Dress of the New Zealanders/ rf 
with which they were impreffed. The marks upon the face i» 
general are fpirals, which are drawn with great nicety, and 
even elegance, thefe on one fide exactly correfponding with 
thofe on the other : the marks on the body fomewhat referable 
the foliage in old chafed ornaments, and the convolutions of 
filagree work ; but in thefe they have fuch a luxuriance of 
fancy, that of an hundred, which at firft fight appeared to be 
exactly the fame, no two were, upon a clofe examination, 
found to be alike. We obferved, that the quantity and form 
of thefe marks were different in different parts of the coaft, and 
that as the principal feat of them at Otaheite was the breach, 
in New Zealand it was fometimes the only part which was 
free, and in general was lefs dillinguifhed than any other- 
The fkins of thefe people, however, are not only dyed, but 
painted, for as I have before obferved, they fmear their bo- 
dies with red oker, fome rubbing it on dry, and fome apply- 
ing it in large patches mixed with oil, which is always wet, ' 
and which the leaf! touch wilf rub off, fo that the tranfgref- 
fions of fuch of our people as were guilty of ravifhing a kifs 
from thefe blooming beauties, were moll legibly ^written upon 
their faces. 
The drefs of a New Zealander is certainly, to a fir anger 
at firll fight, the moll uncouth that can be imagined. It is 
made of the leaves of the flag, which has been defcribed 
among the vegetable productions of this country : thefe leaves 
are fplit into three or four flips, and the flips, when they are 
cry, interwoven with each other into a kind of fluff between 
netting and cloth, with all the ends, which are eight or nine 
inches long, hanging out on the upper fide, like the- ihag or 
thrum b matts, which we fometimes fee lying in a pillage. 
Of this cloth, if cloth it may be called, two pieces ferve for a 
complete drefs ; one of them is tied over their fhoulders with a 
firing, and reaches as low as their knees ; to the end of this 
firing is fattened a bodkin of bone, which is eafily paffed 
through any two parts of this upper garment, fo as to tack 
them together ; the other piece is wrapped round the waifl, 
and reaches nearly to the ground : the lower garment, how- 
ever, is worn by the men only upon particular occafions ; but 
they wear a belt, to which a firing is fattened, fcr a very fin- 
. gular ufe. The inhabitants of the South Sea iflands flit up the 
prepuce fo as to prevent it from covering the glans of the pe- 
nis, but thefe people, on the contrary, bring the prepuce over 
the glans, and to prevent it from being drawn back by the 
contraction of the part, they tie the firing which hangs from 
their girdle, round the' end of it. The glans indeed feemed 
to be the only part of their body which they were folicitous to 
conceal, for they frequently threw off all their drefs but the 
belt and firing, with the molt carelefs indifference, but fhewed 
C z manifeit 
