THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 305 



eluded, in further consideration of another shirt, or its equiv- 

 alent, before the ship sailed. As I was to get much, and he 

 little, naturally for a white man and a brother, I said "Miti " 

 good. So Davikhee drew the linen over his ugly mug ; and 

 to complete the picture I gathered the fluttering garment 

 around the waist with a bright red bandana handkerchief 

 a remnant of my shore toggery. The effect was ludicrous 

 in the extreme. My giant Kanaka in his native nakedness 

 was sublime, in this fluttering rag he was ridiculous. As I 

 afterward noticed this flag of truce fluttering in the evening 

 breeze, I hugged myself with the thought that I had ad- 

 vanced a brother one step in the scale of civilization, that 

 my Kanaka would never again feel decent with less than a 

 cravat about his neck. 



These people greatly prize articles of American dress, and 

 wear with pride such articles as they can obtain, regardless 

 of fit or fitness. It is told that a chief headed a wedding 

 procession dressed in a naval lieutenant's blue swallow-tail 

 coat, gilt buttons and all. This was not out of the way, per- 

 haps, but except the mare, or breech-cloth, and a wreath of 

 feathers about his manly brow, it was his only garment. 



Similar negotiations to mine had been going on in fore- 

 castle and steerage, and the crew went to their bunks to 

 dream of the good things in store. 



March 24. Starboard watch had liberty on shore. To 

 provide against contingencies, I drew a couple of fathoms of 

 bright figured calico from the slop-chest, and placed a few 

 sail -needles and fish -hooks in my pocket. The larboard 

 watch landed us on the south shore of the bay, in front of a 

 cluster of grass huts, sheltered beneath cocoa-nut trees. A 

 number of the natives awaited us. Among them was a pair 

 of naked legs, surmounted by a fluttering white shirt, which 

 combination claimed me at once as all his own. The friends 

 of Chipps and Posey had clubbed with Davikhee to make the 



