PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
m 
die iron harpoon, but such was their method of using those made 
of bone and wood (which required an extraordinary force to drive 
them into the fish) and when they changed their instruments they 
continued their old practices. They go out frequently with the 
young harpooners to exercise them in striking, and they gene¬ 
rally make choice of a time when the sea is rough to accustom 
them to balance themselves in the bow of the canoe, in which 
consists the chief of their art. The skin of the devil fish is used 
by them to make heads to their drums; it also, as well as that of 
the shark, is used for rasps in the working of wood into different 
forms, which is done by securing slips of it to pieces of wood 
something in the form of a razor strap. 
They shave their heads or rather their barbers shave them 
with a shark’s tooth, shells, but now most commonly with a piece 
of iron hoop ground down to so sharp an edge as to remove the 
hair without giving much pain. The beard of the young men and 
the hair under the arms of both men and women is plucked out by 
means of shells, and there are certain other parts of the body where 
the females pay as little respect to the works of nature. The fe¬ 
males at times, but on what occasion I do not know, shave their 
heads close; but I am induced to believe such occasions are rare, 
as some wear their hair long, some cut short, and some cropt 
close, while some are close shaved. They have such varieties 
in wearing their hair I could not discover any fashion which seem¬ 
ed to prevail over the others, except among the young men, to 
which class it seemed wholly confined; their custom is to put it 
Up in two knots, one on each side of the head, and they are se¬ 
cured with white strips of cloth, and with a degree of neatness 
and taste which might defy the art of our best head dressers to 
equal. The old men wear it sometimes cut short, sometimes the 
head is shaved, and they sometimes have their head entirely shav¬ 
ed except one lock on the crown, which is worn loose or put up 
in a knot; but this latter mode of wearing the hair is only adopted 
by them when they have a solemn vow, as to revenge the death of 
some near relation, &c. and in such case the lock is never cut oft' until 
they have fulfilled their promise. Besides the shark’s tooth and 
iron hoop razors, they make use of a brand of fire to singe off and 
VOX, II. R 
