Chapter XII: Book I: Chap. I (8)

Of the food eaten here the greater part is vegetable. Here are no tame animals except hogs, dogs, and poultry, as I have observed before, and these are by no means plenty. When a chief kills a hog, it is almost equally divided among his dependants; and, as they are very numerous, the share of each individual at these feasts, which are not frequent, must necessarily be small. Dogs and fowls fall somewhat more frequently to the share of the common people. I cannot much commend the flavour of their fowls; but we all agreed, that a South-sea dog was little inferior to an English lamb: their excellence is probably owing to their being kept up, and fed wholly upon vegetables. The sea affords them a great variety of fish. The smaller fish, when they catch any, are generally eaten raw, as we eat oysters; and nothing that the sea produces comes amiss to them: they are fond of lobsters, crabs, and other shell-fish, which are found upon the coast; and they will eat not only sea-insects, but what the seamen call _Blubbers_, though some of them are so tough, that they are obliged to suffer them to become putrid before they can be chewed. Of the many vegetables that have been mentioned already as serving them for food, the principal is the bread-fruit, to procure which costs them no trouble or labour but climbing a tree: the tree which produces it does not indeed shoot up spontaneously: but if a man plants ten of them in his lifetime, which he may do in about an hour, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations as the natives of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, and reaping in the summer’s heat, as often as these seasons return; even if, after he has procured bread for his present household, he should convert a surplus into money, and lay it up for his children.

It is true, indeed, that the bread-fruit is not always in season; but cocoa-nuts, bananas, plantains, and a great variety of other fruits, supply the deficiency.

It may well be supposed, that cookery is but little studied by these people as an art; and, indeed, they have but two ways of applying fire to dress their food, broiling and baking; the operation of broiling is so simple that it requires no description, and their baking has been described already, (page 154.) in the account of an entertainment prepared for us by Tupia. Hogs, and large fish, are extremely well dressed in the same manner; and, in our opinion, were more juicy and more equally done than by any art of cookery now practised in Europe. Bread-fruit is also cooked in an oven of the same kind, which renders it soft, and something like a boiled potatoe; not quite so farinaceous as a good one, but more so than those of the middling sort.

Of the bread-fruit they also make three dishes, by putting either water or the milk of the cocoa-nut to it, then beating it to a paste with a stone pestle, and afterwards mixing it with ripe plantains, bananas, or the sour paste which they call _Mahie_.

The mahie, which has been mentioned as a succedaneum for ripe bread-fruit, before the season for gathering a fresh crop comes on, is thus made:

The fruit is gathered just before it is perfectly ripe, and being laid in heaps, is closely covered with leaves; in this state it undergoes a fermentation, and becomes disagreeably sweet: the core is then taken out entire, which is done by gently pulling the stalk, and the rest of the fruit is thrown into a hole which is dug for that purpose, generally in the houses, and neatly lined in the bottom and sides with grass; the whole is then covered with leaves, and heavy stones laid upon them: in this state it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, after which it will suffer no change for many months: it is taken out of the hole as it is wanted for use, and being made into balls, it is wrapped up in leaves and baked; after it is dressed, it will keep five or six weeks. It is eaten both cold and hot, and the natives seldom make a meal without it, though to us the taste was as disagreeable as that of a pickled olive generally is the first time it is eaten.

As the making of this mahie depends, like brewing, upon fermentation, so, like brewing, it sometimes fails, without their being able to ascertain the cause; it is very natural, therefore, that the making it should be connected with superstitious notions and ceremonies. It generally falls to the lot of the old women, who will suffer no creature to touch any thing belonging to it, but those whom they employ as assistants, nor even to go into that part of the house where the operation is carrying on. Mr. Banks happened to spoil a large quantity of it only by inadvertently touching a leaf which lay upon it. The old woman, who then presided over these mysteries, told him, that the process would fail; and immediately uncovered the hole in a fit of vexation and despair. Mr. Banks regretted the mischief he had done, but was somewhat consoled by the opportunity which it gave him of examining the preparation, which perhaps, but for such an accident, would never have offered.

