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A carved wooden ti‘i deity image from the Society Islands with a heart-shaped face, pointed chin and small protruding mouth, eyes, ears and nipples. The torso is modelled with a protruding belly, on which rest its two-digited hands; this emphasising of the belly is typical of Central Polynesian statuettes and reflects the abdomen as the bodily seat of mana (metaphysical efficacy). The thick black varnish typically indicates that an object was on display in the first Hunterian Museum before 1870, and this sculpture is almost certainly one of the 'South Seas idols' described in Captain John Laskey's 1813 guidebook to the Museum. William Hunter bought a large quantity of material acquired during Captain James Cook’s voyages of Pacific exploration.