Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/117

Rh ages and sexes. They are of a reddish colour, nearly resembling that of rust of iron mixed with oil; the men are largely built, but very clumsy, their height being from five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches, and all very much of the same size. The women are much smaller, seldom exceeding five feet. Their clothes are nothing more than a kind of cloak of guanaco or seal skin, thrown loosely over their shoulders, and reaching nearly to their knees; under this they have nothing at all, nor anything to cover their feet, except a few who had shoes of raw seal hide drawn loosely round their instep like a purse. In this dress there is no distinction between men and women, except that the latter have their cloak tied round their waist with a kind of belt or thong.

Their ornaments, of which they are extremely fond, consist of necklaces, or rather solitaires, of shells, and bracelets, which the women wear both on their wrists and legs, the men only on their wrists; but to compensate for this the men have a kind of wreath of brown worsted which they wear over their foreheads, so that in reality they are more ornamented than the women.

They paint their faces generally in horizontal lines, just under their eyes, and sometimes make the whole region round their eyes white, but these marks are so much varied that no two we saw were alike. Whether they were marks of distinction or mere ornaments I could not at all make out. They seem also to paint themselves with something like a mixture of grease and soot on particular occasions, for when we went to their town there came out to meet us two who were daubed with black lines in every direction, so as to form the most diabolical countenance imaginable. These two seemed to exorcise us, or at least make a loud and long harangue, which did not seem to be addressed to us or any of their countrymen.

Their language is guttural, especially in particular words, which they seem to express much as an Englishman when he hawks to clear his throat. But they have many words which sound soft enough. During our stay among them I could