5 8 6 R E M A R K S o n t h e
happinefs enjoyed by all ranks and a g e s i n a word we are perfedtly
convinced that thefe iflanders really enjoy a degree o f felicity,
which is feldom obferved. in ' the more civilized.countries, and
which is here ftill more enhanced by the generality with which it
is diffufed over whole nations, by the facility with which it is attainable,
and by the juft proportion it bears to. the prefent ftate of
thefe iflanders, to whofe condition this happinefs is perfectly adequate,
and which i f enlarged would become incompatible with their
capacities.
We have now and then illuftratgd in notes -the customs o f the
natives in thefe iflands, and^reprefented fome o f .them to be siMiC
l a r to cuftoms which formerly did, or at prefent ftill prevail
among other nations very diftant from thofe we had feen; but we
have alfo colledted more of thefe parallel cuftoms not always
with a view to prove that nations, which chance to have the fame
cuftom, owe their origin to one another; but rather to convince
ourfelves that, this fimilarity does not always give fufficient foundation
for fuch a belief. A t the fame time we may fufpedt, that fome
o f thefe cuftoms were really common to two nations, on account o f
their common origin.
T h e cuftom o f cutting or pundturing the body with inftruments
dipped in a mixture o f water and lamp-black, and forming thereby
various figures oh the various parts o f th e ' body, we found efta-
1 blilhed
H U M A N S P E C I E S. 587
blilhed all over the iflands o f the South Sea, with this difference manners
COMPARED
only, that fome marked chiefly the face, as the people at NeW-Zee-
land others imprinted indelible .figures' all over the body, as at
the Marquefas ; feme produced only large blotches on the buttocks,
which is chiefly cuftomary at the Society-ides and Taheitee ; others
again have only a few black or blue fpots on their lips, which is
the cuftom of the women at New-Zeeland. Strange as this cuftom
feems to be, it has been however received among many nations ;
the Tungufes, * and the Greenlanders' -p few into the flelh o f the •
faces of their children, various figures, by a thread dipped into a
black fubftance. Th e ancient Hum formerly were ufed to make in-
cifions into their cheeks, in order to prevent the growth of
the heard. J Though 'this feems not to be the reafort '
which prompted the New-Zeelanders to cut .various deep
figures and fcrolls into their faces, but rather that of the very
obvious ones to making their afpedb more terrible to their
enemies, and inuring the young men - to endure pain; it has
however, in the courfe o f nature, produced the fame effedt, and al-,
moft eradicated the hair o f the beard. In all America the favages
are ufed to pundture fome part o f the body-with black 'figures..
4 F 2 : " Pietro
* Gindin’s Voyage to Sibiria, vol. i. p. 77," and vol. ii. p. 648, &cv &cv
•f Grantz Hiftory of Greenland, vo'l. i. p, 138.'
$ Ammiaiius Marcellinus,. lib. xxxi. c. z. and Jordaues Hill.'Get.
jj M ‘
! §