A Man of the Sandwich Islands” an engraving after a drawing by John Webber from the atlas of the official publication of Captain Cook’s 3rd voyage.
A man in a gourd helmet with plant material on top and bark cloth strips hanging from the bottom; he also wears a cloth cloak across one shoulder. Cook’s own description from his journal entry “is a kind of mask, made of a large gourd with holes cut in it for eyes and nose. The top was stuck full of small green twigs that, at a distance, had the appearance of an elegant waving plume, and from the lower part hung narrow strips of cloth resembling a beard. We never saw these masks worn but twice, and both times by a number of people in a canoe, who came to the side of the ships, laughing and drolling with an air of masquerading.”
The Richard & Leslie Breiman Collection.
