[87] “Ten years in South-Central Polynesia,” by the Rev. T. West: p. 146. (1865.)
[88] “Observations made during a Voyage round the World,” by J. R. Forster. (1778.)
[89] “Jottings from the Pacific,” by Wyatt Gill: p. 198. (1885.)
[90] “Report on the Botany of the Challenger,” by W. Botting Hemsley: vol. I., part iii., p. 152.
The physical characters of a typical Solomon Islander.—Notwithstanding the variety in some of the characters of these natives, it is not a difficult matter to describe a typical individual who combines their most prominent and most prevalent characteristics. Such a man would have a well-proportioned physique, a good carriage, and well-rounded limbs. His height would be about 5 feet 4 inches; his chest-girth between 34 and 35 inches; and his weight between 125 and 130 pounds. The colour of his skin would be a deep brown, corresponding with number 35 of the colour-types of M. Broca;[91] and he would wear his hair in the style of a bushy periwig in which all the hairs are entangled independently into a loose frizzled mass. His face would have a moderate degree of subnasal prognathism, with projecting brows, deeply sunk orbits, short, straight nose, much depressed at the root but sometimes arched, lips of moderate thickness and rather prominent, chin somewhat receding. His hairless face would have an expression of good humour, which is in accord with the cheerful temperament of these islanders. The form of his skull would be probably mesocephalic. The proportion of the length of the span of the extended arms to the height of the body, taking the latter as 100, would be represented by the index 106·7. The length of the upper limb would be exactly one-third the height of the body; and the tip of his middle finger would reach down to a point about 31⁄3 inches above the patella. The length of the lower limb would be slightly under one-half (49⁄100) of the height of the body; and the relations of the lengths of the upper and lower limbs to each other would be represented by the intermembral index 68. I was only able to obtain the measurement of six women who belonged to the small islands of Ugi and Santa Anna, off the St. Christoval coast. Their average height was 4 feet 101⁄2 inches, which corresponds with the rule given by Topinard in his “Anthropology,” that for a race of this stature 7 per cent of the height of the man (5 feet 31⁄2 inches, in this part of the group) must be subtracted to obtain the true proportional height of the woman. The hair of the women has the same characters as that of the men. Their figures have not usually that breadth of hip which the European model would possess. The general appearance of the younger women is not unattractive, but they soon lose their good looks after marriage. In Bougainville Straits, it was often possible to notice amongst the wives of the chiefs two castes of women of very different appearance, the one with elegant figure and carriage, slim limbs and more delicately cut features, the other more clumsily proportioned with stout ungainly limbs and a coarse type of features.
[91] The colour-types employed were those given in the “Anthropological Notes and Queries,” published by the British Association in 1874.
| 1 | 3 | 2 |
4