196 
ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES. 
can only get at any particular date by comparison with 
local events of some importance. 
The interesting point about these two tables is that, in 
the adult the span invariably exceeds the height, and that 
the average difference is approximately one-twentieth of their 
average height, while in the boys the span does not always 
exceed the height, and in the twenty measured the average 
difference was only one thirty-sixth of their average height. 
Now there is no reason to suppose that the twenty boys I 
measured were below the average build of Dusun boys, so 
it looks as if the excess of span over height comes with 
increasing years, and as a factor in this development the 
life of the Kiau Dusuns strongly suggests use. The Dusun 
boy begins manual work at an early age, and for the last 
two or three years of his growing period probably does the 
full work of an adult. 
One has often read that, as a proof (one of many) of 
man’s simian ancestry, primitive races have a greater span 
in proportion to their height than more advanced races, 
but in that case should we not find it more marked in the 
young than in the adult ? However, as stated above, it is 
unsafe to generalize from such meagre statistics as these ; 
nevertheless, this little point is, I think, worth mentioning 
if only as one requiring more study. 
Our third table contains measurements for only ten 
women, mostly adult but unmarried girls. They are not 
sufficient in number to need more than a very brief note. 
Their heights range from 4 ft. 4J in. to 4 ft. 10J in., with 
an average of 4 ft. 7f in.; their span averages out as 1 in. 
more than their height. In two cases it is less than their 
height, in two more it is less than 1 in. over their height, 
while the maximum of 8 in. and 8J in. is reached by two 
other girls. Their average hand-stretch is 186'5 mm., or 
5 mm. less than the average hand-stretch of the adult men. 
J. C. Moulton. 
