POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
25 
ing them. Hence the people of Huahine are often 
spoken of in jest by the Tahitians^ as the feia eu paotiy 
or people that baked the scissors. The Tahitians them¬ 
selves were in their turn subjects of raillery, from some 
of their number who resided at a distance from the sea, 
attempting, on one occasion, to kill a turtle by pinching 
its throat, or strangling it, when the neck was drawn 
into the shell, on which they were surprised to find 
they could make no impression with their fingers. The 
Huahineans, therefore, in their turn, spoke of the Tahi¬ 
tians as the feia uumi honUy the people that strangled 
the turtle. 
Their humour and their jests were, however, but rarely 
what might be termed innocent sallies of wit, and 
were in general low and immoral to a disgusting degree. 
Their common conversation, when engaged in their 
ordinary avocations, was often such as the ear could not 
listen to without pollution, presenting images, and con¬ 
veying sentiments, whose most fleeting passage through 
the mind left contamination. Awfully dark, indeed, was 
their moral character, and notwithstanding the apparent 
mildness of their disposition, and the cheerful vivacity 
of their conversation, no portion of the human race 
was ever perhaps sunk lower in brutal licentiousness 
and moral degradation, than this isolated people. 
The veil of oblivion must be spread over this part of 
their character, of which the appalling picture, drawn 
by the pen of inspiration in the hand of the apostle, in 
the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, revolting 
and humiliating as it is, affords but too faithful a 
portraiture. 
The depraved moral habits of the South Sea Islanders 
undoubtedly weaken their mental energies, and enervate 
IT. E 
