THE OLDEST INHABITANTS. 169 



hundred and twenty years old ; and there was another 

 man, sharing the same house with him, who had seen 

 four generations of the same family : excellent proofs 

 of the fine physical constitution of the natives, and the 

 healthiness of these mountains. Ho Tui Kuku was 

 quite childish, and when we spoke to him and pre- 

 sented him with a little American tobacco, he said that 

 he must be off home. He had great-great-grand-chil- 

 dren living, the eldest of whom was about ten years old. 

 Another personage attracted our attention. He was 

 the court fool of the occasion, and had dressed himself 

 in a very fantastic manner. The fools attached to the 

 courts of South Sea chiefs are very often hunchbacks, 

 the natives being fully sensible of the great fund of 

 humour which that class of people generally possess, 

 as a set-off, it would almost appear, for the physical 

 deformity which so often exposes them to unmerited ridi- 

 cule, and which is now considered in Europe an essential 

 condition of the most comic figure the popular mind 

 has conceived. But the Namosi fool was an exception 

 to this rule. He was in every respect a fine fellow, more 

 than six feet high. On his head he wore a contrivance 

 made of sticks and feathers resembling the shovel- 

 bonnets ladies used to wear some years ago, and his face 

 and body were painted in a very ludicrous manner. He 

 talked in a feigned voice, imitating a woman, and 

 probably gave utterance to many witticisms and good 

 jokes, as he kept his countrymen in roars of laughter 

 whenever he opened his mouth. When the meeting 

 broke up, we had to recross the river in order to get to 

 Danford's house ; a strong Tonguese belonging to the 



