Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/215

 The old chief had increased his stock, and now had them suspended from every available place both within and  without his house.

Fiji mothers used to anoint the bodies of their children all over, early every morning, with rancid cocoanut oil. This was liberally applied and vigorously rubbed in until the skin fairly glistened. This was supposed to prevent the pickaninnies from catching cold, and from  contracting various diseases.

Many of the natives wore necklaces composed of rare shells, and those who could get them wore several whale’s  teeth, strung on a string, hanging down on their breasts. A whale’s tooth was the price of a human life at these islands. The men here did not tattoo, but many of the women had the corners of their mouths tattooed in circles of a blue-black color.

Both men and women spend a great deal of time at their toilets. The prevailing style among the men was to wear the hair around the forehead, not parted in the  middle, but from ear to ear. The front part was dyed brown or red, and the back part white or yellow. The hair was so thick that no comb could possibly penetrate  it. On measuring the head of one of the men we found it to be sixty-two inches in circumference. The larger and more bushy the head the more pride was taken in it,  and the more it was admired by the women. Their heads were literally alive with vermin, and it was a common  sight to see them eagerly searching one another’s heads for  the insects, and sharing the spoil. One-third of the vermin secured belonged to the searcher, and no greater insult could be offered a native than to appropriate more