130 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS CH. vn 



which is cut into sharp teeth, numbering from three to twenty, 

 according to the purposes it is to be used for ; the upper 

 end is fastened to a handle. The teeth are dipped into the 

 black liquor, and then driven by quick sharp blows, struck 

 upon the handle with a stick used for that purpose, into the 

 skin, so deeply that every stroke is followed by a small 

 quantity of blood, or serum at least, and the part so marked 

 remains sore for many days before it heals. 



I saw this operation performed on the 5th of July on 

 the buttocks of a girl about fourteen years of age ; for some 

 time she bore it with great resolution, but afterwards began 

 to complain; and in a little time grew so outrageous that 

 all the threats and force her friends could use could hardly 

 oblige her to endure it. I had occasion to remain in an 

 adjoining house an hour at least after this operation began, 

 and yet went away before it was finished, in which time 

 only one side was blacked, the other having been done some 

 weeks before. 



It is performed between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, 

 and so essential is it that I have never seen one single 

 person of years of maturity without it. What can be a 

 sufficient inducement to suffer so much pain is difficult to 

 say ; not one Indian (though I have asked hundreds) would 

 ever give me the least reason for it. Possibly superstition 

 may have something to do with it, nothing else in my opinion 

 could be a sufficient cause for so apparently absurd a custom. 

 As for the smaller marks upon the fingers, arms, etc., they 

 may be intended only for beauty ; our European ladies have 

 found the convenience of patches, and something of that 

 kind is more useful here where the best complexions are 

 much inferior to theirs in England ; and yet whiteness is 

 esteemed the first essential in beauty. 



They are certainly as cleanly a people as any under the 

 sun ; they all wash their whole bodies in running water as 

 soon as they rise in the morning, at noon, and before they 

 sleep at night. If they have not such water near their 

 houses, as often happens, they will go a good way to it. As 

 for their lice, had they the means only they would certainly 



