ETHNOLOGY. 287 



morphological point which might have served to indicate 

 the character of its owner — I mean the feebleness of the 

 nasal spine, a shortcoming more or less evident in all, or 

 nearly all, Bushman crania — does not help us here ; for 

 we observe in this skull that the line of symphysis of the 

 two halves of the upper jaw rises here anteriorly, as it 

 does sometimes in European jaws, into a raised double 

 ridge, which, though it slopes gradually into the plane 

 of the alveolar border, and does not rise into a sharply- 

 defined angular spine, and so far falls short of the 

 typical " anterior nasal spine," is yet a very different 

 thing from the very feebly -developed bifid process of 

 ordinary Bushman, and many other African and other 

 savage jaws. 



The question arises, how are we to interpret these 

 facts ? We may explain them by saying that the elasti- 

 city and plasticity of the type is such as to admit of the 

 escape of an exceedingly aberrant individual, and its 

 homogeneity and plasticity, nevertheless, also such as to 

 allow of its walls joining again, and restoring the perfect 

 circumscription which is implied in our speaking of the 

 race as possessing well-defined limits. Or lovers of logi- 

 cal consistency, who may not be extensively acquainted 

 with the width over which variability may extend itself, 

 may prefer to suggest that some kind of error may attach 

 or have been attached to the identification of this particu- 

 lar cranium. It is possible, I suppose, that a runaway 

 Caffre, or even an outcast white man, may have betaken 

 himself to some horde of Bushmen, and identified himself 

 with their manners and customs, and adopted their dress 

 and equipment. Such voluntary degradations are known 

 to have taken place, with the consequence of the refugee 

 becoming not merely " half a savage," but rather, as shown 

 by the place and precedence given to him, " a savage and 

 a half;" or, finally, the owner of this skull may really have 

 been a cross between a white man and a female of the 

 Bushman stock. To this last explanation I myself incline. 



As regards the condition of the teeth, the skull 



