1769.

Of thefe verfes our knowlege of the language is too imperfect to attempt a tranflation. They frequently amufe themselves by finging fuch couplets as thefe when they are alone, or with their families, especially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not without the comfort of artificial light between funfet and bed-time. Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they flick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the fecond, at the fame time confuming that part of the skewer which goes through it; the fecond taking fire burns in the fame manner down to the third, and so of the reft: fome of thefe candles will burn a confiderable time; and they give a very tolerable light. They do not often fit up above an hour after it is dark; but when they have strangers who fleep in the house, they generally keep a light burning all night, poffibly as a check upon fuch of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours.

Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been faid already; especially as I fhall have occafion, more. particularly, to mention them when I relate our adventures upon another island.

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are fuppofed to be wholly ignorant of what others upon fome occafions may appear to know; and their conduct and converfation are confequently reftrained within narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever relates to a connection with the other fex: but here, it is juft contrary. Among other diverfions, there is a dance, called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, confifting of motions and geftures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which

they

they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were poffible, would more explicitly convey the fame ideas. In thefe dances they keep time with an exactnefs which is fcarcely excelled by the best performers upon the ftages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin, is prohibited to the woman® from the moment that he has put thefe hopeful leffons in practice, and realized the fymbols of the dance.

It cannot be fuppofed that, among thefe people, chastity is held in much eftimation. It might be expected that fifters and daughters would be offered to ftrangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, should not be otherwise punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a flight beating, as indeed is the cafe : but there is a scale in diffolute fenfuality, which these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the prefent hour, and which no imagination could poffibly conceive.

A very confiderable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both fexes, have formed themselves into a fociety, in which every woman is common to every man; thus fecuring a perpetual variety as often as their inclination prompts them to seek it, which is fo frequent, that the fame? man and woman feldom cohabit together more than two or three days.

These focieties are distinguished by the name of Arreoy ; and the members have meetings, at which no other is pre-fent, where the men amuse themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occafional connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude, as an› incitement to defires which it is faid are frequently gratified

1769

1769.

upon the spot. 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 father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her diabolical prostitution. 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 preservation of their offspring; but even in this case, she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except fhe can find a man who will patronife 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 wifdom and humanity, of right reafon, and every paffion that distinguishes the man from the brute.

It is not fit that a practice so 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 fo far from concealing their connection with fuch a fociety as a disgrace, 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 queftioned 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 domestic life of these people without mentioning their perfonal cleanliness. If that which leffens the good of life and increases the evil is vice, furely cleanliness is a virtue: the want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and mingles difgust with our beft 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 rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they sleep at night, whether the fea 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 flain; 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.

1769.

CHAP.

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 superfluous; yet there are many instances 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 some particulars which may instruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reafon my defcription 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 West 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 whitenefs and foftnefs, is made of the bread-fruit tree, Ooroo, and worn chiefly by the inferior people; and a third of the tree that refembles the fig, which is coarfe and harsh, and of the colour of the darkeft brown paper: this, though it is lefs pleasing 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 most rare as well as the most ufeful,