1778. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 191 



we found that they were in high estimation with 

 their owners ; for they would not at first part with 

 one of them for any thing that we offered, asking 

 no less a price than a musket. However, some were 

 afterward purchased for very large nails. Such of 

 them as were of the best sort were scarce; and 

 it should seem that they are only used on the 

 occasion of some particular ceremony or diversion ; 

 for the people who had them always made some ges- 

 ticulations which we had seen used before by those 

 who sung. 



The cap is made almost exactly like a helmet, with 

 the middle part, or crest, sometimes of a hand's 

 breadth ; and it sits very close upon the head, having 

 notches to admit the ears. It is a frame of twigs and 

 osiers, covered with a net- work, into which are wrought 

 feathers, in the same manner as upon the cloaks, 

 though rather closer and less diversified, the greater 

 part being red, with some black, yellow, or green 

 stripes on the sides, following the curve direction of 

 the crest. These, probably, complete the dress, with 

 the cloaks, for the natives sometimes appeared in 

 both together. 



We were at a loss to guess from whence they 

 could get such a quantity of these beautiful feathers ; 

 but were soon informed as to one sort ; for they 

 afterward brought great numbers of skins of small red 

 birds for sale, which were often tied up in bunches of 

 twenty or more, or had a small wooden skewer run 

 through their nostrils. At the first, those that were 

 bought consisted only of the skin from behind the 

 wings forward j but we afterward got many with the 

 hind part, including the tail and feet. The first, 

 however, struck us at once with the origin of the 

 fable formerly adopted, of the birds of paradise 

 wanting legs, and sufficiently explained that cir- 

 cumstance. Probably the people of the islands east 

 of the Moluccas, from whence the skins of the birds 

 of paradise are brought, cut off their feet for the 



