The Human Race

Before speaking of the brain and understanding of the Negro, we should make some remarks on the facial angle observed in this race. We have said that a relatively exact judgment may be formed from the size of this angle as to the value of a race of mankind, from the intellectual point of view.10 The more obtuse the angle, the greater indication does it afford of noble and lofty sentiments; the smaller it is, the nearer the head approaches to that of animals. A prominent forehead is the sign of a developed intellect, whilst protruding jaws reveal brute instincts. Consequently, the facial angle increases or diminishes according as the forehead or the jaws project forward. The facial angle of Europeans is about 761⁄2 degrees, sometimes reaching 81. An angle of 90 degrees, that is to say a right angle, is found in the ancient statues of Greece. But by reason of his retreating forehead and prominent jaws the Negro only exhibits a facial angle of from 611⁄4 to 63 degrees, approaching that of the monkey, which in those of the species to which the orang-outang and gorilla belong, is of 45 degrees.

This proportionate weakness of intelligence, revealed to us by the smallness of the facial angle in the Negro, is confirmed by an examination of his brain. The labours of anatomists of our own day have established that not only is it the bulk of the brain which corresponds relatively with intellectual activity, but that the genuine indication revealing the superiority of mind in man consists in the number and depth of the furrows or circumvolutions of the brain. Now the outlines and windings of the cerebral mass in the European are so numerous and deep that they can scarcely be measured, whilst the complications in the head of the black are, as regards the same qualities, less by one half. The brain of a Negro is also perceptibly smaller than that of a White. It is the front part especially, that is to say the cerebral lobes, which is so much larger in the European, and hence the fine arch of the forehead peculiar to the White or Caucasian race.

230. – ZANZIBAR NEGRESSES.

The intellectual inferiority of the Negro is readable in his countenance, devoid of expression and mobility. The black man is a child, and like a child he is impressionable, fickle, easily affected by good treatment, and capable of self-devotion, but capable also of hatred in some cases, as well as of working out his revenge. The people of the Black Race living in a free condition in the interior of Africa, demonstrate by their habits and the state of their mind that they can hardly get beyond the level of tribe life; and on the other hand such difficulty is experienced in many colonies, in endeavouring to induce the Negroes (so indispensable has the guardianship of Europeans become to them) to maintain among themselves the benefits of civilization, that the inferiority of their intelligence, compared with that of the rest of mankind, is a fact not to be disputed.

Several instances might doubtless be adduced of Negroes who have surpassed Europeans by their capacity of mind. Generals Toussaint Louverture, Christofle, and Dessalines were no ordinary men, and Blumenbach has preserved to us the names of many illustrious blacks, among whom he mentions Jacob Captain, whose sermons, and theological writings, in Latin and Dutch, are truly remarkable. It is not from individual cases, however, but from the whole, that a judgment must be arrived at, and experience has proved that the Negroes are inferior in intelligence to all known races, not even excepting the savage people of America and the Oceanian islands.

The Negro tribes would be excessively numerous if their children lived, but negligence and laziness cause a notable proportion of their offspring to perish. The continual wars, too, in which they indulge against each other, equally impede the spread of their species, and notwithstanding the fertility of the soil in a great part of Africa, the improvidence and carelessness of the natives bring on real famines which decimate their numbers.

Another cause of depopulation that happily becomes less important every day is the trade which the blacks themselves are most eager to keep up. They sell their children for a packet of beads or for a few flasks of “fire-water.”

Thought grows sad as it carries itself back to the time, not yet very remote, when Negro traffic and slavery, which to-day form the exception, were the universal rule along the whole coast of Western Africa. Negroes then were torn ruthlessly from their country and transported to other climes to be reduced to bondage, or in other words to sacrifice life and strength for their master, and in serving him, to exhaust themselves by toil without gaining as much pity as is extended to beasts of burden. With our animals, in fact, repose succeeds fatigue and food restores vigour; whilst, in colonies subject to Europeans, dread of punishment, the lash, and the most shocking usage, subdued the Negro to forced labour.

This horrible traffic having excited universal indignation for half a century, most States decreed its abolition. France by laws passed between the years 1814 and 1848, definitively emancipated the slaves in all her possessions, and since 1860 or so, almost the whole of America has followed this example. Cruisers are now kept permanently on the coasts of Africa both by England and France, which renders the slave trade, if not impossible, at least difficult and dangerous for the grasping, barbarous men who are not afraid to devote themselves to it still.

This commerce, against which European nations have effected so much, nevertheless, reckons as its partizans the Negroes themselves. The tribes are, in fact, incessantly waging war on each other in order to take prisoners and sell them to the traders who pay prohibited visits to their shores. Even now, convoys of captives, chained together by means of forked sticks, are too often to be seen traversing the forests on their way to a slave-ship moored in some unfrequented creek.

