178 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
invention, skill, and attention to comfort, and 
show that the natives were even then far removed 
from a state of barbarism. They also warranted 
the inference that they were not deficient in capa¬ 
city for improvement, and that, with better models 
and tuition, they would improve in the cultivation 
of every art of civilized life, especially when they 
should be put in possession of iron and iron tools, 
as those they had heretofore used were rude stone 
adzes, or chisels of bone. 
It is, however, proper to remark, that although 
all were capable of building good native houses, 
and many erected comfortable dwellings, yet great 
numbers, from indolence or want of tools, reared 
only temporary and wretched huts, as unsightly in 
the midst of the beautiful landscape, as they were 
unwholesome and comfortless to their abject in¬ 
habitants. 
The dress of the islanders was various as to 
its form, colour, and texture. It was neither 
cumbrous nor costly, but always light and loose; 
and though singular, often elegant. Wool, cot¬ 
ton, and silk were formerly unknown among them* 
The prince and the peasant, the warrior and 
the voluptuary, were clad in vestments of the 
same materials. The head was uncovered, ex¬ 
cepting when adorned with flowers, and the 
brow was occasionally shaded by a light skreen of 
cocoa-nut leaves. The dress of the sexes differed 
but little ; both wore the pareu , or folds of cloth, 
round the waist. The men, however, wore the 
maro or girdle, and the tiputa or poncho, while the 
females wore over their shoulders the light ahupu 
or ahutiapono, in the form of a vest, or loose scarf 
or shawl. 
Next, to those kinds of labour necessary to 
