126 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
stretched through the legs, and the waistband buttoned 
round the chest. 
Their own dress was remarkably simple in its form 
and appearance, and was generally more or less adapted 
to their vocation. When employed in agricultural 
pursuits, or in fishing, in which occupation they were 
as much in the sea as out of it, the men seldom wore 
any other dress than their tihere or maroy a broad girdle 
passed several times round the body. At other times 
^ they wore a pareu^ which reached from the waist to the 
calf of the leg. Over the shoulders, when not at work, 
they wore a loose ahu huu^ a kind of scarf or mantle, in 
some degree resembling the Roman toga 5 or they ap¬ 
peared in the tiputa, an article of dress, having an 
aperture in the centre through which the head is passed, 
the other parts extending over the shoulders, breast, and 
back. The tiputa was generally worn by the chiefs and 
all persons of respectability. 
This article is common to all the South Sea 
Islanders, and resembles in every respect, excepting 
the material of which it is fabricated, the poncho worn 
by the aborigines of South America, inhabiting the 
countries adjacent to the Pacific. The combination 
of these with some parts of the men’s apparel worn 
in Europe, produced an effect less pleasing than the 
apparel of the females. Appearance and convenience, 
however, were not much considered by the Society 
Islanders, and it was often amusing to see a native 
sans culotte^ without waistcoat or shirt, with a maro 
or pareu round his waist, and a fashionably made black 
coat on his back. The men are generally above the 
middle stature, and proportionably stout, and few of 
the coats, &c. belonging to the captains or officers of 
