POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 340 
varied productions of the country, is still to him ^Hhe 
staff of life.’’ 
The islands are certainly well stocked with all that the 
natives need for subsistence, in greater abundance than 
is, perhaps, to be found in any other part of the world, 
and, with a very small degree of care and industry, the 
inhabitants may, at all seasons, secure whatever is neces¬ 
sary to their comfortable maintenance. They have, it is 
true, neither beef nor mutton, nor any great variety of 
animal food; and, considering the heat of the climate, 
and the indolence of their habits, a vegetable diet is 
probably the most conducive to health. On public 
occasions, however, a considerable quantity of meat 
is dressed, and the chiefs seldom take a meal without 
it; but the generality of the people use, comparatively, 
but little animal food. 
The flesh of swine, called by the natives huaa^ con¬ 
stituted their principal meat. Pigs, which the natives 
say were brought by the first inhabitants, were found in 
the island by Wallis and Cook. Those originally found 
there differed considerably from the present breed, 
which is a mixture of English and Spanish. They are 
described as having been smaller than the generality of 
hogs now are, with long legs, long noses, curly or almost 
woolly hair, and short erect ears. An animal of this 
kind is now and then seen, and the people say such 
were the only hogs formerly in Tahiti. It was also said, 
that they, unlike all other swine, were wholly averse to 
the mire; and a phenomenon so novel among the habits of 
their species, produced a poetical effusion, which appeared 
in a periodical publication about five or six and twenty 
years ago. If such were the cleanly habits of the 
swine in Tahiti at that time, they have degenerated 
