decoration in one part or another, where he supposed it was become
deficient."

It has been conjectured that this painting of the body, among its other
uses, might also be intended, in some cases, as a protection against the
weather, or, in other words, to serve the same purpose as clothing. Even
where there is no plastering, the tattooing may be found to indurate the
skin, and to render it less sensible to cold. This notion, perhaps,
derives some confirmation from the appearance which these marks often
assume.

Cook describes some of the New Zealanders, whom he saw on his first
visit to the country, as having their thighs stained entirely black,
with the exception of a few narrow lines, "so that at first sight," says
he, "they appeared to wear striped breeches."

The Baron de Humboldt, too, informs us that the Indians of Guiana
sometimes imitate, in the oddest manner, the clothes of Europeans in
painting their skin. This observant traveller was much amused by seeing
the body of a native painted to represent a blue jacket and black
buttons. The missionaries also told him that the people of the Rio Caura
paint themselves of a red ground, and then variegate the colour with
transverse stripes of silver mica, so that they look most gallantly
dressed. The painted cheeks that were once common in Europe, and are
still occasionally seen, are relics of the same barbarism.

The "taboo," or "tapu," prevails also in many of the South Sea Islands,
where it may be considered as the substitute for law; although its
authority, in reality, rests on what we should rather call religious
considerations, inasmuch as it appears to be obeyed entirely from the