717

latter endeavor to "bull" the market, while those of the boy do their utmost to "bear" the commodity under appraisement, the price is finally agreed upon and the bargain is concluded, the consideration being a specified quantity of sugar cane, taro, sweet potatoes, chickens, etc., to be paid the girl's parents. A day is then fixed upon; relatives and friends are notified; due preparations are made at the girl's house, to which the articles mentioned have meanwhile been sent, and at the time appointed, all interested being present, a grand feast is held, at which, as a rule, everything edible, that is to say the price of the girl, is consumed. That important business being finished, bride and groom retire to the residence of the parents of the latter, by whom the bride is adopted as their own child, and thenceforth the parties are husband and wife.
   The cares and the obligations of matrimony, as well as of parentage, sit lightly upon the Rapa Nuiis. Although marital infidelity may be rare, it is stated that a husband will, in consideration of a certain quantity of produce, make over all right in his wife to another for a specified period, at the expiration of which time he will take back the wife and she again becomes the partner of his joys and sorrows. This might be called polygamy in another form.
   Fixing the average at three gives, I think, a very fair estimate of the number of children to a family, and the lack of fecundity among them will readily be explained by the early child marriages, customs, habits of life, intermarriage, and the degeneracy of the race.
   In these people the lower part of the body and extremities were found well developed, and in the women more so than would be supposed from their slight physique. In the latter the skin was lighter in color in the unexposed than in the exposed parts. The hips are broad and full, the thighs large, round, and firm, and legs straight and tapering to the ankles, which, with the feet, were small and delicate. They are but sparingly hirsute. The breasts of those examined were moderately large, full, round, firm, and carried well up on the chest. The nipples were quite small, but with good-sized areola, which latter presented, in some instances, that peculiar puffy, translucent appearance, as though filled with serum, often seen throughout the other Pacific Islands. The Rapa Nuiis differed from these in that the areola was not so large nor of so deep a tint, the writer having seen them in other islands, covering half the breast and nearly black in color.
   The skin of the woman examined, where not covered with tattooing, was nearly as light in color as that of the average brunette, and very fine, smooth, soft , and delicate.
   There seems to be no doubt that, with all their apparent mildness and good nature, the baser passions and savage instincts of these people are strong within them, and instances of inhumanity occasionally crop up among them. A case which came under the notice of Dr. Whitaker was that of a woman who was suffering from spinal deformity, the result

717