Since the almost general abolition of slavery, many Negro tribes have been remarked to live in better accord among themselves. Fathers have some little love for their children, as they no longer entertain the hope of selling them for a bottle of rum or a glass necklace!

This bondage of the Negroes is not, we may add, a social institution of recent date. The Romans possessed black slaves, and had been preceded by the Egyptians in a custom which, at a period yet more remote, prevailed among the Assyrians and Babylonians. Three thousand years ago the Arabians and Turks carried off Negroes. They ascended the Nile in large vessels, collecting, as they went, the blacks that were delivered up to them in Nubia and Abyssinia, and returning to Lower Egypt with this cargo of human cattle, sold it for slaves.

A cruelty which occasionally approaches ferocity is the sad attribute of some African tribes. Molien said of the inhabitants of Fouta-Toro, that those Negroes had derived nothing from civilization but its vices, and the same reproach is applicable to some of the modern tribes. The natives of Dahomey, a Negro kingdom extending along the shores of the Gulf of Guinea, distinguish themselves among all other blacks by their callous and revolting inhumanity. To kill and slay is to them a pleasure, which anyone who can indulge in it rarely denies himself, and the post of executioner is sought for by the richest and most powerful in the land as affording an opportunity for the most coveted enjoyments. To form an idea of a similar excess of savagery and depravity, the shocking account should be read in the “Tour du Monde,” narrated from personal experience by Doctor Répin, who passed through Dahomey in 1856. We cannot attempt to reproduce here the picture of such cold-blooded barbarity.

The Negroes impose heavy labours on their women. Among them the wife is merely a helper in toil, a servant the more. Making flour and bread, tilling the ground, and the most fatiguing occupations, are the Negress’s lot in her own country; and it has been said, perhaps rightly, that the former slavery was possibly a benefit to her, as she at any rate changed tyrants. The Negress grinds the corn by placing it in a hollow stone and crushing it with a round flint, the flour falling through a hole in the stone and being received in a mat laid on the floor.

The religious notions possessed by the Negroes are very dim; they doubtless believe in a supreme God, in a creator; but addict themselves in excess to the practices of fetishism. Their fetishes are a kind of secondary divinities, subordinate to the great God, master of nature. Each person chooses for fetish whatever he likes – fire, a tree, a serpent, a jackal, water, a hog, down to a piece of wood shaped by the hand of man. The worship of the serpent is in much favour among the inhabitants of Dahomey. They construct tents and dwellings for these reptiles, rear them in great numbers, and allow them to rove about wherever they please. Immediate death would follow any attempt to kill or pursue the fetish serpents.

231. – A NEGRO VILLAGE.

Belief in the power of chance or destiny predominates among these rude men. They feel that events do not depend on their own will, but upon some hidden influence which directs everything, and which it is necessary to render favourable to them. Hence the magicians and soothsayers whose duty it is to avert evil fate or hurtful destinies, and hence also the incalculable quantity of fetishes. Each Negro has his own, to which he offers sacrifice so long as he obtains something from it, and which he abandons the moment he recognizes its uselessness. Lamentable effect of the natural degradation of these races!

The sad defects of the Negro in his savage state should not cause his aptitudes to be forgotten. When he has been snatched from tribe life, or freed from the chains that weighed him down, the black manifests qualities which deserve to be brought into relief.

Let us remark firstly, that the Negroes, or the mulattoes resulting from their union with the whites, are often gifted with an extraordinary memory which gives them a great facility for acquiring languages. They are not slow to appropriate the language of the people amidst whom they are placed. They speak English in North America, Spanish in the Central and Southern parts of the New World, and Dutch at the Cape of Good Hope. They can even change their tongue with their masters. If a Dutch Negro enters the service of an Englishman, he will abandon his former idiom for that of the latter, and will forget his old mode of speech. Nay more, their memory sometimes retains widely diverse languages at the same time. Travellers have met negro traders in the centre of Africa, having connections with different nations, who expressed themselves in several tongues, and understood both Arabic and Koptic as well as Turkish.

The towns inhabited by the Negroes resemble European cities sometimes so much as to be mistaken for them; there is only a difference of degree in their civilization and knowledge when compared with those of Europe. Towns, properly so called, in the interior of Africa are however very much scattered, but travellers bring to light fresh information concerning the country every day, and the future will perhaps reveal to us particulars about the civilization of Central Africa, of which we have as yet hardly a suspicion.

Negroes are not bad accountants; they calculate mentally with great rapidity, far surpassing Europeans in this respect.

The industrial arts are pursued with some success by many black tribes. Iron can be extracted from its ores easily enough to admit of the trades of founders and blacksmiths being carried on in every Negro village, and some excellent handicraftsmen in both these callings are to be found in Senegambia and several of the interior regions.

232. – FISHING ON THE UPPER SENEGAL.

