e than a halter. The sheep are of the kind which
in England are called Bengal sheep, and differ from ours in many
particulars. They are covered with hair instead of wool; their ears are
very large, and hang down under their horns, and their noses are arched;
they are thought to have a general resemblance to a goat, and for that
reason are frequently called _cabritos_: Their flesh we thought the
worst mutton we had ever eaten, being as lean as that of the buffaloes,
and without flavour. The hogs, however, were some of the fattest we had
ever seen, though, as we were told, their principal food is the outside
husks of rice, and a palm syrup dissolved in water.[106] The fowls are
chiefly of the game breed, and large, but the eggs are remarkably small.

[Footnote 106: The reader will please remember this evidence of the
nutritious quality of the palm-syrup. He will find it useful very
shortly, when the value of sugar as an article of diet is mentioned.--E]

Of the fish which the sea produces here, we know but little: Turtles are
sometimes found upon the coast, and are by these people, as well as all
others, considered as a dainty.

The people are rather under than over the middling size; the women
especially are remarkably short and squat built: Their complexion is a
dark brown, and their hair universally black and lank. We saw no
difference in the colour of rich and poor, though in the South-Sea
islands those that were exposed to the weather were almost as brown as
the New Hollanders, and the better sort nearly as fair as the natives of
Europe. The men are in general well-made, vigorous, and active, and have
a greater variety in the make and disposition of their features than
usual: The countenances of the women, on the contrary, are all alike.

The men fasten their hair up to the top of their heads with a comb, the
women tie it behind in a club, which is very far from becoming. Both
sexes eradicate the hair from under the arm, and the men do the same by
their beards, for which purpose, the better sort always carry a pair of
silver pincers hanging by a string round their necks; some, however,
suffer a very little hair to remain upon their upper-lips, but this is
always kept short.

The dress of both sexes consists of cotton cloth, which being dyed blue
in the yarn, and not uniformly of the same shade, is in clouds or waves
of that colour, and even in our eye had not an inelegant appearance.
This cloth they manufacture t