74 
and we were frequently importuned to 
adopt their dress. 
On the 28ih Feb. early in the morn¬ 
ing the whole village appeared to be in 
motion. All the adults commenced or¬ 
namenting themselves, which to me ap¬ 
peared to render them hideous* After 
greasing themselves with cocoanut oil, 
and hanging about them numerous 
strings of beads, they set off, taking us 
with them, to a flat piece of ground, a- 
bout half a mile distant, where we found 
collected a great number, and all orna¬ 
mented in the same fastastic manner — 
Knowing that many of the natives in¬ 
habiting Islands in the Pacific Ocean, 
are cannibals, we were not without 
our fears that we had been preserved 
to grace a feast S Our apprehensions, 
however, were dissipated, when we saw 
them commence a dance, of which we 
will endeavour to give the reader some 
Idea. The only musical instrument we 
saw, was a rude kind of drum ; and the 
choristers were all females, say twenty 
m thirty, each having one of these 
