NOETH MELANESIA. 



325 



Maklay to the surprise of raost ethnologists, who regarded the dolichocephalic 

 or long shape of the head as specially characteristic of this Oceanic group. 



A large number of Melanesians, especially in the Admiralty Islands, have 

 long teeth projecting beyond the mouth, a feature which imparts to the phy- 

 siognomy a somewhat ferocious and even bestial expression. But this feature is 

 less conspicuous amongst the men, whose teeth are covered with a dark varnish 

 from the habit of betel-chewing, than amongst the women and children, whose 

 teeth are white. Some natives, especially of New Britain, are also met, the toes 

 of whose feet are all connected together by a common membrane.* Ulcers under 

 the soles are very general, and in the Solomon Archipelago at least two-fifths of 



Fig. 139. — San Ceistobai. 

 Scale 1 : 1,700,000. 



161° 20- 



Easb oF Greenwich 162° 20 



Depths. 



to 250 

 Fathoms. 



250 Fathoms 

 and upwards 



the inhabitants are afflicted with large sores caused by a parasite {tinea circinata 

 tropica) ; in some islands nearly the whole population has to entertain these 

 troublesome guests. 



Skin diseases, also, are not less prevalent than amongst the Caroline islanders, 

 while the baneful habit of eating argillaceous clay is common in the Admiralty 

 group. Most of the old people are carried off by pulmonary affections, and when 

 the mortality becomes excessive in a village, the inhabitants migrate to some other 

 place declared by the magicians to be more propitious. As a rule the Melanesians 

 are less affected than the Polynesians bj'- the morbid influences caused by contact 

 with the whites ; but on the other hand certain islands are being gradually 

 depopulated by the universal practice of infanticide. In Ugi, off the east coast of 

 * Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 



