POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
115 
Although some of their practices are offensive to 
every feeling of delicacy and propriety, yet they are 
certainly a remarkably cleanly people. This regards 
not only their repeated ablutions, but their care to 
remove every thing unsightly from their persons. No 
hair was allowed on their limbs; formerly it was 
plucked out by the roots, or shaved with a shell or a 
shark’s tooth; and those who do not wear the Euro¬ 
pean dress, are still very particular in removing the hair 
from their legs and arms. This is usually done with 
a knife, the razors they have among them being reserved 
for removing the beard. 
The adults formerly wore their hair in a variety of 
forms; the heads of their children they always shaved 
with a shark’s tooth. This operation was frequently 
repeated during their juvenile years. The females 
generally cut their hair short, but the men wore 
theirs in every diversity of form—sometimes half 
the head almost shaved, the hair being cut short, 
and the other half covered with long hair—-sometimes 
the crown cut, and the edges left the original length. 
Frequently, it was plaited in a broad kind of tail 
behind, or wound up in a knot on the crown of the 
head, or in two smaller ones above each ear. Since 
the introduction of Christianity it has been worn 
remarkably neat: the men’s hair is usually short, the 
females the same, excepting in the front, though some 
wear it long, curled in front, and bound up on the 
crown. 
Nothing at first sight produces a stronger impress 
sion on the most careless observer, in the difference 
between the inhabitants of an island where paganism 
prevails, and those of one where Christianity has been 
