 beauty which they
displayed, by their great superiority in these respects over the inhabitants of
the neighbouring bay of Nukuheva, and by the singular contrasts they presented
among themselves in their various shades of complexion.
    In beauty of form they surpassed anything I had ever seen. Not a single
instance of natural deformity was observable in all the throng attending the
revels. Occasionally I noticed among the men the scars of wounds they had
received in battle; and sometimes, though very seldom, the loss of a finger, an
eye, or an arm, attributable to the same cause. With these exceptions, every
individual appeared free from those blemishes which sometimes mar the effect of
an otherwise perfect form. But their physical excellence did not merely consist
in an exemption from these evils; nearly every individual of their number might
have been taken for a sculptor's model.
    When I remembered that these islanders derived no advantage from dress, but
appeared in all the naked simplicity of nature, I could not avoid comparing them
with the fine gentlemen and dandies who promenade such unexceptionable figures
in our frequented thorough-fares. Stripped of the cunning artifices of the
tailor, and standing forth in the garb of Eden - what a sorry set of
round-shouldered, spindle-shanked, crane-necked varlets would civilised men
appear! Stuffed calves, padded breasts, and scientifically cut pantaloons would
then avail them nothing, and the effect would be truly deplorable.
    Nothing in the appearance of the islanders struck me more forcibly than the
whiteness of their teeth. The novelist always compares the masticators of his
heroine to ivory; but I boldly pronounce the teeth of the Typees to be far more
beautiful than ivory itself. The jaws of the oldest graybeards among them were
much better garnished than those of most of the youths of civilised countries;
while the teeth of the young and middle-aged, in their purity and whiteness,
were actually dazzling to the eye. This marvellous whiteness of the teeth is to
be ascribed to the pure vegetable diet of these people, and the uninterrupted
healthfulness of their natural mode of life.
    The men, in almost every instance, are of lofty stature, scarcely ever less
than six feet in height, while the other sex are uncommonly diminutive. The
early period of life at which the human form arrives at maturity in this
generous tropical climate likewise deserves to be mentioned. A little creature,
not more than thirteen years of age, and who in other particulars might be
regarded as a mere child, is often seen nursing her own baby; whilst lads who,
under less ripening skies, would be still at school,
