OTAH 
Spaniards call poncho. The drefs of the men is the fame, 
except that, inftead of fufFering the cloth that is wound 
about the hips to hang down like a petticoat, they bring 
it between their legs, 'fo as to have fome refemblance to 
breeches ; and it is then called maro. Upon their legs and 
feet they wear no covering; but they (hade their faces 
from the fun with little bonnets, either of matting or of 
cocoa-nut leaves, which they make occafionally in a few 
minutes. This, however, is not all their head-drefs; the 
women fometiines wear little turbans, and fometimes a 
drefs which they value much more, and which, indeed, 
is much more becoming, called tomou; which confifts of 
human hair, plaited in threads, fcarcely thicker than 
fowing-filk. Sir Jofeph Banks has pieces of it above a 
mile in length, without a knot. Their perfonal orna¬ 
ments, befides flowers, are few: both fexes Wear ear- rings, 
but they are placed only on one fide; when our naviga¬ 
tors came, they confifted of (mail pieces of (hell, ftones, 
berries, red peafe, or fome fmall pearls, three in a firing; 
but the beads brought by captain Cook very foon fup- 
planted them all. The children go quite naked ; the 
girls till they are three or four years old, and the boys 
till they are fix or feven. 
The dwellings of thefe people are all built in the woods, 
between thefea and the mountains, and no more ground 
is cleared for each houfe than juft fuflicient to prevent the 
dropping of the branches from rotting the thatch with 
which they are covered. From the houfe, therefore, the 
inhabitants ftep immediately under the fhade, which is 
the moft delightful that can be imagined. It confifts of 
groves of bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, without under¬ 
wood, which are interfered, in all directions, by the 
paths that lead from one houfe to the other. The ground 
on which the houfe is built is an oblong fquare, twenty- 
four feet long, and eleven wide ; over this a roof is raifed, 
upon three rows of pillars or ports, parallel to each other, 
one on each fide, and the other in the middle. The ut- 
moft height within is about nine feet, and the eaves on 
each fide reach to within about three feet and a half of 
the ground : below this, and through the whole height at 
each end, it is open, no part of it being inclofed with a 
wall. The roof is thatched with palm-leaves, and the 
floor is covered, fome inches deep, with foft hay; over 
this are laid mats, fo that the whole is one culhion, upon 
which they fit in the day, and fleep in the night. In fome 
houfes, however, there is one ftool, which is wholly ap¬ 
propriated to the mafter of the family; befides this, they 
have no furniture, except a few little blocks of wood, the 
upper fide of which is hollowed into a curve, and which 
ferve them for pillows. The houfe is, indeed, principally 
ufed as a dormitory ; for, except it rains, they eat in the 
open air, under the fhade of the next tree. The clothes 
that they wear in the day, ferve them for covering in the 
night; the floor is the common bed of the whole houfe- 
hold, and is not divided by any partition. The mafter 
of the houfe and his wife fleep in the middle, next to them 
the married people, next to them the unmarried women, 
and next to them, at a little diftance, the unmarried men ; 
the fervants fleep in the open air, except it rains, and in 
that cafe they come juft within the Ihed. There are, 
however, houfes of another kind, belonging to the chiefs, 
in which there is fome degree of privacy. Thefe are much 
fmaller, and fo conftru&ed as to be carried about from place 
to place, and fet up occafionally, like a tent; they are in- 
doled on the fides with cocoa-nut leaves, but not fo clofe 
as to exclude the air, and the chief and his wife fleep in 
them alone. There are houfes alfo of a much larger fize, 
not built either for the accommodation of a Angle chief 
or a Angle family, but as common receptacles for all the 
people of a diftrift. Some of them are 200 feet long, thirty 
broad, and, under the ridge, twenty feet high; thefe are 
built and maintained at the common expenfe of the dif- 
trift, for the accommodation of which they are intended. 
Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1222. 
