From the numbers which we saw collected at every village, as we sailed past, it may be supposed, that the inhabitants of this island are pretty numerous. Any computation, that we make, can be only conjectural. But, that some notion may be formed, which shall not greatly err on either side, I would suppose, that, including the straggling houses, there might be, upon the whole island, sixty such, villages, as that before which we anchored; and that, allowing five persons to each house, there would be, in every village, five hundred; or thirty thousand upon the island. This number is certainly not exaggerated; for we had sometimes three thousand persons at least upon the beach; when it could not be supposed that above a tenth part of the inhabitants were present.
The common dress both of the women and of the men has been already described. The first have often much larger pieces of cloth wrapped round them, reaching from just below the breasts to the hams or lower; and several were seen with pieces thrown loosely about the shoulders, which covered the greatest part of the body; but the children when very young are quite naked. They wear nothing upon the head; but the hair in both sexes is cut in different forms; and the general fashion, especially among the women, is to have it long before and short behind. The men often had it cut or shaved on each side, in such a manner, that the remaining part, in some measure, resembles the crest of their caps or helmets formerly described. Both sexes, however, seem very careless about their hair, and have nothing like combs to dress it with. Instances of wearing it in a singular manner were sometimes met with among the men, who twist it into a number of separate parcels, like the tails of a wig, each about the thickness of a finger; though the greatest part of these, which are so long that they reach far down the back, we observed were artificially fixed upon the head over their own hair.[1]
It is remarkable, that, contrary to the general practice of the islands we had hitherto discovered in the Pacific Ocean, the people of the Sandwich Islands have not their ears perforated; nor have they the least idea of wearing ornaments in them. Both sexes, nevertheless, adorn themselves with necklaces made of bunches of small black cord, like our hat-string, often above a hundred-fold; exactly like those of Wateeoo; only that instead of the two little balls on the middle before, they fix a small bit of wood, stone, or shell, about two inches long, with a broad hook turning forward at its lower part well polished. They have likewise necklaces of many strings of very small shells, or of the dried flowers of the Indian mallow. And sometimes a small human image of bone, about three inches long, neatly polished, is hung round the neck. The women also wear bracelets of a single shell, pieces of black wood, with bits of ivory interspersed and well polished, fixed by a string drawn very closely through them; or others of hogs' teeth laid parallel to each other, with the concave part outward, and the points cut off, fastened together as the former; some of which made only of large boars' tusks are very elegant. The men sometimes wear plumes of the tropic-bird's feathers stuck in their heads; or those of cocks, fastened round neat polished sticks two feet long, commonly decorated at the lower part with oora; and for the same purpose, the skin of a white dog's tail is sewed over a stick with its tuft at the end. They also frequently wear on the head a kind of ornament of a finger's thickness or more, covered with red and yellow feathers curiously varied and tied behind; and on the arm, above the elbow, a kind of broad shell-work, grounded upon net-work.
The men are frequently punctured, though not in any particular part, as the Otaheiteans and those of Tongataboo. Sometimes there are a few marks upon their hands or arms, and near the groin; but frequently we could observe none at all; though a few individuals had more of this sort of ornament, than we had usually seen at other places, and ingeniously executed in a great variety of lines and figures on the arms and fore-part of the body; on which latter, some of them had the figure of the taame, or breast-plate of Otaheite, though we did not meet with the thing itself amongst them. Contrary to the custom of the Society and Friendly Islands, they do not slit or cut off part of the prepuce; but have it universally drawn over the glans, and tied with a string as practised by some of the natives of New Zealand.
Though they seem to have adopted the mode of living in villages, there is no appearance of defence or fortification near any of them; and the houses are scattered about without any order, either with respect to their distances from each other, or their position in any particular direction. Neither is there any proportion as to their size; some being large and commodious, from forty to fifty feet long, and twenty or thirty broad, while others of them are mere hovels. Their figure is not unlike oblong corn or hay-stacks; or, perhaps, a better idea may be conceived of them, if we suppose the roof of a barn placed on the ground, in such a manner as to form a high, acute ridge, with two very low sides hardly discernible at a distance. The gable at each end corresponding to the sides, makes these habitations perfectly close all round; and they are well thatched with long grass, which is laid on slender poles disposed with some regularity. The entrance is made indifferently in the end or side, and is an oblong hole, so low, that one must rather creep than walk in; and is often shut up by a board of planks fastened together, which serves as a door, but having no hinges, must be removed occasionally. No light enters the house but by this opening; and though such close habitations may afford a comfortable retreat in bad weather, they seem but ill adapted to the warmth of the climate. They are, however, kept remarkably clean; and their floors are covered with a large quantity of dried grass, over which they spread mats to sit and sleep upon. At one end stands a kind of bench about three feet high, on which their household utensils are placed. The catalogue is not long. It consists of gourd-shells, which they convert into vessels that serve as bottles to hold water, and as baskets to contain their victuals, and other things with covers of the same; and of a few wooden bowls and trenchers of different sizes. Judging from what we saw growing, and from what was brought to market, there can be no doubt, that the greatest part of their vegetable food consists of sweet potatoes, taro, and plantains; and that bread-fruit and yams are rather to be esteemed rarities. Of animal food they can be in no want; as they have abundance of hogs, which run without restraint about the houses; and if they eat dogs, which is not improbable, their stock of these seemed to be very considerable. The great number of fishing-hooks found amongst them, shewed that they derive no inconsiderable supply of animal food from the sea. But it should seem, from their practice of salting fish, that the openness of their coast often interrupts the business of catching them; as it may be naturally supposed, that no set of people would ever think of preserving quantities of food artificially, if they could depend upon a daily regular supply of it in its fresh state. This sort of reasoning, however, will not account for their custom of salting their pork, as well as their fish, which are preserved in gourd-shells. The salt, of which they use a great quantity for this purpose, is of a red colour, not very coarse, and seems to be much the same with what our stragglers found at Christmas Island. It has its colour doubtless from a mixture of the mud at the bottom of the part where it is formed; for some of it that had adhered in lumps, was of a sufficient whiteness and purity.
