150 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



tion, which they kept up, with some intervals of shouting and clamor, 

 until they left the ship. 



" The canoes were all double, and of course had no outriggers. 

 They were made of pieces of wood lashed together, like those of 

 Samoa, and were ornamented with a few shells of the white ovula, 

 commonly used for this purpose throughout the Friendly Group.* 

 The blades of their paddles were not oval, as in Tonga and Feejee. 

 but oblong and slender, like those of the Navigator islanders. 



" There were eight or ten men in each canoe, and as they drew near, 

 their color and features proclaimed that they belonged to the Poly- 

 nesian race. There was little in either to distinguish them from the 

 people of Samoa and Tonga. They wore the maro, or girdle, made 

 of braided matting, like that of the Paumotu islanders. Around their 

 heads, covering the forehead, they had narrow strips of the same 

 matting tied, and one, who appeared to be a personage of note, had 

 stuck in it several of the long red feathers from the tail of the tropic 

 bird. Many of them had shades or eye-screens of thick braid, tied 

 on the forehead, very similar to those used by weak-sighted people 

 among us. Their hair was cut an inch or two long all over the head. 

 Some of them wore shells, and pieces of sponge suspended by a 

 string to the neck, and one had a large blue bead worn in a similar 

 manner, showing that they had already had intercourse with 

 foreigners. Indeed, their manners left no doubt on this point. 

 Before they reached the ship they held up rolls of matting, making 

 signs of a wish to barter. In one canoe, the head man unrolled his 

 wares, arid spread them out to our view, with the dexterity of a 

 practised auctioneer. All this time they were chanting their noisy 

 song, without intermission. 



" They came alongside very readily, but no inducements could pre- 

 vail upon them to venture on board. Our interpreter was a Samoan 

 native, whom we shipped at Oahu; but though it was soon evident 

 that their language was allied to his own, it was still so different that 

 he found himself frequently at a loss.f Their refusal to come on 



* The term Friendly Islands was at that time used by us, as it had been by many 

 voyagers, to designate the whole archipelago of Tonga, Samoa, Niua, Uea, &c. It has 

 since been thought best to restrict it to the first-named group. 



f The chief difference is the use at Fakaafo of the k, which the Samoan dialect omits. 

 We have frequently observed that a very slight change of dialect is sufficient to confuse, 

 at first, a native of one of these islands ; while a foreigner, who has a general smattering 

 of one dialect, can usually accommodate himself without difficulty to such alterations. 



