The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-09
KRAO, THE MISSING LINK.
An Interesting Scientific Account of the
Wonder by an Indianapolis Physician.

The following very interesting account of
Krao is written by DR.. Chas F. Taylor, former
ly practitioner of this city, and now editor and
publisher of the Medical World, Philadelphia.
DIR. Taylor was we'll and favOrably known to the
physicians of this city; he took Krao to his home
and made every effort to determine her mental
and physical traits and his observations will be
of interest to those who have heard of this
strange creature;
''Krao, the missing link is here Krao is
not monstrosity, or freak she is a type of a
race living in northern Siam, Asia between the
18th and Goth degrees of north latitude and the
1l8th and 123d degrees of longitude. kra-o
Sound the as in arm and give the the long
sound), a Samese word meaning man-monHey,
is the name given to this race by the surround
ing people; and this is the name given to the in
teresting specimen now among US. The country
that they inhabit is called Laos Ia and as
above) which simply means an unex-
plored region. 1t comprises about l,OOO
square miles, and is a vast swampy
forest. These people live in trees, and weave
a sort Of hut nest in the branches They live
on fruits, nuts, roots, wild rice and fish Ihey
wear no clothing Being covered with hair, and
their country being warm, they need no clothing
for protection. They have no sense of shame,
but they are very chaste, and have strict moral
sense as far as sexual relations are concerned.
Their only implements are fishing net made
from bark, and a sort of stick with which to de-
fend themselves. Their language is very print
tive and consists of only about 300 words, all OF
one syllable. Names of objects predominant.
They do not cook any of their food; they do not
seem to know what fire is. They have no relig-
ion and no religious sentiment. They worship
nothing; they have not even an evil spirit They
cannot understand such things.
This specimen was obtained with much diff
Guilty After the capture, the King of Siam re-
- ,I,,,4 ka,,o 1a,1r bfar
before he would let her go. This was between
two and three years ago. She is now about
eight years old. The hair covering her
entire body is nearly an inch in length,
her limbs the hair is not so plentiful The
hair of her head is long, straight black and
very coarse 1t grows down in front of her ears
and forms almost mane down her spinal col
umn. Her forehead is very thickly covered
with short fine hair, and her eyebrows are
bushy. The rest of her face is covered with
fine down, and upon her upper lip is a distinct
silken mustache, The hair on her face
and body is growing, and it will doubtless be
much longer and thicker when she is mature
than it is now. Professor Shelly, who has charge
of her, has made special study of all the cases
of superintendent hair on record He says that
in all such cases the teeth suffer, being partly
absent, defective, or liable to rapid decay.
Krao's teeth are normal, proving that the
abundant hair is natural to her
''She has thirteen dorSal vertebre instead of
twelve, and each bears pair of ribs, making
thirteen ribs on each side instead of twelve.
Her ears are devoid of cartilage, and are Situat-
ed further back than in the Caucasian race,
The back part of the head is Aattened, showing
an approach of the back part of the skull to
the axis of the spine, as in the
of cartilage. Her eyes are large, black
and bright. 1t has been said that the iris is alb
sent, but this is mistake however the iris is
almost as black as the pupil. Considerable has
been said of her cheek pouches, and her inelina-
ton to carry food in them, as apes do; but we
think that this has been exaggerated We no
ticed that while on exhibition she had nuts in
them, and that she talked without inconvenience
from them; but during long private interview
with her she had nothing in them and she eX-
hibited no desire to put anything in them Her
fingers and thumb can be bent directly back
and made to touch the back of the hand without
giving her the least pain. In holding a small
object she uses the phalanges of the fingers only,
and not the thumb or the palm of the hand. In
several respects her hands resemble those of the
lower races. She has perfectly human feet,
cept that the toes are moro than ordinarily
supple The limbs from the elbows and knees
are perhaps longer in proportion than in the
Caucasian race
I'VE were greatly interested in her intellect
ual qualities. In the nearly three years that
she has been in civilized life she has learned to
speak both German and English. She reads
and writes fully as well as an ordinary child of
her age and opportunities would. She is intelli
gent playful and affectionate. She has the
feminine characteristics of being fond of pretty
clothes candy, ice cream and excitement. Her
quick repartee (also femlnine) is shown by the
following: A little girl once said to her 'Krao,
yen are an ugly, hairy thing She Immediately
replied, well in my country you would be ugly
too for you have no hair at all Her spiritual
education is quite an uphill business; but prob
ably not much more so than it would be with
any other child with exactly her history She
is pleasant easy to manage-with Kindness
aud she seems to be perfectly happy. The
greatest punishment to her is to threaten to
take her back to her mother If asked why
she doesn't want to go back to her mother
she says because there are no pretty dresses
there She is modest; probably a
result of teaching and example. year or two
ago she would not object to being undressed Tor
doctors to examine her or a photograph to be
taken of her; but now she is unwilling to be ex-
posed in the presence of anyone except her gov
erness or Professor Shelly. The photograph
from which the accompanying cut is made was
taken over year ago, but it looks exactly like
she does now.
'We cannot take space to discuss the relation
of Krao to the theory of evolution. Suffice it to
say that while she is \ human being she bears
a greater resemblance to the next lower orders
than any heretofore known. 1t cannot be said
that she and her tribe sprang from apes or
monkeys. EvolutionistS have never claimed that
humanity had a monkey origin. They claim
that the human race, and the monkey races, and
in fact, all races once had common origin;
that the different orders and species branched
off in different directions like the branches of
tree, and that they were changed or modified by
their different environments"