We saw a singular curiosity: a figure of a man made of basket‐work, roughly but not ill designed. It was seven feet high, and too bulky in proportion to its height; the whole was neatly covered with feathers – white to represent skin, and black to represent hair, and tallow on the head, where were three protuberances which we should have called horns, but the Indians called them tata ete (little men). The image was called by them Manne. They said it was the only one of the kind in Otahite, and readily attempted to explain its use, but their language was totally unintelligible, and seemed to refer to some customs to which we are perfect strangers. Several miles farther on we went ashore again, though we saw nothing remarkable but a burying‐ground, whose pavement was unusually neat. It was ornamented by a pyramid about five feet high, covered entirely with the fruits of Pandanm odorus and Cratœva gynandra. In the middle, near the pyramid, was a small image of stone very roughly worked, the first instance of carving in stone that I have seen among these people. This they seemed to value, as it was protected from the weather by a kind of shed built purposely over it. Near it were three human skulls, laid in order, very white and clean, and quite perfect.
We afterwards took a walk towards a point on which we had from afar observed trees of etoa (Casuarina equisetifolia), from whence we judged that there would be some marai in the neighbourhood; nor were we disappointed, for we had no sooner arrived there than we were struck with the sight of a most enormous pile, certainly the masterpiece of Indian architecture in this island, and so all the inhabitants allowed. Its size and workmanship almost exceed belief. Its form was similar to that of marais in general, resembling the roof of a house, not smooth at the sides, but formed into eleven steps, each of these four feet in height, making in all 44 feet; its length was 267 feet, its breadth 71 feet. Every one of these steps was formed of white coral stones, most of them neatly squared and polished; the rest were round pebbles, but these, from their uniformity of size and roundness, seemed to have been worked. Some of the coral stones were very large, one I measured was 3½ by 2½ feet.
The foundation was of rock stone, likewise squared; the corner‐stone measured 4 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 4 inches. The building made part of one side of a spacious area walled in with stone; the size of this, which seemed to be intended for a square, was 118 by 110 paces, and it was entirely paved with flat paving‐stones. It is almost beyond belief that Indians could raise so large a structure without the assistance of iron tools to shape their stones or mortar to join them; which last appears almost essential, as most of them are round: but it is done, and almost as firmly as an European workman would have done it, though in some things they seem to have failed. The steps for instance, which range along its greatest length, are not straight; they bend downward in the middle, forming a small segment of a circle. Possibly the ground may have sunk a little under the immense weight of such a great pile; such a sinking, if it took place regularly, would have this effect. The labour of the work is prodigious, the quarried stones are but few, but they must have been brought by hand from some distance; at least we saw no signs of a quarry near it, though I looked carefully about me. The coral must have been fished up from under the water, where indeed it is most plentiful, but usually covered with at least three or four feet of water, and generally with much more. The labour of forming the blocks when obtained must also have been at least as great as that employed in getting them. The natives have not shown us any way by which they could square a stone except by means of another, which must be a most tedious process, and liable to many accidents through tools breaking. The stones are also polished as well and as truly as stones of the kind could be by the best workman in Europe; in that particular they excel, owing to the great plenty of a sharp coral sand which is admirably adapted to the purpose, and which is found everywhere upon the sea‐shore in this neighbourhood.
About a hundred yards to the west of this building was another court or paved area, in which were several Ewhattas, a kind of altar raised on wooden pillars about seven feet high; on these they offer meat of all kinds to the gods. We have thus seen large hogs offered; and here were the skulls of above fifty of them, besides those of dogs, which the priest who accompanied us assured us were only a small fraction of what had been here sacrificed.
IIB4(ii) James Cook Two accounts of the practice of tattooing
The Oceanian cultural practice that arguably attracted the most intense notice of the Europeans was tattooing, which was evident throughout the whole vast area. Some of the Europeans, not least Joseph Banks himself, submitted to the painful operation of having a tattoo. Both Sydney Parkinson and William Hodges made drawings and paintings of tattooed bodies which subsequently became veritable emblems of the cultural difference – and hence sexually tinged exoticism – of the South Pacific. The eighteenth‐century European accounts tend to ascribe the tattoo patterns to individual caprice and a desire for personal ornamentation. Unsurprisingly, given the linguistic obstacles, they had no conception of the complex religio‐cultural nexus later analysed by the anthropologist Alfred Gell in his Wrapping in Images (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1993). Both accounts are taken from The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery: The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771, edited by J. C. Beaglehole, Cambridge University Press, published for the Hakluyt Society, 1968–1969, vol. 1, pp. 125 and 278–9.
(a) in Tahiti, July 1769
Both sexes paint their bodys Tattow as it is called in their language, this is done by inlaying the Colour of black under their skins in such a manner as to be indelible. Some have ill design’d figures of men birds or dogs, the women generaly have this figure Z simply on ever[y] joint of their fingures and toes, the men have it like wise and both have other defferent figures such as circles crescents &ca which they have on their Arms and legs. In short they are so various in the application of these figures that both the quantity and situation of them seem to depend intirely upon the humour of each individual, yet all agree in having all their buttocks cover’d with a deep black, over this most have arches drawn one over a[n] other as high as their short ribs which are near a quarter of an Inch broad; these arches seem to be their great pride as both men and women show them with great pleasure. Their method of Tattowing I shall now describe. The Coulour they use is lamp black prepared from the smook of a kind of Oily nutt used by them instead of Candles; the Instruments for pricking it under the skin is made of very thin flat pieces of [b]one or shell, from a quarter of an Inch to an Inch and a half broad according to the purpose it is to be use’d for and about an inch, and a half long, one end is cut into sharp teeth and the other fasten’d to a handle; the teeth are diped into the black liquor and then drove by quick sharp blows struck upon the handle with a stick for that purpose into the skin so deep that every stroke is followed [with] a small quantity of blood, the part so marked remains sore for some days before it heals. As this is a painfull operation especially the tattowing thier buttocks it is perform’d but once in their life time, it is never done untill they are 12 or 14 years of age.
(b) in New Zealand, March 1770
The Natives of this Country are a strong raw boned well made Active people rather above than under the common size especialy the men, they are all of a very dark brown Colour with black hair, thin black beards and white teeth and such as do not disfigure their faces by tattowing