ELLICE’S AND KINGS MILL GROUP. 
47 
When they arrived alongside, they made much clamour and many 
gesticulations, but refused to leave their canoes. After some enticing, 
one was induced to venture on board. They evidently comprehended 
that the vessel was of a different character from what they had been 
accustomed to see. The one who gained the deck showed much agi¬ 
tation, but when he saw the arm-chest opened and a musket taken 
out, his fears w T ere too much for him, and he at once sprang over the 
stern into the water, and swam to his canoe. Others came on board, 
but they in their turn, were frightened in like manner, and took to their 
canoes. 
The arms and legs of a large proportion of the natives exhibited 
numerous scars, many of which were still unhealed. These had been 
made with shark’s-teeth swords, such as were seen at the Depeyster 
Group, weapons which are calculated rather to make severe gashes 
than dangerous wounds. The spears are equally formidable, and four 
rows of shark’s teeth are inserted in them; some are of the uncommon 
length of tw T enty feet, but they are usually about eight or ten feet long, 
and have prongs projecting from their sides also armed with teeth. 
A drawing of these arms is given in the wood-cut at the end of the 
chapter. 
They were evidently in the habit of having severe conflicts with one 
another, and war seems to be one of the principal employments of this 
people. 
In order to guard against the destructive effect of these arms, they 
had invented a kind of armour, w 7 hich was almost an effectual defence 
against their weapons, and accounted at once for their arms and legs 
aeing the only parts where scars were seen. This consisted of a sort 
of cuirass, covering the body as far down as the hips, and rising above 
the back of the head three or four inches. This, when taken off and 
set upon the deck, somewhat resembled a high-backed chair. It was 
made of plaited cocoanut-husk fibres, woven into as solid and compact 
a mass as if it had been made of board half an inch thick, and was as 
stiff as a coat of mail. For the legs and arms, they have also a 
covering of netted sennit of the same material, which they put on. 
That for the legs resembles a pair of overhauls, such as sailmakers 
use, with straps over the shoulders. The covering for the arms is 
drawn on in like manner. The appearance of the body was as if it 
were clothed in pantaloons and jacket of a deep brown colour. This 
they must find a very inconvenient covering for their hot climate. 
However singular the body-dress is, that of the head is still more so: it 
consists of the skin of the porcupine-fish, cut open at the head, and 
stretched sufficiently large to admit the head of a man. It is perfectly 
