FRIEND L Y ISLANDS. 297 



love), the usual salute for " how do you do." Though some 

 were wild enough in appearance, they were all friendly and 

 quiet in manner. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have lived among 

 them for twenty-five years, and have seen them pass from a 

 savage, heathenish state to their present Christianized, and 

 comparatively civilized condition. Some were fully dressed in 

 European style, save the bare feet ; but most of them had only 

 a piece of native cloth or calico, wrapped round the waist, aud 

 reaching a little below the knee. Most of the grown persons, 

 both men and women, have the hair cut short, their great 

 desire being to make it grow coarse and strong. They brush it 

 straight up, oil it plentifully, and rub in lime for hair-powder. 

 This short hair gives the women a very masculine appearance, 

 ■which is increased by their commonly large stature and coarse 

 limbs. Some of the young dandies and dandyesses allow the 

 hair to grow long, and when thickly anointed and brushed 

 straight in all directions, the expression of the face becomes 

 singularly wild and savage : such a head would make a capital 

 sign for the Sun Fire and Life Office. Before the arrival of 

 the missionaries, all wore their hair in the sun-like fashion ; 

 but now, those who are considered steady members of .society 

 cut theirs short. * 



Our walk from the beach to the Mission-house was through a 

 shady lane, bordered with neat reed fences, and overshadowed 

 with cocoa-nut, orange, banana, bread-fruit, and other broad- 

 leaved trees. On one side were the Palace gardens ; on the 

 other the enclosures of the town. There are no streets, but a 

 succession of small enclosures called Abis, each having one or 

 more houses on the enclosed space. The only noise heard in 

 passing through the streets was the hammering of the tapa, or 

 native cloth ; a noise that begins before daylight every morning, 

 save Saturday and Sunday, and continues unceasingly until 

 nearly dusk in the evening. It is like the distant sound of 

 beetling engines, or the ri vetting of iron vessels in a ship- 

 builder's yard. The making of this cloth is the principal 

 occupation of the women. The material is the bark of the 

 Chinese paper mulberry, which is hammered and dressed till it 

 is converted into a sort of tough felt, like paper, which is then 

 painted. Before the introduction of calico it constituted the 

 entire clothing of the people. It does very well in dry weather, 



