174 TATTOOING ABOLISHED. 
longer shelter their skins from the burning rays 
of the sun, and are become as brown as the 
rest. All the graces have departed from them ; 
their fascinating smiles have vanished ; and .the 
rancid cocoa-oil with which they smear them- 
selves may be smelt at many paces distance. 
In short, either the picture drawn of them by 
the early travellers was a monstrous flattery, 
or they are altogether different from what they 
were. I saw but one handsome girl at Tahaiti ; 
she was the sister of the little King, only four- 
teen years old, and already the bride of her 
uncle, the Prince of Ulietea. The men far 
surpass the women both in form and feature. 
The Missionaries have abolished the custom 
of tattooing, and so far at least spared the 
Tahaitians some useless torment. These marks 
are now only to be seen on people of the middle 
age and upwards—never on the young. ‘The 
first voyagers who visited this island, describe 
the tattooing as representing half-moons, birds, 
and irregular or zig-zag lines; but on a bet- 
ter acquaintance with Europeans, the fashion 
changed, and drawings of our tools, animals, 
and even compasses and mathematical instru- 
