THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 147 



healthy. " Certain diseases (which I do not care to 

 mention, E. H.), such as (X and Y) are unknown. 

 The people are sober, the women seldom or never 

 take liquor. Only two cases of illegitimacy have 

 occurred in the last twenty years. They are very 

 devout in the practices of their religion, and family 

 affection is a marked trait in their character."* 



148. In 1891 Marie-Anne de Bovet, a French lady 

 in her Trois Mois en Irlande, p. 340, says of the 

 people of Achill, Co. Mayo : " The men and women 

 are generally handsome and well built, with that 

 fineness of type (finesse de type), ease of manners, 

 carelessness of attitudes, of gestures, and gait, to 

 which the Irish peasant is indebted for the fact, 

 that he is never vulgar. Do we not see here a mark 

 of their southern origin? " 



149. Oral evidence collected by me in Dublin and 

 elsewhere. As far as it is anonymous, or that of 

 persons since dead, its value depends on the accuracy 

 of my reports of the statements made to me. Yet I 

 have a voucher, to some extent, for that accuracy 

 in Mr. Frederick Ryding, of 95 Merrion Square, 

 West. This gentleman has sharp sight, is a keen 

 observer, takes an intense interest in ethnography, 

 has been, like myself, in various parts of Europe ; 



* Proceedings of the R.I. Academy, May, 1899, pp. 223-245. 



