: The women, on the contrary, are exceedingly handsome; their
skin and complexion are admirably fine; and their eyes are extremely
beautiful: But few of them, he adds, have good noses, because they
are purposely compressed in their infancy.
Most of the Dutch voyagers agree that the Chinese, in general, have
broad faces, small eyes, flat noses, and hardly any beard; that the
natives of Canton, and all along the southern coast, are as tawny as
the inhabitants of Fez in Africa; but that those of the interior
provinces are mostly white. Now, if we compare the descriptions of
the Tartars and Chinese given by the diffe- [73]
rent authors above quoted, we cannot hesitate in
pronouncing, that the Chinese, though they differ a little in their
stature and in the form of their countenance, have a greater relation
to the Tartars than to any other people, and that all the differences
between them proceed entirely from climate and the mixture of races.
This is the opinion of Chardin: "The size of the 'Little Tartars,'"
he remarks, "is about four inches less than that of the Europeans;
and they are thicker in the same proportion. Their complexion is
copper-coloured; their faces are broad, flat, and square; their noses
are compressed, and their eyes small. Now, these are the exact
features of the Chinese; for, after the most minute examination,
during my travels, I found, that all the people, to the east and
north of the Caspian Sea, and to the east of the Peninsula of
Malacca, have the same configuration of face, and nearly the same
stature. From this circumstance, I was induced to think, that all
these people, notwithstanding the varieties in their manners and
complexion, sprung from the same source; for differences in colour
proceed entirely from climate and the manner of living; and varieties
in manners originate from the soil, and from the degrees of opulence
enjoyed by different nations *.
[74]
Father Parennin, who lived long in China, and accurately observed the
manners of that people, informs us, that the neighouring nations on
the west, from Thibet [sic] northward to Chamo, differed from
the Chinese in manners, language, features, and external
conformation; that they are a rude, ignorant, slothful people, faults
very uncommon among the inhabitants of China; that, when any of these
Tartars come to Pekin [sic], and the Chinese are asked the
reason of these differences, they answer, that they are occasioned by
the water and the soil; or, in other words, that the nature of
country produces these changes in the bodies and disposition of its
inhabitants. He adds, that this remark seems to be more verified in
China than in any other country he ever saw; and that, when following
the Emperor in a Journey to Tartary, as far as the 48th degree of
north latitude, he found Chinese families from Nankin, who had
settled there, whose children had become perfect Mongous, having
their heads sunk between their shoulders, crooked legs, and an aspect
that was truly gross and disgusting *.
The Japanese are so very similar to the Chinese, that they may be
regarded as the same race of men; their colour is indeed darker,
because they live in a more southern climate. In general, their
complexion is vigorous; their stature short; their face and nose
broad and flat; their [75] eyes small; their beard think; and
their hair black. They are haughty, warlike, full of vigour and
dexterity, civil and obliging, smooth-tongued, and abound in
compliments; but they are a vain and constant people. They sustain,
with incredible patience, hunger, thirst, cold, heat, fatigue, and
all the other hardships of life. Like the Chinese, they eat their
meat with small sticks, and, during their meals, they use a multitude
of ceremonies and strange grimaces. They are laborious, skilful
[sic] artificers; and, in a word, their dispositions,
manners, and customs are nearly the same with those of the
Chinese.
The absurd custom of rendering the feet of their women so small that
they can hardly support their bodies, is common to both nations. Some
travellers affirm, that, when the Chinese girls arrive at three years
of age, their feet are bended in such a manner, that the toes lie
under the sole; that they apply aquafortis to burn off the flesh; and
then wrap them up in strong bandages. They add, that the women feel
the consequences of this operation all their lives; for they walk
with much difficulty, and their gate is exceedingly ungraceful. They
chearfully submit, however, to this inconvenience; and, as it is a
mean of pleasing, they endeavor to make their feet as small as
possible. Other travellers deny that they break the feet, and
alledge, that they only compress them so forcibly as to prevent their
growth: But all agree, that [77] every woman of fashion, and
every woman that is reckoned handsome, must have her feet so small
that they could enter with ease into the shoe of a child of six years
of age.
