Chap, xix.] NATIVE BURIAL PLACES. 



431 



side of the mountain range, is an ancient coast line, and 

 against the foot of the cliffs the sea beat in old time. 



The visit of the King of the Sandwich Islands, Kalakaua, to 

 the " Challenger," pleased me very much. The officers of the 

 ship donned, as in duty bound, full "war paint" to receive 

 him, and even one member of the scientific staff appeared in 

 curious clothes, and was girt with a rudimentary sword for the 

 occasion ; yet the Polynesian king arrived in a black frock coat, 

 white waistcoat, and straw hat. To a confirmed " agriologist " 

 the tables seemed completely turned on European civilisation. 



The king took the liveliest interest in the special work of 

 the "Challenger," and was almost the only distinguished 

 visitor of the many to whom I had exhibited microscopical 

 objects during our voyage, who recognised the well-known 

 anchors in the skin of the Holothurian Synapta, and named 

 them at first glance. These anchors stood us in good stead 

 at all the ports visited, and were described in all the colonial 

 newspapers as belonging to the " Admiralty worm," supposed 

 to be the most wonderful of the deep-sea discoveries of the 

 Expedition. 



There is a most excellent musical band at Honolulu, com- 

 posed almost entirely of Hawaiians, and numbering 20 or 30 

 performers, who execute complicated European music with 

 accuracy and most pleasing effect. No one can doubt, after 

 listening to this band, that the Polynesian ear is as capable of 

 appreciating the details of music as the European. It will be 

 interesting to observe in the future, whether the Chinese and 

 Japanese, whose music is so very different from that of Europe, 

 and who profess to dislike Western music, and now at least 

 much prefer their own, will develop a similar capacity, and a 

 changed appreciation in the future. The Hawaiians seem to 

 be ahead of some of our own colonists in the matter of music, 

 and have a better band than existed at the time of our visit to 

 New South Wales, even in Sydney. 



Whilst the ship was at Honolulu I visited the north-east 

 side of the island, and collected at ^^'aimanalo, on the estate 

 of Mr. John Cummins, a series of native skulls from a deserted 

 burial-place. The burials are amongst dunes of calcareous 

 sand, and the bones are exposed by the shifting of the sands 

 by the wind. 



The burials are often on the sides of the gullies, between 

 the dunes. They have probably been made in this locality, 

 because of the ease with which the sand is excavated. Similar 

 burials occur at various spots around the coast of Oahu, and I 

 know of no place where so abundant material is ready at hand 

 for the study of the skeletal peculiarities of a savage race, by 



