Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places, South Sea Islands, page 90

Page 90

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

South Sea Islands

Index
Search

Contact us

South Sea Islands (continued)

more addicted to than their superiors. Their hair is almost universaly black and rather coarse: this the women wear always cropt short round their ears, the men on the other hand wear it in many various ways, sometimes cropping it short, sometimes letting [it] grow very long and tying it at the top of their heads or letting it hang loose on their shoulders &c. Their beards they also wear in many different fashions always however plucking out a large part of them and keeping that that is left very clean and neat. Both sexes eradicate every hair from under their armpits and they look upon it as a great mark of uncleanliness in us that we did not do the same.

During our stay in these Islands I saw some not more than 5 or 6 who were a total exception to all I have said before. They were whiter even than us but of a dead Colour like that of the nose of a white horse; their eyes hair eyebrows and beards were also white; they were universaly short sighted and lookd always unwholesome, their skins scurfy and scaly and eyes often full of Rheum. As they had no two of them any connextions with one another I conclude that the difference of colour &c. was totaly accidental and did not at all run in families.

So much for their persons. I shall now mention their method of Painting their bodies

Voyaging Accounts

© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 335, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-090.html