longer and less woolly than that of the common negroes, and high mental capacity.”  Dr. Barth found great local differences in their physical characteristics, as Bowen describes the Foolahs of Bomba as being some black, some almost white, and many of a mulatto color, varying from dark to very bright.  Their features and skulls were cast in the European mould.  They have a tradition that their ancestors were whites, and certain tribes call themselves white men.  They came from Timbuctoo, which lies to the north of their present location.

The Nubians and Foolahs are classed as Mediterraneans.  They are not black, but yellowish-brown, or red-brown.  The hair is not woolly but curly, and sometimes quite straight; it is either dark-brown or black, with a fuller growth of beard than the negroes.  The oval face gives them a Mediterranean type.  Their noses are prominent, their lips not puffy, and their languages have no connection with the tongues of the negroes proper. ("American Cyclopaedia,” art.  Ethnology, p. 759.)

“The Cromlechs (dolmens) of Algeria” was the subject of an address made by General Faidherbe at the Brussels International Congress.  He considers these structures to be simply sepulchral monuments, and, after examining five or six thousand of them, maintains that the dolmens of Africa and of Europe were all constructed by the same race, during their emigration from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the Mediterranean.  The author does not, however, attempt to explain the existence of these monuments in other countries—­Hindostan, for instance, and America.  “In Africa,” he says, “cromlechs are called tombs of the idolaters”—­the idolaters being neither Romans, nor Christians, nor Phoenicians, but some antique race.  He regards the Berbers as the descendants of the primitive dolmen-builders.  Certain Egyptian monuments tell of invasions of Lower Egypt one thousand five hundred years before our era by blond tribes from the West.  The bones found in the cromlechs are those of a large and dolichocephalous race.  General Faidherbe gives the average stature (including the women) at 1.65 or 1.74 metre, while the average stature of French carabineers is only 1.65 metre.  He did not find a single brachycephalous skull.  The profiles indicated great intelligence.  The Egyptian documents already referred to call the invaders Tamahu, which must have come from the invaders’ own language, as it is not Egyptian.  The Tuaregs of the present day may be regarded as the best representatives of the Tamahus.  They are of lofty stature, have blue eyes, and cling to the custom of bearing long swords, to be wielded by both hands.  In Soudan, on the banks of the Niger, dwells a negro tribe ruled by a royal family (Masas), who are of rather fair complexion, and claim descent from white men.  Masas is perhaps the same as Mashash, which occurs in the Egyptian documents applied to the Tamahus.  The Masas wear the hair in the same fashion as the Tamahus, and General Faidherbe is inclined to think that they too are the descendants of the dolmen-builders.