260 FRIENDLY RECEPTION. 



3^arcls fi'om the sandy beach and stretching' across 

 the bay. The boats were backed in from their an- 

 chors^ and^ after seven of us had got on shore by 

 watching- an opportunity^ to jump out up to the 

 middle in water^ and cross the reef^ hauled out again 

 to await our return. 



Some women on the beach retired as we were 

 about to land; but a number of boys and a few men 

 received us^ and after a preliminary halt to see that 

 our g-uns were put to rig'hts after the duckings we 

 all started tog-ether by a narrow path winding* up 

 a rug-g-ed wall of basaltic rock^ fifty feet in heig^ht. 

 From the summit a steep declivity of a couple of 

 hundred yards brought us to the villag'e of Tassai^ 

 shaded by cocoa-nut trees^ and beautifully situated 

 on a level space close to the beach on the windward 

 side of the island^ here not more than a quarter of 

 a mile in width. No canoes were seen here^ and a 

 heavy surf broke on the outer margin of a fringing 

 reef. On the outskirts of the village we met the 

 women and remainder of the people^ and were 

 received without any signs of apprehension. 

 One of our friends immediately got hold of a 

 drum* — a hollow cylinder of palm-wood two feet 

 and a half in lengthy and four inches in diameter^ one 

 end covered over with the skin of a large lizard^ — 

 and commenced beating- upon it very vigorously 

 v> ith the palm of the hand^ singing and dancing at the 



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Represented in the uppermost figure on next page. 



