| 47 and kept surprisingly clean. The French Protestants, and also the English, have well-established missions.
The Catholics have a cathedral building partly finished; it is built of coral rock, with door and window facings of basalt. The walls of their monastery are also up; the outside walls of the half-basement are fully five feet thick; and the little square window holes are protected by iron gratings to keep out intruders! We examined this building with a strange interest. Its cloisters, which have their dark history yet to make, are neither more nor less than prison cells; the partition walls of which are fully two feet thick-thick enough to prevent a scream in one cell from being heard in the next! . . . Alas! must this beautiful island, which has neither snake nor poisonous insect upon it, be cursed with such an institution? . . .
We remark that the natives are a great, strapping, well-made set of men; and the women are not lacking in good looks or in splendid physical development. Situated in this delightful climate (latitude seventeen degrees south), entirely within the Tropic of Capricorn, clothing ceases to be necessary for either the health or comfort of the body. It is only used for purposes of ornamentation, and out of regard for the conventionalities of civilization.
The natives are not clothed-they are draped. For instance, the men wear a breech-cloth (a cloth about two yards long, by one wide) wrapped around the loins. It covers the body from the waist to the knee, and over this they wear a shirt. These, with a hat, constitute a male dress. The breech-cloth is a very tasty affair. It is of a very showy pattern, with large white figures on a blue ground, and looks exceedingly well. The natives, high and low, rich and poor, male and female, go barefoot. We saw the Catholic priest parading with his school, and excepting his professional robe, he was barefooted, bare-legged, and in his breech-cloth! The women's dress consists of, first, the inevitable breech-cloth; second, a handsomely made loose gown fastened at the neck, falling well to the feet, and trailing behind (but it is never allowed to trail in the mud). If this gown is of a very gauzy texture, it is worn over a chemise. These, with a stylish bonnet, complete the toilet of the Tahitian lady.
We visited the native houses, and were surprised to find so much cleanliness and neatness displayed, and so little of slovenliness and dirt. They all read and write the Tahitian language; and once in a while we found one who could make himself known in English. We found books in every house; sometimes quite a library. By an examination of their grammar, we find that their language is nearly all vowel, and but few consonant sounds; that is, it is spoken mainly by the throat, tongue, and teeth; and the lips are seldom used.
Apropos of this, how is it that language adapts itself to the climate in which it originates? In Russia, with the aid of consonants, the people are enabled to speak mainly through the lips and teeth, thus shielding the throat and lungs from direct contact with the frozen air.
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