356 FEEJEE GROUP. 
later, and sometimes not until they have borne their first child. After 
being tattooed, they are tabooed for a time. 
Both sexes have the lobe of the ear bored; the women that of only 
one ear, the men both. For the purpose of distending the holes, rolls 
of tapa, pieces of wood, or shells, are inserted, which sometimes are so 
large as to tear the parts asunder. In one instance the hole in the 
lobe of the ear was so large that the person could pass his hand 
through it. 
The women manufacture wreaths both of natural and artificial 
flowers. With these they adorn their own persons, and the salas of 
their husbands. This custom, however, is not as common here as at 
Tahiti. 
Both men and women are extremely fond of using red pigment, and 
a small quantity of vermilion, or croom, as they call it, is esteemed as 
the greatest possible acquisition. 
Whole hours are taken up adorning and ornamenting themselves. 
At times one sees them with their heads entirely covered with lime, 
while others have it shorn quite close, leaving a single lock on one 
side, that has a very droll appearance. 
Though almost naked, these natives have a great idea of modesty, 
and consider it extremely indelicate to expose the whole person. If 
either a man or woman should be discovered without the maro, or 
liku, they would probably be killed. As an instance of this feeling, 
we may cite a circumstance which occurred during the stay of the 
French Expedition at Levuka. A party of French sailors were sent 
on shore to fill their casks with water at the stream which passes 
through the town. Being employed in the water, they had removed all 
their clothes, and were seen in a state of nudity by the chiefs and 
people, who sent off a deputation immediately to Captain D’Urville, to 
represent the indelicacy of it, and to request that he would not allow 
his men to appear so. 
The people keep their bodies well oiled, which they find a preven- 
tive against colds. A Feejee mother therefore desires beyond almost 
all other articles of civilized manufacture, a glass bottle, to contain her 
scented oil, and early every morning she may be seen with her flock 
of little ones around her undergoing ablution, which done, she applies 
the contents of her bottle, until they fairly glisten. 
There is but little opportunity for profitable trade in these islands, 
and they possess few commercial advantages. A cargo or two of 
biche de mar may be collected in the course of a favourable year, 
with a small quantity of tortoise-shell. Shells as curiosities can be 
procured, but the value is of course small. Sandalwood, as I have 