We may, therefore, upon the whole, conclude, that the Japanese and
Chinese are the same race of men; that their civilization is of a
very antient date; and that they differ more from the Tartars in
their manners than in their figure. Their early civilization may be
ascribed to the fertility of the soil, the mildness of the climate,
and the vicinity of the sea; while the Tartars, removed from the sea,
and separated from the southern nations by high mountains, have
continued to wander in their vast deserts, and under a climate, the
rigour of which, especially in the northern parts of Tartary, could
only be supported by a robust and uncultivated people. The country of
Jesso, which lies to the north of Japan, though situated under a
climate which ought to be temperate, is, however, cold, barren, and
mountainous: Its inhabitants are also totally different from those of
China and Japan. They are a gross brutal race, having neither manners
nor arts. Their bodies are thick and short; their hair is long and
bristly; their eyes are black; their forehead is flat, and their
colour yellow, though less so than that of the Japanese. Their faces,
as well as their whole body, are very hairy. They lie like savages,
and their food consists of the fat and oil of whales, and
[77] other fishes. They are exceedingly indolent, and
slovenly in the dress. Their children go almost naked and the women
have invented no other ornament but that of painting their eye-brows
and lips of a blue colour. The sole pleasure and occupation of the
men is hunting bears and rein-deer, and fishing whales. Though they
have some Japanese customs, as that of singing with a quavering
voice, yet, in general, they have a greater resemblance to the
northern Tartars, or the Samoiedes, than to the natives of Japan.
In examining the people on the south and west of China, we find that
the Cochin-chinese, who inhabit a mountainous region that lies south
of China, are more tawny, and more ugly than the Chinese; and that
the Tonquinese, whose country is more fertile, and who live under a
colder climate than the Cochin-chinese, are more handsome and
beautiful. Dampier tell us, that the Tonquinese are of a middle
stature; and that, though their complexion be tawny, their skin is so
smooth and delicate, that the smallest changes from redness to
paleness are perceptible in their faces, a circumstance which
distinguishes them from the other Indians. Their visage is generally
flat and oval, their nose and lips well proportioned, their hair
black, long, and very thick; and they use every art to make their
teeth black. According to the relations annexed to Tavernier's
voyages, the Tonquinese are [78] of a good stature, and of an
olive colour. They have not the flat faces and noses of the Chinese;
and they are, in general, much handsomer.
Thus, it appears, that these nations differ but little from the
Chinese: In colour they resemble the inhabitants of the southern
provinces of China. If they are more tawny, it is owing to their
living under a warmer climate; and, though their faces and noses be
more prominent, they may still be regarded as people sprung from the
same origin.
The same observation applies to the natives of Siam, of Pegu, of
Aracan, of Laos, &c. the features of all these nations having a
striking resemblance to those of the Chinese; and, though they differ
from the Chinese in colour, yet they differ much more from the other
Indians. The stature of the Siamese, according to Loubère, is
rather small; their bodies are well made; their faces are large, and
their cheek-bones prominent; their forehead suddenly contracts, and
terminates in a point, like the chin; their eyes are small and
oblique; the white of the eye is yellowish; the cheeks are hollow,
from the elevation of the upper part of the cheek-bones; the mouth is
large, the lips thick, and the teeth black; their complexion is
coarse, being a mixture of brown and red, or according to other
travellers, of an ash-colour, which is, perhaps, as much owing to the
perpetual sultriness of the air, as to their birth: Their nose is
short, and [79] rounded at the point; their ears are
naturally large, and are much esteemed when their size is remarkably
great. This taste for long ears is common to all the eastern nations.
Some draw the lob [sic] of the ear in order to lengthen it,
and pierce it so as only to allow the admission of an ordinary
pendant; and others, as the natives of Laos, widen the holes in their
ears so prodigiously, that they will almost admit a man's hand; and,
by this means, their ears descend to the top of their shoulders. With
regard to the Siamese, however, their ears are naturally a little
larger than ours. Their hair is coarse, black, and straight; and it
is worn so short, both by the men and the women, that it reaches no
lower than the ear all round the head. They annoint their lips with a
kind of perfumed pomatum, which makes them appear unnaturally pale.
They have little beard; and they always pull out the hairs: Nor is it
customary to pare their nails, &c. Struys informs us, that the
women of Siam wear pendants in their ears, so large and heavy, that
the holes gradually grow wide enough to admit a thumb. He adds, that
the colour of both men and women is tawny; that, though not tall,
they are handsome; and that, in general, the Siamese are a mild and
polished people. Father Tachard remarks, that the Siamese are very
alert, and have among them dancers and tumblers as agile as those in
Europe. He tells us, that the custom of black- [80]
ening their teeth proceeds from a notion they
entertain of its being unseemly for men to have white teeth, like the
brutes. They besmear them with black varnish and abstain three or
four days from meat, in order to make it adhere the more firmly.
The inhabitants of the kindomes of Pegu and Aracan differ not from
those of China and Siam, excepting in their colour, which is a little
blacker *. The natives of Aracan are fond of
large flat foreheads; and, to render them so, they apply a plate of
lead to the foreheads of their children, immediately after birth.
They have large open nostrils, small sparkling eyes, and ears so long
that they rest upon their shoulders. They eat, without disgust, mice,
rats, serpents, and putrified fish +. Their
women are tolerably fair, and their ears are equally long as those of
the men ++. The people of Achen, who are still
farther north than those of Aracan, have likewise flat visages, and
olive complexions. They are exceedingly gross, and allow their boys
to go quite naked; and the girls have only a thin plate of silver to
save their blushes ||.