Such is their food, to which salt water is the universal sauce, no meal being eaten without it: those who live near the sea have it fetched as it is wanted; those who live at some distance keep it in large bamboos, which are set up in their houses for use. Salt water, however, is not their only sauce; they make another of the kernels of cocoa-nuts, which being fermented till they dissolve into a paste somewhat resembling butter, are beaten up with salt water. The flavour of this is very strong, and was, when we first tasted it, exceedingly nauseous; a little use, however, reconciled some of our people to it so much, that they preferred it to our own sauces, especially with fish. The natives seemed to consider it as a dainty, and do not use it at their common meals; possibly, because they think it ill management to use cocoa-nuts so lavishly, or, perhaps, when we were at the island, they were scarcely ripe enough for the purpose.

For drink, they have in general nothing but water, or the juice of the cocoa-nut; the art of producing liquors that intoxicate, by fermentation, being happily unknown among them; neither have they any narcotic which they chew, as the natives of some other countries do opium, beetle-root, and tobacco. Some of them drank freely of our liquors, and in a few instances became very drunk; but the persons to whom this happened were so far from desiring to repeat the debauch, that they would never touch any of our liquors afterwards. We were, however, informed, that they became drunk by drinking a juice that is expressed from the leaves of a plant which they call _Ava Ava_. This plant was not in season when we were there, so that we saw no instances of its effects; and as they considered drunkenness as a disgrace, they probably would have concealed from us any instances which might have happened during our stay. This vice is almost peculiar to the chiefs, and considerable persons, who vie with each other in drinking the greatest number of draughts, each draught being about a pint. They keep this intoxicating juice with great care from their women.

Table they have none; but their apparatus for eating is set out with great neatness, though the articles are too simple and too few to allow any thing for show; and they commonly eat alone; but when a stranger happens to visit them, he sometimes makes a second in their mess. Of the meal of one of their principal people I shall give a particular description.

He sits down under the shade of the next tree, or on the shady side of his house, and a large quantity of leaves, either of the bread-fruit or banana, are neatly spread before him upon the ground as a table-cloth; a basket is then set by him that contains his provision, which, if fish or flesh, is ready dressed, and wrapped up in leaves, and two cocoa-nut shells, one full of salt water, and the other of fresh: his attendants, which are not few, seat themselves round him, and when all is ready, he begins by washing his hands and his mouth thoroughly with the fresh water, and this he repeats almost continually throughout the whole meal; he then takes part of his provision out of the basket, which generally consists of a small fish or two, two or three bread-fruits, fourteen or fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven apples; he first takes half a bread-fruit, peels off the rind, and takes out the core with his nails; of this he puts as much into his mouth as it can hold, and while he chews it, takes the fish out of the leaves, and breaks one of them into the salt water, placing the other, and what remains of the bread-fruit, upon the leaves that have been spread before him. When this is done, he takes up a small piece of the fish that has been broken into the salt water, with all the fingers of one hand, and sucks it into his mouth, so as to get with it as much of the salt water as possible: in the same manner he takes the rest by different morsels, and between each, at least very frequently, takes a small sup of the salt water, either out of the cocoa-nut shell, or the palm of his hand: in the mean time one of his attendants has prepared a young cocoa-nut, by peeling off the outer rind with his teeth, an operation which to an European appears very surprising; but it depends so much upon slight, that many of us were able to do it before we left the island, and some that could scarcely crack a filbert: the master, when he chooses to drink, takes the cocoa-nut thus prepared, and boring a hole through the shell with his finger, or breaking it with a stone, he sucks out the liquor. When he has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins with his plantains, one of which makes but a mouthful, though it be as big as a black-pudding; if, instead of plantains, he has apples, he never tastes them till they have been pared; to do this a shell is picked up from the ground, where they are always in plenty, and tossed to him by an attendant: he immediately begins to cut or scrape off the rind, but so awkwardly that great part of the fruit is wasted. If, instead of fish, he has flesh, he must have some succedaneum for a knife to divide it; and for this purpose a piece of bamboo is tossed to him, of which he makes the necessary implement by splitting it transversely with his nail. While all this has been doing, some of his attendants have been employed in beating bread-fruit with a stone pestle upon a block of wood; by being beaten in this manner, and sprinkled from time to time with water, it is reduced to the consistence of a soft paste, and is then put into a vessel somewhat like a butcher’s tray, and either made up alone, or mixed with banana or mahie, according to the taste of the master, by pouring water upon it by degrees and squeezing it often through the hand: under this operation it acquires the consistence of a thick custard, and a large cocoa-nut shell full of it being set before him, he sips it as we should do a jelly if we had no spoon to take it from the glass: the meal is then finished by again washing his hands and his mouth. After which the cocoa-nut shells are cleaned, and every thing that is left is replaced in the basket.

