344 VARIETIES OF FIGURE. 



The fine forms, the uncommon symmetry, the great 

 strength and activity of many tribes in the South-Sea 

 Islands have been noticed by all who have had intercourse 

 with them *. The attention of Langsdorff was particu- 

 larly attracted by a youth named Mufau, twenty years of 

 age, whom he saw at Nukahiwah, one of the Marquesas 

 islands. His height was 6 feet 2 Inches (Paris measure — 

 between 6 feet 7 and 8 English) ; his figure and strength 

 perfect : the following are the measures in French feet and 

 inches, of various parts of his body ; which those who are 

 conversant with academic proportions will be able to decide 

 whether his frame was rightly constructed or not : 



In. Lines 



From the point of the shoulder to the tip of the 



longest finger 22 7 



From the top of the skull to the chin 10 



navel 3]| 



navel to the division of the thighs .... lOj 



division of the thighs to the sole of the foot 38 



Length of the foot \2\ 



Greatest breadth of ditto b\ 



Breadth across the shoulders 19 2 



Circumference at the same part 40 



Breadth across the breast 15 



Circumference of the breast 42 



Circumference of the head round the forehead and 



above the ears .... 28| 



abdomen about the spleen . . 32 



pelvis at the hip 42 



* The people of the Marquesas and Washington Islands excel, in beauty 

 and grandeur of form, in regularity of features, and in colour, all the other 

 South-Sea Islanders. The men are almost all tall, robust, and well made. 

 Few were so fat and unwieldy as the Olaheiteans ; none so lean and meagre 

 as the people of Easter Island. We did not see a single crippled or de- 

 formed person, but such general beauty and regularity of f.>rms, that it greatly 

 excited our astonishment. Many of them might very well have been placed 

 by the side of the moit celebrated chef d'ceuvres of antiquity, and they would 

 have lost nothing by the comparison.'' Lvngsdorff's Voyagas and Travels 

 in various Parts of the TVorhl, v. i. p. 108. 



