PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 209 



few nails, broken pieces of iron, and beads : they C y I ^ p# 

 then brought down cocoa-nuts, and exchanged six of ^-^y^- 

 them for a nail or a bit of iron, which is known here, 18 2 n 6 '. 

 as at Clermont Tonnere, by the name of " toki." 

 The strictest integrity was observed by these people 

 in all their dealings. If one person had not the 

 number of cocoa-nuts demanded for a piece of iron, 

 he borrowed from his neighbour ; and when any of 

 the fruit fell over-board in putting it into the boat, 

 they swam after it and restored it to the owner. 

 Such honesty is rare among the natives of Polyne- 

 sia, and the Lagoon Islanders consequently ingra- 

 tiated themselves much with us. We got from 

 them nearly two hundred cocoa-nuts, and several 

 ornamental parts of their dress, one of which con- 

 sisted of thin bands of human hair, very neatly 

 plaited, about five feet in length, with four or five 

 dozen strings in each. To some of these were 

 attached a dried doodoe-nut (aleurites triloba), or a 

 piece of wood. We also got some of their mats and 

 sinnet made of the porou bark {hibiscus tiliaceus). 



The men were a fine athletic race, with frizzled 

 hair, which they wore very thick. In complexion 

 they were much lighter than the islanders of Cler- 

 mont Tonnere : one man, in particular, and the only 

 one who had whiskers, was so fair, and so like an 

 European, that the boat's crew claimed him as a 

 countryman. No superfluous ornaments were worn 

 by either sex, nor were any of them tattooed : the 

 dress of the males was simply a maro of straw, and 

 sometimes a straw sack hung over their shoulders to 

 prevent the sun from scorching their backs : two of 

 them were distinguished by crowns of white fea- 

 thers. The women had a mat wrapped about their 



VOL. i. p 



