The Human Race Part 17

THE GEORGIAN FAMILY.

The _Georgian_ Family is gathered together on the southern slope of the Caucasus. The beauty of the Georgian women is proverbial. M. Moynet, in his "Journey to the Caspian and the Black Seas," tells us that they deserve all their reputation. Their physiognomy is as calm and regular as that of the immortal type handed down to us in the ancient statuary of Greece. A head-band of bright colours in the shape of a crown, and from which hangs a veil pa.s.sing under the chin, forms their head-dress.

Two long plaits of hair fall behind, reaching nearly to their feet.

Nothing can be imagined more graceful or more dignified than this head-dress. A long ribbon of the gayest hues serves them for a sash, and falls down the front of their dress to the ground. Out of doors they wrap themselves up in a flowing white cloth, which s.h.i.+elds them from the sun, and which they wear with much grace.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 89.--GEORGIANS.]

The men are also generally handsome. They have preserved the Caucasian type untouched and unaltered. They wear rich dresses, embroidered with gold and silver, and carry costly, sparkling arms. They are brave and chivalrous, and are pa.s.sionately fond of horses.

THE CIRCa.s.sIAN FAMILY.

The _Circa.s.sian_ Family, collected in the Caucasian mountains, is composed of a population distinguished for their bravery, but very feebly civilized. The Circa.s.sian type has in the whole of the East a great reputation for beauty, and it deserves it. Most Circa.s.sians have a long oval face, a thin straight nose, a small mouth, large dark eyes, a well-defined figure, a small foot, brown hair, a very white skin, and a martial appearance.

In affinity with the Circa.s.sians are the _Abases_, who speak a dialect akin to Circa.s.sian. They are semi-barbarous, and live on the produce of their herds and from the spoil of their brigandage. Their features show no sign of Circa.s.sian grace. They have a narrow head, a prominent nose, and the lower half of their face is extremely short.

The _Mingrelians_, inhabitants of Mingrelia, a little kingdom on the sh.o.r.es of the Caspian Sea, resemble the Georgians in physical appearance, in manners, and in customs.

THE YELLOW RACE.

The Yellow Race has also been called the _Mongol Race_, from the well-defined features of one of the families it comprises.

The princ.i.p.al characteristics which distinguish the individuals and the families belonging to the Yellow race, are, high cheekbones, a lozenge-shaped head, a small flat nose, a flat countenance, narrow obliquely-set eyes, straight coa.r.s.e black hair, a scanty beard, and a complexion of a greenish hue.

However, all the members of the yellow race do not exhibit these distinct features. Sometimes they show but a few of them, whilst others of their characteristics would seem to identify them with the Caucasian group. It is thus very difficult to make the proper divisions in this race.

We will separate it into three branches--the Hyperborean, the Mongolian, and the Sinaic branches.

CHAPTER I.

HYPERBOREAN BRANCH.

The Hyperborean branch is composed of the various races inhabiting the districts in the vicinity of the North Pole, small in stature and possessing the princ.i.p.al characteristics of the Yellow Race.

The people belonging to the Hyperborean branch are nomadic, and their only domestic animals are the dog and the reindeer. They are spread over a vast surface, but are few in number. They support themselves by hunting and fis.h.i.+ng. They are pa.s.sionately fond of strong drinks, and their civilization is of a very rudimentary character.

Some of these people might perhaps be more properly cla.s.sed under the Mongolian branch. Possibly some even should be cla.s.sified in the White Race, for they have lost, under the influences of climate and of their mode of life, the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics of the Yellow Race. As it is very difficult to make a natural cla.s.sification of these people, we will retain that set up by M. D'Omalius d'Halloy.

This naturalist distinguishes, amid the people who compose the Hyperborean branch, seven families, taking the affinities of language as a basis. These are the _Lapp_, the _Samoiede_, the _Kamtschadale_, the _Esquimaux_, the _Ienissian_, the _Jukaghirite_, and the _Koriak_ families.

THE LAPP FAMILY.

The Laplanders are thin and short, but pretty strong and active. Their head is disproportionately large. They have a round skull, wide cheek-bones, the broad flat Mongol nose, a protruding forehead, and goggle eyes. Their complexion is a yellowish brown, and their hair is usually black. This curious race of men is divided into two distinct cla.s.ses, the nomadic Laplander and the sedentary Laplander.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 90.--LAPLANDERS.]

The sole property of the former is his herd of reindeer. He takes these to the high grounds, and after spending the months of June, July, and August there, returns in September to his winter quarters. In his journeys to and fro, he uses the reindeer as beasts of burden. When the ground is covered with snow, he harnesses these useful quadrupeds to his sledge. (Fig. 90.)

Dogs are also used as draft animals in Lapland. On the borders of the scanty forests of Lapland and Siberia, the inhabitants of these barbarous countries may often be seen gliding rapidly by on a sledge drawn by dogs.

