TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. 261 
nursed or carried at the side, seated on the hip 
of the person by whom it was borne. 
The Tahitian parents and nurses were careful in 
observing the features of the countenance, and the 
shape of the child’s head, during the period of 
infancy, and often pressed or spread out the 
nostrils of the females, as a flat nose was consider¬ 
ed by them a mark of beauty. The forehead and 
the back of the head, of the boys, were pressed 
upwards, so that the upper part of the skull ap¬ 
peared in the shape of a wedge. This, they said, 
was done, to add to the terror of their aspect, 
when they should become warriors. They were 
then careful to haune , or shave, the child’s head 
with a shark’s tooth. This must have been a 
tedious, and sometimes a painful operation, yet it 
was frequently repeated; and although every 
idolatrous ceremony, connected with the treatment 
of their children, has been discontinued fora num¬ 
ber of years, the mothers are still very fond of 
shaving the heads, or cutting the hair of their 
infants as close as possible. This often gives them 
a very singular appearance. The children are in 
general large, and finely formed ; and, but for the 
prevalence of the disease which produces such a 
distortion of the spine, there is reason to believe 
that a deformed person would be very rarely seen 
among the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. 
No regular parental discipline was maintained 
in the native families. As soon as the child was 
able to will or act for itself, it was generally exempt 
from all control, and given up to the influence 
of its own inclinations. If ever control was 
attempted, it was only by the father, the mother 
was always disregarded, and the father has often 
encouraged the insult and violence, while all inter- 
