260 FRIENDLY RECEPTION. 



yards from the sandy beach and stretching- across 

 the bay. The boats were backed in from their an- 

 chors; and, after seven of us had g-ot on shore by 

 watching- an opportunity to jump out up to the 

 middle in water, and cross the reef, hauled out again 

 to await our return. 



Some women on the beach retired as we were 

 about to land, but a number of boys and a few men 

 received us, and after a preliminary halt to see that 

 our guns were put to rights after the ducking, we 

 all started together by a narrow path winding up 

 a rugged wall of basaltic rock^ fifty feet in height. 

 From the summit a steep declivity of a couple of 

 hundred yards brought us to the village of Tassai, 

 shaded by cocoa-nut trees, and beautifully situated 

 on a level space close to the beach on the windward 

 side of the island, here not more than a quarter of 

 a mile in width. No canoes were seen here, and a 

 heavy surf broke on the outer margin of a fringing- 

 reef. On the outskirts of the village we met the 

 women and remainder of the people, and were 

 received without any signs of apprehension. 

 One of our friends immediately got hold of a 

 drum* — a hollow cylinder of palm-wood two feet 

 and a half in length, and four inches in diameter, one 

 end covered over with the skin of a large lizard, — 

 and commenced beating- upon it very vigorously 

 Avith the palm of the hand, singing- and dancing at the 



* Represented in the uppermost figure on next page. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



