pacities of his soul, the slender joke, which that facetious wag his neighbour is practising upon the gouty gentleman, whose eyes the effort to suppress pain has made as round as rings, -does it shock the " dignity of human nature" to look at that man, and to sympathize with him in the seldomheard joke which has unbent his careworn hard-working visage, and drawn iron smiles from it? or with that fullhearted cobler, who is honouring with the grasp of an honest fist the unused palm of that annoyed patrician, whom the licence of the time has seated next him..

I can see nothing" dangerous" in the contemplation of such scenes as this, or the Enraged Musician, or the Southwark Fair, or twenty other pleasant prints which come crowding in upon my recollection, in which the restless activities, the diversified bents and humours, the blameless peculiarities of men, as they deserve to be called, rather than their "vices and follies," are held up in a laughable point of view. All laughter is not of a dangerous or soul-hardening tendency. There is the petrifying Sneer of a Demon which excludes and kills Love, and there is the cordial Laughter of a Man which implies and che rishes it. What heart was ever made the worse by joining in a hearty laugh at the simplicities of Sir Hugh Evans or Parson Adams, where a sense of the ridiculous mutually kindles and is kindled by a perception of the amiable? That tumultuous harmony of Singers that are roaring out the words, "The world shall bow to the Assyrian throne," from the opera of Judith, in the third plate of the series called the Four Groups of Heads, which the quick eye of Ho. garth must have struck off in the very infancy of the rage for sacred oratorios in this country, while "Music yet was young," when we have done smiling at the deafening distortions,

which these tearers of devotion to rags and tatters, these takers of Heaven by storm, in their boisterous mimicry of the occupation of angels, are making,

what unkindly impression is left behind, or what more of harsh or contemptuous feeling, than when we quietly leave Uncle Toby and Mr Shandy riding their hobby-horses about the room? The conceited, longbacked Sign-painter, that with all the self-applause of a Raphael or Corregio (the twist of body which his conceit has thrown him into has something of the Corregiesque in it) is contemplating the picture of a bottle which he is drawing from an actual bottle that hangs beside him, in the print of Beer Street,-while we smile at the enormity of the self-delusion, can we help loving the good-humour and self-complacency of the fellow ? would we willingly wake him from his dream?

I say not that all the ridiculous subjects of Hogarth have necessarily something in them to make us like them; some are indifferent to us, some in their natures repulsive, and only made interesting by the wonderful skill and truth to nature in the painter; but I contend that there is in most of them that sprinkling of the better nature, which, like holy water, chases away and disperses the contagion of the bad. They have this in them besides, that they bring us acquainted with the every-day human face,-they give us skill to detect those gradations of sense and virtue (which escape the careless or fastidious observer) in the countenances of the world about us; and prevent that disgust at common life, that tedium quotidianarum formarum, which an unrestricted passion for ideal forms and beauties is in danger of producing. In this, as in many other things, they are analogous to the best novels of Smollett or Fielding.

Nar

Narrative of a Visit to NUKAHIWA, one of the WASHINGTON ISLANDS. Concluded from page 919.

AMONG all the known nations of the earth, none have carried the art of tattooing to so high a degree of perfection as the inhabitants of Washington's Islands. The regular designs with which the bodies of the men of Nukahiwa are punctured from head to foot supplies in some sort the absence of clothing; for, under so warm a heaven, clothing would be insupportable to them. Many people here seek as much to obtain distinction by the symmetry and regularity with which they are tattooed, as among us by the elegant manner in which they are dressed; and although no real elevation of rank is designated by the greater superiority of these decorations, yet as only persons of rank can afford to be at the expence attendant upon any refinement in the ornaments, it does become in fact a badge of distinction.

The operation of tattooing is performed by certain persons, who gain their livelihood by it entirely, and I presume that those who perform it with the greatest dexterity, and evince the greatest degree of taste in the disposition of the ornaments, are as much sought after as among us a particularly good tailor. Thus much, however, must be said, that the choice made is not a matter of equal indifference with them as with us; for if the punctured garment be spoiled in the making, the mischief is irreparable, it must be worn with all its faults the whole life through.

For performing the operation, the artist uses the wing bone of a tropic bird, phaeton athereus, which is jagged and pointed at the end after the manner of a comb, sometimes in the form of a crescent, sometimes in a strait line, and larger or smaller according to the figures which the artist intends to make. This instrument is fixed into a bamboo handle

about as thick as the finger, with which the puncturer, by means of another cane, strikes so gently and so dexterously, that it scarcely pierces through the skin. The principal strokes of the figures to be tattooed are first sketched upon the body with the same dye that is afterwards rubbed into the punctures, to serve as guides in the use of the instrument. The punctures being made so that the blood and lymph ooze through the orifice, a thick dye, composed of ashes from the kernel of the burningnut, aleurites triloba, mixed with water, is rubbed in. This occasions at first a slight degree of smarting and inflammation; it then heals, aud when the crust comes off, after some days the bluish or blackish-blue figure appears.

