THE ST. LAWRENCE ISLANDS. 99 



not do this without exaggeration, which I con- 

 chided from the astonished faces of his auditors j 

 particularly a lively old woman, who seemed to 

 be of high rank, and quite enraptured with his ac- 

 counts, as she probably had not for a long time 

 heard so much news as at this moment. Before 

 Labadeny parted I told him that every one should 

 receive iron in exchange for cocoa-nuts ; and we 

 separated good friends, after he had again invited 

 us to Torua. We were now quite convinced that 

 the inhabitants of Kawcn and Otdia were one and 

 the same people ; their manner of tattooing, of 

 dressing, was perfectly alike, only that a greater 

 degree of luxury evidently prevailed here. The 

 very large rolls in their ear-holes were ornamented 

 with tortoise-shell; the mats of their dress were all 

 new, and their necks hung with an extraordinary 

 profusion of ornaments : the white feathers also, 

 which have a very good effect in their black hair, 

 I did not observe in Otdia. Kawen is the largest 

 island of the whole group ; it is two miles and a 

 quarter in length, and three-quarters of a mile in 

 breadth. The wind blew violently in the afternoon 

 from E.N.E., and increased to a storm during the 

 night, with frequent rain. It is remarkable that 

 the barometer stood higher in this group than in 

 Otdia ; there its greatest height was 30,00, and 

 here it suddenly rose, even in bad weather, to 

 30,80. 



The 18th of February. I could not execute 

 H t> 



