The Young Sailor, For Whom Kooloo Deserted
Me, Presented Him With A Shaggy Old Pea-Jacket; And With This Buttoned
Up To His Chin, Under A Tropical Sun, He Promenaded The Broom Road,
Quite Elated.
Doctor Long Ghost, who saw him thus, ran away with the
idea that he was under medical treatment at the time - in the act of
taking, what the quacks call, a "sweat."
A bachelor friend of Captain Bob rejoiced in the possession of a full
European suit; in which he often stormed the ladies' hearts. Having a
military leaning, he ornamented the coat with a great scarlet patch
on the breast; and mounted it also, here and there, with several
regimental buttons, slyly cut from the uniform of a parcel of drunken
marines sent ashore on a holiday from a man-of-war. But, in spite of
the ornaments, the dress was not exactly the thing. From the
tightness of the cloth across the shoulders, his elbows projected
from his sides, like an ungainly rider's; and his ponderous legs were
jammed so hard into his slim, nether garments that the threads of
every seam showed; and, at every step, you looked for a catastrophe.
In general, there seems to be no settled style of dressing among the
males; they wear anything they can get; in some cases, awkwardly
modifying the fashions of their fathers so as to accord with their
own altered views of what is becoming.
But ridiculous as many of them now appear, in foreign habiliments, the
Tahitians presented a far different appearance in the original
national costume; which was graceful in the extreme, modest to all
but the prudish, and peculiarly adapted to the climate.
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