SOLITARY MEALS. 483 



however, remember that these islanders were together much 

 more than we are. We enjoy a sociable meal, because the 

 nature of our occupations keeps us apart so much at other 

 times ; but among a people whose wants were supplied with 

 so little exertion on their part, who were all day long together, 

 and had no rooms into which they could retire and be alone, 

 it must have been a great thing to have some way of escaping 

 from their friends and being quiet without giving offence. 

 As there were no stated times for meals, a man who wished 

 to be alone need only to take out his basket of provisions, 

 and he might be sure that he would not be disturbed. This 

 custom, therefore, seems to have been both ingenious and 

 convenient.* 



Although they usually went to bed soon after dark, still 

 the natives of Tahiti were not entirely without candles, for 

 which they used the "kernels of a kind of oily nut, which 

 they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust 

 through the middle of them/ These candles burn a con- 



o 



siderable time, and are said to have given a pretty good light. 

 The Society Islanders had no knowledge of medicine as dis- 

 tinct from witchcraft ; but some wonderful stories are told of 

 their skill in surgery. I will give perhaps the most extra- 

 ordinary. " It is related," says Mr. Ellis, " although," he adds 

 with perfect gravity, " I confess I can scarcely believe it, that 

 on some occasions, when the brain has been injured as well as 

 the bone, they have .opened the skull, taken out the injured 

 portion of the brain, and, having a pig ready, have killed it, 



* Since the above was written, ways retired the moment my dinner 



I have met with the following pas- or breakfast was brought to me. 



sage in Burchell : " I had sufficient This gave me a few moments' relief 



reason for admiring one of the cus- from the fatigue of incessant con- 



toms of the Bachapins; that, not- versation."- -Travels in Southern 



withstanding they never at any Africa, vol. ii. p. 408. 

 other time left me alone, they al- 



2i2 



