1769.

it rains they are put on in many different ways, just as their fancy leads them; for in their garments nothing is cut into fhape, nor any two pieces fewed together. The drefs of the better fort of women confits of three or four pieces; one piece, about two yards wide and eleven yards long, they wrap feveral times round their waift, fo as to hang down like a petticoat as low as the middle of the leg, and this they call Parou; two or three other pieces, about two yards and an half long and one wide, each having a hole cut in the middle, they place one upon another, and then putting the head through the holes, they bring the long ends down before and behind, the others remain open at the fides, and give liberty to the arms: this, which they call the Tebuta, is gathered round the waist, and confined with a girdle or fafh of thinner cloth, which is long enough to go many times round them, and exactly refembles the garments worn by the inhabitants of Peru and Chili, which the Spaniards call Poncho. The drefs of the men is the fame; except that instead of suffering the cloth that is wound about the hips to hang down like a petticoat, they bring it between their legs, fo as to have fome refemblance to breeches, and it is then called Maro. This is the dress of all ranks of people, and being univerfally the fame as to form the gentlemen and ladies diftinguish themselves from the lower people by the quantity; fome of them will wrap round them several pieces of cloth, eight or ten yards long, and two or three broad; and fome throw a large piece loosely over their fhoulders, in the manner of a cloak, or perhaps two pieces, if they are very great personages, and are defirous to appear in ftate. The inferior fort, who have only a finall allowance of cloth from the tribes or families to which they belong, are obliged to be more thinly clad. In the heat of the day they appear almost naked, the women having only a fcanty petticoat, and the men nothing but the fafh that is paffed between their legs and faftened round the waift. As finery is always troublefome, and particularly in a hot country, where it confifts in putting one covering upon another, the women of rank always uncover themselves as low as the waist in the evening, throwing off all that they wear on the

upper

upper part of the body, with the fame negligence and ease as our ladies would lay by a cardinal or double handkerchief. And the Chiefs, even when they vifited us, though they had as much cloth round their middle as would clothe a dozen people, had frequently the rest of the body quite naked.

Upon their legs and feet they wear no covering; but they shade their faces from the fun with little bonnets, either of matting or of cocoa-nut leaves, which they make occafionally in a few minutes. This, however, is not all their head-drefs; the women fometimes wear little turbans, and fometimes a dress which they value much more, and which, indeed, is much more becoming, called Tomou; the Tomou confifts of human hair, plaited in threads, fcarcely thicker than sewing filk. Mr. Banks has pieces of it above a mile in length, without a knot. Th fe they wind round the head in fuch a manner as produces a very pretty effect, and in a very great quantity; for I have feen five or fix fuch pieces wound about the head of one woman: among these threads they flick flowers of various kinds, particularly the cape-jeffamine, of which they have great plenty, as it is always planted near their houfes. The men sometimes flick the tail feather of the Topic-bird upright in their hair, which, as I have observed before, is often tied in a bunch upon the top of their heads: fometimes they wear a kind of whimsical garland, made of flowers of various kinds, stuck into a piece of the rind of plantain ; or of fcarlet peas, ftuck with gum upon a piece of wood and fometimes they wear a kind of wig, made of the hair of men or dogs, or perhaps of cocoa-nut ftrings, woven upon one thread, which is tied under their hair, fo that these artificial honours of their head may hang down behind. Their perfonal ornaments, befides flowers, are few; both fexes wear ear-rings, but they are placed only on one fide: when we came they confifted of fmall pieces of fhell, ftone, berries, red peas, or fome fmall pearls, three in a string; but our beads very foon fupplanted them all.

The children go quite naked; the girls till they are three or four years old, and the boys till they are fix or feven.

The

1769.

1769.

2

The houses, or rather dwellings, of these peoples have been occafionally mentioned before: they are all built in the wood, between the fea and the mountains, and no more ground is cleared for each house, than just fufficient to prevent the dropping of the branches from rotting the thatch with which they are covered; from the houfe, therefore, the inhabitant steps immediately under the shade, which is the moft delightful that can be imagined. It confifts of groves of bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, without underwood, which are interfected, in all directions, by the paths that lead from one house to the other. Nothing can be more grateful than this shade in fo warm a climate, nor any thing more beautiful than these walks. As there is no underwood, the fhade cools without impeding the air; and the houses, having no walls, receive the gale from whatever point it blows. I fhall now give a particular defcription of a house of a middling fize, from which, as the structure is univerfally the fame, a perfect idea may be formed both of those that are bigger, and thofe that are lefs.

