vas_, or entertainments, they have various dresses made for the
purpose; but the form is always the same, and the richest dresses are
covered, more or less, with red feathers. On what particular occasion
their chiefs wear their large red feather-caps, I could not learn. Both
men and women sometimes shade their faces from the sun with little
bonnets, made of various materials.

As the clothing, so are the ornaments, worn by those of both sexes, the
same. The most common of these are necklaces, made of the fruit of the
_pandamus_, and various sweet-smelling flowers, which go under the
general name of _kahulla_. Others are composed of small shells, the wing
and leg-bones of birds, shark's teeth, and other things; all which hang
loose upon the breast. In the same manner, they often wear a
mother-of-pearl shell, neatly polished, or a ring of the same substance
carved, on the upper part of the arm; rings of tortoise-shell on the
fingers, and a number of these joined together as bracelets on the
wrists.

The lobes of the ears (though most frequently only one) are perforated,
with two holes, in which they wear cylindrical bits of ivory, about
three inches long, introduced at one hole, and brought out of the other;
or bits of reed of the same size, filled with a yellow pigment. This
seems, to be a fine powder of turmeric, with which the women rub
themselves all over, in the same manner, as our ladies use their dry
rouge upon the cheeks.

Nothing appears to give them greater pleasure than personal cleanliness;
to produce which, they frequently bathe in the ponds, which seem to
serve no other purpose.[178] Though the water in most of them stinks
intolerably, they prefer them to the sea; and they are so sensible that
salt water hurts their skin, that, when necessity obliges them to bathe
in the sea, they commonly have some cocoa-nut shells, filled with fresh
water, poured over them, to wash it off. They are immoderately fond of
cocoa-nut oil for the same reason; a great quantity of which they not
only pour upon their head and shoulders, but rub the body all over,
briskly, with a smaller quantity. And none but those who have seen this
practice, can easily conceive how the appearance of the skin is improved
by it. This oil, however, is not to be procured by every one; and the
inferior sort of people, doubtless, appear less smooth for want of it.

[Footnote 178: So at the Caroline Islands. "Ils sont accoutumes a se
baigner trois f