Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/243

] to their shoulders. Into these holes some had introduced leaves of trees, others a piece of wood, to stretch them bigger. Several had this lobe jagged; perhaps from having been torn, either in battle, or in running through the woods.

Behind the ears of one of these savages we observed tubercles of the shape of a veal sweetbread, and half as big as a man's fist. He appeared well pleased at seeing us examine this ornament, the growth of which he had effected by means of a caustic, by which the parts, no doubt, must have been greatly irritated for a considerable time.

The women had no other garment than a kind of fringe, made of the filaments of the bark of trees, which served them as a girdle, passing several times round the waist (See Plate XXXVI).

The canoes kept themselves close by our ship, by means of different ropes, which we had thrown out to them. Each of them, however, had a large stone, to serve as an anchor, fastened to a long rope, but they did not make use of these on the present occasion.

22d. The next day we got up our anchor at six o clock in the morning, and made several stretches to get nearer to Observatory Island, which the natives call by the name of Pudyoua. At half after ten, when we brought up, this island was not above 500 toises distant to the east 3° 15′ south.