190 cook's first voyage 1769. 



also marked with the same figure, and both men and 

 women have squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed 

 representations of men, birds, or dogs, and various 

 other devices impressed upon their legs, and arms, 

 some of which, we were told, had significations, though 

 we could never learn what they were. But the part 

 on which these ornaments are lavished with the 

 greatest profusion is the breech : this, in both sexes, 

 is covered with a deep black ; above which, arches 

 are drawn one over another as high as the short ribs. 

 They are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the 

 edges are not sraight lines, but indented. These 

 arches are their pride, and are shown both by men 

 and women with a mixture of ostentation and plea- 

 sure ; whether as an ornament, or a proof of their 

 fortitude and resolution in bearing pain, we could not 

 determine. The face in general is left unmarked : 

 for we saw but one instance to the contrary. Some 

 old men had the greatest part of their bodies covered 

 with large patches of black, deeply indented at the 

 edges, like a rude imitation of flame ; but we were 

 told, that they came from a low island, called 

 NoouooRA, and were not natives of Otaheite. 



Mr. Banks saw the operation of tattowing per- 

 formed upon the backside of a girl about thirteen 

 years old. The instrument used upon this occasion 

 had thirty teeth, and every stroke, of which at least 

 a hundred were made in a minute, drew an ichor or 

 serum a little tinged with blood. The girl bore it with 

 most stoical resolution for about a quarter of an hour ; 

 but the pain of so many hundred punctures as she had 

 received in that time then became intolerable: she first 

 complained in murmurs, then wept, and at last burst 

 into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the oper- 

 ator to desist. He was, however, inexorable ; and 

 when she began to struggle, she was held down by 

 two women, who sometimes soothed and sometimes 

 chid her, and now and then, when she was most 

 unruly, gave her a smart blow. Mr. Banks staid in 



