234 THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS 



among the Indians on the other. ' So protracted was the hunger 

 we experienced,' says Cabec.a de Vaca, ' that many times I was 

 three day without eating anything. The natives also endured as 

 much, and it appeared to me a thing impossible that life could be so 

 prolonged.' The lame author goes on to say, however, that ' they 

 are a merry people considering the hunger that they suffer ; not- 

 withstanding they never cease to dance nor to observe their 

 festivities and ceremonies. To them the happiest part of the year 

 is the season of eaiing prickly pears ; for then they have hunger no 

 longer, and pass all the time in dancing and they eat day and 

 night. ... It occurred to us many times while we were among this 

 people, and there was no food, to be three or four days without 

 eating, when they, to revive our spirits, would say to us not to be 

 sad, that soon there would be pears and we should enjoy plenty, 

 and drink of the juice, and that our bellies would be very big, and 

 we should be content and joyful, having no hunger.' l 



It is submitted that the conditions indicated by the type of 

 evidence of which examples have been given above are not 

 compatible with the state of existence on the bare means of 

 subsistence. 2 With this evidence there should be considered the 

 facts given in the sixth chapter regarding the good health and 

 advanced age to which these races generally attain. 



Turning to races of the second group, in the Eastern Islands of 

 the Torres Straits ' nutritious food is generally very scarce at 

 the end of the dry season '. 3 The Dyaks usually experience 

 a season when it is difficult to procure food. 4 We are told that 

 famine was unknown in Fiji, 5 but that from November to 

 February there was sometimes a scarcity when the last yam 

 crop had been consumed and the next crop had not ripened. 6 

 So too among the Baganda ' no one ever went hungry while the 

 old customs were observed ', 7 but there are at times lean seasons. 

 ' When food is abundant they have their three meals daily ; 

 when it is scarce they content themselves with two, and hope 

 for the rain and a plentiful supply of fruit.' 8 Cureau, describing 



1 Cabeca de Vaca, p. 63. 



2 Similar evidence is forthcoming for many other races. For the Andamanese 

 see Man, loc. cit., pp. 342 ff. ; for the Payaguas, Azara, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 142 ; 

 for the Ghiliaks, Deniker, Rev. d'Eth., vol. ii, p. 295 ; and for the Fuegians, Hyades 

 and Deniker, loc. cit., pp. 122, 339. 



* Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, vol. iv, p. 180. 4 Ling Roth, 



Sarawak, vol. i, p. 422. 8 Thomson, Fijians, p. 332 6 Ibid., p. 335. 



7 Roscoe, Baganda, p. 12. Ibid., p. 6. 



