17/4. ROUND THE WORLD. 2 ( J1 



having adopted some peculiar custom or habit, &c. 

 Nevertheless, a careful observer will soon see the 

 affinity each has to the other. 



In general, the people of this isle are a slender 

 race. I did not see a man that would measure six 

 feet ; so far are they from being giants, as one of 

 the authors of Roggewin's voyage asserts. They 

 are brisk and active, have good features, and not 

 disagreeable countenances ; are friendly and hos- 

 pitable to strangers, but as much addicted to pilfer- 

 ing as any of their neighbours. 



Tatooingy or puncturing the skin, is much used 

 here. The men are marked from head to foot, with 

 figures all nearly alike ; only some give them one 

 direction, and some another, as fancy leads. The 

 women are but little punctured; red and white paint 

 is an ornament with them, as also with the men ; the 

 former is made of tamarick ; but what composes the 

 latter I know not. 



Their clothing is a piece or two of quilted cloth 

 about six feet by four, or a mat. One piece wrapped 

 round their loins, and another over their shoulders, 

 make a complete dress. But the men, for the most 

 part, are in a manner naked, wearing nothing but a 

 slip of cloth betwixt their legs, each end of which is 

 fastened to a cord or belt they wear round the waist. 

 Their cloth is made of the same materials as at 

 Otaheite, viz. of the bark of the cloth -plant ; but as 

 they have but little of it, our Otaheitean cloth, or 

 indeed any sort of it, came here to a good market. 



Their hair, in general, is black ; the women wear 

 it long, and sometimes tied up on the crown of the 

 head ; but the men wear it and their beards cropped 

 short. Their head-dress is a round fillet adorned 

 with feathers, and a straw bonnet something like a 

 Scotch one; the former, I believe, being chiefly 

 worn by the men, and the latter by the women. 

 Both men and women have very large holes, or 

 rather slits, in their ears, extended to near three 



u 2 



