The Areois. 
49 
Substantial, spacious, and sometimes highly 
ornamental houses were erected in several dis¬ 
tricts throughout the islands, principally for their 
accommodation and the exhibition of the Areoi 
performances. Sometimes they performed in 
their canoes as they approached the shore ; 
especially if they had the king of the island 
or any principal chief on board their fleet. 
When one of these companies thus advanced 
towards the land, with their streamers floating 
in the wind, their drums and pipes sounding, 
and the Areois, attended by their chief, who 
acted as their prompter, appeared on a stage 
erected for the purpose, with their wild dis¬ 
tortions of persons, antic gestures, painted 
bodies, and vociferated songs, mingling with 
the sound of the drum and the flute, the 
dashing of the sea, and the rolling and 
breaking of the surf on the adjacent reef, the 
whole must have presented a ludicrous but yet 
imposing spectacle, accompanied with a con¬ 
fusion of sight and sound, of which it is not 
easy to form an adequate idea. 
“The above were the principal occupations of 
the Areois ; and in the constant repetition of 
these often obscene exhibitions they passed their 
5 
