18T0.J 4iJO [G-abb. 



of hygiene, and the universal negligence of the sick, on the part of the 

 well, all contribute to shorten the average life-term of the people, so that 

 very few old men or women are to be found, and the mortality is so great 

 among the young that the deaths more than counterbalance the births. 

 Unless some gieat change takes place, the whole of the tribes of Tala- 

 manca will have disappeai-ed within two or three generations more. The 

 Tiribis, who like the others have strict rules about marriage, within cer- 

 tain degrees of consanguinity, are now so reduced that several young 

 men and women are to-day forced to rema'n unmarried for want of propar 

 mates sufficiently removed in relationship. But at the beginniog of this 

 century they were powerful enough to give battle to the Bri-bris. The 

 Changinas and Shelabas have disappeared and the fate of the other tribes 

 requires no prophet to foretell. 



Physically, the people of all the tribes bear a strong resemblance to each 

 other. They are of short stature, broad shouldered, heavily built, full 

 in the chest, with well-formed limbs, and well muscled throughout. Their 

 color is similar to that of the North American Indians, or, if anything 

 different, perhaps a little lighter. There seems to be but little, if any 

 admixture of foreign blood among them. Their history would hardly 

 lead us to expect it. They have lived very exclusively, and it has hardly 

 been half a century since they have ceased to live in a state of open war 

 with all intruders from the coast side. The Spanish occupation closed so 

 disastrously over a century and a half ago, was of too short duration, and 

 and the whites were too few, to make a permanent impression on a then 

 populous country. 



The following measurements taken from my servant, a full grown man, 

 who is not more than an inch, if so much, under the average height, will 

 give a fair idea of their build. He measures in height, 5 ft. li in., cir- 

 cumference of chest, under the arms 35.f inches ; of hips 34 inches, of 

 waist 33.J inches, length from axilla to tips of the fingers, 2ih inches ; leg, 

 from the groin to the ground, 29 laches. Both sexes are marked by an 

 almost perfect absence of hair from all parts of the person except the 

 head ; where there is a dense growth of coarse, straight black hair. This 

 the women plait with considerable taste. The men wear theirs cut mod- 

 erately long and of an even length all round ; or a few retaining an older 

 fashion, have it a little over a foot long, apparently its entire natural 

 length, and either let it stream loosely over the shoulders, gather it iuto 

 two plaits, or twist it into a roll, bound with a strip of niastate, and 

 coiled at the back of the head in a round flat mass. 



The breasts of the women are not conical, as occurs with many, if not 

 most of the Indian races ; but are fully as globular as those of the 

 ■ European or African. Nor are they directed laterally. They are not 

 generally large, though some marked exceptions occur to this rule. But 

 they have one strongly marked peculiarity. The entire areolar area is 

 developed into a globular j^rotuberance, completely enveloping and 

 hiding the nipple. The development of this part begins with, almost 



