60 cook's first voyage JAN. 



forming a kind of a cone, like some of our bee-hives : 

 on the weather-side they were covered with a few 

 boughs, and a little grass ; and on the lee-side about 

 one-eighth of the circle was left open, both for a 

 door and a fire-place ; and of this kind were the huts 

 that had been seen in St. Vincent's bay, in one of 

 which the embers of a fire were still remaining. 

 Furniture they had none : a little grass, which lay 

 round the inside of the hovel, served both for chairs 

 and beds ; and of all the utensils which necessity and 

 ingenuity have concurred to produce among other 

 savage nations, they saw only a basket to carry in 

 the hand, a satchel to hang at the back, and the 

 bladder of some beast to hold water, which the natives 

 drink through a hole that is made near the top for 

 that purpose. 



The inhabitants of this town were a small tribe, 

 not more than fifty in number, of both sexes and of 

 every age. Their colour resembles that of the rust 

 of iron mixed with oil, • and they have long black 

 hair : the men are large, but clumsily built : their 

 stature is from five feet eight to five feet ten : the 

 women are much less, few of them being more than 

 five feet high. Their whole apparel consists of the 

 skin of a guanicoe, or seal, which is thrown over 

 their shoulders, exactly in the state in which it came 

 from the animal's back ; a piece of the same skin, 

 which is drawn over their feet, and gathered about the 

 ancles like a purse, and a small flap, which is worn 

 by the women as a succedaneum for a fig-leaf. The 

 men wear their cloak open, the women tie it about 

 their waist with a thong. But although they are 

 content to be naked, they are very ambitious to be 

 fine. Their faces were painted in various forms : 

 the region of the eye was in general white, and the 

 rest of the face adorned with horizontal streaks of 

 red and black ; yet scarcely any two were exactly 

 alike. This decoration seems to be more profuse and 

 elaborate upon particular occasions 5 for the two 



