FONDNESS FOR TALES AND SONGS. 343 
village is situated on the edge of a wood, extend¬ 
ing along the base of Mouna-Kea. We directed 
our steps to the principal house in the village, and 
invited the people of the neighbourhood to meet us 
there. , ( They soon collected, and listened with 
apparent interest to a short discourse. Many con¬ 
tinued with us till a late hour, in conversation, 
which to them is usually a source of no small 
gratification. We have several times, during our 
tour, been kept awake by the natives in the houses 
where we lodged, who have continued talking 
and singing till near daybreak. Circumstances 
the most trivial sometimes furnished conversation 
for hours. Their songs also afford much amuse¬ 
ment, and it is no unusual thing for the family to 
entertain their guests with these, or for strangers 
to gratify their host by reciting those of their own 
island or neighbourhood. More than once, when 
we have entered a house, some of the inmates 
have shortly after commenced a song, accom¬ 
panied occasionally by a little drum, or the beating 
of the maw Awra, musical stick ; and the natives, 
who formerly visited Hawaii from the Society 
Islands, excited no small degree of interest by 
reciting the songs of their country. It is probable 
that many of the fabulous tales and songs, so 
popular among them, have originated in the gra¬ 
tification they find in thus spending their time. 
This kind of amusement is common to most of 
the South Sea Islands. The Sandwich Islanders 
equal the Marquesians, the most lively natives of 
the Pacific, in the number of their songs, and ex¬ 
ceed the Society Islanders; but their conversa^ 
tional powers are inferior to those of the latter., 
who are, perhaps, the most loquacious of them all. 
An acquaintance with every body's business, used 
