amusing themselves with picking out the vermin which there abound. It is
the singular privilege of the queen, that of all women, she alone may
eat them; which privilege she never fails to make use of." Such hunting
excursions are surely much more commendable, because much more innocent
in their own nature and more beneficial in their results, than those
practised amongst ourselves, at the risque of neck and limbs, and to the
still more important detriment of the farmer's gates and fences. The
point of privilege, perhaps, is less capable of defence--admitting,
however, for a moment, that pre-eminence of station and office entitles
the holder to singularity of inclination and conduct, as it is certainly
allowed to do in the case of some other sovereigns, the question then
becomes a mere matter of taste, and it is ungenerous to deny the
Otaheitan queen the benefit of the old maxim, _de gustibus non est
disputandum_.--E.]

They have a custom of staining their bodies, nearly in the same manner
as is practised in many other parts of the world, which they call
_tattowing_. They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a
small instrument, something in the form of a hoe; that part which
answers to the blade is made of a bone or shell, scraped very thin, and
is from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half wide; the edge is cut
into sharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty,
according to its size: When this is to be used, they dip the teeth into
a mixture of a kind of lamp-black, formed of the smoke that rises from
an oily nut which they burn instead of candles, and water; the teeth,
thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and the handle to which they
are fastened being struck, by quick smart blows, with a stick fitted to
the purpose, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the
puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain. The
operation is painful, and it is some days before the wounds are healed.