112 A MISSION TO VITI. 



strained through fibres, and a cup filled. Whilst the 

 cup-bearer is holding it to hand to the chief or highest 

 personage present, an old man gives the toast of the 

 evening. It is pathetic or humorous, as occasion de- 

 mands, and listened to with attention ; all singing and 

 beating with sticks having ceased the moment the cup 

 was filled. A general shout follows the conclusion of 

 this toast, the cup is emptied in one draught, and 

 thrown by the drinker on the mat, to be filled again 

 and handed to the next in rank, until the whole assem- 

 bly has been served. 



The song becomes less and less hearty, the conver- 

 sation slackens, and one by one the men drop off to 

 sleep. Strange sight ! Their pillows are made of a 

 thick stick, have four legs, and are put just under the 

 neck, so that the hair of the sleepers may not be de- 

 ranged. They have had it only recently newly done up, 

 washed with lime to make it frizzed like that of negroes, 

 dyed in various colours, and arranged in many different 

 ways. Several days must have been spent to get some 

 of these extraordinary heads dressed. And for this 

 reason no other they are ready to sleep all their lives 

 on a pillow made of a stick of wood, and so constructed 

 that a European could not rest his neck five minutes 

 upon it without suffering dreadful pain. It is very fine 

 talking about the ease of living in a state of nature, but 

 the inconveniences to which savages put themselves in 

 order to gratify their vanity are quite as great, if not 

 greater, than those forced upon us by the fashions and 

 dictates of our own society. Think of the agonies of 

 tatooing ! What would the natives give to escape it, if 



