The rank
offensive smell which disgusts so much in the negro, prevails strongly
among them when they are in their native state, but it wears off in those
who have resided with us and have been taught habits of cleanliness.
Their hands and feet are small*, especially the former.
[*I mentioned this, among other circumstances, to colonel Gordon when I was
at the Cape, and he told me that it indicated poverty and inadequacy of living.
He instanced to me the Hottentots and Caffres. The former fare poorly,
and have small hands and feet. The Caffres, their neighbours,
live plenteously and have very large ones. This remark cannot be applied
to civilized nations, where so many factitious causes operate.]
Their eyes are full, black and piercing, but the almost perpetual strain
in which the optic nerve is kept, by looking out for prey, renders
their sight weak at an earlier age than we in general find ours affected.
These large black eyes are universally shaded by the long thick sweepy eyelash,
so much prized in appreciating beauty, that, perhaps hardly any face
is so homely which this aid cannot in some degree render interesting;
and hardly any so lovely which, without it, bears not some trace of insipidity.
Their tone of voice is loud, but not harsh. I have in some of them
found it very pleasing.
Longevity, I think, is seldom attained by them. Unceasing agitation
wears out the animal frame and is unfriendly to length of days. We have seen
them grey with age, but not old; perhaps never beyond sixty years.
But it may be said, the American Indian, in his undebauched state, lives
to an advanced period. True, but he has his seasons of repose. He reaps
his little harvest of maize and continues in idleness while it lasts.
He kills the roebuck or the moose-deer, which maintains him and his family
for many days, during which cessation the muscles regain their spring
and fit him for fresh toils. Whereas every sun awakes the native
of New South Wales (unless a whale be thrown upon the coast) to a renewal
of labour, to provide subsistence for the present day.
The women are proportionally smaller than the men. I never measured
but two of them, who were both, I think, about the medium height.
One of them, a sister of Baneelon, stood exactly five feet two inches high.
The other, named Gooreedeeana, was shorter by a quarter of an inch.
But I cannot break from Gooreedeeana so abruptly. She belonged to the tribe
of Cameragal, and rarely came among us. One day, however, she entered
my house to complain of hunger. She excelled in beauty all their females
I ever saw. Her age about eighteen, the firmness, the symmetry
and the luxuriancy of her bosom might have tempted painting to copy its charms.
Her mouth was small and her teeth, though exposed to all the destructive
purposes to which they apply them, were white, sound and unbroken.
Her countenance, though marked by some of the characteristics
of her native land, was distinguished by a softness and sensibility
unequalled in the rest of her countrywomen, and I was willing to believe
that these traits indicated the disposition of her mind.
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