Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/342

304 to witness their attempts to repeat the words and tunes of their songs, which they accomplished with a wonderful degree of facility. Landing one morning unexpectedly, I found our people teaching them to wash their faces; but the soap making their eyes smart, their ablutions were afterwards confined to the feet and hands: they then powdered their hair with flour, and decorated them with ridiculous ornaments, the natives greatly enjoying their altered appearance, heightened, in no small degree, by the present of a complete suit of clothes each, and many useful articles they got on board the ship: they went away in the evening rich and happy.

The greatest number we saw at one time amounted to no more than fifteen. They were living together like one family, near the beach in Joachim Bay, and the parties which visited us generally consisted of three men, two women, and two or three children. The men came on board the ships without hesitation, but the women were never allowed to leave the canoe, and employed themselves diving for sea eggs, or picking up limpets, which are their principal food.

The only weapons we saw in their possession were spears of three kinds, not unlike those of the Esquimaux, but of very inferior manufacture: they were of various sizes, according to the purpose to which they were applied, and to suit the power and size of the person using them. The largest was a beech wood staff, nine feet long and four