porter's journal 



119 



very sluggish, and requires little dexterity to take it, there 

 are some who are trained to the business, and pride them- 

 selves greatly on their skill. The sons and grandsons of 

 chiefs are those who are most expert in the use of the har- 

 poon. In the bow of each canoe is an elevated place for 

 the harpooner to stand, and when he strikes the fish, he 

 springs with his whole might with the harpoon, and drives 

 it up to the socket. This appears to be an awkward and 

 very improper method of using the iron harpoon. But 

 such was their mode with those made of bone and wood, 

 which required an extraordinary force to drive them into 

 the fish, and when they changed their instruments they 

 continued their old practice. They go out frequently with 

 the young harpooners to exercise them in striking, and 

 generally make choice of a time when the sea is rough, to 

 accustom them to balance themselves in the bow of the 

 canoe, in which consists the chief of their art. The skin 

 of the devil fish is used by them to make heads to their 

 drums. It also, as well as that of the shark, is used for 

 rasps in the working of wood into different forms, which 

 is done by securing slips of it to pieces of wood some- 

 thing in the form of a razor strop. 



They shave their heads, or rather their barbers shave 

 them, with a shark's tooth, shells, but now most commonly 

 with a piece of iron hoop ground down to so sharp an 

 edge as to remove the hair without giving much pain. 

 The beard of the young men and the hair under the 

 arms of both men and women, is plucked out by means of 

 shells, and there are certain other parts of the body where 

 the females pay as little respect to the works of nature. 

 The females at times, on what occasion I do not know, 

 shave their heads close ; but I am induced to believe such 

 occasions are rare, as some wear their hair long, some cut 

 short, and some cropped close, while others are close 

 shaved. They have such varieties in wearing their hair, I 

 could not discover any fashion which seemed to prevail over 

 the others, except amorig the young men, to which class it 

 seemed wholly confined. Their custom is to put it up in 

 two knots, one on each side of the head, and they are se- 

 cured with white strips of cloth, with a degree of neatness 

 and taste which might defy the art of our best head-dress- 

 ers to equal. The old men wear it sometimes cut short. 



