? ? ? ? Not a single female took part in this employment; and if the degree of consideration in which the ever-adorable sex is held by the men be- as the philosophers affirm- a just criterion of the degree of refinement among a people, then I may truly pronounce the Typees to be as polished a community as ever the sun shone upon. The religious restrictions of the taboo alone excepted, the women of the valley were allowed every possible indulgence. Nowhere are the ladies more assiduously courted; nowhere are they better appreciated as the contributors to our highest enjoyments; and nowhere are they more sensible of their power. Far different from their condition among many rude nations, where the woman are made to perform all the work, while their ungallant lords and masters lie buried in sloth, the gentle sex in the valley of Typee were exempt from toil- if toil it might be called- that, even in that tropical climate, never distilled one drop of perspiration.
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