' NATIVE SHAVING. 
133 
has been worn remarkably neat: the men’s hair is 
usually short, the females the same, excepting in 
the front, though some wear it long, curled in 
front, and bound up on the crown. 
Nothing at first sight produces a stronger im¬ 
pression on the most careless observer, in the dif¬ 
ference between the inhabitants of an island where 
paganism prevails, and those of one where Chris¬ 
tianity has been introduced, than the appearance 
of their hair. I have often seen one who was an 
idolater, or who had but recently embraced 
Christianity, and whose hair was uncut and his 
beard unshaven, standing in a group of Christians, 
and I have been struck with the contrast. 
Sometimes the men plucked the beard out by 
the roots, shaved it off with a shark’s tooth, or 
removed it with the edges of two shells, acting 
like the blades of a pair of scissors, by cutting 
against each other; while others allowed the beard 
to grow, sometimes twisting and braiding it toge¬ 
ther. These fashions,however, have all disappeared, 
and the beard is generally at least shaved once a 
week, and by the chiefs more frequently. These cut 
their whiskers rather singularly sometimes, and leave 
a narrow strip of their beard on the upper lip, resem¬ 
bling mustachios : the greater part, however, re¬ 
move the beard altogether, which must often be no 
easy task. There are no barbers by profession, yet 
every man is not his own barber, but contrives to 
shave his neighbour, and is in return shaved by 
him. Some of the most ludicrous scenes ever ex¬ 
hibited in the islands occur while they are thus 
employed. Only a few of the chiefs are so far 
advanced in civilization as to use soap ; the farmers 
cannot understand how it can help to remove the 
beard, they therefore dispense with it altogether. 
