294 



NATIVES COME OFF. 



I before seen in one canoe so many handsome faces. 

 As a breech-cloth they wore a narrow strip of white 

 cloth passing" between the legs and secured to a 

 string' round the waist^ but this was too narrow to 

 sene as a fig'-leaf. Among* their ornaments we saw 

 necklaces of small white cowries^ and round flat 

 pieces of shell two inches in diameter worn on the 

 breast^ also blacky tig'htly fitting"^ woven armlets^ in 

 which they had stuck bunches of apparently the 

 same purple odoriferous amaranth seen elsewhere^ 

 while other tufts of this plant were attached to the 

 ankles and elbows. The canoe w^as nearly of the same 

 description as those commonly seen at the Brumer 

 and Dufaure Islands^ but the outrig*g*er float was 

 rather shorter^ having* only five poles to support it 

 instead of seven or eighty and the bow and stern^ 



