nsists of
human hair, plaited in threads, scarcely thicker than sewing silk. Mr
Banks got pieces of it above a mile in length, without a knot. These
they wind round the head in such a manner as produces a very pretty
effect, and in a very great quantity; for I have seen five or six such
pieces wound about the head of one woman: Among these threads they stick
flowers of various kinds, particularly the cape-jessamine, of which they
have great plenty, as it is always planted near their houses. The men
sometimes stick the tail-feather of the Tropic-bird upright in their
hair, which, as I have observed before, is often tied in a bunch upon
the top of their heads: Sometimes they wear a kind of whimsical garland,
made of flowers of various kinds, stuck into a piece of the rind of a
plantain; or of scarlet peas, stuck with gum upon a piece of wood: And
sometimes they wear a kind of wig, made of the hair of men or dogs, or
perhaps of cocoa-nut strings, woven upon one thread, which is tied under
their hair, so that these artificial honours of their head may hang down
behind. Their personal ornaments, besides flowers, are few; both sexes
wear ear-rings, but they are placed only on one side: When we came they
consisted of small pieces of shell, stone, berries, red peas, or some
small pearls, three in a string; but our beads very soon supplanted them
all.

The children go quite naked; the girls till they are three or four years
old, and the boys till they are six or seven.

The houses, or rather dwellings of these people, have been occasionally
mentioned before: They are all built in the wood, between the sea and
the mountains, and no more ground is cleared for each house, than just
sufficient to prevent the dropping of the branches from rotting the
thatch with which they are covered; from the house, therefore, the
inhabitant steps immediately under the shade, which is the most
delightful that can be imagined. It consists of groves of bread-fruit
and cocoa-nuts, without underwood, which are intersected, in all
directions, by the paths that lead from one house to the other. Nothing
can be more grateful than this shade in so warm a climate, nor any thing
more beautiful than these walks. As there is no underwood, the shade
cools without impeding the air; and the houses, having no walls, receive
the gale from whatever point it blows. I shall now give a particular
description of a house of a middling size, from which, as the structure