NAKED SAVAGES.
TO THE EDITOK.
Sir,—ln Nature, for June 21sfc, which has just reached me, is a letter signed A. J. Duffield, and dated from The Delaware, Keweenaw, Michigan, U.S.A., in which is the following sentence :—" I may say, however, that when I visited New Zealand in 1884, there were in one of the canoes which came off to our ship, several naked natives, who had disfigured their faces by blackening their noses and eyes, and running a black fillet round the face, which gave them a villainous aspect." I shall be much obliged if you can tell me in what part of New Zealand such a phenomenon would greet the casual traveller ? It must surely have been somewhere in the South. If such practices be usual down there, they may afford one explanation of the anxiety of Southerners to do away with the San Francisco mail service, so that our savagery may not be exposed.—l am, &c., Aug. 19, 1888. W. Steadman Aldis.
[Mr. Duffield writes nonsense. The Maoris were never in the habit of " blackening their noses and eyes," or " running a black fillet round the face." Maoris in a canoe might be scantily clad, but they would not be naked.Ed.]
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9139, 22 August 1888, Page 3
Word Count
203NAKED SAVAGES. New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9139, 22 August 1888, Page 3
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