Erie Indians. See [IROQUOIAN].
Erse. See [IRISH].
Eshi-Kongo. A semi-civilised race of Bantu Negroes, belonging to the ancient Kongo Empire, now Portuguese West Africa.
Eskimos, or Innuits. An Arctic aboriginal race, now inhabiting Greenland and the northern coasts of the American continent. They are nomadic, live by hunting and fishing, and are inured to extremes of cold. They are very broad-headed, fat, and of short stature, with flat quasi-Mongolic features. They seem to occupy a place midway between the North American Indian and the Mongolic type, and there is some reason to suppose that they represent a prehistoric Mongoloid incursion from Northern Asia, or perhaps from Indo-Malaysia.
Esthonians. A branch of Baltic [Finns] (q.v.) settled in Esthonia, and possessing an ancient ballad literature and mythology.
Ethiopians. An ancient Berber tribe, settled in Egypt at least 5,000 years ago, now represented by the fair Berbers of Mauritania. Homer called them “blameless,” because he knew so little about them. See [NUBIANS].
Ethiopic. One of the four great divisions of the human race, occupying Africa, Australia, and many islands of the Eastern Ocean. Its members are typically black-skinned and woolly haired, with projecting jaws and broad skulls.
Etruscans. An ancient Italian people, inhabiting Etruria in North Italy in pre-Roman times. They probably consisted of an aboriginal [Pelasgian] (q.v.) race, modified by a dominant race of invaders, who may have been of Mongolic type, or perhaps akin to the [Hittites] (q.v.). The Etruscans may be classed as Hamitic. They had a distinctive civilisation, and made great progress in art, of which many monuments remain. The Etruscan confederation, of which Veii was the chief city, long warred with the rising power of Rome, under whose dominion it fell in the fourth century B.C. Families of undoubted Etruscan descent are still found in North Italy.
Europeans. Natives of Europe, mainly Aryan.
Ewe. A group of Sudanese Negro tribes of Guinea Coast. The best known are the Dahomans, or natives of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey, on the Slave Coast. Of small stature, but robust and warlike, they are noted for their great human sacrifices and their employment of female warriors or “Amazons.” Now under French rule. The Togos are also an Ewe tribe.