168 A MISSION TO VITI. 
remained to enact the closing scene by a great banquet. 
The women now appeared on the stage. All the young 
girls had collected in a group, some two hundred yards 
off, in a grove of palm-trees, each carrying a basket-full 
of taro. According to their fashion, they wore nothing 
save a girdle of hibiscus-fibres, about six inches wide, 
dyed black, red, yellow, white, or brown, and put 
on in such a coquettish way, that one thought it must 
come off every moment. The girls (a hundred and fifty- 
four) walked in single file, and all those wearing girdles 
of the same colour kept together. When arriving in 
front of the Bure, young men received the baskets and 
emptied their contents in a heap, leaves having been 
spread out to keep them from coming in contact with 
the ground. We counted as many as two thousand 
taros, after which the baskets came in so fast that we lost 
count. The girls, after performing their part, walked 
away in the same order as they came. Several young 
men now brought seven large hogs, roasted entire, which 
were placed on the top of the taro heap. The whole 
pile of food was then presented to the visitors. The 
largest pig, and I am almost afraid to say how many 
hundred taros—ready to be eaten—fell to our share. 
It took twenty men to take our share home, for the 
food was not supposed to be consumed on the spot, 
everybody being at liberty to do what he liked with 
his lot, and I saw but very few not taking their por- 
tion away with them. 
There was a man present at this meeting, Ro Tui 
Kuku, who had seen five generations of the reigning 
chief's family, and could not have been less than a 
