A VOYAGE TO 
148 
* 779’ heads. Captain Cook has already defcribed the figure of 
—— ■ the canoes we faw at Atooi. Thofe of the other iflands were 
precifely the fame ; and the largeft we faw was a double ca¬ 
noe belonging to Terreeoboo, which meafured feventy feet 
in length* three and a half in depth, and twelve in breadth; 
and each was hollowed out of one tree. 
The progrefs they have made in fculpture, their fkill in 
painting cloth, and their manufacturing of mats, have been 
all particularly defcribed. The moft curious fpecimens of 
the former, which we faw during our fecond vifit, are the , 
bowls, in which the Chiefs drink ava. Thefe are ufually 
about eight or ten inches in diameter, perfectly round, and 
beautifully polifhed. They are fupported by three, and: 
fometimes four, fmall human figures, in various attitudes*. 
Some of them reft on the hands of their fupporters, ex¬ 
tended over the head; others on the head and hands : and 
fome on the fhoulders. The figures, I am told,, are accu¬ 
rately proportioned, and neatly finifhed, and even the ana¬ 
tomy of the mufcles, in fupporting the weight, well ex- 
prefled. 
Their cloth is made of the fame materials, and in the 
fame manner, as at the Friendly and Society Iflands. That 
which is defigned to be painted, is of a thick and ftrong tex¬ 
ture, feveral folds being beat and incorporated together;- 
after which it is cut in breadths, about tw6 or three feet 
wide, and is painted in a variety of patterns, with a compre- 
henfivenefs and regularity of defign, that befpeaks infinite 
tafte and fancy. The exacftnefs with which the moft intri¬ 
cate patterns are continued, is the more furprizing, when 
we confider, that they have no ftamps, and that the whole 
is done by the eye, with pieces of bamboo cane dipped in 
paint; the hand being fupported by another piece of the 
cane, 
