312 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



the ears were short, wide and without lobe ; the hands 

 and feet were unusually small. Von Luschan draws 

 attention to the convexity of the whole upper lip area 

 as in African pygmies. Neuhauss insists that the 

 pygmies are almost merged into the rest of the popu- 

 lation, and that their low stature is not due to poor 

 conditions. [Zs.f. Ethnol. xliii., 1911, p. 280.) 



Dr. M. Moszkowski found that in Geelvink Bay the 

 hair is not always ulotrichous (woolly), as is usual with 

 Papuans, especially on Biak and Padeido Islands the hair 

 often recalls the cjmiotrichous (curly) hair of Veddas. 

 Other points of resemblance with wild tribes of Further 

 Asia are : — A very dainty graceful bone-structure, small 

 hands and feet, relatively short limbs compared to the 

 trunk, low stature, few being above 156 cm. and most 

 below 150 cm. (4 ft. 11 ins.), and now and then the 

 characteristic convex upper lip of the wild tribes (Zs. /. 

 Ethnol. XLIII. 191 1, pp. 317, 318). On these grounds 

 Moszkowski inclines to think that the islands of Geelvink 

 Bay were originally peopled by pre-Malayan wild tribes 

 allied to the Vedda, Sakai, Toala, etc., and thus the 

 present population is the result of crossing between these 

 and immigrant Melanesians ; true Malays came later. 

 Moszkowski has not ^Tt published any head measure- 

 ments of these interesting people, and the evidence is in- 

 sufficient to decide whether this is a Pre-Dravidian or a 

 Negrito element in the population of these islands, the 

 curly character of the hair may be due as elsewhere in 

 New Guinea to racial mixture; the photograph of a 

 "Vedda-type" from Padeido island is by no means 

 convincing (I.e. p. 318). 



Finally Guppy, Ribbe and Rascher report the occur- 

 rence of very short people in the interior of the larger 

 islands of ihe Bismarck Archipelago and of the Solomon 

 Islands ; recently Thurnwald refers to very small people 

 in the mountainous interior of Bougainville who speak a 



