UPOLU. 



73 



board the Curagoa to pay a visit to the Commodore ; he 

 was accompanied by his talking-man, who carried a whisk 

 of cocoannt fibre to drive away the flies, not unhke the fly- 

 brush used by grooms in Calcutta. He came with an escort 

 of twelve natives, large well-grown muscular fellows, who 



SAi[OAN CIIIKF IX WAK COSTUME. 



seemed to have been selected from among the finest men in 

 the archipelago. Some of them wore shirts, others had 

 white mats round their loins ; others again had feathers on 

 their heads. One of them had a splendid head of hair 

 reddened with chinam or coral lime, the national cosmetic. 



one of the fine mats made from strips of the pandanus leaf, ornamented 

 with a border and tufts of red worsted, hanging from his waist nearly 

 to his feet. — Erskine, p. 76. 



