43 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



densely inhabited as some suppose, the sum total would be increased 

 by thirty or forty thousand. 



PHYSICAL TRAITS. 



The Feejeeans are a people of the medium stature, with nearly as 

 great variety of figure as is found in nations of the Caucasian race. 

 The chiefs are usually tall and well-formed, owing probably to the care 

 taken of their nurture, and to the influence of blood. The common 

 people are somewhat inferior, yet there are fewer small and ungainly 

 figures among them than among the lower order of Europeans. 

 On the other hand, the Feejeeans contrast very unfavourably with 

 their neighbours of the Polynesian stock. They lack the full, rounded 

 limbs and swelling muscles which give such elegance to the forms of 

 the Friendly and Navigator Islanders. They are generally large- 

 jointed, and the calf is small in proportion to the thigh. The neck is 

 also too short for due proportion, and the whole figure wants elegance 

 and softness of outline. Their movements and attitudes are, conse- 

 quently, less easy and graceful than those of the Polynesians. They 

 are nevertheless a strong race ; their war-clubs are ponderous, and are 

 wielded with great power, and they can carry very heavy burdens. 



The Feejeean physiognomy differs from that of the Polynesians, not 

 so much in any particular feature, as in a general debasement of the 

 whole, and a decided approximation towards the forms characteristic 

 of the negro race. The head is usually broad in the occipital region 

 (which they consider a great beauty), and narrows towards the top 

 and in front, the forehead, though often of good height, appearing 

 compressed at the sides. The eyes are black and set rather deep, but 

 never obliquely. The nose is not large, and is generally a good deal 

 flattened ; the nostrils are often larger laterally than forwards, and the 

 nose is then much depressed at the upper part between the eyes. 

 The mouth is wide, and the lips, particularly the upper one, thick. 

 The chin varies, but is most commonly short and broad. The jaws 

 are larger, and the lower part of the face far more prominent than in 

 the Malay race. The cheek-bones, also, project forwards as in the 

 negro, and not laterally, as in the Mongol variety ; notwithstanding 

 which, the narrowness of the forehead at the temples gives a greater 

 width to the face at the malar region than elsewhere. The whole 

 face is longer and thinner than among the Polynesians. 



The hair is neither straight nor woolly, but may be properly desig- 



