Three minute dots, no bigger than
pinheads, decorated either lip, and at a little distance were not at all
discernible. Just upon the fall of the shoulder were drawn two parallel
lines half an inch apart, and perhaps three inches in length, the interval
being filled with delicately executed figures. These narrow bands of
tattooing, thus placed, always reminded me of those stripes of gold lace
worn by officers in undress, and which are in lieu of epaulettes to denote
their rank.

Thus much was Fayaway tattooed. The audacious hand which had gone so far
in its desecrating work stopping short, apparently wanting the heart to
proceed.

But I have neglected to describe the dress worn by this nymph of the
valley.

Fayaway--I must avow the fact--for the most part clung to the primitive and
summer garb of Eden. But how becoming the costume! It showed her fine
figure to the best possible advantage; and nothing could have been better
adapted to her peculiar style of beauty. On ordinary occasions she was
habited precisely as I have described the two youthful savages whom we had
met on first entering the valley. At other times, when rambling among the
groves, or visiting at the houses of her acquaintances, she wore a tunic
of white tappa, reaching from her waist to a little below the knees; and
when exposed for any length of time to the sun, she invariably protected
herself from its rays by a floating mantle of the same material, loosely
gathered about the person. Her gala dress will be described hereafter.

As the beauties of our own land delight in bedecking themselves with
fanciful articles of jewelry, suspending them from their ears, hanging
them about their necks, and clasping them around their wrists; so Fayaway
and her companions were in the habit of ornamenting themselves with
similar appendages.

Flora was their jeweller. Sometimes they wore necklaces of small carnation
flowers, strung like rubies upon a fibre of tappa, or displayed in their
ears a single white bud, the stem thrust backward through the aperture,
and showing in front the delicate petals folded together in a beautiful
sphere, and looking like a drop of the purest pearl. Chaplets, too,
resembling in their arrangement the strawberry coronal worn by an English
peeress, and composed of intertwined leaves and blossoms, often crowned
their temples; and bracelets and anklets of the same tasteful pattern were
frequently to be seen. Indeed, the maidens of the isl