Let Us For A Moment Be
Allowed To Carry This Comparison Still Farther.
The heroes of Homer
are represented to us as men of supernatural size and force.
The
Otaheitan chiefs, compared to the common people, are so much superior
in stature and elegance of form, that they look like a different race.
It requires a more than ordinary quantity of food to satisfy stomachs
of unusual dimensions. Accordingly we find, that the mighty men at the
siege of Troy, and the chiefs of Otaheite, are both famous for eating,
and it appears that pork was a diet no less admired by the Greeks,
than it is by the Otaheitans at this day. Simplicity of manners is
observable in both nations; and their domestic character is
hospitable, affectionate, and humane. There is even a similarity in
their political constitution. The chiefs of districts at Otaheite are
powerful princes, who have not more respect for Otoo than the Greek
heroes had for the "king of men;" and the common people are so little
noticed in the Iliad, that they appear to have had no greater
consequence, than the towtows in the South Seas. In short, I believe
the similitude might be traced in many other instances; but it was my
intention only to hint at it, and not to abuse the patience of my
readers. What I have here said is sufficient to prove, that men in a
similar state of civilization resemble each other more than we are
aware of, even in the most opposite extremes of the world." - G.F. -
This gentleman guards against any more particular deductions from such
resemblance as he has now noticed, by adverting to the havoc made in
history by the modern itch for tracing pedigrees, alluding especially
to the affinity imagined betwixt the Egyptians and Chinese.
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