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 men frequently paint their faces of a bright red, and of a black
colour, and sometimes of a blue or leaden colour; but not in any regular
figure; and the women, in some measure, endeavoured to imitate them, by
puncturing or staining the chin with black, that comes to a point in
each cheek; a practice very similar to which is in fashion amongst the
females of Greenland, as we learn from Crantz.[64] Their bodies are not
painted, which may be owing to the scarcity of proper materials, for all
the colours which they brought to sell in bladders were in very small
quantities. Upon the whole, I have no where seen savages who take more
pains than these people do to ornament, or rather to disfigure their
persons.
Their boats or canoes are of two sorts, the one being large and open,
and the other small and covered. I mentioned already, that in one of the
large boats were twenty women and one man, besides children. I
attentively examined and compared the construction of this with Crantz’s
description of what he calls the great, or women’s boat, in Greenland,
and found that they were built in the same manner, parts like parts,
with no other difference than in the form of the head and stern,
particularly of the first, which bears some resemblance to the head of a
whale. The framing is of slender pieces of wood, over which the skins of
seals, or of other larger sea-animals, are stretched to compose the
outside. It appeared also, that the small canoes of these people are
made nearly of the same form, and of the same materials, with those used
by the Greenlanders[65] and Esquimaux, at least the difference is not
material. Some of these, as I have before observed, carry two men; they
are broader in proportion to their length than those of the Esquimaux,
and the head or fore-part curves somewhat like the head of a violin.
The weapons and instruments for fishing and hunting are the very same
that are made use of by the Esquimaux and Greenlanders, and it is
unnecessary to be particular in my account of them, as they are all very
accurately described by Crantz.[66] I did not see a single one with
these people that he has not mentioned, nor has he mentioned one that
they have not. For defensive armour, they have a kind of jacket or coat
of mail made of thin laths bound together with sinews, which makes it
quite flexible, though so close as not to admit an arrow or dart. It
only covers the trunk of the body, and may not be improperly compared to
a woman’s stays.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account