The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-29
THE NEGRO.


"But she is SO light ?" / said.
All you can't go by that" he re-
piled "many pure Africans are lighter
than mulattoes"
Noses are often finely shaped among
the Africans, but the nostrils are always
wide. That is a constant character.
Blubber lips are an exception, but the
lips are generally thick, and look as II
the person was pouting, which often
causes a sullen expression when the face
is in repose. Some, however, have
quite thin lips and sharp noses. That
is considered ugly. / noticed such a
people at Botanga, near Gaboon; and
they did not look we'll.
The feet and palms are always vel
low, owing to the pigment being rub
bed off and / think that, the blacker
the skin, the deeper and richer the tint.
The forehead is always rounded. Mr..
Huxley told me, before / went 10 Afiica
a second time, that this was a constant
character and / looked at some hun
dreds of negroes without finding an ex-
ception.
The hair is always woolly, and, i
| think, shorter in black Africans than
in the copper-colored ones it is more
| abundant, for instance, with the light
colored Fans of the Sierra del Crystal
than with the darker Mpongwe Of the
coast. With all Africans, the arms,
legs, and breast, are covered with little
curly hairs, or fine down. The beard
| and whiskers are scanty or absent.
/ have carefully examined newborn
children. They are of light copper
color, with redish cheeks f; the inside of
the feet and hands pink nipples black.
| The forehead and ears darken first, and
in about five menths they are dark all
over.
The blackest skins are certainly the
most beautiful, rs lighter skins are apt
TO be mottled, and are not so uniform
in color. 81 mean 10 marry that girl
when she grows up" said young mu-
latto to me at Accra; "she is fine and
black.
On the other hand, / once offered my
canoemen in the Gaboon some siihoH-
cites; they looked very angry, and re-
fused them. Mongilomba said 80
sir we are not so black rs that. lt
appears from Livingstone that in some
tribes the light color is preferred. On
the whole, I am inclined 10 believe that
the negroes have much the same idea Of
beauty as ourselves. They do not like
the white skin, il is true; they shud-
dered ut the sight of Mungo Park
they called Browne Gn Dariur) the
Frank with green eyes and a red skin
but l do not think that the white skin rs
much TO be admired in African ; all
travellers in the interior soon assume
cadaverous apr earance, and ] have also
noticed. liz persons bathing, that the
white skin beneath the African sun has
a CHASTITY plaster-of-paster appearance,
while the brown skin has n beautiful
glow in the same fierce light, and seems
to harmonize with nature. / have met
two residents in West Africa who de-
clared the African women were more
beautiful than sickly-looking, white
faced Europeans and one of these was
a man of intellect and education.
IL, as some ethnologists maintain, the
standard of beauty is always local and
artificial, how is it that the Africans adj
mire the long, straight hair of Euro
pean women? IL the above theory be
true, they ought 10 admire only short
and woolly hair. / have heard u said
on the Gold coast "The white women
would not be bud-looking If they had
better teeth but their hair isvery fine,
indeed" / cannot cite a better proof
that their ideas of beauty and ours are
essentially the same than the observa-
tion which so many travellers have made,
that the African chiefs always pick up
the prettiest wives. This shows that
the girl whom an English traveller
thinks pretty an African chief also
thinks pretty. I therefore assume that
the races of mankind have inherited
from the primeval men certain funda-
mental ideas relative TO beauty; but it
cannot be denied that there are many
secondary standards of beauty which
iffer in different parts of the world.
The Persians admire slim women the
Turks fatten girls for the harem, a GUS
tom which also prevails in Blight Of
Benin and in certain parts Of East Afri-
ca; the Tartars admire small, oblique
eyes CVambery) the Tawny Moors, ac-
cording TO Caillie, prefer women whose
front-teeth projects and IL would take
pages TO enumerate the fashionable dis
figurements which prevail in various
parts of the world, the teeth made
black or blue the body painted or
carved the lips, noses, and ears,
weighted with ornaments; the feet
and the skull compressed.
II cannot be doubted that sexual Sc
lection has been an agent i'm producing
the physical differences which exist be
TWEEN the sexes, and also between the
races, of mankind. As Mr.. Darwin has
shown, the women in savage tribes ex-
nrcise a greater power of choice than
is commonly supposed but even Il they
exercised none, IL would not affect his
for the strongest. bravest,
and most intelligent (ur wealthiest) me
obtain most wives and raise most chill
lren, and these men undoubtedly se-
ect. But do not think that sexual
selection (as Mr. Darwin bclievcs) has
,ause the 'et-blHckness of the negro,
which ] would rather attribute 10 cundi-
ions of climate acting indirectly on the
lkin. Comeliness Of feature proceeds,
no doubt, from sexual selection and in
III African tribes we find the pntricians
more handsome than the slaves and
over classes. If blackucss proceeded
rom sexual selection, we should find
he mobiles darker than the people but
hat is not the case.
Mr.. Darwin's first supposition was
his, that "negroes and other dark
aces might have acquired their dark
ints by the darker individuals escap-
ng, during q long series nf generations,
rom the deadly influence of the mias-
mas of their Dative countries" and he
found out the same idea had
ong ago occurred 10 DR. Wells % pa
Der read before the Royal society m
S13). Mr.. Darwin abandoned his
hypothesis, because the evidence that
he collected forced him 10 suppose that
ight-colored Europeans do not escape
rom fever better than the dark ones.
But Mr.. Hed1le of Sierra Leone, who
las spent his life on the coast, and has
more clerks killed under him than any
,ther man, holds the opposite view;
md Captain Burton, 10 whom ] spoke
m the matter, said 1t was always mat
er of surprise in India when light
laired man took his pension. The fact
3, that sufficient evidence cannot at pre-
ent be obtained 20 settle the question
me way or the other; and in the mean
ime / think that the hypothesis Of DIR.
Wells is the best that has been offered.
IVintOOod ReddC.
M. Bert. as the result Of recent re
earches on the influence Of change in