186 NEW ZEALAND CHAP, VIII 
hand-to-hand, and certainly well contrived for splitting skulls, 
as it weighs not less than four or five pounds, and has sharp 
edges excellently polished. 
The people were, in general, of a middling size, though 
there was no one who measured more than six feet. Their 
colour was a dark brown. Their lips were stained with 
something put under the skin (as in the Otahite tattow), and 
their faces marked with deeply -engraved furrows, also 
coloured black, and formed in regular spirals. Of these, the 
oldest people had much the greatest quantity, and most 
deeply channelled, in some not less than +, part of an 
inch, Their hair was black, and tied up on the tops of 
their heads in a little knot, in which were stuck feathers 
of various birds in different tastes, according to the 
humour of the wearer. Sometimes they had one knot on 
each side, and pointing forwards, which made a most dis- 
agreeable appearance. In their ears they generally wore a 
large bunch of the milk-white down of some bird. The 
faces of some were painted with a red colour in oil, some 
all over, others in parts only. In their hair was much oil, 
which had very little smell, but more lice than ever I saw 
before. Most of them had a small comb, neatly enough 
made, sometimes of wood, sometimes of bone, which they 
seem to prize much. A few had on their faces or arms 
regular scars, as if made with a sharp instrument, such as I 
have seen on the faces of negroes. The inferior sort were 
clothed in something that very much resembled hemp: the 
loose strings of this were fastened together at the top, and it 
hung down about two feet like a petticoat. Of these 
garments they wore two, one round their shoulders, and the 
other about their waists. The richer had garments probably 
of a finer sort of the same stuff, most beautifully made, and 
exactly like that of the South American Indians at this day, 
and as fine, or finer, than a piece which I bought at Rio de 
Janeiro for thirty-six shillings, and which was esteemed un- 
commonly cheap at that price. Their boats were not large, 
but well made, something like our whale boats, not longer. 
The bottom was the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and very 
