the form and quantity that they use for their common dress
or _maro_; and even these we sometimes found were composed of pieces
sewed together; an art which we did not find to the southward, but
is strongly, though not very neatly, performed here. There is also a
particular sort that is thin, much resembling oil-cloth; and which is
actually either oiled or soaked in some kind of varnish, and seems to
resist the action of water pretty well.

They fabricate a great many white mats, which are strong, with many
red stripes, rhombuses, and other figures, interwoven on one side;
and often pretty large. These probably make a part of their dress
occasionally; for they put them on their backs when they offered them
to sale. But they make others coarser, plain and strong, which they
spread over their floors to sleep upon.

They stain their gourd-shells prettily with undulated lines,
triangles, and other figures of a black colour; instances of which
we saw practised at New Zealand. And they seem to possess the art of
varnishing; for some of these stained gourd-shells are covered with
a kind of lacker; and, on other occasions, they use a strong size, or
gluey substance, to fasten their things together. Their wooden
dishes and, bowls, out of which they drink their _ova_, are of the
_etooa_-tree, or _cordia_, as neat as if made in our turning-lathe,
and perhaps better polished. And amongst their articles of handicraft,
may be reckoned small square fans of mat or wicker-work, with handles
tapering from them of the same, or of wood; which are neatly wrought
with small cords of hair, and fibres of the cocoa-nut coir intermixed.
The great variety of fishing-hooks are ingeniously made; some of bone,
others of wood pointed with bone, and many of pearl shell. Of the
last, some are like a sort that we saw at Tongataboo; and others
simply curved, as the common sort at Otaheite, as well as the wooden
ones. The bones are mostly small, and composed of two pieces; and all
the different sorts have a barb, either on the inside, like ours,
or on the outside, opposite the same part; but others have both, the
outer one being farthest from the point. Of this last sort, one was
procured nine inches long, of a single piece of bone, which doubtless
belonged to some large fish. The elegant form and polish of this could
not certainly be outdone by any European artist, even if he should
add all his knowledge in design to the number and convenience of
his