Taipei  - A museum in Taiwan has apologised and recalled 3,000 copies of a visitor brochure after a string of mistranslations - including referring to "adultery" when it meant "adulthood."

The National Museum of Prehistory, in Taitung, southeast Taiwan, made the apology on Tuesday after a lawmaker pointed out several mistakes in the English brochure for the museum's exhibition on aborigines.

The brochure says that facial tattoo is the symbol of adultery for aborigines, when it in fact means adulthood.

After the lawmaker pointed out the translation mistakes on Monday in parliament, Tong Chun-fa, director of the museum, admitted that the translation was done in December by a staff member who had studied in the United States.

"We printed the English brochures without having the translation proof-read because we were in a hurry," he said.

The museum has corrected the mistakes in the online edition of the brochure. dpa