232 Voyage of the Novara. 



and wearing elegant garlands of flowers, stepped forward and 

 began to sing a national Tahitian hymn ; after which the 

 orator of the day, a handsome man, dressed partly in the 

 European, partly in the native manner, wearing a black round 

 felt hat and feathers, and a variegated bark shirt over a black 

 coat (!) delivered a very pathetic address. His delivery and 

 his gestures recalled strongly to mind the New Zealand ora- 

 tors, but, unlike the latter, he was considerate enough not to 

 tax unduly the patience of his foreign guests, to whom not 

 one word of his very moving discourse was intelligible. This 

 preliminary over, a number of girls presented themselves one 

 after the other to the Governor, and in token of allegiance 

 presented their garlands and the nicely prepared upper robe 

 of bast. In this manner about 1 00 crowns and bast-mantilles 

 were delivered, the most elegant of which the Governor kind- 

 ly presented to the members of our Expedition. 



In the reception-room a perfect mountain of bananas had 

 been piled up, together with an immense heap of cocoa-nuts ; 

 these were also presented to the Governor and his suite, with 

 the remark that every inhabitant of the district had con- 

 tributed his mite to the festival, and bade the foreign guests a 

 cordial welcome. " We may stay days, weeks, ay ! months," 

 exclaimed the orator, " and every house and all that was in 

 it will be placed at our disposal; every one will take a 

 pleasm-e in doing our bidding and forestalling all our wishes!" 



After this hearty, idyllic ceremonial, the inhabitants of 

 Punatana, an adjoining district, came up, amid a flourish of 



