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History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, Embracing Their Antiquities, Mythology, Legends, Discovery, Civil, Religious and Political
History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands Embracing Their Antiquities Mythology Legends Discovery Civil Religious and Political Author:James Jackson Jarves Title: History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, Embracing Their Antiquities, Mythology, Legends, Discovery, ... Civil, Religious and Political History, From the Earliest Traditionary Period to the Present Time General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1843 Original Publisher: E. Moxon Notes: This is a black and whit... more »e OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV. Physical Appearance of the Hawaiians -- Chiefs -- Habits of -- Common People -- Women -- Marriage -- Affinities of Blood -- Friendships -- Salutation -- Cannibalism -- Intemperance -- Treatment of Sick -- Lunatics -- Aged -- Infanticide -- Examples of -- Treatment of Women -- Tabus of Food -- General Character of the Hawaiians previous to contact with the Whites. A Marked difference, in stature and appearance, prevailed between the higher and lower orders. The former were almost invariably tall, stout, and well formed, and, in most instances, as age advanced, increased to unwieldly corpulence ; the latter were, upon the average, middle-sized, perhaps falling somewhat short of the European standard. Six feet and upwards were common to the stature of the chiefs of both sexes, with gigantic frames, more capable of exerting great strength, than of endurance. It is said of some that they could, by taking a man by the head and leg, break his back across their knees. While some exhibited persons so perfect, with Roman features, and with such full development of muscle, as to have delighted the eye of a sculptor, others were remarkable for their size and weight alone ; from three to four hundred pounds being not an uncommon gravity. The female chiefs, when young, possessed interesting and intelligent features, which, however, soon became lost, as their bulk i...« less