Blumenbach was forcibly struck with the resemblance of the Barabras to the figures and paintings to be met with on the different monuments of ancient Egypt. This people, like the Egyptians, have a reddish black skin, but of a much darker tint. The characteristic features of the pure Barabras are oval and somewhat long faces, with aquiline noses, very well formed and slightly rounded towards the point, lips thick without being protruding, a receding chin, thin beard, animated eyes, very curly but never frizzled hair, a body perfectly in proportion and usually of the middle height, and lastly a bronze-coloured skin.

The Barabras are cla.s.sed in three groups, each of which has a dialect of its own, namely, the _Noubas_ or _Nubians_, the _Kenous_, and the _Dongoulahs_; all of whom inhabit the Nile valley.

According to Burckhardt the Noubas differ in many respects from the Negroes, especially in the softness of their skin, which is very smooth and flexible, while the palm of a genuine Negro's hand is rough and as hard as wood. Their noses, too, are less flat, their lips less thick, and their cheek-bones less prominent than those of a Negro. Pritchard's opinion is that the Barabras probably migrated from Kordofan.

A description of this race is also to be found in the "Voyage en Egypte," by MM. Henri Cammas and Andre Lefevre, by whom the country was explored in 1860, and from its pages we take the following extract:--

"We are in Nubia, and Arabic is no longer spoken. The inhabitants, though usually inoffensive, have nevertheless a warlike gait; the dagger hanging by a strap to their arm, their ironwood bow and their buckler of crocodile hide are the tokens and protectors of their liberty. Their rulers obtain nothing from them except by force.

"The moment the river recedes, these vigorous husbandmen dispute with it for the fertilizing slime which suffices for a fourfold harvest.

"Do not imagine that they labour: it is enough for them when they have sown pinches of corn in shallow holes, for nature does all the rest.

"So favoured a climate, as may well be imagined, does not impose on the Nubian the inconvenience of having to wear clothing. The majority carry nothing more upon them than a few weapons and their dusky skins. The women's costumes are oddly fashioned. They stain their lips and twist their hair into numberless tiny plaits, which are not re-made every day.

Egyptian females would look on them as indecent, for allowing the lower part of the face to be seen; and more than that even, the girls, up to the time of their marriage, wear no covering beyond a narrow girdle. The villages are rather near each other, and seldom consist of more than fifteen or twenty earthen huts, having flat roofs thatched with palm branches. In front of the cabins are ranged, as at Dolce for instance, large jars, in which the corn is kept stored.

"Ruins belonging to all ages and every ancient divinity are to be found in Nubia."

The inhabitants of Eastern Nubia are merely wandering tribes who traverse the country included between the Nile and the Red Sea; the dwellers in the northern part are known as the _Ababdehs_.

The _Bicharyehs_ spread themselves as far as the Abyssinian frontiers, and the _Hadharebs_ are still more to the south, reaching to Souakin on the Red Sea. The _Souakins_ belong to the last-named race.

The Bicharyehs are savage and inhospitable, and it is a.s.serted that they drink the still warm blood of living animals. They are chiefly nomadic, and maintain themselves on the flesh or the milk of their flocks. All travellers agree in representing them as fine men with regular features, large, expressive eyes, light, elegant frames, and a dark chocolate-coloured complexion. Their method of wearing the hair is very curious. Those who possess it in sufficient length to reach below the ear, allow it to hang in straight, tangled locks, each of which terminates in a curl. This headgear is impregnated with grease, and is so much matted that there would be a difficulty in getting a comb through it. They refrain, besides, from touching it, and in order not to spoil its arrangement are always provided with a bit of pointed stick, like a large needle, which they put into requisition whenever scratching becomes necessary.

The head-dress of the Souakins is equally extraordinary, and the scratching pin is also an obligatory accompaniment of their toilet.

The Ababdehs have hair from two and a half to three inches long; their lips are slightly thick, their noses rather long, and in complexion they are almost black. They are nomadic, and live in the same way as the Bedouins.

_Tibbous._--The Tibbous, who wander over the country to the east of the Sahara, have been looked upon as belonging to the Berber family, but their complexion is darker and they do not speak the Arab tongue. Their noses are aquiline, their lips but slightly thick, they have intelligent faces, and are of slender build. Their activity is very great and they are addicted to robbing caravans.

_Gallas._--The Gallas are strangers to civilization, the majority scattered over the plains which extend to the south of Abyssinia, leading a pastoral and nomadic life. They are divided into a great many independent tribes, being kept united, however, by origin and language.

They are warlike, cruel, and given to plunder. Their colour is very handsome and their hair usually curly or woolly; they have coa.r.s.e, short features and large lips. Islamism has been embraced by a few tribes, but the greater number remain attached to the old African Paganism.

FELLAN FAMILY.

The _Fellans_, who are also called Fellatahs, Pouls, or Peuhls, have not been long known except by some tribes who inhabit Senegambia and who sometimes penetrated the Soudan. Their skin is extremely dark, inclining sometimes to a reddish, and sometimes to a copper colour, but being never really black; they have rather long hair, smooth and silky; their nose is not flattened; the shape of their face is oval; their stature tall and slight; the extremities of the limbs delicate and small; their step light and commanding.

We cla.s.s among the Fellan family the people dwelling in the western part of Africa, such as the inhabitants of Nigritia and Bambara.

The capital of Nigritia, Sego or Segou, is a tolerably large town situated on the Niger.

Probably many other nations of Western Africa ought to be placed side by side with the Fellans and a comparison should also be established between them and the people of Madagascar, the _Owas_.

All these races differ from the Negroes, although dwelling on the confines of the country belonging to the latter branch, with which some authors erroneously confound them, but the physical characteristics that mark them as distinct are well-established.

CHAPTER III.

