Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/405

Rh nothing; the drawing may serve, however, to give an idea to a man who has never seen a thing of the kind.

The syrup or gula which they make in this manner is so nourishing that Mr. Lange told us that it alone fed and fattened their hogs, dogs, and fowls, and that men themselves could and had sometimes lived upon it alone for a long time, when by bad seasons, or their destructive feasts, which I shall mention by and by, they have been deprived of all other nourishment. We saw some of the swine, whose uncommon fatness surprised us much, which very beasts we saw one evening served with their suppers, consisting of nothing but the outside husks of rice and this syrup dissolved in water. This they told us was their constant and only food; how far it may be found consonant to truth that sugar alone should have such nourishing qualities I shall leave to others to determine; I have only accounts, not experience, to favour that opinion.

The people of this island are rather under than over the middling size, the women especially, most of whom are remarkably short and generally squat built. Their colour is well tinged with brown, and in all ranks and conditions nearly the same, in which particular they differ much from the inhabitants of the South Sea Isles, where the better sort of people are almost universally whiter than their inferiors. The men are rather well made, and seem to be active and nimble; among them we observed a greater variety of features than usual. The women on the other hand are far from handsome, and have a kind of sameness of features among them which might well account for the chastity of the men, for which virtue this island is said to be remarkable. The hair of both sexes is universally black and lank; the men wear it long, and fastened upon the tops of their heads with a comb; the women have theirs also long, and tied behind into a kind of not very becoming club.

Both men and women dress in a kind of blue and white clouded cotton cloth, which they manufacture themselves: of this two pieces, each about two yards long, serve for a dress. One of these is worn round the middle; this the