[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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SECT. IX


Of the Varieties of the Human Species


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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