ons got on
board.

[Footnote 151: Something like this ceremony was performed by the
inhabitants of the Marquesas, when Captain Cook visited them in 1774. It
is curious to observe, at what immense distances this mode of receiving
strangers prevails. Padillo, who sailed from Manilla in 1710, on a
voyage to discover the Palaos Islands, was thus received there. The
writer of the relation of his voyage says, "Aussitot qu'ils approcherent
de notre bord, ils se mirent a chanter. Ils regloient la cadence, en
frappant des mains sur leurs cuisses."--_Lettres Edifiantes &
Curieuses_, tom. xv. p. 323.--D.]

Our visitors were conducted into the cabin, and to other parts of the
ship. Some objects seemed to strike them with a degree of surprise; but
nothing fixed their attention for a moment. They were afraid to come
near the cows and horses; nor did they form the least conception of
their nature. But the sheep and goats did not surpass the limits of
their ideas; for they gave us to understand, that they knew them to be
birds. It will appear rather incredible, that human ignorance could ever
make so strange a mistake; there not being the most distant similitude
between a sheep or goat, and any winged animal. But these people seemed
to know nothing of the existence of any other land-animals, besides
hogs, dogs, and birds. Our sheep and goats, they could see, were very
different creatures from the two first, and therefore they inferred,
that they must belong to the latter class, in which they knew there is a
considerable variety of species.[152] I made a present to my new friend
of what I thought might be most acceptable to him; but, on his going
away, he seemed rather disappointed than pleased. I afterward understood
that he was very desirous of obtaining a dog, of which animal this
island could not boast, though its inhabitants knew that the race
existed in other islands of their ocean. Captain Clerke had received the
like present, with the same view, from another man, who met with from
him the like disappointment.

[Footnote 152: "I would add," says Mr Stewart, in his Elements of the
Phil, of Hum. Mind, p. 154, 2d ed., "I would add to Cook's very
judicious remarks, that the mistake of these islanders probably did not
arise from their considering a sheep or a goat as bearing a more
striking resemblance to a bird, than to the two classes of quadrupeds
with which they were acquainted; but to the want of a generic word, such
as _quad