234 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Stature. 



The average stature of Cretans to-day is 1,685 mm. (5 feet 

 6-j inches), a considerable increase on the estimated stature of the 

 ancient Cretans, which was 1,625 mm. (5 feet 4 inches). In the west 

 the averages are: For the eparchies of Kydhonia 1,723 mm. (5 feet 

 7f inches) and Sphakia 1,711 mm. (5 feet 1\ inches), diminishing in 

 the east to Mirabello, 1,664 mm. (5 feet 5£ inches), and Hierapetra, 

 1,665 mm. The statistics of stature mapped out by eparchies, or 

 according to cephalic index, or by mountain and plain, present only a 

 seeming confusion, with but one obvious trend, an increase in stature 

 as we journey westward. Yet I think it is possible to distinguish some 

 significant facts amid this apparent confusion. 



The first is that the people in the plains are, with some exceptions, 

 shorter than those in the mountains. 



The second is that the long-head is taller than the broad-head in 

 15 out of 20 eparchies, and as the mountain villages yield a majority of 

 dolichocephals — descendants of the original inhabitants of Crete, as I 

 hope to have established — it seems that they have increased in stature 

 at a higher altitude. When we remember that the Minoans were a short 

 people and dwelt chiefly on the coast, this upward trend in stature 

 and habitat seems to have gone on pari passii. This fact comes out 

 more clearly when we turn directly to the mountain areas where we 

 have already found the long-heads. In Lasithi, where the cephalic 

 index and the proportion of long-heads to broad-heads of the Minoans 

 is almost exactly reproduced, the average stature for 99 men is 1,676 

 mm., an increase of 51 mm., or 2 inches, on the Minoan average. The 

 dolichocephals of Lasithi have an average of 1,685 mm., compared with 

 1,646 mm. for the brachycephals. Kydhonia Province, on the northern 

 slopes of the White Mountains, has an average of 1,740 mm. for the 

 dolichocephals and 1,715 mm. for the brachycephals. This increased 

 stature of the moderns also holds in the Messara Mountains and Mylo- 

 pctamo on the northern side of Mount Ida, although in this last case it 

 is reduced by the inclusion of the poverty-struck villagers of Kameraki, 

 a hamlet unknown to the map, boasting no kapphcneion (cafe), not even 

 the pretence of a store, the poorest village that I have come across in 

 my wanderings in Crete. Here the average stature of 10 men was 

 1,600 mm. (5 feet 3 inches) only. Another example of the effect of 

 poverty on stature is to be found in the island of Gavdos (anc. Clauda), 

 where the average of 20 men was 1,634 mm. (5 feet 4 J inches), com- 

 pared with their nearest neighbours and kinsmen, the Sphakiots, of 

 whom 284 had an average height of 1,711 mm. (5 feet 7-J inches). 



The third fact, already noted, is that the people of the western half 

 of the island are taller than those of the eastern half. Both dolicho- 

 cephals and brachycephals are tall, over 1,700 mm. (5 feet 7 inches), 

 and the former have a slight advantage. The distribution is here some- 

 what peculiar. On the northern side of the mountain are tall long- 

 heads; on the southern, tall broad-heads; in a neighbouring eparchy 

 are short broad-heads alongside tall long-heads. The puzzle is to 

 account for the tall long-heads and broad-heads in the west. If there 



