[Hair as a race index.] The hair furnished the strongest character for diagnosis, in which, not alone that of the head is under consideration; the hair, therefore, occupies the foreground of interest.  Its color is of the least importance, since all peoples of the South Sea have black hair.  It is more the structure and appearance which furnish the observer convenient starting points for the primary classification.  Generally a two-fold division satisfies.  The blacks, it is said, have crisped hair, the Polynesians and light-colored peoples have smooth hair.  But this declaration is erroneous in its generality.  It is in no way easy to declare absolutely what hair is to be called crisp, and it is still more difficult to define in what respects the so-called crisp varieties differ one from another.  For a long time the Australian hair was denominated crisp, until it was evident that it could be classed neither with that of the Africans nor with that of the Philippine blacks.  Semper, one of the first travelers to furnish a somewhat complete description of the physical characters of the Negritos, describes it as an “extremely thick, brown-black, lack-luster, and crisp-woolly crown of hair.”  Among these peculiarities the lack-luster is unimportant, since it is due to want of care and uncleanliness.  On the contrary, the other data furnish true characters of the hair and among them the crisp-woolly peculiarity is most valuable.

On the terms “wool” and “woolly” severe controversies, which have not yet closed, have taken place among ethnologists during the last ten years.  Also the lack of care, especially the absence of the comb, has here acted as a disturbing cause in the decision.  But there is yet a set of peoples, which were formerly included, that are now being gradually disassociated, especially the Australians and the Veddahs, whose hair, by means of special care, appears quite wavy if not entirely sleek and smooth.  Generally it is frowzy and matted, so that its natural form is difficult to recognize.  To it is wanting the chief peculiarity, which obtrudes itself in the African blacks so characteristically that the compact spiral form which it assumes from its root, the so-called “pepper-corn,” is selected as the preferable mark of the race.  The peculiar nappy head has it origin in the spiral “rollchen.”  As to the Asiatic blacks this has been for a long time known among the Andamanese; it has lately been noticed upon the Sakai of Malacca, and it is to be found also among the Negritos of the Philippines, as I can show by specimens.  Therefore, if we seek ethnic relationships for the Negritos of the Philippines, or as they are named, the Aetas (Etas, Itas), such connections obtrude themselves with the stocks named, and the more strongly since they all have brachycephalic, relatively small (nannocephalic) heads and through their small size attach themselves to the peculiar dwarf tribes.