404 BEAUTY OF THE WOMEN. [1841 



exceeding five feet eight inches in height ; slender, but well 

 proportioned ; and lithe and active in their movements. Their 

 cheek bones are prominent, and their noses slightly aquiline. 

 They have large and bright black eyes. Their hair is also 

 dark, and unusually fine and glossy. Their lips are full, and 

 their teeth small and even, but often decayed. Their com- 

 plexion, in general, is a shade or two darker than that of the 

 Tahitian. 



The young women are models of personal beauty, so far as 

 mere softness of contour, and shapeliness of limb, are concerned. 

 Their figures are slight, but as harmonious in their propor- 

 tions as the finest statuary. Their full orbed eyes are alike 

 beautiful, whether glowing with desire, or kindling with anger 

 or jealousy. Long, glossy ringlets, glistening like silver in 

 the sunlight, and of ebon darkness in the shadow, float in 

 ample profusion down their finely-rounded shoulders, and over 

 the softly-swelling bust. Their forms taper gracefully to- 

 wards the waist, and are supported on limbs turned with 

 great neatness and delicacy. These charms, too, are not 

 always 



" veiled and curtained from the sight 

 Of the gross world." 



They rarely wear any clothing whatsoever, and the simple 

 iriri seems to be put on rather for ornament than conceal- 

 ment. 



But the mothers of these Polynesian sylphs are as uncouth, 

 not to say hideous, as their daughters are handsome. The 

 wrinkles of age appear prematurely, and their features soon 

 become distorted. This cannot be produced by out-door labor, 

 for that is performed almost entirely by the men, but is prob- 

 ably owing in great part to the common practice of producing 

 abortions. A woman seldom has more than two children, and 

 never more than three; when she discovers herself to be en- 

 ceinte for the third or fourth time, the fetus is destroyed by 



in ft westerly direction, are the only other islands lying in this part of the Pa- 

 rifle, whone names are in any respect similar. 



