SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 89 



a famous missionary, was murdered, and, it is believed, eaten by the 

 natives, in the year 1901. 



Even at the present day New Guinea has not been fully explored, 

 and there is still much to learn about the inhabitants. The latter 

 are inclined to be hostile to strangers, and cannibalism still flourishes 

 in many parts. They have a practice of collecting human skulls, both 

 of friends and of enemies, and they preserve these skulls in their war- 

 houses or " dobus," and also in their dwellings. As a people, they are 

 classed as Melanesians, in the subdivision of Papuans. Their chief 

 characteristic is that they are negroes of a comparatively light colour. 



We will consider first the chief features presented by these skulls 

 from an anthropometric point of view. Owing to the amount of 

 decoration on some of them and to deficiencies in others, the series of 

 cranial measurements is necessarily very incomplete. So far as pos- 

 sible, however, the various indices have been worked out, and the 

 results compared with those obtained by certain other observers. 

 From measurements supplied by Professor Flower, in the Osteological 

 Catalogue of specimens contained in the museum of the Royal College 

 of Surgeons, England, we find that a typical Papuan skull is 



Dolichocephalic. 



Metriocephalic. 



Prognathous. 



Platyrhine. 



Microseme. 



Microcephalic. 



Horizontal circumference about 490 mm. 



Professor Turner, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, 1898-99, gets practically the same result from the ex- 

 amination of a series of ten skulls, there being only a slight difference 

 in the nasal and in the orbital indices. The measurements of four 

 other skulls in the museum of this Department, examined by Dr. C. T. 

 Andrew, and published in the Proceedings of this Society, 1899-1900, 

 also agree fairly closely with Professor Turner's results, but again 



there is some difference in the nasal and in the orbital indices. From 



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