Fijian faces have the moderate average height of 122.5 mm. Slightly shorter faces occur in the interior people, whereas the greatest total face height average occurs in the east. The Fijian of Howells' series is close to mine. The Tongan value for face height describes them as definitely longer faced. The Solomon Islanders depart in the other direction with decidedly shorter faces.

Total Facial Index

Relative to maximum breadth, the Fijian face tends to shortness, although this is due largely to their generous facial breadth rather than absolute deficiency of height. The interior groups have the lowest values and the eastern groups show relatively broad faces.

The Tongan average is much higher than any of the Fijian values, whereas the Solomon Islanders show similarity to the Fijians in this feature.

Upper Face Height

The ratio of the upper face height to maximum facial breadth shows the Fijians of the interior to be relatively shorter faced and the eastern people longest. The coastal and northwestern series are intermediate.

Upper Facial Index

The ratio of the upper face height to maximum facial breadth shows the Fijians of the interior to be relatively shorter faced and the eastern people longest. The coastal and northwestern series are intermediate.

Bigonial

Lower jaw breadth as expressed by the bigonial diameter indicates a tendency to broadness shared with little variation among all the subgroups. The Tongan value is considerably smaller.

Fronto-Gonial

Similarly the bigonial diameter in relation to forehead breadth is much the same in all groups, the general average nearly 100 per cent.

Zygo-Gonial

Relative to face breadth, jaw width is 75.3 per cent with very little geographic variation.

Nasal Height

The Fijian nose may be called medium long. Greatest nasal heights occur in the eastern and in the coastal series. The interior and northwestern groups have shorter noses. The Fijians of Howells' series fall near the short end of my averages. Natives of the Solomons are definitely lower in nasal height, whereas the Tongan's average is so much higher that one suspects a difference in the location of the nasion.

Nasal Breadth

Broad noses are common to most Fijians. The greatest contrast is between the narrower-nosed eastern people and the interior people, among whom the widest noses occur. The nose of the Solomon Islanders is somewhat narrower, according to Howells' data, and the Tongan average is also lower.

Nasal Index

Platyrrhini is the rule in Fiji, but individual and regional variations are great. There are some leptorrine subjects in every province, and there are some whose noses are broader than long. The interior people and the northwestern groups have the relatively broadest noses, whereas the eastern index is more moderate. The noses of Sullivan's Tongans are relatively longer than the Lauans. The Solomon Island average is identical with the Fijian.

Nasal Depth

Nasal depth averages 22 mm.; the regional variation is very small.

Nasal-Depth Index

Mouth Breadth

Mouth breadth averages show the interior groups to have widest mouths, the eastern people least wide, and the coastal and northwestern people intermediate.

Lip Thickness

Thick lips are characteristic of most Fijians. The interior average is highest for this diameter, whereas the northwestern Fijians have least-thick lips.

Ear Length

Fijian ears on the whole tend to be long, as the average 66.6 mm. indicates. Regional differences are slight. Tongans closely resemble Fijians.

Ear Breadth

Ear breadth is also generous, and regional differences hardly exceed 1.5 mm., including the Tongans.

Ear Index

Length-breadth ear ratios indicate that coastal groups have somewhat broader, and the northwestern people the relative longest, ears.

Bicanine Breadth

Bicanine breadth is characteristically great among Fijians, reflecting the ample jaws and teeth. Widest diameters are seen in the east, followed by the hill people of the interior. The northwestern groups have the least bicanine diameter.

MORPHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS

Color of skin includes exposed and unexposed areas. The former was observed on the face, since the Fijians do not use any kind of face or head covering. This condition in the total series divides itself quite evenly between medium brown and dark brown. A few have light-brown skin; only six individuals are classified as swarthy and brunet. None was judged to be completely black. The Fijians of Howells' series are described as 96 per cent medium brown[15] and 5 per cent dark brown, a discrepancy I would attribute to personal judgment difference. The Solomon Islanders are markedly darker than the Fijians, the majority have dark-brown skin and 3 per cent are black, whereas 5 per cent have medium-brown complexions.

Tongan data on skin color cannot be directly adjusted to my statistics. Sullivan's comment on their skin color states that it is "a medium yellowish-brown where it is unexposed to the sun. Exposed parts of the skin of a few of the persons were a very dark chocolate" (Sullivan, 1922, p. 248).

Among the Fijians themselves, the greatest contrasts occur between the eastern and the interior groups of Viti Levu. Where 63 per cent of the latter have dark-brown skin, only 5 per cent of eastern fall into this category. The bulk of eastern (83 per cent) have medium-brown skin as against 36 per cent of hill people. The coastal and northwestern provinces are, like the total series, more evenly divided between medium and dark brown.

