(2.) CHIEF’S HAND.
(See [page 1047].)
(3.) NECK ORNAMENT.
(See [page 1048].)
(4.) MARQUESAN CHIEF.
(See [page 1049].)
“If, in a very dry year, bread-fruit, hogs, roots, and other provisions, become scarce, any one who has a good stock of them (which commonly happens to the chief), in order to distribute the stores, keeps open table for a certain time to an appointed number of poor artists, who are bound to give in return some strokes of the tattoo to all who choose to come for it. By virtue of a tapu, all these brethren are engaged to support each other, if in future some happen to be in need while the others are in affluence.
“The same person may be a member of several of these societies; but, according to what we could learn, a portion must always be given to the priest, or magician, as he is called, even if he be not a member. In a time of scarcity, also, many of the people who have been tattooed in this way unite as an absolute troop of banditti, and share equally among each other all that they can plunder or kill.
“The figures with which the body is tattooed are chosen with great care, and appropriate ornaments are selected for the different parts. They consist partly of animals, partly of other objects which have some reference to the manners and customs of the islands; and every figure has here, as in the Friendly Islands, its particular name. Upon an accurate examination, curved lines, diamonds, and other designs are often distinguishable between rows of punctures, which resemble very much the ornaments called à la Grecque.
“The most perfect symmetry is observed over the whole body. The head of a man is tattooed in every part; the breast is commonly ornamented with a figure resembling a shield; on the arms and thighs are strips sometimes broader, sometimes narrower, in such directions that these people might be very well presumed to have studied anatomy, and to be acquainted with the course and dimensions of the muscles.