employed, however, various instruments in the course of the operation;
one which they sometimes used being made of a shark's tooth, and another
having teeth like a saw. They had them also of different sizes, to suit
the different parts of the work.

"While I was undergoing this operation, although the pain was most
acute, I never either moved or uttered a sound; but my comrades moaned
dreadfully. Although the operators were very quick and dexterous, I was
four hours under their hands; and during the operation Aimy's eldest
daughter several times wiped the blood from my face with some dressed
flax. After it was over she led me to the river, that I might wash
myself, for it had made me completely blind, and then conducted me to a
great fire. They now returned us all our clothes, with the exception of
our shirts, which the women kept for themselves, wearing them, as we
observed, with the fronts behind.

"We were now not only tattooed, but what they called tabooed,[S] the
meaning of which is, made sacred, or forbidden to touch any provisions
of any kind with our hands. This state of things lasted for three days,
during which time we were fed by the daughters of the chiefs, with the
same victuals, and out of the same baskets, as the chiefs themselves,
and the persons who had tattooed us. In three days, the swelling which
had been produced by the operation had greatly subsided, and I began to
recover my sight; but it was six weeks before I was completely well. I
had no medical assistance of any kind during my illness; but Aimy's two
daughters were very attentive to me, and would frequently sit beside me,
and talk to me in their language, of which, as yet, however, I did not
understand much."

The custom of marking the skin, called _tattooing_, is one of the most