cook's voyage to march, 



shining red berry. Besides which, they wear wreaths 

 of dried flowers of the Indian mallow ; and another 

 beautiful ornament called eraie, which is generally 

 put about the neck, but is sometimes tied like a gar- 

 land round the hair, and sometimes worn in both 

 these ways at once. It is a ruff of the thickness of 

 a finger, made, in a curious manner, of exceedingly 

 small feathers, woven so close together as to form a 

 surface as smooth as that of the richest velvet. The 

 ground was generally of a red colour, with alternate 

 circles of green, yellow, and black. Their bracelets, 

 which were also of great variety, and very peculiar 

 kinds, have been already described. 



i At Atooi, some of the women wore little figures 

 of the turtle, neatly formed of wood or ivory, tied 

 on their fingers in the manner we wear rings. Why 

 this animal is thus particularly distinguished, I leave 

 to the conjectures of the curious. There is also an 

 ornament made of shells, fastened in rows on a 

 ground of strong netting, so as to strike each other, 

 when in motion ; which both men and women, when 

 they dance, tie either round the arm or the ankle, or 

 below the knee. Instead of shells, they sometimes 

 make use of dogs' teeth, and a hard red berry, re- 

 sembling that of the holly. 



There remains to be mentioned another ornament, 

 if such it may be called. It is a kind of mask, made 

 of a large gourd, with holes cut in it for the eyes 

 and nose. The top was stuck full of small green 

 twigs, which, at a distance, had the appearance of 

 an elegant waving plume : and from the lower part 

 hung narrow stripes of cloth, resembling a beard. 

 We never saw these masks w r orn but twice, and both 

 times by a number of people together in a canoe, 

 who came to the side of the ship laughing and droll- 

 ing, with an air of masquerading. Whether they 

 may not likewise be used as a defence for the head 

 against stones, for which they seem best designed, 

 or in some of their public games, or be merely in- 



