Note 59 — Chapter VIII

“The chiefs of either sex are, with very few exceptions, remarkably tall and corpulent. For this striking peculiarity various reasons may be suggested.... But in addition to any or all of these possibilities one thing is certain, that the easy and luxurious life of a chief has had very considerable influence in the matter: he or she, as the case may be, fares sumptuously every day, or rather every hour, and takes little or no exercise, while the constant habit of being shampooed after every regular meal, and oftener, if desirable or expedient, promotes circulation and digestion, without superinducing either exhaustion or fatigue.

“Whatever may be the cause or causes of the magnitude of the Patricians, the effect itself so seldom fails to be produced, that beyond all doubt, bulk and rank are almost indissolubly connected together in the popular mind, the great in person being, without the help of a play upon words, great also in power.”—Sir George Simpson’s Voyage round the World, vol. ii. p. 51.