they have strangers who sleep in the house, they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours.*

Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what. has been said already; especially as I shall have occasion, more particularly, to mention them when I relate our adventures upon another island.

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are supposed to be wholly ignorant of what others upon some occasions may appear to know; and their conduct and conversation are consequently restrained within narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever relates to a connection with the other sex: But here, it is just contrary. Among other diversions, there is a dance, called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. In these dances they keep time with an exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best performers upon the slages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin, is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has put these hopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols of the dance,"

It

The reader, in perusing the above account of the Otaheitan eveningrecreation, will readily recollect what Mr Park has so affectingly told of the song of the African woman, of which he was made the subject. Har mony, that "sovereign of the willing mind," as Mr Gray denominates it, was both known and worshipped at this island, and that too, by the very same rites which are so generally practised throughout the world-regu larity of measures, and the frequent recurrence of similar sounds

She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat,

In loose numbers wildly sweet,

Their feather-cinctured chiefs and dusky loves.

Her track, where'er the Goddess rovęs,

Glory pursue, and generous shame,

The unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame-E.

s If it be considered that in Otaheite women are very early marriage able, and that families are easily reared, one will not find cause for censuring the impolicy, whatever is thought of the immodesty, according to

our

It cannot be supposed that, among these people, chastity is held in much estimation. It might be expected that sisters and daughters would be offered to strangers, either

our notions, of the kind of dances here mentioned. It seems reasonable enough, that the girls should be instructed in the only arts requisite to obtain the affections of the other sex. Can it be said, that the system of female education established in our own country, is half so judicious, which prescribes a series of instructions in drawing and music, velvetpainting, &c. to girls who, it is morally certain, will never have the least occasion for them, and who, whatever excellence they attain, totally abandon them on the day they happen to change their names? Or shall we say, these things are like the gestures of the Otaheitan damsels, merely symbols used as snares for the careless beaux, who pretend to taste and fashion, and indicative of the indolence and extravagance which are to succeed the marriage ceremony? The fact is, and it is foolish to attempt concealing it, that women in general have a nature so ductile as to be quite readily fashioned to any model which is conceived agreeable to the other sex, and that they all have sufficient sagacity to practise the arts in demand, till they have accomplished the destiny of their constitution. On the supposition that these arts are equally commensurate to their object, it may well be asked, why some should be condemned and not others or what authority any people have to reproach the current allurements of another? In the eyes of an impartial spectator, if we can suppose there really is one, all of them must appear alike as to nature and origin, and to differ only in respect of adaptation to the ends in view. He would consider them all as signs, merely more or less expressive, and might be induced to censure most strongly, if he censured at all, the people who, in using them, affected the closest concealment of the purposes intended by them. A philosopher ought never to lose sight of this maxim, that human nature is essentially the same throughout the world, and that all the desires and passions belonging to it have the same origin, and are equally good or bad as to morality; from which it follows, that customs and manners are to be judged of not so much by what is known or imagined of the sources of them, as by what is evident or may be discovered of their effects on society. On this principle, it is strictly demonstrable, that in such a state of things as exists in our own country at present, certain appearances and modes of dress adopted by our women, are actually more injurious, and of course more criminal, than the dancing gestures mentioned in the text. Any lady that can expose her breasts to the gaze of one and all of our public companies, has an undoubted right to be considered as possessing the same feelings and propensities as the lewd girls of Otaheite; but then she is not entitled to censure, however she may envy, their happier exertions and success. She ought to know, that unless our taxes are removed, and the bread-fruit is naturalized among us, it is impossible for her to have so speedy a redemption from the estate of "solitary blessedness;" and that as many of her elder sisters still feel the necessity of practising patience in the same condition, it is very incumbent on her to learn by times a little self controul. Besides, she ought, in charity to the other sex, to remember, that even the "concealed magic" of her manner, as Mr Hume expresses it, and which he says is easily explained, is abundantly efficacious without further disclosure than common necessity requires.-E.

either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, should not be otherwise punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a slight beating, as indeed is the case : But there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, which these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the present hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive.

