264 cook's first voyage SEPT. 



tude between these marks, and those made by tat- 

 towing in the South Sea islands, and upon inquiring 

 into its origin, we learnt that it had been practised 

 by the natives long before any Europeans came 

 among them ; and that in the neighbouring islands, 

 the inhabitants were marked with circles upon their 

 necks and breasts. The universality of this practice, 

 which prevails among savages in all parts of the 

 world, from the remotest limits of North America, 

 to the islands in the South Seas, and which probably 

 differs but little from the method of staining the 

 body that was in use among the antient inhabitants 

 of Britain, is a curious subject of speculation.* 



The houses of Savu are all built upon the same 

 plan, and differ only in size, being large in propor- 

 tion to the rank and riches of the proprietor. Some 

 are four hundred feet long, and some are not more 

 than twenty : they are all raised upon posts, or piles, 

 about four feet high, one end of which is driven into 

 the ground, and upon the other end is laid a sub- 

 stantial floor of wood, so that there is a vacant space 

 of four feet between the floor of the house and the 

 ground. Upon this floor are placed other posts or 

 pillars, that support a roof of sloping sides, which 

 meet in a ridge at the top, like those of our barns : 

 the eaves of this root\ which is thatched with palm 

 leaves, reach within two feet of the floor, and over- 

 hang it as much : the space within is generally divid- 



* In the account which Mr. Bossu has given of some Indians 

 who inhabit the banks of the Akanza, a river of North America, 

 which rises in New Mexico, and falls into the Mississippi, he relates 

 the following incident: " The Akanzas," says he, "have adopted 

 me, and as a mark of my privilege, have imprinted the figure of a 

 roe-buck upon my thigh, which was done in this manner: an Indian 

 having burnt some straw, diluted the ashes with water, and with 

 this mixture, drew the figure upon my skin ; he then retraced it, 

 by pricking the lines with needles, so as at every puncture just to 

 draw the blood, and the blood mixing with the ashes of the straw, 

 forms a figure which can never be effaced." See Travels through 

 Louisiana, vol. i. p. 107. 



