THE PREHENSILE FOOT OF EAST INDIANS. 493 



tipped with an ivory button, one having four lobes and the other 

 six, which give them a resemblance to a lotus flower. These 

 lobes open under the pressure of the foot, and thus form a kind 

 of fastening. Pattens of this kind are used only in the Indies. 

 A European would find it very hard to wear them.* 



The separation of the "great toe at the base is not special to the 

 East Indians. M. Manouvrier has reproduced it on two drawings 

 of the feet of Caribs on exhibition in the Jardin d'acclimatation ; 

 but this author has not observed that the foot has any special 

 part with this people as an organ of prehension. Among the nu- 

 merous casts of feet in the museum of the Societe d'Anthropologie 

 are some very interesting impressions of the feet of Annamites, 

 presented by M. Mondiere. The separation on the foot of one of 

 these Annamites, named Van, is very marked. It measures twelve 

 millimetres at the base of the 

 first and second toes, and forty- 

 one millimetres, taking the 

 middles of the nails as points 

 of measurement, at the tips 

 (Fig. 6). On the impression 

 of the foot of another Anna- 

 mite, named Thi-Finhi, the 

 separation is less notable, but 



is Still four millimetres at the Fig. 5. The same, with the Toes spread out. 



base and forty-one millime- 

 tres at the ends ; while a third impression, still by M. Mondiere, 

 shows a still different degree of separation. This separation has 

 been noticed freqmently among the Annamites, as well as the pre- 

 hensile faculty of the foot. They therefore enjoy that property 

 in common with the Indians. 



It does not follow, however, that this faculty is common to all 

 peoples that go barefooted, or even to all savages. There are at 

 the museum castings of three feet of negroes in which nothing 

 like it appears ; an American Indian foot from the lower Amazon, 

 the gift of Dr. Crevaux, also normal ; two feet of young Bush- 

 men, normal likewise; and thirteen feet of Fuegian men and 

 women, normal. Only in the cast of the right foot of one young 



* The pattens worn in China, Japan, and Burmah somewhat resemble these. They, 

 too, can be seen in the Cluny Museum. Three of the specimens there were held to the 

 foot by strings, one part of which was fixed to the shoe between the first and second toes, 

 while the other part, passing over the back of the foot, ended in the side of the shoe. 

 These sandals resemble those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, as we see them in works 

 of art. The separation of the great toe from the others in Japanese stockings is explained 

 by this construction. It is to enable the pattens to be put on. But the abduction force 

 of the great toe is not utilized in these as it is in the Indian pattens. The shoe is held by 

 strings to the sole of the foot. 



