328 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



a single exception, black, straight, and lank, or hanging 

 down over the shoulders. 



" Their colour we could never positively determine, as 

 their bodies were incrusted with paint and dirt ; though in 

 particular cases, when these were well rubbed off, the white- 

 ness of the skin appeared almost to equal that of Europeans. 



" The women are nearly of the same size, colour, and 

 form, with the men, from whom it is not easy to distinguish 

 them, as they possess no natural delicacies sufficient to 

 render their persons agreeable. 



" Their common dress is a flaxen garment, or mantle, 

 ornamented on the upper edge by a narrow strip of fur, and 

 at the lower edge by fringes or tassels ; it is tied over the 

 shoulders. Over this, which reaches below the knees, is 

 worn a small cloak of the same substance, likewise fringed 

 at the lower part. In shape, this resembles a round dish 

 cover, being quite close, except in the middle, where there 

 is a hole just large enough to admit the head. 



" Besides the above dress, which is common to both sexes, 

 the men frequently throw over their other garments the skin 

 of a bear, wolf, or sea-otter, with the hair outward, and tie 

 it as a cloak near the upper part, wearing it sometimes 

 before, and sometimes behind. Their dress would by no 

 means be inelegant were it kept clean. But as they rub 

 their bodies constantly over with red paint, of a clayey or 

 coarse ochre substance, mixed with oil, their garments by 

 this means contract a rancid offensive smell, and a greasy 

 Hastiness, so that they make a very wretched dirty appear- 

 ance. 



" The ears of many of them are perforated in the lobe, 

 where they make a pretty large hole, and two others higher 

 up on the outer edge. In these holes they hang bits of 

 bone, quills fixed upon a leathern thong, small shells, 

 bunches of woollen tassels, or pieces of thin copper, which 

 our beads could never supplant. The septum of the nose 

 in many is also perforated, through which they draw apiece 

 of soft cord ; and others wear at the same place small thin 

 pieces of iron, brass, or copper, shaped almost like a horse- 

 shoe, the narrow opening of which receives the septum, so 

 that the two points may gently pinch it, and the ornament 

 thus hangs over the upper lip. The rings of our brass 

 buttons, which they eagerly purchased, were appropriated 

 to this use. 



" Sometimes they wear carved wooden masks, or vizors, 

 applied on the face, of to the upper part of the head, or 

 forehead. Some of these resemble humane faces, furnished 

 with hair, beards, and eyebrows ; others the heads of birds, 

 particularly of eagles and quebrantahuessoses ; and many 



