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upon
the fpot. This however is comparatively nothing. If
any of the women happen to be with child, which in this
manner of life happens lefs frequently than if they were to
cohabit only with one man, the poor infant is fmothered the
moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the fa-
ther, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her diabo-
lical proftitution. It fometimes indeed happens, that the
paffion which prompts a woman to enter into this fociety, is
furmounted when she becomes a mother, by that instinctive
affection which Nature has given to all creatures for the pre-
fervation of their offspring; but even in this case, she is not
permitted to fpare the life of her infant, except fhe can find
a man who will patronise it as his child: if this can be done,
the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman,
being deemed by this act to have appropriated each other,
are ejected from the community, and forfeit all claim to the
privileges and pleasures of Arreoy for the future; the woman
from that time being distinguished by the term Whannownow,
"bearer of children," which is here a term of reproach;
though none can be more honourable in the estimation of
wisdom and humanity, of right reason, and every paffion
that distinguishes the man from the brute.

It is not fit that a practice fo horrid and so strange should be imputed to human beings upon flight evidence, but I have such as abundantly justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are so far from concealing their connection with such a society as a difgrace, that they boaft of it as a privilege; and both myself and Mr. Banks, when particular perfons have been pointed out to us as members of the Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. They have acknowledged, that they had long been of

this accurfed fociety, that they belonged to it at that time, and that several of their children had been put to death.

But I must not conclude my account of the domeftic life of these people without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which leffens the good of life and increases the evit is vice, furely cleanliness is a virtue: the want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and mingles disgust with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both men and women, conftantly wash their whole bodies in running water three times every day; once as foon as they rife in the morning, once at noon, and again before they fleep at night, whether the sea or river is near them or at a distance. I have already obferved, that they wash not only the mouth, but the hands at their meals, almoft between every morfel; and their clothes, as well as their perfons, are kept without spot or stain; so that in a large company of these people, nothing is fuffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said: of the politeft affembly in Europe.

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СНАР.

1769.

Manufac

tures.

CHA P. XVIII.

Of the Manufactures, Boats, and Navigation of Otaheite.

F neceffity is the mother of invention, it cannot be fupposed to have been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art almost fuperfluous; yet there are many inftances both of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, confidering the want of metal for tools, do honour to both.

Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dying of which I think there are fome particulars which may inftruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reafon my description will be more minute.

Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which resembles the wild figtree of the Weft Indies.

The finest and whiteft is made of the paper mulberry, Aouta; this is worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. A fecond fort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is made of the bread-fruit tree, Ooroo, and worn chiefly by the inferior people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkeft brown paper: this, though it is lefs pleafing both to the eye and the touch, is the most valuable, because it refifts water, which the other two forts will not. Of this, which is the moft rare as well as the most

ufeful,

ufeful, the greater part is perfumed, and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress.

All these trees are propagated with great care, particularly the mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is not fit for use after two or three year's growth, when it is about fix or eight feet high, and fomewhat thicker than a man's thumb; its excellence is to be thin, ftrait, tall, and without branches: the lower leaves, therefore, are carefully plucked off, with their germs, as often as there is any appearance of their producing a branch.

But though the cloth made of these three trees is different, it is all manufactured in the fame manner; I fhall, therefore, defcribe the process only in the fine fort, that is made of the mulberry. When the trees are of a proper fize, they are drawn up, and ftripped of their branches, after which the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of these rods being then flit up longitudinally is easily drawn off, and, when a proper quantity has been procured, it is carried down to fome running water, in which it is depofited to foak, and fecured from floating away by heavy stones: when it is fuppofed to be fufficiently foftened, the women fervants go down to the brook, and ftripping themfelves, fit down in the water, to separate the inner bark from the green part on the outside ; to do this they place the under fide upon a flat smooth board, and with the shell which our dealers call Tyger's tongue, Tellina gargadia, scrape it very carefully, dipping it continually in the water till nothing remains but the fine fibres of the inner coat. Being thus prepared in the afternoon, they are spread out upon plantain leaves in the evening; and in this part of the work there appears to be fome difficulty, as the mistress of the family always fuperintends the doing VOL. II. Ee of

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of it they are placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one by the fide of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are also laid one upon the other: care is taken that the cloth fhall be in all parts of an equal thickness, fo that if the bark happens to be thinner in any particular part of one layer than the reft, a piece that is fomewhat thicker is picked out to be laid over it in the next. In this ftate it remains till the morning, when great part of the water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or evaporated, and the feveral fibres adhere together, fo as that the whole may be raised from the ground in one piece.

It is then taken away, and laid upon the smooth side of a long piece of wood, prepared for the purpose, and beaten by the women fervants, with inftruments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hard wood which they call Etoa. The fhape of this inftrument is not unlike a fquare razor ftrop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its four fides or faces is marked, lengthways, with fmall grooves, or furrows, of different degrees of fineness; thofe on one fide being of a width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others finer in a regular gradation, fo that the last are not more than equal to fewing filk.

They beat it firft with the coarsest side of this mallet, keeping time like our fmiths; it spreads very fast under the ftrokes, chiefly however in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the appearance of threads; it is fucceffively beaten with the other fides, laft with the finest, and is then fit for ufe. Sometimes, however, it is made ftill thinner, by beating it with the finest fide of the mallet, after it has been feveral times doubled: it is then called Hoboo, and is almost as thin as a muflin; it becomes very white by being bleached