It is remarkable that, contrary to the general practice of the islands we had hitherto discovered in the Pacific Ocean, the people of the Sandwich Islands have not their ears perforated, nor have they the least idea of wearing ornaments in them. Both sexes, nevertheless, adorn themselves with necklaces made of bunches of small black cord, like our hat-string, often above a hundred-fold, exactly like those of Wateeoo; only that instead of the two little balls, on the middle before, they fix a small bit of wood, stone, or shell, about two inches long, with a broad hook, turning forward at its lower part, well polished. They have, likewise, necklaces of many strings of very small shells, or of the dried flowers of the Indian mallow. And, sometimes, a small human image of bone, about three inches long, neatly polished, is hung round the neck. The women also wear bracelets of a single shell, pieces of black wood, with bits of ivory interspersed, and well polished, fixed by a string drawn very close through them; or others of hogs’ teeth, laid parallel to each other, with the concave part outward, and the points cut off, fastened together as the former; some of which, made only of large boars’ tusks, are very elegant. The men, sometimes, wear plumes of the tropic bird’s feathers, stuck in their heads; or those of cocks, fastened round neat polished sticks, two feet long, commonly decorated, at the lower part, with _oora_; and, for the same purpose, the skin of a white dog’s tail is sewed over a stick, with its tuft at the end. They also frequently wear on the head a kind of ornament, of a finger’s thickness, or more, covered with red and yellow feathers, curiously varied, and tied behind; and on the arm, above the elbow, a kind of broad shell-work, grounded upon net-work.
The men are frequently punctured, though not in any particular part, as the Otaheiteans, and those of Tongataboo. Sometimes there are a few marks upon their hands, or arms, and near the groin; but frequently we could observe none at all; though a few individuals had more of this sort of ornament than we had usually seen at other places, and ingeniously executed in a great variety of lines and figures, on the arms and forepart of the body; on which latter some of them had the figure of the _taame_, or breast-plate, of Otaheite, though we did not meet with the thing itself amongst them. Contrary to the custom of the Society and Friendly Islands, they do not slit or cut off part of the _prepuce_; but have it universally drawn over the _glans_, and tied with a string, as practised by some of the natives of New Zealand.