16 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
profile frequently bears a most striking resemblance 
to that of the European countenance. Their hair is 
of a shining black or dark brown colour 3 straight, 
but not lank and wiry like that of the American 
Indian, nor, excepting in a few solitary instances, 
woolly like the New Guinea or New Holland negroes. 
Frequently it is soft and curly, though seldom so 
fine as that of the civilized nations inhabiting the 
temperate zones. 
There is a considerable difference between the 
stature of the male and female sex here, as well 
as in other parts of the world, yet not so great 
as that which often prevails in Europe. The females, 
though generally more delicate in form and smaller 
in size than the men, are, taken altogether, stronger 
and larger than the females of England, and are 
sometimes remarkably tall and stout. A roundness 
and fulness of figure, without extending to corpu¬ 
lency, distinguishes the people in general, particularly 
the females. 
It is a singular fact in the physiology of the in¬ 
habitants of this part of the world, that the chiefs, 
and persons of hereditary rank and influence in the 
islands, are, almost without exception, as much superior 
to the peasantry or common people, in stateliness, 
dignified deportment, and physical strength, as they 
are in rank and circumstances; although they are 
not elected to their station on account of their per¬ 
sonal endowments, but derive their rank and eleva¬ 
tion from their ancestry. This is the case with most 
of the groups of the Pacific, but peculiarly so in 
Tahiti and the adjacent isles. The father of the late 
king was six feet four inches high 3 Pomare was six 
i 
