C H A P . its productions or personal comforts, and where sexual intercourse is
unrestrained, the population will remain much the same.
One of the authors of Koggewein’s Voyage represents the inhabitants
of this island as giants, which, if his assertion be true, makes
it evident that, like the Patagonians, they have degenerated very
rapidly. Cook remarks that he did not see a man that would measure
(i feet; and our estimate of the average height of the people
was 5 feet 7jr inches. They are a handsome race, the women in particular.
The fine oval countenances and regular features of the men,
the smooth, high-rounded foreheads, the rather small and somewhat
sunken dark eye, and the even rows of ivory-white teeth, impressed
us with the similarity of their features to the heads brought from
New Zealand. The colour of their skin is lighter than that of
the Malays. The general contour of the body is good: the limbs
are not remarkable for muscularity, but formed more for activity
than strength. The hair is jet black, and worn moderately short.
One man of about fifty years of age, the only exception that was
noticed, had his hair over the forehead of a reddish-ash gray. The
beards of such as had any were black ; but many had none, or only
a few hairs on the chin. None of the men had whiskers, which
seemed to be rather a subject of regret with them, and they appeared
envious of such of our party as had them, who were obliged to
submit to the ordeal of having them stroked and twisted about for the
admiration and amusement of their new acquaintances. Both sexes
still retain the hideous practice of perforating the lobes of the ears,
though the custom is not so general with the men as formerly. The
aperture, when distended, which is done by a leaf rolled up and
forced through it, is about an inch and a quarter in diameter.
The lobe, deprived of its ear-ring, hangs dangling against the neck,
and has a very disagreeable appearance, particularly when wet. It is
sometimes so long as to be greatly in the way ; to obviate which,
they pass the lobe over the upper part of the ear, or more rarely,
fasten one lobe to the other, at the back of the head. The lips,
when closed, form nearly a line, showing very little of the fleshy
part, and giving a character of resolution to the countenance. The
nose is aquiline and well-proportioned; the eyes small and dark brown CHAP.
or black; the chin small and rather prominent; and the tongue dis-
proportionably large, and, on its upper surface, of a diseased white Nov-
appearance.
Tattooing or puncturing the skin is here practised to a greater
extent than formerly, especially by the females, who have stained
their skin in imitation of blue breeches; copied, no doubt, trom
some of their visiters, who frequently tuck up their trowsers to the
knee in passing through the water. The deception, which, at a short
distance, completely deceives the eye, is produced by a succession of
small blue lines, beginning at the waist and extending downward to the
knee. Besides this, some of them tattoo their foreheads in arched lines,
as well as the edges of their ears, and the fleshy part of their lips. The
males tattoo themselves in curved lines of a dark Berlin blue colour
upon the upper part of the throat, beginning at the ear, and sloping
round below the under jaw. The face is sometimes nearly covered witli
lines similar to those on the throat, or with an uninterrupted colouring,
excepting two broad stripes on each side, at right angles to each other.
Most of their lips were also stained. Others had different parts oi
their bodies variously marked, but in the greater number it was
confined to a small space. All the lines were drawn with much
taste, and carried in the direction of the muscle in a manner very
similar to the New Zealanders. These people have had so little communication
with Europeans, or have benefited so little by it, that we
did not perceive any European cloth among them ; and the cloth
mulberry-tree, which grows upon their island, produces so small a
supply, that part of the inhabitants necessarily go naked: the larger
portion however wear a maro, made cither of fine Indian cloth ot a
reddish colour, of a wild kind of parsley, or of a species of sea-weed.
Their weapons arc short clubs of a flattened oval form, tajiering
toward the handle, and a little carved. The straw hats mentioned
both by Cook and Perouse appeared to be no longer used. One man
only had liis liead covered ; and that witli a tattered felt hat, which he
must have obtained from some former visiters. A ramrod, which had
probably been procured in the same w-ay, was also seen among them.
\A\
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