THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 317 



in the colour of the skin as well as in the black colour of the hair and beard. 

 The hair, coarse and strong, was sometimes tied up on the crown of the head, whilst 

 at others a large lock was worn on each side. It was much frizzled and mop-like, 

 and at first looked as if it resembled that of a negro, but it was, he said, really very 

 different. In some of the men, however, and in all the women the hair was cut into 

 short locks. 



Solomon Islands. 



These islands are occupied by Melanesians. Many years ago Dr J. C. Cox of 

 Sydney presented to me two skulls from Rubiana, the cephalic index of which, 72 

 and 70 respectively, was dolichocephalic* The scalp with hair had been partially 

 retained on one skull. The hair was black and curly, as a rule from 3 to 6 cm. long 

 and seldom arranged in locks. On the vertex, however, some short locks had been 

 preserved, which projected from 2 to 3 cm. ; they formed loose spirals, the hairs of 

 which could be stretched to 5 or 6 cm. A few hairs attached to each other at the 

 scalp ends were loosely curled, and the longest when stretched attained the length 

 of 23 cm. 



Although it is customary to speak of the hair of the Melanesians as black, it has 

 not the depth of tint one sees in Negros, Hottentots, Mongols, Indians, Esquimaux 

 and Australians, but has a dull brownish admixture, which is more noticeable when 

 the hair is held to the light. Sometimes the hair is of a lighter brown colour, a 

 change which is possibly to some extent due to a partial bleaching caused by lime 

 and clay with which the natives dress the hair. 



New Guinea. 



The attention of the early voyagers to New Guinea was at once attracted by the 

 magnificent mop-like arrangement of the hair in some tribes of Papuans. The 

 appearance has been frequently described and figured, more especially in the 

 aborigines in the south-east of the Island and on the Papuan Gulf, which together 

 form British New Guinea, in whom the coiffure may be 3 feet or more in circum- 

 ference. In the Fly River district and in Dutch or Western New Guinea the hair 

 is kept much shorter, from 4 to 5 inches, and is plaited into pencil-like cords or 

 ridges, t The free ends of the hair whether in mops or pencils are frizzled, from 

 which character it is said the name Papuan is derived from a Moluccan word 

 signifying frizzled (fig. 9). 



Geelvink Bay, Dutch Neiv Guinea. — The late Dr A. B. Meyer presented to 



* Challenger Report on Human Crania, pp. 93, 96, part xxx., 1884. 



t For recent descriptions of the arrangement of the hair in the people of New Guinea, consult Sir Wm. Mac- 

 gregor, British New Guinea, Country and People, London, 1897 ; Chalmers and Gill, Work and Adventure in New 

 Guinea, London, 1885 ; Brown, Pioneer Missionary and Explorer, London, 1908 ; Seligmann, The Melanesians of 

 New Guinea, Cambridge, 1910 ; Wollaston, Pygmies and Papuans, London, 1912 ; Captain Rawling, Land of the 

 New Guinea Pygmies, London, 1913 ; Henry Newton, In Far New Guinea, London, 1914. 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL, L. PART II. (NO. 10). 44 



