occasionally straight or even aquiline» with full nostrils; the
npper lip is short, but that and the lower are thick ; the
mouth rather wide; white and much blunted teeth; with a
chin neither large nor small; but rather broad. Some have
higher and better heads, and a less marked expansion of brow,
nostrils, and lips ; others again are the reYersr^ usoaily their
eyes are placed horizontally, but some are inclined, like those
of the Chinese, though not remarkably ; indeed, not so much
so as those of a Scotchman whom I met there. AmotigThe
women l noticed a general depression of the bridge of the
nose, and a flat frontal region.
The general complexion of both women and men 4s a
dark coppery-brown; but it varies from the iigfateSt hUev of
copper to a fic h mahogany or chocolate^ and in sense'■chses
almost to black. The natural colour of the skin is much
altered by paint, dirt, and exposure. Before closing this
slight description of the personal appearance of the Zealanders;
I must allude to the remarkable shape of their teeth. In a
white man the enamel usually covers all the tooth; vfrhettlr
front or double; but the teeth of a man of New Zealand ate
likq those of the JPnegiane, and at a first glance remind? One %f
those of a home. Either they are all worn^ down^camn©«-
cutting-teeth, and grinders—to an uniform height, so that their
interior texture is quite exposed, or they are of a peculiar
structure.” *
M. d’Urville thus describes the physical characters of the
New Zealanders: “ They are of middle stature, tegular form,
with strong limbs, little fat, strongly marked countenance,
complexion tawny but not of a deep tint, hair long; flat,
smooth, mostly black, sometimes of a chestnut colour, eyes
large and well placed, nose well formed but with somewhat ;
dilated nostrils, little hair on the body.” 4 0 Among people of
* Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. ii. pp. 569, 570. The following
note | appended : “ This apparent wearing away, of the teeth is not
found in the New Zealanders alone. The Fuegians, Araucanians, and .Society
Islanders show it more or less, and it is very remarkable among the natives
of New Holland. I have also seen some white men (Europeans) with similar
teeth, but they were all elderly; whereas in some young savages I . have
noticed incisors shaped rather like those of a horse.”
this d#erip1®Dâ;âre found? irf individuals of smaller sta«
ture, mare squat and broad, .of complexion dark without being
black,t crisp, hair, frizzled heard, small eyes, sunk but piercing,
and,the, body covered with more abundant hair.”
M. DTIrvilie^abserves. that some voyagers have considered
these .diversities -of physical character as constituting two
distinet.races, but that heregards them as merely two varieties;
yet he accounts-for the difference by the supposition that it is
the result of an intermixture between a conquering tribe of the
Polynesian race and certain ‘f autochthones ” or aborigines,
who may have been a people resembling the inhabitants of
the New Hebrides or of New Caledonia. He admits that in
the present day not a single individual is to be fouyd who may
pass for a genuine descendant of such a race. The general
type of physiognomy above described passes into numerous
vari^ie^ so^e of which? recai the fine models of antiqttty,
while others display a shape of features resembling the Jewish
countenance.
Dr. Bieffènbach has given a very particular, and, as it
seems, ,a very accurate description of the physical characters
of?the. Maori. His statement appears at first favourable to
the hypothesis of M. D’.Urville, but he afterwards explains
himself differently, as we shall perceive.
He s a y s , I t appears that the New Zealanders are of two
different races of the human family.
“ The men belonging to the first of these - races, which is
by far the most numerous, are generally tall, of muscular and
well -proportioned frame, very rarely inclining to embonpoint,
but varying in size as much as Europeans do.> Their cranium
often approaches in shape the best and most intellectual
European heads« In general, however, it may be said to be
of longer dimension from the forehead to the occiput ; the
forehead itself is-r high, but not very full in the temporal
regions : the. coronal ridge is ample ; no coronal suture exists ;
the occiput is well developed, shewing a great amount of
animal prqpensities|p4nat, however, in undue proportion over
the intellectual. In a skull which I possess of a man of one
of the interior tribes of Roturua, the frontal sinuses are
much developed, the skull lengthened, the forehead somewhat
K