Of the three original races the Indian, which may be regarded as the mother, presents a less favorable appearance by the side of the symmetrical and bright-eyed Spaniard and the tall and muscular negro. While different provinces exhibit marked variations in stature, build, and comeliness, the general verdict must be that the aborigine is neither handsome nor graceful; nor has he the strength and adaptability of the others. The long black hair is thick and glossy, but the beard is so scant as to render more marked the uniformity of type in the black elongated e}ms set widely apart, the oval face, with its narrow forehead, the prominent cheek-bones, and the large lips. The complexion varies from olive to brown and copper color, in certain districts with a yellowish or bluish tinge, and inclining to black in the torrid region.[1] The mestizo throws oft' many of these attributes, and may be classed as more intelligent and handsome, with fine eyes and hair, but he is generally small of stature, inclined to corpulency, and lacks energy and strength.[2] The mulattoes inherit the vivacity of their dark sires, and unite with it greater industry. The zambos are ugly, fiery, and turbulent. Indeed, gentleness and beauty increase with the proportion of white admixture.[3]
Whatever may be the case with mulatto castes the intermarriage of mestizos certainly does not tend toward sterility. Under favorable skies like those of California their fecundity has been surprising.[4] and in
- ↑ The Indian type is fully considered in Native Races, i.-ii., and the Spanish in Hist. Cent. Am., i. introd., this series.
- ↑ The hands and feet are usually praised and the teeth condemned.
- ↑ The odor of the different races can be distinguished also in the castes; and for the different effluvia the Peruvians have distinct names. Humboldt, Essai Pol., i. 136.
- ↑ Navarro applies this in general to half-castes: 'la fecundidad notoria de
zambos in decrees within New Spain, and especially Caracas; yet at Mexico, Habana, and Lima, chino was a common appellation, and in the latter place also Chino-cholo. Zambo by itself more generally denotes three fourths of black admixture, and zambo prieto seven eighths. A deepening of color is termed salto atras, 'back-leap,' and a heightening by greater mingling with white, tente en el aire, 'holding one's self in the air.' The Asiatic mixture was brought by the Philippine fleets.
