The Inhabitants of Savu, &c. described. 177 
and poor, though in the South Sea iflands thofe that were 
expofed to the weather were almoft as brown as the New Hol- 
landers, and the better fort nearly as fair as the natives of Eu- 
rope. The men are in general well-made, vigorous, and 
aftive, and have a greater variety in the make and difpolition 
of their features than ufual ; the countenances of the women, 
on the contrary, are all alike. 
The men fallen their hair up to the top of their heads with 
a comb, the women tie it behind in a club, which is very 
very far from becoming. Both fexes eradicate the hair from 
under the arm, and the men do the fame by their beards, for 
which purpofe the better fort always carry a pair of filver 
pincers hanging by a firing round their necks ; fome however 
fuller a very little hair to remain upon their upper lips, but 
this is always kept ihort. 
The drefs of both fexes confids of cotton cloth, which be- 
ing died blue in the yarn, and not uniformly of the fame 
fliade, is in clouds or waves of that colour, and even in our 
eye had not an inelegant appearance. This cloth they ma- 
nufadture themfelves, and two p eces, each about two yards 
long, and a yard and a half wide, make a drefs : one of them 
is worn round tne middle, and the other covers the upper part 
of tne body : the lower edge of the piece that goes round the 
middle, the men draw pretty tight juft below the fork, the 
upper edge of it is 1e:': oie, ;o as to form a kind of hollow 
beit, which ferces them as a pocket to carry their knives, and 
other little implements wki-.h it is convenient to have about 
them. The other piece of cloth is palled through this girdle 
behind, and one end of it being brought over the left (boulder, 
and the other over the right, they fall down over the bread, 
and are tad ed into the girdle before, fo that by opening or 
deling the plaits, they can cover more or lefs of their bodies 
as they plead ; the arms, legs, and feet are always naked. 
The differen. e between tne drefs of the two fexes confids prin- 
cipally in the manner of wearing the waiil- piece, for the wo - 
men, inftead of drawing the lower edge tight, and leaving 
the upper edge loofe for a pocket, draw the upper edge tight, 
and let the lower edge fail as low as the knees, fo as to form a 
petticoat ; the body-piece, inllead of being palled through the 
girdle, is fattened under the arms, and crofs the bread, with 
the utmoft decency. I have already obferved, that the men 
fallen the hair upon the top of the head, and the women tie 
it in a club behind, but there is another difference in the head- 
drefs, by which the fexes are diftinguilhed : the women wear 
nothing as a fuccedaneum for a cap,' but the men conftanjdy 
wrap fomething round their heads in the manner of a fillet ; it 
is frnall, but generally of the finell materials that can be pro- 
cured : we faw fome who applied filk handkerchiefs to this 
purpofe. 
