EVIDENCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 109 



tooing the skin, (so prevalent amongst the na- 

 tives of the Indian island, Pulo Pogy, in parti- 

 cular) ; the manufacture of cloth from the bark 

 of trees, and the use of wooden pillows, by the 

 people of Sumatra; circumcision, the use of 

 the rume, the employment of oil-nuts, skewered 

 on a stick, for the purpose of illumination, and 

 the outriggers and general form of the primi- 

 tive canoes, which we noticed at Soutranha. 

 The use of bangles of hair around the ancles ; 

 the length to which the nails of the hands are 

 allowed to grow, as a symbol of rank ; and the 

 peculiar form of some edifices ; which we noticed 

 at Santa Christina, Marquesas, accord strictly, 

 also, with similar facts noticeable amongst the 

 islanders of the Eastern Archipelago. 



The natural productions, and more especially 

 the aboriginal domestic quadrupeds, of a newly- 

 discovered insular land, should aiford us a good, 

 if not the best clue to the probable origin of its 

 population. The swine, dogs, and domestic 

 fowls, found on all the Polynesian groups, and 

 apparently coeval with man in then: existence 

 on those lands, betray much of an Asiatic 

 origin. Domestic swine, in particular, were 

 unknown to the natives of America until their 

 intercourse with Europeans ; hence, if the Po- 

 lynesian islands drew their supply of those ani- 



