128 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
ment furnished matter of ridicule even for the natives 
themselves, and is now never seen. 
European articles of dress are in the greatest de¬ 
mand 5 this method of clothing being adopted by all 
whose means enable them to procure either cotton or 
woollen cloth; and there are few, who, by prepar¬ 
ing arrow-root, feeding pigs, manufacturing cocoa-nut 
oil, or other labour, cannot purchase from the ship¬ 
ping a suit of foreign clothing. I have frequently been 
delighted to see families of natives going on board 
the vessels, or repairing to the market-house on shore, 
with the produce of their labour; and when they have 
arrived at the place of barter, and the captain or the 
merchant has spread before them his attractive goods, 
glossy and bright in all the shining colours of which 
they are so fond; the parents^ eye has often glanced 
over them, in wonder when and how they were 
made. They have been seen occasionally looking down 
to notice what had attracted the attention of a little 
boy or girl, standing, perhaps, beside them; and if they 
thought the child could not distinctly see the different 
pieces, they have lifted it up, that it might look over 
the table, and then have asked the child which it would 
like to have. Sometimes the child would smile and hang 
its head, and fall upon its mother’s shoulder, as if it knew 
not which to choose. At other times it would point 
to one, upon which the merchant has been directed 
to cut off so much as would make a frock or gown : 
it has been folded up and given to the child; and while 
the parent’s eye has marked the pleasure of the child 
as it held the new frock on its arm, the smile on their 
own countenances has declared the pleasure they ex¬ 
perienced. In many instances I have seen a garment 
