Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/170

, beautifully "crimshonned" or carved, hung from his neck upon his breast. Above the elbows he wore armlets made from tortoise-shell. His hair was so bushy that it would have been impossible to cover it with a  bushel basket. His face and long beard were bedaubed with rancid cocoanut oil and ivory-black, which gave  him a very hideous appearance. I was informed that the natural hue of his beard and mustache was quite

FIJI DRUMMER.

gray. From his begrimed look he had obtained the sobriquet of "Old Snuff." He was about sixty-five years of age and somewhat bent, making him appear much  older. His features were rather inclined to the European mold, bearing not the slighest resemblance to the negro. He spoke through his nose, or, rather, as if he had lost his palate. His body, like those of all his people, was very hairy. He was about six feet in height, slenderly built, with small, piercing, black