"
MR. BARRAUD. "Those islands were discovered by the ship 'Duff,' when
on a missionary voyage in the year 1797. We shall have to retrace
our steps to come to the large islands in our chart; but Easter
Island is so near, it may be as well to call; although we may gain
nothing by the visit, for it is a sterile spot inhabited by
demi-savages, who worship small wooden deities. They tattoo
themselves so as to have the appearance of wearing breeches. Most of
them go naked; some few wear a _maro_ which is made either of fine
Indian cloth of a reddish color, of a wild kind of parsley, or of a
species of sea-weed."
GEORGE. "There are more small islands before we go to New Zealand or
Australia, and I have an account of one,--viz., New Caledonia, lying
south-west of the New Hebrides. It is rather a large island, rocky
for the most part; and there not being much food for animals, very
few are found there. One, however, must be mentioned. It is a spider
called a 'nookee,' which spins a thread so strong, as to offer a
sensible resistance before breaking. This animal (for I have
discovered that a spider is not an insect) constitutes part of the
people's food. The inhabitants are cannibals from _taste_. They eat
with an air of luxurious pleasure the muscular parts of the human
body, and a slice of a child is esteemed a great dainty. Horrible
wretches! They wear no clothes; the women just have a girdle of
fibrous bark, and the men sometimes encircle their heads with a
fillet of sewed net-work or leaves, and the hair of the vampire
bat.
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