On the 21st we went round the point, and met with Lycurgus sitting on the ground, with his wife by his side, having a canoe covering, which he brought there on purpose to be near us: he gave us a hearty welcome; and, to divert us, ordered two of his boys to play on their flutes, while another sang a sort of melancholy ditty, very well suited to the music. Lycurgus is a middle-aged man, of a chearful, though sedate, countenance, with thick black frizzled hair, and a beard of the same kind: his behaviour and aspect had something of natural majesty in them. I shewed him some of my drawings, which he greatly admired, and pronounced their names as soon as he saw them. These people have a peculiar me-thod of staining their garments: a girl that was present shewed me the whole process, which is as follows:—— She took the young leaves of a convolvulus unfoliated, and then broke off the tops of a small fig, of a reddish hue, and squeezed out of it a milky fluid, which she spread on a leaf, rubbing it gently to mix it with the juice of the leaf, and then it became red; this she soaked up with the leaf of a solanum, and then daubed it upon some cloth: the colour is good, but whether it will stand, I am unable to determine. They make a variety of neat basket-work [see a figure of one of their baskets, pl. XIII. fig. 6.] for holding of their colours; the simplest of all is made of the leaf of a cocoa-nut, which they plait together, and gather up on each side: they also make a kind of bonnet [see pl. VIII. fig. 4.] of the same materials. They do not seem very fond of their deaths, of which they have a variety of colours, but wear them sometimes one way, and sometimes another, as their humour is. Persons of distinct on amongst them wrap a number of pieces of cloth about them; and that which is of a carmine colour is only worn by the superior class. The people in general are very fond of ear-rings, and will exchange for them what they deem the most valuable of their effects. Some of their ear-rings [see pl. XIII. fig. 13 and 14] are made of mother-of-pearl cut into various figures, which are tied to their ears by human hair, curiously plaited by the women. They also tie three pearls together with hair, and hang them on their ears. [See ibid. fig. 26.]

Voyaging Accounts