CHAPTER VI. 



THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERS AND RACE-AFFINITIES OF THESE 



ISLANDERS.^ 



I WILL in the first place briefly refer to the position assigned to 

 these islanders in the classification of the different races of man. 

 Professor Flower, in a recent address,^ divided the different varieties 

 of the imman species into three principal divisions, the Ethiopian, 

 the Mongolian, and the Caucasian, a system of classification which, 

 althougli often advanced and as often disputed, has now been pre- 

 ferred to other more complicated methods of classifying the different 

 varieties of man. Around or between these three types all existing 

 varieties can be ranued. 



The Solomon Island natives are usually referred to the 

 Melanesian group of the Ethiopian division, a group which includes 

 the Papuans of New Guinea and the majority of the inhabitants of 

 the islands of the Western Pacific ; but my observations on the 

 physical characters of these natives have shown tluit the type of a 

 Solomon Island native varies considerably in different parts of the 

 group, in some islands approaching the pure Papuan, in others 

 possessing Polynesian affinities, and in others showing traces of 

 the Malay. The pre^;a^/^'^7(7 characters, however, are distinctly 

 Melanesian or Papuan. The Melanesians, who, according to Pro- 

 fessor Flower, are chiefly distinguished from the African negroes by 

 the well developed glabella and supra-orbital ridges in the male, 

 greatly excel the true African negroes, the Hottentots and Bushmen, 

 and the Negritos of the Andaman and Philippine Islands, who are 

 included in the Ethiopian division, in all that affects their social 

 condition. In their usuages, their rites, their dwellings, their agri- 



^ Jly observations on the physical characters of these islanders were embodied in a paper 

 read before the Anthropological Institute in July, 1885. They were to be published in the 

 Journal of that society. 



2 The President's Anuiversary Address to the Anthropological Institute, Jan. 27th, 1SS5. 



