126 cook's voyage to march, 



them with a sort of sandal, made of cords, twisted 

 from the fibres of the cocoa-nut. Such is the ordinary 

 dress of these islanders; but they have another, 

 appropriated to their chiefs, and used on ceremonious 

 occasions, consisting of a feathered cloak and helmet, 

 which, in point of beauty and magnificence, is perhaps 

 nearly equal to that of any nation in the world. As 

 this dress has been already described with great accu- 

 racy and minuteness, I have only to add, that these 

 cloaks are made of different lengths, in proportion to 

 the rank of the wearer, some of them reaching no 

 lower than the middle, others trailing on the ground. 

 The inferior chiefs have also a short cloak, resembling 

 the former, made of the long tail-feathers of the cock, 

 the tropic and man-of-war birds, with a broad border 

 of the small red and yellow feathers, and a collar of 

 the same. Others again are made of feathers entirely 

 white, with variegated borders. The helmet has a 

 strong lining of wicker-work, capable of breaking the 

 blow of any warlike instrument, and seems evidently 

 designed for that purpose. 



These feathered dresses seemed to be exceedingly 

 scarce, appropriated to persons of the highest rank, 

 and worn by the men only. During the whole time 

 we lay in Karakakooa Bay, we never saw them used 

 but on three occasions : in the curious ceremony of 

 Terreeoboo's first visit to the ships ; by some chiefs 

 who were seen among the crowd on shore when 

 Captain Cook was killed ; and afterward when 

 Eappo brought his bones to us. 



The exact resemblance between this habit, and the 

 cloak and helmet formerly worn by the Spaniards, 

 was too striking not to excite our curiosity to inquire 

 whether there were any probable grounds for sup- 

 posing it to have been borrowed from them. After 

 exerting every means in our power of obtaining in- 

 formation on this subject, we found that they had no 

 immediate knowledge of any other nation whatever ; 

 nor any tradition remaining among them of these 



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