Bodily peculiarities - Racial marks

Bodily peculiarities - Racial marks - Colour - Head - Hair - Albinism - Muscular strength - Spiritual Disposition - A race of contradictions - Optimistic critics - Stupidity - Frivolity - Lies and Dissimulation - Comedy of King Finn - Licentiousness - Human sacrifices, cannibalism, and infanticide - Intellectual capacity - Influence of Christianity - Creative power of the Polynesian mind - Invention - Mythology - Cosmogony - Knowledge of geography - Medicine - Reckoning of time - Counting - Music and dancing - Wrestling and boxing - Games of children.

Bodily peculiarities - Racial marks

Colour

AMONG the Polynesian tribes, distributed as they are over a wide area broken up into numerous islands, varying greatly in natural resources, and permeated by a deeply-rooted social organisation, racial distinctions emerge very clearly. It is almost superfluous specially to emphasise the fact that in this race too we can find no absolute unity. Crossings have taken place, of which we can no longer determine the individual elements, though doubtless negroid constituents turned up among them. But whatever may be the history of the Polynesians, they form a special group of mankind. In close affinity with the Malay race they have a brown skin, with a prevailing tendency to light gradations, such as might on the average be designated as olive-brown; though among the Micronesians we find the Chinese yellow, and among the Samoans the light-brown tint of Southern Europeans. The hair is black, smooth to curly. Finsch considers that within these limits the Micronesians do not vary more from the actual Polynesians than Swabians from North Germans. There are Polynesian colonies in the Micronesian region, but many Micronesians come nearer to the Melanesian type.

Head and Hair

Among the more important bodily characteristics we may mention the predominance of short skulls, often exaggerated by artificial deformation; low, but generally well-shaped foreheads, often causing the facial angle to be equal to that of Europeans; noses more often snub than curved; eyes small, lively, usually placed horizontally, with remarkably wide opening and eloquent expression; cheek bones projecting forward rather than sideways; and, lastly, mouths well shaped in spite of thick lips. In general the lighter Polynesians, more especially Maoris and Tongans, resemble most the European type even in expression; while the somewhat darker Micronesians, as has been said, approach the Melanesian. The general character is soft features and .pleasing demeanour. The expression "nobly-formed races," is so commonly used of the Polynesians that it may be worth while to point out that it is only their stature which can be judged by a European standard. "The handsomest woman of Samoa," says Hugo Zoller, "cannot be compared with anything more than a pretty German peasant girl"

Samoan woman. (From a photograph in the Godeffroy Album) [Click on picture for higher resolution]

The hair in its finer texture and tendency to form waves or even ringlets, departs from the coarse straight Mongolian form. The best term for it is "crisp" hair. Occasionally wigs are met with, sticking up and towzled after the Papuan fashion. The colour of the hair ranges from black to chestnut brown. A lighter tinge, particularly rusty-brown wisps running through dark hair, and reddish or yellowish coloration of the tips, proceeds from frequent bathing and powdering with lime. Albinism seems to be rare. The development of hair on the face and body is less in straight-haired than in curly-haired persons.

Muscular Strength and Stature

The bodily strength of the Polynesians is not very great; the small amount of labour which many of them perform hardly tends to a thorough development of the body. Even the most stalwart-looking Maoris possess, on the average, only a fraction of an Englishman's lifting power; nor do they excel in speed of foot. Arms and legs run rather to fat than to muscle. A notable corpulence is frequent as a result of indolence. The average weight of the men in the Gilbert Islands is, according to Finsch, about 12 stone, the maximum a little over 15. In stature the Polynesians hold a medium position. Finsch's measurements give 5 feet 11 inches as the highest figure for a man of the Gilbert Islands, and 5 feet 3½ inches for a woman of Upolu, one of the most powerful and stoutest of Polynesian women. The minima fall just below 5 feet.

Long ago G. Forster said of the Easter Islanders, who live under conditions calculated to stunt them: "We did not find among them a single man who could be called tall." In the Marshall Archipelago the natives of the more northerly islands, which are less visited by strangers, and produce food in greater abundance, are men of a taller and stronger stamp; while the great majority of those in the southern islands are slender men who grow old prematurely. The more weakly type tends to prevail; possibly the indolence which shrinks from the exertion of fishing, and limits itself to a vegetable diet, may have something to do with this. According to Finsch the Gilbert Islanders may be indicated as the strongest. They are distinguished by the rapidity with which they multiply, supplying an abundant emigration.

Racial differences are to some extent involved in the social organisation. The lighter people of the upper classes are descended from Japanese, Chinese, and Spaniards; and tanning by the sun assuredly does not alone account for the darker tint of the lower classes. Ellis heard it said when a swarthy man passed: "How dark he is, he must have good bones." Still the darker complexions are not found exclusively in the lower classes, while the lighter skin of the aristocracy admits of exceptions here and there.