DRESS. CANOES. 477 



and consisted of feathers, flowers, pieces of shells, and pearls. 

 Tattooing also was almost universal ; and a person not pro- 

 perly tattooed would " be as much reproached and shunned, 

 as if with us he should go about the streets naked."* They 

 anointed their heads frequently with perfumed cocoa-nut oil, 

 but had no combs, which in so hot a country must have been 

 much wanted. Notwithstanding this, the hair of the grown- 

 up people was very neatly dressed. 



Their houses were used principally as dormitories. They 

 were made of wood, and were generally about twenty -four 

 feet long, eleven wide, and nine feet high. They had no side 

 walls, but the roof reached to within about three feet and a 

 half of the ground. Palm leaves took the place of thatch, and 

 the floor was generally covered with soft hay. 



The canoes resembled those of the Fijians, but are said to 

 have been scarcely so well built. " To prepare the planks 

 was no easy task, but the great difficulty was to fasten them 

 together. This was effected by strong thongs of plaiting, 

 which are passed several times through holes that are bored 

 with a gouge or auger of bone."^ The length of the canoes 

 varied from ten up to ninety feet, " but the breadth is by no 

 means in proportion ; for those of ten feet are about a foot 

 wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two."J 

 These larger ones were not, however, used singly, but were 

 fastened together side by side, in the manner already described. 

 A canoe without an outrigger seemed to them an impossibi- 

 lity^ The labour of constructing these canoes must have 

 been very great ; nevertheless, the South Sea Islanders pos- 

 sessed large numbers of them. On one occasion Captain Cook 

 saw more than three hundred in one place ; and, without 

 counting the smaller vessels, he estimated the whole naval 



* Wilson, 1. c. p. 355. J Cook's First Voyage, p. 221. 



f Cook's First Voyage, p. 225 ; Ellis, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 55. 

 Forster, 1. c. p. 459. 



