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property of the master of the family and constantly usd by him, and most are intirely without. These houses serve them cheifly to sleep in and make their cloth &c., they generaly Eat in the open air under the shade of the next tree if the weather is not rainy. The matts which serve them to set upon in the day time are also their beds at night; the Cloth which they wear in the day serves for covering, and a little wooden stool, block of wood or a bundle of cloth for a pillow. Their order is generaly this, near the middle lay the master of the house and his wife and with them the rest of the married people, next to them the unmarried women, next to them at some small distance the unmarried men; the Servants, Toutous as they are calld, generaly lay in the open air or if it rains come just within shelter. Thus all privacy is banishd even from those actions which the decency of Europaeans keep most secret: this no doubt is the reason why both sexes express the most indecent ideas in conversation without the least emotion; in this their language is very copious and they delight in such conversation beyond any other. Chastity indeed is but little valued especialy among the midling people; if a wife is found guilty of a breach of it her only punishment is a beating
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 345, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-100.html