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and when once or twice accidentaly met by us shewd most evident signs of Confusion, veiling as well as they could their naked beauties with sea weed the only covering their situation afforded. Round their waists instead of a belt they constantly wore a girdle of many platted strings made of the leaves of a very fragrant Grass; into this were tuckd the leaves of some sweet scented plant fresh gatherd which like the fig leaf of our first mother servd as the ultimate guard of their modesty.
Both sexes bord their ears and wore in them a great variety of ornaments; the holes by stretching were generaly large enough to admit a finger at least. These generaly (as if to keep them upon the stretch) were filld up with a plug of some sort or other, either cloth, feathers, Bones of large birds, or sometimes only a stick of wood; into this hole they often also put nails or any [thing] we gave them which could be put there. The women also often wore bunches of the down of the albatross which is snow white near as large as a fist, which tho very odd made by no means an unelegant appearance. Besides these they
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 185, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-215.html