136 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
iiemselves for hours together in arranging the 
curls of the hair, weaving the wreaths of flowers, 
and filling the air with their perfumes. Their 
comb was a rude invention of their own, formed 
by fixing together thin strips of the bamboo-cane. 
So important was the arrangement and adorning 
of the hair formerly considered, that there was a 
god of hair-dressers or combers, called To-toro- 
potaa, whose aid was invoked at the toilet. Their 
mirror was one supplied by nature, and consisted 
in the clear water of the stream, contained in a 
cocoa-nut shell. 
The attention of the people to personal deco¬ 
ration rendered looking-glasses valuable articles of 
trade in their early intercourse with foreigners; 
and although the habit has very much declined, 
and their taste with regard to ornament, &c. is 
materially changed, looking-glasses are still, with 
many, desirable articles. Those, however, who 
have furnished them, have often made a mistake 
in sending, on account of their cheapness, an 
inferior kind, which, in consequence of a defect 
in the glass, exhibits the face in a distorted and 
ludicrous shape. Nothing will more offend a 
Tahitian than to ask him to look in one of these 
glasses. They call them hio maamaa , foolish 
glasses, and, instead of purchasing them, would 
sometimes hardly be induced to accept them as 
presents. 
Since the introduction of Christianity, the use 
of flowers in the hair, and fragrant oil, has been in 
a great degree discontinued—partly from the con¬ 
nexion of those ornaments with the evil practices 
to which they were formerly addicted, and partly 
from the introduction of European caps and 
bonnets, the latter being now universally worm 
