396 THE ADMIRALTY ISLANDS 



who came from a distance to the ship to trade. No doubt there 

 is a mixture of blood, and the Hght coloured natives observed, 

 belonged to the light coloured race described by Jacobs as 

 inhabiting the eastern part of the main island, and as constantly 

 made war upon by the dominant black race.* 



The hair of the head, which is worn long only by the younger 

 adult males, formed in them a dense mop, projecting in all 

 directions 6 to 8 inches from the head. It appeared less 

 luxuriant in growth than that of Lhe Papuans of Humboldt Bay. 

 The hair is crisp, glossy, and extremely elastic, and every hair 

 rolls itself up into a spiral of small diameter. 



Thus in general appearance it is fine curly, like that of 

 Fijians. On comparing it with a very small sample of hair of 

 the natives of Humboldt Bay taken from several native combs, 

 the Papuan hair proves to be somewhat coarser, but in other 

 respects the two hairs are closely alike, the diameters of the 

 spirals of the curls being the same. Some hair from a native 

 of Api, New Hebrides, is of about the same coarseness as the 

 Admiralty Island hair, but the curls are of much smaller dia- 

 meter. The hair of the Api Islanders seems to be remarkable 

 for the fineness of its curls. In Tongan hair the curls are ot 

 far larger diameter than those of the Papuan or Admiralty 

 Island hair. 



The fineness of the curl of the hair in various Polynesian 

 and Papuan races which I have seen, seems to be pretty con- 

 stant in each race and characteristic. It might be estimated 

 by measuring the diameter of the circles formed by the separate 

 spirally twisted hairs, and taking the average of several measure- 

 ments. No doubt a certain curve of the hair follicles corre- 

 sponds with and produces the curl in the hairs, as in the case 

 of the hair follicles of the negro as discovered by Mr. Stewart. t 

 But the amount of curve will be peculiar to each race. The 

 hair of both head and body of the Admiralty Islanders is 

 naturally black, that of the head being of a glossy black. 



The hair of the men's bodies was not at all abundant, nor 

 by any means so plentiful as it is often seen to be on the 

 bodies of Europeans, the hairiness of whom is apt to be 

 underrated. I lately saw in a travelling show an abnormally 

 hairy Englishman. His back and chest were covered with a 

 thick growth of coarse black hair, as thick as that of a gorilla. 

 Unlike most abnormally hairy examples of the human race, 

 the hair was not continued over the whole body, but ceased 

 at certain lines on his arms. 



* Jacobs, I.e., p. 176. 



f Charles Stewart, F.L.S., "Note on the Scalp of a Negro." Micro- 

 scopical Journal, 1873, P- 54' 