The usual life of the nomadic Laplander is about as wretched as can well be imagined. A tent stretched on four uprights is his abode summer and winter. The fire-place is in the middle of the tent, and the smoke escapes through an opening in the top. Five or six reindeer skins stretched round the fire form the beds of the whole family, to which the surrounding smoke serves as the only curtain. Their furniture consists of an iron pot and a few wooden pails. The Laplander carries in his pocket a horn spoon and a knife. He often, instead of wooden pails, makes use of the bladders of the reindeer. In them he carries the milk mixed with water which is his daily beverage. Whenever he sets out on a journey, he harnesses a pair of reindeer to his sledge.

This nomadic race, which formerly occupied a part of Sweden, is now much diminished in numbers. Thirty years ago their number, counting all that could be found in Russian, Norwegian, and Swedish Lapland, only came to twelve thousand.

The sedentary Laplander is usually some poor reindeer proprietor, who having ruined himself, and being unable to continue the life of a wandering herdsman, becomes a beggar or a servant. If he has still a little money left, he settles down on the sea coast, and turns fisherman, while his wife spins wool. His existence in the midst of men of a different race is then a solitary one. He is a regular pariah, despised by both Swede and Norwegian. His hut, his dress, his customs, are all different to those of the people amongst whom he has taken shelter. His children are not allowed to marry into any of the neighbouring families, and he is utterly and entirely alone amid strangers.

In his "Travels in the Scandinavian States," M. de Saint-Blaize tells us how he suddenly fell in with an encampment of Laplanders in the night time. A hundred deer, whose immense antlers, interlaced the one with the other, produced the effect of a little forest, were grouped around the camp fires. Two young Laplanders and some dogs watched over the safety of the whole. Hard by were the tents. An old Laplander and his wife offered the traveller some reindeer milk. It was very oily, and reminded him of goat's milk.

The same traveller tells us that when on a journey a Laplander's wife gives birth to a child, she places it in a piece of hollow wood with the opening fenced in with wire to give play to the baby's head. This log with its precious contents is then placed on the mother's back and she rejoins the rest. When they halt, she hangs this kind of wooden chrysalis to the bough of a tree, the wire protecting the child from the teeth of wild animals (fig. 91).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 91.--A LAPP CRADLE.]

THE SAMOIEDE FAMILY.

The Samoiedes are a wandering race, spread over both sides of the great Siberian promontory ending in Cape North. Some of their tribes are also to be met with pretty far to the west, to the east, and to the south of this region. They support themselves by hunting and fis.h.i.+ng on the borders of the Frozen Ocean. They bear much resemblance to the Tunguses of whom we shall speak later. Their face is flat, round and broad, their lips are thick and turned up, and their nose is wide and open at the nostrils. Their hair is black and coa.r.s.e, and they have but little on their face. Most of them are rather under the middle size, well proportioned and rather thick set. (Fig. 92.) They are wild and restless in disposition.

THE KAMTSCHADALE FAMILY.

We can only just make a note of the Kamtschadales, with whom the navigators of the Arctic seas have been for a long time acquainted. They inhabit the southern portion of the peninsula that bears their name.

They are short men with a tawny skin, black hair, a meagre beard, a broad face, a short flat nose, small deep-set eyes, scanty eyebrows, immense stomachs, and thin legs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 92.--SAMOIEDES.]

More to the South, in the Kourile Islands, and on the adjacent continent, we meet with a race differing widely from the preceding one.

They are the inhabitants of these islands, and are called _Anos_. They are of short stature, but their features are regular. The most remarkable of their physical characteristics is the extraordinary development of their hair. They are the hairiest of men, and it is this peculiarity that makes us allude to them. Their beards cover their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and their arms, neck, and back are covered with hair. This is an exceptional peculiarity, particularly with men of the Mongol type.

The language spoken by the Anos, is strikingly like that spoken by the Samoiedes and by some of the inhabitants of the Caucasus. Their bodies are well formed and their disposition is gentle and hospitable. They live by hunting and fis.h.i.+ng.

THE ESQUIMAUX FAMILY.

Greenland and most of the islands adjacent to this portion of the American continent are inhabited by a people that have received the common name of Esquimaux and who const.i.tute a very numerous family.

The princ.i.p.al and the most numerous tribes of the Esquimaux family belong to the American continent. But as they are quite distinct from the other inhabitants of this continent, and as they have a much greater resemblance to the people of Northern Asia, and to the Mongols, it is here that we mention them.

The head of the Esquimaux has a more pyramidal shape than that of the Mongols of Upper Asia. This is owing to the narrowing of the skull. Such an outward sign of degradation reveals at once the moral and social inferiority of these poor people. Their eyes are black, small and wild, but show no vivacity. Their nose is very flat, and they have a small mouth, with the lower lip much thicker than the upper one. Some have been seen with plenty of hair on their face. Their hair is usually black, but occasionally fair, and always long, coa.r.s.e, and unkempt.