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[Page 182]

178.
Some account of New Zealand

should by no means be a witness of such proceedings"

Neither sex are quite so cleanly in their persons as the Islanders not having the advantage of so warm a climate they do not wash so often  but the most disgustfull part of thing about them is the Oil with which they daub their hair  which this is melted from the fat either of fish or Birds  the better sort indeed have it fresh & then it is intirely void of smell  but the inferior often use that that is rancid & consequently smell something like Greenland dock when they are trying Whale Blubber

both sexes stain themselves with the colour of black in the same manner & somthing in the same method as the South Sea Islanders  introducing it under the skin by a sharp instrument furnish'd with many teeth  but the men carry this custom to much greater lenghs & the women not so far, they are generaly content with having their lips black'd but sometimes have patches of black on different parts of their bodies  the men on the contrary seem to add to their quantity every Year of their lives so that some of the Elder were almost coverd with it  there faces are the most remarkable  on them they by some art unknown to me dig furrows in their faces a line deep at least & as broad  the edges of which are often again

 

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