Fellan Family.
The Fellans, who are also called Fellatahs, Pouls, or Peuhls, have not been long known except by some tribes who inhabit Senegambia and who sometimes penetrated the Soudan. Their skin is extremely dark, inclining sometimes to a reddish, and sometimes to a copper colour, but being never really black; they have rather long hair, smooth and silky; their nose is not flattened; the shape of their face is oval; their stature tall and slight; the extremities of the limbs delicate and small; their step light and commanding.
We class among the Fellan family the people dwelling in the western part of Africa, such as the inhabitants of Nigritia and Bambara.
The capital of Nigritia, Sego or Segou, is a tolerably large town situated on the Niger.
Probably many other nations of Western Africa ought to be placed side by side with the Fellans and a comparison should also be established between them and the people of Madagascar, the Owas.
All these races differ from the Negroes, although dwelling on the confines of the country belonging to the latter branch, with which some authors erroneously confound them, but the physical characteristics that mark them as distinct are well-established.
CHAPTER III.
MALAY BRANCH.
This branch approaches closely to the Indo-Chinese. The races composing it are of medium height, regularly made and with well-proportioned limbs; their skin varies from an olive-yellow to a brown hue, and their hair is smooth, black, or occasionally brown. They appear susceptible of civilization and are often divided into regular nations.