ETHIOPIAN AND MIXED VARIETIES.

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on the day of Pentecost such strangers, immediately after the Aceldama was established, were assembled from different parts of the world in Jerusalem; and who, upon hearing of the descent

of Siberia; the Esquimaux, and Laplanders, with the inhabitants of Thibet, Monguls, and Burats: and although it is not quite so well determined, I think that we may also place the wandering tribes of Turcomans under this division.

The Ethiopian heads are characterised by extremely narrow and retiring foreheads; great depth of head from before backwards; flatness of the temporal regions; projecting muzzle and cheek bones; flattened zygomæ projecting laterally very little beyond the side of the head; teeth set at a small and outward angle with the jaws; a line dropped from the upper edge of the orbit, falls within its lower; general thickness and density of the bones of the head; features, those known under the name of negro; colour, from dark olive, to jet black; hair, short, thick, curled and woolly; beard, very scanty.

This form of head denominated Prognathous, is found in those large nations of negroes inhabiting central Africa, and the whole slave population of the world; except, perhaps, those negroes of Mozambique, who are characterised by high, though narrow and conical foreheads.

The American variety, intermediate between the Caucasian and Mongolian, partakes more of the traits and contour of the latter; having the peculiar conformation of cheek bones and pyramidal skull, characteristic of that race. This division includes all the Aborigines of the new world, and perhaps the Hottentots and Bushmen. The Malay-another intermediate race between the Mongolian and Ethiopian, but partaking more of the latterare also known under the name of Papuas, and may be enumerated as the vast tribes inhabiting the Indian Archipelago, New Holland, New Zealand, the Aborigines of Australia, and some tribes of Southern Africa.

Those heads that are altered by artificial pressure and other mechanical means, could not be considered in the above brief sketch.

352

THE STRANGERS IN JERUSALEM.

of the Holy Ghost, and that the apostles spoke in different languages, came together to witness the miraculous gifts. These strangers were Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene; and strangers of Rome, Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.*

To which of these nations, and under which variety of the human species are we to refer the skulls found in the right-hand chambers of this tomb, as shown in the skull, plate 1. fig. 1? Undoubtedly to the Ethiopian; and under that head may be classed the strangers from Egypt, Lybia, and perhaps Cyrene; for the Abyssinian and Ethiopian nations were included in the first, and of

*I am fully aware of the opinion of Adam Clarke, that all the people enumerated in Acts, ii. 9-11, were Jews; and that the "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia; in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia; in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians," were either Jews or Proselytes; but I confess that I do not see that such an inference can be drawn from this passage. If all these several nations were either Jews or Proselytes to the Hebrew faith, why should both the Jews and Proselytes be enumerated among them. We know that Jerusalem was at this time one of the great marts, as well as one of the greatest thoroughfares of the world; and besides, many of other nations came up to worship at the temple, and to fill the courts of the Gentiles, who were not purely Israelites; but, even supposing that these were Jewish proselytes, still they were strangers, and belonged to nations with heads differing in form from the

CRANIA OF THE RIGHT-HAND CHAMBER.

353

such was, in all probability, the eunuch of Candace. Lybia was a term among the Greeks to signify Africa generally.

A glance at the figure of this head, at once shows us to which class it belongs. Of this cranium Dr. Prichard writes to me, "I think, with you, that this skull is that of an African." Its characters are so well exhibited in the drawing, that I need not enumerate them, except to add that the alveolar process of the upper jaw, which ought to have projected more forward, has been accidentally broken off. The skull is one of great weight and density, and belonged to a person about the middle age.

The skull fig. 4. plate ii. is one of those found in the left-hand chambers; and although it differs

Jewish, and if they were Jews it is more than probable that although they spoke the respective tongues of the different nations among whom they were scattered, yet they would, like Jews of the present day, understand Hebrew. But, even supposing that they were Jewish proselytes, still they were strangers, and must have belonged to separate tribes before their conversion, and consequently had skulls different in form from the Hebrew.

Regarding this miraculous gift of tongues, a friend has lately stated to me an opinion that certainly deserves attention. It is, that these people heard a language which they themselves understood, and which, though spoken by one person was equally intelligible to the whole multitude, and not that they were alternately addressed in the seventeen different tongues of those nations. The opinion is well worthy of consideration, and it in no way detracts from the character of the miracle, that each heard a different language from one speaker, as for instance, when they were addressed by Peter.

VOL. II.

2 A

354

CRANIA OF THE LEFT-HAND CHAMBER.

in some respects from the true Mongolian, yet under that variety it must be classed. Its most striking characters are its very remarkable narrowness in its longitudinal diameter, not only in contradistinction to the Ethiopian, which is characterised by extreme length, but in comparison with all other known crania. It has an uncommon breadth and flatness of the occipital or posterior region; and the very remarkable protuberance at the top of the head, gives this skull a place among those termed pyramidal.

Dr. P., who considered these heads some of the most extraordinary that he had ever seen, has stated that, in his opinion, they are of Turkish origin, and that they belonged to those tribes that possess more of the Mongolian form of skull; and on the whole he agrees with me as to the place that I have given them, that is, although not true Mongolian, yet that they approach nearer to that race than to any other. Altogether, I am of opinion that they may have belonged to some of the Turcoman tribes, that to this day wander in hordes over different parts of those countries, called by the ancient names of Parthia, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, and Pamphylia, and extending in the form of a semicircle from the eastern extremity of Asia Minor, between the Mediterranean and the Euxine on the one hand, to the countries lying between the Caspian and the Persian Gulf on the other, and mingling with the Tartar or Kalmuc hordes that

CRANIA OF THE CENTRAL CHAMBERS.

355

extend to the north-east of the Black Sea beyond Mount Caucasus.

The Turks of the present day, it should be recollected, are not true Mongolians; for though descended from a race of Turcomans, yet now by intermarriage with the Georgian and Circassian females, the very purest and best marked of all Caucasians, they have lost the original configuration of head, except in the peculiarity of the protuberance at top, to which I before alluded. The base of this head, which is also remarkable for its great breadth and shortness, in a longitudinal direction, is seen in fig. 5, plate 11.*

Lastly, the skulls found in the central apartments, one of which is exhibited at fig. 3, plate I. deserve our attention. This is one of the most remarkable that I have ever seen, and if it were the peculiar form of any race, as I see no reason to doubt, for there were numbers of the same kind in these cryptæ, that race is now either extinct, or is unknown to physiologists. This head, which was that of a very old person, appears to have belonged to a mixed variety, and inclines more to the European or Caucasian. Perhaps it may be classed among the Medes and Elamites, who resided in a country beyond the

*As an explanation of the minute anatomical peculiarities of these heads might not be interesting to the general reader, it will be found in the Appendix, together with a description of the modern Egyptian, fig. 2, plate vi. See Appendix C.