98 OTAHITE CHAP, v 



some neighbouring place, where the trees are not yet 

 exhausted. 



10th. This evening, according to my yesterday's engage- 

 ment, I went to the place where the Metua lay ; there I 

 found Tubourai, Tamio, Hoona, the Metua 1 s daughter, and a 

 young Indian prepared to receive me. Tubourai was the 

 Heiva, the three others and myself were to be Nineveh. 

 Tubourai put on his most fantastical though not unbecoming 

 dress. I was next prepared by stripping off my European 

 clothes and putting on a small strip of cloth round my 

 waist, the only garment I was allowed to have. They then 

 began to smut me and themselves with charcoal and water, 

 the Indian boy was completely black, the women and 

 myself as low as our shoulders ; we then set out. Tubourai 

 began by praying twice, once near the corpse, and again 

 near his own house. We then proceeded towards the fort ; it 

 was necessary, it seems, that the procession should visit 

 that place, but they dare not do it without our sanction, 

 indeed it was not until they had received many assurances 

 of our consent that they ventured to perform any part of 

 their ceremonies. 



To the fort then we went, to the surprise of our friends 

 and affright of the Indians who were there, for they every- 

 where fly before the Heiva, like sheep before a wolf; we 

 soon left it and proceeded along shore towards a place where 

 above a hundred Indians were collected together. We, the 

 Ninevehs, had orders from the Heiva to disperse them ; we 

 ran towards them, but before we came within a hundred 

 yards of them they dispersed every way, running to the first 

 shelter and hiding themselves under grass or whatever else 

 would conceal them. We now crossed the river into the 

 woods and passed several houses, all deserted ; not another 

 Indian did we see during the half -hour that we spent in 

 walking about. We (the Ninevelis) then came to the Heiva 

 and said imatata (there are no people), after which we re- 

 paired home ; the Heiva undressed, and we went into the 

 river and scrubbed one another until it was dark, before the 

 blacking came off. 



