The Mafulu: Mountain People of British New Guinea. Robert Wood Williamson

Head length 19.7 cm. 17.4 cm. 18.5 cm. Head breadth 15.4 cm. 14.0 cm. 14.8 cm. Cephalic index 86.8 74.7 80.0 Cranial index 84.8 72.7 78.0 Nose length 5.6 cm. 4.3 cm. 5.1 cm. Nose breadth 4.8 cm. 3.8 cm. 4.3 cm. Nasal index 100.0 71.4 84.32

Number of cranial indices under 75	= 4 (20 per cent.).
Number of cranial indices between 75 and 80	= 10 (50 per cent.).
Number of cranial indices over 80	= 6 (30 per cent.).

      There are a few points in connection with these figures to which I would draw attention. The very short man (No. 20—height, 147 cm.) has a cranial index of 75.1, on the border line between dolichocephaly and mesaticephaly. He has also a short nose (4.6 cm.), and is one of the two with the narrowest noses (3.8 c.m.). The very tall man (No. 8—height, 163 cm.) has a long head (19.4 cm.), and the lowest dolichocephalic cranial index of 72.7, and is one of two with the longest noses (5.6 cm.). The other very tall man (No. 10—height, 163 cm.) has one of the two shortest heads (17.4 cm.), and the highest brachycephalic cranial index of 84.8, and has a long nose (5.5 cm.) The man (No. 2) whose nasal index is 100 has the mesaticephalic cranial index of 78.3 (almost the average index). The other man (No. 4) whose nasal index is 100 has a head of exactly the average length (18.5 cm.) and the greatest breadth (15.4 cm.), and the brachycephalic cranial index of 81.2. The man (No. 17) with the lowest nasal index of 71.4 has a very short head (17.7 cm.), and the brachycephalic cranial index of 82.2.

      The following tables, however, illustrate the fact that the measurements of these twenty men do not appear to indicate, as regards them, any marked connection between stature, cranial index, and nasal index.

      Order in stature (beginning with the shortest):

      20—1—19—6—7—17—5—15—18—2—3—11—16—4—12—13—14—9—8—10.

      Order in progress upwards of cranial indices:

      8—13—3—6–20—5—ll—7—1—16—18—2—14—9—15—4—12—17—19—10.

      Order in progress upwards of nasal indices:

      17—9—6—8—15—19—3—13—7—16—20—11—10—14—18—12—1—5—2—4.

I brought home three Mafulu skulls, which Dr. Keith kindly had measured at the Royal College of Surgeons, with the following results3:—

Skull	Length in cm.	Breadth in cm.	Height in cm.	Cranial Index.	Proportion of height to length.
A	17.6	14.0	12.2	79.5	69.3
B	18.2	14.1	13.2	77.5	72.5
C	17.3	12.7	12.5	73.4	72.3

      It will be observed that the lowest of these three cranial indices is a trifle higher than the lowest of those of the head measurements, that the highest of them is much lower than the highest of those of the head measurements, and that their average (76.8) is a little below the average of those of the head measurements.

      Dr. Keith had further measurements made of these skulls from the point of view of prognathism and characters of noses and orbits, with the following results:

Skull.	Basi-nasal length.	Basi-alveolar length.	Height of nose.	Width of nose.	Height of orbit.	Width of orbit.
	mm.	mm.	mm.	mm.	mm.	mm.
A	98	102	48	26	40	35
B	99	96	49	25	42	35
C	97	102	47	26	38	35

      Dr. Keith, referring to these skulls, says that they disclose relatively small brains, the cranial capacity of A being 1,230 c.c., that of B being 1,330 c.c., and that of C being 1,130 c.c. He compares these figures with the average cranial capacity of the male European, which he puts at 1,500 c.c.

The eyes of the Mafulu people are dark brown and very bright. I never saw among them those oblique eyes, almost recalling the Mongolian, which, according to Dr. Seligmann, are found, though rarely only, on the coast,4 and of which I saw many instances among the Kuni people.

      Their lips are usually not so thick as are those of the Mekeo and Roro people, and are generally finer and more delicate in shape.

In view of their Papuan language I kept a sharp look out for the curious backward sloping foreheads and projecting brow ridges and Jewish-looking noses which are so often found among the Western Papuans; but, although I saw a few examples of these, they were rare, and I did not observe any noticeable tendency