414 H. J. T. BIJLMER 



be that the laws, to which the cephalic index in respect to sexe and âge is submitted, are 

 far from being revealed. 



It is very difficult to draw conclusions outof the furnished data. Mesocephaly is very 

 common in New-Guinea and the surrounding islands. It is found among the small- and the 

 medium-sized as well as among some of the tall-statured tribes. (Toaripi, Orokolo !) In the 

 centre there is a tendency to somewhat higher indices, due to a broader skull, but the figu- 

 res of Torricelli, Timorini, Kamaweka and Kai show that the New-Guinean pigmoïds may 

 not be marked out for brachycephalic. Indeed the mesocephaly may be considered as an 

 essential Papuan character. On the other hand, for the Papuo-Melanesian tribes of the East 

 it might of course hâve proceeded from Oceanic influence. 



The South-coast Papuans must be designed as dolichocephalic, though they may certainly 

 not be called long-headed. Narrow-headedness however is not only a quality of the high-statured 

 tribes. For on the North-coast it occurs in medium-sized people and on the Geelvink-Bay 

 and in the East-end it is even combined with short stature. 



Worth mentioning is the fact that the Pokao who give in their outward appearance 

 striking proofs of having mixed with tribes of the Pacific islands (SELIGMANN) behave in 

 stature and cephalic index as Gulf-Papuans. On the other hand the Orokolo and Toaripi, 

 living outside the Papuo-Melanesian sphère — reaching as far as Cape Possession — are 

 mesocephalic, notwithstanding their great standing-height and the Purari, being true Papuans 

 also, are middle-sized in spite of being strongly dolichocephalic. The facts constitute a very 

 positive warning against the over-estimation of the fore-said characteristics in the Papuan race. 



The brachycephaly of the Mekeo-men and that of those in the Hood-peninsula may 

 be due to foreign influence 1 ), but according to the English anthropologists this is not likely 

 to be the case with the islanders in the Western part of the Papuan Gulf. I don't understand 

 anything about their short-headedness ! Perhaps cranial déformation may not be wholly exclu- 

 ded in thèse régions. Especially Friederici [49] calls the attention to this kind of défor- 

 mation, which he dénotes as not seldom occurring in Indonesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. 

 Therefore the skull-measures of those régions are in his opinion not very reliable. SELIGMANN 

 himself states [19S] that there is after ait very little known about the Gulf-Peoples. 



I am not yet convinced that there is a real brachycephalic élément among the Papuans. 

 I ani inclined to accept a wide-spread mesocephalic élément and moreover a high- as well as 

 a low-statured dolichocephalic one, ail essential to the Papuan race. 



FACE-MEASUREMENTS. 



But little material is available for a comparative examination of the dimensions of the 

 face. I hâve restrained myself to the comparison of my own measurements with those of 



SCHLAGINHAUFEN [lS6]. 



1) The high index-figures need nearer investigation: 16 Mekeo, measured by Haddon, averaged 80 and SELIG- 

 MANN, when referring to this, is inclined to think that S3, found by himself, is too high. 



