NIUE, OB SAVAGE ISLAND. 27 



about 100 young men from a village, which has been 

 in consequence so depopulated, that scarcely any other 

 tlian widows and orphans are to be found in it. Since 

 these barbarous attacks, the islanders have been be- 

 seeching the missionary to acquaint the British Govern- 

 ment with their unanimous desire to be taken under its 

 protection. 



The inhabitants of Nine are good-looking, well and 

 strongly built, of a good height, of a cheerful temperament, 

 and, as they now appear, of a gentle disposition. Their 

 skin is free from blemish, and I did not meet with a single 

 instance of a scurfy surface. The only case of elephantiasis 

 I remarked was that of our i)ilot, who had a slight affection 

 of this sort in his two legs. But I was assured by the 

 Albino, already mentioned, that there were eight other cases 

 in the island. 



The natives of both sexes go generally bare-headed, with 

 the exception oi the missionary's policemen, who wear a 

 four-cornered hat, sometimes black with a white or red 

 cross, sometimes in silk with a front of red or white paper ; 

 which said police officials, I must own, looked to me like 

 ' regular Guys.' I saw very few men wearing shirts and 

 pantaloons ; the majority had nothing else on than a skirt, 

 apparently made of bark, which is fastened round the loins, 

 and descends to the middle of the thighs. 



The toilette of the women is exactly the same as that of 

 the men, save as respects the young girls, who in addition 



