294 



NATIVES COME OFF. 



I before seen in one canoe so many handsome faces. 

 As a breech-cloth they wore a narrow strip of white 

 cloth passing between the leg's and secured to a 

 string' round the waist^ but this was too narrow to 

 serve as a fig-leaf. Among their ornaments we saw 

 necklaces of small white cowries^ and round flat 

 pieces of shell two inches in diameter worn on the 

 breast, also black, tightly fitting, woven armlets, in 

 which they had stuck bunches of apparently the 

 same purple odoriferous amaranth seen elsewhere, 

 while other tufts of this plant were attached to the 

 ankles and elbows. The canoe was nearly of the same 

 description as those commonly seen at the Brumer 

 and Dufaure Islands, but the outrigger float was 

 rather shorter, having only five poles to support it 

 instead of seven or eight, and the bow and stem. 



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