As soon as the inhabitant of Nukahiwa approaches towards the age of manhood, the operation of tattooing is begun, and this is one of the most important epochs of his life. The artist is sent for, and the agreement made with him that he is to receive so many hogs as his pay; the number is commonly regulated according to the wealth of the person to be tattooed, and the quantity of decoration bestowed is regulated by the pay.

While we were at the island, a son of the chief Katanuah was to be tattooed. For this purpose, as belonging to the principal person in the island, he was put into a separate house for several weeks, which was tabooed; that is to say, it was forbidden to every body, except those who were exempted from the taboo by his father, to approach the house; here he was to remain during the whole time that the operation continued. All women, even the mother, are prohibited from seeing the youth while the taboo remains in force. Both the operator and the operatee are fed with the very best food during the continuance of the operation: to the former these are days of

great

great festivity. In the first year only the ground-work of the principal figures upon the breast, arms, back, and thighs, is laid; and in doing this, the first punctures must be entirely healed, and the crust must have come off before new ones are made. Every single mark takes three or four days to heal; and the first sitting, as it may be called, commonly lasts three or four weeks.

While the patient is going through the operation, he must drink very little, for fear of creating too much inflammation, and he is not allowed to eat early in the morning, only at noon and in the evening. When once the decorations are begun, some addition is constantly made to them at intervals of from three to six months, and this is not unfrequently continued for thirty or forty years before the whole tattooing is completed. We saw some old men of the higher ranks, who were punctured over and over to such a degree, that the outlines of each separate figure were scarcely to be distinguished, and the body had an almost negro-like appearance. This is, according to the general idea, the height of perfection in ornament, probably because the cost of it has been very great, and it therefore shews a person of superlative wealth. It is singular, that the men of distinction should place their gratification in acquiring this dark hue, while the women place theirs in preserving their original fair complexion uninjured.

The tattooing of persons in a middling station is performed in houses erected for the purpose by the tattooers, and tabooed by authority. A tattooer, who visited us several times on board the ship, had three of these houses, which could each receive eight or ten persons at a time: they paid for their decorations according to the greater or less quantity of them, and to the trouble the figures required. The poorer islanders, who have not a superabundance of hogs to dispose of

in luxuries, but live chiefly themselves upon bread-fruit, are operated upon by novices in the art, who take them at a very low price as subjects for practice, but their works are easily distinguishable, even by a stranger, from those of an experienced artist. The lowest class of all, the fishermen principally, but few of whom we saw, are often not able to afford even the pay required by a novice, and are therefore not tattooed at all.

The women of Nukahiwa are very little tattooed, differing in this respect from the females of the other SouthSea islands. The hands are punctured from the ends of the fingers to the wrist, which gives them the appearance of wearing gloves, and our glovers might very well borrow from them patterns, and introduce a new fashion among the ladies, of gloves worked a la Washington. The feet, which among many are tattooed, look like highly-ornamented half-boots; long stripes are besides sometimes to be seen down the arms of the women, and circles round them, which have much the same effect as the bracelets worn by European ladies. Some have also their ears and lips tattooed. The women are not, like the men, shut up in a tabooed house while they are going through this operation: it is performed without any ceremony in their own houses, or in those of their relations; in short, wherever they please.

Sometimes a rich islander will, either from generosity, ostentation, or love to his wife, make a feast in honour of her, when she has a bracelet tattooed round her arm, or perhaps her ear ornamented; a hog is then killed, and the friends of both sexes are invited to partake of it, the occasion of the feast being made known to them. It is expected that the same courtesy should be returned in case of the wife of any of the guests being punctured. This is one of the few occasions when women are allowed to eat hog's flesh. If, in a very dry

year,

year, bread-fruit, hogs, roots, and other provisions, become scarce, any one who has still a good stock of them, which commonly happens to the chief, in order to distribute his stores, keeps open table for a certain time to an appointed number of poor artists, who are bound to give in return some strokes of the tattoo to all who choose to come for it. By virtue of a taboo, all these brethren are engaged to support each other, if in future some happen to be in need, while the others are in affluence. This is one of the most rational orders of FreeMasonry upon the globe.

Our interpreter Cabri, who was slightly and irregularly tattooed all over his body, upon one of these occasions got a black, or rather blue eye; and Roberts, who had only a puncture on his breast, in the form of a long square, six inches one way and four the other, assured us that he would never have submitted to the operation, if he had not been constrained by the scarcity in the preceding year to become one of the guests fed by the chief Katanuab. The same person may be member of several of these societies; but, according to what we could learn, a portion must always be given to the priest or magician, as he is called, even if he be not a member. In a time of scarcity also, many of the people who have been tattooed in this way unite as an absolute troop of banditti, and share equally among each other all that they can plunder or

kill.

