But besides this coarse shag or thatch, they have two sorts of cloth, which have an even surface, and are very ingeniously made, in the same manner with that manufactured by the inhabitants of South America, some of which we procured at Rio de Janeiro. One sort is as coarse as our coarsest canvass, and somewhat resembles it in the manner of laying the threads, but it is ten times as strong; the other is formed by many threads lying very close one way, and a few crossing them the other, so as to bind them together; but these are about half an inch asunder, somewhat like the round pieces of cane matting which are sometimes placed under the dishes upon a table. This is frequently striped, and always had a pretty appearance, for it is composed of the fibres of the same plant, which are prepared so as to shine like silk. It is made in a kind of frame of the size of the cloth, generally about five feet long, and four broad, across which the long threads, which lie close together, or warp, are strained, and the cross threads, or woof, are worked in by hand, which must be a very tedious operation.
To both these kinds of cloth they work borders of different colours, in stitches, somewhat like carpeting, or rather like those used in the samplars which girls work at school. These borders are of various patterns, and wrought with a neatness, and even an elegance, which, considering they have no needle, is surprising: but the great pride of their dress consists in the fur of their dogs, which they use with such economy, that they cut it into stripes, and sew them upon their cloth at a distance from each other, which is a strong proof that dogs are not plenty among them; these stripes are also of different colours, and disposed so as to produce a pleasing effect. We saw some dresses that were adorned with feathers instead of fur, but these were not common; and we saw one that was entirely covered with the red feathers of the parrot.
The dress of the man who was killed when we first went ashore in Poverty Bay has been described already; but we saw the same dress only once more during our stay upon the coast, and that was in Queen Charlotte’s Sound.
The women, contrary to the custom of the sex in general, seemed to affect dress rather less than the men: their hair, which, as I have observed before, is generally cropt short, is never tied upon the top of the head when it is suffered to be long, nor is it ever adorned with feathers. Their garments were made of the same materials, and in the same form, as those of the other sex, but the lower one was always bound fast round them, except when they went into the water to catch lobsters, and then they took great care not to be seen by the men. Some of us happening one day to land upon a small island in Tolaga Bay, we surprised several of them at this employment; and the chaste Diana, with her nymphs, could not have discovered more confusion and distress at the sight of Actæon than these women expressed upon our approach. Some of them hid themselves among the rocks, and the rest crouched down in the sea till they had made themselves a girdle and apron of such weeds as they could find, and when they came out, even with this veil, we could perceive that their modesty suffered much pain by our presence. The girdle and apron which they wear in common have been mentioned before.
Both sexes bore their ears, and, by stretching them, the holes become large enough to admit a finger at least. In these holes they wear ornaments of various kinds, cloth, feathers, bones of large birds, and even sometimes a stick of wood; and to these receptacles of finery they generally applied the nails which we gave them, and every thing which it was possible they could contain. The women sometimes thrust through them the down of the albatros, which is as white as snow, and which, spreading before and behind the hole in a bunch almost as big as the fist, makes a very singular, and, however strange it may be thought, not a disagreeable appearance. Besides the ornaments that are thrust through the holes of the ears, many others are suspended to them by strings; such as chissels or bodkins made of green talc, upon which they set a high value, the nails and teeth of their deceased relations, the teeth of dogs, and every thing else that they can get, which they think either curious or valuable. The women also wear bracelets and anclets, made of the bones of birds, shells, or any other substances which they can perforate and string upon a thread. The men had sometimes hanging to a string, which went round the neck, a piece of green talc, or whalebone, somewhat in the shape of a tongue, with the rude figure of a man carved upon it; and upon this ornament they set a high value. In one instance, we saw the gristle that divides the nostrils, and called by anatomists the septum nasi, perforated, and a feather thrust through the hole, which projected on each side over the cheeks: it is probable that this frightful singularity was intended as an ornament; but of the many people we saw, we never observed it in any other, nor even a perforation that might occasionally serve for such a purpose.
Their houses are the most inartificially made of any thing among them, being scarcely equal, except in size, to an English dog-kennel: they are seldom more than eighteen or twenty feet long, eight or ten broad, and five or six high, from the pole that runs from one end to the other, and forms the ridge, to the ground. The framing is of wood, generally slender sticks, and both walls and roof consist of dry grass and hay, which, it must be confessed, is very tightly put together; and some are also lined with the bark of trees, so that in cold weather they must afford a very comfortable retreat. The roof is sloping, like those of our barns, and the door is at one end, just high enough to admit a man, creeping upon his hands and knees: near the door is a square hole, which serves the double office of window and chimney, for the fire-place is at that end, nearly in the middle between the two sides. In some conspicuous part, and generally near the door, a plank is fixed, covered with carving after their manner: this they value as we do a picture, and in their estimation it is not an inferior ornament. The side-walls and roof project about two feet beyond the walls at each end, so as to form a kind of porch, in which there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That part of the floor which is allotted for the fire-place is enclosed in a hollow square, by partitions either of wood or stone, and in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor, along the inside of the walls, is thickly covered with straw, and upon this the family sleep.
Their furniture and implements consist of but few articles, and one chest commonly contains them all, except their provision-baskets, the gourds that hold their fresh water, and the hammers that are used to beat their fern-root, which generally stand without the door: some rude tools, their clothes, arms, and a few feathers to stick in their hair, make the rest of their treasure.
Some of the better sort, whose families are large, have three or four houses enclosed within a court-yard, the walls of which are constructed of poles and hay, and are about ten or twelve feet high.
When we were on shore in the district called Tolaga, we saw the ruins, or rather the frame of a house, for it had never been finished, much superior in size to any that we saw elsewhere: it was thirty feet in length, about fifteen in breadth, and twelve high: the sides of it were adorned with many carved planks, of a workmanship much superior to any other that we had met with in the country; but for what purpose it was built, or why it was deserted, we could never learn.
But these people, though in their houses they are so well defended from the inclemency of the weather, seem to be quite indifferent whether they have any shelter at all during their excursions in search of fern-roots and fish, sometimes setting up a small shade to windward, and sometimes altogether neglecting even that precaution, sleeping with their women and children under bushes, with their weapons ranged round them, in the manner that has already been described. The party, consisting of forty or fifty, whom we saw at Mercury Bay, in a district which the natives call Opoorage, never erected the least shelter while we staid there, though it sometimes rained incessantly for four-and-twenty hours together.