1903-4.] Mr N. Annandale on the People of the Faroes. 17 
between the stature and the cephalic index in that island, but it 
is clear that a longer head and a shorter stature differentiate the 
population of Suderoe as a whole from that of the northern islands, 
for all observers agree that the former are distinguished from the 
latter by being smaller and darker, while the following details 
exhibit the difference in the cephalic index in a sufficiently striking 
manner. Dr Jprgensen, who adopts the number 77*5 as the lower 
limit of mesaticephaly, states that of the adult males of Suderoe 
44 per cent, are brachycephalic, 27 per cent, mesaticephalic, 
and 29 per cent, dolichocephalic. If my twenty observations 
from Thorshavn are combined with his thirty- three from the 
northern islands, and if the same standard of brachycephaly is 
adopted for the sake of comparison, we get as a result that in the 
two series together, decimals omitted, 56 per cent, are brachy- 
cephalic, 32 per cent, mesaticephalic, and 12 per cent, dolicho- 
cephalic. 
Part II. — Hi storical. 
Before discussing the history of the Faroes and the traditions 
current among the people as regards their origin, it may not be 
superfluous to consider for a moment the personal names given in 
my table. With two exceptions the second or third name of each 
man is a patronymic, but one adapted to modern Danish orthog- 
raphy, and become a regular surname, which, at any rate in 
Thorshavn, is not changed either from generation to generation or 
according to the sex of the person who bears it. Mr Henry 
Balfour has called my attention to the fact that the initials carved 
on objects from the Faroes, even if these be women’s belongings, 
are the first letters of Christian names and surnames, not, as would 
be the case on Icelandic objects, those of a Christian name, another 
Christian name and an s (for son) or a d (for dottir), according to 
the sex of the owner, and that there is no special indication of the 
name of the woman’s husband, as would be the case on objects 
from the country districts of Norway. In a list of names of people 1 
living in the Faroes between the years 1600 and 1709 there appear 
to be but a few real surnames, but married women adopt their 
husbands’ patronymics without change ; single women are known 
1 N. Andersen, Fcerflerne, 1600-1709. Copenhagen, 1895. 
PROC. ROY. SOC. EDIN. — YOL. XXY. 2 