The quantity of food which these people eat at a meal is prodigious: I have seen one man devour two or three fishes as big as a perch; three bread-fruits, each bigger than two fists; fourteen or fifteen plantains or bananas, each of them six or seven inches long, and four or five round; and near a quart of the pounded bread-fruit, which is as substantial as the thickest unbaked custard. This is so extraordinary that I scarcely expect to be believed; and I would not have related it upon my own single testimony; but Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and most of the other gentlemen, have had ocular demonstration of its truth, and know that I mention them upon the occasion.

It is very wonderful that these people, who are remarkably fond of society, and particularly that of their women, should exclude its pleasures from the table, where among all other nations, whether civil or savage, they have been principally enjoyed. How a meal, which every where else brings families and friends together, came to separate them here, we often enquired, but could never learn. They eat alone, they said, because it was right; but why it was right to eat alone they never attempted to tell us: such, however, was the force of habit, that they expressed the strongest dislike, and even disgust, at our eating in society, especially with our women, and of the same victuals. At first, we thought this strange singularity arose from some superstitious opinion; but they constantly affirmed the contrary. We observed also some caprices in the custom, for which we could as little account as for the custom itself. We could never prevail with any of the women to partake of the victuals at our table when we were dining in company; yet they would go, five or six together, into the servants’ apartments, and there eat very heartily of whatever they could find, of which I have before given a particular instance; nor were they in the least disconcerted if we came in while they were doing it. When any of us have been alone with a woman, she has sometimes eaten in our company; but then she has expressed the greatest unwillingness that it should be known, and always extorted the strongest promises of secrecy.

Among themselves, even two brothers and two sisters have each their separate baskets, with provision and the apparatus of their meal. When they first visited us at our tents, each brought his basket with him; and when we sat down to table, they would go out, sit down upon the ground, at two or three yards’ distance from each other, and turning their faces different ways, take their repast without interchanging a single word.

The women not only abstain from eating with the men, and of the same victuals, but even have their victuals separately prepared by boys kept for that purpose, who deposit it in a separate shed, and attend them with it at their meals.

But though they would not eat with us or with each other, they have often asked us to eat with them, when we have visited those with whom we were particularly acquainted at their houses; and we have often upon such occasions eaten out of the same basket, and drunk out of the same cup. The elder women, however, always appeared to be offended at this liberty; and if we happened to touch their victuals, or even the basket that contained it, would throw it away.

After meals, and in the heat of the day, the middle-aged people of the better sort generally sleep: they are indeed extremely indolent; and sleeping and eating is almost all that they do. Those that are older are less drowsy, and the boys and girls are kept awake by the natural activity and sprightliness of their age.

Their amusements have occasionally been mentioned in my account of the incidents that happened during our residence in this island, particularly music, dancing, wrestling, and shooting with the bow; they also sometimes vie with each other in throwing a lance. As shooting is not at a mark, but for distance; throwing the lance is not for distance, but at a mark: the weapon is about nine feet long, the mark is the bole of a plantain, and the distance about twenty yards.

Their only musical instruments are flutes and drums; the flutes are made of a hollow bamboo about a foot long, and, as has been observed before, have only two stops, and consequently but four notes, out of which they seem hitherto to have formed but one tune: to these stops they apply the fore-finger of the left hand and the middle finger of the right.

The drum is made of a hollow block of wood, of a cylindrical form, solid at one end, and covered at the other with shark’s skin: these they beat not with sticks, but their hands; and they know how to tune two drums of different notes into concord. They have also an expedient to bring the flutes that play together into unison, which is to roll up a leaf so as to slip over the end of the shortest, like our sliding tubes for telescopes, which they move up or down till the purpose is answered, of which they seem to judge by their ear with great nicety.

To these instruments they sing; and, as I have observed before, their songs are often extempore: they call every two verses or couplet a song, _Pehay_: they are generally, though not always, in rhime; and when pronounced by the natives, we could discover that they were metre. Mr. Banks took great pains to write down some of them which were made upon our arrival, as nearly as he could express their sounds by combinations of our letters; but when we read them, not having their accent, we could scarcely make them either metre or rhime. The reader will easily perceive that they are of very different structure.