They bake their vegetable food with heated stones, as at the southern islands; and from the vast quantity, which we saw dressed at one time, we suspected that the whole village, or, at least, a considerable number of people joined in the use of a common oven. We did not see them dress any animal food at this island; but Mr Gore's party, as already mentioned, had an opportunity of satisfying themselves, that it was dressed at Oneeheow in the same sort of ovens, which leaves no doubt of this being also the practice in Atooi; especially as we met with no utensil there that could be applied to the purpose of stewing or boiling. The only artificial dish we met with was a taro pudding, which, though a disagreeable mess from its sourness, was greedily devoured by the natives. They eat off a kind of wooden plates or trenchers; and the women, as far as we could judge from one instance, if restrained from feeding at the same dish with the men, as at Otaheite, are at least permitted to eat in the same place near them.
Their amusements seem pretty various; for during our short stay, several were discovered. The dances at which they used the feathered-cloaks and caps were not seen; but from the motions which they made with their hands on other occasions, when they sung, we could form some judgment that they are, in some degree at least, similar to those we had met with at the southern islands, though not executed so skilfully. Neither had they amongst them either flutes or reeds, and the only two musical instruments which we observed were of an exceedingly rude kind. One of them does not produce a melody exceeding that of a child's rattle. It consists of what may be called a conic cap inverted, but scarcely hollowed at the base above a foot high, made of a coarse sedge-like plant, the upper part of which, and the edges, are ornamented with beautiful red feathers, and to the point, or lower part, is fixed a gourd-shell larger than the fist. Into this is put something to rattle, which is done by holding the instrument by the small part, and shaking or rather moving it from place to place briskly, either to different sides or backward and forward just before the face, striking the breast with the other hand at the same time. The other musical instrument (if either of them deserve that name) was a hollow vessel of wood, like a platter, combined with the use of two sticks, on which one of our gentlemen saw a man performing. He held one of the sticks, about two feet long, as we do a fiddle with one hand, and struck it with the other, which was smaller, and resembled a drum-stick, in a quicker or slower measure; at the same time beating with his foot upon the hollow vessel that lay inverted upon the ground, and thus producing a tune that was by no means disagreeable. This music was accompanied by the vocal performance of some women, whose song had a pleasing and tender effect.
We observed great numbers of small polished rods, about four or five feet long, somewhat thicker than the rammer of a musket, with a tuft of long white dog's hair fixed on the small end. These are probably used in their diversions. We saw a person take one of them in his hand, and holding it up, give a smart stroke, till he brought it into an horizontal position, striking with the foot on the same side upon the ground, and with his other hand beating his breast at the same time. They play at bowls with pieces of whetstone mentioned before, of about a pound weight, shaped somewhat like a small cheese, but rounded at the sides and edges, which are very nicely polished; and they have other bowls of the same sort, made of a heavy reddish, brown clay, neatly glazed over with a composition of the same colour, or of a coarse dark-grey slate. They also use, in the manner that we throw quoits, small flat rounded pieces of the writing slate of the diameter of the bowls, but scarcely a quarter of an inch thick, also well polished. From these circumstances, one would be induced to think that their games are rather trials of skill than of strength.
In every thing manufactured by these people, there appears to be an uncommon degree of neatness and ingenuity. Their cloth, which is the principal manufacture, is made from the morus papyrifera; and doubtless in the same manner as at Otaheite and Tongataboo; for we bought some of the grooved sticks with which it is beaten. Its texture, however, though thicker, is rather inferior to that of the cloth of either of the other places; but in colouring or staining it, the people of Atooi display a superiority of taste, by the endless variation of figures which they execute. One would suppose, on seeing a number of their pieces, that they had borrowed their patterns from some mercer's shop, in which the most elegant productions of China and Europe are collected; besides some original patterns of their own. Their colours, indeed, except the red, are not very bright; but the regularity of the figures and stripes is truly surprising; for, as far as we know, they have nothing like stamps or prints, to make the impressions. In what manner they produce their colours, we had not opportunities of learning; but, besides the party coloured sorts, they have some pieces of plain white cloth, and others of a single colour, particularly dark-brown and light-blue. In general, the pieces which they brought to us were about two feet broad, and four or five yards long, being the form and quantity that they use for their common dress or maro; and even these we sometimes found were composed of pieces sewed together; an art which we did not find to the southward, but is strongly, though not very neatly, performed here. There is also a particular sort that is thin, much resembling oil-cloth; and which is actually either oiled or soaked in some kind of varnish, and seems to resist the action of water pretty well.
They fabricate a great many white mats, which are strong, with many red stripes, rhombuses, and other figures, interwoven on one side; and often pretty large. These probably make a part of their dress occasionally; for they put them on their backs when they offered them to sale. But they make others coarser, plain and strong, which they spread over their floors to sleep upon.