The Owners Of Him Set Off With The Utmost Expedition.
There is no part of the behaviour of these people, that has puzzled us more,
than that which relates to their women.
Comparatively speaking we have seen
but few of them, and those have been sometimes kept back with every symptom
of jealous sensibility; and sometimes offered with every appearance
of courteous familiarity. Cautious, however, of alarming the feelings
of the men on so tender a point, we have constantly made a rule of treating
the females with that distance and reserve, which we judged most likely
to remove any impression they might have received of our intending aught,
which could give offence on so delicate a subject. And so successful
have our endeavours been, that a quarrel on this head has in no instance,
that I know of, happened. The tone of voice of the women, which is pleasingly
soft and feminine, forms a striking contrast to the rough guttural
pronunciation of the men. Of the other charms of the ladies I shall be silent,
though justice obliges me to mention, that, in the opinion of some amongst us,
they shew a degree of timidity and bashfulness, which are, perhaps,
inseparable from the female character in its rudest state. It is not a little
singular, that the custom of cutting off the two lower joints of the
little finger of the left hand, observed in the Society Islands,
is found here among the women, who have for the most part undergone
this amputation.
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