Tede pahai de parow-a
Ha maru no mina.

E pahah Tayo malama tai ya
No Tabane tonatou whannomi ya.

E Turai eattu terara patee whennua toai
Ino o maio Pretane to whennuaia no Tute.

Of these verses our knowledge of the language is too imperfect to attempt a translation. They frequently amuse themselves by singing such couplets as these when they are alone, or with their families, especially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not without the comfort of artificial light between sunset and bedtime. Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the second, at the same time consuming that part of the skewer which goes through it; the second taking fire burns in the same manner down to the third, and so of the rest: some of these candles will burn a considerable time, and they give a very tolerable light. They do not often sit up above an hour after it is dark; but when they have strangers who sleep in the house, they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours.

Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been said already; especially as I shall have occasion more particularly to mention them when I relate our adventures upon another island.

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are supposed to be wholly ignorant of what others upon some occasions may appear to know; and their conduct and conversation are consequently restrained within narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever relates to a connection with the other sex; but here it is just contrary. Among other diversions, there is a dance, called _Timorodee_, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. In these dances they keep time with an exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best performers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has put these hopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols of the dance.

It cannot be supposed that, among these people, chastity is held in much estimation. It might be expected that sisters and daughters would be offered to strangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, should not be otherwise punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a slight beating, as indeed is the case; but there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, which these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the present hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive.

A very considerable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both sexes, have formed themselves into a society, in which every woman is common to every man; thus securing a perpetual variety as often as their inclination prompts them to seek it, which is so frequent, that the same man and woman seldom cohabit together more than two or three days.

These societies are distinguished by the name of _Arreoy_; and the members have meetings, at which no other is present, where the men amuse themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occasional connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude, as an incitement to desires which it is said are frequently gratified upon the spot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If any of the women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less frequently than if they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor infant is smothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her diabolical prostitution. It sometimes indeed happens, that the passion which prompts a woman to enter into this society is surmounted when she becomes a mother, by that instinctive affection which nature has given to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring; but even in this case she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except she can find a man who will patronise it as his child: if this can be done, the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman, being deemed by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of the Arreoy for the future; the woman from that time being distinguished by the term _Whannownow_, “bearer of children,” which is here a term of reproach; though none can be more honourable in the estimation of wisdom and humanity, of right reason, and every passion that distinguishes the man from the brute.

It is not fit that a practice so horrid and so strange should be imputed to human beings upon slight evidence, but I have such as abundantly justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are so far from concealing their connection with such a society as a disgrace, that they boast of it as a privilege; and both myself and Mr. Banks, when particular persons have been pointed out to us as members of the Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. They have acknowledged that they had long been of this accursed society, that they belonged to it at that time, and that several of their children had been put to death.

But I must not conclude my account of the domestic life of these people without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which lessens the good of life and increases the evil is vice, surely cleanliness is a virtue: the want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and mingles disgust with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in running water three times every day; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river is near them or at a distance. I have already observed, that they wash not only the mouth but the hands at their meals, almost between every morsel; and their clothes, as well as their persons, are kept without spot or stain; so that in a large company of these people nothing is suffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest assembly in Europe.

CHAP. XVIII.

OF THE MANUFACTURES, BOATS, AND NAVIGATION OF OTAHEITE.

IF necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be supposed to have been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art almost superfluous; yet there are many instances both of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, considering the want of metal for tools, do honour to both.

Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dying of which I think there are some particulars which may instruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reason my description will be more minute.

Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which resembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies.

The finest and whitest is made of the paper mulberry, _Aouta_; this is worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is made of the bread-fruit tree, _Ooroo_, and worn chiefly by the inferior people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper; this, though it is less pleasing both to the eye and the touch, is the most valuable, because it resists water, which the other two sorts will not. Of this, which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is perfumed, and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress.

All these trees are propagated with great care, particularly the mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is not fit for use after two or three years growth, when it is about six or eight feet high, and somewhat thicker than a man’s thumb; its excellence is to be thin, straight, tall, and without branches: the lower leaves, therefore, are carefully plucked off, with their germs, as often as there is any appearance of their producing a branch.

