A Voyage Round the World, from 1806 to 1812: In Which Japan, Kamschatka, the Aleutian islands, and the Sandwich Islands were Visited; Including a Narrative of the Author's Shipwreck on the Island of Sannack, and His Subsequent Wreck in the Ship's Long-Boat; with an Account of the Present State of the Sandwich Islands, and a Vocabulary of Their Language.Campbell, Archibald
History
A Voyage Round the World, from 1806 to 1812: In Which Japan, Kamschatka, the Aleutian islands, and the Sandwich Islands were Visited; Including a Narrative of the Author's Shipwreck on the Island of Sannack, and His Subsequent Wreck in the Ship's Long-Boat; with an Account of the Present State of the Sandwich Islands, and a Vocabulary of Their Language.
Campbell, Archibald
Campbell, Archibald, 1787- -- Travel; Hawaii -- Description and travel; Hawaiian language; Voyages around the world -- History -- 19th century
The principal article of their dress is a large frock called a parka,
made of fur or skin, frequently of the skins of sea-fowls, which they
wear with the feathers out during the day, and next their skin at
night. This piece of dress is nearly the same in both sexes. When at
sea, they wear a frock of another kind, called a camelengka, made of
the gut of the seal, to which a hood is attached, and tied close round
the face, the sleeves being equally tight at the wrist. Upon their
limbs they frequently wear boots and breeches in one piece, made of
seal hide, over which the camelengka is fastened close, so that their
dress is perfectly water-proof.
They are extremely fond of ornaments, particularly beads, with which
the women decorate themselves in great profusion, sewing them round the
neck, skirts, and wrists of their skin frocks. They also wear them in
their ears, or suspend them from a hole made in their under lip, and
sometimes hang them round each end of a bone about five inches long,
which they pass through the gristle of the nose, called by sailors
their spritsail-yard. They do not tattoo themselves like the Sandwich
islanders, but they often paint or rather daub their faces in streaks,
with red ochre and train oil.
Their canoes are made of the skin of sea-lions, stretched over slight
wooden frames; Those of the largest size, called baiderais, are open,
and can contain sixty or seventy people; the smaller kind, called
baidarkas, being quite close, have a hole in the covering, or deck,
for each sitter, and carry one, two, or three persons. They are rowed
either with double-bladed paddles, which are held by the middle, or
by single-bladed ones, with crutch handles, which are shifted to each
side alternately; the rowers sit with their faces to the bow, and pull
them with great swiftness. It is wonderful what long voyages they
make in these slight boats; several of them came from Oonalaska to
Kodiak during my stay in that island. No water can get into them in the
roughest weather, for the camelengka, a gut frock, which Indians wear
when at sea, is stuffed tight round them at the hole. From their flat
construction, and extreme lightness, the weight of the people sitting
in these canoes, renders them top heavy, and many accidents arise from
their oversetting. In this respect, the single-holed ones are much the
safest, for even when overset, a slight exertion is sufficient to right
them.
In catching seals, and other amphibious animals, these people show
great dexterity and ingenuity. Concealing themselves behind rocks, they
decoy them by throwing a seal skin, blown out like a bladder, into the
sea. To this is fixed a line made of the sinew of the whale, by which
they draw it to them, when it is followed by the seals, who take it
for an animal of their own species. As soon as within reach, they are
killed with spears or bows and arrows.
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