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
We are uncertain if they have any set time for meals; for we have seen
them eat at all hours, in their canoes. And yet, from seeing several
messes of the porpoise-broth preparing toward noon, when we visited the
village, I should suspect that they make a principal meal about that
time.
Their weapons are bows and arrows, slings, spears, short truncheons of
bone, somewhat like the _patoo patoo_ of New Zealand, and a small
pickaxe, not unlike the common American _tomahawk_. The spear has
generally a long point, made of bone. Some of the arrows are pointed
with iron; but most commonly their points were of indented bone. The
tomahawk is a stone, six or eight inches long, pointed at one end, and
the other end fixed into a handle of wood. This handle resembles the
head and neck of the human figure; and the stone is fixed in the mouth,
so as to represent an enormously large tongue. To make the resemblance
still stronger, human hair is also fixed to it. This weapon they call
_taaweesh_, or _tsuskeeah_. They have another stone weapon called
_seeaik_, nine inches or a foot long, with a square point.
From the number of stone weapons, and others, we might almost conclude
that it is their custom to engage in close fight; and we had too
convincing proofs that their wars are both frequent and bloody, from the
vast number of human skulls which they brought to sell.
Their manufactures and mechanic arts are far more extensive and
ingenious, whether we regard the design or the execution, than could
have been expected from the natural disposition of the people, and the
little progress that civilization has made amongst them in other
respects. The flaxen and woollen garments, with which they cover
themselves, must necessarily engage their first care, and are the most
material of those that can be ranked under the head of manufactures. The
former of these are made of the bark of a pine-tree, beat into a hempen
state. It is not spun, but, after being properly prepared, is spread
upon a stick, which is fastened across to two others that stand upright.
It is disposed in such a manner that the manufacturer, who sits on her
hams at this simple machine, knots it across with small plaited threads,
at the distance of half an inch from each other. Though, by this method,
it be not so close or firm as cloth that is woven, the bunches between
the knots make it sufficiently impervious to the air, by filling the
interstices, and it has the additional advantage of being softer and
more pliable. The woollen garments, though probably manufactured in the
same manner, have the strongest resemblance to woven cloth. But the
various figures which are very artificially inserted in them, destroy
the supposition of their being wrought in the loom; it being extremely
unlikely that these people should be so dexterous as to be able to
finish such a complex work, unless immediately by their hands. They are
of different degrees of fineness; some resembling our coarsest rugs or
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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