236 CORALS AND CORAL LSLANDS. 



The islanders knew nothing of any other land or people : 

 — an ignorance not surprising, since the lagoons of the group 

 have no good entrances, and a nation cannot be great in 

 navigation or discovery without harbours. As a consequence, 

 our presence was to them like an apparition. The simple in- 

 habitants took us for gods from the sun, and, as we landed, 

 came with abundant gifts of such things as they had, to pro- 

 pitiate their celestial visitors. They no doubt imagined that 

 our strange ship had sailed off from the sun when it touched 

 the water at sunrise, or sunset, and any child among them 

 could see that this was a reasonable supposition. The king, 

 after embracing Captain Hudson, as the latter states in his 

 Journal (Wilkes's Narrative), rubbed noses, pointed to the sun, 

 howled, moaned, hugged him again and again, put a mat 

 around his waist, securing it with a cord of human hair, and 

 repeated the rubbing of noses and the howhng ; and the 

 moment the captain attempted to leave his side, he set up 

 again a most piteous howl, and repeated in a tremulous tone, 

 *' Nofo ki lalo, mataku au," " Sit down, I am afraid." While 

 thus in fear of us, they showed a great desire that their dreaded 

 visitors should depart ; some pointed to the sun, and asked 

 by their gestures about our coming thence, or hinted to us to 

 be off again. 



But with all their reverence toward their mysterious guests, 

 they became after a while quite familiar, and took advantage 

 of every opportunity to steal from us. Our botanist gave his 

 collecting-box to one of them to hold, and, the moment his 

 back was turned, off the native ran, and a hard chase was 

 required to recover it — a most undignified run on the part of 

 the celestial. 



While the men wore the maro, the equivalent of tight- 

 fitting breeches six inches or less in length, the women were 

 attired in a simple bloomer costume, consisting solely of a 

 petticoat or apron, twelve to eighteen inches long, made of a 

 large number of slit cocoanut leaves, and kept well oiled. 

 Besides this they had on, as ornaments, necklaces of shell or 

 bone. The girls and boys were dressed au 7iatiirel^ after the 