E I T E. 41 
nut, which they flick one above another in a fkewer that 
is thruft through the middle of them; the upper one, 
being lighted, burns to the fecond, at the fame time con- 
fuming that part of the fkewer that goes through it; the 
fecond, taking fire, burns in the fame manner down to the 
third, and fo to the laft : they burn a confiderable time, 
and afford a pretty good light; fo that the candle and the 
candleftick burn out together. No very great quantity, 
however, of thefe is ufed, as the natives generally retire 
to reft about an hour after it is dark. 
The food of the common people entirely confifts of ve¬ 
getables. Thefe are, the bread-fruit, with bananas, plan¬ 
tains, yams, apples, and a four fruit, which, though not 
pleafant byitfelf, gives an agreeable relifh to roafted bread¬ 
fruit, with which it is frequently beaten up. The flefh, 
which is referved for the tables of the great, is either poul¬ 
try, hogs, or dogs; the flefh of their fowls is not well- 
talled, but that of dogs is efteemed by the natives beyond 
pork. The fmaller filh are generally eaten raw, as we eat 
oyfters : every thing that can be procured from the fea is 
made an article of their food ; for they will eat not only 
fea-infe£ls, but what the feamen call blubbers, though 
fome of them are fo tough that they are obliged to fuffer 
them to become putrid before they can be chewed. A 
very large fhark, being caught by the Dolphin’s people, 
was given to the natives; who foon cut it to pieces, and 
carried it away with great fatisfadlion. 
They kill the animals they intend for food by fuffocat- 
ing them, which is done by flopping the mouth and nofe ’ 
with their hands; they then finge off the hair, by hold¬ 
ing the animal over a fire, and fcraping it with a fhell : 
with this inftrument they cut it up, and take out the en¬ 
trails ; which are wafhed, and put into cocoa-nut (hells, 
together with the blood. Dogs that are eaten are fed 
wholly upon bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, yams, and other ve¬ 
getables, and are never differed to tafte animal food ; and 
thofe who have tailed the flefh of a dog thus fed, have 
declared it to be little inferior to Englifh lamb. In order 
to drefs their food, they kindle a fire, by rubbing the end 
'of one piece of dry wood upon the fide of another, in the 
fame manner as a carpenter with us whets a chifel. They 
then dig a pit about half a foot deep, and two or three 
yards in circumference; they pave the bottom with large 
pebble ftones, which they lay down very fmooth and even, 
and then kindle a fire in it with dry wood, leaves, and 
the hufks of cocoa-nuts. When the ftones are fufliciently 
heated, they take out the embers, and rake up the afhes 
on every fide; they then cover the ftones with a layer of 
green cocoa-nut leaves, and wrap up the animal that is to 
be drefled in the leaves of the plantain. If it is a fmall 
hog, they wrap it up whole; if a large one, they fplit it. 
When it is placed in the pit, they cover it with the hot 
embers, and lay upon them bread-fruit and yams, which 
are alfo wrapped up in the leaves of plantain. Over thefe 
they fpread the remainder of the embers, mixing among 
them fome of the hot ftones, with more cocoa-nut tree 
leaves upon them, and then clofe up all with earth, fo 
that the heat is kept in; the oven is kept thus clofed a 
longer or fhorter time, according to the fize of the meat 
that is drefled. They ufe (hells for knives; and carve 
very dexteroufly with them, always cutting from them- 
felves, like the Jefuits. 
They were quite unacquainted with the method of boil¬ 
ing water, as they had no veffels among them that would 
bear the fire. The gunner of the (hip, who was appointed 
comptroller of the market which w'as eftablilhed on-fiiore 
with the natives, ufed to dine on the fpot; the aftoniih- 
ment of thefe people was very great to fee him drefs his 
pork and poultry in a pot; at length an old man, who was 
extremely ferviceable in bringing down provifions to be 
exchanged, was put into poileffion of an iron pot, and 
from that time he and his friends ate boiled meat every 
day. Several iron pots were likewife given to queen 
Oberea and fome of the chiefs. 
M 
Salt 