The figures with which the body is tattooed are chosen with great care, and appropriate ornaments are selected for the different parts. They consist partly of animals, partly of other objects which have some reference to the manners and customs of the islands; and every figure has here, as in the Friendly Islands, its particular name. Upon an accurate examination, curved lines, diamonds, and other designs, are often distinguishJan. 1814.

able between rows of punctures, which resemble very much the ornaments called a la Grecque. The most perfect symmetry is observed over the whole body: the head of a man is tattooed in every part; the breast is commonly ornamented with a figure resembling a shield; on the arms and thighs are stripes, sometimes broader, sometimes narrower, in such directions, that these people might very well be presumed to have studied anatomy, and to be acquainted with the course and dimensions of the muscles. Upon the back is a large cross, which begins at the neck, and ends with the last vertebræ. In the front of the thigh are often figures, which seem intended to represent the human face.

On each side the calf of the leg is an oval figure, which produces a very good effect. The whole, in short, displays much taste and discrimination. Some of the tenderest parts of the body, the eyelids for example, are the only parts not tattooed."

The clothing of these people consists of a piece of cloth round the waist, which among the men is called tschiabu, but among the women tewer or teuweu. The women have besides a large piece of cloth thrown over them; this is done less from modesty than to keep off the burning sun from injuring their complexions. Many of them would very gladly have given us their cloaks for a piece of iron, or a knife, if they had not been too far from their habitations, and afraid of being tanned by the sun in returning to them. A few of the men had a piece of cloth hanging partly down the back, and fastened together upon the breast or under the chin.

The bread-fruit, which forms so essential an article of food among these people, is here, as in almost all the South-Sea islands, what corn and potatoes are in Europe, what rice is in India, and what the cassava root is in Brazil. This tree appears indige

nous

nous in these islands, and was first known to Europeans through the great English navigators, by whom the vast Archipelagoes of the SouthSeas were discovered. Its importance and utility induced the English government, in 1787, to send out an expedition under the command of Captain Bligh, to carry a quantity of the plants to their West India possessions. Notwithstanding the miscarriage of their first attempt, Captain Bligh was ordered again to Otaheite for the same purpose, and in 1792, happily succeeded in transporting this precious gift of Providence to the West Indies: the plants have ever since flourished there exceedingly. The fruit, in size and form, resembles very much a cocoa-nut or a melon. The tree grows to a great height, is thick in the stem, and has a very luxuriant foliage; the leaves are much like those of the oak, but a great deal larger, growing to the length of a foot or a foot and half. The fruit is not eaten raw, but roasted or broiled; the taste is different according to the manner in which it is dressed, but either way has a considerable similarity with that of the banana, only less sweet and not so greasy. It very much resembles a cake made of flour, butter, egg, milk, and sugar; it has more the appearance of being a composition of flour than the banana.

The usual manner of cooking the fruit is to make a hole in the ground, and pave it round with large smooth stones; a fire is then kindled in the middle, and as soon as the stones are thoroughly heated, the ashes are cleared away; bamboo canes and banana leaves are then laid over them, and the bread-fruit wrapped in a banana leaf laid into the oven, which is covered with leaves and hot stones. fruit, when roasted in this way, and eaten with milk pressed from the cocoa-nut, is called waikai, and is esteemed very delicious. The chief of

The

Taiohaie once brought us a present of this dish, as a specimen of the cookery of his country, and we all liked it exceedingly. Another way of dressing the bread-fruit, is to take off the outward shell after it is roasted, and mix it with water, or milk of cocoa-nut, with some of the nut scraped fine; this is called kakuh, and is also very pleasant.

The ripe bread-fruit will not keep good many days: in times of great abundance, therefore, it is cut into small pieces, when a hole is made in the ground about eight feet long by four broad, and five or six feet deep, which is paved with large stones, and the pieces of fruit thrown into it. A strong fermentation ensues, and forms a leaven, which will then keep for months. This food is called popoi*. When it is mixed with water, it makes a drink which has very much the appearance and taste of butter-milk, and is extremely cooling and refreshing. There are many other ways of dressing the bread-fruit, mixed with taro, with yams, with bananas, or other fruits, concerning which I could not obtain any accurate information.

The animal food of these islanders consists in man's and swine's flesh, in fish and poultry. The two latter are not held of any great account; but the flesh of swine, with, alas! that of their fellow-creatures, form very essential articles in their political economy. On the birth of a child, on a wedding or a funeral, on the tattooing of a person of distinction, at any dance, festival, or other ceremony, swine are always killed in a greater or less number, according to the circumstances. They are roasted in ovens such as have been described for roasting

Probably popoi may signify food in ge neral; for the eating-house, as will be seen in future, is called popoi-taboo, even though not destined entirely to eating swine's flesh.