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548 p r o p o r t io n s— ATTIRE. Nov.
are rounded, and smooth. They stride along in an imposing
manner, occasionally recalling ideas of the giants of history.
Although, generally speaking, they are taller than the Patagonians,
they do not, to the eye, appear so large. This ocular
deception must arise from the better proportion of the Otaheitans.
The native of Patagonia has a large, coarse looking
head, with high cheek bones, and a ‘mane-like’ head of hair:
his shoulders are high and square ; his chest very wide; while
to heighten the effect of these traits, each of which gives one
an idea of size, a great rough mantle, made of the woolly skin
of the gnanaco, thrown loosely round his shoulders, hangs
almost to his feet. But the Otaheitan head is singularly well
formed; and, if phrenology is not altogether a delusion, few
men are more capable of receiving instruction, or doing credit
to their teachers, than these islanders, so often described, yet
by no means enough knoivn. Their hands, and more especially
their feet, have been said to be of the Papua form; but the
shape of the latter is owing, it appears to me, to their always
going barefooted: and I observed their hands particularly without
being able to distinguishanypeculiarity whatever in the form.
The young men frequently wear a wreath of leaves, or
flowers, round the head, which, though becoming, has rather a
Bacchanalian appearance. Some cut their hair short, others
shave the greater part of their head, but solely from caprice:
not one could give me any reason beyond that which is implied
in “ it is the fashion.”
It is seldom that one meets a native entirely naked; I mean
naked excepting tbe girdle which is always worn: generally
they have a garment, or a piece of one, obtained from a white
man. These remnants, often tattered, and, among the lower
classes, always dirty, disfigure them much. Those whom I
saw, with only a native girdle, but whose bodies were tattowed
in the old fashion, appeared to my eye much less naked than
the young men, not tattowed, and only half clothed. I shall
not forget the very unpleasant impression made upon my mind,
at first landing, by seeing a number of females, and children,
with a few men, half dressed in the scanty, dirty, and tattered
183S. Na t iv e c l o t h in g— c onduc t . 549
scraps of clothing, which they unfortunately prefer to their
native dress. A woman, who has around her waist a substantial
native garment, which falls as low as the calf of the leg ;
and over her shoulders, folding in front across the bosom, a
mantle, or cloak, of similar material—appears to the eye of a
stranger much more decently dressed than the hasty lover of
novelty ; who seems proud of a dirty cotton gown, tied only at
the neck, and fluttering in the wind. Their Sunday dresses,
however, are clean and decent, though those of other days are
certainly much the contrary. An under-garment alone need be
added to the women’s former dress of native manufacture, to
make it answer every purpose. Why should not home ingenuity,
and domestic industry be encouraged ?
The moral conduct and character of these islanders have
undergone so much discussion; so various have been the decisions,
and so varying are the opinions of voyagers and residents,
that I, for one, am satisfied by the conclusion, that the good and
the bad are mixed in Otaheite, much as they are in other parts
of the world exposed to the contamination of unprincipled
people. That the missionaries have done so much, in checking
and restraining depravity, is to me matter of serious reflection.
But let us also remember, that the testimony of very trustworthy
witnesses shews that there, even in earlier days, iniquity
did not search after those who sought not her abode ! *
The Beagle’s stay was too short to enable us to form any
• Cook says—“ Great injustice has been done the women of Otaheite,
and the Society Isies. The favours of married women, and aiso the unmarried
of the better sort are as difficuit to be obtained here, as in any
otiier country whatever. I must, however, aliow, that they are ali com-
pieteiy versed in the art of coquetry, and that very few of them fix any
bounds to their conversation. It is therefore no wonder that they have
obtained the character of libertines.”
In the excellent descriptions of Turnbull, we read :—“Much has been
said as to the licentiousness and loose conduct of the women. It is but
justice to say, that I saw nothing of this. Their ideas of decency are
doubtless very different from ours; they must be judged therefore by a
very different standard,”
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