Transcription

or tattow'd with black & some few we have seen who have had their buttocks, thighs, & other parts of their bodies marked, but this is less common. the figures they mostly use are Spirals drawn & Connected together with great Nicety & judgment they are so Exact in the Application of these Figures that no difference can be found between the one side of the face & the other if the whole is marked, for some have only one side & some a little on both sides hardly any but the old Men have the whole tottowed. from this I conclude that it takes up sometime, perhaps years, to finish the Operation which all who have begun may not have perseverance enough to go through as the Manner in which it must be done must certainly cause intollerable pain & may be the reason why so few are Marked at all, at least I know no other. the Women inlay the Colour of black under the Skins of their lips & both sexes paint their faces & bodies, at times more or less with red Oker mixed with fish Oil ~ 
There common Cloathing are very much like square Thrumb'd Matts that are made of rope yarns to lay at the door or Passages into houses to clean ones Shoes upon. these they tie round their necks the Thrumb'd side out, & are generally large enough to cover the body as low as the Knee. they are made with very little Preparation of the broad Grass plant before mentioned. beside the Thrumb'd Matts as I call them they have other much finer clothing made of the same plant after it is bleached & prepared in such a Manner that it is as white & almost as soft as flax, but much stronger. of this they make pieces of Cloth about 5 feet long & 4 broad these are wove some pieces close & others very open. the former are as stout as the Strongest sail Cloth & not unlike it & yet it is all work'd or made by hand with no other Instrument than a Needle or Bodkin. to one end of every piece is generally work'd a very neat border or difft. colours of 4 or 6 Inches broad & they very often Trim them with pieces of Dog Skin or birds feathers. These Pieces of Cloth they were as they do the other tying one End round their Necks with a Piece of String to one end of which is fix'd a Needle or Bodkin made of Bone by means of which they can easily fasten or put the String through any part of the Cloth. they sometimes wear Pieces of this kind of Cloth round their Middles as well as over their Shoulders but this is not common especially with the Men who hardly ever wear anything round their Middles observing no sort of Decency in that respect, neither is it at all uncommon for them to go quite Naked without any one thing about them besides a belt round their Waist to which is generally fastned a small String which they tye round the Prepuse in this manner I have seen 

 

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