CHAP V. 
PORTRAIT OF A HOYA CHIEF. 
139 
many of the Hovas it is less than is frequently seen 
amongst the inhabitants of the south of Europe. His figure 
was slight but well proportioned, and he was rather above 
the middle stature; his hair appears as he usually wore it, 
and not drawn down over his forehead. I became acquainted 
with him by his calling to ask me to accompany him to his 
residence, where one of his family was ill and in great suffer¬ 
ing. I had much intercourse with him afterwards, both on 
the coast and at the capital, and his disposition always ap¬ 
peared peculiarly gentle and benevolent. He usually wore the 
large white lamba, bordered with the akotso, or five broad 
stripes, the distinctive badge of the Hovas. The accompany¬ 
ing wood engraving is a faithful, but not a flattering, copy 
of the photograph of which I brought home a number of 
copies. Many of the Hovas possessed remarkably well-formed 
heads, though not always perhaps so finely proportioned as 
the one here represented. The foreheads were always well¬ 
shaped, even where the space between the eyebrows and the 
hair, as in some few instances, was comparatively narrow. The 
eyes were never large or projecting, but clear and bright ; and 
the eyebrows well defined without being heavy. The nose 
was frequently aquiline and firm, never thick and fleshy; it 
was, however, more frequently straight, and sometimes short 
and broad, without fulness at the end. The lips were gene¬ 
rally slightly projecting, though seldom round and large, as 
will be seen in the portraits of the Hovas inserted in the sub¬ 
sequent pages. Style of feature seems to mark the Hovas 
much more distinctively than colour or hair. The colour of 
some of the Hovas is as dark as that of the most swarthy 
races in the island, while their hair is straight or curling, and 
their features exhibit the peculiar form of the European ; and 
even where the hair is frizzled or crisped, as is occasionally 
the case, the features exhibit no approach to the negro type. 
In contemplating the figure and features of the people, espe- 
