Note (return) — Chapter III · TRANSACTIONS AT OTAHEITE, AND THE SOCIETY ISLANDS; AND PROSECUTION OF THE VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. (continued 4)

The common dress both of the women and of the men has been already described. The first have often much larger pieces of cloth wrapped round them, reaching from just below the breasts to the hams or lower; and several were seen with pieces thrown loosely about the shoulders, which covered the greatest part of the body; but the children when very young are quite naked. They wear nothing upon the head; but the hair in both sexes is cut in different forms; and the general fashion, especially among the women, is to have it long before and short behind. The men often had it cut or shaved on each side, in such a manner, that the remaining part, in some measure, resembles the crest of their caps or helmets formerly described. Both sexes, however, seem very careless about their hair, and have nothing like combs to dress it with. Instances of wearing it in a singular manner were sometimes met with among the men, who twist it into a number of separate parcels, like the tails of a wig, each about the thickness of a finger; though the greatest part of these, which are so long that they reach far down the back, we observed were artificially fixed upon the head over their own hair.1