308 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



its depth, and has eels of an enormous size in it. This is 

 esteemed one of the greatest natural curiosities in the 

 country. 



" The muscular appearance, so common amongst the 

 Friendly islanders, and which seems a consequence of their 

 being accustomed to much action, is lost here, where the 

 superior fertility of their country enables the inhabitants 

 to lead a more indolent life. 



" Personal endowments being in great esteem amongst 

 them, they have recourse to several methods of improving 

 them, according to their notions of beauty. This is done by 

 remaining a month or two in the house ; during which time 

 they wear a great quantity of clothes, and eat nothing but 

 bread-fruit to which they ascribe a remarkable property in 

 whitening them. 



" Their common diet is made up of at least nine-tenths 

 of vegetable food ; and it is perhaps owing to this tem- 

 perate course of life that they have so few diseases among 

 them. They only reckon five or six, which might be 

 called chronic or national disorders. 



'" Their behaviour, on all occasions, seems to indicate 

 a great openness and generosity of disposition. I never 

 saw them, in any misfortune, labour under the appear- 

 ance of anxiety, after the critical moment was past. 

 Neither does care ever seem to wrinkle their brow. On 

 the contrary, even the approach of death does not appear 

 to alter their usual vivacity. 



" Such a disposition leads them to direct all their aims 

 only to what can give them pleasure and ease. They 

 delight in music, neither are they strangers to the soothing 

 effects produced by particular sorts of motion ; which, 

 in some cases, seem to allay any perturbation of mind 

 with as much success as music. 



" The Otaheiteans express their notions of death very 

 emphatically, by saying, that ' the soul goes into dark- 

 ness/ or rather into night. Their language is so copious, 

 that for the bread-fruit alone, in its different states, they 

 have above twenty names ; as many for the taro root ; 

 and about ten for the cocoa-nut. 



" Notwithstanding the extreme fertility of the island, 

 a famine frequently happens, in which, it is said, many 

 perish. In times of scarcity, after their bread-fruit and 

 yams are consumed, they have recourse to various roots, 

 which grow without cultivation upon the mountains. 

 The patarra, which is found in vast quantities, is what 

 they use first. It is not unlike a very large potato or yam, 

 and good when in its growing state. 



" Of animal food, a very small portion falls at any time 



