Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/191

1769 in length, worked on end without a single knot; and I have seen five or six of such pieces wound round the head of one woman, the effect of which, if done with taste, was most becoming. Their dancing dresses I have described in the island of Ulhietea; and that of the Heiva I shall when I come to their mourning ceremonies. They have also several others suited to particular ceremonies which I had not an opportunity of seeing, although I was desirous of doing so, as the singular taste of those I did see promised much novelty, at least, if not something worth imitation, in whatever they take pains with.

I had almost forgotten the oil (monoe it is called in their language) with which they anoint their heads, a custom more disagreeable to Europeans than any other among them. This is made of cocoanut oil, in which some sweet woods or flowers are infused. It is most commonly very rancid, and consequently the wearers of it smell most disagreeably; at first we found it so, but very little custom reconciled me, at least, completely to it.

The houses, or rather dwellings, of these people are admirably adapted to the continual warmth of the climate. They do not build them in villages or towns, but separate each from the other, according to the size of the estate the owner of the house possesses. They are always in the woods; and no more ground is cleared for each house than is just sufficient to hinder the dropping off the branches from rotting the thatch with which they are covered, so that you step from the house immediately under shade, and that the most beautiful imaginable. No country can boast such delightful walks as this; for the whole plains where the people live are covered with groves of bread-fruit and cocoanut trees without underwood. These are intersected in all directions by the paths which go from one house to the other, so that the whole country is one shade, than which nothing can be more grateful in a climate where the sun has so powerful an influence. The houses are built without walls, so that the air, cooled by the shade of the trees, has free access in whatever direction it happens to blow. I