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
Pygmees_. Paris, J.B. Bailliere et Fils, 1887.]

[Footnote B: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst_., vii.]

[Footnote C: _Ibid_., iv.]

South of the Andaman Islands are the Nicobars, the aborigines of which,
the Shom Pen,[A] now inhabit the mountains, where, like so many of their
brethren, they have been driven by the Malays. They are of small, but not
pigmy stature (five feet two inches), a fact which may be due to crossing.

[Footnote A: Man, _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, xviii. p. 354.]

Following the Negritos east amongst the islands, we find in Luzon the
Aetas or Inagtas, a group of which is known in Minda