{"id":"01KG8AM56XEHAXFWTJM7PE02BD","cid":"bafkreidxa4qgkzb7244lut5cbkmdfgtwx5ev6nk3hqltrn54y7xxerupby","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7982,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":7920,"text":"CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE\r\n\r\nGENERAL INFORMATION GATHERED AT THE FESTIVAL--PERSONAL BEAUTY OF\r\nTHE TYPEES--THEIR SUPERIORITY OVER THE INHABITANTS OF THE OTHER\r\nISLANDS--DIVERSITY OF COMPLEXION--A VEGETABLE COSMETIC AND\r\nOINTMENT--TESTIMONY OF VOYAGERS TO THE UNCOMMON BEAUTY OF\r\nTHE MARQUESANS--FEW EVIDENCES OF INTERCOURSE WITH CIVILIZED\r\nBEINGS--DILAPIDATED MUSKET--PRIMITIVE SIMPLICITY OF GOVERNMENT--REGAL\r\nDIGNITY OF MEHEVI\r\n\r\n\r\nAlthough I had been unable during the late festival to obtain\r\ninformation on many interesting subjects which had much excited my\r\ncuriosity, still that important event had not passed by without adding\r\nmaterially to my general knowledge of the islanders.\r\n\r\nI was especially struck by the physical strength and beauty which\r\nthey displayed, by their great superiority in these respects over the\r\ninhabitants of the neighbouring bay of Nukuheva, and by the singular\r\ncontrasts they presented among themselves in their various shades of\r\ncomplexion.\r\n\r\nIn beauty of form they surpassed anything I had ever seen. Not a single\r\ninstance of natural deformity was observable in all the throng attending\r\nthe revels. Occasionally I noticed among the men the scars of wounds\r\nthey had received in battle; and sometimes, though very seldom, the loss\r\nof a finger, an eye, or an arm, attributable to the same cause. With\r\nthese exceptions, every individual appeared free from those blemishes\r\nwhich sometimes mar the effect of an otherwise perfect form. But their\r\nphysical excellence did not merely consist in an exemption from these\r\nevils; nearly every individual of their number might have been taken for\r\na sculptor’s model.\r\n\r\nWhen I remembered that these islanders derived no advantage from dress,\r\nbut appeared in all the naked simplicity of nature, I could not avoid\r\ncomparing them with the fine gentlemen and dandies who promenade such\r\nunexceptionable figures in our frequented thoroughfares. Stripped of\r\nthe cunning artifices of the tailor, and standing forth in the garb\r\nof Eden--what a sorry, set of round-shouldered, spindle-shanked,\r\ncrane-necked varlets would civilized men appear! Stuffed calves,\r\npadded breasts, and scientifically cut pantaloons would then avail them\r\nnothing, and the effect would be truly deplorable.\r\n\r\nNothing in the appearance of the islanders struck me more forcibly\r\nthan the whiteness of their teeth. The novelist always compares the\r\nmasticators of his heroine to ivory; but I boldly pronounce the teeth\r\nof the Typee to be far more beautiful than ivory itself. The jaws of the\r\noldest graybeards among them were much better garnished than those of\r\nmost of the youths of civilized countries; while the teeth of the young\r\nand middle-aged, in their purity and whiteness, were actually dazzling\r\nto the eye. Their marvellous whiteness of the teeth is to be ascribed\r\nto the pure vegetable diet of these people, and the uninterrupted\r\nhealthfulness of their natural mode of life.\r\n\r\nThe men, in almost every instance, are of lofty stature, scarcely\r\never less than six feet in height, while the other sex are uncommonly\r\ndiminutive. The early period of life at which the human form arrives\r\nat maturity in this generous tropical climate, likewise deserves to be\r\nmentioned. A little creature, not more than thirteen years of age, and\r\nwho in other particulars might be regarded as a mere child, is often\r\nseen nursing her own baby, whilst lads who, under less ripening skies,\r\nwould be still at school, are here responsible fathers of families.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR1YH02P9Q4PCAN5J7F8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM5Y0Q1W0GRR5SS2SDT4A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.869Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.906Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}