POLYNESIA. 17 



adoration. It is not the mere grossness of idolatry, for many of them 

 have no images, and those who have, look upon them simply as re- 

 presentations of their deities, but it is a constant, profound, absorbing 

 sense of the ever-present activity of divine agency, which constitutes 

 the peculiarity of this element in the moral organization of this 

 people. 



The character here described is that of the Polynesians as a nation. 

 But there are certain traits by which the inhabitants of the different 

 groups are distinguished from one another morally as well as physi- 

 cally. And in most cases it is easy to see that these diversities of 

 character have their origin either in some natural peculiarities of the 

 countries which they inhabit, or in their form of government. The 

 New Zealanders, the Marquesans, and the natives of the Paumotu 

 Group, are remarkable for their ferocious temper and addiction to 

 war. In the first-named, the great extent of the country, with the 

 scarcity of food, has caused a separation of the inhabitants into nume- 

 rous petty tribes, independent of one another ; among these, constant 

 occasions of dissension arise, which inflame to an extraordinary 

 degree the naturally bloodthirsty and cruel disposition of the race to 

 which they belong. In the Marquesas, each of the large islands has 

 a high steep ridge of mountains running through it ; from this ridge, 

 lateral spurs, hardly less elevated, and almost precipitous, descend to 

 the sea-shore, thus forming several deep valleys, walled in on every 

 side, except towards the sea, by a natural fortification. The conse- 

 quence is, the existence, as at New Zealand, of numerous separate 

 tribes, who are continually at war, and hence the fierce, sanguinary, 

 and untameable character of the people. In the Paumotu Archi- 

 pelago, it is easy to see that each of the fifty or sixty islands which 

 compose it would be inhabited by a small but independent people, 

 and that the same result would follow. 



Again, on those groups which are situated nearest the equator, 

 where the heat which relaxes the human frame calls into existence, 

 with little or no aid from human labour, the fruits which serve to 

 support life, we expect to find the inhabitants a soft, listless, and 

 indolent race ; while a severer clirne and ruder soil are favourable to 

 industry, foresight, and a hardy temperament. These opposite effects 

 are manifested in the Samoans, Nukuhivans, and Tahitians, on the 

 one side, and the Sandwich Islanders and New Zealanders on the 

 other. In the two physical causes noted in this and the preceding 

 paragraph, we see the source of the combined ferocity and sensuality 



5 