But though the cloth made of these three trees is different, it is all manufactured in the same manner; I shall, therefore, describe the process only in the fine sort, that is made of the mulberry. When the trees are of a proper size, they are drawn up, and stripped of their branches, after which the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of these rods being then slit up longitudinally is easily drawn off, and, when a proper quantity has been procured, it is carried down to some running water, in which it is deposited to soak, and secured from floating away by heavy stones: when it is supposed to be sufficiently softened, the women servants go down to the brook, and stripping themselves, sit down in the water, to separate the inner bark from the green part on the outside; to do this they place the under side upon a flat smooth board, and with the shell, which our dealers call tyger’s tongue, _tellina gargadia_, scrape it very carefully, dipping it continually in the water till nothing remains but the fine fibres of the inner coat. Being thus prepared in the afternoon, they are spread out upon plantain leaves in the evening; and in this part of the work there appears to be some difficulty, as the mistress of the family always superintends the doing of it: they are placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one by the side of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are also laid one upon the other: care is taken that the cloth shall be in all parts of an equal thickness, so that if the bark happens to be thinner in any particular part of one layer than the rest, a piece that is somewhat thicker is picked out to be laid over it in the next. In this state it remains till the morning, when great part of the water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or evaporated, and the several fibres adhere together, so as that the whole maybe raised from the ground in one piece.

It is then taken away, and laid upon the smooth side of a long piece of wood, prepared for the purpose, and beaten by the women servants, with instruments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hard wood which they call _Etoa_. The shape of this instrument is not unlike a square razor strop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its four sides or faces is marked, lengthways, with small grooves, or furrows, of different degrees of fineness; those on one side being of a width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others finer in a regular gradation, so that the last are not more than equal to sewing silk.

They beat it first with the coarsest side of this mallet, keeping time like our smiths; it spreads very fast under the strokes, chiefly however in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the appearance of threads; it is successively beaten with the other sides, last with the finest, and is then fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is made still thinner, by beating it with the finest side of the mallet, after it has been several times doubled: it is then called _Hoboo_, and is almost as thin as a muslin; it becomes very white by being bleached in the air, but is made still whiter and softer by being washed and beaten again after it has been worn.

Of this cloth there are several sorts, of different degrees of fineness, in proportion as it is more or less beaten without being doubled: the other cloth also differs in proportion as it is beaten; but they differ from each other in consequence of the different materials of which they are made. The bark of the bread-fruit is not taken till the trees are considerably longer and thicker than those of the fig, the process afterwards is the same.

When cloth is to be washed after it has been worn, it is taken down to the brook, and left to soak, being kept fast to the bottom, as at first, by a stone; it is then gently wrung or squeezed; and sometimes several pieces of it are laid one upon another, and beaten together with the coarsest side of the mallet, and they are then equal in thickness to broad-cloth, and much more soft and agreeable to the touch, after they have been a little while in use, though when they come immediately from the mallet, they feel as if they had been starched. This cloth sometimes breaks in the beating, but is easily repaired by pasting on a patch with a gluten that is prepared from the root of the _Pea_, which is done so nicely that it cannot be discovered. The women also employ themselves in removing blemishes of every kind, as our ladies do in needle-work or knotting; sometimes when their work is intended to be very fine, they will paste an entire covering of hoboo over the whole. The principal excellencies of this cloth are its coolness and softness; and its imperfections, its being pervious to water like paper, and almost as easily torn.

The colours with which they dye this cloth are principally red and yellow. The red is exceedingly beautiful, and I may venture to say a brighter and more delicate colour than any we have in Europe; that which approaches nearest is our full scarlet, and the best imitation which Mr. Banks’s natural history painter could produce, was by a mixture of vermillion and carmine. The yellow is also a bright color, but we have many as good.

The red colour is produced by the mixture of the juices of two vegetables, neither of which separately has the least tendency to that hue. One is a species of fig called here _Matte_, and the other the _Cordia Sebestina_, or _Etou_; of the fig the fruit is used, and of the _Cordia_ the leaves.

The fruit of the fig is about as big as a rounceval pea, or very small gooseberry; and each of them, upon breaking off the stalk very close, produces one drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs, of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor the women collect into a small quantity of cocoa-nut water: to prepare a gill of cocoa-nut water will require between three and four quarts of these little figs. When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of the Etou are well wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned about till they become more and more flaccid, and then they are gently squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break them; as the flaccidity increases, and they become spungy, they are supplied with more of the liquor; in about five minutes the colour begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a little more, they are perfectly saturated with it: they are then squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained at the same time that it is expressed.

