the other islanders. Their language and religion are closely
allied to several, yet they differ essentially from all the
above-mentioned tribes in having no huge: carved images
surmounting their morais, and no fiatookas or wattas.
Unlike them, also, they are deficient in canoes, though they
might easily construct them; they have neither clubs, slings,
nor bows and arrows, and are wanting in those marks of
self-mutilation which some tribes deem indispensable on the
death of their chief or esteemed friends, or in cases where
they want to appease their offended deity,, They are for the
most part fairer and handsomer than the Sandwich Islanders,
but less effeminate than the Otaheitans. The average height
of the men is above that of Englishmen, but they are not so
robust. One man who came on board measured six feet and
half-an-inch., and one on shore six feet two and a half inches.
The former measured round the thorax under the arms three
feet two inches aud a half, and a person of less stature three
feet one inch. The thickest part of the middle of this person’s
arm when at rest was eleven inches and three-eighths*
Their dimensions of girth will, I believe, be found less in
proportion than those of the labouring class of our own countrymen,
though the general appearance -of these islanders at
first leads to a different conclusion. They are upright in
figure, round, but not robust. In their muscles there is a
flabbiness; and in the old men a laxity of integument, which
allows their skin.to hang in folds about the beily and thighs
to a greater degree than those I afterwards noticed at
Otaheite or Woahoo. Two causes may be assigned for this ;
the nature of their food and their indolent habits.
“ In general the Gambier Islanders have a fine Asiatic
countenance, with mustachios and beards, but no whiskers;
and when their heads are covered with a roll of white cloth,
a very common custom, they might pass for Moors. It is
somewhat remarkable, that we perceived none of the fourth
classy or those more nearly allied to Negroes, thus habited,
but that it seemed to be confined to those of the lightest
complexion. The colour of their eyes is either hazel or dark
brown; they are small, deep in the head, and have generally
an expression of cunning. Their eyebrows are naturally
arched and seldom meet in front; the cheek-bones are not
so prominent as in the fourth class, and the lips are thinner;
the ears are moderately large, and the lobes attached to the
cheek, as in all the Pitcairn Islanders, but not perforated;
the nose in general is aquiline ; the teeth, in the fourth class
especially, not remarkable for evenness or whiteness, and
seem to fall out: at an early period* The hair is turned baek
and cut straight, and would be quite black were it less subjected
to the sun, or like that of the islanders just mentioned,
well oiled; but exposed as it is to a scorching sun,, it becomes
dried up and of different hues on the same head ; and combs
being unknown, it is bushy and impervious ; the mustachios
grow,long, but the beards, whichsare: kept from three to four
inches in length, are sometimes brongbt lQ a point, at others
divided into two: one man was observed, however, with a
beard which hung down to the pitipf his ^storiaaeh,; the hands
are ,large,> but the - feet small and elegant, 1 and the, toes close
together, from which it is, probable: that they pass a , great
portion of their time upon their rafts, ^ or idly basking , in the
sun, or lying upon their stone pavements like the Hapaeans.
The women are below the .common standard height, and in
personal shape or beauty far inferior tor thei males. /The wife
of the-chief, who has been already described, was the finest
woman Is saw among them. | Her dresss4Uay;«be considered a
fair specimen of the general covering of the women, who
have no ornaments of any kind, and appeared quite indifferent
to the beads and trinkets which! were offered them,
“ Tattooing is here so universally practised, that it is rare
to meet a man without it; and it is carried to! such an extent
that the figure is sometimes covered with small chequered
lines from the neck to the ankles, though thebreast is generally
exempt, or only ornamented with a single device. In
some, generally elderly men, the? face is covered below the
eyes, in which case the lines or network are more open than
on other parts of the body, probably on account of the pain
of the operation, and termiaate at the upper part in a straight
line from ear to ear, passing over the bridge of the nose.
With these exceptions, to which we may add the fashion with