OCR Text |
Show 482 1'AHITI. Nov. 1835. ments follow the curvature of the body so gracefully, that they have a very pleasing and elegant effect. One com.mon fi gure, varym· g only in its detail, branches somewhat hke a tuft of palm-leaves* from the line of the backb~ne, and curls round each side. The simile may be a fanciful o~e, but I thought the body of a man thus ornamented, ·was hke the trunk of a noble tree embraced by a delicate creeper .. ~fany of the older people had their feet covered With small figures, placed in order so as to resemble a sock. This fashion, however, is partly gone by, and has been succeeded by others. Here, although each man must for ever abide by the whim which reigned in his early days, y~t fashion is far from immutable. An old man has thus his age for ever stamped on his body, and he cannot assume the airs of a young dandy. The women are also tattooed in t~e same manner as the men, and very commonly on their fingers. An unbecoming fashion i~ one res~ect is now almost universal: it is that of cuttmg the hair, or rather shaving it from the upper part of the head, in a circular form, so 'as to leave only an outer ring of hair. The missionaries have tried to persuade the people to change this habit : but it is the fashion, and that is sufficient answer at Tahiti as well as at Paris. I was much disappointed, in the personal appeara'nce of the women ; they are far inferior in every respect to the men. The custom of wearing a flower in the back of the head, o~ through a small hole in each ear, is pretty; the :flower IS generally either white or scarlet, and like the Camelia Japonica. They wear also a sort of crown of woven cocoa-nut leave.s, as a shade to their eyes. The women appear to be m greater want of some becoming costume, even than the men. Nearly all understand a little English ; -that is, th~y know the names of common things, and by the aid of this, * The similarity is not closer than between the capital of a Corinthian column and a tuft of acanthus. Nov. 1835. 'l'AfJ l 'l'I . 183 tog~ther with signs, a lame sort of conversation could be carried on. In returning in the evening to the boat, we stopped t~ witness a very pretty scene; numbers of children ~ere .playmg on the beach, and had lighted bonfires, which 1. llum. mated the placid sea and surrounding trees. Oth . 1 ets, m c1rc es, were singing Tahitian verses. We seated our-selves. on the sand, and ~oined their party. The songs were Impromptu, and I believe related to our arrival: one little. girl sang a line, which the rest took up in parts, formmg a very pretty chorus. The whole scene made us unequivocally aware that we were seated on the shores f I·s1 a n d"m the South Sea. o an NovEMBER 17Tn.-This day is reckoned in the log-book as 'ruesday the 17th instead of Monday the 16th, owing to our, s? far successful, chase of the sun. Before breakfast the shi~ was hemmed in by a flotilla of canoes, and when the natives were allowed to come on board, I suppose their numbers could not have been under two hundred. It was the opinion of every one, that it would have been difficult to have picked out an equal number from any other nation who would ha:e given so little trouble. Every bod; brought somethmg for sale : shells were the main article of trade. The Tahitians now fully understand the value of money, and prefer it to old clothes or other articles. The various coins, however, of English and Spanish denomination puzzle them, and they never seemed to think the small silver quite secure until changed into dollars. Some of the chiefs have accumulated considerable sums of money. One not long since offered eight hundred dollars (about 160 pounds sterling) for a small vessel; and frequently they purchase whale-boats and horses, at the rate of from fifty to a hundred dollars. After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the slope of the nearest part of the mountain, to an elevation between two and three thousand feet. The form of the land is rather singular, and may be understood by explaining its hypothetical origin. I believe the interior mountains once 2 I 2 |