confidering they have no needle, is furprizing: but the great pride of their drefs confifts in the fur of their dogs, which they use with such economy that they cut it into ftripes, and few them upon their cloth at a distance from each other, which is a ftrong proof that dogs are not plenty among them; thefe ftripes are alfo of different colours, and disposed fo as to produce a pleafing effect. We faw fome dreffes that were adorned with feathers inftead of fur, but thefe were not common; and we faw one that was entirely covered with the red feathers of the parrot. -The drefs of the man who was killed, when we first went ashore in Poverty Bay, has been defcribed already; but we faw the fame drefs only once more during our ftay upon the coaft, and that was in Queen Charlotte's Sound. The women, contrary to the cuftom of the fex in general, feemed to affect drefs rather less. than the men: their hair, which, as I have obferved before, is generally cropt fhort, is never tied upon the top of the head when it is fuffered to be long, nor is it ever adorned with feathers. Their garments were made of the fame materials, and in the fame form, as thofe of the other fex, but the lower one was always bound fast round them, except when they went into the water to catch lobsters, and then they took great care not to be seen by the men. us happening one day to land upon Some of a small 1770. March 1770. March. island in Tolaga Bay, we surprised several of them at this employment; and the chafte Diana, with her nymphs, could not have difcovered more confufion and distress at the fight of Actæon, than thefe women expreffed upon our approach. Some of them hid themselves among the rocks, and the reft crouched down in the fea till they had made themselves a girdle and apron of fuch weeds as they could find, and when they came out, even with this veil, we could perceive that their modesty suffered much pain by our prefence. The girdle and apron which they wear in common, have been mentioned before. Both fexes bore their ears, and by stretching them the holes become large enough to admit à finger at least. In these holes they wear ornaments of various kinds, cloth, feathers, bones of large birds, and even sometimes a stick of wood; and to thefe receptacles of finery they generally applied the nails which we gave them, and every thing which it was poffible they could contain. The women fometimes thrust through them the down of the albatrofs, which is as white as fnow, and which, fpreading before and behind the hole in a bunch almost as big as the fift, makes a very fingular, and however strange it may be thought, not a difagreeable appearance. Befides the ornaments that are thrust through the holes of the ears, many others are fufpended March. fufpended to them by ftrings; fuch as chiffels 1770. or bodkins made of green talc, upon which they fet a high value, the nails and teeth of their deceased relations, the teeth of dogs, and every thing else that they can get, which they think either curious or valuable. The women also wear bracelets and anclets, made of the bones of birds, fhells, or any other fubftances which they can perforate and string upon a thread. The men had sometimes hanging to a ftring, which went round the neck, a piece of green talc, or whalebone, fomewhat in the fhape of a tongue, with the rude figure of a man carved upon it; and upon this ornament they fet a high value. In one instance, we saw the griftle that divides the noftrils, and called by anatomifts, the feptum nafi, perforated, and a feather thruft through the hole, which projected on each fide over the cheeks: it is probable that this frightful fingularity was intended as an ornament, but of the many people we saw, we never observed it in any other, nor even a perforation that might occafionally ferve for such a purpose. Their houses are the most inartificially made Houses, of any thing among them, being scarcely equal, except in fize, to an English dog-kennel: they are feldom more than eighteen or twenty feet long, eight or ten broad, and five or fix high, from the pole that runs from one end to the other, VOL. III. Cc 1770. March. Furniture. other, and forms the ridge, to the ground: the framing is of wood, generally flender sticks, and both walls and roof confift of dry grass and hay, which, it must be confeffed, is very tightly put together; and fome are alfo lined with the bark of trees, fo that in cold weather they must afford a very comfortable retreat. The roof is floping, like those of our barns, and the door is at one end, just high enough to admit a man, creeping upon his hands and knees: near the door is a fquare hole, which ferves the double office of window and chimney, for the fireplace is at that end, nearly in the middle between the two fides in fome confpicuous part, and generally near the door, a plank is fixed, covered with carving after their manner: this they value as we do a picture, and in their eftimation it is not an inferior ornament: the fide-walls and roof project about two feet beyond the walls - at each end, so as to form a kind of porch, in which there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That part of the floor which is allotted for the fire-place, is enclosed in a hollow fquare, by partitions either of wood or stone, and in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor, along the infide of the walls, is thickly covered with ftraw, and upon this the family fleep. Their furniture and implements confift of but few articles, and one cheft commonly con 21 tains tains them all, except their provifion-baskets, the gourds that hold their fresh water, and the hammers that are used to beat their fern-root; which generally stand without the door: fome rude tools, their cloaths, arms, and a few feȧthers to stick in their hair, make the reft of their treasure. Some of the better fort, whofe families are large, have three or four houses enclosed within a court-yard, the walls of which are constructed of poles and hay, and are about ten or twelve feet high. When we were on fhore in the district called Tolaga, we faw the ruins, or rather the frame of a house, for it had never been finished, much fuperior in fize to any that we saw elsewhere: it was thirty feet in length, about fifteen in breadth, and twelve high: the fides of it were adorned with many carved planks, of a workmanship much fuperior to any other that we had met with in the country; but for what purpose it was built, or why it was deferted, we could never learn. But these people, though in their houses they are fo well defended from the inclemency of the weather, seem to be quite indifferent whether they have any shelter at all during their excur fions in search of fern-roots and fish, sometimes fetting up a small shade to windward, and fometimes altogether neglecting even that precaution, fleeping Cc 2 1770. March. |