THE POLYNESIAN FAMILY. 61 



islanders of this race, they are fickle, indolent and sensual, yet when engaged in 

 war they fight with great intrepidity.* 



The Marquesas Islands present a population very similar to that of the 

 Society Isles; in youth sprightly and beautiful, somewhat darker than the Tahitians, 

 and less inclined to flesh. 



In Easter Island (which is fifteen hundred miles from the nearest inhabited 

 islands) the natives possess a tawny skin, a slender frame, and well proportioned 

 limbs, but with features less prepossessing than those of the islanders already 

 noticed. Some remains of cyclopean architecture and sculpture, indicate the 

 present population to be, in comparison, an ignorant and degenerate race. 



Of all the Polynesians the New Zealanders are the most sanguinary and 

 intractable. Their combined treachery, cruelty and cannibalism, have made them 

 proverbial ever since the discovery of their island by Tasman. Captain Crozet, 

 whose crew they attempted to destroy, illustrates their character in very few 

 words: "They treated us," says he, "with every show of friendship for thirty- 

 three days, with the intention of eating us on the thirty-fourth." These islanders 

 are tall, athletic, and admirably well shaped. Their complexion is varied between 

 white, brown and black ; but in the majority of the common people it is of a deep 

 bronze color. The better classes have the olive and yellowish brown tint of the 

 Malays, with hair long and black, and generally more or less frizzled. The New 

 Zealanders practise the operation of tattooing with an elaborateness and perfection 

 elsewhere unknown. It is a principal means of distinction between the chiefs 

 and common people, and may, according to its pattern, "be regarded as the crest 

 or coat of arms of the New Zealand aristocracy."! 



The Fegee islanders vie with the New Zealanders in treachery and cannibal- 

 ism. Captain Dillon gives a melancholy narrative of the murder of fourteen of 

 his men, most of whom were subsequently baked in ovens and devoured in his 

 presence.f 



The Tikopians are robust in form, and inoffensive and hospitable in their 

 manners. They live almost exclusiv^ely on vegetable food, which has been sug- 

 gested as the cause of their singular docility.^ They are of a bright copper color, 

 and use the betel nut like the Malays. 



All the Polynesian islanders are characterised by a volatile disposition and 

 fugitive habits. They act from the impulse of the moment, without reflection 



* FoRSTER, Voy. Round the World, p. 229. t Ellis, Polynes. Res. I, p. 3K 



t Voyage to Discover tlie Fate of La Perouse, I, p. 19, &c. § Ibid. II, p. 135. 

 16 



