50 THE GESTUEE-LANGUAGE. 



bourhood of a temple, and on tlie sacred ground set apart for 

 royalty, with wliicli may be classed a very odd ceremony, 

 wHcli was performed before Captain Cook on his first visit to 

 the island.^ 



The regulations concerning the fow or turban in the Tonga 

 Islands are very curious, from their partial resemblance to 

 European usages. The turban. Mariner says, may only be 

 worn by warriors going to battle, or at sham fights, or at 

 night-time by chiefs and nobles, or by the common people 

 when at work in the fields or in canoes, On all other occa- 

 sions, to wear a head-dress would be disrespectful, for although 

 no chief should be present, son^e god might be at hand unseen. 

 If a man were to wear a turban except on these occasions, the 

 first person of superior rank who met him would knock him 

 down, and perhaps even an equal might do it. Even when 

 the turban is allowed to be worn, it must be taken off when a 

 superior approaches, unless in actual battle, but a man who is 

 not much higher in rank will say, " Toogo ho fow," that is. 

 Keep on your turban.' 



During the administration of the ordeal by poison in Mada- 

 gascar, Ellis says that no one is 9,llowed to sit on his long 

 robe, nor to wear the cloth round the waist, and females must 

 keep their shoulders uncovered.* A remarkable statement is 

 made by Ibn Batuta, in his account of his journey into the 

 Soudan, in the fourteenth century. He mentions as an evil 

 thing which he has observed in the conduct of the blacks, that 

 women may only come unclothed into the presence of the Sul- 

 tan of Melli, and even the Sultan's own daughters must con- 

 form to the custom. He notices also, that they threw dust 

 and ashes on their heads as a sign of reverence,* which makes 

 it appear that the stripping was also a mere act of humiliation. 

 With regard to the practice of uncovering the feet, when we 



^ Cook, First Yoy. H., vol. ii. pp. 125, 153. Ellis, Polyn. Kes., vol. ii. pp. 

 171, 352-3. 



- Mariner, ' Tonga Islands ;' vol. i. p. 158. 



^ Rev. W. Ellis, Hist, of Madagascar ; London, 1838, vol. i. p. 461. 



* Ibn Batuta, in 'Journal Asiatique,' i""' Serie, vol. i. p. 221. Waitz, Introd. 

 to Antlu'opology, E. Tr. ed. by J. F. Collingwood ; part i., London, 1863, p. 301. 



