1769 TATTOWING 129 



their language. This they do by inlaying black under their 

 skins, in such a manner as to be indelible. Every one is 

 thus marked in different parts of his body, according maybe 

 to his humour, or different circumstances of his life. Some 

 have ill-designed figures of men, birds or dogs ; but they 

 more generally have a Z, either plain as is generally the 

 case with the women on every joint of their fingers and toes 

 and often round the outside of their feet or in different 

 figures such as squares, circles, crescents, etc., which both 

 sexes have on their arms and legs ; in short, they have an 

 infinite diversity of figure in which they place this mark. 

 Some of them we were told had significations ; but these we 

 never learnt to our satisfaction. Their faces are generally 

 left without any marks ; I did not see more than one instance 

 to the contrary. Some few old men had the greater part 

 of their bodies covered with large patches of black, which 

 ended in deep indentations, like coarse imitations of flame ; 

 these we were told were not natives of Otahite, but came 

 from a low island called Noonoora. Although they vary so 

 much in the application of the figures I have mentioned 

 that both the quantity and situation seem to depend entirely 

 upon the humour of each individual yet all the islanders I 

 have seen (except those of Oheteroa) agree in having their 

 buttocks covered with a deep black. Over this most have 

 arches, which are often a quarter of an inch broad, drawn 

 one above the other as high as their short ribs, and neatly 

 worked on their edges with indentations, etc. These arches 

 are their great pride : both men and women show them with 

 great pleasure, whether as a mark of beauty, or a proof of 

 their perseverance and resolution in bearing pain I cannot 

 tell. The pain in doing this is almost intolerable, especially 

 the arches upon the loins, which are so much more susceptible 

 to pain than the fleshy buttocks. 



The colour they use is lamp black prepared from the 

 smoke of a kind of oily nut, used by them instead of candles. 

 This is kept in cocoanut shells, and occasionally mixed with 

 water for use. Their instruments for pricking this under 

 the skin are made of flat bone or shell ; the lower part of 



K 



