824 
SOUTH SEA 
and how great will be the contrast, if it is made be- 
tween the ideas of these people and our own ! Compare 
the much-sought, gentle, and well finished aquiline of 
European taste, with the Saint John’s Islander’s enor- 
mous, cavernous, perforated Thames-tunnel nose, and 
it may well be said that comparisons are odious. Com- 
pare the beautiful, oval, and pearly white teeth of one 
of our London belles, with the short, broad, and jet-black 
ones of the Saint John’s damsels, and the two extremes 
will meet. But we are both equal in delight, when we 
behold that which appears most perfect after our own 
taste;— the St. John’s Island lover observes the elabo- 
rately finished nasal organ of her beloved with feelings of 
admiration, the wider its base the more vehement be- 
comes her love ; she gazes with pleasure upon the jet- 
black teeth, which are at times teazingly hidden from 
her searching and fondest look by the motions of the 
thick and protruding dull red lip. She reclines on his 
shoulder, she is dazzled with the transcendent beauty of 
the “ human face divine!” and his enormous mass of' 
frizzled and red hair forms a canopy for them both, and 
her real enjoyment of these things is not surpassed by 
the most fastidious Parisian lady of taste, who adores 
features of other form and colour. We observed that some 
of them were slovenly in their appearance, their hair had 
not been frizzled out for some time, their faces had not 
been painted, or their noses newly ornamented ; besides, 
their teeth were beginning to shew the white enamel 
through the artificial coat of jet, which was beginning 
to wear off from the friction of the lips, affording a proof 
