It would, however, be a great
mistake to suppose that all races reaching a lower average height than
five feet four inches are, in any accurate sense of the word, to be looked
upon as pigmies. We have to descend to a considerably lower figure before
that appellation can be correctly employed. The stature must fall
considerably below five feet before we can speak of the race as one of
dwarfs or pigmies. Anthropometrical authorities have not as yet agreed
upon any upward limit for such a class, but for our present purposes it
may be convenient to say that any race in which the average male stature
does not exceed four feet nine inches--that is, the average height of a
boy of about twelve years of age--may fairly be described as pigmy. It is
most important to bear this matter of inches in mind in connection with
points which will have to be considered in a later section.
Pigmy races still exist in considerable numbers in Asia and the adjacent
islands, and as it was in that continent that, so far as our present
knowledge goes, they had in former days their greatest extension, and, if
De Quatrefages be correct, their place of origin, it will be well to deal
first with the tribes of that quarter of the globe.
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