Their peaceable disposition is sufficiently evinced from the friendly reception all strangers have met with who have visited them. Instead of offering to attack them openly or clandestinely, as has been the case with most of the inhabitants of these seas, they have never appeared, in the smallest degree, hostile; but, on the contrary, like the most civilized people, have courted an intercourse with, their visitors by bartering, which is the only medium that unites all nations in a sort of friendship. They understand barter (which they call fukkatou) so perfectly, that at first we imagined they might have acquired this knowledge of it by commercial intercourse with the neighbouring islands; but we were afterward assured, that they had little or no traffic, except with Feejee, from which they get the red feathers, and the few other articles mentioned before. Perhaps no nation in the world traffic with more honesty and less distrust. We could always safely permit them to examine our goods, and to hand them about one to another; and they put the same confidence in us. If either party repented of the bargain, the goods were re-exchanged with mutual consent and good-humour. Upon the whole, they seem possessed of many of the most excellent qualities that adorn the human mind; such as industry, ingenuity, perseverance, affability, and, perhaps, other virtues which our short stay with them might prevent our observing.
The only defect sullying their character, that we know of, is a propensity to thieving, to which we found those of all ages, and both sexes, addicted, and to an uncommon degree. It should, however, be considered, that this exceptionable part of their conduct seemed to exist merely with respect to us; for, in their general intercourse with one another, I had reason to be of opinion, that thefts do not happen more frequently (perhaps less so) than in other countries, the dishonest practices of whose worthless individuals are not supposed to authorise any indiscriminate censure on the whole body of the people. Great allowances should be made for the foibles of these poor natives of the Pacific Ocean, whose minds were overpowered with the glare of objects, equally new to them, as they were captivating. Stealing, amongst the civilized and enlightened nations of the world, may well be considered as denoting a character deeply stained with moral turpitude, with avarice unrestrained by the known rules of right, and with profligacy producing extreme indigence, and neglecting the means of relieving it. But at the Friendly and other islands which we visited, the thefts, so frequently committed by the natives, of what we had brought along with us, may be fairly traced to less culpable motives. They seemed to arise solely from an intense curiosity or desire to possess something which they had not been accustomed to before, and belonging to a sort of people so different from themselves. And, perhaps, if it were possible, that a set of beings, seemingly as superior in our judgment, as we are in theirs, should appear amongst us, it might be doubted, whether our natural regard to justice would be able to restrain many from falling into the same error. That I have assigned the true motive for their propensity to this practice, appears from their stealing every thing indiscriminately at first sight, before they could have the least conception of converting their prize to any one useful purpose. But I believe with us, no person would forfeit his reputation, or expose himself to punishment, without knowing, before-hand, how to employ the stolen goods. Upon the whole, the pilfering disposition of these islanders, though certainly disagreeable and troublesome to strangers, was the means of affording us some information as to the quickness of their intellects. For their small thefts were committed with much dexterity; and those of greater consequence with a plan or scheme suited to the importance of the objects. An extraordinary instance of the last sort, their attempts to carry away one of the Discovery's anchors at mid-day, has been already related.
Their hair is, in general, straight, thick, and strong, though a few have it bushy and frizzled. The natural colour, I believe, almost without exception, is black; but the greatest part of the men, and some of the women, have it stained of a brown or purple colour, and a few of an orange cast. The first colour is produced by applying a sort of plaster of burnt coral, mixed with water; the second, by the raspings of a reddish wood, which is made up with water into a poultice, and laid over the hair; and the third is, I believe, the effect of turmeric root.
