The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VI. Being the Second of the Third VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VI. Being the Second of the Third Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
The common dress, both of the women and of the men, has been already
described. The first have often much larger pieces of cloth wrapped
round them, reaching from just below the breasts to the hams, or lower;
and several were seen with pieces thrown loosely about the shoulders,
which covered the greatest part of the body; but the children, when very
young, are quite naked. They wear nothing upon the head; but the hair,
in both sexes, is cut in different forms; and the general fashion,
especially among the women, is to have it long before and short behind.
The men often had it cut, or shaved, on each side, in such a manner that
the remaining part, in some measure, resembles the crest of their caps
or helmets, formerly described. Both sexes, however, seem very careless
about their hair, and have nothing like combs to dress it with.
Instances of wearing it, in a singular manner, were sometimes met with
among the men, who twist it into a number of separate parcels, like the
tails of a wig, each about the thickness of a finger; though the
greatest part of these, which are so long that they reach far down the
back, we observed, were artificially fixed upon the head, over their own
hair.[26]
It is remarkable that, contrary to the general practice of the islands
we had hitherto discovered in the Pacific Ocean, the people of the
Sandwich Islands have not their ears perforated, nor have they the least
idea of wearing ornaments in them. Both sexes, nevertheless, adorn
themselves with necklaces made of bunches of small black cord, like our
hat-string, often above a hundred-fold, exactly like those of Wateeoo;
only that instead of the two little balls, on the middle before, they
fix a small bit of wood, stone, or shell, about two inches long, with a
broad hook, turning forward at its lower part, well polished. They have,
likewise, necklaces of many strings of very small shells, or of the
dried flowers of the Indian mallow. And, sometimes, a small human image
of bone, about three inches long, neatly polished, is hung round the
neck. The women also wear bracelets of a single shell, pieces of black
wood, with bits of ivory interspersed, and well polished, fixed by a
string drawn very close through them; or others of hogs’ teeth, laid
parallel to each other, with the concave part outward, and the points
cut off, fastened together as the former; some of which, made only of
large boars’ tusks, are very elegant. The men, sometimes, wear plumes of
the tropic bird’s feathers, stuck in their heads; or those of cocks,
fastened round neat polished sticks, two feet long, commonly decorated,
at the lower part, with _oora_; and, for the same purpose, the skin of a
white dog’s tail is sewed over a stick, with its tuft at the end. They
also frequently wear on the head a kind of ornament, of a finger’s
thickness, or more, covered with red and yellow feathers, curiously
varied, and tied behind; and on the arm, above the elbow, a kind of
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