The
Natives Continued To Crowd About Our Vessels In A Number Of Canoes,
Whilst Many Were Swimming To And From The Shore, Who Were Probably Not
Rich Enough To Possess A Canoe.
Among the great numbers who surrounded
us, we observed several whose hair seemed to be burnt at the ends, and
were strewed with a white powder.
Upon examination we found that this
powder was nothing else than lime, made of shells or coral, which had
corroded or burnt the hair. The taste of powdering was at its height
in this island. We observed a man who had employed a blue powder, and
many persons of both sexes who wore an orange powder made of
turmerick. St Jerom, who preached against the vanities of the age,
very seriously reprehends a similar custom in the Roman ladies: 'Ne
irrufet crines, et anticipet sibi ignes Gehennae!' Thus, by an
admirable similarity of follies, the modes of the former inhabitants
of Europe are in full force among the modern antipodes; and our
insipid beaux, whose only pride is the invention of a new fashion, are
forced to share that slender honour with the uncivilized natives of an
isle in the South Seas," - G.F.
[6] "Upon enquiry, some of the sportsmen who had met with this man
near Maria Bay, had been repeatedly told, that he was the chief of the
whole island, in the same manner as Cookee (Captain Cook) was chief of
our ships, and that they called him Ko-Haghee-too-Fallango.
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