106 
A WAR DANCE, 
averse to the gay colours and profuse ornaments 
they wore. Gold lace, quantities of gilt paper, 
and red and blue streamers, with their bright 
sarongs and plumed hats, gave them a re all} 7- pic- 
turesque appearance ; and when they capered in 
the dance, brandishing their harmless spears and 
beating on their needless shields, with leaps and 
yells simulating the wildest excitement, the im- 
agination was not greatly strained to picture the 
old reality. Surely every fowl in the neighbour- 
hood must have been sacrificed to provide feather 
decorations for their hats, shields, and spears. 
Each ]>erformer had attached to his person some 
half-dozen lace- trimmed pocket-handkerchiefs, 
incongruous belongings of the occupants of bam- 
boo huts, which were not used to wipe the 
streaming perspiration, but were merely part of 
their trappings. 
We had no part in the gaieties consequent on 
this visit ; but it yielded us an enjoyment of its 
kind, which quite outweighed any feelings of 
bitterness at our exclusion. Social pariahs, we 
looked on from the skirt of the crowd, and in 
watching their amusements, their manner of 
enjoying them, and their expression w r hile thus 
engaged, we got an insight into the native char- 
acter not to be had from any other standpoint. 
