AUG. 1769 INHABITANTS OF ULHIETEA 119 
the least incivility; on the contrary, wherever there was 
dirt or water to pass over they strove who should carry us 
on their backs. On arriving at the houses of the principal 
people we were received with a ceremony quite new to us; 
the people, who generally followed us, rushed into the 
houses before us, leaving, however, a lane sufficiently wide 
for us to pass through. When we came in, we found them 
ranged on either side of a long mat spread upon the ground, 
at the farther end of which sat one or more very young 
women or children, neatly dressed, who, without stirring, 
expected us to come up to them and make them presents, 
which we did with no small pleasure, for prettier or better 
dressed children we had nowhere seen. One of these 
Tettuas, as they were called, was about six years old, her 
apron or gown was red, and round her head was wound a 
large quantity of tamow (plaited hair), an ornament they 
value more than anything they have; she sat at the farthest 
end of a mat thirty feet long, on which no one of the 
spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the 
crowd. She was leaning upon the arm of a well-looking, 
well-dressed woman of about thirty, possibly her nurse. 
We walked up to her, and as soon as we approached she 
stretched out her hand to receive the beads we were to give. 
Had she been a princess-royal of England giving her hand 
to be kissed, no instructions could have taught her to do it 
with a better grace; so much is untaught nature superior 
to art, that I have seen no sight of the kind that has struck 
me half so much. 
Grateful possibly for the presents we had made to these 
girls, the people on our return tried every method to oblige 
us, particularly in one house where the master ordered one 
of his people to dance for our amusement, which he did thus. 
He put upon his head a large cylindrical basket about four 
feet long and eight inches in diameter, on the front of which 
was fastened a facing of feathers bending forwards at the 
top and edged round with sharks’ teeth and the tail feathers 
of tropic birds. With this on he danced, moving slowly, 
and often turning his head round, sometimes swiftly throwing 
