A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 760 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 760 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12.
between four and five yards long, and about one yard broad, they wrap round the body in a very easy manner.  This cloth is not woven, but is made, like paper, of the macerated fibres of an inner bark spread out and beaten together.  Their ornaments are feathers, flowers, pieces of shells, and pearls:  The pearls are worn chiefly by the women, from whom I purchased about two dozen of a small size:  They were of a good colour, but were all spoiled by boring.  Mr Furneaux saw several in his excursion to the west, but he could purchase none with any thing he had to offer.  I observed, that it was here a universal custom both for men and women to have the hinder part of their thighs and loins marked very thick with black lines in various forms.  These marks were made by striking the teeth of an instrument, somewhat like a comb, just through the skin, and rubbing into the punctures a kind of paste made of soot and oil, which leaves an indelible stain.  The boys and girls under twelve years of age are not marked:  But we observed a few of the men whose legs were marked in chequers by the same method, and they appeared to be persons of superior rank and authority.  One of the principal attendants upon the queen appeared much more disposed to imitate our manners than the rest; and our people, with whom he soon became a favourite, distinguished him by the name of Jonathan.  This man, Mr Furneaux clothed completely in an English dress, and it sat very easy upon him.  Our officers were always carried on shore, it being shoal water where we landed, and Jonathan, assuming new state with his new finery, made some of his people carry him on shore in the same manner.  He very soon attempted to use a knife and fork at his meals, but at first, when he had stuck a morsel upon his fork, and tried to feed himself with that instrument, he could not guide it, but by the mere force of habit his hand came to his mouth, and the victuals at the end of the fork went away to his ear.

Their food consists of pork, poultry, dog’s flesh, and fish, bread-fruit, bananas, plantains, yams, apples, and a sour fruit, which, though not pleasant by itself, gives an agreeable relish to roasted bread-fruit, with which it is frequently beaten up.  They have abundance of rats, but, as far as I could discover, these make no part of their food.  The river affords them good mullet, but they are neither large nor in plenty.  They find conchs, mussels, and other shellfish on the reef, which they gather at low-water, and eat raw with bread-fruit before they come on shore.  They have also very fine cray-fish, and they catch with lines, and hooks of mother-of-pearl, at a little distance from the shore, parrrot-fish, groopers, and many other sorts, of which they are so fond that we could seldom prevail upon them to sell us a few at any price.  They have also nets of an enormous size, with very small meshes, and with these they catch abundance of small fish about the size of sardines; but while they were using both nets and lines with great success, We could not catch a single fish with either.  We procured some of their hooks and lines, but for want of their art we were still disappointed.

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.