AUG. 1769 INHABITANTS OF ULHIETEA 119 



the least incivility; on the contrary, wherever there was 

 dirt or water to pass over they strove who should carry us 

 on their backs. On arriving at the houses of the principal 

 people we were received with a ceremony quite new to us ; 

 the people, who generally followed us, rushed into the 

 houses before us, leaving, however, a lane sufficiently wide 

 for us to pass through. When we came in, we found them 

 ranged on either side of a long mat spread upon the ground, 

 at the farther end of which sat one or more very young 

 women or children, neatly dressed, who, without stirring, 

 expected us to come up to them and make them presents, 

 which we did with no small pleasure, for prettier or better 

 dressed children we had nowhere seen. One of these 

 Tettuas, as they were called, was about six years old, her 

 apron or gown was red, and round her head was wound a 

 large quantity of tamou (plaited hair), an ornament they 

 value more than anything they have ; she sat at the farthest 

 end of a mat thirty feet long, on which no one of the 

 spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the 

 crowd. She was leaning upon the arm of a well-looking, 

 well-dressed woman of about thirty, possibly her nurse. 

 We walked up to her, and as soon as we approached she 

 stretched out her hand to receive the beads we were to give. 

 Had she been a princess-royal of England giving her hand 

 to be kissed, no instructions could have taught her to do it 

 with a better grace ; so much is untaught nature superior 

 to art, that I have seen no sight of the kind that has struck 

 me half so much. 



Grateful possibly for the presents we had made to these 

 girls, the people on our return tried every method to oblige 

 us, particularly in one house where the master ordered one 

 of his people to dance for our amusement, which he did thus. 

 He put upon his head a large cylindrical basket about four 

 feet long and eight inches in diameter, on the front of which 

 was fastened a facing of feathers bending forwards at the 

 top and edged round with sharks' teeth and the tail feathers 

 of tropic birds. With this on he danced, moving slowly, 

 and often turning his head round, sometimes swiftly throwing 



