Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/68

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The hair is collected all round the head and combed upward, so as to be secured on the crown by ligatures and bodkins, where it forms a knot of considerable bulk; which having a great quantity of red earth and fish oil incorporated with it, as well as with the whole of the hair, sufficiently protects the head from all inclemencies of the weather. Europeans have hitherto given the preference to white powder, to which they have added unctious substances, which modern times have enabled them to render more agreeable to the noses of their part of the world, by the addition of perfumes of various denominations. But the taste of an European is not to be disputed.

The ordinary clothing of both men and women is exactly similar, so that the only distinction is in their faces, and the heads of the females, which have usually a greater number of ornaments than those of the men.

It is really curious to observe a family of natives seated as I have mentioned. They Rh