A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Their necklaces are made of shells, or of a hard shining red berry. Besides
which, they wear wreaths of dried flowers of the Indian mallow; and another
beautiful ornament called _eraie_, which is generally put about the neck,
but is sometimes tied like a garland round the hair, and sometimes worn in
both these ways at once. It is a ruff, of the thickness of a finger, made
in a curious manner, of exceedingly small feathers, woven so close together
as to form a surface as smooth as that of the richest velvet. The ground
was generally of a red colour, with alternate circles of green, yellow, and
black. Their bracelets, which were also of great variety, and very peculiar
kinds, have been already described.
At Atooi, some of the women wore little figures of the turtle, neatly
formed of wood or ivory, tied on their fingers in the manner we wear rings.
Why this animal is thus particularly distinguished, I leave to the
conjectures of the curious. There is also an ornament, made of shells,
fastened in rows on a ground of strong netting, so as to strike each other
when in motion; which both men and women, when they dance, tie either round
the arm or the ankle, or below the knee. Instead of shells, they sometimes
make use of dog's teeth, and a hard red berry, resembling that of the
holly.
There remains to be mentioned another ornament (if such it may be called),
which is a kind of mask, made of a large gourd, with holes cut in it for
the eyes and nose. The top was stuck full of small green twigs, which, at a
distance, had the appearance of an elegant waving plume; and from the lower
part hung narrow stripes of cloth, resembling a beard. We never saw these
masks worn but twice, and both times by a number of people together in a
canoe, who came to the side of the ship, laughing and drolling, with an air
of masquerading. Whether they may not likewise be used as a defence for the
head against stones, for which, they seem best designed; or in some of
their public games; or be merely intended for the purposes of mummery, we
could never inform ourselves.
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