RACES OF MEN. 199 



Andamanese all of the asked-for elements to produce rapid multi- 

 plication and advantageous variation that must necessarily be pre- 

 served by selection, yet these people are disappearing before the 

 advance of the slowly reproducing Englishmen. 



THE BUSHMEN. 



The Bushmen are classed by ethnologists as a degenerate 

 branch of the Hottentots, and are said to be to South Africa what 

 the Digger Indians are to North America. Their food is anything 

 that comes handy — worms, snakes, and roots being as acceptable as 

 anything else. The men are not over five feet high. The women 

 soon get wrinkled and excessively ugly, 30 or younger being the 

 extreme limit of fair looks. The marriage relationship depends 

 upon the will of the husband, and lasts as long as it suits his fancy. 

 There is said to be no word in their language to express the dis- 

 tinction between married and unmarried women. All this tells the 

 story of early reproduction and degeneracy. 



THE HOTTENTOTS. 



The Hottentots, though a low race, are relatively superior to 

 their cousins, the Bushmen. The morality of the Hottentots is said 

 to be fairly good. They have no marriage ceremony, — the husband 

 simply purchasing a wife and taking her home. The necessity of 

 making a purchase implies that the would-be-husband must accu- 

 mulate some property before he can secure a wife, a circumstance 

 that requires more time than is the case where the man simply helps 

 himself without stopping to furnish a quid pro quo. 



With the exception of the Patagonians and the Hottentots, 

 which are inserted because of their relationship and by way of con- 

 trast, these races are the lowest of the low and are dispersed over 



