1839.] PERSONAL APPEARANCE LANGUAGE. 177 



friendly ; the parties shake hands, as with us, and say " ia 

 ora na oe!" — " peace be with you !" 



Scrofulous complaints, which are attributed to drinking 

 the water of the rills descending from the mountains, are 

 quite prevalent. Syphilitic diseases, and elephantiasis, are 

 also common. Intoxication often produces, or aggravates, 

 many of the prevailing complaints, and the inhabitants suffer 

 a great deal for the want of suitable medical attendance. 



They are of good stature, tall and well-made. Their com- 

 plexions are a light olive, or reddish brown. They have 

 regular, open, and prepossessing features, with a facial angle 

 as perpendicular as in the European head; full, jet-black, 

 and brilliant eyes — those of the women "half languor and 

 half fire;" finely-arched eye-brows; straight or aquiline 

 noses ; well-formed mouths ; coarse, but not wiry hair, either 

 black or brown. They are lithe and supple of limb, but not 

 inclined to exertion. There are few very ugly women ; most 

 of them are good-looking, and some are really handsome, with 

 their long dark tresses hanging gracefully over their shoul- 

 ders, and interwoven with roses and jasmine blossoms. 



Tattooing is not practiced as much now as formerly. At- 

 tempts were made a few years ago to abolish it in Tahiti, 

 but they were not entirely successful. It is often performed 

 at the age of eight or ten. A great deal of taste is displayed 

 in this barbarous custom of deforming the person. The 

 bodies of those who have been tattooed are sometimes com- 

 pletely covered over with beautiful figures exhibiting every 

 variety of curve — with animals, flowers, and the sprigs and 

 branches of trees. 



There is a close analogy between the dialects spoken here 

 and those observed in other parts of Polynesia. The lan- 

 guage is similar to the Hawaiian, and many words are pre- 

 cisely the same, though the two groups are twenty-three 

 hundred miles apart. Some words resemble the Malay, 

 some the Indian, and some every language spoken on the 

 shores of the two great continents from which these islands 

 were, directly or indirectly, peopled. The inhabitants of the 



8* 



