214 cook's VOYAGE TO FEB. 



stone, or shell, about two inches long, with a broad 

 hook, turning forward at its lower part, well polished. 

 They have, likewise, necklaces of many strings of very 

 small shells, or of the dried flowers of the Indian 

 mallow. And, sometimes, a small human image of 

 bone, about three inches long, neatly polished, 

 is hung round the neck. The women also wear 

 bracelets of a single shell, pieces of black wood, with 

 bits of ivory interspersed, and well polished, fixed 

 by a string drawn very close through them ; or others 

 of hogs' teeth, laid parallel to each other, with the 

 concave part outward, and the points cut off, fastened 

 together as the former ; some of which, made only 

 of large boars' tusks, are very elegant. The men, 

 sometimes, wear plumes of the tropic bird's feathers, 

 stuck in their heads ; or those of cocks, fastened 

 round neat polished sticks, two feet long, commonly 

 decorated, at the lower part, with oora ; and, for the 

 same purpose, the skin of a white dog's tail is sewed 

 over a stick, with its tuft at the end. They also fre- 

 quently wear on the head a kind of ornament, of a 

 ringer's thickness, or more, covered with red and 

 yellow feathers, curiously varied, and tied behind ; 

 and on the arm, above the elbow, a kind of broad sheli- 

 work, grounded upon net-work. 



The men are frequently punctured, though not in 

 any particular part, as the Otaheiteans, and those of 

 Tongataboo. Sometimes there are a few marks upon 

 their hands, or arms, and near the groin ; but fre- 

 quently we could observe none at all ; though a few 

 individuals had more of this sort of ornament than 

 we had usually seen at other places, and ingeniously 

 executed in a great variety of lines and figures, on 

 the arms and forepart of the body ; on which latter 

 some of them had the figure of the taame, or breast- 

 plate, of Otaheite, though we did not meet with the 

 thing itself amongst them. Contrary to the custom 

 of the Society and Friendly Islands, they do not slit 

 or cut off' part of the prejncce; but have it universallv 



