396 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
was so much smaller than the coat, that had it, 
instead of the coat, been put underneath, it would 
not have been seen. Although exhibited in the 
person of a chief, the incongruity of such an 
arrangement furnished matter of ridicule even for 
themselves, and is now never seen. | 
European articles of dress are in the greatest 
demand ; this method of clothing being adopted 
by all whose means enable them to procure either 
cotton or woollen cloth; and there are few, who, 
by preparing arrow-root, feeding pigs, manufac- 
turing cocoa-nut oil, or other labour, cannot pur- 
chase from the shipping a suit of foreign clothing. 
I have frequently been delighted to see families of 
natives going on board the vessels, or repairing to 
the market-house on shore with the produce of 
their labour, and when they have arrived at the 
place of barter, and the captain or the merchant 
has spread before them his attractive goods, glossy 
and bright in all the shining colours of which they 
are so fond, the parent’s eye has often glanced 
over them, in wonder when and how they were 
made. They have been seen occasionally looking 
down to notice what had attracted the attention 
of a little boy or girl, standing, perhaps, beside 
them; and if they thought the child could not 
distinctly see the different pieces, they have lifted 
it up, that it might look over the table, and then 
have asked the child which it would like to have. 
Sometimes the child would smile and hang its 
head, and fall upon its mother’s shoulder, as if it 
knew not which to choose. At other times it 
would point to one, upon which the merchant has 
been directed to cut off so much as would make 
a frock or gown: it has been folded up, and given 
to the child; and while the parents’ eyes have 
