456 DRESS OF THE NATIVES. 



of the chase for their daily food, not having arrived 

 at the first and simplest form of cultivation, and in 

 like manner destitute of all trace of religion, except 

 the faint symptom of belief in an evil spirit. 



We landed on a beach, along which a luxuriant 

 grove of cocoa-nut trees extended for more than a 

 mile, under the shade of which were sheds neatly 

 constructed of bamboo and thatched with palm 

 leaves, for the reception of their canoes. To our 

 right a hill rose to a height of about 400 feet, 

 covered with brilliant and varied vegetation so luxu- 

 riant as entirely to conceal the village built on its 

 summit. The natives who thronged the beach 

 were of a light tawny colour, mostly fine, athletic 

 men, with an intelligent expression of countenance. 

 Their dress consisted of a cloth round the waist 

 reaching to the knee, which in some instances was 

 neatly ornamented with small white shells ; their 

 arms and ankles were loaded with rings formed of 

 ebony, ivory, and coloured glass, some of the former 

 bore evident marks of having been turned in a 

 lathe. The lobes of their ears were perforated with 

 large holes, from which enormous ear-rings of ivory 

 and ebony, in the shape of padlocks, were suspended, 

 sometimes as many as three from one ear. A few 

 of the natives had gold ear-rino;s of considerable size 

 but rude workmanship. The boys and younger 

 men had their hair cut short, and their heads 

 smeared over with a preparation of lime, which 



