40 THE CRUISE 0^ THE ' CURAQOA: 



themselves in the Hawaiian Ishinds. Their noses are veiy 

 flat as compared with those of the Nine Islanders, and the 

 nostrils much dilated. The men are tall and stout, but 

 their muscles appear flabby ; many are tatooed from their 

 middle down to their legs, and the designs are so fxill and 

 well executed as to give the impression of their wearing 

 pantaloons. They smear their hair with lime, which gives 

 it a reddish tint. The women have no otiier covering than 

 an apron made of bark attached to their loins ; they make a 

 practice of whitening their hair with a paste, which looked 

 to me like arrowroot. These islanders are not quite so 

 noisy as those of Xiue, but they are not a particle less in- 

 considerate or inquisitive. A woman seemed to be mightily 

 amused by thrusting her head through a port-hole in order 

 to have a good view of one of our officers who was in the 

 act of dressing; and it was hardly to prevent his being 

 imaware of what she was doing, that she cried out audibly 

 to him, ' Say ! say ! ' 



Soon after we had anchored, one of the two missionaries 

 of the island, Mr. Powell, paid us a visit in a ten-oared 

 boat. He was accompanied by Maunga, the chief of Pango- 

 Pango, a man of mature age, of a calm and dignified deport- 

 ment, who had for the occasion donned a black coat over 

 the shirt and waistcoat which constituted his usual attu'e.^ 



' Maunga is described by Erskine as being ' in 1849 a fine look- 

 ing young man, in a sailor's loose jacket and an ample flowing robe 

 of coloured siapo,' who had recently arrived from Manua to assume 

 the chieftainship of this island. — ' Islands of the Western Pacific,' 

 p. 42. 



