"My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride." To which Paris answers:-- "Younger than she are happy mothers made." [147] According to M. Krapff, a Protestant minister in Eastern Africa, among the Wanikos both sexes marry at the age of twelve. (_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, vol. iii. p. 317.) In Paraguay, the Jesuits had established the custom, which subsists to this day, of marrying their neophytes, the girls at the age of ten, the boys at that of thirteen. It is not rare to find, in that country, widowers and widows eleven and twelve years old. (A. D'ORBIGNY, _L'Homme Américain_, vol. i. p. 40.) In Southern Brazil, females marry at the age of ten and eleven. Menstruation there begins also at a very early age, and ceases equally early. (MARTIUS and SPIX, _Reise in Brasilien_, vol. i. p. 382.) I might increase the number of similar quotations indefinitely. [148] Prichard, _op. cit._, p. 486. [149] Botta, _Monumens de Ninive_. Paris, 1850. [150] _Edinburgh Review_, "Ethnology, or the Science of Races," Oct. 1844, p. 144, _et passim_. "There is probably no evidence of original diversity of race which is so generally and unhesitatingly relied upon as that derived from the _color of the skin_ and the _character of the hair_; ... but it will not, we think, stand the test of serious examination.... Among the Kabyles of Algiers and Tunis, the Tuarites of Sahara, the Shelahs or mountaineers of Southern Morocco, and other people of the same race, there are very considerable differences of complexion." (p. 448.) [151] _Ibid._, _loc. cit._, p. 453. "The Cinghalese are described by Dr. Davy as varying in color from light brown to black, the prevalent hue of their hair and eyes is black, but hazel eyes and brown hair are not very uncommon; gray eyes and red hair are occasionally seen, though rarely, and sometimes the light-blue or red eye and flaxen hair of the albino." [152] _Ibid._, _loc. cit._ "The Samoiedes, Tungusians, and others living on the borders of the Icy Sea, have a dirty-brown or swarthy complexion." [153] Edinburgh Review, p. 439. [154] Hammer, _Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches_, vol. i. p. 2. (_History of the Ottoman Empire._) [155] Ritter, _Erdkunde Asien_, vol. i. p. 433, et passim, p. 1115, etc. Lassen, _Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, vol. ii. p. 65. Benfey, _Encyclopædie_, by Ersch and Gruber, _Indien_, p. 12. Alexander Von Humboldt, speaking of this fact, styles it one of the most important discoveries of our times. (_Asie Centrale_, vol. ii. p. 649.) With regard to its bearings upon historical science, nothing can be more true.