It would be impossible to find anywhere a race of purer descent than the Andamanese, for ever since they peopled the islands in the Stone Age, they have remained secluded from the outer world, and to this isolation is due the uniformity so marked in their physical and mental characteristics. In stature they are far below the average height; but although they have been called dwarfs and pygmies, these words must not be understood to imply anything in the nature of a monstrosity. Their reputation for hideousness, like their poisoned arrows and cannibalism, has long been a fallacy, which, although widely popular, should now be exploded. The average heights of Andamanese men and women, computed from a large series of measurements, are found to be 4 feet 10-3/4 inches and 4 feet 7-1/4 inches respectively, and their figures which are proportionately built, are very symmetrical and graceful. Although not to be described as muscular, they are of good development, the men being agile, yet sturdy, with broad chests and square shoulders. The abdomens--although on the whole not to a greater extent than those of other savages--are sometimes protuberant, in the women more so than the men, and it is probably owing to this feature that they have been described as figureless, a statement by no means wholly correct. In both sexes, the small of the back is very hollow and the buttocks prominent. The feet are rather large, and occasionally occurs a case of the great-toe being placed with relation to the others in an almost simian or thumb-like way. Hands are of moderate size and well shaped, with long thin fingers. Viewed from a distance, the skin appears of a jetty colour, especially when shining from the fat with which it is often bedaubed: a close examination shows, however, that it is not absolutely black, although these people are amongst the darkest of mankind.[100] Soles, palms, and nails are pale pinkish-brown, and while the lips of some show a slight purplish tinge, those of the majority scarcely differ in tint from the skin of the face. The hair, which is similar in colour to the skin, and lustreless, is woolly, and of what is known as "pepper-corn" type, for, when kept short, it assumes the form of little knobs with bare spaces between, giving to the head an appearance that has been rather aptly likened to that of an old worn-out shoe-brush. When long, the tufts take the form of a cone-shaped frizzly spiral. The body is glabrous, but there are traces of hair about the armpits and other parts, and adult males possess sometimes an excessively slight moustache, and about a dozen hairs on the tip of the chin.