When I first visited these islands, I thought it had been an universal custom for both men and women to wear the hair short; but, during our present longer stay, we saw a great many exceptions. Indeed, they are so whimsical in their fashions of wearing it, that it is hard to tell which is most in vogue. Some have it cut off from one side of the head, while that on the other remains long; some have only a portion of it cut short, or perhaps shaved; others have it entirely cut off, except a single lock, which is left commonly on one side; or it is suffered to grow to its full length, without any of these mutilations. The women in general wear it short. The men have their beards cut short; and both men and women strip the hair from their arm pits. The operation by which this is performed has been already described. The men are stained from about the middle of the belly, to about half way down their thighs, with a deep, blue colour. This is done with a flat bone instrument, cut full of fine teeth, which, being dipped in the staining mixture, prepared from the juice of the dooe dooe, is struck into the skin with a bit of stick, and, by that means, indelible marks are made. In this manner they trace lines and figures, which, in some, are very elegant, both from the variety, and from the arrangement. The women have only a few small lines or spots, thus imprinted, on the inside of their hands. Their kings, as a mark of distinction, are exempted from this custom, as also from inflicting on themselves any of those bloody marks of mourning, which shall be mentioned in another place.
The men are all circumcised, or rather supercised; as the operation consists in cutting off only a small piece of the foreskin at the upper part, which, by that means, is rendered incapable ever after of covering the glans. This is all they aim at; as they say, the operation is practised from a notion of cleanliness.
The dress of both men and women is the same, and consists of a piece of cloth or matting (but mostly the former), about two yards wide, and two and a half long; at least, so long as to go once and a half round the waist, to which it is confined by a girdle or cord. It is double before, and hangs down like a petticoat, as low as the middle of the leg. The upper part of the garment, above the girdle, is plaited into several folds; so that when unfolded, there is cloth sufficient to draw up and wrap round the shoulders, which is very seldom done. This, as to form, is the general dress; but large pieces of cloth, and fine matting, are worn only by the superior people. The inferior sort are satisfied with small pieces, and very often wear nothing but a covering made of leaves of plants, or the maro, which is a narrow piece of cloth, or matting, like a sash. This they pass between the thighs, and wrap round the waist; but the use of it is chiefly confined to the men. In their great haivas, or entertainments, they have various dresses made for the purpose; but the form is always the same, and the richest dresses are covered, more or less, with red feathers. On what particular occasion their chiefs wear their large red feather-caps, I could not learn. Both men and women sometimes shade their faces from the sun with little bonnets, made of various materials.
As the clothing, so are the ornaments, worn by those of both sexes, the same. The most common of these are necklaces, made of the fruit of the pandamus, and various sweet-smelling flowers, which go under the general name of kahulla. Others are composed of small shells, the wing and leg-bones of birds, shark's teeth, and other things; all which hang loose upon the breast. In the same manner, they often wear a mother-of-pearl shell, neatly polished, or a ring of the same substance carved, on the upper part of the arm; rings of tortoise-shell on the fingers, and a number of these joined together as bracelets on the wrists.
The lobes of the ears (though most frequently only one) are perforated, with two holes, in which they wear cylindrical bits of ivory, about three inches long, introduced at one hole, and brought out of the other; or bits of reed of the same size, filled with a yellow pigment. This seems, to be a fine powder of turmeric, with which the women rub themselves all over, in the same manner, as our ladies use their dry rouge upon the cheeks.
Nothing appears to give them greater pleasure than personal cleanliness; to produce which, they frequently bathe in the ponds, which seem to serve no other purpose.[178] Though the water in most of them stinks intolerably, they prefer them to the sea; and they are so sensible that salt water hurts their skin, that, when necessity obliges them to bathe in the sea, they commonly have some cocoa-nut shells, filled with fresh water, poured over them, to wash it off. They are immoderately fond of cocoa-nut oil for the same reason; a great quantity of which they not only pour upon their head and shoulders, but rub the body all over, briskly, with a smaller quantity. And none but those who have seen this practice, can easily conceive how the appearance of the skin is improved by it. This oil, however, is not to be procured by every one; and the inferior sort of people, doubtless, appear less smooth for want of it.
[Footnote 178: So at the Caroline Islands. "Ils sont accoutumés a se baigner trois fois le jour, le matin, à midi, et sur le soir." Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 314.--D.]