The Missing Link

Through the coitrtesy of Mr. Farini, I havo had a private interview wit-h this curious little waif, whioh lm is iiow exliibiting at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, and for wliich he claims the distincüon of being the long-sought-fur "missing link" between man and the anthropoid apes. Krao certainly presents some abnormal peculiaritics, but they are scarcely of a sufliciently pronouncedtypo to justify such a elaini. She is, in fact, a distinetly human child, apparently about seven years old, endowed with an average share of Intèlligencë, and possessing tno faculty of articúlate speech. Since her arrival, about ten weeks ago, in Lontion, she has acquircd several Lnglish words, which shu uses intelligentl}-, and not mcrcly parrol fashion as has been stated. Thus, on my suddonly producing my watch at the interview, shewas attracted by the glitter, and cried out, "C'ook, C'ook," that is, clock, doek! ïhis snowed considerable powera of generalization, aceompanied by a somewhat defectivo articulation, and it appears tliat her phonetic system does not yet embrace the liijuids l and r. But in tliis and other respects her education is progressing favorably, and shc has alrcady so far adapted horself to civilizcd ways that the mere threat to bc sent back to het ownpeople is always suflicient to suppress any symptoms of unruly conduet. Physicallj. Krao presen Is severa! iinpiilinr fnrtt.nrpw rVho. linn.i! nml lnw forehead are covcrcd, down to the bushy eyebrows, withthedeep-blaek. hink and lustre] oss hair charaeteristicoi thoMongoloid races. The whole body is also overgrowñ with a far loss dense coating of soft black hair; about r. qüaïter of an inch long, but nowhere close enough to couceal the color of the skin, which may bo described as of atlark olive-brown shadc. The nosc is extremcly short and lovv, witli oxecssivcly broad nostriis morging in the full ponehinl clicciks, in whicli she appcars to have tin; liabit ol Stuffiug her food nionkey fashion. Like those of tho anthropoids, her feet are also prehensile, and 1lu hands so llexiblo that they bend ([uiie hack over the wrists. The tkump also doubles coni])letely back, and of the fovir lingers al the top joints imlependently bend at pleasurc inward. Éronathisni seems to be very slightly dëveloped, and hei beantifiil round black eyes ttie very lar and perfectly horizontal. Henee the expression is, on the whole, far from unpleasing, and not noarly so ape-liko as that of the many Negritos, andespeciallv of tho Javanese "Ardi," üo-ured by me in Nature of December 30, 1880. But itsliould be mentioned that, when in a pel, Krao's Ups are saicl to protrude so tar as to give lier "quite a ehinipanzce look." Apart from her history, one might feel disposad to regard this specimen mernly as a "sport." or lusus natura), possessed ratlier of & pathological than of a strictly anthropologieal interest. Certainly, isolated cases of hniry persons, and even of liairy families, are not unknown to science. Several wcre tigurcd m a recent number of the Berlín Zeitsehrift fur Etlmologic; and, if i remember, both Cravviurtl ("Journal of an Embassy to Siarn") and Colonel Yule "'(Mission to tiio Court of Ava") spoak of a hftiry family resident for two or three generations at the Burmese capital. This family ia reported to have come origmally trom the interior oí the Lab country; and in the same región wc are now told that littlc Krao and her paren ts, also hairy people, were found ]ast year by the wcll-known Eastern explorer, Mr. Cari Bock. Soon aiter thcir capture, the father appears to have died of cholera, and the mother was detained at Bangkok by the Siamese government, so that Krao alone could be brought to England. But, before hi.s death, a pliotograph of the father was taken by Mr. Bock, who describes him as "completely coveredwitb a thick hairy coat exactly like that of the anthropoid apes, On hls face -not only had he a heavy bushy beard and vvhiskers similar in every respect to the hairy family at the Court of the King of Burmah, who also came from the same región as that in which Krao and her father were found, but every pa' j was thoroughly enveloped in hair. The long arms aud the rounded stoinaeh also proclaimed lijs close alliance to the monkey form, while his power of speech and his intelligence were so far developed that, before his doath, he was able to utter a few words in Malayv." Assuming the accuraey of these statements and of this description, little Krao of course at once acquires execptionnl scieutilie importancc. She wouïd at all events be a living prooi' of the prosease of a hairy race in Farlher India, a región at present mainly oecupied by alinost hairless Mongoloid people From these races the largo, straight eyes would also detach the Krao type and point lo a possible counection wit tlie hairy. straight-eyed Aino tribes stil surviving in Yesso and Sakhalin), and formerly diffüsed over Japan and thé opposite mainland.