530 THE NOUKAHIVIAX. 



find there the Pelagian race under one of its handsomest and most 

 amiable types. The Kanaks of this group are not exempt from can- 

 nibalism. Nevertheless, before the commerce, civilization, and vices 

 of Europe intruded upon their savage Eden, they lived in a condition 

 of comparative innocence ; and the corruption which has since invaded 

 them preserves that open and simple character proper to people in 

 whom the capacity of discerning good from evil is but imperfectly 

 developed. 



A traveller, who possesses the threefold merit of being an elegant 

 writer, a judicious observer, and an accurate narrator, M. Max Radi- 

 guet, has embodied in an agreeable volume, entitled " The Last 

 Savages," some lively impressions of a sojourn of several years in the 

 Marquesas, and principally at Noukahiva. It is from his pages that 

 I borrow the following sketch of the islanders of this group. 



" If you would wish," he says, " to see the Noukahivian in all his 

 purity, in all his native elegance, it is not among the Tees, it is 

 among the Tai'pis, and in the other less frequented islands of the 

 group, that you must seek him. 



" Of lofty stature, well-spread shoulders, swelling chest, a shapely 

 figure, the body lightly set upon the haunches, the Noukahivian 

 advances with proud and sometimes arrogant bearing, but always 

 with a confident mien, a free and hardy manner. He seems fitted 

 for the race and the escalade rather than for the struggle. He has 

 more the character of the gymnast than of the athlete. His features 

 are regular and handsome, his nose straight or aquiline, sometimes 

 short or slightly flattened, never ill-shaped. The mouth is neither 

 large nor thick-lipped ; the forehead, rather low and somewhat reced- 

 ing, is shaved on the upper portion, whence arises the common saying 

 that the Kanaks have a high forehead. 



"We may* easily portray the physical form of an inhabitant of 

 the Marquesas ; but it is more difficult to define the eccentricities of 

 his fantastic nature. There is much of the child in his disposition ; 

 he is as insensible, or nearly so, to the emotions of gratitude, and 



