o a colouring matter (which is
a beautiful jet black, procured from the kernel of the candle-nut),
applies it to the surface of the skin, and strikes it smartly with a
piece of stick held in his right hand. The skin is punctured in this
way, and the dye injected. With the calmness of an operator, and the
gravity of an artist, the professor proceeds as long as his patient can
endure the pain. Then he ceases, and when the part is sufficiently
recovered, the operation is continued until the device or pattern is
finished.

These patterns vary among different islanders. They consist of circular
and curving lines, and representations of palm-trees, animals, etcetera,
on the face and body; and to such an extent is tattooing carried, that
the whole body is sometimes covered so as nearly to conceal the original
colour of the skin.

Mr Ellis, who wrote long after the gallant Cook was in his grave, tells
us in his most interesting work on the South-Sea Islands, (Ellis's
_Polynesian Researches_), that the inhabitants of Tahiti were more
simple in their tattooing, and displayed greater taste and elegance than
some of the other islanders. "Though some of the figures are arbitrary,
such as stars, circles, lozenges, etcetera, the patterns are usually
taken from nature, and are often some of the most graceful. A cocoa-nut
tree is a favourite object; and I have often admired the taste displayed
in the marking of a chief's leg, on which I have seen a cocoa-nut tree
correctly and distinctly drawn; its roots spreading at the heel, its
elastic stalk pencilled as it were along the tendon, and its waving
plume gracefully spread out on the broad part of the calf. Sometimes a
couple of stems would be twined up from the heel and divide on the calf,
each bearing a plume of leaves.

"The ornaments round the ankle and upon the instep, make them often
appear as if they wore the elegant Eastern sandal. The sides of the
legs are sometimes tattooed from the ankle upward, which gives the
appearance of wearing pantaloons with ornamental seams. From the lower
part of the back, a number of straight, waved, or zigzag lines rise in
the direction of the spine, and branch off regularly towards the
shoulder. But, of the upper part of the body, the chest is the most
tattooed. Every variety of figure is to be seen here,--cocoa-nut and
bread-fruit trees, with convolvulus wreaths hanging round them, boys
gathering fruit, men engaged in battle, in the m