NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 503 



in coin. The people of the various villages, and the districts subject to the chiefs of 

 these, prepare dances for this yearly festival for many months, and they vie with one 

 another in the splendour and perfection of the performance. As each band came 

 up and made its contribution, a part or the whole of it at once proceeded to perform 

 the prepared dance, and when this was over another party approached the table, 

 and so on. 



" The people as they filed up to the table formed a wonderful spectacle. The girls were 

 most of them without coverings to their breasts, but the upper parts of their bodies were 

 literally running with cocoanut oil, and glistened in the sun. The men and boys were 

 painted in all imaginable ways, with three colours, red, black, and blue (see Plate E, 

 figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4). There were Wesleyans with face and body all red, others with 

 them all blackened soot black, others with one half the face red, and the other black ; 

 some had the face red and the body black, and vice versa ; some were spotted all over 

 with red and black ; some had black spectacles painted round the eyes ; some had a 

 black forehead and red chin ; some were blue spotted, or striped on the face with blue, 

 and so on in infinite variety. How amused would John Wesley have been if he could 

 have seen his Fijian followers in such guise! For many of the dances the men were most 

 elaborately dressed. They were covered with festoons of the finest gauzy white tappa, 

 or cuticle of the shoot of the cocoanut tree. These hung in long folds from the backs of 

 their heads, and were wrapped round their bodies as far up as the armpits, and hung from 

 the waist down to the knees in such quantity as to stick out almost in crinoline fashion. 

 Round the men's heads were turbans, or high cylindrical tubes or mitres of white tappa, 

 whilst hanging on their breasts were pearl oyster shells (see Plate E, figs. 1, 2) set in 

 whales' teeth, the most valuable ornament which a Fijian possesses, and which he is 

 forbidden by the chiefs to sell. Some of the men had remarkable head-dresses. One 

 of them for instance had, sticking out from the front of his head, and secured 

 in his hair, a pair of light thin twigs of wood, which were a yard in length ; they 

 were slightly bent over in front of his face, and at their extremities were fastened 

 plumes of red feathers (see fig. 177). The whole was elaborately decorated, and 

 as he danced, the red plumes swayed and shook at each jerk of his head with 

 great effect. 



" The most interesting dances were a club dance and a fan dance, in each of which a 

 large body of full-grown fighting men, some of them with grey beards, performed. In all 

 the dances, except the first one already described, the chorus sat on the ground at a 

 corner of the green, and usually contained a number of small girls and boys, and used 

 in addition to the wooden drum, a number of long bamboo joints open at the upper end, 

 which when held vertically and struck on the ground, give out a peculiar booming note. 

 In each of the dances there was a leader, who gave the word of command for the changes 

 in the figures, and his part was especially prominent in the club dance, in which 