For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quantity of the Moo, by drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a thin web of the fibres only remains; in this the leaves of the Etou are inveloped, and through these the juice which they contain is strained as it is forced out. As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is pressed out of them than they have imbibed: when they have been once emptied, they are filled again, and again pressed, till the quality which tinctures the liquor as it passes through them is exhausted, they are then thrown away; but the Moo, being deeply stained with the colour, is preserved, as a brush to lay the dye upon the cloth.

The expressed liquor is always received into small cups made of the plantain leaf, whether from a notion that it has any quality favourable to the colour, or from the facility with which it is procured, and the convenience of small vessels to distribute it among the artificers, I do not know.

Of the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick cloth is coloured through the whole surface; the liquor is indeed used rather as a pigment than a dye, for a coat of it is laid upon one side only, with the fibres of the Moo; and though I have seen of the thin cloth that has appeared to have been soaked in the liquor, the colour has not had the same richness and lustre, as when it has been applied in the other manner.

Though the leaf of the Etou is generally used in this process, and probably produces the finest colour, yet the juice of the figs will produce a red by a mixture with the species of Tournefortia, which they call _Taheinoo_, the _Pohuc_, the _Eurhe_, or _Convolvulus Brasiliensis_, and a species of Solanum called _Ebooa_; from the use of these different plants, or from different proportions of the materials, many varieties are observable in the colours of their cloth, some of which are conspicuously superior to others.

The beauty, however, of the best is not permanent; but it is probable that some method might be found to fix it, if proper experiments were made, and perhaps to search for latent qualities, which may be brought out by the mixture of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an unprofitable employment: our present most valuable dyes afford sufficient encouragement to the attempt; for by the mere inspection of indigo, woad, dyer’s weed, and most of the leaves which are used for the like purposes, the colours which they yield could never be discovered. Of this Indian red I shall only add, that the women who have been employed in preparing or using it, carefully preserve the colour upon their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmost beauty, as a great ornament.

The yellow is made of the bark of the root of the _Morinda citrifolia_, called _Nono_, by scraping and infusing it in water; after standing some time, the water is strained and used as a dye, the cloth being dipped into it. The Morinda, of which this is a species, seems to be a good subject for examination with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his history of Jamaica, mentions three species of it, which he says are used to dye brown; and Rumphius says of the _Bancuda Angustifolia_, which is nearly allied to our Nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East Indian islands, as a fixing drug for red colours, with which it particularly agrees.

The inhabitants of this island also dye yellow with the fruit of the Tamanu; but how the colour is extracted, we had no opportunity to discover. They have also a preparation with which they dye brown and black; but these colours are so indifferent, that the method of preparing them did not excite our curiosity.

Another considerable manufacture is matting of various kinds; some of which is finer, and better, in every respect, than any we have in Europe: the coarser sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer to wear in wet weather. With the fine, of which there are also two sorts, much pains is taken, especially with that made of the bark of the Poerou, the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_ of Linnæus, some of which is as fine as a coarse cloth; the other sort, which is still more beautiful, they call _Vanne_; it is white, glossy, and shining, and is made of the leaves of their _Wharrou_, a species of the _Pandanus_, of which we had no opportunity to see either the flowers or fruit: they have other matts, or as they call them _Moeas_, to sit or to sleep upon, which are formed of a great variety of rushes and grass, and which they make, as they do every thing else that is plaited, with amazing facility and dispatch.

They are also very dexterous in making basket and wicker work; their baskets are of a thousand different patterns, many of them exceedingly neat; and the making them is an art that every one practises, both men and women: they make occasional baskets and panniers of the cocoa-nut leaf in a few minutes, and the women who visited us early in a morning used to send, as soon as the sun was high, for a few of the leaves, of which they made little bonnets to shade their faces, at so small an expence of time and trouble, that, when the sun was again low in the evening, they used to throw them away. These bonnets, however, did not cover the head, but consisted only of a band that went round it, and a shade that projected from the forehead.

