1777- THE pacific OCEAN. 443 



CHAP. XL 



EMPLOYMENTS OE THE WOMEN AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 



OF THE MEN. AGRICULTURE. CONSTRUCTION OF 



THEIR HOUSES. THEIR WORKING TOOLS. CORDAGE, AND 



FISHING IMPLEMENTS. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. WEA- 

 PONS. FOOD AND COOKERY. AMUSEMENTS. MARRIAGE. 



MOURNING CEREMONIES FOR THE DEAD. THEIR DI- 

 VINITIES. NOTIONS ABOUT THE SOUL AND A FUTURE 



STATE. THEIR PLACES OF WORSHIP. GOVERNMENT. 



MANNER OF PAYING OBEISANCE TO THE KING. ACCOUNT 



OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. REMARKS ON THEIR LANGUAGE, 



AND A SPECIMEN OF IT. NAUTICAL AND OTHER OBSERV- 

 ATIONS. 



JL heir domestic life is of that middle kind, neither 

 so laborious as to be disagreeable, nor so vacant as 

 to suffer them to degenerate into indolence. Nature 

 has done so much for their country, that the first can 

 hardly occur, and their disposition seems to be a 

 pretty good bar to the last. By this happy com- 

 bination of circumstances, their necessary labour 

 seems to yield in its turn to their recreations, in such 

 a manner, that the latter are never interrupted by 

 the thoughts of being obliged to recur to the former, 

 till satiety makes them wish for such a transition. 



The employment of the women is of the easy kind, 

 and, for the most part, such as may be executed in 

 the house. The manufacturing their cloth, is wholly 

 consigned to their care. Having already described 

 the process, I shall only add, that they have this cloth 

 of different degrees of fineness. The coarser sort, 

 of which they make very large pieces, does not re- 

 ceive the impression of any pattern. Of the finer 

 sort they have some that is striped and chequered, 

 and of other patterns differently coloured. But how 