The ground which it covers is an oblong fquare, four and twenty feet long, and eleven wide; over this a roof is raised, upon three rows of pillars or pofts, parallel to each other, one on each fide, and the other in the middle. This roof consists of two flat fides inclining to each other, and terminating in a ridge, exactly like the roofs of our thatched houfes in England. The utmost height within is about nine feet, and the eaves on each fide reach to within about three feet and an half of the ground: below this, and through the whole height at each end, it is open, no part of it being inclofed with a wall. The roof is thatched with palm-leaves, and the floor is covered, fome inches deep, with foft hay; over this are laid mats, fo that the whole is one cushion, upon which they fit in the day, and fleep in the night. In fome houses, however, there is one ftool, which is wholly appropriated to the master of the family; befides this, they have no furniture, except a few little blocks of wood, the upper fide of which is hollowed into a curve, and which serve them for pillows.

The

'The house is indeed principally ufed as a dormito- 1769. ry; for, except it rains, they eat in the open air, under the fhade of the next tree. The clothes that they wear in the day, ferve them for covering in the night: the floor is the common bed of the whole household, and is not divided by any partition. The master of the houfe and his wife fleep in the middle, next to them the marrried people, next to them the unmarried women, and next to them, at a little distance, the unmarried men; the fervants, or Toutous, as they are called, fleep in the open air, except it rains, and in that cafe they come juft within the shed.

There are, however, houfes of another kind, belonging to the Chiefs, in which there is fome degree of privacy. These are much fmaller, and fo conftructed as to be carried about in their canoes from place to place, and fet up occafionally, like a tent ; they are inclosed on the fides with cocoa-nut leaves, but not fo clofe as to exclude the air, and the Chief and his wife fleep in them alone.

There are houfes alfo of a much larger fize, not built either for the accommodation of a fingle Chief, or a fingle family; but as common receptacles for all the people of a diftrict. Some of them are two hundred feet long, thirty broad, and, under the ridge, twenty feet high; thefe are built and maintained at the common expence of the diftri&t, for the accommo-, dation of which they are intended; and have on one fide of them a large area, inclosed with low pallifadoes.

Thefe houses, like those of separate families, have no walls. Privacy, indeed, is little wanted among people who have not even the idea of indecency, and who gratify every appetite and paffion before witnesses, with no more sense of impropriety than we feel when we fatisfy our hunger at a focial board with our family or friends. Those who have no idea of indecency with respect to actions, can have none with respect to words; it is, therefore, fcarcely neceffary to obferve, that, in the converfation of these people, that which is the principal fource of their pleasure, is always the principal topic and that every thing is mentioned without any restraint or emotion, and in the most direct terms, by both fexes.

Of

1769.

Food.

Of the food eaten here the greater part is vegetable. Here are no tame animals except hogs, dogs, and poultry, as I have obferved before, and thefe are by no means plenty. When a Chief kills a hog, it is almost equally divided among his dependants; and as they are very numerous, the fhare of each individual at thefe feafts, which are not frequent, muft neceffarily be fmall. Dogs and fowls fall fomewhat more frequently to the share of the common people. I cannot much commend the flavour of their fowls; but we all agreed, that a South-Sea dog was little inferior to an English lamb; their excellence is probably owing to their being kept up, and fed wholly upon vegetables. The fea affords them a great variety of fish. The fmaller fish, when they catch any, are generally eaten raw, as we eat oysters; and nothing that the fea produces comes amifs to them: they are fond of lobsters, crabs, and other shell fith, which are found upon the coaft; and they will eat not only fea-infects, but what the feamen call Blubbers, tho' fome of them are so tough, that they are obliged to fuffer them to become putrid before they can be chewed. Of the many vegetables that have been mentioned already as ferving them for food, the principal is the bread-fruit, to procure which, cofts them no trouble or labour but climbing a tree: the tree which produces it, does not indeed fhoot up fpontaneously; but if a man plants ten of them in his life-time, which he may do in about an hour, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations, as the native of our lefs temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, and reaping in the fummer's heat, as often as these seasons return, even if, after he has procured bread for his prefent household, he should convert a furplus into money, and lay it up for his children.

It is true, indeed, that the bread-fruit is not always in feafon; but cocoa-nuts, bananas, plantains, and a great variety of other fruits, fupply the deficiency.

It may well be fuppofed that cookery is but little ftudied by these people as an art; and, indeed, they have but two ways of applying fire to drefs their food, broiling and baking; the operation of broiling is fo fimple that it requires no defcription, and their baking

has