164 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



"Yes, my friend. They decorated their bodies 

 with designs in blue, a pigment extracted from a 

 plant called woad; and to make the decoration in- 

 effaceable they forced the coloring matter into the 

 skin by pricking themselves till the blood flowed. 



"This practice, called tattooing, is still found in 

 our day in many countries, among tribes unac- 

 quainted with the benefits of civilization. At the 

 other end of the world, at our antipodes, the natives 

 of New Zealand are most expert in this kind of deco- 

 ration. With a, sharp awl, impregnated with divers 

 colors, they prick themselves with little stabs and 

 trace, point by point, fanciful designs which turn 

 their skin into veritable living embroidery. Red and 

 blue spirals turn in inverse directions from both 

 sides of the forehead and continue in rose-work on 

 the cheeks. Little palm-leaves spread over the nos- 

 trils ; a sun darts its rays all around the chin ; two or 

 three little stars give a blue tinge to the lower lip. 

 The rest of the body is ornamented in the same lavish 

 manner: fantastic animals cover the middle of the 

 back; a tortoise pokes out its head and four feet in 

 the hollow of the breast; the hands and feet, pricked 

 in fine tracery patterns, look as if covered with open- 

 work gloves and stockings. Our ancestors of the 

 stone-hatchet age decorated themselves very much 

 like this." 



"Those poor New Zealanders," remarked Emile, 

 "must hurt themselves dreadfully, disfiguring them- 

 selves like that." 

 "The operation is indeed most painful, and yet 



