The exact relationship between the Negro and Bantu races, which of them is the original and which the adulterated stock (in other words, whether the adulteration was an improvement or the reverse),-is a subject quite beyond my competence to discuss. It seems certain that the Negro languages (as yet only tentatively classified) are as distinct from the singularly homogeneous and well-defined Bantu family, as Aryan from Semitic. Ibo, at one end of the area, has possible Bantu affinities, which await fuller investigation; the same thing has been conjectured of Bullom and Temne at the other end (sierra Leone); but these are so slight and as yet so doubtful that they scarcely a?'ect the above estimate.