17(39. ROUND THE WORLD. 271 



seen along the sliore, which is not surrounded, like 

 the neighbouring islands, by a reef. 



The people seemed to be lusty and well made, 

 rather browner than those we had left : under their 

 arm-pits they had black marks about as broad as the 

 hand, the edges of which formed not a straight but 

 an indented line : they had also circles of the same 

 colour, but not so broad, round their arms and legs, 

 but were not marked on any other part of the body. 



Their dress was very different from any that we 

 had seen before, as well as the cloth of which it was 

 made. The cloth was of the same materials as that 

 which is worn in the other islands, and most of that 

 which was seen by our people was dyed of a bright 

 but deep yellow, and covered on the outside with a 

 composition like varnish, which was either red, or 

 of a dark lead-colour ; over this ground it was again 

 painted in stripes of many different patterns, w^ith 

 wonderful regularity, in the manner of our striped 

 silks in England : the cloth that was painted red was 

 striped with black, and that which was painted lead- 

 colour with white. Their habit was a short jacket of 

 this cloth, which reached about as low as their knees ; 

 it was of one piece, and had no other making than a 

 hole in the middle of it, stitched round with long 

 stitches, in which it differed from all that we had 

 seen before : through this hole the head was put, and 

 what hung down was confined to their bodies by a 

 piece of yellow cloth or sash, which, passing round 

 the neck behind, was crossed upon the breast, and 

 then collected round the waist like a belt, which 

 passed over another belt of red cloth, so that they 

 made a very gay and warlike appearance ; some had 

 caps of the feathers of the tropic bird, which have 

 been before described, and some had a piece of white 

 or lead-coloured cloth wound about the head like a 

 small turban, which our people thought more be- 

 coming. 



Their arms were long lances, made of the Etoa, 



