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- 7982
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 7920
- text
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
GENERAL INFORMATION GATHERED AT THE FESTIVAL--PERSONAL BEAUTY OF
THE TYPEES--THEIR SUPERIORITY OVER THE INHABITANTS OF THE OTHER
ISLANDS--DIVERSITY OF COMPLEXION--A VEGETABLE COSMETIC AND
OINTMENT--TESTIMONY OF VOYAGERS TO THE UNCOMMON BEAUTY OF
THE MARQUESANS--FEW EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH CIVILIZED
BEINGS--DILAPIDATED MUSKET--PRIMITIVE SIMPLICITY OF GOVERNMENT--REGAL
DIGNITY OF MEHEVI
Although I had been unable during the late festival to obtain
information on many interesting subjects which had much excited my
curiosity, still that important event had not passed by without adding
materially to my general knowledge of the islanders.
I was especially struck by the physical strength and beauty which
they displayed, by their great superiority in these respects over the
inhabitants of the neighbouring bay of Nukuheva, and by the singular
contrasts they presented among themselves in their various shades of
complexion.
In beauty of form they surpassed anything I had ever seen. Not a single
instance of natural deformity was observable in all the throng attending
the revels. Occasionally I noticed among the men the scars of wounds
they had received in battle; and sometimes, though very seldom, the loss
of a finger, an eye, or an arm, attributable to the same cause. With
these exceptions, every individual appeared free from those blemishes
which sometimes mar the effect of an otherwise perfect form. But their
physical excellence did not merely consist in an exemption from these
evils; nearly every individual of their number might have been taken for
a sculptor’s model.
When I remembered that these islanders derived no advantage from dress,
but appeared in all the naked simplicity of nature, I could not avoid
comparing them with the fine gentlemen and dandies who promenade such
unexceptionable figures in our frequented thoroughfares. Stripped of
the cunning artifices of the tailor, and standing forth in the garb
of Eden--what a sorry, set of round-shouldered, spindle-shanked,
crane-necked varlets would civilized men appear! Stuffed calves,
padded breasts, and scientifically cut pantaloons would then avail them
nothing, and the effect would be truly deplorable.
Nothing in the appearance of the islanders struck me more forcibly
than the whiteness of their teeth. The novelist always compares the
masticators of his heroine to ivory; but I boldly pronounce the teeth
of the Typee to be far more beautiful than ivory itself. The jaws of the
oldest graybeards among them were much better garnished than those of
most of the youths of civilized countries; while the teeth of the young
and middle-aged, in their purity and whiteness, were actually dazzling
to the eye. Their marvellous whiteness of the teeth is to be ascribed
to the pure vegetable diet of these people, and the uninterrupted
healthfulness of their natural mode of life.
The men, in almost every instance, are of lofty stature, scarcely
ever less than six feet in height, while the other sex are uncommonly
diminutive. The early period of life at which the human form arrives
at maturity in this generous tropical climate, likewise deserves to be
mentioned. A little creature, not more than thirteen years of age, and
who in other particulars might be regarded as a mere child, is often
seen nursing her own baby, whilst lads who, under less ripening skies,
would be still at school, are here responsible fathers of families.
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