404 TWO REMARKABLE SKULLS 



It is essential that I should make some reference to the 

 ethnology of the Polynesians as their fortunes and mis- 

 fortunes have been closely bound up with those of the 

 Melanesians.^*^ They are physically a very fine race, their 

 average stature being as much as five feet, ten inches. Their 

 features are remarkably regular, and in fact almost European 

 in type,^^' the skull being on the borderland between ortho- 

 gnathism and mesognathism. The complexion is light brown 

 and the hair straight, both these features being thus in strange 

 contrast to the corresponding condition in the Melanesians. 

 Moreover their mentality, their standard of civilization, 

 and their codes of ethics are all of a decidedly higher^^^ order. 

 Their speech is a distinct offshoot of the ancient Malayo- 

 Polynesian stock language. The extent of dialectic diversity 

 in all the Archipelagoes of Polynesia is remarkably slight 

 showing that close intercourse must have been maintained 

 between the various groups of islands, which, it may be 

 recollected, are separated in many cases by hundreds of 

 miles of vast ocean. The Polynesians possess quite an 

 elaborate mythology as those who have read Sir G. Grey's 

 classic work'^^ on the subject will testify. This will be found 

 to have an important bearing on the two skulls which form 

 the subject of this memoir. Their traditions are likewise 

 of a remarkably high order and their arts and crafts have 

 their own distinctive, though frequently crude qualities. 

 These characteristics, racial attributes, and gifts will also 

 be found referred to more fully in other sections of this memoir. 



The skulls were presented to Dalhousie University by 

 the Rev. Dr. Joseph Annand, a graduate of Pine Hill, who 

 was a Canadian Presbyterian Missionary to the New Hebrides 

 for the long period of forty years, from 1873 to 1913. I wish 

 to express my indebtedness to this gentleman, as also to 

 Dr. John Forrest and President A. S. Mackenzie of Dalhousie 

 University, for the opportunity, thus obtained, of having 

 studied two very unique anthropological spccimers. On 



