Jan. 

 1826 



190 VOYAGE TO THE 



chap, coming, and in a great measure destroys the ap- 

 pearance of nakedness. The patterns which most 

 improve the shape, and which appear to me peculiar 

 to this groupe, are those which extend from the 

 armpits to the hips, and are drawn forward with a 

 curve which seems to contract the waist, and at a 

 short distance gives the figure an elegance and out- 

 line not unlike that of the figures seen on the 

 walls of the Egyptian tombs. It would be useless 

 to describe the various fanciful attempts to efface 

 the natural colour of the skin ; the most common 

 only will be noticed : — A large cross, about eight 

 inches in diameter, left white on each side, on the 

 latissimus dorsi ; and a smaller one on each shoulder, 

 or on the upper part of the arm: also a narrow 

 stripe passing from one shoulder to the other in a 

 curved line over the lower part of the neck, uniting 

 the tattooing over the fleshy part of the deltoid 

 muscle ; and in many so joined as to leave the na- 

 tural skin in the form of a cross in the middle. 

 Imitations of blue pantaloons and breeches are also 

 very common, and sleeves which divide at the wrist, 

 and extend along the convexity of the metatarsal 

 bones to the tips of the fingers and thumbs, leaving 

 a space between the thumb and forefinger, on which 

 the mark V is punctured. The chief had this mark, 

 the crosses, the slender waist, and the pantaloons. 

 The women are very little subjected to this torture. 

 The wife of the areghe had an armlet on each arm ; 

 a female who came with her had a square upon her 

 bosom, and some few had stockings. From the cir- 

 cumstance of none of the boys being tattooed, it is 

 probable the practice commences here, as in many 

 other islands, after puberty. 



