1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 137 



times four small human figures, in various attitudes. 

 Some of them rest on the hands of their supporters, 

 extended over the head, others on the head and 

 hands, and some on the shoulders. The figures, I 

 am told, are accurately proportioned and neatly 

 finished, and even the anatomy of the muscles in 

 supporting the weight well expressed. 



Their cloth is made of the same materials and in 

 the same manner as at the Friendly and Society 

 Islands. That which is designed to be painted is of 

 a thick and strong texture, several folds being beat 

 and incorporated together j after which it is cut in 

 breadths about two or three feet wide, and is painted 

 in a variety of patterns, with a comprehensiveness 

 and regularity of design that bespeaks infinite taste 

 and fancy. The exactness with which the most intri- 

 cate patterns are continued is the more surprising, 

 when we consider that they have no stamps, and that 

 the whole is done by the eye with pieces of bamboo 

 cane dipped in paint, the hand being supported by 

 another piece of the cane, in the manner practised 

 by our painters. Their colours are extracted from 

 the same berries and other vegetable substances as 

 at Otaheite, which have been already described by 

 former voyagers. 



The business of painting belongs entirely to the 

 women, and is called kipparee ; and it is remarkable, 

 that they always gave the same name to our writing. 

 The young women would often take the pen out of 

 our hands, and show us that they knew the use of it 

 as well as we did ; at the same time telling us that 

 our pens were not so good as theirs. They looked 

 upon a sheet of written paper, as a piece of cloth 

 striped after the fashion of our country ; and it was 

 not without the utmost difficulty, that we could make 

 them understand, that our figures had a meaning in 

 them which theirs had not. 



Their mats are made of the leaves of the pandanus; 

 and, as well as their cloths, are beautifully worked in 



