126 VOYAGE TO THE 



are almost as much at home as on land, and can 

 remain nearly a whole day in the sea. They fre- 

 quently swam round their little island, the circuit 

 of which is at the least seven miles. When the sea 

 beat heavily on the island they have plunged into 

 the breakers, and swam to sea beyond them. This 

 they sometimes did pushing a barrel of water before 

 them, when it could be got off in no other way, and 

 in this manner we procured several tons of water 

 without a single cask being stove. 



Their features are regular and well-looking, with- 

 out being handsome. Their eyes are bright and 

 generally hazel, though in one or two instances they 

 are blue, and some have white speckles on the iris ; 

 the eyebrows being thin, and rarely meeting. The 

 nose, somewhat flat, and rather extended at the nos- 

 trils, partakes of the Otaheitan form, as do the lips, 

 which are broad, and strongly sulcated. Their ears 

 are moderately large, and the lobes are invariably 

 united to the cheek ; they are generally perforated 

 when young, for the reception of flowers, a very 

 common custom among the natives of the South Sea 

 Islands. The hair, in the first generation, is, with 

 one exception only, deep black, sometimes curly, but 

 generally straight ; they allow it to grow long, keep 

 it very clean, and always well supplied with cocoa- 

 nut oil. Whiskers are not common, and the beards 

 are thin. The teeth are regular and white ; but are 

 often, in the males, disfigured by a deficiency in 

 enamel, and by being deeply furrowed across. They 

 have generally large heads, elevated in the line of the 

 occiput. A line passed above the eyebrows, over the 

 ears, and round the back of the head, in a line with 

 the occipital spine, including the hair, measured 