A very considerable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both sexes, have formed themselves into a society, in which every woman is common to every man; thus securing a perpetual variety as often as their inclination prompts them to seek it, which is so frequent, that the same man and woman seldom cohabit together more than two or three days.

These societies are distinguished by the name of Arreoy; and the members have meetings, at which no other is present, where the men amuse themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occasional connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude, as an incitement to desires, which, it is said, are frequently gratified upon the spot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If any of the women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less frequently than if they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor infant is smothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her diabolical prostitution. It sometimes indeed happens, that the passion which prompts a woman to enter into this society, is surmounted when she becomes a mother, by that instinctive affection which Nature has given to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring; but even in this case, she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except she can find a man who will patronise it as his child: If this can be done, the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman, being deemed by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of the Arreoy for the future; the woman from that time being distinguished by the term Whannownow," bearer of children," which is here a term of reproach; though none can be more honourable in the estimation of wisdom and humanity, of right reason, and every passion that distinguishes the man from the brute.

It is not fit that a practice so horrid and so strange should be imputed to human beings upon slight evidence, but I have such as abundantly justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are so far from concealing their connection with such a society as a disgrace, that they boast of it as a privilege; and both myself and Mr Banks, when particular persons have been pointed out to us as members of the Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. They have acknowledged, that they had long been of this accursed society, that they belonged to it at that time, and that several of their children had been put to death,"

But I must not conclude my account of the domestic life of these people without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which lessens the good of life and increases the evil is vice, surely cleanliness is a virtue: The want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and mingles disgust with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in running water three times every day; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river is near them or at a distance. I have already observed, that they wash not only the mouth, but the hands at their meals, almost between every morsel; and their clothes, as well as their persons, are kept without spot or stain; so that in a large company of these people, nothing is suffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest assembly in Europe.7

SECTION

• It seems, from Mr Turnbull's account, that these accursed arreoys were rather on the increase,-a circumstance, which, considering that in fanticide formed a part, an essential part indeed, of their policy, may well explain the rapidity in the diminution of the people before noticed.-E.

Here Dr H. seems to have forgotten altogether the substitutes which modern Europeans employ for cleanliness, to render polite assemblies tolerable-musk, bergamot, lavender, &c. &c. articles, which, besides their value in saving the precious time of our fine ladies, who could not easily spare a quarter of an hour a day from their important occupations, for the Otabeitan practice of bathing, are of vast utility to the state, by affording suitable cxercise to the talents of the vast tribe of perfumers and beautifiers of every description, who, it is probable, would otherwise become mere drones in the community. But what would these Otaheitans conceive of the health and comfort and appearance and odour of the great mass of

British

SECTION XVIII.

Of the Manufactures, Boats, and Navigations of Otaheite.

If necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be sup posed to have been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art almost superflu ous; yet there are many instances both of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, considering the want of metal for tools, do honour to both.

Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dyeing of which I think there are some particulars which may instruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reason my description will be more minute.

Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which resembles the wild figtree of the West Indies.

The finest and whitest is made of the paper mulberry, Aouta; this is worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is made of the bread-fruit tree, Ooroo, and worn chiefly by the inferior people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper: This, though it is less pleasing both to the eye and to the touch, is the most valuable, because it resists water, which the other two sorts will not. Of this, which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is perfumed, and worn by the chiefs as a morning dress.

All these trees are propagated with great care, particu larly the mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is not fit for use after two or three years growth, when it is about six or eight feet high, and somewhat thicker than a man's thumb; its excellence is to be thin, straight, tall, and without branches: The lower

leaves,

British ladies, who, unless banished to a watering place, no more think of being generally washed, than of being curried with a currying-comb, or undergoing the operation of tattowing? The powers of nature are marvellous indeed, which can support their lives for years, under all the filth and exuviæ, accumulated with such idolatrous fondness.-E.