2$ COOK’s VOYAGE, 
manifeft figns of confufion, when, to gratify our euriofity, 
they were requefled to untie the firing, and never confented 
but with the utmofl reludlance and fhame. When they have 
only their upper garment on, and fit upon their hams, they 
bear fome refemblance to a thatched houfe ; but this covering, 
though it is ugly, is well adapted to the ufe of thofe who fre- 
quently fieep in the open air, without any other fhelter from 
the rain. 
But befides this courfe fhag or thatch, they have two forts of 
cloth, which have an even furface, and are very ingenicufly 
made, in the fame manner with that manufactured by the inha- 
bitants of South America, fome of which we procured at Rio 
de Janeiro. One fort is as coarfe as our coarfefl canvas, and 
fomewhat refembles it in the manner of laying the threads, but 
it is ten times as lirong the other is formed by many threads 
lying very clofe one way, and a few crolfing them the other, fo 
ns to bind them together ; but thefe are about half an inch 
afander, fomewhat like the round pieces of cane matting which 
are fometimes placed under the difhes upon a table. This n 
frequently flriped. and always had a pretty appearance, for it is 
compofed of the fibres, of the fame plant, which are prepared 
fo as to fhine like filk. It is made in a kind of frame, of th® 
fize of the cloth, generally about five feet long, and four broad, 
acrofs which the long threads, which lie clofe together, or 
warp, are flrained, and the crofs threads or woof, are worked in 
by hand, which mull be a vefy tedious operation. 
To both thefe kinds of cloth they work borders of different 
colours, in flitches, fomewhat like carpeting, or rather like 
thofe rnfed in the famplars which girls work at fchool. Thefe 
borders are of various patterns, and wrought with a neatnefs, 
and even an elegance, which, confidering they have no needle, 
is furprizing : but the great pride of their drefs confifls in the 
fur of their dogs, which they ufe with fuch ©economy that they 
cut it into flripes, and few them upon their cloth at a diilance 
from each other, which is a flrong proof that dogs are not 
plenty among them ; thefe flripes are alfo of different colours, 
and difpofed fo as to produce a pleafing effefl. We favv fome 
dreffes that were adorned with feathers inflead of fur, but thefe 
were not common ; and we faw one that was entirely covered 
with the red feathers of the parrot. 
The drefs of the man who was killed, when we firfl went 
afhore in Poverty Bay, has been deferibed already ; but we faw 
the fame drefs only once more during our flay upon the coafl, 
and that was in Queen Charlotte’s Sound. 
The women, contrary to the cuflom of the fex in general, 
feemed to affedl drefs rather lefs than the men : their hair, 
which, as I have obferved before, is generally cropt faort, is 
never tied upon' the top of the head when it is fuffered to be 
long. 