Skin Color: Unexposed

Unexposed skin color was observed on the under surface of the upper arm near the armpit. The anticipated shift in color range results in a reduction of dark-skin incidence to a mere 1 per cent, and an increase in medium brown to 60 per cent and of light brown to 30 per cent.

Howells' describes 96 per cent of his Fijians as medium brown, 4 per cent dark brown, and none light brown. The Solomon Islanders seem definitely darker than the Fijians whether they are compared with Howells' or my series.

The eastern groups continues to contrast with the interior people. The former show a majority of 64 per cent in the light-brown category as compared with 13 per cent among the interior groups; the latter have a medium-brown incidence of 87 per cent against 30 per cent among Lauans.

Hair Color

Black hair is the usual color, although 5 per cent are described as dark brown and a few red-brown. This latter variation is a rufous color (reddish-brown) and it may be a little more frequent than the data indicate because the Fijians frequently dye their hair with a substance extracted from mangrove bark. This intensifies the usual blackness of the hair and adds a satisfying gloss. More sophisticated natives have access to modern hair dye and lacking this, some have been known to resort to black shoe polish.

Hair bleaching is no longer practiced in Fiji.

The hair of the Solomons Islands is not so uniformly black, nearly a third have dark-brown hair and a few are light brown.

Eye Color

A little more than two-thirds of Fijians' eyes are described as dark brown. The remaining third have medium-brown eyes. There were four individuals who were light brown. Howells, with his Fijian series, is more generous with the darker designation; he designated 98 per cent as dark brown and 2 per cent light brown. His Solomons sample is described as dark brown without exception. The Tongan data also is recorded as more uniformly dark brown than my Fijians.

The Fijians of the interior of Viti Levu have more deeply pigmented eyes than the others; 86 per cent are classed as dark brown and only 14 per cent medium brown.

HAIR

Hair Form

Frizzly hair is the condition of over 85 per cent of Fijians; 11 per cent are curly-haired, whereas over twenty individuals have wavy hair. Straight hair is absent. The Fiji II series of Howell distinguishes between frizzly and wooly hair, which I do not. Their combined incidence is 83 per cent, quite close to my frequency of frizzly. Whether one does or does not distinguish between frizzly and wooly hair, there is no doubt that most Fijians have Negroid hair form. The Solomon Islanders are surprising with somewhat less Negroid hair form than the Fijians. Their combined percentage of frizzly and wooly is 69, which is nearly 20 per cent less than that of the Fijians. Twenty per cent have curly hair against 11 per cent among Fijians. Also, the only instances of straight hair occur in the Solomons.

In the Fijian breakdown, the interior groups have the most Negroid hair; 97 per cent have frizzly hair and 3 per cent have curly hair. The eastern people are the least Negroid in this respect; frizzly hair drops to 60 per cent, whereas curly hair advances to 30 per cent and wavy hair to 9 per cent. The coastal and northwestern series are closer to the interior groups with about 90 per cent frizzly hair.

Hair Texture

Hair texture is prevailingly coarse; only 1 per cent of the total series shows medium coarseness and none have fine hair. This preponderance of coarse hair is much the same in all the provinces, although the eastern people do depart slightly with a 3 per cent incidence of medium-coarse hair.

It might be added that Fijian hair is quite stiff or wiry. For example, when the hair is unshorn, it stands out like a mop. A Fijian can insert a long stemmed flower in his hair and it will stay in place with no additional fastening.

Head Hair Quantity

Head hair quantity is pronounced in the majority of Fijians (65 per cent); it is moderate in 27 per cent and submedium in 7 per cent. Howells describes nearly all the Fijians as having very pronounced head hair—99 per cent, which would appear to be a personal difference in appraisal. In any case, the two series agree that Fijians have hair of more than moderate quantity. The Melanesians of the Solomons are also characterized by much head hair.

Regionally, the only significant variation in this trait is shown in the east, where more individuals have a submedium designation. In the absence of age data, this contrast cannot be fairly interpreted.

Hair Length

It might be observed here that although hair length was not included in this survey, on the basis of personal but unrecorded observation, the Fijians conform to the Melanesian pattern. Most Fijian men now cut their hair short in the Western style, but some still do not. Women generally trim their hair but not short. The natural length of head hair is intermediate between the short-haired African Negroes and the long-haired Caucasians and Mongolians.

Baldness