portions of European attire.

The residence of Nomahanna lay near the fortress on the sea-shore: it
was a pretty little wooden house of two stories, built in the European
style, with handsome large windows, and a balcony very neatly painted.
We were received on the stairs by Chinau, the governor of Wahu, in a
curious dishabille. He could hardly walk from the confinement his feet
suffered in a pair of fisherman's shoes, and his red cloth waistcoat
would not submit to be buttoned, because it had never been intended for
so colossal a frame. He welcomed me with repeated "_Arohas_," and led me
up to the second floor, where all the arrangements had a pleasing and
even elegant appearance. The stairs were occupied from the bottom to the
door of the Queen's apartments, by children, adults, and even old
people, of both sexes, who, under her Majesty's own superintendence,
were reading from spelling-books, and writing on slates--a spectacle
very honourable to her philanthropy. The Governor himself had a
spelling-book in one hand, and in the other a very ornamental little
instrument made of bone, which he used for pointing to the letters. Some
of the old people appeared to have joined the assembly rather for
example's sake, than from a desire to learn, as they were studying, with
an affectation of extreme diligence, books held upside down.

The spectacle of these scholars and their whimsical and scanty attire,
nearly upset the gravity with which I had prepared for my presentation
to the Queen. The doors were, however, thrown open and I entered, Chinau
introducing me as the captain of the newly-arrived Russian frigate. The
apartment was furnished in the European fashion, with chairs, tables,
and looking-glasses. In one corner stood an immensely large bed with
silk curtains; the floor was covered with fine mats, and on these, in
the middle of the room, lay Nomahanna, extended on her stomach, her head
turned towards the door, and her arms supported on a silk pillow. Two
young girls lightly dressed, sat cross-legged by the side of the Queen,
flapping away the flies with bunches of feathers. Nomahanna, who
appeared at the utmost not more than forty years old, was exactly six
feet two inches high, and rather more than two ells in circumference.
She wore an old-fashioned European dress of blue silk; her coal-black
hair was neatly plaited, at the top of a head as round as a ball; her
flat nose and thick projecting lips were certainly not ve