DWARF (AS. direora, diecorh, Icel. drergr, tirrra, tier. Zirrry, dwarf I. In general, an undersized (and often deformed) human being. The term is applied specifically to the A.kka (q.v.) tribe, and sonic other peoples in Central and Southern Africa, the Andaman Islands (see NCOPIES ) , the peninsula of Malacca (see Se:Nr.czrSl, and the Philippines (see .Er The dwarf tribes that are grouped around the est limits of human stature have always been a subject of great interest, both to laymen and to scientific men. A large part of this interest, however, is due to the widespread curiosity with regard to the abnormal, such as has from time immemorial centred in those ra*o departures from average height occurring among civilized races. Dwarfs are really the result of an anom aly of development, and usually manifest What are lutown as pathological characters. Thus, most eases of dwarfism show traces of rickets (q.v.), which is a disorder of nutrition, where the process of ossifieation is arrested at a period when the bony tissue is about to become thor oughly ossified. In many instances dwarfs are well formed. and, to all appearances, perfectly normal in physical and mental characteristics. It has been observed that, in contrast with the giants, the mind of dwarfs is acute and active; in character they are often sensitive and re vengeful.
Formerly dwarfs were attractions in the en tourages of kings; since then they have gener ally been exhibited for gain. Perhaps the most remarkable of these little folk is the feminine dwarf Ililany Agyba, of Sinai, 15 inches in height. The height of the celebrated 13(-be of King Stanislas. of Poland. was 89 centimeters;
another. twenty-five years of age, and 56 centi meters in height, was presented to Henrietta of France in a pie. The hunchback dwarfs of Philip IV. were immortalized by the great Span ish painter Velasquez. Topinard has observed dwarfs that weighed as low as from four to eight kilograms. The infrequency of dwarfs among the lower races of mankind is probably due to natural selection, as well as to the custom of destroying abnormalities.
Stories of dwarfs, brownies, elves, etc., are familiar in the folk-lore of nearly every tribe OD earth, though the greatest development of these myths seems to be among the peoples of Aryan descent. Lately a theory has been ad vanced that the belief in brownies in England is a survival from ancient times, when a small, dark race of aborigines inhabited the country. and that the folk-tales have an actual basis of fact.
BIBLIOGRA.PHY. Man..lbarigines of the .IndaBibliographyY. Man..lbarigines of the .Inda- man islands (London. 18,73) Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa (London, 1885) : Junket-, Travels in Africa, translated by Keane (3 vols., London. 1890-92) ; Tyson, Philological Essay Concerning Pygmies of the .1neients, edited by Windle (London, 1S9-1) Quatrefag,es de The Pigmies. translated by Starr (New York, 1895) : Burrows, The Land of the Pigmies, with introduction by Stanley (New York, 1898) : Brinton, Tribe of the Upper Amazon." in .1 merican n t hropologist (Washington. IS9S) ; Picard. "Les pypuips." in Seience sachile, vols, xxvii., xxviii. (Paris, 1899).