The interior hill tribes are darker than the eastern and coastal groups. The lightest average skin shade occurs in the east.
Hair (pls. 6 and 7).
—In several respects the hair is the most consistent endowment of the Fijians. In nearly all instances it is black, frizzly, and coarse. The only departure from this condition is an occasional instance of dark brown and a few instances of rufous shade. Curly hair is a more common exception in the east. The coastal and northwestern people are nearer to the interior condition of frizzly hair. All in all, the hair form is definitely Melanesian. Hair length conforms to the general Melanesian condition, that is, intermediate between short Negroid and long Caucasiod or Mongoloid.
Considerable beard and body hair is common to Fijians (pls. 8 and 9). Moderate to pronounced beard is shown by nearly three-quarters of the total series, and body hair is even more prevelant. General hairiness is also exhibited by the Solomon Islanders and the Tongans in the comparative data. The interior tribes of Fiji are more hairy than the other groups. This prevelence of body and face hair seems to conform to parts of Melanesia where it may be regarded as an Australoid element. Its presence in the Tongan data does not seem to be representative of other Polynesians, who are generally described as more glabrous.
Head (pl. 2).
—Moderate brachycephaly is the commonest head form of Fijians, although the total range is great. In this respect the Fijians resemble the broad-headed Tongans, and are quite distinct from the longer-headed Melanesians. The Fijian head, despite its general brachycephaly, is rather compressed in the temporal area and submedium in parietal elevation. The back of the cranium is characteristically flattened, a natural conformation as no deformation is practiced.
The interior mountain tribes of Fiji have narrower heads and lower cranial indices than do the coastal and eastern groups. The interior people also have lesser head heights and a higher breadth-height index.
Forehead (pl. 10).
—Moderate to strongly developed supraorbital ridges are a common Fijian endowment. Similarly are low and sloping foreheads. These features have been observed in western Melanesia, where, like hairiness, they suggest Australoid of archaic Caucasoid elements.