Both Taylor and Dieffenbach incline to the opinion of older authors respecting these twin islands, namely, that at the period when these immigrants from the north arrived there, they were inhabited by another dark race of a different descent. Against this hypothesis, however, there is to be urged that not the slightest vestige of any such race can be produced, in addition to which there is but one language spoken throughout the extent of the islands, with dialects few in number and hardly differing from each other. In none of the many Maori legends is any mention made, either express or implied, of any such circumstance, which one would think would hardly have been passed over in silence, had the islands at the first landing of the emigrants from Hawaiki been inhabited by another race. The great disparity in physical frame between individuals, recalling now the Malay, now the Chinese type, and even the African and Jewish as well, is much more probably explained by the intermixture of the New Zealanders with the inhabitants of the various island groups, which they visited at the period of their migration.
The Maories are on the whole a handsome race of men, well-built and powerful, generally not less in stature than the Europeans, whom they resemble somewhat in their complexion, which gives the idea rather of being embrowned than naturally brown, by their thin, weak hair, sometimes black, sometimes of a chesnut brown, and whom they closely approach in their features. Indeed full-blood Maories sometimes have such a European aspect, that even the numberless tattoo marks upon their faces do not destroy the impression, but have rather the appearance of those "painted faces" we are accustomed to see in actors, when they wish to give their countenances a more effective cast upon the boards.
The custom of tattooing, or "Moko," is one of those most characteristic of this remarkable people, and is worth being described in detail, inasmuch as it has been almost entirely discontinued since the diffusion of Christianity, for, according to the sentiments of the missionaries, every native, henceforth, who submits to this operation is held to have renounced Christianity, and to have openly dubbed himself a heathen. It has been suggested as the most probable explanation of the rapid spread of this painful practice, that the "Moko" imparts to the countenance a sterner expression in presence of the enemy, and that the Maori women attach more importance to the caresses of a tattooed man than of one whose visage is unmarked. Possibly tattooing was a symbol of puberty in both sexes, and a token of their being of marriageable age.