Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0038
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[Page 38]
34.
off Young Nicks head
the wearer generaly stuck into the knot sometimes one on each side the temples pointing forwards which made a most disagreable apearance in their Ears they generaly wore a large bunch of the down of some bird milk white the faces of some were painted with a red colour in oil some all over others in parts only in their hair was much oil that had very little smell more lice than ever I saw before! & in most of them a small comb neatly enough made sometimes of wood sometimes of bone which they seemd to prize much. Some few had on their faces or arms regular scars as if made with a sharp instrument such I have seen on the faces of negroes. the inferior sort were clothd in something that very much resembled or perhaps realy was hemp the loose strings of this were fastned together at the top & hung down about 2 feet long like a petticoat of these garments they wore 2 one round their shoulders the other about their wastes. the richer had garments probably of a finer sort of the same stuff most beatifully made in exactly the same manner as the S American indians at this day as fine or finer than one of them which I have by me that I bough at Rio de