hildren crowded round
them, and followed them wherever they went; but none of them were guilty
of the least incivility: On the contrary, whenever there happened to be
dirt or water in the way, the men vied with each other to carry them
over on their backs. They were conducted to the houses of the principal
people, and were received in a manner altogether new: The people, who
followed them while they were in their way, rushed forward as soon as
they came to a house, and went hastily in before them, leaving however a
lane sufficiently wide for them to pass. When they entered, they found
those who had preceded them ranged on each side of a long matt, which
was spread upon the ground, and at the farther end of which sat the
family: In the first house they entered they found some very young women
or children, dressed with the utmost neatness, who kept their station,
expecting the strangers to come up to them and make them presents, which
they did with the greatest pleasure; for prettier children or better
dressed they had never seen. One of them was a girl about six years old;
her gown, or upper garment, was red; a large quantity of plaited hair
was wound round her head, the ornament to which they give the name of
Tamou, and which they value more than any thing they possess. She sat at
the upper end of a matt thirty feet long, upon which none of the
spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the crowd; and she
leaned upon the arm of a well-looking woman about thirty, who was
probably her nurse. Our gentlemen walked up to her, and as soon as they
approached, she stretched out her hand to receive the beads which they
offered her, and no princess in Europe could have done it with a better
grace.

The people were so much gratified by the presents which, were made to
these girls, that when Mr Banks and Dr Solander returned they seemed
attentive to nothing but how to oblige them; and in one of the houses
they were, by order of the master, entertained with a dance, different
from any that they had seen. It was performed by one man, who put upon
his head a large cylindrical piece of wicker-work, or basket, about four
feet long and eight inches in diameter, which was faced with feathers,
placed perpendicularly, with the tops bending forwards, and edged, round
with shark's teeth, and the tail-feathers of tropic birds: When he had
put on this head-dress, which is called a _Whow_, he began to dance,
moving slowly, and often turn