5 9 4 R E M A R K S o n t h e
ready obferved, page 556. Though this-cuftom might appear very
Angular, it has been however ufual in. other nations. Th e women
of the Hottentots: fqueeze the, nofes- o f their, children flat ..with the
thumb : * and in Macaliar they, flatten., .the nofes ,of the children,
and repeat the operation feveral times. every day,- foftening. at the
fame time the nofe with oil or warm water. 4
It is a kind o f luxury introduced, at Taheitee, to anoint the, hair
with an odoriferous o i l ; and the fame cuftom has been obferved
among the inhabitants of the Maldive-iflands. J T h e natives of
Tanna are remarkable, for the growth o f hair on their body; we
obferved feveral individuals w h o , were very hairy, hardly one part
of their body being exempted from this extraordinary, g row th 'o f
hair; for I faw one, who was, even on his |back covered a l l .over
with hair. Nor is this'uncommon in . other places,, for the inha-'
bitants o f the Maldives were obferved to, be .more hairy over the
whole body, than the Europeans., [[,.
As to defedts and difeafes, we found forne in the ifles, which by
other navigators had been obferved in other places. In Tanna we.
faw men and children who could not lift up their eyelids, and were
therefore
* Kolben’s Defcription of the Cape of Good Hope, Englifh tranflation, vol. i. p, 52* -
-j- -Gomara Hifloria general de las Indias.
\ Pjrrard Voyages, vol, i, p, 80,
|| Idem, vol. i. p.'81.
* Dampier’s Voyage, vól. i. p. 464.
^ Francois Pyrard’s Voyages, vol. i. p. 280.
j Dampier’s Voyages^ vol.iii. p. i§6;