ETHNOGBAPHY 53 or more accurately the Geez language, is the old official and ecclesiastical lan- guage of Abyssinia, introduced into that kingdom by settlers from south Arabia. In the 14th century is was supplanted as the language of the Christian Church of Abyssinia by the Amharic. It is a Se- mitic language resembling Aramaic and Hebrew as well as Arabic. It has a Christian literature of some importance. The principal work is a translation of the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, to which are appended some non-canonical writings, such as the "Shepherd of Hermas" and the "Book of Enoch." The language is to some extent represented by the mod- ern dialects of Tigre, and by that spoken by some nomadic tribes of the Sultan. ETHNOGRAPHY, the systematic de- scription and classification of races. In recent years there has been but little distinction made between ethnology and ethnography, the general tendency being to name the science ethnology. It is a part of anthropology, and includes the studies of living non-historical peoples with a view to their classification. The studies of language and anatomy are not included in the science of ethnography. Under this heading are treated the loca- tion, movements or history of the tribe; next, its state of culture, its art, its dress and manufactures, etc. The political, social, and religious ideas should be in- cluded in the ethnology of a nation, as also some mention of the place it occu- pies in relation to other peoples, and its contributions to the general culture of mankind. ETHNOLOGY, the science which treats of various races of mankind and their origin. With anthropology, phi- lology, psychology, and sociology it helps to cover the complete study of man. Ethnologists rely, in their different schemes of classification, on what are called ethnical criteria. These criteria are partly internal, the skeleton in gen- eral, and particularly the cranium; part- ly external, color of skin, color and texture of hair, and such other deter- mining elements, whether physical or mental, as may be studied on the living subject. Of mental or intellectual cri- teria immeasurably the most important is language. Different phonetic systems often involve different anatomical struc- ture of the vocal organs. The most eminent naturalists mainly agree in classifying the whole human family in three, four, or at most five fun- damental divisions; but the term funda- mental is to be understood in a relative sense, for all races are necessarily re- garded as belonging to a common prime- ETHNOLOGY val stock, constituting a single species though not sprung from a single human pair. Rather has the growth been the slow evolution of a whole anthropoid group spread over a more or less exten- sive geographical area, in a warm or genial climate, where the disappearance of an original hairy coat would be a re- lief. The difficulty of determining the exact number of these types is due to the fact, pointed out by Blumenbach, that none of them are found in what may be called ideal perfection, but that all tend to merge by imperceptible degrees in each other. They are the black, frizzly-haired Ethiopic (negro) ; the yel- low lank-haired Mongolic; the white, smooth-haired Caucasic; the coppery, lank and long-haired American, and the brown, straight-haired Malayo Poly- nesian. The last is commonly rejected as evidently the outcome of a compara- tively recent mixture in which the Mon- golic elements predominate. Most au- thorities regard also the American as a remote branch of the same group; this view seems justified by the striking Mon- golic features occurring in every part of the New World, as among the Utahs of the Western States and the Botocudos of eastern Brazil. The char- i^cter of hair and color of skin has been used by Huxley as the basis of his classification, which divides mankind into Ulotrichi, crisp or woolly-haired people with yellow or black skin, com- prising Negroes, Bushmen, and Malays; and Leiotrichi, smooth-haired peo- ple, sub-divided into Australoid, Mongo- loid, Xanthochroic (fair whites), and Melanachroic (dark whites) groups. Peschel's classification, based on a num- ber of different particulars, such as the shape of the skull, the color of the skin, the nature and color of the hair, the shape of the features, etc., is as Austra- lians, Papuans, the Mongoloid nations, the Dravidians (aborigines of India), Hottentots, and Bushmen, Negroes, and the Mediterrean nations. The Ethiopic group falls naturally into a Western or African and an East- ern or Oceanic division. The Western occupies all Africa from the Sahara S. and comprise a N. or Sudanese branch (African Negroes proper), and a S. or Bantu branch (more or less mixed Negro and Negroid populations). The Oceanic division of the Ethiopic group comprises four branches: (1) the Papuans of the Eastern Archipelago and New Guinea; (2) the closely allied Melanesians of the Solomon, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Loyalty, and Fiji Archipelagoes; (3) the now extinct Tasmanians, and (4) the Australians, the most divergent of all Negro or Negroid peoples.
