294 VOYAGE TO THE 



C "^ P - of our conversation. As we passed I observed Jim 

 v — -v^ endeavouring to get on the outside, and latterly 

 *i826.' walking in the wash of the sea ; and found that he 

 never liked to pass this spot after dark for fear of 

 the spirits of his unfortunate countrymen who were 

 hanged there between the cocoa-nut trees. The 

 popular belief, before the introduction of our faith, 

 was, that the spirit of the deceased visited the 

 body for a certain time, and for this reason many 

 of them would on no account approach this place 

 in the night time. 



A few days after our arrival some offenders 

 were brought to trial, and as we were desirous of 

 witnessing the proceedings of the court, it was re- 

 moved from its usual site, to the shade of some trees 

 in our immediate vicinity. The court was ranged 

 upon benches placed in successive rows under the 

 trees, with the prisoners in front, under the charge 

 of an officer with a drawn sabre, and habited in a 

 volunteer's jacket and a maro. The aava-rai of the 

 district in which the crimes had been committed 

 took his place between the court and the prisoners, 

 dressed in a long straw mat, finely plaited, and 

 edged with fringe, with a slit cut in it for the head 

 to pass through ; a white oakum wig, which, in imi- 

 tation of the gentlemen of our courts of law, flowed 

 in long curls over his shoulders, and a tall cap sur- 

 mounting it, curiously ornamented with red fea- 

 thers, and with variously coloured tresses of human 

 hair. His appearance without shoes, stockings, or 

 trousers, the strange attire of the head, with the va- 

 riegated tresses of hair mingling with the oakum 

 curls upon his shoulders, produced, as may be ima- 

 gined, a ludicrous effect ; and I regret that the 



