Odd People
Odd People
Being a Popular Description of Singular Races of Man
Captain Mayne Reid herein takes a look at and sets out to describe people from in different places of the world. It is typical of it's time with exoticist descriptions of Bushmen and The Amazonian Indians among others.
Book Excerpt
has no beard or other hairy encumbrances. Were they to grow, he would root them out as useless inconveniences. He has a low-bridged nose, with wide flattened nostrils; an eye that appears a mere slit between the eyelids; a pair of high cheek-bones, and a receding forehead. His lips are not thick, as in the negro, and he is furnished with a set of fine white teeth, which, as he grows older, do not decay, but present the singular phenomenon of being regularly worn down to the stumps--as occurs to the teeth of sheep and other ruminant animals.
Notwithstanding the small stature of the Bushman, his frame is wiry and capable of great endurance. He is also as agile as an antelope.
From the description above given, it will be inferred that the Bushman is no beauty. Neither is the Bushwoman; but, on the contrary, both having passed the period of youth, become absolutely ugly,--the woman, if possible, more so than the man.
And yet, strange to say, many of the Bush-girls,
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