wept, and at last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the
operator to desist. He was, however, inexorable; and when she began to
struggle, she was held down by two women, who sometimes soothed and
sometimes chid her, and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave her
a smart blow. Mr Banks staid in a neighbouring house an hour, and the
operation was not over when he went away; yet it was performed but upon
one side, the other having been done some time before; and the arches
upon the loins, in which they most pride themselves, and which give more
pain than all the rest, were still to be done.

It is strange that these people should value themselves upon what is no
distinction; for I never saw a native of this island, either man or
woman, in a state of maturity, in whom these marks were wanting:
Possibly they may have their rise in superstition, especially as they
produce no visible advantage, and are not made without great pain; but
though we enquired of many hundreds, we could never get any account of
the matter.[6]

[Footnote 6: It is very remarkable that something like this tattowing
was practised among the Thracians of old, and was actually considered as
an indication of nobility. So says Herodotus in Terps. 6. The notion is
no way irrational, that early and semi-civilized people had no other way
of distinguishing ranks, than by making visible differences on the skin.
The original inhabitants of Britain, it is probable, meant the same
thing by their use of colouring substances. Though it is probable enough
too, that another purpose was also accomplished thereby, viz.
preservation in some degree from the inclemency of the climate. By some
authors, it has been imagined, that such painting rendered them more
terrible to their enemies, which was the reason for the practice. The
Indians of North Carolina, according to the curious account of them by