Complexion varies in the different islands from deep copper-color to light olive. The natives of the Marquesas have light brown complexions, so clear that the mantling blush may be distinctly seen. They generally have fine teeth, expressive features, remarkably delicate hands and arms, and large sparkling eyes, with long glossy eyelashes. These women are considered pre-eminent among the South Sea islanders for beauty of face and figure. When they become tanned, they have a method of bleaching the skin with the juices of certain plants. The first effect of this cosmetic is a very dark appearance; but they remain in the house, covered up with mats, until it can be washed off, and then the skin becomes very fair. This is considered a necessary preparation for great festivals, though it often costs the ladies several days of seclusion. In Otaheite they have graceful forms, teeth white and regular, bright black eyes, pale brown complexions, and a skin remarkable for its softness; but the custom of widening the face by continual pressure during infancy gives it a broad and masculine look. Notwithstanding the practice of frequent bathing, the inhabitants of nearly all the Polynesian islands are much afflicted with cutaneous disorders. These islanders are, in general, very particular about cleaning their mouths, and frequently rub their teeth with charcoal, or the husk of cocoa-nut. They bathe at sunrise and sunset; and if removed from the vicinity of the sea, they have water poured over them plentifully from cocoa-nut shells. After this, they generally anoint themselves with cocoa-nut oil, perfumed with the aroma of flowers; some color it with the juice of the tumeric, which makes it a pale yellow, or with the burnt root, which produces a deep orange. Wealthy people anoint themselves with oil of sandal-wood. White men, who salute the ladies of the South sea, are sometimes betrayed by a transfer of yellow and orange tints to their own faces. Throughout these islands, they salute each other by rubbing noses, or touching the nose to the forehead, as if smelling. Our mode of expressing affection seems to them very ridiculous, and they call it, in derision, “the white man’s kiss.” At Radack it is considered indecorous for any but husband and wife to salute each other after the fashion of their country, and even they never do it before strangers.