148 the custom of tattooing — 
landers are tattooed : the volutes are perfect spe- 
cimens, and the regularity is mechanically cor- 
rect. The operation is one of the most painful ; 
and they pay dearly, in suffering, for the beauty 
which it is supposed to impart. The tattoo is not 
a special mark of chieftainship, as has been stated 
by almost all writers on New Zealand ; for many 
chiefs, of the first rank, are without a single line; 
others, even to old age, are only partially covered; 
and many a slave has had the greatest pains 
taken, to give this ornamental operation the 
greatest effect upon his plebeian face. Nor do 
the peculiar marks on the faces of different peo- 
ple denote their rank, or the tribe to which they 
belong: it all depends upon the taste of the artist, 
or upon the direction of the person operated 
upon. There is a remarkable difference in the 
tattoo of the New Zealanders, and that of the 
Navigators’, Fiigee, or Friendly Islanders. In 
the latter, the skin is but just perforated with a 
small pointed instrument, and the staining-matter 
introduced ; so that, in passing the hand over the 
part that has been tattooed, the skin feels as 
smooth, and the surface as fair, as before the 
operation took place : whilst in the latter, the 
incision is very deep, and leaves furrows and 
ridges so uneven, that in some places, when long 
enough, it would be possible to lay in a pin, which 
would be nearly buried in them. There are per- 
sons in New Zealand, whose time is principally 
occupied in performing this painful operation. 
They go about from village to village for the 