All these nations, it is apparent, differ little from the Chinese,
and resemble the Tartars in the smallness of their eyes, their flat
visages, and their olive colour. But, in proceeding south-
[81] ward, the features begin to be
diversified in a more sensible manner. The inhabitants of Malacca,
and of the island of Sumatra, are black, small, active, and well
proportioned. Though naked from the middle upwards, excepting a small
scarf which they carry sometimes on one shoulder and sometimes on the
other *, they are naturally brave, and become
formidable after taking their opium, which affects them with a kind
of furious intoxication +. The inhabitants of
Sumatra and of Malacca, according to Dampier, are of the same race.
They speak nearly the same language; they have all a fierce and
haughty temper; their stature is of a middle size; they have a long
visage, black eyes, noses of a moderate bulk, think lips, and teeth
died black by the frequent use of betle ++. In
the island of Pugniatan, Pissagan, about 16 leagues west of Sumatra,
the natives are tall, and of a yellow colour, like the Brasilians
[sic]. They wear long smooth hair, and go absolutely
naked ||. Those of the islands of Nicobar, to
the north of Sumatra, are of a yellowish tawny complexion, and
likewise go perfectly naked . Dampier tells us, that the natives of
the Nicobar islands are tall and handsome; that their visage is long,
their hair black and smooth, and their noses of a moderate size; and
the women tear out [82] the hairs from
their eye-brows, &c. The natives of the island of Sombrero, to
the north of Nicobar, are very black, and they paint their faces with
different colours, as green, yellow, &c.*.
The people of Malacca, of Sumatra, and of the small adjacent islands,
though they differ between themselves, differ still more from the
Chinese, Tartars, &c. and seem to have originated from a
different race; yet the natives of Java, who are in the neighbourhood
of those of Sumatra and Malacca, have no resemblance to them, but are
similar to the Chinese, excepting in colour, which, like that of the
Malays, is red mingled with black. They likewise resemble, says
Pigafetta +, the natives of Brazil; their
complexion is coarse, and, though neither remarkably large nor small,
they are squat, and exceedingly muscular; their faces are flat, their
cheeks flabby and pendulous; their eye-brows large, and inclined to
the temples; their eyes small, and their beards very black and thin.
Father Tachard remarks, that the people of Java are robust and
handsome; that they seem to be active and resolute; and that the
extreme heat of the climate obliges them to go naked. From the Lettre
Edifiantes ++, it appears, that the natives of
Java are neither black nor white, but of a purplish red colour; and
that they are mild, familiar, and courteous.
[83]
Francis Legat relates, 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 well shaped, and
their complexion, though brown, uniform and beautiful; that they have
a delicate hand, a soft air, brilliant eyes, an agreeable smile; and
that many of them dance with great elegance and spirit
*. Most of the Dutch voyagers agree, that the natives of this
island are robust, well made, and nervous; that their visage is flat,
their cheeks broad and prominent, their eye-lids large, their eyes
small, that they have little beard; that they wear their hair and
nails very long; and that they polish their teeth with files
+. In a little island fronting that of Java,
that women are tawny, have small eyes, a large mouth, flat noses, and
long black hair.++
From all these relations, we may conclude, that the inhabitants of
Java greatly resemble the Tartars and Chinese, while those of
Malacca, Sumatra, and the small adjacent islands, differ from them,
both in their features and in the form of their bodies. Neither is it
difficult to account for this phaenomenon; for the peninsula of
Malacca, the islands of Sumatra and Java, as well
[84] as all the other islands in the
Indian Archipelago, must have been peopled by the neighbouring
nations on the continent, and even the Europeans themselves, who have
had possession of them near three centuries. This circumstance must
have produced a great variety among the inhabitants, both in the
features and colour, and in the form and proportions of their bodies.
In the island of Java, for example, there are a people called
Chacrelas, who are totally different, not only from the natives
of this island, but from all the other Indians. These Chacrelas are
white and fair, and their eyes are so weak that they cannot support
the rays of the sun. They go about, in the day, with their eyes half
shut, and directed to the ground; but the see best during the night
*. All the inhabitants of the Molucca islands,
says Pyrard, are similar to those of Sumatra and Java, in manners,
mode of living, arms, customs, language, colour, &c.
+. We learn from Mandelslo, that the men are rather black than
tawny, and that the women are fairer; that their hair is black; that
their eyes, eye-brows, and eye-lids, are large; that their bodies are
strong and robust; that they are dexterous and agile; and that they
live long, though their hair soon becomes hoary. This traveller
likewise tells us, that each island has its own peculiar language,
and that they have pro- [85] bably been
peopled by different nations *. The
inhabitants of Borneo and of Bali, he adds, are rather black than
tawny +; but, according to other travellers,
they are only brown, like the other Indians++.
