﻿20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 59 



in the different villages — as it does occasionally among smaller 

 groups of other peoples. But the whole of the data shows conditions 

 in favor of the relative numbers of the females, which must be 

 regarded, from what is known on the subject, as a favorable breeding 

 condition. The average proportion of males to females at birth 

 among the whites ranges between 105 and 106 to ioo, 1 or, in round 

 numbers, there are 94 to 95 females to each 100 males. In the 

 American negro, however, the proportion rises to 99.1 females to 

 every 100 males, which is the highest proportion thus far recorded 

 for any people. 2 In the principal towns of Egypt, in 1909, the pro- 

 portion of sexes at birth among the native population was 103.3 

 males to each 100 females, or 96.8 females to each 100 males, which 

 is probably very near to the average condition for the last decade 

 at Kharga. 



The next tables give the movement in population in the Kharga 

 village month by month, and that in Kharga and Gennah by the 

 quarter of the year. It will be observed that births predominate 

 somewhat in April- June, corresponding to conception in August- 

 October, which- latter is a season of the date harvest and relative 

 plenty at the Oasis, and that the least proportion occurs in the 

 January-March quarter ; yet the differences are not great, especially 

 if the probable errors of the data be discounted. 



More definite seasonal differences, however, are observed in the 

 mortality, which is greatest in the last and then in the first quarters 

 of the year, and least from July to September. The sudden rise 

 from the late summer and early fall minimum to the subsequent 

 winter maximum was not known of during the writer's stay at the 

 Oasis and hence the causes of the fact were not inquired into; but 

 they are doubtless in the main of environmental origin. 



VITAL STATISTICS OF THE KHARGA AND GENNAH VILLAGES 

 FROM 1905 TO 1908, INCLUSIVE, BY QUARTERS 



Births Deaths 



Average per month Average per month 



January-March 19.9 11,1 



April-June 3 23.8 10.4 



July-September 21. 1 9.9 



October-December 22.8 14.0 



Nichols, J. B. : The Numerical Proportion of the Sexes at Birth. Mem. 

 Anthrop. Assoc. Vol. 1, part 4, Lancaster, Pa., 1907, pp. 249-300. 



2 It would be interesting to ascertain whether or not this is a racial trait, 

 or one applicable also to the Soudanese and Nubians, in which case the ad- 

 mixture of the latter into the Egyptian and the Kharga Oasis people might 

 possibly account for the relatively high female birth-rate among these. 



8 The three months epidemic of 1908 at Kharga, which will be noticed in the 

 next table, excluded. 



