fine dark eyes. The colour of
their skin is a copper-brown. Both sexes, at the time of Ida Pfeiffer's
visit, preserved the custom of tattooing, the devices being often very
fanciful in design, and always artistically executed.

The Tahitian women have always been notorious for their immodesty; and
notwithstanding the past labours of English missionaries, the island
continues to be the Polynesian Paphos. The moral standard of the
population has not been raised since they came under the shadow of a
French protectorate.

Madame Pfeiffer undertook an excursion to the Lake Vaihiria, assuming
for the occasion a kind of masculine attire, very suitable if not
peculiarly becoming. She wore, she tells us, strong men's shoes,
trousers, and a blouse, which covered the hips. Thus equipped, she
started off with her guide, and in the first six miles waded through
about two-and-thirty brooks. Then, through a maze of ravines, she struck
off into the interior. As they advanced, she noticed that the fruit
trees disappeared, and that instead the slopes were covered with
plantains, tarros, and marantas, the last attaining a height of twelve
feet, and growing so luxuriantly that it was with some difficulty the
traveller made her way through the tangle. The tarro, or taro, which is
carefully cultivated, averages two or three feet in height, and has fine
large leaves and tubers like those of the potato, but not so good when
roasted. Very graceful is the appearance of the plantain, or banana,
which varies from twelve to fifteen feet in height, and has fine large
leaves like those of the palm, but a brittle reedy stem, not more than
eight inches in diameter. It attains its full growth in the first year,
bears fruit in the second, and then dies; thus its life is as brief as
it is useful.

Tahiti is an island of many waters; through one bright crystal
mountain-stream, which swept along the ravine over a stony bed, breaking
and dimpling into eddies and tiny whirlpools, and in some places
attaining a depth of three feet, Madame Pfeiffer and her guide waded, or
half swam, two-and-sixty times. We are filled with admiration at the
resolute spirit of this courageous woman, who, though the track at every
step became more difficult and dangerous, persisted in pressing forward.
She clambered over rocks and stones; she forced her way through
intertangled bushes; and, though severely wounded in hands and feet,
never faltered for a moment. At two points t