92 
INHABITANTS OF THE PELEW ISLANDS. 
a nifin anti a woman of the same surname cannot marry. The king 
is not permitted to marry but into three grand families, which always 
enjoy the highest privileges. There is a fourth, of equal distinction 
with the three former ; but neither the king nor the princes contract 
any alliances with this family, for it is doubtful whether it is not 
sprung from the same stem as the royal line. 
Young men and women enjoy the liberty of seeing one another, and 
of conversing together, and their union is always in consequence of 
their owm choice. The women are very reserved, they collect their 
hair on the top of their heads in the form of a curl, and fix it by 
long pins made of gold and silver. 
Besides his vast domains, the king receives the produce of the sul- 
phur, copper, and tin mines, and of the salt- pits, together with what 
arises from taxes. From these revenues he pays the salaries of the 
mandarins, and officers of his court. These salaries are estimated at 
a certain number of sacks of rice. There are nine orders of manda- 
rins, distinguished by the colour of their caps, or by their girdles 
and cushions. The greatest parts of the titles of these mandarins are 
hereditary, but some are only acquired by merit. In the royal city 
there are tribunals established for managing the revenues and affairs 
of all the islands. There are also particular tribunals for civil and 
criminal matters, and for regulating the affairs of religion, the public 
granaries, revenues, duties, commerce, manufactures, ceremonies, na- 
vigation, public edifices, literature, and war. The vessels built in this 
country are greatly valued by the people of China and Japan. In these 
the natives go to China, Tong-king, Cochin-China, Corea, Nangazaki, 
Salzuma, the neighbouring isles, and Formosa, where they dispose 
of their silk, cotton, paper, arms, copper utensils, mother-of-pearl, 
tortoise and other shells, coral, and whet-stones, &c. which are in 
great request both in China and Japan. 
Inhabitants or the Pelew Islands. 
They are all of a deep copper colour, going perfectly naked. They 
are of a middling stature, very straight, muscular, and well-formed, 
but their legs, from a little above their ankles to the middle of their 
thighs, are tattooed so very thick, as to appear dyed of a far deeper 
colour than the rest of their skin. Their hair is of a fine black, long, 
and rolled up behind, in a simple manner, close to the back of their 
heads, which appear both neat and becoming ; but few of them have 
beards, it being the general custom to pluck out the hairs by the 
roots. 
The island of Coorooraa, of which Pelew is the capital, produces 
plantains, bananas, Seville, oranges, and lemons, but neither of them 
in any considerable quantity. None of the islands which the English 
visited had any kind of grain. As to birds, they had plenty of com- 
mon cocks and hens, which, though not domesticated, kept running 
about near their houses and plantations ; and what appears extremely 
singular is, that the natives had never made gny use of them, till our 
people told them they were excellent eating. Pigeons they account a 
great dainty ; but none except those of a certain dignity were permitted 
