een or more
centuries because they have left no inheritance for him.

The Sakai, then, is somewhat short in stature but sufficiently hardy and
well-formed, except in the lower limbs which render him slightly
bow-legged.

The cause of this trifling deformity is to be found in the habit they
have, from their earliest childhood, of sitting upon their heels, as it
were, thus leaving the knees wide apart.

This posture, however, is not a particularity of the jungle inhabitants
as I have frequently seen Italians in the same position, but the latter
lean their shoulders against a tree or wall for support so that there is
less strain upon the legs.

When they are eating or listening to something that interests them the
Sakai men and women will remain for whole hours in this attitude without
showing any fatigue whatever.

Their feet are rather large and properly arched. The big toe is well
separated from the others and is very strong.

The muscles of their arms are not much developed and sometimes these
members are too long in proportion to the rest of the body. Their hands
are also very long and slender. The chest muscles, on the contrary, are
very well developed owing probably to the continual habit of climbing
trees, rocks, rifts and the like in search of food or for any other
motive that their nomadic life may make necessary.

Altogether the figure of the Sakai does not reveal any large amount of
vigour perhaps because he is usually thin and is what might be termed
pot-bellied, owing to the sort of food he eats and the cold he suffers
during the night, but he is much more robust and taller (the average
height of an adult is a little past one metre and a half)[7] than the
other tribes and races around him who are in close reports with
civilization. This fact would almost make one believe that civilization
is detrimental to the physical development of an individual.

These Aborigines are endowed with wonderful agility, as may be seen when
they clamber up certain clefts that we should judge impossible of ascent
and also when they spring from one part to another with a nimbleness
that might excite the envy of our best gymnasts.

They have not much muscular force, as I have said, but they are second
to none in enduring fatigue, especially in the case of long marches, to
which they are well accustomed as every day they walk about 20 miles,
carrying upon their shoulders the by no means light product of the
chase, togethe