24 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
good nature strikes a stranger. They are seldom 
melancholy or reserved, always willing to enter into 
conversation, and ready to be pleased, and to attempt 
to please their associates. They are, generally speak¬ 
ing, careful not to give offence to each other: but 
though, since the introduction of Christianity, families 
dwell together, and find an increasing interest in 
social intercourse, yet they do not realize that high 
satisfaction experienced by members of families more 
advanced in civilization. There are, however, few 
domestic broils; and were fifty natives taken promis¬ 
cuously from any town or village, to be placed in a 
neighbourhood or house—where they would disagree 
once, fifty Englishmen, selected in the same way, and 
placed under similar circumstances, would quarrel 
perhaps twenty times. They do not appear to delight 
in provoking one another, but are far more accustomed 
to jesting, mirth, and humour, than irritating or re¬ 
proachful language. 
Their jests and raillery were not always confined to 
individuals, but extended to neighbourhoods, or the 
population of whole islands. The inhabitants of one 
of the Leeward Islands, Tahaa, I believe, even to the 
present time furnish matter for mirthful jest to the 
natives of the other islands of the group, from the 
circumstance of one of their people, the first time she 
saw a foreigner who wore boots, exclaiming, with 
astonishment, that the individual had iron legs. It is 
also said, that among the first scissors possessed by the 
Huahineans, one pair became exceedingly dull, and the 
simple-hearted people, not knowing^ how to remedy this 
defect, tried several experiments, and at length baked 
the scissors in a native oven, for the purpose of sharpen- 
