Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0182
Primary tabs
Transcription
[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