338 AUSTRALASIAN AND POLYNESIAN 
emulated the other sex in regard to wreaths and necklaces, the 
latter often descending nearly to the knee. It is noteworthy 
that the septum of the nose was never pierced by the Hervey 
Islanders, as nasal ornaments were never in vogue in that part 
of the Pacific. 
The Hervey Islanders were a clothed race. The inner bark of 
the paper-mulberry (Lroussonetia papyrifera) yielded them the 
material for their ‘‘ tikoru.” Poorer natives were content to use 
the inner bark of the “aoa,” or banyan tree. On Rarotonga, 
Aitutaki, and Mauke the inner bark of the bread-fruit tree 
yielded a light and beautiful garment. Even the Zutada scandens 
was utilised by the poor for the manufacture of clothing. 
The defect of native garments is their inability to keep out 
moisture. To remedy this, on Mangaia, the outside was some- 
times anointed with scented cocoanut oil. The varieties of native 
dresses, with their distinctive names, were very numerous. 
A native woman, in her own dwelling, wears a single garment. 
In the cold season she throws a “ tiputa ” over her shoulders. A 
man at work in the olden time, 7.e., when weeding, canoe-making, 
or fishing, wore only a girdle (maro). Travelling through the 
rain he was content with a girdle, but on arriving at his hut he 
would put on old warm clothing. A good covering of native 
cloth is (as I know from experience) as warm as a blanket. 
An unmarried girl wore her petticoat nearly to the knee ; when 
married, it was brought down just below the knee. In sitting, 
the Hervey Island females rested upon their heels, zo/, as in 
these days, tailor fashion. This latter indelicate custom was 
imported from Tahiti in recent times. 
Speaking generally, it may be confidently stated that the 
natives are a well-nourished race. But in the old fighting days, 
when so small a portion of the soil was cultivated, it was hardly 
so. The chiefs and all the ruling race were indeed well nourished, 
but the “ao,” or serfs, had sorry times of it. The frequent famines 
of those days were terrible. I have known natives who kept 
themselves alive on candle-nuts alone for months together ; but 
they were wretched objects to look at. It is curious that a 
starved race becomes black almost, but if plenty returns, their 
natural, agreeable, coffee-colour is restored. In atolls, to the 
north-west of the Hervey Group and the Line Islands, the natives 
subsist chiefly on cocoanut, pandanus drupes, and fish. Should 
any accident (e.g., if the leaflets are devoured by a plague of 
Lopaphus coccophagus, or a cyclone, or if the crowns are sprinkled 
by ocean spray) occur to the cocoanut palm, it is frightful to see 
the wasted forms of the islanders. 
But even on the most fertile islands, after a cyclone, the 
sufferings of the natives are great. Happily, now, there are so 
many introduced plants, as well as imported food, that the natives 
do not perish of sheer starvation as in the days of heathenism. I 
