177^. ROUND THE WORLD. 41 



was free, and in general was less distinguished than 

 any other. 



The skins of these people, however, are not only 

 dyed, but painted ; for, as I have before observed, 

 they smear their bodies with red oker, some rubbing 

 it on dry, and some applying it in large patches 

 mixed with oil, which is always wet, and which the 

 least touch will rub off, so that the transgressions of 

 such of our people as were guilty of ravishing a kiss 

 from these blooming beauties, were most legibly 

 written upon their faces. 



The dress of a New Zealander is certainly, to a 

 stranger at first sight, the most uncouth that can be 

 imagined. It is made of the leaves of the flag, which 

 has been described among the vegetable productions 

 of this country : these leaves are split into three or 

 four slips, and the slips, when they are dry, inter- 

 woven with each other into a kind of stuff between 

 netting and cloth, with all the ends, which are eight 

 or nine inches long, hanging out on the upper side, like 

 the shag or thrump mats, which we sometimes see 

 lying in a passage. Of this cloth, if cloth it may be 

 called, two pieces serve for a complete dress ; one of 

 them is tied over their shoulders with a string, and 

 reaches as low as the knees ; to the end of this string 

 is fastened a bodkin of bone, which is easily passed 

 through any two parts of this upper garment, so as 

 tack them together; the other piece is wrapped round 

 the waist, and reaches nearly to the ground: the lower 

 garment, however, is worn by the men only upon 

 particular occasions ; but they wear a belt, to which 

 a string is fastened, for a very singular use. The 

 inhabitants of the South Sea islands slit up the pre- 

 puce so as to prevent it from covering the glans of 

 the penis ; but these people, on the contrary, bring 

 the prepuce over the glans, and to prevent it from 

 being drawn back by the contraction of the part, 

 they tie the string which hangs from their girdle 

 round the end of it. The glans, indeed, seemed to be 



