| 74·1 | - | Rua Sura Islets, off north coast of Guadaleaner. | |
| 74·1 | |||
| 74·1 | Ugi Island. | ||
| 74·5 | Port Adam, Malaita. | ||
| 75·5 | - | Ugi Island. | |
| 75·9 | |||
| 80·0 | |||
| 80·0 | |||
| 84·9 | Kwahkwahru, Malaita. | ||
Measurements of Women.—I was only able to obtain measurements of six women, all of them from the small islands of Ugi and Santa Anna, off the St. Christoval coast.
| Height. | Span of Arms. (Stature —100.) | Inter- membral Index. | Distance between middle finger and patella. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | ft. | 8 | in. | 100·8 | 65 | 3 | 1⁄2 | in. | |||||
| 4 | „ | 9 | „ | 102·1 | 68 | 3 | 1⁄2 | „ | |||||
| 4 | „ | 9 | 3⁄4 | „ | 104·3 | 68 | 4 | „ | |||||
| 4 | „ | 10 | „ | 104·7 | 71 | Average, | 3 | 2⁄3 | „ | ||||
| 5 | „ | 0 | „ | 106·9 | Average, | 68 | |||||||
| 5 | „ | 3 | „ | 108·3 | |||||||||
| Average, | 4 | ft. | 10 | 1⁄2 | in. | Average, | 104·5 | ||||||
| Arm and Height Index. | Leg and Height Index. | Cephalic Index. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | ·5 | 48 | ·5 | 71 | |||
| 33 | 48 | ·5 | 75 | ||||
| 33 | 50 | 76 | ·8 | ||||
| 33 | ·5 | 51 | ·5 | 76 | ·8 | ||
| 34 | ·5 | Average, | 49 | ·6 | 79 | ·6 | |
| 35 | ·5 | 82 | ·1 | ||||
| Average, | 33 | ·7 | |||||
Considering the paucity of the observations, the average indices of the limb-measurements agree closely with those obtained for the men. The average height of the women would appear from these few measurements to be that which they ought to possess as compared with the height of the men. This conclusion is based on the rule given by Topinard in his “Anthropology” that for a race of this stature 7 per cent. of the man’s height must be subtracted to obtain the proportional height of the woman.
The Features.
The facial angle taken was that between a line dropt from the forehead to the alveolar border of the upper jaw, and another line drawn from the external auditory meatus through the central axis of the orbit, the angle being taken with a goniometer. Amongst eighty natives from different parts of the group, the angle varied between 87° and 98°. Seventy-five of the natives had facial angles between 90° and 95°; and the average of the whole number of angles was 93°. On applying the method for obtaining the facial angle of Cloquet to two large photographs of the faces in profile of two typical natives, I find the angles to be 63° and 67° respectively.
The common characters of the features may be thus described: face rather angular, with often a beetle-browed aspect from the deeply sunk orbits and projecting brows; forehead of moderate height and breadth, and somewhat flattened; middle of face rather prominent on account of the chin receding; moderate subnasal prognathism as indicated by Cloquet’s facial angles of 63° and 67°; lips rather thick and often projecting; nose usually coarse, short, straight, and much depressed at the root, with broad nostrils and extended alæ; in about one man out of five the nose is arched in a regular curve, giving a Jewish cast to the face.
The Hair, Colour of Skin, Powers of Vision, &c.
Amongst the natives of the Solomon Group, there are four common styles of wearing the hair, which I may term the woolly, the mop-like, the partially bushy, and the completely bushy: these prevail with both sexes, the fashion varying in different islands. From frequent observations of the different modes of wearing the hair, I am of the opinion that their variety is to be attributed more to individual caprice than to any difference in the character of the hair. According to his taste, a man may prefer to wear his hair close and uncombed, when the short matted curls with small spiral give it a woolly appearance,[98] somewhat resembling that of the hair of the African negro. Should he allow his hair to grow, making but little use of his comb, the hair will hang in narrow ringlets three to eight inches in length, a mode which is more common amongst the natives of the eastern islands of the group, and which is best described as the “mop-headed” style. More often, from a moderate amount of combing, the locks are loosely entangled, and the hair-mass assumes a somewhat bushy appearance, the arrangement into locks being still discernible, and the surface of the hair presenting a tufted aspect.[99] The majority of natives, however, produce by constant combing a large bushy periwig in which all the hairs are entangled independently into a loose frizzled mass, the separate locks being no longer discernible. Of these four styles of wearing the hair, I am inclined to view the “mop-headed” style as the result of the natural mode of growth, it being the one which the hair would assume if allowed to grow uncombed and uncut. The native of these islands unfortunately makes such a constant use of his comb that one rarely sees his hair as nature intended it to grow. When, however, a man with bushy hair has been diving for some time, the hairs, disentangling themselves to a great extent, gather together into long narrow ringlets, nature’s “coiffure” of the Solomon Islander. I was pleased to find that Mr. Earl[100] and Dr. Barnard Davis,[101] in writing on the subject of the hair of the Papuans, also consider that the hairs would naturally arrange themselves in long narrow ringlets if left uncombed, and that the bushy frizzled periwig is produced by teasing out the locks by means of the comb. This bushy frizzled mass of hair is sometimes referred to, as if it were one of the natural characters of the Papuans: but since it is also characteristic of other dark races of Africa and South America, and may be produced in Europeans, it has but little distinguishing value.[102] Mr. Prichard in his “Physical History of Mankind” (vol. v. p. 215), expresses himself to be in doubt whether the bushy frizzled hair affords any racial distinction, but he seems to have lost the point of the remarks of Mr. Earl (to whom he refers) concerning the natural mode of growth of the hair in long narrow ringlets. The term “mop-headed” is often applied to the Papuan with a bushy frizzled periwig: but since a mop is neither bushy nor frizzly, the term is more appropriately employed as I have used it, and as I see Dr. Barnard Davis uses it, in connection with that style in which the hair hangs in long drawn-out ringlets. The tendency of the hair to roll itself into a spiral of small diameter is attributed to the thin flattened form of the hair in section. According to Dr. Pruner-Bey, the hair in the Papuan is implanted perpendicularly and not obliquely, as in the great majority of the races of man.[103]