BOmtY DEFORMITIES. 
307 
deformity; and 1 may say the same of thousands of Caribs, 
Muyscae, and Mexican and Peruvian Indians, whom we 
observed during the course of five years. Bodily deformities, 
and deviations from nature, are exceedingly rare among cer- 
tain races of men, especially those who have the epidermis 
highly coloured ; but I cannot believe that they depend 
solely on the progress of civilization, a luxurious life, or the 
corruption ot morals. In Europe a deformed or very ugly 
girl marries, if she happen to have a fortune, and the children 
often inherit the deformity of the mother. In the savage 
state, which is a state of equality, no consideration can 
induce a man to unite himself to a deformed woman, or one 
who is very unhealthy. Such a woman, if she resist the acci- 
dents of a restless and troubled life, dies without children 
We might be tempted to think, that savages all appear well- 
made and vigorous, because feeble children die voium for 
want of care, and only the strongest survive; 'but these 
causes cannot operate among the Indians of the Missions 
m hose manners are like those of our peasants, or among the 
Mexicans of Cliolula and Tlascala, who enjoy wealth, trims- 
mitted to them by ancestors more civilized' than themselves. 
If, m every state of cultivation, the copper-coloured race 
manifests the same inflexibility, the same resistance to devia- 
tion from a primitive type, are wc not forced to admit that 
tips peculiarity belongs in great measure to hereditary orga- 
nization, to that which constitutes the race P With copper- 
coloured men, as with whites, luxury and effeminacy weaken 
the physical constitution, and heretofore deformities were 
more common at Cuzco and Tenochtithm. Among the 
Mexicans of the present day, who are all labourers, leading 
the most simple lives, Montezuma would not have fouud 
those dwarfs and humpbacks whom Bernal Diaz saw waiting 
at his table when lie (fined. * The custom of marrying very 
young, according to the testimony of the monks, is no way 
detrimental to population. This precocious nubility depends 
on the race, and not on the influence of a climate excessively 
warm. It is found on the north-west coast of America 
among the Esquimaux, and in Asia, among the Kamtschat- 
i tales, and the Koriaks, where girls of ten years old ure often 
mothers. It may appear astonishing, that the time of gesta- 
♦ Bernal Diaz. Hist. Verd. de la Nueva EspaSa, 1630. 
