Crania americana or, A comparative view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of North and South America : to which is prefixed an essay on the varities of the human species / by Samuel George Morton.

  • Morton, Samuel George, 1799-1851.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Crania americana or, A comparative view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of North and South America : to which is prefixed an essay on the varities of the human species / by Samuel George Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    The inhabitants of Afghanistan, on the skirts of Persia, are also of the Caucasian family. They are spare in person, strong and bony. Their noses are prominent and aquiline, their cheek bones high, their faces long. Their manner is singularly hospitable to strangers, at the same time that their lives are mostly spent in predatory violence on the neighboring provinces, or passing caravans. Their customs resemble those of the Arabs, from whom they claim descent; for, although they despise a Jew, they call themselves Ben i Israel—the children of Israel, whence some writers suppose them to he Jews converted to Mahomedan- ism.* Koordistan, to the east of the Tigris, and proximate to Persia, is inhabited by two sorts of people, the clansmen, or military Koords, and the peasants, or cultiva- tors, the latter being literally the bondsmen of the former. “ The peasant,” says Mr. Rich, “ is in a moment to he distinguished, both in countenance and speech, from the true tribesman; nor would it be possible for him to pass himself for his countryman of nobler race. The difference in physiognomy between the clans- man and peasant Koord is perfectly distinguishable. The latter has a much softer, and more regular countenance; the features are sometimes quite Grecian. The tribesman is more what is called a hard-featured man, with a thick, promi- nent forehead, abrupt lines, and eyes sunk in his head, which are usually fixed in a kind of stare. Light gray, and even blue, is a common color for the eye.”f They treat their women more kindly than either the Turks or Persians, and have a better idea of domestic comfort; yet they are haughty and cruel, fond of war and pillage, and fight among themselves when they have no common enemy.J 3. The Pelasgic Branch derives its name from the Pelasgi, who are first mentioned in history as the inhabitants of Thessaly. Enterprising and migratory in their habits, they spread over all Greece, and passing thence into northern Italy, gave birth to the Etruscans. For political reasons they assumed the name of Hellenes, and were the lineal progenitors of the Greeks or Acheans. It has been observed by a late writer, that the Greeks had no sooner obtained the elements of literature and the arts from the Phoenicians, than they advanced rapidly to the highest state of civilisation, until they may be said to have become, in their descendants, the masters of the world. We are taught even from our infancy to study their letters and their arts, which are justly regarded as models of perfection, seldom equalled and still more rarely surpassed. * Barnes, Trav. in Bokhara, II, p. 32. Wolff, Miss. Res. p. 157. t Residence in Koordistan, p. 89, 320. % Ibid. p. 150.