PENRHYN ISLAND. 279 



however, of scarifying the body and limbs appears to be general. 

 Dress they had none, except a small maro. A few words were found 

 to resemble the other Polynesian dialects, but neither the Hawaiians 

 nor Tahitians could communicate with them. 



Only two or three women were seen : they were delicate in appear- 

 ance, of light complexion, and feminine cast of features, with long 

 glossy hair, and beautiful white teeth. Dr. Holmes remarks that 

 their mammas were immensely large. The women from their gestures 

 proved themselves to possess habits fully as unchaste and profligate as 

 elsewhere in Polynesia. 



From what was seen of these natives, they appeared a ferocious 

 and quarrelsome set, paying little attention or regard to the old men, 

 whom they treated with great roughness. On the occasion of a canoe 

 being overturned by coming in contact with a larger one, and drifting 

 astern, an old man seized hold of the larger canoe, to save himself 

 from following his boat; but instead of any assistance being offered 

 him, his fingers were struck until he relinquished his hold and was 

 obliged to seek his own canoe. 



Few evidences of rank were observed among them, and but one 

 was seen who had the appearance of being a chief. This was an old 

 man, who was seated in the centre of a canoe, paddled by fifteen 

 natives, who were striving hard to overtake the brig. He wore a sort 

 of mantle of plaited leaves over his shoulders, with a fillet of leaves 

 on his head, and his whole bearing and conduct betokened authority. 

 A bunch of what were apparently cock's feathers was also noticed. 



Spears made of cocoa-nut wood, from six to eight feet long, were 

 the only weapons seen among them, with the exception of pieces of 

 coral. 



For ornaments they had strands of human hair braided and deco- 

 rated with finger-nails half an inch long, and two to each strand. 

 Only two or three of them wore short mantles. 



Their canoes were of a dark-coloured wood, with a light out-rigger, 

 and without sails : they were ingeniously constructed of pieces sewed 

 together with sennit ; they leaked badly, however, and it was neces- 

 sary to keep one man constantly baling. They were the largest that 

 had yet been seen constructed on a low island. These people appear 

 to have few tools, and the only articles of European manufacture that 

 were seen was a plane-iron fastened to a stick, in the form of an adze, 

 with a few blue glass beads. 



The island was by estimate fifty feet high, and was found to be 

 nine miles long, north-northeast and south-southwest, and about five 

 miles wide, with an extensive lagoon, having in it many coral 



