Nineteen years in Polynesia: missionary life, travels, and researches in the islands of the Pacific . d to have swam to Samoa from Feejee, and, ontheir reaching these islands, commenced singing— Tatoo the men, but not the women ;Tatoo the men, but not the women. The custom is thus traced to Taema and Tilafainga;and they were worshipped by the tatooers as thepresiding deities of their craft. The instrument used in the operation is an ob-long piece of human bone(os ilium), about an inchand a half broad and twoinches long. A time ofwar and slaughter was aharvest for the tatooers toget a supply of
Nineteen years in Polynesia: missionary life, travels, and researches in the islands of the Pacific . d to have swam to Samoa from Feejee, and, ontheir reaching these islands, commenced singing— Tatoo the men, but not the women ;Tatoo the men, but not the women. The custom is thus traced to Taema and Tilafainga;and they were worshipped by the tatooers as thepresiding deities of their craft. The instrument used in the operation is an ob-long piece of human bone(os ilium), about an inchand a half broad and twoinches long. A time ofwar and slaughter was aharvest for the tatooers toget a supply of instru-ments. The one end iscut like a very small-toothed comb, and theother is fastened to a pieceof cane, and looks like a little serrated adze. Theydip it into a mixture of candle-nut ashes and water,and, tapping it with a little mallet, it sinks into theskin; and in this way they puncture the wholesurface over which the tatooing extends. Thegreater part of the body, from the waist down to theknee, is covered with it, variegated here and therewith neat regular stripes of the untatooed skin,. ADULT AND ADVANCED YEARS. 183 which, when they are well oiled, make them appearin the distance as if they had on black silk knee-breeches. Behrens, in describing these natives inhis narrative of Roggeweins voyage of 1772, says:They were clothed from the waist downwardswith fringes and a kind of silken stuff artificiallywrought. A nearer inspection would have shownthat the fringes were a bunch of red ti leaves(Draccena terminalis) glistening with cocoa-nut oil;and the kind of silken stuff, the tatooing justdescribed. As it extends over such a large surface,the operation is a tedious and painful affair. Aftersmarting and bleeding for a while under the handsof the tatooers, the patience of the youth is ex-hausted. They then let him rest and heal for atime, and, before returning to him again, do a littlepiece on each of the party. In two or three monthsthe whole is completed. The friends
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade186, booksubjectmissions, bookyear1861
