The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras #272514

The manners, customs, religious conceptions, and daily life Of all these Indians are very similar, though among the Indians Of British Honduras, who come more closely in contact with outside influences, old customs are dying out, and Old ideas and methods are being super seded by new. The language Of the tribes here considered, with slight local dialectical variations, is the same; all are of the same physical type; in fact, there can be little doubt that they are the direct descendants of those Maya who occupied the peninsula of Yucatan at the time of the conquest. Physically, though short they are robust and well proportioned. The men average 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 3 inches in height, the women about 2 inches less. The skin varies in color from almost White to dark bronze. The hair Of both sexes is long, straight, coarse, black, and luxuriant on the head, where it extends very low over the forehead, but is almost entirely absent from other parts of the body. The women usually wear their hair hanging down the back in two plaits. Their faces are round and full, with rather high cheek bones; the skull is highly brachi cephalic in type. The following indices were taken from a small number of Santa Cruz Indians, mostly males of middle age.