40 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



yet in rainy weather, or when at sea, or obliged to wade in the water, 

 they wear the titi or leaf-apron of the other group. 



At New Zealand the climate generally requires the body to be 

 covered, and the face is therefore the only place on which the tattoo- 

 ing would be commonly seen. As it is not needed for the purposes 

 of decency, it is applied merely for ornament. The style which they 

 prefer consists of numerous spiral and curving lines, drawn with great 

 exactness, care being taken to make the marking of one side of the 

 face correspond to that of the other. The breast and thighs are fre- 

 quently tattooed in a similar, though less elaborate manner. 



At the Society Islands also, the tattoo serves merely for ornament. 

 The body, from the waist to the knee, is covered by the pareu or 

 wrapper. It is, therefore, above and below this that the marking is 

 most elaborately applied. This varies a good deal, at the pleasure of 

 the person tattooed. Perhaps the most distinctive mark is a number 

 of parallel curving lines, which spread out on each side of the spine, 

 as the leaflets of a palm from the stem. Heavy masses of black are 

 also imprinted on the thighs and nates, though these are covered by 

 the dress, referring us, at once, to the Samoan origin of the custom. 



The Rarotongans, we were told, cover the body with chequer- work 

 and cross-lines, somewhat like those of a Guernsey frock. 



The people of the Low Archipelago seem to have different fashions. 

 Some were tattooed like those of Tahiti. The men of Anaa or Chain 

 Island were thickly covered over the body, but not the face, with 

 lines crossing one another, similar (according to a note made at the 

 time) " to the checked-shirts worn by sailors," consequently not 

 unlike the mode of Rarotonga. The people of the eastern or inde- 

 pendent islands (as Clermont Tonnerre, Searle's, and the Disappoint- 

 ment Islands) had no tattooing or marking of any description. 



The Marquesans are tattooed from head to foot, some of the elder 

 men being completely blackened by the abundance of the adornment. 

 The most common style is that of broad heavy stripes across, or par- 

 tially crossing, the face and body, with small intervals between them. 

 But squares, circles, and various fantastic figures are also used. 



The Sandwich Islanders tattoo comparatively little, and in a per- 

 fectly arbitrary style. It is common for individuals to have figures 

 of animals or inanimate objects imprinted on some part of the body, 

 but this is not universal. In former times persons frequently had 

 themselves tattooed as a token of mourning at the death of a friend or 