MALAY BRANCH.

This branch approaches closely to the Indo-Chinese. The races composing it are of medium height, regularly made and with well-proportioned limbs; their skin varies from an olive-yellow to a brown hue, and their hair is smooth, black, or occasionally brown. They appear susceptible of civilization and are often divided into regular nations.

Dumont d'Urville has distinguished among these races three divisions which he has designated by the appellations of _Malays_, _Polynesians_, and _Micronesians_; and these groups will be treated here as so many families.

MALAY FAMILY.

The Malay family, which inhabits Malaysia and the peninsula of Malacca, is made up of a vast number of nations, the widely varied characteristics of which partake more or less of those of the Indo-Chinese, the Hindoos, and even the Negroes. We shall specify in this family the Malays, Javanese, Battas, Bugs, or Bougis, the Maca.s.sars, Dyaks, and Tagals.

_Malays._--The Malays const.i.tute the most numerous and remarkable branch of this family. They are spread over the peninsula of Malacca, the islands of Java, Borneo, Sumatra, and Celebes, and in the Moluccas, etc. This group of islands was formerly known as the Indian Archipelago, and owes its name of Malaysia to the naturalist Lesson.

The chief characteristics of the Malays are a lithe and active body, medium stature, somewhat slanting eyes, prominent cheekbones, a flat nose, smooth glossy hair, and a scanty beard. Their limbs are elegantly formed and their hair is black and curling. The flatness of their noses is attributable to an artificial cause, as, immediately on the birth of an infant, this feature is compressed until the cartilage is broken, for a broad flat face is considered a point of beauty, and a projecting nose would be looked on as a snout. Their lips are deformed by the inordinate chewing of the betel leaf, and become ultimately repulsive in appearance on account of their exaggerated redness and the extravasated blood beneath their surface. The yellow colour of their skin is heightened still more by artificial means, for it is regarded as an attraction, and is the aristocratic tint; daily rubbing with henna or turmeric bring it to a saffron tinge. The natural complexion of the women is pale and dull; brown is predominant among the men. The princes and dignitaries stain a dark yellow every part of the body exposed to view.

A Malay's clothing is of a very light description, consisting, both for men and women, of two large pieces of stuff skilfully arranged and confined at the waist by a scarf. Princes and moneyed persons alone wear a kind of drawers.

The indolence of the Malays is excessive. With the exception of the slaves, no one works. They are in fact an utterly demoralized people; murder, pillage, and outrage are familiar to them, they possess neither honour nor grat.i.tude, and have no respect for their pledged word. Play is with them a pa.s.sion, a frenzy. They gamble away their property, their wives and children, everything, in fact, except their own persons. They are victims of opium and the betel plant. Nevertheless some laws have existence among them, for murder and robbery are punishable by fines and corporal punishments.

The Malays of the Malacca peninsula are not, like the inhabitants of the Archipelago, violent, pa.s.sionate, and lazy. They are an energetic, provident, trading, industrious race, but quite as rapacious and as tricky as the others. Like the inhabitants of Malaysia, too, they are p.r.o.ne to vengeance, and when under the influence of opium this sentiment becomes inflamed, and turns into a kind of fury, directed not only against the person of the offender but also against harmless pa.s.sers-by.

The Malay who is a prey to this double paroxysm of opium and frenzy, s.n.a.t.c.hes up a sharp weapon, dashes forth furiously, shouting "Kill!

Kill!" and strikes everyone who crosses his path.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 169.--MALAY "RUNNING A MUCK."]

The police of the country employ a small body of very strong and active men whose special duty it is to seize these raging maniacs. They hunt the miserable wretch through the streets, and having caught him by the neck in a kind of fork, throw him on the ground and pin him there until a sufficient reinforcement arrives to enable them to tie him hand and foot, when he is brought before a court of justice and nearly always sentenced to death (fig. 169).

_Javanese._--These people, who inhabit the island of Java, are rather light in complexion, and bear a close resemblance to the Indo-Chinese.

For the following information about the population of this wonderful and splendid country, we are indebted to M. de Molins, who made a stay of two years there, and whose notes have been arranged and published by M.

F. Coppee, in the "Tour du Monde."

The stranger traversing Batavia, the chief town of Java, cannot be an uninterested observer of the motley crowd perpetually renewing itself before his eyes. Among the numberless half-clothed men he sees none but brawny shoulders and wiry, muscular frames. He is struck by the dull, dark brown complexion of the Indian, whose hue appears to vary with the district where he happens to be located; for his skin which seems brick-red on the sea coast a.s.sumes a violet and pinkish tinge near ma.s.ses of vegetation, and becomes almost black in a dusty region. The perfectly naked children gambolling in the full rays of the sun look like fine antique bronzes, so graceful are their att.i.tudes and so faultless their mould. The Malay in his turban, tight-fitting green vest, and grey petticoat striped with whimsical patterns, has quite a handsome head. His face is oval with eyes of almond shape and a thin, straight nose; the mouth is shaded by a slight, glossy black moustache and his high broad forehead is admirably formed. All do not perhaps possess so many advantages, but they are without exception finely made, with beautiful black, smooth, and silky hair.

The Javanese wear hats of bamboo, the plaiting of which is perfect.

These are of all patterns, large and small, round, pointed, or made in the shape of shields, extinguishers, or basins. Their costume varies; some of the men wear Arab vests and wide trousers; some would be naked but for a sort of drawers; while a few swathe their loins in a piece of Indian calico which displays the form; and others are clad in a very narrow petticoat that produces a most picturesque effect. The natives make all their garments out of a broad piece of stuff manufactured in the country, the devices and colours of which manifest extraordinary variety and astonishing taste.

The women's head-dress consists of a handkerchief which is tied and arranged in a more or less artistic manner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: