56 PIGTAILS AND TATOOING. 



not our pale faces be reg-arded by these savag^es 

 in a similar lig'ht? Some had perfect Malayan 

 features^ but none seen on this occasion appeared to 

 practise betel-chewing-^ — a remarkable circumstance^ 

 since the men who on our former visit came off to 

 the ship, then only about fifteen miles to the north- 

 west, had their teeth discoloured. 



None of the natives had any hair upon the face ; 

 various ways of dressing- that of the head were prac- 

 tised, the most sing'ular of which has already been 

 described at p. 297 of Yol. I. The hair was usually 

 of its natural dark colour at the base, with the re- 

 mainder dyed reddish brown and frizzled out into a 

 mop with long-toothed combs of wood or tortoise- 

 shell. One child had the head so shaved as to leave 

 a long* tuft on the forehead, and another on the back 

 of the head — precisely in the same manner as is 

 sometimes practised in Java. Nor must I omit 

 noticing- a sing-ular appendag-e formerly alluded to — 

 analog-ous to the pig-tail once in vog-ue — worn by 

 many of these people ; it is formed of human hair 

 wrapped round with twine, and ends in one or more 

 bunches of shells, dog-'s teeth, and tails of pig-s, — the 

 long-est one which I saw measured twenty-one inches 

 in leng-th. Among- numerous ornaments the most 

 common is a larg-e round concave portion of melon 

 shell, sometimes beautifully inlaid with filag-ree work 

 of tortoise-shell, worn on the breast. Fillets of 

 cassowary feathers, fur of the spotted bare-tailed 

 opossum, or Avoven stuff studded with shells, were 

 often seen. 



