periority 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
unexceptional 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 Typees to
be far more beautiful than ivory itself. The jaws of the oldest greybeards
among them were much better garnished than those 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. This
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, wh