noses are not flat, nor are their lips thick; their teeth are white and even, and their hair naturally long and black, it is however universally cropped short; in general it is straight, but sometimes it has a slight curl; we saw none that was not matted and filthy, though without oil or grease, and to our great astonishment free from lice.  Their beards were of the same colour with their hair, and bushy and thick:  They are not however suffered to grow long.  A man whom we had seen one day with his beard somewhat longer than his companions, we saw the next, with it somewhat shorter, and upon examination found the ends of the hairs burnt:  From this incident, and our having never seen any sharp instrument among them, we concluded that both the hair and the beard were kept short by singeing them.[90]

[Footnote 90:  It is somewhat curious that almost all savages entertain an abhorrence at hair on any other part of the body than the head; and some of them even to that.  Two reasons, at least, may be assigned for it, both of them, however, somewhat hypothetical, it must be owned. 1.  Their admiration of youth—­the same principle which induces some civilized people to powder their heads, and dye their whiskers, &c. when assuming the silvery hue of age!  And, 2.  Their having learned by experience that it rendered them more obnoxious to vermin and filth.  The hair of the head is one of the finest objects in human beauty, and as such, probably in defiance of interlopers, has been generally saved in its natural state, or made the basis of important decorations.—­E.]

Both sexes, as I have already observed, go stark naked, and seem to have no more sense of indecency in discovering the whole body, than we have in discovering our hands and face.  Their principal ornament is the bone which they thrust through the cartilage that divides the nostrils from each other:  What perversion of taste could make them think this a decoration, or what could prompt them, before they had worn it or seen it worn, to suffer the pain and inconvenience that must of necessity attend it, is perhaps beyond the power of human sagacity to determine:  As this bone is as thick as a man’s finger, and between five and six inches long, it reaches quite across the face, and so effectually stops up both the nostrils that they are forced to keep their mouths wide open for breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to speak, that they are scarcely intelligible even to each other.  Our seamen, with some humour, called it their spritsail-yard; and indeed it had so ludicrous an appearance, that till we were used to it, we found it difficult to refrain from laughter.[91] Beside this nose-jewel, they had necklaces made of shells, very neatly cut and strung together; bracelets of small cord, wound two or three times about the upper part of their arm, and a string of plaited human hair about as thick as a thread of yarn, tied round the waist.  Besides these, some of them had gorgets