A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
plantations, where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even
in the gardens of the most curious people among us: In these spots were
sweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much esteemed
both in the East and West Indies, and some gourds: The sweet potatoes
were planted in small hills, some ranged in rows, and others in
quincunx, all laid by a line with the greatest regularity: The coccos
were planted upon flat land, but none of them yet appeared above ground;
and the gourds were set in small hollows, or dishes, much as in England.
These plantations were of different extent, from one or two acres to
ten: Taken together, there appeared to be from 150 to 200 acres in
cultivation in the whole bay, though we never saw an hundred people.
Each district was fenced in, generally with reeds, which were placed so
close together that there was scarcely room for a mouse to creep
between.
The women were plain, and made themselves more so by painting their
faces with red ochre and oil, which being generally fresh and wet upon
their cheeks and foreheads, was easily transferred to the noses of those
who thought fit to salute them; and that they were not wholly averse to
such familiarity, the noses of several of our people strongly testified:
They were, however, as great coquets as any of the most fashionable
ladies in Europe, and the young ones as skittish as an unbroken filly:
Each of them wore a petticoat, under which there was a girdle, made of
the blades of grass highly perfumed, and to the girdle was fastened a
small bunch of the leaves of some fragrant plant, which served their
modesty as its innermost veil.[55] The faces of the men were not so
generally painted, yet we saw one whose whole body, and even his
garments, were rubbed over with dry ochre, of which he kept a piece
constantly in his hand, and was every minute renewing the decoration in
one part or another, where he supposed it was become deficient.[56] In
personal delicacy they were not equal to our friends at Otaheite, for
the coldness of the climate did not invite them so often to bathe; but
we saw among them one instance of cleanliness in which they exceeded
them, and of which perhaps there is no example in any other Indian
nation. Every house, or every little cluster of three or four houses,
was furnished with a privy, so that the ground was every where clean.
The offals of their food, and other litter, were also piled up in
regular dunghills, which probably they made use of at a proper time for
manure.
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