38 
ELLICE’S AND KINGSMILL GROUP. 
but exhibited various articles of traffic, consisting of cocoa-nuts, mats, 
rolls of sennit, maros, large wooden fish-hooks, war-knives and swords 
fitted with sharks’ teeth, and some rough war-clubs. Their canoe 
was in construction much more rude and rough than any met with 
of similar size: it was about twenty feet long, dug out of a single log, 
and the sides had strips lashed on to raise them higher. It had an 
out-rigger and paddles very similar to those seen at the other islands. 
These natives were, in general appearance, inferior to those of the 
Samoan Islands, of middle size, and with deep brown complexions, 
like the Hawaiians, whom they w r ere thought also to resemble in 
features; but they were well provided with beard, in which respect 
they resemble the Feejees. They wore their hair, which was thick 
and bushy, long. One of them was observed to have it parted into 
five or six large clubs of hair, hanging loose about his head, and 
resembling large foxes’ tails. 
native of ellice’s island. 
They were tattooed differently from any heretofore seen, their arms 
being covered, from the shoulder to the wrist, with small curved figures 
or zigzag lines. They had this tattooing also on the body, extending 
from the armpits to the waist, and down, until the whole body was 
encompassed in the same manner. No marks were observed on the 
face or legs, but on two of them were a few lines across the small of 
the back. They wore no clothing, but a strip of fine matting, as a 
maro, and a coarser piece tied about the hips: the first, which was 
made of the pandanus-leaf, was about eight inches wide, and ten feet 
long, and v\as fringed on each side, which increased its width. The 
coarser girdle was worn, and attached to it were slips of pandanus- 
