Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/394

328 coming now replete with the powder, when quite dry they work it up with great care and attention, occupying three or four hours in frizzing it out with a sort of comb, to a consi- derable distance from the head, resembling an immense wig, from four to nine inches thick, being raised equally from the head, at the top,, back, and sides. Like the Tonga people, they generally go bareheaded ; but to preserve this fine hiead-dress from being injured by the dews of the night, they usually cover it with about a square yard of white gnatoo^ beaten out very fine, so as to appear the more light and ele- gant; and this is quite sufficient to keep off the moisture : they tie it on with remarkable neatness. At the Fiji islands the boys and girls go quite naked, the girls till they are about ten years old, the boys till they are about fourteen : after which periods the girls wear the usual dress of the women, which consists merely in a sort of circular apron, about a foot or fourteen inches broad, worn quite round the waist : when they grow old, it is increased to about a foot and a half in breadth. At the age of fourteen , the boy begins to wear the mahi, or usual dress of the men, which has been accurately de- scribed by Captain Cook, as seen by him at the Sandwich islands, where they use the same,