THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SALT RIVER VALLEY, 
ARIZONA. 
A PUBLICATION highly interesting to the ethnic anatomist 
is a memoir recently published in Washington, entitled, 
‘*Human Bones of the Hemenway Collection in the 
United States Army Medical Museum,” by Dr. Washing- 
ton Matthews and Dr. J. L. Worman. 
The valley of the Rio Salado, or Salt River, was 
explored by this expedition under the direction of Mr. 
Frank H. Cushing. It proved to be the seat of a pre- 
Columbian civilization of rather high type, which, accord- 
ing to the opinions of most, must have disappeared at 
least a thousand years ago. The human bones obtained 
from the old graves present a curious series of aberrations. 
Considered as a single series, they are far from presenting 
a uniform type. If that fact goes for anything, they must 
have been a tribe of very mixed blood. Generally they 
were brachycephalic (probably from cradling), and not 
tall. ‘(heir teeth decayed early in life, and were often 
misplaced and irregular. ‘The Inca and Wormian bones 
were abundant, almost beyond example. “As for flattened 
tibias and perforated olecranons, they break the record 
for frequency. No other series yet measured equals 
them in these defects. Phe hyoid bones offer singular 
deficiencies in ossification. The cubical capacity of the 
skull is very low, about 1313. 
The impression the anatomist receives from reading 
the memoir is, that he sees presented a people in a low 
and sinking stage of physical vigor, drifting toward rapid 
decadence and extinction. Just such a condition pre- 
vailed in Peru at the period of the conquest of Pizarro; 
and from this analogy in condition, social and physical, 
not from geographic or ethnic relations, should be ex- 
plained, I think, the various resemblances in structure 
and social development which the authors of this memoir 
note and dwell upon (rather too forcibly) between these 
widely-sundered nations. 
SCIEN CI: 
Vol. XXIII. No. 575 
THE VEDDAS OF CEYLON, 
Tue Veddas are a stralige and ancient people, who live 
in the hottest and most pestilential swamps and forests of 
Ceylon, leading a thoroughly savage life, nearly naked, in 
temporary shelters, cultivating nothing, and avoiding as 
much as they can any intercourse with the other natives 
of the territory. Out of a total population on the island 
of two and three-quarters millions, they number only 
about 2500; but in ethnic interest they are the most 
noteworthy of all; for in them, it is believed, we have 
preserved the sole representatives of the original in- 
habitants of the island. 
Excellent studies of them have been recently published 
by Drs. P. and F. Sarasin, in their large volume on the 
scientific exploration of Ceylon, and by Dr. Hmil Schmidt, 
in the first number of G/véus, for the present year. From 
these sources we learn that the Wedda belongs to the 
smaller races, the average height being about 1.45 meters} 
his color is medium brown, his hair slightly curly, his 
eyes black, his head narrow and small, with an aVerage 
capacity of about r200 c. c. His face is not proginathic, 
and, from the photogravures of Schmidt, he cften has 
pleasing features and an agreeable expression. Except 
on the head, the hair is scanty, and in the details of his 
anatomy he betrays a general lack of dnvelopment, which 
by some anatomists would be called a ‘‘pithecoid” or 
ape-like tendency. 
The Veddas have few institutions and faint religious 
observances: but the latter are not absent, as Herbert 
Spencer has asserted. lhe language is Singhalese, at 
least in great part; but it is probable that a certain 
stratum of it is connected with some of the Dravidian 
dialects of Southern India. The Veddas,.indeed, ap- 
parently should be classed with that primitive stock 
which at some remote time divided into the various 
members of the Australo-Dravidian family. 
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