1894. `The Argus,' Jan. 26, p. 3, col. 5:
"To-day Tassy—as most Victorian cricketers and footballers familiarly term our neighbour over the straits—will send a team into the field."
<hw>Tattoo</hw>, <i>v</i>. and <i>n</i>. to mark the human body with indelible pigments. The word is Polynesian; its first occurrence in English is in Cook's account of Tahiti. The Tahitian word is <i>Tatau</i>, which means tattoo marks on the human skin, from <i>Ta</i>, which means a mark or design. (Littre.) The Maori verb, <i>ta</i>, means to cut, to tattoo, to strike. See <i>Moko</i>.
1773. `Hawkesworth's Voyages' (Cook's First Voyage; at Tahiti, 1769), vol. ii. p. 191:
"They have a custom of staining their bodies . . . which they call <i>Tattowing</i>. They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a small instrument, something in the form of a hoe. . . . The edge is cut into sharp teeth or points . . . they dip the teeth into a mixture of a kind of lamp-black . . . The teeth, thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and the handle to which they are fastened being struck by quick smart blows, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain."
1777. Horace Walpole, `Letters,' vol. vi. p. 448:
"Since we will give ourselves such torrid airs, I wonder we don't go stark and tattoo ourselves."
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 109:
"A very famous artist in tatu came with the party, and was kept in constant and profitable employment. Everybody, from the renowned warrior to the girl of twelve years old, crowded to be ornamented by the skilful chisel. . . . The instruments used were not of bone, as they used formerly to be; but a graduated set of iron tools, fitted with handles like adzes, supplied their place. . . . The staining liquid is made of charcoal."
1847. A. Tennyson, `Princess,' canto ii. l. 105: