THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 135- 



of a cup, about two inches long, and half an inch broad, J 779- 



n . • - March. 



made or wood, ftone, or ivory, finely polilhed, which is 

 hung about the neck, by fine threads of twilled hair, 

 doubled fometimes an hundred fold. Inftead of this or- 

 nament, fome of them wear, on their breaft, a fmall 

 human figure, made of bone, fufpended in the fame man- 

 ner. 



The fan, or fly-flap, is alfo an ornament ufed by both 

 fexes. The moil ordinary kind are made of the fibres of the 

 cocoa-nut, tied loofe, in bunches, to the top of a fmooth po- 

 lilhed handle. The tail-feathers of the cock, and of the tro- 

 pic-bird, are alfo ufed in the fame manner ; but the moft 

 valuable are thofe which have the handle made of the arm 

 or leg bones of an enemy flain in battle, and which are pre- 

 served with great care, and handed down, from father to 

 fon, as trophies of ineftimable value. 



The cuftom of tattoivivg the body, they have in common 

 with the reft of the natives of the South Sea Iflands ; but it 

 is only at New Zealand, and the Sandwich Iflands, that they 

 tattow the face. There is alfo this difference between the 

 two laft, that, in the former, it is done. in elegant fpiral vo- 

 lutes, and in the latter, in flraight lines, crofting each other 

 at right angles. The hands and arms of the women are 

 alfo very neatly marked, and they have a Angular cuftom 

 amongft them, the meaning of which we could never 

 learn, that of tattowing the tip of the tongues of the fe- 

 males. 



From fome information we received, relative to the cuftom 

 of tattcwingy we were inclined to think, that it is frequently 

 intended as a fign of mourning on the death of a Chief, or 

 any other calamitous event. For wc were often told, that 



8 fuch 



