Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/69

Rh this series is 78, and the lowest 64.3. M. Paul Broca, the French authority, gives the average of his measurements as 72. Thus the Bantu are dolichocephali, that is people whose skulls average in breadth less than three-fourths of their length. The average horizontal cephalic index of white people is 78.7.

Of Hottentots, only four that are certainly genuine specimens are given in Professor Flower's volume. The average horizontal cephalic index of these is 72.7, the highest being 75, and the lowest 70.3. Dr. Fritsch had also only four skulls which were certainly those of Hottentots. The average horizontal cephalic index of these he found to be 72.6, the highest being 77, and the lowest 65.9. M. Broca gives this index from his measurements as 72. The Hottentots are thus certainly true dolichocephali. But even in those that are regarded as pure Hottentot there may have been a mixture of Bushman blood, from causes that will be explained in the next chapter, so that the skull measurements are not altogether to be depended upon. This, however, would have raised the average, not lowered it.

Of genuine Bushman skulls, Professor Flower gives the measurements of five. The average horizontal cephalic index is 76.6, the highest being 78.4, and the lowest 75.7. The late Dr. George Rolleston. professor of anatomy in the university of Oxford, in an appendix to Oates' Matabeleland, gives the measurements of six Bushman skulls in the museum of the university. The average horizontal cephalic index was 75.7, the highest being 81, and the lowest 70. Dr. Fritsch measured five Bushman skulls, and found the average horizontal cephalic index 74.2, the highest being 78.5, and the lowest 69.5. M. Broca found the average of his measurements as low as 72, but it is doubtful whether his specimens were not Hottentot skulls. It would appear that the Bushmen are on the border line separating the dolichocephalic from the mesaticephalic races, the breadth of skulls of the latter averaging between three-fourths and four-fifths of the length.