REPOET ON THE HUMAN CRANIA. 
103 
sparingly represented in our museums. Prof. Flower gives the cephalic indices of two 
specimens from Nanumea as 81 - 2 and 77' 5, and their vertical indices 76 '8 and 75 - 3. 
Dr. Krause has measured one from Niutao, with C.l. 83 - 2, and V.I. 76 '5. In Table XVII. 
I have given the measurements of a skull in the Museum of the Free Church College from 
Hudson’s Island in the Ellice group. This skull was apparently that of a woman well 
advanced in years, for the sutures of the cranial vault were almost obliterated. The 
cephalic index was 76 '6 and the vertical index was only 75. In its configuration this 
skull closely resembled the mesaticephalic Erromangan described on p. 97, and like it 
was probably a cross between a Melanesian and a Mahori. The breadth of the palate 
greatly preponderated over the length, so that the palato-maxillary index was unusually 
high. The Eev. G. Turner says, 1 that tradition traces the origin of the people of Hudson’s 
and the other islands of the Ellice group to Samoa. 
Hervey’s or Cook's Islands have apparently contributed only two skulls to museums. 
The one from Mungaia in the Barnard Davis collection is distinctly dolichocephalic, and 
has C.L 70, V.I. 76; the other from Earotonga, in the Godeffroy Museum, has very different 
proportions, and is very brachycephalic, C.L 86 ’4, V.I. 79; Krause also states that 
it is strongly prognathic. This difference in the cranial proportions is in accordance 
with what has been said as to the physical characters of the people of these two islands. 
For Earotonga “is inhabited by people who have legends of their migration from Samoa 
and speak a closely allied language;” whilst in Mungaia the “Melanesian type pre- 
dominates, the people being dark brown, with wavy or frizzled hair and well bearded.” 2 
The Society Islands are represented by at least thirty crania, twenty-three of which 
are in the Natural History Museum, Paris, and the remainder in the Godeffroy Museum, 
the Barnard Davis collection, the “ Novara ” collection and the Museum of the Eoyal 
College of Surgeons. The mean cephalic index of these series of skulls is 77 ; the 
maximum being 7 9 *6, a skull from Tahiti ; and the minimum 74, a skull from Eaiatea. 
The vertical index in these specimens is as a rule higher than the cephalic. Tradition 
points to these islands as having been settled from Samoa. 
The Low or Paumotu Archipelago, to the immediate south-east of the Society Islands, 
has contributed a number of crania, the majority of which are in the Paris Museum. 
MM. de Quatrefages and Hamy state that these islanders have crania which are generally 
like those of the Society Islanders, but they do not record any measurements. Dr. Krause 
gives the measurements of two specimens from Tipoto and Niau in the Godeffroy 
Museum, the cephalic index of one is 76, that of the other 76 - 3. Another specimen from 
Bligh Island is described by Zuckerkandl, 3 who places the breadth index at 70 - 8. He 
says that the specimen is stenocephalic, and differs from the skulls of other Polynesians 
1 Samoa, pp. 288, 293, London, 1884. 
2 W. L. Ranken in Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. vi., 1877, and "Wallace, Australasia, p. 507. 
3 Reise der Novara, Anthropologischer Theil, p. Ill, 1875. 
