Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/357

] sprouts of the papaya tree. They told us that the sprouts and unripe fruit of this tree were very good eating when boiled. They brought us also sago, made into a sort of flat cakes, three inches broad and six long, which they ate without any farther preparation. Some of them brought us sago made into a sourish tasted paste, after having undergone fermentation.

Most of these islanders were naked all but their natural parts, which they cover with a coarse stuff, apparently made of the bark of the fig tree. The heat of the climate renders all other cloathing unnecessary. Only their chiefs wear very wide trowsers and jackets, made of stuffs which they buy from the Chinese, who, as they told us, came from time to time to anchor where we were. Some of them wore also bracelets of silver, which they had likewise bought of the Chinese. Almost all the chiefs of these savages had been at the Molucca Islands, and spoke the Malay language. Some wore hats made of the leaves of vacoua, of a conical form, and very like to those of the Chinese. Others had their heads bound round with a sort of turban. They have all curled hair, which grows very thick, and to a considerable length. The colour of their skins is not very black. Some suffer the beard on the upper lip to grow, and have their ears and the division of