Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/154

126 Traversing the interior of the island, we saw a barber employed in shaving one of the chiefs, after their fashion. The chief sat with his back leaning against his hut. The barber's razor consisted of the two shells of the solen radiatus (violet-coloured, or radiated razor-sheath), one of which he held firmly against the skin with the left hand, while with the right he applied the edge of the other to the hair, as near the root as he could, and by repeated scraping, brought it away, scarcely more than a hair at a time. We were astonished at so much patience, and left him, as might be supposed, long before he had finished his operation.

The art of the potter has made no great progress among these people. We saw in their possession some very porous earthen vessels, which they had baked indeed, but very slightly. In these they kept fresh water, which would have quickly filtered through them, if they had not taken the precaution to give them a coating of resin. Vessels thus made, could be of no use to them in dressing victuals. The natives showed us some of a tolerably elegant form, which they said had been brought from Feejee. (See Plate XXXI. Fig. 8.) We saw them drinking in companies out of cups of this sort, round which they put a net of a pretty large mesh, to be able to