POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
131 
oppressive influence^ is probably to be found in their 
being early exposed, and constantly habituated to the 
climate. 
Early in the year 1820, another important change took 
place in the dress of the Society Islanders; affecting not 
only their appearance, but tending perhaps ultimately 
to alter their physical structure. This was the intro- 
duction of hats and bonnets. If the skulls of those na¬ 
tions that wear no covering on their heads, are thicker 
than those who do, there is reason to suppose the cra- 
niums of the Tahitians will be much thinner in a few 
generations, than they have been prior to this period; 
since, from their earliest history, they appear to have 
gone abroad bareheaded. The inhabitants formerly wore 
a kind of bonnet, or rather, shade for the eyes, made of 
the leaves of the cocoa-nut in a variety of forms, many 
of them tasteful and elegant. They were called tau^ 
poo or taumata^ and, as the latter name signifies, were 
designed to skreen the face or eyes 5 it being composed 
of tau^ to hang upon or over, and mata, face or eyes. It 
was worn on the forehead immediately below the hair, 
and fastened by a narrow leaflet passing round the back 
of the head above each of the ears, leaving the whole of 
the back and upper part of the head entirely exposed. 
The first native bonnet we have heard of, as manufac¬ 
tured in the islands, was finished, while we resided 
in Afareaitu, by Mrs. Ellis. It was made for our infant 
daughter, with leaflets of the fan-leaved palm, brought 
from the Marquesas ; and the first hat we ever saw that 
had been made there, was one Mrs. Ellis made for me at 
Huahine, with the same kind of leaves, which were, 
platted by a sailor in Eimeo. Hats and bonnets were, 
however, introduced among the natives by our friends in 
