The modern Waihus are remarkable for their self-assurance, and
having come in contact not only with the Jesuit missionaries, but
with white traders, they have seen many of the wonders of a high
civilisation, and consequently nothing strikes their fancy, or produces
a feeling of astonishment or surprise. They have become sufficiently
covetous to appreciate the value of money, and their vanity of dress
has been modernised. They are exceedingly cunning, and love to
overreach the white man. They do not respect old age, and even the
sick are more or less neglected. They are neither active nor ener-
getic, but are rather lazy and slow in their movements.
1 Captain Geiseler gives it at 1.60-1.70 centimetres, and he says that the women
are much smaller.
2 The owners of the plantations brought to the explorers roasted potatoes and
sugar-cane. Cook s voyage, vol. i. p. 281.
