DARK AND FAIR TRIBES.
465
These p h e n o m e n a are so much the more w o r t h y o f attention as they are observed in that great branch o f the A m e r i c a n nations generally ranked in a class totally opposite t o that circumpolar branch, v i z ; the T s c h o u g a z - E s q u i m a u x , * w h o s e children are fair. and w h o acquire; the M o n g o l or yellowish tint only from the influence o f the air and the humidity. In Guiana, the hordes w h o live in the midst o f the thickest forests are generally less t a w n y than those w h o inhabit the shores o f the O r i n o c o , and are e m p l o y e d in fishing. B u t this slight difference, which is alike found in E u r o p e between the artisans o f t o w n s and the cultivators o f t h e fields or the fishermen on the coasts, in n o way explains the p r o b l e m o f t h e Indios blancos. T h e y are surrounded b y other Indians o f the. w o o d s (Indios del monte), w h o are o f a reddish-brown, although n o w e x p o s e d t o t h e same physical influences. T h e causes o f these p h e n o m e n a are very ancient, and w e may repeat with T a c i t u s , " est durans orginis v i s . " T h e fair-complexioned tribes, which w e had an o p p o r t u nity o f seeing at the mission o f Esmeralda, inhabit part o f a mountainous c o u n t r y lying b e t w e e n the sources o f six t r i b u taries o f the O r i n o c o ; that is t o say, b e t w e e n the P a d a m o , the Jao, the V e n t u a r i , the E r e v a t o , the A r u y , and the Paraguay. †T h e Spanish and Portuguese missionaries are accustomed t o designate this c o u n t r y m o r e particularly beginning of the 16th century, we see, that the discovery of America, and of a new race of. men, had singularly awakened the interest of travellers respecting the varieties of our species. Now, if a black race had been mingled with copper-coloured men, as in the South-sea Islands, the conquistadores would not have failed to speak of it in a precise manner. Besides, the religious traditions of the Americans relate the appearance, in the heroic times, of white and bearded men as priests and legislators; but none of these traditions make mention of a black face. The
Chevalier Gieseke has recently confirmed all that Krantz re-
lated of the colour of the skin of the Esquimaux. That race (even in the latitude of seventy-five and seventy-six degrees, where the climate is so rigorous) is not in general so diminutive as it was long believed to be. Ross's Voyage to the North. †They are six tributary streams on the right bank of the Orinoco; the first three run towards the south, or the Upper Orinoco ; the three others towards the north, or the Lower Orinoco. VOL. I I . 2 H