Institute, and summarised in De Quatrefages' work. The average stature of the males of this race is four feet six inches, the height of a boy of ten years of age. Like children, the head is relatively large in comparison with the stature, since it is contained seven times therein, instead of seven and a half times, as is the rule amongst most average-sized peoples. Whilst speaking of the head, it may be well to mention that these Negritos, and in greater or less measure other Negritos and Negrillos (_i.e._, pigmy blacks, Asiatic or African), differ in this part of the body in a most important respect from the ordinary African negro. Like him, they are black, often intensely so: like him, too, they have woolly hair arranged in tufts, but, unlike him, they have round (brachycephalic) heads instead of long (dolichocephalic); and the purer the race, the more marked is this distinction. The Mincopie has a singularly short life; for though he attains puberty at much the same age as ourselves, the twenty-second year brings him to middle life, and the fiftieth, if reached, is a period of extreme senility. Pure in race, ancient in history, and carefully studied, this race deserves some further attention here than can be extended to others with which I have to deal. The moral side of the Mincopies seems to be highly developed; the modesty of the young girls is most strict; monogamy is the rule, and-- "Their list of forbidden degrees An extensive morality shows," since even the marriage of cousins-german is considered highly immoral. "Men and women," says Man, "are models of constancy." They believe in a Supreme Deity, respecting whom they say, that "although He resembles fire, He is invisible; that He was never born, and is immortal; that He created the world and all animate and inanimate objects, save only the powers of evil. During the day He knows everything, even the thoughts of the mind; He is angry when certain sins are committed, and full of pity for the unfortunate and miserable, whom He sometimes condescends to assist. He judges souls after death, and pronounces on each a sentence which sends them to paradise or condemns them to a kind of purgatory. The hope of escaping the torments of this latter place influences their conduct. Puluga, this Deity, inhabits a house of stone; when it rains, He descends upon the earth in search of food; during the dry weather He is asleep." Besides this Deity, they believe in numerous evil spirits, the chief of whom is the Demon of the Woods. These spirits have created themselves, and have existed _ab immemorabili_. The sun, which is a female, and the moon, her husband, are secondary deities. [Footnote A: The quotations from this author are taken from his work _Les Pygmées_. Paris, J.B. Baillière et Fils, 1887.] [Footnote B: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst_., vii.] [Footnote C: _Ibid_., iv.]