112 A MISSION TO VITI. 
strained through fibres, and a cup filled. Whilst the 
cup-bearer is holding it to hand to the chief or highest 
personage present, an old man gives the toast of the 
evening. It is pathetic or humorous, as occasion de- 
mands, and listened to with attention ; all singing and 
beating with sticks having ceased the moment the cup 
was filled. A general shout follows the conclusion of 
this toast, the cup is emptied in one draught, and 
thrown by the drinker on the mat, to be filled again 
and handed to the next in rank, until the whole assem- 
bly has been served. 
The song becomes less and less hearty, the conver- 
sation slackens, and one by one the men drop off to 
sleep. Strange sight! Their pillows are made of a 
thick stick, have four legs, and are put just under the 
neck, so that the hair of the sleepers may not be de- 
ranged. They have had it only recently newly done up, 
washed with lime to make it frizzed like that of negroes, 
dyed in various colours, and arranged in many different 
ways. Several days must have been spent to get some 
of these extraordinary heads dressed. And for this 
reason—no other—they are ready to sleep all their lives 
on a pillow made of a stick of wood, and so constructed 
that a European could not rest his neck five minutes 
upon it without suffering dreadful pain. It is very fine 
talking about the ease of living in a state of nature, but 
the inconveniences to which savages put themselves in 
order to gratify their vanity are quite as great, if not 
greater, than those forced upon us by the fashions and 
dictates of our own society. Think of the agonies of 
tatoomg! What would the natives give to escape it, if 
PER EEREREREEE) 
