more tattooed than
others, and some scarcely at all. It it stated that, among the Iroquois
only, a few of the women are in the habit of tracing a single row of
this sort of embroidery along the jaw; and that merely with the intent
of curing or preventing toothache, an effect which they conceive is
produced by the punctures destroying certain nerves. It appears to be
the general practice in America, first to finish the cutting, or graving
of the lines, and afterwards to introduce the colouring, which is
commonly made of pulverised charcoal. This last part of the operation
occasions by far the greatest pain. Among the native tribes of Southern
Africa, the fashion is merely to raise the epidermis by a slight
pricking, which is described as affording rather a pleasurable
excitement.

At the Society Isles these marks, according to Cook, were so general,
that hardly anybody was to be seen without them. Persons of both sexes
were commonly tattooed about the age of twelve or fourteen; and the
decorations, which Cook imagined to vary according to the fancy, or
perhaps, which is more likely, the rank of the individual, were
liberally bestowed upon every part of the body, with the exception,
however, of the face, which was generally left unmarked. They consisted
not only of squares, circles, and other such figures, but frequently
also of rude delineations of men, birds, dogs, and other animals. Banks
saw the operation performed on a girl of about thirteen years of age,
who was held down all the while by several women, and both struggled
hard and made no little outcry as the artist proceeded with his
labours. Yet it would seem that the process in use here is considerably
more gentle than that practised in New Zealand; for the punctures, Cook
affirms, could hardly be said to draw blood. Being afflicted by means of
an instrument with small teeth, somewhat resembling a fine comb, the
effect would be rather a pricking than a cutting, or carving, of the
flesh. Unlike what we have seen to be the practice among the American
savages, the tincture was here introduced by the same blow by which the
skin was punctured. The substance employed was a species of lamp black,
formed of the smoke of an oily nut which the natives burned to give them
light.

The practice of tattooing is now, we believe, discontinued at Otaheite;
but the progress of civilization has not yet altogether banished it at
the Sandwich Islands. When Lord Byron was at Hawaii