Fermented drinks, such as beer, sorgho wine, &c., are also manufactured with considerable skill.

Negroes possess the talent of imitation to a very remarkable extent. They seize hold of and are able faithfully to mimic a person’s particular characteristics or behaviour if they show any ludicrous peculiarities. Negro humour is also generally gay and pleasant. They like to laugh at their masters and overseers, the children of the house, &c., and delight in making themselves merry at their expense.

Yet this imitative faculty inherent to blacks, does not go so far as to endow them with any artistic talents. Drawing, painting, and sculpture are unknown to Negroes, and it is impossible to infuse into them the smallest capacity for such subjects, either by lesson or advice. Their temples and dwellings are, in fact, only decorated with shapeless scratches; Africans of the present day are utterly unskilled in drawing and sculpture.

Negroes, if thus obtuse to the plastic arts, are on the contrary very easily affected by music and poetry. They sing odd and expressive recitatives at their festivals and sports, and in some Negro kingdoms a caste of singers is even to be met with, which is alleged to be hereditary, and whose members are also at the same time the chroniclers of the tribe.

Musical instruments are rather plentiful among the Africans. In addition to the drum, which holds so prominent a place in the music of the Arabs, they use flutes, triangles, bells, and even stringed instruments, with from eight to seventeen strings, the latter being supplied from the tail of the elephant. They also possess instruments fashioned from the rind of cucumbers, forming a sort of rude harp. The Mandigoes who live on the banks of the Senegal, about the middle of its course, have a species of clarionet, from four to five yards long.

233. – A ZAMBESI NEGRESS.

“The Negroes,” says Livingstone, in his “Expedition to the Zambesi,” “have had their minstrels; they have them still, but tradition does not preserve their effusions. One of these, apparently a genuine poet, attached himself to our party for several days, and, whenever we halted, sang our praises to the villagers in smooth and harmonious numbers. His chant was a sort of blank verse, and each line consisted of five syllables. The song was short when it first began, but each day he picked up more information about us, and added to the poem, until our praises grew into an ode of respectable length. When distance from home compelled him to return, he expressed his regret at leaving us, and was, of course, paid for his useful and pleasant flatteries. Another, though less gifted son of Apollo, belonged to our own party. Every evening, while the others were cooking, talking, or sleeping, he rehearsed his songs, which contained a history of everything he had noticed among the white men, and on the journey. In composing, extempore, any new piece, he was never at a loss; for, if the right word did not come, he didn’t hesitate, but eked out the measure with a peculiar musical sound, meaning nothing at all. He accompanied his recitations on the sausa, an instrument held in the fingers, whilst its nine iron keys are pressed with the thumbs. Persons of a musical turn, too poor to buy a sausa, may be seen playing vigorously on a substitute made of a number of thick sorgho-stalks sewn together, and with keys of split bamboo. This makeshift emits but little sound, but seems to charm the player himself. When the sausa is played with a calabash as a sounding board, it produces a greater volume of sound. Pieces of shell and tin are added to make a jingling accompaniment, and the calabash is profusely ornamented.”

The music of the Negroes is not confined, it may be remarked, to simple melody. They are not satisfied with merely playing the notes sung by the voice, but have some principles of harmony. They perform accompaniments in fourths, sixths, and octaves, the other musical intervals being less familiar to them, except when sometimes employed to express irony or censure. The advanced state of music amidst the Negro tribes is all the more noticeable from the fact that among ancient European races, among the ancient Greeks, at the most brilliant epoch of their history, for instance, no idea whatever prevailed of harmony in music.

The faculties of the blacks can consequently in certain respects become developed, and it is established that Negroes who live for several generations in the towns of the colonies, and who are in perpetual contact with Europeans, improve by the connection, and gain an augmentation of their intellectual capacities.

To sum up, then, the Negro family possesses less intelligence than some others of the human race; but this fact affords no justification for the hateful persecutions to which these unfortunate people have been the victims in every age. At the present day, thanks to progress and civilization, slavery is abolished in most parts of the globe, and its last remnants will not be slow to disappear. And thus will be swept away, to the honour of humanity, a barbarous custom, the unhappy inheritance of former times, repudiated by the modern spirit of charity and brotherhood; and with it will vanish the infamous traffic which is called the slave-trade.

No little time will, however, be needed in order to confer social equality on the enfranchised Negro. We cannot well express the scorn with which the liberated blacks are treated in North and South America. They are hardly looked on as human beings, and notwithstanding the abolition of slavery, are invariably kept aloof from the white population. Centuries will be required to efface among Americans this rooted prejudice, which France herself has had some trouble in shaking off, since an edict of Louis XIV. cancelled the rank of any noble who allied himself with a Negress, or even with a mulatto woman.

