342 Essays. 



o£ the northern tribes) were wholly without hair on the face ; no doubt 

 mainly owing to their continual and early attempts to eradicate it. In age 

 the hair became grey, yet not commonly thin, and sometimes, though rarely, 

 quite white. Hair on the thorax or shoulders, as in some Europeans, was 

 wholly unknown. 



5. Their frame being strongly built, and constitution good, they were 

 naturally long lived, and generally retained their hair, and their teeth sound 

 and white to the last ; baldness being very rare among them. The old natives 

 have always and everywhere affirmed that formerly they lived to a very 

 advanced age, and commonly only died gradually through old age. The 

 writer is quite inclined to believe this, from the numbers of wiry, lithe, and 

 active aged men and women he has seen among them ; as well as from the 

 testimony of Captain Cook. 



6. Their sensorial faculties were particularly good — far more so than 

 those of Europeans — no doubt quickened both through their absolute need 

 and constant use. The senses of seeing, hearing, and feeling were pre- 

 eminently vigorous and acute, insomuch that the writer has been often 

 astonished at the quiet displays he has witnessed. To define an object plainly 

 a long way off among the fern or shrubs ; to distinguish clearly a far-off and 

 indistinct sound among many others ; to know certainly, by the feel of the 

 foot, that the dense moss in the trackless mountain forests had been before 

 trodden by man (an accomplishment which took the writer many years to 

 learn) , were common things to them ; though the last, in its perfection, was 

 confined to the natives inhabiting the mountains. Their senses also of smeU 

 and of taste were peculiar, as well as keen, and, though blunt and rude, were 

 plain and unsophisticated. 



7. They early arrived at the age of puberty, from twelve or even eleven 

 years upwards ; they did not, however, cease growing until eighteen or 

 nineteen years. A few females have been mothers at the age of thirteen, 

 but such cases were rare. Large families were by no means uncommon ; 

 very many women have each borne more than ten or even twelve children, 

 though they seldom reared them all. Of course the strongest lived ; which 

 was a very good kind of natural selection, no doubt highly beneficial to the 

 race. The act of giving birth, with them, was easy, and mostly, a very 

 common matter ; sometimes women delivered themselves alone, and having 

 done what was necessary for themselves and infant, returned to their usual 

 occupations. They commonly suckled their children until they were two 

 years old, and sometimes much older. Instances are known of married 

 women having given birth to children when nearly forty years of age, and 

 often after several years of cessation. Twins were not uncommon, though 

 three at a birth was rare. Formerly it was almost unknown for mothers to 



