804 SIR WILLIAM TURNER, THE CRANIOLOGY OF THE NATIVES OF BORNEO, 



In this pamphlet Dr Eldridge states that the Botans or Motans are one of the aboriginal 

 tribes of southern Formosa. He describes them as a race of rather fine physical 

 development, of medium height, courageous, frank and impressible like most savages, 

 straight-haired, complexion various, but always of a brown tint, never black. They 

 cultivated the soil, possessed domesticated animals, were fond of the chase, lived under 

 a patriarchal system, and had a rude form of religion, the cult of which was in the hands 

 of priestesses. He noted some of the more prominent characters of the skulls, and gave 

 a number of measurements in inches. Photographs on a small scale of three of the 

 specimens were reproduced in his paper. 



As specimens of the skulls of the aborigines of Formosa are seldom met with in 

 Museums, and as Dr Eldridge's Notes seem to have received no attention from 

 anthropologists, I have thought that a more complete description of these skulls, in 

 accordance with modern methods, might prove of interest. 



The skulls were those of men in the prime of life. The lower jaw was present in 

 Nos. 1 and 2. No. 1 was in good order ; No. 2 had lost part of the frontal, sphenoid and 

 much of the left side of the face ; Nos. 3 and 4 were injured and bore the marks of 

 sword-cuts, and the facial bones were absent. In length, breadth and height, and in the 

 horizontal, longitudinal and vertical transverse circumference, the skulls so closely 

 approximated to each other in absolute dimensions and general form that they presented 

 a strong racial or even family resemblance. The skull measurements and indices are 

 given in Table III. 



Norma verticalis. — The outline of the cranium, though elongated, was in two 

 specimens a broader ovoid and the cephalic index ranged from 74*6 to 77*3. Nos. 3 

 and 4 were dolichocephalic and Nos. 1 and 2 were respectively 77*1 and 77'3, i.e. 

 in the lower term of the mesaticephalic group. The sagittal region was not ridged, the 

 transverse arc was in some rounded from side to side, the parietal eminences were fairly 

 marked, and the skulls were a little wider in the squamous than in the parietal regions. 

 The slope downwards and backwards in the parieto-occipital region was moderate, there 

 was no artificial flattening, and the occipital squama projected only a little behind the 

 inion. Two skulls were phsenozygous, one was cryptozygous. 



Norma lateralis. — The frontal eminences were moderate and the forehead was 

 somewhat receding ; the glabella and supraorbital ridges were not specially projecting, 

 though most pronounced in No. 3 ; in all the specimens they could be differentiated from 

 the outer upper border of the orbits. The nasion was not depressed, the bridge of the 

 nose was not flattened, but moderately projecting. The parietal longitudinal arc was 

 the longest and the occipital arc the shortest in Nos. 1 and 2, but the parietal was the 

 shortest and the occipital much the longest in No. 4. The crania rested behind on the 

 cerebellar occipital fossae in Nos. 1, 2 and 3. 



Norma facialis. — The maxillo-nasal spine was moderate in Nos. 1, 2 and 3. The 

 sides of the anterior nares, though sharp in the upper part, were less so lower down, and 

 the incisor border of the nasal floor was smoothed down into the incisive region of the 



