438 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



The Papuan contrasts strongly with Malays and Poly- 

 nesians in being hairy-bodied and tolerably well bearded, 

 but still more so by the wonderfully luxuriant growth of 

 the hair of the head, which forms a dense mop often pro- 

 jecting six or eight inches from the skull. It is crisp, 

 glossy, and ver}^ elastic, and each separate hair naturally 

 curls itself up into a spiral of small diameter. The degree 

 of twist and consequent woolliness of the hair seems to be 

 dependent on its .being, oval or flattened, instead of 

 cylindrical. In the straight -haired races and in most 

 Europeans the hair has a circular section, which becomes 

 slightly oval where it is naturally curly ; but in the Negro 

 and Papuan it is much flattened, and has besides irregular 

 wavy margins, which seem to produce the strong spiral 

 twist. Those who possess a large mop of hair are very 

 proud of it, keeping it continually combed out with a kind 

 of bamboo fork, and using a narrow wooden pillow on 

 which to rest the nape of the neck, so as to preserve the 

 hair from being squeezed out of shape. It was long 

 thought that the hair of these people possessed a peculiar 

 character in growing in separate small tufts scattered uni- 

 formly over the scalp ; but more" accurate examination shows 

 that it grows evenly over the surface of the head, and that 

 the tufted appearance probably arises from the tendency 

 of the spirally twisted hairs to mat together in small curly 

 locks. The hair on the body and limbs, though very short, 

 has the same appearance and a similar structure. 



The native of Dutch New Guinea, here figured from a 

 good photograph (Fig. 67), well exhibits the special features 

 of the type — the arched nose with elongated apex, and the 

 mop of frizzly hair. In some individuals the hair is even 

 more developed, but this is rare, while in the majority of the 

 people it is considerably shorter, being always frizzled but 

 of moderate length, as in the group from Southern New 

 Guinea. 



The dress of these people is very scanty, the men wearing, 

 the usual T bandage of bark-cloth, but in some cases only 

 a shell, or even going absolutely naked ; while the women 

 always wear some kind of girdle, from which is suspended 

 a small apron of bark or a fringe of leaves. As with most 



