NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 



481 



houses a sleeping chamber is partitioned off at one end by means of mats. The only 

 furniture to be seen within is the kaava bowl and the pillows, wooden rods supported 

 on four legs, on which the neck is rested in sleep in order that the elaborately dressed 

 hair may not be disarranged. Most Polynesians, and various other races, such as 

 the modern Japanese, use similar pillows, and they were also used by the ancient 

 Egyptians. Long practice is required to allow of their use. Near the houses are small 

 sheds, underneath which a hole in the ground serves as an oven for cooking. The 

 houses at Nukalofa are clustered under the cocoanut trees, with three or four open road- 

 ways between them. 



The people are remarkably hospitable, and delighted to get a strange visitor into their 



Fie;. 175.— Nukalofa, Tongatabu. 



houses to sit and communicate what little can be managed in this way between persons 

 knowing almost nothing of each other's language. They offer kaava or cocoanuts as refresh- 

 ment. The women are large, have fine figures, and are, most of them, handsome. They 

 wear a cotton cloth round the loins reaching down below the knees, or often, and 

 especially on week-days, a " tappa " or native cloth made from the bark of the paper 

 mulberry. The missionaries have compelled them to cover their breasts, which is done 

 with a flap of cloth thrown up in front, and a fine is imposed on any woman seen abroad 

 without this additional covering. The women, however, evidently have little idea of shame 

 in the matter, and often the cloth is put on so loosely that it affords no cover at all. 

 The hair of the women was formerly cut short as amongst so many savages where the 

 men keep to themselves the right of cultivating and decorating the hair, but now it is 



(XARR. CHALL. EXP. — VOL. I. 1884.) 61 