Of the bark of the Poerou, they make ropes and lines, from the thickness of an inch to the size of a small packthread: with these they make nets for fishing: of the fibres of the cocoa-nut they make thread, for fastening together the several parts of their canoes, and belts, either round or flat, twisted or plaited; and of the bark of the _Erowa_, a kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and is therefore rather scarce, they make the best fishing lines in the world: with these they hold the strongest and most active fish, such as Bonetas and Albicores, which would snap our strongest silk lines in a minute, though they are twice as thick.

They make also a kind of seine, of a coarse broad grass, the blades of which are like flags; these they twist and tie together in a loose manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a large sack, is from sixty to eighty fathom long: this they haul in shoal smooth water, and its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that scarcely a single fish can escape.

In every expedient, indeed, for taking fish, they are exceedingly ingenious; they make harpoons of cane, and point them with hard wood, which in their hands strike fish more effectually, than those which are headed with iron can do in ours, setting aside the advantage of ours being fastened to a line, so that the fish is secured if the hook takes place, though it does not mortally wound him.

Of fish-hooks they have two sorts, admirably adapted in their construction as well to the purpose they are to answer, as to the materials of which they are made. One of these, which they call _Wittee Wittee_, is used for towing. The shank is made of mother-of-pearl, the most glossy that can be got: the inside, which is naturally the brightest, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog’s or hog’s hair is fixed, so as somewhat to resemble the tail of a fish; these implements, therefore, are both hook and bait, and are used with a rod of bamboo, and line of _Erowa_. The fisher, to secure his success, watches the flight of the birds which constantly attend the Bonetas when they swim in shoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has the advantage of these guides, he seldom returns without a prize.

The other kind of hook is also made of mother-of-pearl, or some other hard shell: they cannot make them bearded like our hooks; but to effect the same purpose, they make the point turn inwards. These are made of all sizes, and used to catch various kinds of fish with great success. The manner of making them is very simple, and every fisherman is his own artificer: the shell is first cut into square pieces, by the edge of another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle; the drill being no other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp corner: this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the hands like a chocolate-mill; when the shell is perforated, and the hole sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is introduced, by the application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few costing the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour.

Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the reader has already formed some idea from the account that has been given of the Morais, or repositories of the dead: the other most important article of building and carving is their boats; and perhaps, to fabricate one of their principal vessels with their tools is as great a work, as to build a British man of war with ours.

They have an adze of stone; a chissel, or gouge of bone, generally that of a man’s arm between the wrist and elbow; a rasp of coral; and the skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand, as a file or polisher.

This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build houses, construct canoes, hew stone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber.

The stone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of Basaltes, of a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of considerable toughness: they are formed of different sizes; some, that are intended for felling, weigh from six to eight pounds; others, that are used for carving, not more than so many ounces; but it is necessary to sharpen both almost every minute; for which purpose, a stone and a cocoa-nut shell full of water are always at hand.

Their greatest exploit, to which these tools are less equal than to any other, is felling a tree: this requires many hands, and the constant labour of several days. When it is down, they split it, with the grain, into planks from three to four inches thick, the whole length and breadth of the tree, many of which are eight feet in the girt, and forty to the branches, and nearly of the same thickness throughout. The tree generally used is, in their language, called _Avie_, the stem of which is tall and straight; though some of the smaller boats are made of the bread-fruit tree, which is a light spongy wood, and easily wrought. They smooth the plank very expeditiously and dexterously with their adzes, and can take off a thin coat from a whole plank without missing a stroke. As they have not the art of warping a plank, every part of the canoe, whether hollow or flat, is shaped by hand.

The canoes, or boats, which are used by the inhabitants of this and the neighbouring islands, may be divided into two general classes; one of which they call _Ivahahs_, the other _Pahies_.

The Ivahah is used for short excursions to sea, and is wall-sided and flat-bottomed; the Pahie for longer voyages, and is bow-sided and sharp-bottomed. The Ivahas are all of the same figure, but of different sizes, and used for different purposes: their length is from seventy-two feet to ten, but the breadth is by no means in proportion; for those of ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two. There is the fighting Ivahah, the fishing Ivahah, and the travelling Ivahah; for some of these go from one island to another. The fighting Ivahah is by far the longest, and the head and stern are considerably raised above the body, in a semicircular form; particularly the stern, which is sometimes seventeen or eighteen feet high, though the boat itself is scarcely three. These never go to sea single; but are fastened together, side by side, at the distance of about three feet, by strong poles of wood, which are laid across them and lashed to the gunwales. Upon these, in the forepart, a stage or platform is raised, about ten or twelve feet long, and somewhat wider than the boats, which is supported by pillars about six feet high: upon this stage stand the fighting men, whose missile weapons are slings and spears; for, among other singularities in the manners of these people, their bows and arrows are used only for diversion, as we throw quoits: below these stages sit the rowers, who receive from them those that are wounded, and furnish fresh men to ascend in their room. Some of these have a platform of bamboos or other light wood, through their whole length, and considerably broader, by means of which they will carry a great number of men; but we saw only one fitted in this manner.

