ISO A ^^ O Y A G E T O 



^777- this, there were vvreftlins; and boxine-matches for about 



July. , '-' " 



half an hour. Then two men feated themfelves before the 

 prince, and made fpeeches, addrefled, as I thought, entirely 

 to him. With this the folcmnity ended, and the whole af- 

 fembly broke up. 



I now went and examined the feveral baflcets which had 

 been prefented ; a curiofity that I was not allowed before to 

 indulge ; becaufe every thing was then taboo. But the fo- 

 lemnity being now over, they became, limply, what I found 

 them to be, empty baflvets. .So that, whatever they were 

 fuppofcd to contain, was emblematically reprefented. And 

 fo, indeed, was every other thing which had been brought 

 in proceffion, except the fifli. 



We endeavoured, in vain, to find out the meaning, not 

 only of the ceremony in general, which is called Natche, but 

 of its different parts. We feldom got any other anfwer to 

 our inquiries, h\xi taboo ; a word, which, I have before ob- 

 ferved, is applied to many other things. But, as the prince 

 ■was, evidently, the principal perfon concerned in it ; and 

 as we had been told by the king, ten days before the cele- 

 bration of the Natche^ that the people would bring in yams 

 for him and his fon to eat together; and as he even de- 

 fcribed fome part of the ceremony, we concluded, from 

 what he had then faid, and from what we now faw, that 

 an oath of allegiance, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, or folemn 

 promife, was, on this occafion, made to the prince, as the 

 immediate fucceffor to the regal dignity, to fland by him, 

 and to furnifli him with the feveral articles that were here em- 

 blematically reprefented. This feems the more probable, as 

 all the principal people of the ifland, whom we had ever feen, 

 affifted in the proceffions. But, be this as it may, the whole 

 6 was 



