these people, and
twenty-two is said to be their average length of life.

Mentally, they are at a low level, the lowest, in the opinion of Owen,
among the races of mankind. In counting they have words for only one
and two, but can count up to ten by touching the nose with each of the
fingers in succession, saying each time, "this one also." Their language
is of a primitive type, and in various respects they manifest low
intelligence. Yet, as in the case of the Akkas mentioned, they can be
taught to the level of other children of twelve or fourteen years. Their
mind, in the opinion of Dr. Brander, seems rather to be asleep than
incapable. One child was taught to read and write, and to speak English
fluently, and gained some knowledge of arithmetic; and this was not an
exceptional case.

It does not seem at all remarkable, when we consider the ease with which
monkeys can be taught many arts and acts new to them, that those
dwarfish men, like other savages, greatly superior as they are in brain
power to the apes, should be capable of acquiring the minor elements of
education. It is not what they can be taught, but what they have taught
themselves, that we must consider in assigning them to their comparative
place in intellectual development. In this respect the Mincopies are on
a very low plane. They have not even acquired the art of making a fire,
though this is almost universal with mankind. All they know is how to
keep a fire alive, and in this they are very assiduous. It is probable
that they may have obtained fire at first from volcanoes on neighboring
islands.

They are lacking, like the Pygmy races in general, in the art of
chipping stone, one of the earliest arts acquired by man. Their only
means of shaping stone is to put it into the fire until it breaks or
splinters, when they can use the sharp splinters for their purposes.
They are quite destitute of the art of drawing, and have no means of
communicating their thoughts except by speech.

Yet with these deficiencies, they have made some progress in the
industrial arts. They make wooden vessels, and can produce pottery which
stands the fire and in which they cook most of their food. They make
nets of considerable size, which they use to fish with in the narrow
streams. They have arrows and harpoons, whose points are fastened to the
shaft by a long cord. The fish or land animal struck unwinds this cord
in trying to get away, and its speed being checked by the s