The fishing Ivahahs vary in length from about forty feet to the smallest size, which is about ten; all that are of the length of twenty-five feet and upwards, of whatever sort, occasionally carry sail. The travelling Ivahah is always double, and furnished with a small neat house, about five or six feet broad, and six or seven feet long, which is fastened upon the fore-part for the convenience of the principal people, who sit in them by day, and sleep in them at night. The fishing Ivahahs are sometimes joined together, and have a house on board; but this is not common.

Those which are shorter than five and twenty feet, seldom or never carry sail; and, though the stern rises about four or five feet, have a flat head, and a board that projects forward about four feet.

The Pahie is also of different sizes, from sixty to thirty feet long; but, like the Ivahah, is very narrow. One that I measured was fifty-one feet long, and only one foot and a half wide at the top. In the widest part, it was about three feet; and this is the general proportion. It does not, however, widen by a gradual swell; but the sides being straight and parallel, for a little way below the gunwale, it swells abruptly, and draws to a ridge at the bottom; so that a transverse section of it has somewhat the appearance of the mark upon cards called a Spade, the whole being much wider in proportion to its length. These, like the largest Ivahahs, are used for fighting; but principally for long voyages. The fighting Pahie, which is the largest, is fitted with the stage or platform, which is proportionably larger than those of the Ivahah, as their form enables them to sustain a much greater weight. Those that are used for sailing are generally double; and the middle size are said to be the best sea-boats. They are sometimes out a month together, going from island to island; and sometimes, as we were credibly informed, they are a fortnight or twenty days at sea, and could keep it longer if they had more stowage for provisions, and conveniencies to hold fresh water.

When any of these boats carry sail single, they make use of a log of wood, which is fastened to the end of two poles that lie cross the vessel, and project from six to ten feet, according to the size of the vessel, beyond its side, somewhat like what is used by the flying Proa of the Ladrone Islands, and called in the account of Lord Anson’s Voyage, an Outrigger. To this outrigger the shrouds are fastened, and it is essentially necessary in trimming the boat when it blows fresh.

Some of them have one mast, and some two; they are made of a single stick, and when the length of the canoe is thirty feet, that of the mast is somewhat less than five-and-twenty; it is fixed to a frame that is above the canoe, and receives a sail of matting about one-third longer than itself: the sail is pointed at the top, square at the bottom, and curved at the side; somewhat resembling what we call a shoulder of mutton sail, and used for boats belonging to men of war: it is placed in a frame of wood, which surrounds it on every side, and has no contrivance either for reefing or furling; so that, if either should become necessary, it must be cut away, which, however, in these equal climates, can seldom happen. At the top of the mast are fastened ornaments of feathers, which are placed inclining obliquely forwards; the shape and position of which will be conceived at once from the figure, in one of the cuts.

The oars or paddles that are used with these boats, have a long handle and a flat blade, not unlike a baker’s peel. Of these every person in the boat has one, except those that sit under the awning; and they push her forward with them at a good rate. These boats, however, admit so much water at the seams, that one person at least is continually employed in throwing it out. The only thing in which they excel is landing, and putting off from the shore in a surf: by their great length and high sterns they land dry, when our boats could scarcely land at all; and have the same advantages in putting off by the height of the head.

The Ivahahs are the only boats that are used by the inhabitants of Otaheite; but we saw several Pahies that came from other islands. Of one of these I shall give the exact dimensions from a careful admeasurement, and then particularly describe the manner in which they are built.

Feet. Inches.

Extreme length from stem to stern, not reckoning the 51 0
bending up of either

Breadth in the clear of the top forward 1 2

Breadth in the midships 1 6

Breadth aft 1 3

In the bilge forward 2 8

In the midships 2 11