ve or _brunette_, and the skin
of the women was smooth and soft. They had no colour in their cheeks,
but their faces were comely; the cheekbones were not high, neither were
the eyes hollow. Their eyes were sparkling and full of expression, and
their teeth good, but their noses being flat did not correspond with his
ideas of beauty. Their hair was black and coarse. The men had beards,
which they wore in many fashions, always, however, plucking out great
part of them, and keeping the rest perfectly clean and neat.

In most countries it is the custom of the men to wear short and the
women long hair. Here, however, Cook found this custom reversed. The
women cut it short round the ears, and the men--except the fishermen,
who were almost continually in the water--suffered it to flow in large
waves over their shoulders, or tied it up in a bunch on the top of their
heads. They were in the habit of anointing it with cocoa-nut oil, which
had the effect of rendering their heads very filthy; but in other
respects the natives of Tahiti were remarkable for cleanliness.

Their clothing consisted of native-made cloth or matting, and was very
scanty, but in many cases was tastefully put on and intermingled with
flowers. Some of the men wore a feather in their hair; others wore a
wig made of the hair of men and dogs. Both sexes wore ear-rings made of
pieces of stones, shells, or berries, which were speedily exchanged,
however, for the beads given them by the sailors, for, like all other
savages, they delighted in gay ornaments.

The houses of these people were very simple. They consisted of nothing
more than a thatched roof mounted upon pillars. They had no walls
whatever, and were open to every wind of heaven, but in so warm a
climate this was not considered a disadvantage. There were no rooms or
partitions of any kind in them, and they were usually large. Some
belonged to families, others were the public property of a district, and
these last were sometimes two hundred feet long by thirty broad.

All the houses were built in the woods that lay between the sea and the
mountains. No more ground was cleared for each house than was just
sufficient to prevent the droppings of the branches from falling on the
roof; so that the inhabitant could step at once from his cottage into
the shade of the forest, which was the most delightful and romantic that
could be imagined. It consisted of groves of bread-fruit and cocoa-nut
tree