5|6 LATE DISCOVERIES. 



upon the island but hogs, dogs, and poultry ; but the English and 

 Spaniards have since carried thither bulls, cows, sheep, goats, a horse 

 and mare, geese, ducks, peacocks, turkeys, and also cats. The 

 only wild animals are tropical birds, paroquets, pigeons, ducks, and 

 a few other birds ; rats, and a very few serpents. The sea, however, 

 supplies the inhabitants with a very great variety of the most excel- 

 lent fish. 



In other countries the men cut their hair short, and the women 

 pride themselves on its length ; but here the women always cut it 

 short round their ears, and the men (except the fishers, who are 

 almost continually in the water) suffer it to spread over their shoul- 

 ders, or tie it up in a bunch on the top. They have the custom of 

 discolouring the skin, by pricking it with a small instrument, the 

 teeth of which are dipped into a mixture of a kind Of lamp-black, and 

 this is called tattooing. This is performed upon the youth of both 

 sexes, when they are about twelve or fourteen years of age, on seve- 

 ral parts of the body, and in various figures. Their principal manu- 

 facture is their cloth, of which there are three kinds, made of the 

 bark of three different kinds of trees. The finest and whitest is 

 made of the Chinese paper-mulberry-tree, and this is chiefly worn by 

 the principal people. Another considerable manufacture is matting, 

 some of which is finer, and in every respect better, than any made in 

 Europe. The coarser sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer 

 to wear in wet weather. They are likewise very dexterous in making 

 wicker-work ; their baskets are of a thousand different patterns, and 

 many of them exceedingly neat. The inhabitants of Otaheite believe 

 in one supreme Deity, but at the same time acknowledge a variety of 

 subordinate deities ; they offer up their prayers without the use of 

 idols, and believe the existence of the soul in a separate state, where 

 there are two situations, of different degrees of happiness. Among 

 these people a subordination is established, which somewhat resem- 

 bles the early state of the European nations under the feudal system. 

 If a general attack happens to be made upon the island, every dis- 

 trict is obliged to furnish its proportion of soldiers for the common 

 defence. Their weapons are slings, which they use with great dex- 

 terity, and clubs of about six or seven feet long, and made of a hard 

 heavy wood. They have a great number of boats, many of which 

 are constructed for warlike operations. 



