PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 163 



return for the articles that had been stolen, but 

 whether our meaning was understood or not, they 

 were never produced. ^i 



This village is situated in a bay, at the eastern 

 foot of Mount Duff, and is rendered conspicuous by 

 a hut of very large dimensions, which we shall de- 

 scribe hereafter, and by a quadrangular building of 

 large blocks of coral erected in the water, at a few 

 yards distance from the shore, which appeared to us 

 to be a morai. Upon its northern extreme stood a 

 small hut, planted round with trees, which it was 

 conjectured contained images and offerings ; but, as 

 the door was closed, and the natives were watching 

 us, we would not examine it. Contiguous to it there 

 was a body placed upon boards, wrapped in thick 

 folds of paper cloth ; and, not far from it, another 

 enveloped in a smaller quantity of the same material. 

 There was no offensive smell whatever from either 

 of these corpses, though the one last mentioned did 

 not appear to have been long exposed. The heads 

 of both were lying to the N.E. ; both bodies were 

 more abundantly surrounded by cloth than any we 

 had seen here ; and from the nature of the platform 

 on which they were placed, which must have re- 

 quired considerable labour to construct, we concluded 

 they were the bodies of chiefs ; and we were, on that 

 account, more tenacious of subjecting them to the 

 scrutiny our curiosity prompted, lest the natives 

 should suppose we were offering them some indig- 

 nity. An old man whom we interrogated as to the 

 nature of the building gave us no information : but 

 looked very serious whenever he was referred to the 

 place, and seemed disposed to believe we were inclined 

 to place his body there to keep the others company. 



m 2 



