NOTES on the NATIVES of the POLYNESIAN ISLANDS.

By COUTTS TROTTER, Esq.

RECOLLECTING the interest you have taken in the natives of these islands, and the study you have given to them, I cannot resist giving you one or two general impressions that struck me, not that they can be of the smallest value. I need hardly say how often I wished for your presence while puzzling over the different types of face that one sees. One curious thing is the way they all resolve themselves into a few groups, within each of which all the individuals are so closely alike, that it is all but impossible to distinguish them, so that you are constantly reduced to the alternative either of cutting your acquaintance or of saluting a stranger, and in these sociable regions the latter plan is much the less likely to give offence. This appearance of running into groups may be merely the way one's eye behaves among new surroundings, but I think the small numbers and isolation of the people, their tribal systems, and some of their customs, e.g., the practice, for political or social reasons, of keeping up certain large circles of connection or cousinship, may have something to do with it. Then, besides the varieties in each island, you have the effects of intercourse between the groups. In the east of Fiji the Tongans have more than half swamped the Fijians, and one traces Fijian blood in Tonga, and also even in Samoa. In fact one of the characteristic Samoan types-a broad, rounded, good humoured face, with eyes slightly smaller than average, and in the women always ready to dimple into smiles-always seemed to me to have something Fijian in it, though after all, this is perhaps only an element common to the three groups, for this pleasant rounded female face, which at last you begin to think quite pretty, has a sort of counterpart, with a difference, in Tonga, where perhaps it is rather prettier. Another different, and equally characteristic, type of Samoan man has peculiarly clean straight cut eyes and brows, giving a rather cold, hard, distingué expression. By the way, are all these people mesorrhine? My eyes may have deceived me, or become used to the type, but I should say many of the faces one sees have the lower part of the nose no wider than a European.

Of course you meet plenty of men and women without either fine figures or handsome faces, but a large proportion have fine figures and carry themselves well, and there is a smaller but relatively considerable number of men perfectly magnificent in size and proportion from head to foot, never falling away below the knee like some of the otherwise fine Indian races, and many

of the young women have perfect busts and figures that seem to tread on air.

The women carry themselves even better than the men, who often slouch a little, and it is remarkable that the old women do not become hags, but the figure remains perfectly slim and upright, and very elegant. The way they are trained to walk has something to do with this, the shoulders square, and the head thrown back, the arms at every step (this especially in Tonga) swung well behind them. But in Tonga the beauty of the human figure is seen no more, for the ex-reverend Premier, whether for moral or financial reasons I leave you to judge, has decreed and strictly enforces a heavy fine on every man who is seen, even inside his fence, without a shirt, and on any woman not muffled in a pinafore. The rule does not anyhow tend to cleanliness, and it also makes it less easy than formerly to compare the colour of Samoans and Tongans. To my eye there is distinctly a shade more of yellow in the former, a slight excess of copper, in short, in the Samoan bronze. The upper class is by no means fairer than the lower (probably the two are much mixed), anyhow I saw conspicuous examples of the contrary. The Tongan royal family, for instance, the Tubo, is exceptionally dark, as is the family of Thakombau in Fiji (I forget in which of the Polynesian groups they have a saying to the effect that the chief is dark and the common man fair).

Of Fiji I saw very little beyond parts of Viti Levu, but there too, mingling with the usual broad-faced, dark brown type, I constantly detected another, with an elliptical-shaped face, high and narrow forehead, projecting brows, skin rather black than brown, altogether a more negroid look, but this type again, or modifications of it, is not confined to the Kai-si (common people). By the way-language apart—wherever we may be pleased to class the typical Fijian, he is to the ordinary observer distinctly much nearer to the Samoan and Tongan than he is to the Solomon or New Hebrides man, and he is a far finer looking fellow than these Melanesians. I have not seen many New Hebrides people, but I have seen numbers of the Solomons, and was much struck by their diminutive size; very small heads, but clean, lithe, active little fellows. But as regards the Fijian you cannot help feeling that however "interesting," he has not the mental capacity of either Tongan or Samoan, though (as has been noticed before), his artistic powers seem greater or more developed. But what struck me as especially curious was the occurrence both in Samoa and Tonga, but especially in the latter, of very marked "Mongolian " or Japanese features. I recall particularly a granddaughter of the King of Tonga, with a small slight figure,

dark, but sallow, small features, distinctly oblique eyes, and long, black hair, drawn up off the forehead into a top knot, who might have walked off a Japanese fan or plate. I suppose these are only the result of accidental importation? In the Tokelaus (Ellice group) many of whom one meets as imported labour, the Mongoloid look is also very strong. Several of their women I saw, if appropriately dressed, would be undistinguishable from North American squaws.

