98 OTAHITE CHAP. V 
some neighbouring place, where the trees are not yet 
exhausted. 
10¢h. This evening, according to my yesterday’s engage- 
ment, I went to the place where the Metwa lay; there I 
found Tubourai, Tamio, Hoona, the Metua’s daughter, and a 
young Indian prepared to receive me. Tubourai was the 
Heiwa, the three others and myself were to be Nineveh. 
Tubourai put on his most fantastical though not unbecoming 
dress. I was next prepared by stripping off my European 
clothes and putting on a small strip of cloth round my 
waist, the only garment I was allowed to have. They then 
began to smut me and themselves with charcoal and water, 
the Indian boy was completely black, the women and 
myself as low as our shoulders; we then set out. Tubourai 
began by praying twice, once near the corpse, and again 
near his own house. We then proceeded towards the fort; it 
was necessary, it seems, that the procession should visit 
that place, but they dare not do it without our sanction, 
indeed it was not until they had received many assurances 
of our consent that they ventured to perform any part of 
their ceremonies. 
To the fort then we went, to the surprise of our friends 
and affright of the Indians who were there, for they every- 
where fly before the Heiva, like sheep before a wolf; we 
soon left it and proceeded along shore towards a place where 
above a hundred Indians were collected together. We, the 
Ninevehs, had orders from the Heiva to disperse them; we 
ran towards them, but before we came within a hundred 
yards of them they dispersed every way, running to the first 
shelter and hiding themselves under grass or whatever else 
would conceal them. We now crossed the river into the 
woods and passed several houses, all deserted; not another 
Indian did we see during the half-hour that we spent in 
walking about. We (the Winevehs) then came to the Heiva 
and said tmatata (there are no people), after which we re- 
paired home; the Heiva undressed, and we went into the 
river and scrubbed one another until it was dark, before the 
blacking came off. 
