48 



E L L I C E ' S AND K I N G S M I L 1/ G R O U P. 



middle size, slender, and well proportioned. Their colour was a 

 shade or two darker than that of the Tahitians, and they exhibited a 

 greater variety of face and features, with black glossy hair, finer than 

 in other races. Their features were small, but high and well marked; 

 their eyes large, black, and bright; their nose straight or slightly 

 aquiline, and always somewhat widened at the base ; their mouth 

 large, with full lips and small teeth, which were very imperfect from 

 decay, and they are the only natives in the Pacific with this defect. 

 From the projection of the cheek-bones, the eye had in some the 

 appearance of being sunken. They wore mustaches, but their beards 

 were scanty. They evidently set a great value on these as ornaments, 

 priding themselves much upon their appearance. The few officers 

 who had whiskers were very much admired, the natives patting their 

 whiskered cheeks with great marks of admiration. 



Altogether they were thought to resemble the Malays. Many of 

 them were observed to have the same disease as exists at Ellice's 

 Island, disfiguring the body, and giving it the same scurfy and dis- 

 gusting appearance. 



DRUMMOND ISLANDER. 



The majority of these islanders go entirely naked, excepting a 

 covering for the head, consisting usually of the bleached pandanus- 

 leaf. Mr. Agate's sketch of one, represented in the wood-cut, will 

 give an idea of this head-dress. 



