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. It is very different with a people who are
absolutely denied this blessing, and who must either content
themselves with putrid stagnant rain water in a few dirty pools, or go
entirely without it. They are obliged to have recourse to expedients
in order to preserve a certain degree of cleanliness, which may
preclude various distempers. They, therefore, cut off their hair, and
shave or clip their beards, which doubtless makes them look more
unlike the Otaheitans than they would otherwise do. Still these
precautions are not sufficient, especially as they have no fluid for
drinking in any quantity. The body is therefore very subject to
leprous complaints, which are perhaps irritated by the use of the
pepper-root water or awa. Hence also that burning or blistering on
the cheekbones, which we observed to be so general among this tribe,
that hardly an individual was free from it, and which can only be used
as a remedy against some disorders.
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