pleasurable sensations to the person undergoing this operation. The
reader may judge for himself, at least so far as idea goes. "A greater
degree of amusement (than what their music and dancing yield) seems to
be derived by the women from the practice of _tatooing_, or, marking the
body, by raising the epidermis from the cuticle; a custom that has been
found to exist among most of the uncivilized nations inhibiting warm
countries, and which probably owes its origin to a total want of mental
resources, and of the employment of time. By slightly irritating, it
conveys to the body pleasurable sensations. In Kafferland it has passed
into a general fashion. No woman is without a tatooed skin; and their
ingenuity is chiefly exercised between the breast and on the arms." Such
a description corresponds with the notion of some frequently renewed
beautfyings of the toilet, rather than that of the infliction of deep
and indelible marks, as are prescribed in the Otaheitan ritual. Thus we
may see here, as in other instances, that different motives give rise to
similar practices.--E.]

Their clothing consists of cloth or matting of different kinds, which
will be described among their other manufactures. The cloth, which will
not bear wetting, they wear in dry weather, and the matting when it
rains; they are put on in many different ways, just as their fancy leads
them; for in their garments nothing is cut into shape, nor are any two
pieces sewed together. The dress of the better sort of women consists of
three or four pieces: One piece, about two yards wide, and eleven yards
long, they wrap several times round their waist, so as 'to hang down
like a petticoat as low as the middle of the leg, and this they call
_Parou_: Two or three other pieces, about two yards and a half long, and
one wide, each having a hole cut in the middle, they place one upon
another, and then putting the head through the holes, they bring the
long ends down before and behind; the others remain open at the sides,