144 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS CH. vn 



their candles made of the kernel of a nut abounding much 

 in oil are then lighted. Many of these are stuck upon a 

 skewer of wood, one below the other, and give a very 

 tolerable light, which they often keep burning an hour after 

 dark, and if they have any strangers in the house it is 

 sometimes kept up all night. 



Their drums they manage rather better : they are made 

 of a hollow block of wood, covered with shark's skin ; with 

 these they make out five or six tunes, and accompany 

 the flute not disagreeably. They know also how to tune 

 two drums of different notes into concord, which they do 

 nicely enough. They also tune their flutes ; if two persons 

 play upon flutes which are not in unison, the shorter is 

 lengthened by adding a small roll of leaf tied round the end 

 of it, and moved up and down till their ears (which are 

 certainly very nice) are satisfied. The drums are used 

 chiefly in their heivas, which are at Otahite no more than a 

 set of musicians, two drums for instance, two flutes and two 

 singers, who go about from house to house and play. They 

 are always received and rewarded by the master of the 

 family, who gives them a piece of cloth or whatever else he 

 can spare; and during their stay of maybe three or four 

 hours, receives all his neighbours, who crowd his house full. 

 This diversion the people are extravagantly fond of, most 

 likely because, like concerts, assemblies, etc., in Europe, they 

 serve to bring the sexes easily together at a time when the 

 very thought of meeting has opened the heart and made 

 way for pleasing ideas. The grand dramatic heiva which we 

 saw at Ulhietea is, I believe, occasionally performed in all 

 the islands, but that I have so fully described in the journal 

 (3rd, *7th, and 8th August) that I need say no more 

 about it. 



Besides this they dance, especially the young girls, when- 

 ever they can collect eight or ten together, and setting their 

 mouths askew in a most extraordinary manner, in the 

 practice of which they are brought up from their earliest 

 childhood. In doing this they keep time to a surprising 

 nicety ; I might almost say as truly as any dancers I have 



