262 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
ference of the mother has been resisted by the child. 
Their years of childhood and youth were passed in 
indolence, irregularity, and the unrestrained indul¬ 
gence in whatever afforded gratification. One of 
the earliest and singular usages to which they 
attended was that of tatauing or marking the skin. 
This was generally commenced at the age of eight 
or ten years, and continued at intervals, perhaps, 
till the individual was between twenty and thirty. 
Tatauing, usually called tatooing, is not confined 
to them, but pervades the principal groups, and is 
extensively practised by the Marquesians and New 
Zealanders. Although practised by all classes, I 
have not been able to trace its origin. It is by 
some adopted as a badge of mourning, or memorial 
of a departed friend ; and from the figures we have 
sometimes seen upon the persons of the natives, 
and the conversation we have had, we should be 
induced to think it was designed as a kind of his¬ 
torical record of the principal actions of their lives. 
But it was adopted by the greater number of the 
people merely as a personal adornment; and tra¬ 
dition informs us, that to this it owes its existence. 
The following is the native account of the origin 
of tatauing. Hina, the daughter of the god Taa- 
roa, bore to her father a daughter, who was called 
Apouvaru, and who also became the wife of Taa- 
roa. Taaroa and Apouvaru looked stedfastly at 
each other, and Apouvaru, in consequence, after- 
wards brought forth her first-born, who was called 
Matamataaru. Again the husband and the wife 
looked at each other, and she became the mother 
of a second son, who was called Tiitiipo. After a 
repetition of this visual intercourse, a daughter was 
born, who was called Hinaereeremonoi. As she 
grew up, in order to preserve her chastity, she was 
