1839.] customs. 179 



red check, or calico shirts, of gaudy colors ; others wear duck 

 trowsers and sailors' round-jackets, and use the par en. as a 

 mantle. A full loose dress, resembling a night gown, but- 

 toned at the wrists, but not confined at the neck or waist, is 

 worn by the better class of females, but those who are un- 

 able to indulge in this luxury appear in the pareu alone, 

 which merely conceals the lower part of the body, and leave;? 

 the bosom and shoulders bare. Shoes are rarely seen, and 

 stockings may be classed among the prerogatives of royalty. 

 Straw hats are worn by both sexes, though it is more com- 

 mon to go bareheaded ; and black felt hats, some high ami 

 some low crowned, some with broad and some with narrow 

 brims, are possessed by a very few, whom their countrymen 

 esteem as fortune's especial favorites. 



Naked Tahitians, with the maro only, are scarcely ever 

 seen. Clothing of some kind or other is deemed essential, no 

 matter how odd or fantastical it may be. 



Formerly, tapa was the principal article used in the manu- 

 facture of clothing, but cotton cloths and calicoes are no>v 

 much more common at Tahiti and Eimeo. The men appear 

 singular enough in their calico parens, and a stranger coming 

 among them, ignorant of their manners and customs, would 

 be very apt to suppose he had introduced himself into one of 

 the most approved gyneocracies of the modern school of philos- 

 ophers. On the other islands, the original dress of the nativ 

 is the most frequently worn. 



A love of flowers is characteristic of the Tahitian femal 

 and her sisters on the other islands of the group, though far 

 less civilized, are not a whit behind her in this womanly trait. 

 They are fond of wearing flowers stuck in their hair, and 

 through the lobes of their ears. Sometimes they decorate 

 their heads with wreaths of the most fragrant and beautiful 

 flowers, and they have also an ornament called a hau, which 

 consists of a rim of braided pandanus leaves, projecting on 

 either side of the head like a chapeau. 



Though the inhabitants of the Society Islands are not over- 

 much attached to labor, contenting themselves, in the main, 



