Nov. 1835. 



TAHITI. 



481 



as a weed. In Brazil I have often admired the contrast of 

 varied beauty in the banana^ palm^ and orange tree : here 

 we have in addition the bread-fruit, conspicuous from its 

 large_, glossy, and deeply digitated leaf. It is admirable to 

 behold groves of a tree, sending forth its branches with 

 the force of an English oak, loaded with large and most 

 nutritious fruit. However little on most occasions utility 

 explains the delight received from any fine prospect, in this 

 case it cannot fail to enter as an element in the feeling. 

 The little winding paths, cool from the surrounding shade, 

 led to the scattered houses ; and the owners of these every 

 where gave us a cheerful and most hospitable reception. 



I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabi- 

 tants. There is a mildness in the expression of their counte- 

 nances, which at once banishes the idea of a savage ; and an 

 intelligence, which shows they are advancing in civilization. 

 Their dress is as yet incongruous ; no settled costume having 

 taken the place of the ancient one. But even in its present 

 state, it is far from being so ridiculous as it has been 

 described by travellers of a few years^ standing. Those 

 who can afford it wear a white shirt, and sometimes a 

 jacket, with a wrapper of coloured cotton round their 

 middles ; thus making a short petticoat, like the chilipa of 

 the Gauchos. This dress appears so general with the chiefs, 

 that it will probably become the settled fashion. No one, 

 even to the queen, wears shoes or stockings ; and only the 

 chiefs have a straw hat on their heads. The common 

 people, when working, keep the upper part of their bodies 

 uncovered; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen to 

 advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, 

 and with well-proportioned limbs. It has been somewhere 

 remarked, that it requires little habit to make a darker tint 

 of the skin more pleasing and natural, even to the eye of an 

 European, than his own colour. To see a white man bathing 

 by the side of a Tahitian, was like comparing a plant 

 bleached by the gardener^s art, with one growing in the 

 open fields. Most of the men are tattooed ; and the orna- 



VOL. III. 2 I 



