The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. V. Being the First of the Third VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. V. Being the First of the Third Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
The dress of both men and women is the same; and consists of a piece of
cloth or matting (but mostly the former), about two yards wide, and two
and a half long; at least so long as to go once and a half round the
waist, to which it is confined by a girdle or cord. It is double before,
and hangs down like a petticoat, as low as the middle of the leg. The
upper part of the garment above the girdle, is plaited into several
folds; so that when unfolded, there is cloth sufficient to draw up and
wrap round the shoulders, which is very seldom done. This, as to form,
is the general dress; but large pieces of cloth and fine matting, are
worn only by the superior people. The inferior sort are satisfied with
small pieces; and very often wear nothing but a covering made of leaves
of plants, or the _maro_ which is a narrow piece of cloth or matting,
like a sash. This they pass between the thighs and wrap round the waist;
but the use of it is chiefly confined to the men. In their great
_haivas_, or entertainments, they have various dresses made for the
purpose; but the form is always the same; and the richest dresses are
covered, more or less, with red feathers. On what particular occasion
their chiefs wear their large red feather-caps, I could not learn. Both
men and women sometimes shade their faces from the sun with little
bonnets, made of various materials.
As the clothing, so are the ornaments, worn by those of both sexes, the
same. The most common of these are necklaces made of the fruit of the
_pandanus_, and various sweet-smelling flowers, which go under the
general name of _kahulla_. Others are composed of small shells, the wing
and leg-bones of birds, shark’s teeth, and other things; all which hang
loose upon the breast. In the same manner, they often wear a
mother-of-pearl shell neatly polished, or a ring of the same substance
carved on the upper part of the arm; rings of tortoise-shell on the
fingers; and a number of these joined together as bracelets on the
wrists.
The lobes of the ears (though, most frequently, only one,) are
perforated with two holes, in which they wear cylindrical bits of ivory,
about three inches long, introduced at one hole, and brought out of the
other; or bits of reed of the same size, filled with a yellow pigment.
This seems to be a fine powder of _turmeric_, with which the women rub
themselves all over, in the same manner as our ladies use their dry
rouge upon the cheeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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