Gemelli Carreri says, that the inhabitants of Ternate are of the same
colour with the Malays, which is a little darker than those of the
Philippine islands; that their countenances are comely; that the men
are handsomer than the women; and that both sexes bestow much care on
their hair ||. The Dutch travelers relate,
that the natives of the island of Banda are remarkable for longevity;
that they have seen a man aged 130, and many who approached to that
uncommon period of life; that these islanders are, in general,
exceedingly indolent; that the men do nothing but saunter abroad; and
that all the laborious offices are executed by the women
§ . According to Dampier, the original natives of the island
of Timor, which is one of those most adjacent to New Holland, are of
a middle stature: They have erect bodies, delicate limbs, a long
visage, black bristly hair, and a very black skin: They are dexterous
and agile, but indolent to a shameful degree **.
In another place, however, he says, that the inha- [86]
bitants along the bay of Laphao are mostly tawny and of a copper
colour, and that their hair is black and flat *.
Notes
*(page 58). See le Voyage
de Regnard, tom. I. p. 169; Il Genio vagante del Coate Aurelio degli
Anzi; et les Voyages du Nord faits par les Hollandois [Buffon's
Note].
+(page 58) See Linnaei
Fauna Suecica, 1746. p. 1 [Buffon's Note].
++(page 58) See La
Martiniere, p. 39 [Buffon's Note].
*(Page 64). La Boulai
informs us, that, after the death of the wives of the Schachs, they
conceal the place where they are interred; and that the antient
Egyptiants would not embalm their wives till four or five days after
their death, to prevent the surgeons from having any temptatin;
Voyage de la Boulaie, p. 110 [Buffon's Note].
*(Page 65). See le Voyage
de Evertisbrand, p. 212, &c. and les Nouveau Memoires sur l'etat
de lat Russie, tom. I. p. 270 [Buffon's Note].
*(Page 66). See les Voyages
de Rubrusquis, de Marc Paule, de Jean Struys, de Pere Avril, &c
[Buffon's Note].
+(Page 69). Palafox, p. 444
[Buffon's Note].
*(Page 74). See Chardin,
tom.3. p. 86 [Buffon's Note].
*(Page 75). See Recueil 24.
des Lettres edifiantes [Buffon's Note].
*(Page 81). See Pigafetta,
p. 46 [Buffon's Note].
+ (Page 81). See Voyages de
Ovington, tom. 2. p. 274 [Buffon's Note].
++(Page 81). See Le Recueil
des voyages de la Compagnie Hollandoise, tom. 6. p. 251 [Buffon's
Note].
|| (Page 81). Ibid. tom. 4.
p. 03. and le voyage de Mandelslo, tom. 2. p. 328 [Buffon's
Note].
* (Page 82). See Les
Voyages de Gherardini, p. 46 [Buffon's Note].
+ (Page 82). See Les
Lettres edifiantes, recueil 2. p. 60 [Buffon's Note].
++ (Page 82). See Dampier,
tom. 3. p. 156 [Buffon's Note].
|| (Page 82). See Recueil
de la Comp. de Holl. tom. 1. p. 281 [Buffon's Note].
§(Page 82). See
Lettres edifiantes, recueil 2. p. 172 [Buffon's Note].
* (Page 83). See l'Hist
gen. des voyage. tom I. p. 387 [Buffon's Note].
+ (Page 83). See Indiae
Orientalis part I. p. 51 [Buffon's Note].
++ (Page 83). Recueil 16.
p. 13 [Buffon's Note].
* (Page 84). Les Voyages de
Franc. Legat, tom. 2. p. 130 [Buffon's Note].
+ (Page 84). See Recueil
des Voyages de la Comp. Holl. tom. 1. p. 392, and Mandelslo, tom. 2.
p. 344 [Buffon's Note].
++ (Page 84). See Voyages
de Gentil, tom. 3. p. 92 [Buffon's Note].
* (Page 85). See Les
Voyages de Legat. tom. 2. p. 137 [Buffon's Note].
+ (Page 85). See Les
Voyages de Pyrard, tom 3. p. 178 [Buffon's Note].
* (Page 86). See Voyages de
Mandelslo, tom. 2. p. 378 [Buffon's Note].
+ (Page 86). Ibid. tom. 2.
p. 363 [Buffon's Note].
++ (Page 86). See Recueil
des Voyages de la Comp. de Holl. tom. 2. p. 120 [Buffon's
Note].
|| (Page 86). See les
Voyages de Gemelli Carreri, tom. 5. p. 224 [Buffon's
Note].
§(Page 86). See Les
Voyages de le Comp. de Holl. tom. 1. p. 566 [Buffon's
Note].
** (Page 86). See Les
Voyages de Dampier, tom .5. p. 631 [Buffon's Note].
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