, in 1825, he found
it used as a mark of mourning, though some still had themselves tattooed
merely by way of ornament. On the death of one of the late kings of the
island, it is stated that all the chiefs had his name and the date of
his death engraved in this manner on their arms. The ladies here, it
seems, follow the very singular practice of tattooing the tips of their
tongues, in memory of their departed friends. In the Tonga, or Friendly
Islands, it would appear from Mariner's very minute description of the
operation as there practised, as at Otaheite and elsewhere, the
instrument used is always a sort of comb, having from six up to fifty or
sixty teeth. There are, Mariner tells us, certain patterns or forms of
the tattoo, and the individual may choose which he likes. On the brown
skins of the natives the marks, which are imprinted by means of a
tincture made of soot, have a black appearance; but on that of a
European, their colour is a fine blue. The women here are not tattooed,
though a few of them have some marks on the inside of their fingers. At
the Fiji Islands, on the contrary, in the neighbourhood of the Tonga
group, the men are not tattooed, but the women are.

The term "tattoo" is not known in New Zealand, the name given to the
marks, which are elsewhere so called, being in this country "Moko," or,
as it has been more generally written, from a habit which the natives
seem to have of prefixing the sound "a" to many of their words,
"Amoco."[U]

The description which Rutherford gives of the process agrees entirely
with what has been stated by other observers; although it certainly has
been generally understood that, in no case, was the whole operation
undergone at once, as it would, however, appear to have been in his.
Both Cruise and Marsden expressly state, that, according to their
information, it always required several months, and sometimes several
years, to tattoo a chief perfectly; owing to the necessity for one part
of the face or body being allowed to heal before commencing the
decoration of another. Perhaps, however, this prolongation of the
process may only be necessary when the moko is of a more intricate
pattern, or extends over a larger portion of the person, than that which
Rutherford received; or, in his peculiar circumstances, it may have been
determined that he should have his powers of endurance put to still
harder proof than a native would have been required to submit to in
undergoing t