384 



ON THE PEOPLE OF THE LONG-BARROW PERIOD. 



portion of the men turn relatively larger than in modern races of 

 Europe ; and in two lower jaws, one belonging to a male, the other 

 to a female adult, the mental foramen is placed further back than 

 is usual in European jaws. The tibia of four, if not of all the five 

 adult skeletons procured from this barrow, are more or less what 

 Professor Busk 1 has called 'anteriorly platycnemic' Though the 

 femora from this barrow were not markedly carinate — which, indeed, 

 we should not have expected to find them to be, as correlated with 

 this variety of platycnemic tibiae — all the bones had their muscular 

 ridges well pronounced and defined, as though their owners, if not 

 of very great stature 2 , nor, as is probable, of the very poorest grade 

 amongst a savage tribe (all of whom, however, are always poor), were 

 yet in the habit, whether from choice or necessity, of using consider- 

 able muscular force. Several of the humeri, for example, had the 

 deltoid ridge very strikingly developed, as though their owners had 

 laboured at lifting the stones of the barrow which was one day to 

 cover them. One of the humeri, it may here be noted, and that, 

 as M. Broca has noted 3 to be usually the case, a female's, had an 

 olecranic perforation. Two scapulae, with unanchylosed acromial 

 processes, were observed here, a fact of small consequence by itself, 

 but pointing, when taken in connection with others, to the pro- 

 bability of blood-relationship having existed between the several 

 occupants of the tumulus. 



In their texture, colour, and manganese discoloration, all these 

 bones resemble each other pretty closely, and convey to the mind 

 a strong impression of their antiquity. 



Craniography . — Swell i. (a). — Skull of woman, past middle period 

 of life. To this skull probably belong an upper and a lower jaw, 

 and a femur, labelled accordingly, and giving a stature of 4 feet 

 9 inches ; as also a couple of very small clavicles, and a very 

 slender radius. 



1 See 'Journal Eth. Soc. London,' Jan. 1871, p. 459. 



2 For the large size of the chiefs in savage tribes, see Whitmore, ' Contemp. Rev.,' 

 1873, p. 392; Brenchley, 'Cruise of the Curacoa,' p. 137; Erskine's 'West Pacific,' 

 pp. 155 and 240; Forster's ' Observations,' p. 229; Ellis's 'Polynesian Researches,' 

 ii. 26. 



3 ' Memoires,' ii. p. 366, 1874. 



