THE HAIR. 117 



duce b}'' constant combing a large bushy periwig in which all the 

 hairs are entangled independently into a loose frizzled mass, the 

 separate locks being no longer discernible. Of these four styles of 

 wearing the hair, I am inclined to view the " mop-headed " style as 

 the result of the natural mode of growth, it being the one which 

 the hair would assume if allowed to grow uncombed and uncut. 

 The native of these islands unfortunately makes such a constant use 

 of his comb that one rarely sees his hair as nature intended it to 

 grow. Wlien, however, a man with bushy hair has been diving for 

 some time, the hairs, disentangling themselves to a great extent, 

 gather together into long narrow ringlets, nature's " coiffure " of the 

 Solomon Islander. I was pleased to find that Mr. EarP and Dr. 

 Barnard Davis,- in writing on the subject of the hair of the Papuans, 

 also consider that the hairs would naturally arrange themselves in 

 long narrow ringlets if left uncombed, and that the bushy frizzled 

 periwig is produced by teasing out the locks by means of the comb. 

 This bushy frizzled mass of hair is sometimes referred to, as if it 

 were one of the natural characters of the Papuans : but since it is 

 also characteristic of other dark races of Africa and South America, 

 and may be produced in Europeans, it has but little distinguishing 

 value.^ ]Mr. Prichard in his " Physical History of Mankind " (vol. 

 V. p. 215), expresses himself to be in doubt whether the bushy 

 frizzled hair affords any racial distinction, but he seems to have lost 

 the point of the remarks of Mr. Earl (to whom he refers) concerning 

 the natural mode of growth of the hair in long narrow ringlets. 

 The term " mop-headed " is often applied to the Papuan with a 

 bushy frizzled periwig : but since a mop is neither bushy nor 

 frizzly, the term is more appropriately employed as I have used it, 

 and as I see Dr. Barnard Davis uses it, in connection with that style 

 in which the hair hangs in long drawn-out ringlets. The tendency 

 of the hair to roll itself into a spiral of small diameter is attributed 

 to the thin flattened form of the hair in section. According to Dr. 

 Pruner-Bey, the hair in the Papuan is implanted perpendicularly 

 and not obliquely, as in the great majority of the races of man.* 



1 " The Papuans " by G. W. Earl (page 2). London, 1853. 



- Vide a paper by Dr. J. Barnard Da^ds in vol ii. (p. 95), of Journ. of Anthrop. Inst. 



3 These bushy periwigs are found also among the Kaffirs in Africa and among the Cafusos 

 of South America. Dr. Pruner-Bey, who appears to view these bushy periwigs as resulting 

 from the natural gi'owth of the hair, remarks that he has met in Europe three individuals 

 whose hair had the same aspect. I have seen a characteristic Papuan periwig produced in 

 England in the case of a fair -haired girl. (Anthropological Keview : Feb. 1SG4.) 



* The Anthropological Review for February 18 4 (p. 6). 



