THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
139 
yellow, and black. Their bracelets, which were alfo of 1779. 
great variety, and very peculiar kinds, have been already 
defcribed. 
At Atooi, fome of the women wore little figures of the 
turtle, neatly formed of wood or ivory, tied on their fingers 
in the manner we wear rings. Why this animal is thus 
particularly diftinguifhed, I leave to the conjectures of the 
curious. There is alfo an ornament made of fhells, fattened 
in rows on a ground of ftrong netting, fo as to ftrike each 
other when in motion; which both men and women, when 
they dance, tie either round the arm or the ankle, or below 
the knee. Inftead of fhells, they fometimes make ufe of 
dogs teeth, and a hard red berry, refembling that of the 
holly. 
There remains to be mentioned another ornament (if 
fuch it may be called), the figure of which may be better 
conceived from the annexed print, than any written de¬ 
scription. It is a kind of mafk, made of a large gourd, 
with holes cut in it for the eyes and nofe. The top was ftuck 
full of fmall green twigs, which, at a dittance, had the ap¬ 
pearance of an elegant waving plume ; and from the lower 
part hung narrow ftripes of cloth, refembling a beard. We 
never faw thefe mafks worn but twice, and both times by a 
number of people together in a canoe, who came to the fide 
of the fhip, laughing and drolling, with an air of mafque- 
rading. Whether they may not likewife be ufed as a de¬ 
fence for the head againft ftones, for which they feem belt 
defigned, or in fome of their public games, or be merely in¬ 
tended for the purpofes of mummery, we could never in¬ 
form ourfelves. 
It has already been remarked, in a few inftances, that 
the natives of the Sandwich Iflands approach nearer to the 
T 2 New 
