than what is preserved by antiquated tradition; and they have, by length of time, become, as it were, different nations, each having adopted some peculiar custom or habit, &c.  Nevertheless, a careful observer will soon see the affinity each has to the other.  In general, the people of this isle are a slender race.  I did not see a man that would measure six feet; so far are they from being giants, as one of the authors of Roggewein’s voyage asserts.  They are brisk and active, have good features, and not disagreeable countenances; are friendly and hospitable to strangers, but as much addicted to pilfering as any of their neighbours.

Tattowing, or puncturing the skin, is much used here.  The men are marked from head to foot, with figures all nearly alike; only some give them one direction, and some another, as fancy leads.  The women are but little punctured; red and white paint is an ornament with them, as also with the men; the former is made of turmeric, but what composes the latter I know not.

Their clothing is a piece or two of quilted cloth, about six feet by four, or a mat.  One piece wrapped round their loins, and another over their shoulders, make a complete dress.  But the men, for the most part, are in a manner naked, wearing nothing but a slip of cloth betwixt their legs, each end of which is fastened to a cord or belt they wear round the waist.  Their cloth is made of the same materials as at Otaheite, viz. of the bark of the cloth-plant; but, as they have but little of it, our Otaheitean cloth, or indeed any sort of it, came here to a good market.

Their hair in general is black; the women wear it long, and sometimes tied up on the crown of the head; but the men wear it, and their beards, cropped short.  Their headdress is a round fillet adorned with feathers, and a straw bonnet something like a Scotch one; the former, I believe, being chiefly worn by the men, and the latter by the women.  Both men and women have very large holes, or rather slits, in their ears, extending to near three inches in length.  They sometimes turn this slit over the upper part, and then the ear looks as if the flap was cut off.  The chief ear-ornaments are the white down of feathers, and rings, which they wear in the inside of the hole, made of some elastic substance, rolled up like a watch-spring.  I judged this was to keep the hole at its utmost extension.  I do not remember seeing them wear any other ornaments, excepting amulets made of bone or shells.

As harmless and friendly as these people seemed to be, they are not without offensive weapons, such as short wooden clubs and spears; the latter of which are crooked sticks about six feet long, armed at one end with pieces of flint.  They have also a weapon made of wood, like the Patoo patoo of New Zealand.