354 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



is said that not liking her first husband she ate him and 

 married the great chief. Would it not be a good recipe 

 for Newport Divorcees ? It would lessen the later scandal 

 so greatly and simplify matters. Of course the husband 

 might be allowed the same privilege ! The hands of the 

 old Queen are most beautifully tattooed, and they say 

 she had the most beautifully cut legs in the way of tattoo 

 in existence in her youth, and the Captain Commanding 

 has been trying hard to make her show her feet and 

 ankles ; but she would not understand, though we could 

 see her toes were well carved. The natives here are 

 going fast, dying off mainly by consumption ; the adja- 

 cent valley, 1 which held once three thousand warriors, 

 has now fourteen inhabitants. It seems too bad. Chris- 

 tianity is fatal to the South Sea Islanders — they cannot 

 stand its restraints, and they die like sheep." 



Rangiroa, September 22. " Here I am in my first 

 Paumotus atoll. Before we left Taiohae, the evening 

 before we sailed, the Acting Governor of the Marque- 

 sas gave us quite a dinner which I thought would never 

 end ; courses after courses followed one another served 

 by Marquesan servants who really acquitted themselves 

 well of their task. He wound up the performances by 

 giving us a most interesting native dance performed by 

 Marquesans of an adjoining valley. The whole took 

 place on a flat lawn outside the Governor's house, illu- 

 minated by kerosene lanterns and huge torches of bag- 

 ging soaked in kerosene and kept full of kerosene, which 

 lighted up the whole space around the dancers. All 

 Taiohae was there in their best clothes, men, women, 

 and children, and while we were at dinner Woodworth 

 entertained the crowd by giving them selections from 

 i The " Typee " of Melville. 



