750 General Notes. [August, 
as obtained by me by computation from the length of the femur, 
using Humphrey’s method, is 5 feet 314 inches. 
Owing to the absence of the maxillaries, the nasal and malar 
bones, and the zygomatic arches, I was prevented making several 
interesting and important measurements. Me 
In this connection it may be well to remark that synostosis 1s 
not always productive of deformity, and that the age at which 
the lesion occurs has much to do with the gravity and character 
of the result—Henry Gillman, Detroit, Michigan. 
THE BATEKES.—A small but exceedingly rare collection brought 
to the National Museum by Mr. Tisdel, makes the paper of 
Guiral doubly interesting. In Stanley’s “ Congo” will be found 
a map locating this interesting people. The Batékés are an agri- 
cultural people, locating their villages near water-courses, upon 
fertile areas, surrounded by sandy wastes. Their crops are palms, 
manioc, arachids, millet and maize. M. Guiral speaks with pa- 
thetic eloquence of the discomforts of smoke and vermin in these 
palm-leaf habitations. 
oil and chip their front teeth. ; 
e women are the farmers, and perform their work with a 
simple hoe of native manufacture. For domestic animals they 
have goats, chickens, pigs and dogs. The music of the Batekes 
consists of a gourd rattle ; a calabash pierced with an opening 10 
which to blow at the same time that the object is struck with the 
| hands ; a kind of ‘fife, three-stringed guitar, castanets, a tambon 
= made of hollow wood covered with goat skin, and a species O 
zither formed like a bow and arrow. In the last-named instru- 
ment a bow has two strings of different lengths attached to an 
arrow shaft. Instead of a point the arrow has a broad disk gs 
head, which the player placés against his breast. By drawing ¥ 
bow towards him the player has virtually four strings, which E 
can tighten ad Zibitum—ZLeon Guiral, Rev. d’Ethnog., v, 135 
166; also see id. iv, 160-168, and tit, 550—555. 
„THE Nicoparese.—The inhabitants of the Nicobar islands coy 
sist of two races, the natives of the interior, of pure descent si 
certain Mongolian affinities), isolated from a remote period; ofa 
ie natives of the coast, exhibiting all the characte 2 
nongrel Malay race. The inland eople are known to the ted) 
tribes as Shom Peir (Shom, people, and Peir, the tribe designa ere 
They are fairer than the Malays and_straight-haired. "i i 
yabi show an admixture of Burmese and Siamese t 
ie r ie r thr ough regular traffic, the latter through wrecks che ; ie 
