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Updated: May 13, 2025
It is remarkable that throughout the world the races which are almost completely destitute of a beard dislike hairs on the face and body, and take pains to eradicate them. The Kalmucks are beardless, and they are well known, like the Americans, to pluck out all straggling hairs; and so it is with the Polynesians, some of the Malays, and the Siamese. Mr.
In wild, tropical countries, at the first glance there appears to be some consideration for him, but it is on the surface only. The lion pounces on him, the rhinoceros crushes him, the serpent bites, insects torture, diseases rack him. Disease worked its dreary will even among the flower-crowned Polynesians.
The negritos who penetrated to the Philippines are another extreme instance of isolation. The Melanesians of the islands of the Indian and Pacific Ocean are less low, because those islands have been slowly crossed by a much higher race, the Polynesians. This not only explains the higher condition of the Maoris, etc., but also shows why they have not advanced like their European cousins.
If then in outward manner, form, and mind, You find us a degraded, motley kind, Wonder no more, my friend! the cause is plain, And to lament the consequence is vain." If we consider all the races of man as forming a single species, his range is enormous; but some separate races, as the Americans and Polynesians, have very wide ranges.
At home, it is deemed auspicious to go a-wooing in epaulets; but among the Polynesians, your best dress in courting is motley. A fresh breeze springing up, we set our sail of matting, and glided along as tranquilly as if floating upon an inland stream; the white reef on one hand, and the green shore on the other.
If the Polynesians came upon any of the stone builders, they had killed or absorbed them. The interpretation of the curious ideographs carved on wood in Easter Island by some of the Polynesians there half a century ago would denote there had been intercourse with the people who had made them, and who were not the Polynesians.
On the other hand, some of the chants or ballads were very barbaric, having come down from pre- Christian times. And so, singing, dancing, paddling, these joyous Polynesians took us to the fishing.
Most of these islands are narrow bands of land from a few yards to a third of a mile across, with a lagoon partly or wholly inclosed by the reef. Cocoanuts and fish are the chief reliance of the natives, who are an inferior species, even for Polynesians.
Atkin afterwards said he thought he caught the word 'Tabu, as if in warning, and saw a basket with yams and other fruits presented; and those acquainted with the customs of the Polynesians -the race to which these islanders belonged say that this is sometimes done that an intended victim may unconsciously touch something tabu, and thus may become a lawful subject for a blow, and someone may have tried to warn him.
They are easy, merry, and pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either the most capable or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress is a passion, and makes a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song is almost ceaseless. The boatman sings at the oar, the family at evening worship, the girls at night in the guest-house, sometimes the workman at his toil.
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