One of our gentlemen having made his addresses to a family of the better sort, received an answer, which, translated into our language, according to the mode and spirit of it, as well as the letter, would have been exactly in these terms: “Any of these young ladies will think themselves honoured by your addresses, but you must first make me a suitable present, and you must then come and sleep with us on shore, for daylight must by no means be a witness of what passes between you.”
I have already observed, that in personal cleanliness they are not quite equal to our friends at Otaheite; because, not having the advantage of so warm a climate, they do not so often go into the water; but the most disgustful thing about them is the oil, with which, like the islanders, they anoint their hair: it is certainly the fat either of fish or of birds, melted down, and though the better sort have it fresh, their inferiors use that which is rancid, and consequently are almost as disagreeable to the smell as a Hottentot; neither are their heads free from vermin, though we observed that they were furnished with combs, both of bone and wood: these combs are sometimes worn stuck upright in the hair as an ornament, a fashion which at present prevails among the ladies of England. The men generally wear their beards short, and their hair tied upon the crown of the head in a bunch, in which they stick the feathers of various birds in different manners, according to their fancies; sometimes one is placed on each side of the temples, pointing forwards, which we thought made a very disagreeable appearance. The women wear their hair sometimes cropped short, and sometimes flowing over their shoulders.
The bodies of both sexes are marked with the black stains called Amoco, by the same method that is used at Otaheite, and called Tattowing; but the men are more marked, and the women less. The women in general stain no part of their bodies but the lips, though sometimes they are marked with small black patches on other parts: the men, on the contrary, seem to add something every year to the ornaments of the last, so that some of them, who appeared to be of an advanced age, were almost covered from head to foot. Besides the Amoco, they have marks impressed by a method unknown to us, of a very extraordinary kind: they are furrows of about a line deep, and a line broad, such as appear upon the bark of a tree which has been cut through, after a year’s growth: the edges of these furrows are afterwards indented by the same method, and being perfectly black, they make a most frightful appearance. The faces of the old men are almost covered with these marks; those who are very young, black only their lips like the women; when they are somewhat older, they have generally a black patch upon one cheek, and over one eye, and so proceed gradually, that they may grow old and honourable together: but though we could not but be disgusted with the horrid deformity which these stains and furrows produced in the “human face divine,” we could not but admire the dexterity and art with which they were impressed. The marks upon the face in general are spirals, which are drawn with great nicety, and even elegance, those on one side exactly corresponding with those on the other: the marks on the body somewhat resemble the foliage in old chased ornaments, and the convolutions of fillagree work; but in these they have such a luxuriance of fancy, that of an hundred, which at first sight appeared to be exactly the same, no two were, upon a close examination, found to be alike. We observed, that the quantity and form of these marks were different in different parts of the coast, and that as the principal seat of them at Otaheite was the breech, in New Zealand it was sometimes the only part which was free, and in general was less distinguished than any other.