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THE MONGOLIAN EYE.
D. J. FINN.
4
K
Professor Seligman of London University in describing the physical characteristics of the "Mongol races writes,* eye brown, generally dark- the cheek-bones are broad and so prominent that, taken with the characteristic absence of depression between nasal root and the forehead and the slight development of the brow-ridges, the whole face tends to have a peculiar Hatness, which is as characteristic and much more general than the very distinctive Mongolian" eye. Where the Mongolian" quality is well developed, the inner part of the upper eyelid is continued over the inner angle of the eye (inner canthus), the skin fold so produced extending to and fusing with the skin at the side of the nose: it is this, with the narrow aperture between the upper and lower lids, so common in Mongols, that gives the proverbial narrow oblique appearance to the Mongol eye, the orbits themselves and their position in the skull not differing significantly from those of other races.” From other passages in the same article we learn that the Tungus (a wide-spread people in Siberia and from Manchuria to Turkestan) have dark-brown eyes, usually typically "Mongolian" (p. 456); of the two distinct types among the Japanese, one is coarse, short, thick set and has a narrow and oblique eye and typically a well-developed epicanthus (p. 456) : and while among the Northern Chinese the eye is not always "Mongolian " (p. 458) the Oceanic Mongols (of Indonesia, Formosa, Nicobar Isles, Madagascar) have black eyes often with Mongol fold (p. 444). Such is the "Mongolian " eye.
=
EGYPTIAN PICTOGRAM
WRITING
OF LEFT EYE.
FUROPEAN (MEDITERRANEAN)
LEFT EYE
OLD (circa 1200 B.C) CHINESE WRITING (ANYANG EXCAVATION PICTOGRAM OF LEFT EYE
CHINESE (SUN-TAK, KWANGTUNG)
LEFT EYE
Figure 1.
Illustrating this article will be found a sketch made from the eye of a young Chinese from Sun Tak, a district of the Pearl River Delta be- tween Hong Kong and Canton, It shows a "Mongolian
eye with a very distinct over-fold at the inner canthus, the clear overlap went over 1 mm. below the line of the under eyelid. This Chinese is a Cantonese speaker and is certainly a Southern Chinese.
* Prof. G. G. Seligman: The Characteristics and Distribution of the Human Race, in An Outline of Modern Knowledge
•
(Gollancz 1931), p. 443 599.
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
The Hong Kong Naturalist.
Vol. III, No. 2.
Plate 21.
1. Pair of Eyes, European.
Printed by S.C.M. Post.
2. Pair of Eyes, Chinese, female.
3. Pair of Eyes, Chinese, male.
3.
2.
1.
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