babcock] THE NANTICOKE INDIANS 279
numerous photographs which they exhibited, could I deduce anything like a general rule or type. The craniologist of the future would probably form his idea of the Nanticoke from the particular specimens which might happen to come in his way, and his conclusions would err accordingly.
In complexion there is as marked a variance. There are in- dividuals whiter than many white folk ; there are others of all intermediate shades, to the coppery tint which we most often associate with the Indian race. This does not depend on the proportion of Indian blood ; the son of a very light-tinted father and mother may be a more pronounced Indian in complexion than half the members of tribal delegations that visit Washington.
My chief informant and kind assistant in my investigations, Mr William Russell Clark, is of notable Nanticoke type — long, glossy, black hair waving about his shoulders ; vivid, eager, black eyes ; aquiline nose, dark complexion, oval countenance ; enter- prising, sensitive, spirited, and kindly. But there is another and broader type of countenance among his people which recalls the more Tartar-like and square-faced Indians whom we so often see. In cheek-bones, in lips and nostrils, they have the features of their race, or of the white race, and not those of the African ; yet no one of them would be taken for a person of unmixed white blood unless by a careless observer.
I neither saw nor heard of cripples nor seriously diseased per- sons ; yet instances of longevity seemed equally wanting, for their oldest living member is under fourscore years. To divers in- quiries concerning young persons or couples, the answer " dead," " he is dead," or " they are both dead/' came with depressing regularity. I found that my entertainers agreed with me in not considering themselves a long-lived people.
Children are fairly numerous. I saw no very large families, but the roads were well dotted with them in twos and threes on their way to school. They seemed a hearty, cheery lot of young- sters, not unlike well-treated, well-taught white children of equal
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