Pauw, Cornelius de:

$375 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

SELECTIONS FROM M. PAUW, WITH ADDITIONS BY DANIEL WEBB, ESQ. Selections from the works of Dutch philosopher and ethnologist Cornelius de Pauw, translated by Daniel Webb, covering a wide array of native peoples, including the Eskimos and the Indians of California. Pauw writes of the laziness and degeneracy of the natives on the North American continent, blaming their deficiencies on the climate. Regarding the Eskimos he writes, "As they feed almost entirely on oily fish, their flesh has in a manner contracted in substance; their blood, become thick and unctious, exhales a penetrating odour of whale oil...accordingly, this is the only nation of which it has been observed, that the mothers, like some quadrupeds, lick their new-born infants." Despite having never been to North America, Pauw was considered to be a specialist in the natives of that land.

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