V A R I E T
I E S O F
M E N .
and generous friends«! intrepid and bold warriors; implacable and
cruel enemies, carrying their thirft o f revenge even to fuch a degree
o f inhumanity, as to feaft upon their unfortunate prifoners, the
wretched viäims to a ferocious and uncultured difpolition. Th e y
ar$ generally men of found underftanding, and have tafte and ge-
niug; as proofs o f which, may be mentioned, their curious carvings,
and other manufactures.
II, T h e varieties o f men belonging to the fecond tribe or
race.of people in the South Seas, are all confined within the tropics
to its moil Weftern parts.
Firfl, T h e exteniive country o f N e w - C a l e d o n i a though
near the continent o f New-Holland, is inhabited by a fet of men,
who are totally different from the flender diminutive natives o f that
country, and in many refpefls diftinguifhed from all the natives
belonging to the firfl tribe, living in the Eaftern ifles of the South
Sea.
doient, and the women are the greateft drudges upon the face of the garth. Lieut. Curtis.
Philof. Franf. vol. lxiv. P. 11. p. 385. In Tcherkaffia women cultiyate the ground. Chardin.
Voy. The Bulgarian women were found to work in the vineyards, by Father Bofcoivich,
Voyage de Conßantinople. p. 93 and 164. In Africa, nothing is more common, than that the
moft laborious part of all work is delegated to women; for this takes place among the Hottentots,
according to Kolben*s Defer, o f the Cape o f Good Hope. vol. i. p. 160. arid L a Caille’s
Vryage au Cap. de B . E . The women about Sierra Leon were feen hard at work by Keeling,
V y . The nation of the Giagas are deferibed to be moft unfeelingly cruel to their women.
Lord Kdime’s Sketches o f the H iß. o f Man. p. 187. Mr. Falkner obferved of the women among
the Puelches, Tehuelhets, and other Patagonian tribes, that their lives are but one.continued
feene of labour; for, befides nurfing and bringing up their children, they are obliged to
lubmit to every fpecies of drudgery. Falkner*s Defeription o f Patagonia. p. 123,
Sea. Many o f thefe New-Caledonians are very tall and {tout, and
the reft are not below the common fize> but their women, who
appear here again, under the humiliating and difgracing predicament
o f drudges, are commonly fmall. They are all of a fwarthy colour;
their hair is crifped,. but not very woolly; * their chins« are fur-
rounded with refpedtable beards, which they now and then tie up
in a knot their features are ftrong and mafculine, the ear-laps are
cut and enlarged in the fame manner as in Eafter Eland.. I faw
one man, who had eighteen tortoife-lhell ear-rings o f one inch
diameter, and three quarters o f an inch breadth. Their limbs
are
* As fome of my-readers, not having feen a variety of nations, may think the diftin&ion
between crifped and woolly hair, either improper or infufficient, I muft beg leave to obferve
that the-woolly hair of negroes, is not only frizzled and crifped, but likewife that each hair
is found to be extremely.thin, and proceeding from a root or biiilb, remarkably fmaller than
that obferved in other'human hair; on this account it is called woolly, and its remarkable
thinnefs .probably arifes from a too copious perfpiration, which carries off likewife many
humours,- otherwife fecrcted for the exprefs nutriment and growth of the hair : where this
perforation is not fo confiderable, it can only crifp and blacken the hair, but not to frieh a
degree as to render it woolly. Perhaps the caufe of this difference lies in the greater mildnefs-
of the climate, or is founded on the way o f living of fuch a people. For inftance, though
the natives of Taheitee^ thb Society Ifles, Marquefasy. and the Friendly. IJles, dwell in the
fame latitude with the, Nezv Hebrides, yet they have never woolly hair, 'becaufe they
frequently rub their hajr and head with coco-nut oil,, which hinders the too copious perfpiration
; and I fhall hereafter prove thefe fair people to be originally defeended from a
fairer and lefs fwarthy or parched race, ' whofe type or model’ is commonly- preserved in
their offspring. Upon the whole, a moderate heat accelerates the, growth of human hair;
this needs no proof; as it is well known that hair grows ftronger in fummer than in winter;
every body is apprifed of the common ftet, that the marks of puberty appear fooner
with people in hot climates,, tlian with thofe who dwell in colder regions.
V A R I E T
I E S OF
MEN. .