At The Friendly Isles
They Live Gregarious By Several Hundreds, And Some Of Them Are Seen
Flying About The Whole Day.
The Society Isles alone are fortunate
enough to possess both the domestic quadrupeds, the dog and the hog.
New Zealand and the low islands must be content with dogs alone; the
Marquesas, Friendly Isles, and New Hebrides, have only hogs; and
Easter Island and New Caledonia are destitute of both.
There is only
one tame species of birds, properly speaking, in the tropical isles of
the South Sea, viz. the common cock and hen; They are numerous at
Easter Island, where they are the only domestic animals; they are
likewise in great plenty at the Society Isles, and Friendly Isles, at
which last they are of a prodigious size: They are also not uncommon
at the Marquesas, Hebrides, and New Caledonia; but the low isles, and
those of the temperate zone, are quite destitute of them. The natives
of the Friendly and Society Isles sometimes catch and tame certain
sorts of parroquets and pigeons, but never have any breeds of them, so
that they can scarcely be reckoned as domestic birds. The South Sea is
rich in fish, and has a great variety of species, most of which are
good eating, many very delicious, and but a few capable of noxious or
fatal effects. - E.
[5] This custom is not peculiar to the inhabitants of the Friendly
Isles. See Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, tom. ii. p.
253, &c. Of this custom, and of many of the topics mentioned in this
Section, besides others of equal interest, the reader will be supplied
with very ample accounts when he comes to the relation of the 3d
voyage. - E.
[6] It appeared upon the whole, that the customs and language of these
islanders have a great affinity with those of the Otaheitans, and it
would not therefore be very singular to find a coincidence even in
their amusements. The greatest differences between these two tribes,
who must have originated from the same stock, seem to be owing to the
different nature of these islands. The Society Isles are well
furnished with wood, and the tops of these mountains are still covered
with inexhaustible forests. At the Friendly Isles this article is much
scarcer, the surface (at least of those which we have seen) being
almost entirely laid out in plantations. The natural consequence is,
that the houses are lofty and of immense extent in the first group of
islands, but much smaller and less convenient in the last. In one the
canoes are numerous, I may almost say innumerable, and many of a vast
size; and, in the other, very few in number, and much smaller. The
mountains of the Society Isles continually attract the vapours from
the atmosphere, and many rivulets descend from the broken rocks into
the plain, where they wind their serpentine course, and glide smoothly
to the sea. The inhabitants of those islands take advantage of this
gift of bountiful nature, and not only drink of the salutary element,
but likewise bathe so frequently in it, that no impurity can long
adhere to their skin.
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