3777* THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 845 



words with a devout air, before he ventured to lay 

 hold of the rope at the ship's stern ; which was 

 probably to recommend himself to the protection of 

 some divinity. His colour was nearly of the same cast 

 with that common to the most southern Europeans. 

 The other man was not so handsome. Both of 

 them had strong, straight hair, of a jet colour, 

 tied together on the crown 'of the head with a bit 

 of cloth. They wore such girdles as we had 

 perceived about those on shore, and we found they 

 were a substance made from the Morns papyrifera, 

 in the same manner as at the other islands of this 

 ocean. It was glazed like the sort used by the 

 natives of the Friendly Islands ; but the cloth on 

 their heads was white, like that which is found at 

 Otaheite. They had on a kind of sandals, made 

 of a grassy substance interwoven, which we also 

 observed were worn by those who stood upon the 

 beach ; and, as we supposed, intended to defend 

 their feet against the rough coral rock. Their 

 beards were long ; and the inside of their arms, 

 from the shoulder to the elbow, and some other 

 parts, were punctured or tatooed, after the manner 

 of the inhabitants of almost all the other islands in 

 the South Sea. The lobe of their ears was pierced, 

 or rather slit, and to such a length, that one of them 

 stuck there a knife and some beads, which he had 

 received from us ; and the same person had two 

 polished pearl shells, and a bunch of human hair, 

 loosely twisted, hanging about his neck, which was 

 the only ornament we observed. The canoe they 

 came in (which was the only one we saw), was not 

 above ten feet long, and very narrow ; but both 

 strong and neatly made. The forepart had a flat 

 board fastened over it, and projecting out, to pre- 

 vent the sea getting in on plunging, like the small 

 Evaas at Otaheite ; but it had an upright stern, 

 about five feet high, like some in New Zealand ; and 

 the upper end of this stern-post t was forked. The 



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