fine dark eyes, and thick jet-black hair. The colour of their skin is a
copper-brown. Both sexes are tattooed, generally from the hips half down
the legs, and frequently over the hands, feet, and other parts of the
body; the devices being often very fanciful in design, and always
artistically executed.

The women of Tahiti have always been notorious for their immodesty, and
the island, notwithstanding the labours of zealous missionaries,
continues to be the Polynesian Paphos. The French protectorate from
which it suffers has not raised the moral standard of the population.

Madame Pfeiffer undertook an excursion to the Lake Vaihiria, assuming for
the nonce a semi-masculine attire, which any less strong-minded and
adventurous woman would probably have refused. She wore, she tells us,
strong men's shoes, trousers, and a blouse, which was fastened high up
about the hips. Thus equipped, she started off with her guide, crossing
about two-and-thirty brooks before they entered the ravines leading into
the interior of the island.

She noticed that as they advanced the fruit-trees disappeared, and
instead, the slopes were covered with plantains, taros, and marantas; the
last attaining a height of twelve feet, and growing so luxuriantly that
it is with some difficulty the traveller makes his way through the
tangle. The taro, which is carefully cultivated, averages two or three
feet high, and has fine large leaves and tubers like those of the potato,
but not so good when roasted. There is much gracefulness in the
appearance of the plantain, or banana, which varies from twelve to
fifteen feet in height, and has leaves like those of the palm, but a
brittle reed-like stem, about eight inches in diameter. It attains its
full growth in the first year, bears fruit in the second, and then dies.