278 cook's voyage to ap Ril 



badly shaped and projecting ankles. This last defect 

 seems, in a great measure, to arise from their sitting 

 so much on their hams or knees, both in their canoes 

 and houses. 



Their colour we could never positively determine, 

 as their bodies were incrusted with paint and dirt ; 

 though, in particular cases, when these were well 

 rubbed off, the whiteness of the skin appeared almost 

 to equal that of Europeans, though rather of that pale 

 effete cast which distinguishes those of our southern 

 nations. Their children, whose skins had never 

 been stained with paint, also equalled ours in white- 

 ness. During their youth, some of them have no 

 disagreeable look, if compared to the generality of 

 the people ; but this seems to be entirely owing to 

 the particular animation attending that period of life, 

 for after attaining a certain age, there is hardly any 

 distinction. Upon the whole, a very remarkable 

 sameness seems to characterize the countenances of 

 the whole nation, a dull phlegmatic want of expres- 

 sion, with very little variation, being strongly marked 

 in all of them. 



The women are nearly of the same size, colour, 

 and form, with the men, from whom it is not easy to 

 distinguish them, as they possess no natural delicacies 

 sufficient to render their persons agreeable ; and 

 hardly any one was seen, even amongst those who are 

 in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to 

 be called handsome. 



Their common dress is a flaxen garment, or 

 mantle, ornamented on the upper edge by a narrow 

 strip of fur, and at the latter edge, by fringes or 

 tassels. It passes under the left arm, 'and is tied 

 over the right shoulder by a string before and one 

 behind, near its middle, by which means both arms 

 are free, and it hangs evenly, covering the left side, but 

 leaving the right open, except from the loose part of 

 the edges falling upon it, unless when the mantle is 

 fastened by a girdle (of coarse matting or woollen) 



