1888.] on the Pygmy Races of Men. 269 



such material as wo j^ossess, and trust to tlie future correction of 

 errors when better opportunities occur. 



It is convenient to divide men, according to their height, into 

 three groups — tall, medium, and short ; in Topinard's system,* the 

 first being those the average height (of the men) of which is above 

 1 • 700 metres (5 feet 7 inches), the last those below 1 • 600 metres 

 (5 feet 3 inches), and the middle division those between the two. 

 In the short division are included certain of the Mongolian or yellow 

 races of Asia, as the Samoyedes, the Ostiaks, the Japanese, the 

 Siamese, and the Annamites ; also the Veddahs of Ceylon and certain 

 of the wild hill- tribes of Southern India. These all range between 

 1*525 and 1*600 metres — say between 5 feet and 5 feet 3 inches. 



It is of none of these people that I am going to speak to-day. 

 My j)ygmies are all on a still smaller scale, the average height of the 

 men being iu all cases below 5 feet, in some cases, as we shall see, 

 considerably below. 



Besides their diminutive size, I may note at the outset that they 

 all have iu a strongly-marked degree the character of the hair dis- 

 tinguished as frizzly — i. e. growing in very fine, close curls, and 

 flattened or elliptical iu section, and therefore, whatever other 

 structural diftercnces they present, they all belong to the same 

 j)rimary branch of the human species as the African negro and the 

 Melanesian of the Western Pacific. 



I will first direct your attention^ to a group of islands in the 

 Indian Ocean — the Andamans — where we shall find a race in many 

 respects of the greatest possible interest to the anthropologist. 



These islands are situated in the Bay of Bengal betsveen the lOth 

 and 14th parallels of north latitude, and near the meridian 93° east 

 of Greenwich, aud consist of the Great and Little Andamans. The 

 former is about 140 miles long, and has a breadth nowhere exceeding 

 20 miles. It is divided by narrow channels into three, called re- 

 spectively North, Middle, and South Andaman, and there are also 

 various smaller islands belonging to the group. Little Andaman is 

 a detached island lying about 28 miles to the south of the main 

 group, about 27 miles in length and 10 to 18 in breadth. 



Although these islands have been inhabited for a very great 

 length of time by people whose state of culture and customs have 

 undergone little or no change, as proved by the examination of the 

 contents of the old kitchen-middens, or refuse heaps, found in many 

 places in them, and although they lie so near the track of civilisation 

 and commerce, the islands and their inhabitants were practically 

 unknown to the world until so recently as the year 1858. It is true 

 that their existence is mcLtioned by Arabic writers of the ninth 

 century, and again by Marco Polo, aud that in 1788 an attempt was 

 made to establish a penal colony upon them by the East India 

 Company, which was abandoned a few years after ; but the bad repu- 



* ' ElemeutB d'4uthr()pok)gic G-cuerale.' Paris, 1885, p. 463. 



