Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.”
To which Paris answers:
“Younger than she are happy mothers made.”
[66]. According to Krapff, a Protestant missionary in East Africa, the Wanikas marry at twelve, boys and girls alike (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. iii, p. 317). In Paraguay the Jesuits introduced the custom, which still holds among their disciples, of marrying the boys at thirteen and the girls at ten. Widows of eleven and twelve are to be seen in this country (A. d’Orbigny, L’Homme américain, vol. i, p. 40). In South Brazil the women marry at ten or eleven. Menstruation both appears and ceases at an early age (Martius and Spix, Reise in Brasilien vol. i, p. 382). Such quotations might be infinitely extended; I will only cite one more. In the novel of Yo-kiao-Li the Chinese heroine is sixteen years old, and her father is in despair that at such an age she is not yet married!
[67]. Prichard, p. 486.
[68]. It has been since discovered that this fairness, in certain Jews, is due to a mixture of Tartar blood; in the 9th century a tribe of Chasars went over to Judaism and intermarried with the German-Polish Jews (Kutschera, Die Chasaren).—Tr.
[69]. Edinburgh Review, “Ethnology or the Science of Races,” October 1848, pp. 444–8: “There is probably no evidence of original diversity of race which is so generally relied upon as that derived from the colour of the skin and the character of the hair ... but it will not, we think, stand the test of a serious examination....”
[70]. Ibid., p. 453: “The Cingalese are described by Dr. Davy as varying in colour from light brown to black. The prevalent hue of their hair and eyes is black, but hazel eyes and brown hair are not very uncommon; grey eyes and red hair are occasionally seen, though rarely, and sometimes the light blue or red eye and flaxen hair of the Albino.”
[71]. Edinburgh Review, “The Samoyedes, Tungusians, and others living on the borders of the Icy Sea have a dirty brown or swarthy complexion.”
[72]. Ibid., p. 439.