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 loo, 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 n.i 
April-June 8 23.8 10.4 
July-September 21.1 9.9 
October-December 22.8 14.0 
1 Nichols, J. B. : The Numerical Proportion of the Sexes at Birth. Mem. 
Anthrop. Assoc. Vol. I, part 4, Lancaster, Pa., 1907, pp. 249-300. 
1 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. 
3 The three months epidemic of 1908 at Kharga, which will be noticed in the 
next table, excluded. 
