410 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



western Pacific that the highest types of the Mahori race are 

 still to be found, though these too have greatly diminished 

 in numbers, while the intermixture with dark Fijians and 

 low-class European traders have greatly deteriorated 

 them. Admiral Erskine says : — " The men were a re- 

 markably fine-looking set of people ; among them 

 were several above six feet high and of Herculean 

 proportions. The manly beauty of the young men is very 

 remarkable ; one in particular, who had decked his hair 

 with the flowers of the scarlet hibiscus, might have sat 

 for an Antinous." The accompanying photographic print 

 of a native of the Tonga Islands, kindly lent me by 

 Mr. J. J. Lister of St. John's College, Cambridge, well 

 illustrates this fine type. Mr. Lister informs me that the 

 " sisi " or collar worn by this man was made of strips of 

 hibiscus bark and ferns brought from Ena, one of the 

 volcanic islands of the group not far from Tongatabou. 



Lord George Campbell in his delightful book. Log-letters 

 from the Challenger, speaks of these people in enthusiastic 

 terms. "There are," he says, "no people in the world 

 who strike one at first so much as these Friendly 

 Islanders. Their clear light copper-brown coloured skins, 

 their curly hair and good-humoured handsome faces, their 

 tout-ensemhle, formed a novel and splendid picture of the 

 genus homo ; and as far as physique and appearance go, 

 they gave one certainly an impression of being a superior 

 race to ours." And in character they are equally admirable. 

 Cook declared them to be " liberal, brave, open, and 

 candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or 

 revenge." They are cheerful in disposition and fond of 

 dancing and song ; very cleanly in all their habits, so that 

 Admiral Erskine remarks that " they carry their habits of 

 cleanliness and decency to a higher point than the most 

 fastidious of civilized nations." And again, that — " Their 

 public meetings and discussions are carried on with a 

 dignity and forbearance which Europeans never equal, 

 while even in the heat of war thay have shown 

 themselves amenable to the influences of reason and 

 religion." 



Their superiority is also shown in the status of women 



