266 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
part of the body ; muskets, swords, pistols, clubs, 
spears, and other weapons of war, are also stamped 
upon their arms or chest. 
They are not all crowded upon the same per¬ 
son, but each one makes a selection according to 
his fancy; and I have frequently thought the 
tatauing on a man’s person might serve as an 
index to his disposition and his character. The 
neck and throat were sometimes singularly marked. 
The head and the ears were also tataued, though 
among the Tahitians this ornament was seldom 
applied to the face. 
The females used the tatau more sparingly than 
the men, and with greater taste. It was always 
the custom of the natives to go barefooted, and 
the feet, to an inch above the ankles, of the chief 
women, were often neatly tataued; appearing as 
if they wore a loose sandal, or elegant open-worked 
boot. The arms were frequently marked with cir¬ 
cles, their fingers with rings, and their wrists with 
bracelets. The thin transparent skin over the black 
dye, often gave to the tatau a tinge of blue. 
The females seldom, if ever, marked their faces; 
the figures on their feet and hands were all the 
ornaments they exhibited. Many suffered much 
from the pain occasioned by the operation, and 
from the swelling and inflammation that followed, 
which often continued for a long time, and ulti¬ 
mately proved fatal. This, however, seldom de¬ 
terred others from attempting to secure this badge 
of distinction or embellishment of person. 
On account of the immoral practices invariably 
connected with the process of tatauing, the chiefs 
prohibited it altogether, and, excepting a few 
foreign seamen, who often evinced as great a desire 
to have some figure tataued on their arms or hands, 
