POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
15 
there is reason to believe, that, except the many 
disfigurements produced by the elephantiasis, which 
appears to have prevailed from their earliest anti¬ 
quity, a deformed person was seldom seen. 
The countenance of the South Sea Islander is open 
and prepossessing, though the features are bold, and 
sometimes prominent. The facial angle is frequently 
as peiTendicular as in the European structure, ex¬ 
cepting where the frontal and the occipital bones of 
the skull Were pressed together in infancy. This 
was frequently done by the mothers, with the male 
children, when they were designed for warriors. The 
forehead is sometimes low, but frequently high and 
finely formed; the eye-brows are dark and well de¬ 
fined, occasionally arched, but more generally straight; 
the eyes seldom large, but bright and full, and of a jet 
black colour; the cheek-bones by no means high; the 
nose either rectilinear or aquiline, often accompanied 
with a fulness about the nostrils; it is seldom flat, not¬ 
withstanding it was formerly the practice of the mothers 
and nurses to press the nostrils of the female children, 
a flat and broad nose being by many regarded as more 
ornamental than otherwise. The mouth in general 
is well formed, though the lips are sometimes large, 
yet never so much so as to resemble those of the 
African. The teeth are always entire, excepting in 
extreme old age, and, though rather large in some, 
are retnarkably white, and seldom either discoloured 
or decayed. The ears are large, and the chin re¬ 
treating or projecting, most generally inclining to 
the latter. The form of the face is either round or 
oval, and but Very seldom exhibits any resemblance 
to the angular form of the Tartar visage, while their 