The general assuagement of manners and customs will ultimately, it must be hoped, entirely obliterate these distinctions, so cruel and unjust to the unhappy people whom a fatal destiny has condemned to a state of perpetual martyrdom, without their having done anything to deserve it, beyond coming into the world beneath an African sky.

CHAPTER II.

EASTERN BRANCH

The Eastern Blacks, who have also been called Melanesians and Oceanian Negroes, inhabit the western part of Oceania and the south-east of Asia. Their complexion is very brown, sometimes increasing in darkness until it reaches intense black. Their hair is frizzled, crisp, flaky, and occasionally woolly. Their features are disagreeable, their figures of little regularity, and their extremities often lank. They live in tribes or small divisions, without forming themselves into nationalities.

We shall divide them into two groups, one, the Papuan Family, composed of peoples among whom the characteristics indicated above, are the most developed; the other, the Andaman Family, made up of tribes which more resemble the Brown Race, and probably result from a mixture of it with the Black one.

Papuan Family

The Papuan Family seems to dwell only in small islands or on the coasts of larger ones. Two groups of peoples are observable in it, one, resembling the Malays, consists of the Papuans, who inhabit the New Guinea Archipelago, and the other, resembling the Tabuans, occupies the Fiji Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Solomon range. We proceed to say a few words as to the manners and customs of these different sections of the Black Race.

Papuans.– A remarkable feature presented by the Papuans, is the enormous bulk of their half-woolly hair. Their skin is dark brown, their hair black, and their beard, which is scanty, is, as well as their eyebrows and eyes, of the same colour. Though they have rather flat noses, thick lips and broad cheekbones, their countenance is by no means unpleasant. The women are more ugly than the men, their withered figures, hanging breasts, and masculine features render them disagreeable to the sight, and even the young girls have a far from attractive look.

P. Sellier, p.t

Imp. Dupuy, 22, R. des Petits Hôtels

G. Regamey, lith.

PAPOUAN

NEGRO OF NEW GUINEA

BLACK RACE

Lesson considered the Papuans fierce, inhospitable, crafty men, but the inhabitants of Havre de Doresy and generally of the northern part of this Oceanic region, as far as the Cape of Good Hope, seemed to him of great mildness and more disposed to fly from Europeans than to hurt them. He thinks, nevertheless, that the Negroes in the south of New Guinea, pushed back into that part of the island, and whom no intermixture has altered, have preserved their savage habits and rude independence. The state of perpetual hostility in which they live renders their character distrustful and suspicious. Never did Lesson visit a village, in a small boat manned by a fair number of men, that women, children, old men, and warriors did not take to flight in their large canoes, carrying off with them their movables and most precious effects. He adds, that by good treatment and plenty of presents, people may succeed in making way with them, may be able to lull their uneasiness and establish friendly relations. The coloured Plate accompanying this part of the work represents a native of the Papuan Islands.

Vitians.– The first accurate information about the Viti or Fiji Islands is due to Dumont d’Urville. Mr. Macdonald, an assistant-surgeon on board the English ship Herald, has published an account of his visit to Fiji, and from it we extract the following particulars.

Thakombau (fig. 234), the king, was a man of powerful and almost gigantic stature, with well-formed limbs of fine proportions. His appearance, which was further removed from the Negro type than that of other individuals of lower rank, sprung from the same stock, was agreeable and intelligent. His hair was carefully turned up, dressed in accordance with the stylish fashion of the country, and covered with a sort of brown gauze. His neck and broad chest were both uncovered, and his naked skin might be seen, of a clear black colour. Near him was his favourite wife, a rather large woman with smiling features, as well as his son and heir, a fine child of from eight to nine years old. His majesty was also surrounded at respectful distance by a crowd of courtiers, humbly cringing on their knees.

234. – THAKOMBAU, KING OF THE FIJI ISLAND.

In the course of his peregrinations, Mr. Macdonald was present at a repast, consisting of pork, ignames, and taro,11 served in wooden dishes by women. Freshwater shell-fish of the cyprine kind completed the banquet. The broth was very savoury, but the meat insipid. During the conversation which followed, the traveller became convinced that gossip is a natural gift of the Fijians. Figs. 235 and 236 represent types of these people.

235. – NATIVE OF FIJI.

The Fijians are fond of assembling to hear the local news, or to narrate old legends. Respect for their chiefs is always preserved unalterable among this people, turbulent in their behaviour, depraved in their instincts, and familiar with murder, robbery, and lying. The homage paid to their chiefs makes itself manifest both by word and action; men lower their weapons, take the worst sides of the paths, and bow humbly as one of the privileged order passes by. One of the oddest forms taken by this obsequiousness is a custom in accordance with which every inferior who sees his chief trip and fall, allows himself to stumble in his turn, in order to attract towards himself the ridicule which such an accident might have the effect of drawing upon his superior.

236. – NATIVE OF FIJI.