The Bridge Of The Nose Is Pierced, In Which They Wear A Piece Of
White Stone, About An Inch And A Half Long.
As signs of friendship they
present a green branch, and sprinkle water with the hand over the head.
Their weapons are clubs, spears, and bows and arrows. The two former are
made of hard or iron-wood. Their bows are about four feet long, made of a
stick split down the middle, and are not circular. The arrows, which are a
sort of reeds, are sometimes armed with a long and sharp point, made of the
hard wood, and sometimes with a very hard point made of bone; and these
points are all covered with a substance which we took for poison. Indeed
the people themselves confirmed our suspicions, by making signs to us not
to touch the point, and giving us to understand that if we were prickled by
them we should die. They are very careful of them themselves, and keep
them, always wrapped up in a quiver. Some of these arrows are formed with
two or three points, each with small prickles on the edges, to prevent the
arrow being drawn out of the wound.
The people of Mallicollo seemed to be a quite different nation from any we
had yet met with, and speak a different language. Of about eighty words,
which Mr Forster collected, hardly one bears any affinity to the language
spoken at any other island or place I had ever been at.
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