TATAUING. 265 
like reptiles, which are very significant emblems 
of their own mischievous nature.’ , 
The Tahitian tatauing is more simple, and dis- 
plays greater taste and elegance than either of the 
others. Though some of the figures are arbitrary, 
such as stars, circles, lozenges, &c.; the patterns 
are usually taken from nature, and are often some 
of the most graceful. A cocoa-nut tree is a 
favourite object; and I have often admired the 
taste displayed in the marking of a chiefs’ legs, 
when I have seen a cocoa-nut tree correctly and 
distinctly drawn, its root spreading at the heel, its 
elastic stalk pencilled as it were along the tendon, 
and its waving plume gracefully spread out on the 
broad part of the calf. Sometimes a couple of 
stems would be twined up from the heel, and 
divided on the calf, each bearing a plume of 
leaves. 
The ornaments round the ankle, and upon the 
instep, make them often appear as if they bore the 
elegant eastern sandal. The sides of the legs are 
sometimes tataued from the ankle upward, which 
gives the appearance of wearing pantaloons with 
ornamented seams. From the lower part of the 
back, a number of straight, waved, or zigzag lines, 
rise in the direction of the spine, and branch off 
regularly towards the shoulders. But, of the upper 
part of the body, the chest is the most tataued, 
Every variety of figure is to be seen here: cocoa- 
nut and bread-fruit trees, with convolvolus wreaths 
hanging round them, boys gathering the fruit, men 
engaged in battle, in the manual exercise, triumph- 
ing over a fallen foe; or, as I have frequently seen 
it, they are represented as carrying a human sacri- 
fice to the temple. Every kind of animal—goats, 
dogs, fowls, and fish—may at times be seen on this 
