264 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
fishes, fastened with fine thread to a small stick. 
Another stick, somewhat heavier, was also used, to 
strike the above when the skin was perforated. 
The figure, or pattern to be tataued, was portrayed 
upon the skin with a piece of charcoal, though at 
times the operation was guided only by the eye. 
When the idolatrous ceremonies attending its 
commencement were finished, the performer, im¬ 
mersing the points of the sharp bone instrument 
in the colouring matter, which was a beautiful 
jet, applied it to the surface of the skin, and, 
striking it smartly with the elastic stick which he 
held in his right hand, punctured the skin, and in¬ 
jected the dye at the same time, with as much 
facility as an adder would bite, and deposit her 
poison. 
So long as the person could endure the pain, 
the operator continued his work, but it was seldom 
that a whole figure was completed at once. Hence 
it proved a tedious process, especially with those 
who had a variety of patterns, or stained the 
greater part of their bodies. Both sexes were 
tataued. 
The tatauing of the Sandwich and Palliser 
Islanders, though sometimes abundant, is the 
rudest I have seen; that of the New Zealanders 
and the Marquesians is very ingenious, though 
different in its kind. The former consists prin¬ 
cipally in narrow, circular, or curved lines, on dif¬ 
ferent parts of the face ; the lines in the latter were 
broad and straight, interspersed with animals, and 
sometimes covered the body so as nearly to con¬ 
ceal the original colour of the skin, and almost 
even to warrant the description given by Schouten 
of the inhabitants of Dog Island, who, he observes, 
“ were marked with snakes and dragons, and such 
