THE TONGUESE. H 



fairly be classed with the Tyrol and Circassia, for its 

 male population. I do not include the females, because, 

 according to our taste, the women of Tonga, like those 

 of the Tyrol, are too masculine and robust to please our 

 conceptions of feminine beauty. When I looked at these 

 Tonguese, with their fine athletic body, symmetrical, 

 handsome faces, and rich dark hair, I could not refrain 

 from thinking what caricatures civilization has made us. 

 The gait of such a man is something to wonder at, and 

 sculptors would find him a fine subject for study. Here 

 they might obtain models almost approaching their 

 notions of ideal perfection, instead of copying, as they 

 now too often are compelled, the body of a life-guards- 

 man, the head of a footman, and the hands and feet of 

 some of higher-bred types. 



Charles Maafu, I was informed, had been sent to 

 Lakeba by his father, as a punishment for several larks 

 the young rascal had been up to. I don't wonder 

 there should have been a great deal of temptation in 

 his way, for, besides being the son of a powerful chief, a 

 lineal descendant of one of the royal houses of Tonga 

 (Finau), he was about eighteen years of age and ex- 

 tremely handsome. He wore only a few yards of cotton 

 cloth around his loins, and an ornament made of mother 

 of pearl. King George, of Tonga, had proposed to have 

 his own son and Charles educated at Sydney. The 

 offer was unfortunately declined by Maafu, and the young 

 man had thus learnt nothing except what he had been 

 able to pick up in the missionary schools of the islands. 



Through a fine grove of cocoa-nut palms and bread- 

 fruit trees, Mr. Fletcher kindly conducted us to his 



