314 POLYNESIA'S RESEARCHES. 
the marae by the priests. The tabu, or sacred 
restriction, prevails in all its force among them, 
and is often, in the instance of general restriction, 
imposed in a very arbitrary manner. The priests 
alone are said to have the power of laying a 
general prohibition on certain articles of food 
—vegetables, hogs, fish, &c. but every man has 
the power of tabuing his own property, and the 
tabu operates as powerfully on himself as any 
other individual; so that, during its continuance, 
he dare not appropriate to his own use the smallest 
portion of the article thus prohibited. 
Physically considered, the Marquesans are de¬ 
scribed as among the most perfect of the human 
species. The men are said to be tall, strong- 
built, and many of them exhibit the finest sym¬ 
metry of form : they are frequently upwards of six 
feet high, their limbs muscular and firm, but not 
heavy. Their movements are always agile, often 
easy and graceful. In shape and form, the females 
limbs are inferior to the men, yet often present most 
agreeable models of the human figure, and are 
equally distinguished by the liveliness of their 
disposition, and the ease and quickness of their 
gait and gestures. Some visiters, however, have 
represented them as scarcely superior to the 
Society Islanders. The complexion of the Mar¬ 
quesans is much lighter than that of Tahitians, 
but it is seldom that the natural colour of 
their skin is discernible, on account of the 
astonishing manner in which their bodies are 
tataued, and the frequent application of a pre¬ 
paration of turmeric and oil. The shape of the 
face is generally oval. The hair is black, occa¬ 
sionally curling, often bound up on the crown or 
side of the head in an elegant and most fantastic 
