The Descent of Man

With respect to colour, the negroes rallied
Mungo Park on the whiteness of his skin and
the prominence of his nose, both of which they
considered as "unsightly and unnatural conformations."
He in return praised the glossy jet
of their skins and the lovely depression of their
noses; this they said was "honeymouth," nevertheless
they gave him food. The African
Moors, also, "knitted their brows and seemed to
shudder" at the whiteness of his skin. On the
eastern coast, the negro boys when they saw
Burton, cried out, "Look at the white man; does
he not look like a white ape?" On the western
coast, as Mr. Winwood Reade informs me, the
negroes admire a very black skin more than
one of a lighter tint. But their horror of whiteness
may be attributed, according to this same
traveller, partly to the belief held by most negroes
that demons and spirits are white, and
partly to their thinking it a sign of ill-health.