TOXGATABU. 287 



trees, with three or four open roadways between them. The 

 people are remarkably hospitable, and delighted to get a strange 

 visitor into their houses to sit and communicate what little can 

 be managed in this way between persons knowing almost 

 nothing of each other's languages. They offer kaava or cocoa- 

 nuts as refreshment. 



The women are large, they have fine figures and are, most of 

 them, handsome. They wear a cotton cloth round the loins 

 reaching down below the knees, or often, and especially on 

 week-days, a " tappa " or native cloth, made from the Paper 

 Mulberry. The missionaries have compelled them to cover their 

 breasts, which is done with a flap of cloth thrown up in front, 

 and a fine is imposed on any woman seen abroad without this 

 additional covering. The women, however, evidently have little 

 idea of shame in the matter; and often the cloth is put on 

 so loosely that it affords no cover at all. 



The hair of the women was formerly cut short as amongst 

 so many savages where the men keep to themselves the right 

 of cultivating and decorating the hair, but now it is often 

 allowed to grow long and fall down the back. It is oiled and 

 powdered with sandal-wood dust as a perfume. On Sundays a 

 few women appear in complete European dress, wearing muslin 

 gowns, and hats profusely decorated with gaudy artificial flowers. 

 The girls are most accomplished coquettes. 



The missionaries have prohibited dancing, and also the 

 chewing of the kaava root, which is now grated instead. The 

 chewing method was believed to spread disease. The people 

 are diminishing notwithstanding all the efforts of the mission- 

 aries. There are now r only about 8,000 islanders in the whole 

 group. 



The Tongans are a fine manly race, and delighted us all. 

 We should all have liked a longer stay in their island. They 

 are an extremely merry race, fond of practical jokes ; and as I 

 was rowed on shore by a crew of them, they kept playing all 

 kinds of pranks on one another between the strokes of the oars, 

 such as bending over and catching at each other's legs, and they 

 were full of laughter the whole time. 



I had some difficulty in persuading one of the natives to get 



