had been done in a loom, and is chiefly worn by the men, though it is made by .
the»women, who alfo carry burdens* and do all the drudgery. Their cloathing
confifts in a girdle of platted grafs, which they wear round their loins, having fome
leaves hung upon it, and a kind of grafs-rug cloak thrown over their fhoulders.
Many of the women, that we faw, had very good features, and not the favage
countenance one might exped j [fee pi. XIX.] their lips were, in general, ftained
of a blue colour, and feveral of them were fcratched all over their faces as if it
had been done with needles or pins. This, with a number of fears which we faw
on the bodies of the men, was done upon the deceafe of their relations. The
men have their hair tied up, but the womens hangs down ; nor do they wear
feathers in it, but adorn it with leaves. They feem to be proud of their fex, and
expedt you ihould give them every thing they defire, becaufe they are women;
but they take care to grant no favours in return, being very different from the
woftien in the iilands who were fo free with our men.
The men have a particular tafte for carving: their boats, paddles, boards to put
on their houfes, tops of walking fticks, and even their boats valens, are carved in
a variety of flouriihes, turnings and windings, that are unbroken * but their favourite
figure feems to be a volute, or ipiral, which they vary many ways, fingle,
double, and triple, and with as much truth as if done from mathematical draughts:
yet the only inftruments we have feen are a chizzel, and' an axe made of ftone. Their
fancy, indeed, is very wild and extravagant, and I have feen no imitations of nature
in any of their performances, unlefs the head, and the heart-ihaped tongue hanging
out of the mouth of it, may be called natural, [See pi. XXVI. fig. 16.]
The natives build their huts on riling ground under a tuft of trees ; they are of
an oblong fquare, and the eaves reach to the ground. The door is on one fide,
and very low; their windows are at one end, or both. The walls are compofed
of feveral layers of reeds covered with thatch, and are of cpnfiderable thicknefs.
Over the beams, that compofe the eaves, they lay a net made of grafs* which is
alfo thatched very clofe and thick. Their fires are made in the center upon the
floor, and the door ferves them for a chimney. Their houfes, therefore, of courfe,
muff be full of fmoke; and we obferved that every thing brought out of .them
fmelt ilrong of it 5 but ufe, which is a kind of fecond nature, makes them infenfible