entre leu os jugaux à leur insertion, qu’elle est manifestement supérieure à celle que nous
avons reconnue sur de nombreux crânes de naturels des îles Marquises. Cette différence
est aussi très-sensible dans le crâne d’enfant qui, sur la même planche, porte les numéros
6 et 6.”
D umoutier figures, in his beautiful Atlas, several crania from
Tongataboo and Vavao, of which I select one (Fig. 74), that of
Fig. 74.
T o n g a I s l a n d e r .
a Tonga Islander, to represent the skull-
type of the Friendly Islands. According
to B lanchard, these crania resemble, in
their general form or type, those of the
Mangaréviens, Taitians, and other Polynesians.
He assures us that the proportions
of the calvaria, the prominence of the zygomatic
arches, and the maxillary bones, appear
to he the same in all. Viewed in front,
the head of the Tongans partakes of the
pyramidal form more decidedly than the
skulls of the other Polynesians. The coronal
region is also a little longer.
“ Si le caractère,” says B l a n c h a r d , “ observé ici sur quelques individus appartient à la
plus grande masse des habitants de l’archipel des Amis, il deviendra évident qu’il existe
un caractère anthropologique pour distinguer les Tongans de leurs voisins de l’est, et que
ce caractère traduit une supériorité relative d’intelligence.
A higher form of the skull than the Tongan, is seen in Fig. 75,
which represents the head of a Feejee
Islander, in the Collection of the Royal
College of Surgeons, London. It is
thus described by M a r t in :
“ The forehead is small, and laterally compressed,
the space occupied by the temporal muscle being
quite flat ; but the centre of each parietal bone is
boldly and abruptly convex ; the top of the head,
or coronal arch, is ridge-like, with a slope downward
on each side ; the cheek-bones are large and
deep ; the upper margin of the orbits is smooth ;
and the frontal sinuses are but slightly indicated ;
the orbits are large, and rather circular ; the nasal
bones are short and depressed, and the nasal orifice
is of remarkable width and extent, as is that
Fig; 75.
A
ü
F e e j e e I s l a n d e r .
of the posterior nares also ; the alveolar ridge of the superior maxillary bone projects
moderately ; the lower jaw is very thick and deep ; the posterior angle is rounded, and the
base of the ramus arched, so that the posterior angle and the chin do not touch a plane ;
the basilar process of the occipital bone is less inclined upward than in five or six European
skulls examined at the same time : the coronal suture only impinges on the sphenoid bone
by a quarter of an inch. From the middle of the occipital condyle to the alveolar ridge
between the two middle incisors, the measurement is four inches and three-eighths ; the
posterior development of the cranium, beyond the middle of the condyle, three inches and
three-eighths.”
Fig. 76 represents the head of a native of Mali-
oolo, one of the New Hebrides.
As we journey westward toward Australia, we
find the human cranial type changing again in
the inhabitants of the Vitian Archipelago. A
glance at the figures on plate 33 of D umo u tier’s
Atlas, shows at once that the Vitian skulls differ
to some extent from those of the other Polynesian
races already noticed. The cranium of the former
is more elongated posteriorly, and the maxillary
bones are more salient; the forehead is lower and Mal,colo-
more recedent so that, viewed in front, the head has less of the pyramidal
form. B lanchard has pointed out considerable differences in
the dimensions of the Vitian, as compared with the other Polynesian
skulls He also compares together African and Polynesian crania
and observes that if these two great groups resemble each other in
certain characters, they differ not the less remarkably in others
It is obviously impossible for me, in this place, to give an elaborate
description of the various skull-forms of the Polynesian realm. Such
a description, m the hands of B lanchard, has already grown into an
octavo volume of nearly three hundred pages. Let it suffice, therefore,
to say that the traveller, as he visits in succession the numerous
groups of islands composing the Polynesian realm, is constantly confronted
with interesting and instructive modifications of the fundamental
type pf this realm.
The Malay conformation next claims our attention. From the
ncads of this race in the Mortonian
Cqllection, I select No. 47, as the
representative of this widely-diffused
and peculiar type.
“ The skull of the Malay” (Fig. 77), says
M o b to n , “ presents the following characters:
tie forehead is low, moderately prominent, and i
arched, the occiput is much compressed, and
often projecting at its upper and lateral parts;
e orbits are oblique, oblong, and remarkably
quadrangular, the upper and lower margins
being almost straight and parallel; the nasal
ones are broad and flattened, or even concave;
M a l a y .
together witlTrt T exPanded 5 4116 Jaws are greatly projected; and the upper jaw,
are bv n » T i “ mUCh in°Hned ontwards’ and often “ arly horizontal. The teeth
to i m L f r re,markab’y but “ O almost uniformly filed away in front, to enable them
angle is less th™ " *be betel-nut' wHcb renders them black and unsightly. - The facial
of thirteen n e r f iT t\ I ngo1 and Cblnese ’ forthe average, derived from a measurement
—_ Perfect skulls id m y possession, gives about seventy^three degrees.” 2™
270 Crania Americana, p. 56.