I regret among many regrets-that I could not go to Rotumah. The Rotumah boys, whom one constantly meets as sailors, are the handsomest Pacific islanders I have seen; but in an island of this size, which has been frequented by whalers for generations past, there must be a large infusion of European blood, a circumstance which, I take it, modifies the type in many of the groups to a greater extent than is commonly allowed for. I am ashamed at having gone on gossipping to this length, and will say nothing about the charming manners and refined nature of the people for everyone has noticed this. Such a contrast in real innate politeness to the Arabs for instance, who are supposed to be a polite people, and their houses so infinitely cleaner and pleasanter. Perhaps after all, their cricket and their music are the most wonderful things about them, showing their extraordinary powers of adaptation-you see these men, naked from the waist upwards, and bare legged, standing up to swift bowling, fielding splendidly, wicket keeping, going "over," just like so many born Britishers; and the way they have taken up European music, when well taught, as by Mr. Moulton in Tonga, is equally remarkable, especially when one remembers how essentially different it is from their own. I enjoyed their own proper music, and it grows strongly on you. There is a great deal of melody, the most perfect and intricate time, and distinct harmony, but there is something essentially different from our music, and often I heard songs which I do not think could be rendered by our system of notation.

Once more excuse the length to which I have run on. I wish I could have sent you anything of real value, but to have done this would require, besides the previous training and technical knowledge which I do not possess, a far longer residence in the islands, and a knowledge of the language.

I have heard two or three times of stone implements being dug up at considerable depths in the Fiji Islands, and in one case the implements were quarried out of a reef, which argues long habitation. I enclose a sketch of a celt, dug up some two feet deep in the Rewa River, and another of a curious sort of gouge. 1 believe these last have been found elsewhere, but I have not heard of them in Fiji. The material of the gouge

appeared to be a fine grained basalt. Dr. Macgregor, to whom they belong, showed me a large and very thick, heavy celt, also of basalt, and much worn, which was found at nine or ten feet depth in alluvium.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL MISCELLANEA.

LECTURES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.

A course of three lectures on "Heredity and Nurture" will, with the permission of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, be given at the South Kensington Museum, on behalf of the Anthropological Institute, by Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., President of the Institute.

The Lectures will take place on Saturday afternoons, November 12, 19, and 26, at 4.30 p.m. :-Lecture 1. November 12th. Observed diversity in the bodily and mental characteristics of individuals. Anthropometric tests, and records of life-histories. Lecture 2. November 19th. Limits to the inheritance of ancestral peculiarities, and to the hereditary transmission of disease. Individual variation. Lecture 3. November 26th. Influences of various kinds of nurture, training, and occupation on the average vigour, longevity, and disposition, of large classes of persons. Recapitulation and suggestions.

Demonstrations of anthropometric methods will be given at the close of each lecture, so far as time permits.

Students in Training, National Scholars, and registered Students of the Department of Science and Art will be admitted free. The Public will be admitted on payment of a registration fee of 1s. for the course.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING.

The fifty-seventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at Manchester under the Presidency of Sir Henry Roscoe, M P., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., commencing on Wednesday, August 31st. Section H, devoted to Anthropology, will be presided over by the Rev. Professor A. H. Sayce, M.A. Papers to be read at this meeting should be sent as early as possible, with Abstracts, to the offices of the Association 22, Albemarle-street, or to Mr. G. W. Bloxam, Recorder of Section H, at the rooms of the Anthropological Institute, 3, Hanover-square, W. It is proposed to form a museum of objects of anthropological interest to be open during the week of meeting. Persons desirous of contributing to this museum should give due notice to the Recorder.