A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

Their ornaments are amulets, necklaces, and bracelets of bones, shells, and beads of mother-of-pearl,tortoise-shell, &c. which are worn by both sexes. The women also wear on their fingers neat rings made oftortoise-shell, and pieces in their ears about the size of a small quill; but ear ornaments are not commonlyworn, though all have their ears pierced. They have also a curious apron made of the outside fibres of thecocoa-nut shell, and composed of a number of small pieces sewed together in such a manner as to formstars, half-moons, little squares, &c. It is studded with beads of shells, and covered with red feathers, so asto have a pleasing effect. They make the same kind of cloth, and of the same materials, as at Otaheite;though they have not such a variety, nor do they make any so fine; but, as they have a method of glazing it,it is more durable, and will resist rain for some time, which Otaheite cloth will not. Their colours are black,brown, purple, yellow, and red; all made from vegetables. They make various sorts of matting; some of avery fine texture, which is generally used for clothing; and the thick and stronger sort serves to sleep on,and to make sails for their canoes, &c. Among other useful utensils, they have various sorts of baskets;some are made of the same materials as their mats; and others of the twisted fibres of cocoa-nuts. These arenot only durable but beautiful; being generally composed of different colours, and studded with beadsmade of shells or bones. They have many little nick-nacks amongst them; which shews that they neitherwant taste to design, nor skill to execute, whatever they take in hand.How these people amuse themselves in their leisure hours, I cannot say, as we are but little acquainted withtheir diversions. The women frequently entertained us with songs, in a manner which was agreeableenough. They accompany the music by snapping their fingers, so as to keep time to it. Not only theirvoices, but their music was very harmonious, and they have a considerable compass in their notes. I sawbut two musical instruments amongst them. One was a large flute made of a piece of bamboo, which theyfill with their noses as at Otaheite; but these have four holes or stops, whereas those of Otaheite have onlytwo. The other was composed of ten or eleven small reeds of unequal lengths, bound together side by side,as the Doric pipe of the ancients is said to have been; and the open ends of the reeds into which they blowwith their mouths, are of equal height, or in a line. They have also a drum, which, without any impropriety,may be compared to an hollow log of wood. The one I saw was five feet six inches long, and thirty inchesin girt, and had a slit in it, from the one end to the other, about three inches wide, by means of which it hadbeen hollowed out. They beat on the side of this log with two drum-sticks, and produce an hollow sound,not quite so musical as that of an empty cask.The common method of saluting one another is by touching or meeting noses, as is done in New Zealand,and their sign of peace to strangers, is the displaying a white flag or flags; at least such were displayed tous, when we first drew near the shore. But the people who came first on board brought with them some ofthe pepper plant, and sent it before them into the ship; a stronger sign of friendship than which one couldnot wish for. From their unsuspicious manner of coming on board, and of receiving us at first on shore, Iam of opinion, they are seldom disturbed by either foreign or domestic troubles. They are, however, notunprovided with very formidable weapons; such as clubs and spears, made of hard wood, also bows andarrows. The clubs are from three to five feet in length, and of various shapes. Their bows and arrows arebut indifferent; the former being very slight, and the latter only made of a slender reed, pointed with hardwood. Some of their spears have many barbs, and must be very dangerous weapons where they take effect.On the inside of the bow is a groove, in which is put the arrow; from which it would seem that they use butone.They have a singular custom of putting every thing you give them to their heads, by way of thanks, as weconjectured. This manner of paying a compliment, is taught them from their very infancy; for when wegave things to little children, the mother lifted up the child's hand to its head. They also used this custom intheir exchanges with us; whatever we gave them for their goods, was always applied to the head, just as if