FEEJEE GROUP. 355 
The mode of wearing the hair-pricker, or comb, is an indication of 
rank. None but the king wears it in front. Those next in rank wear 
it a little to one side, while the lower class carry it as clerks do their 
pens, behind the ear. 
They have a very high opinion of their taste in dress, and in this 
their national pride may be said chiefly to consist. 
The women are not allowed to wear tapa,* and their dress is slight 
and scanty. It consists of no more than the liku, a kind of band, made, 
as has been stated, from the bark of the vau or hibiscus. Before mar- 
riage the liku is worn short, but after the birth of the first child, it is 
much lengthened. 
Tattooing is only performed on the women, and is chiefly confined 
to the parts which are covered by the liku. The women believe that 
to be tattooed is a passport to the other world, where it prevents them 
from being persecuted by their own sex, numbers of whom, by com- 
mand of the gods, would meet them, if not tattooed, and, armed with 
sharp shells, would chase them continually through the lower regions. 
So strong is this superstition, that when girls have died before 
being tattooed, their friends have painted the semblance of it upon 
them, in order to deceive the priest, and thus escape the anger of the 
gods. 
Besides the parts covered by the liku, the corners and sometimes the 
whole circuit of the mouth are tattooed, which is said to be done for 
the purpose of preventing wrinkles. 
The Feejee word for tattooing is ngia. It is performed by women 
only, who use an instrument called bati ni ngia. This is dipped ina 
pigment formed by mixing the charcoal of the laudi-nut with oil, and 
is struck in by blows from a piece of sugar-cane. The common women 
are tattooed about the age of puberty (fourteen), but women of rank 
* This prohibition appears to arise from the jealousy of their own sex, who punish 
severely any who infringe upon this custom. As an instance of this, an old woman at Le- 
vuka was pointed out to me by Whippy, who once took it into her head to wear a small 
piece of tapa, with which she showed herself in the village, whereupon the other women fell 
upon her, and after beating her almost to death, bit off her nose, and left her a monument 
of her own vanity, and of the ferocity of the fair sex of Feejee. 
