ous signs to intimate my friendly disposition. They were not very
backward in meeting my advances; and yet I soon discovered that,
although they were two to one against me, they were as much alarmed as
I; whereupon I became greatly reassured. It was not long before we had
exchanged presents of wild fruits, and they had begun, by dumb show, and
beckoning, and the utterance of soothing sounds, to invite me to
accompany them. We proceeded slowly, for they could not be satisfied in
their examination of me, nor I in my examination of them; and yet we
rather preferred to keep out of each other's reach. Two points in them
chiefly attracted my attention. One was their prodigious wings, which
they folded into a very small compass when they walked. The other was
their peculiar language, not being any _articulate_ speech, but only the
utterance of vowel-sounds of musical quality, which seemed to come from
several voices at once, and that not from the mouth, but, as I then
thought, from all parts of their bodies.

At length we reached a charming arbor, into which they conducted me.
This arbor was built of some sort of bamboo or cane, woven together into
a coarse lattice-work, the roof being made of the same and covered with
huge leaves, perhaps of some palm. I call it an arbor, because the
latticed sides were covered with flowering vines, of great variety and
beauty. Within were bamboo seats and a table, whose material I afterward
discovered was the dried leaves of a gigantic flag, flattened and made
hard by a peculiar process of drawing them between joints of bamboo,
somewhat as cane is pressed between rollers. Upon the table were
numerous manuscripts, written, as I afterwards learned, on a paper made
of the same flag. These manuscripts were removed, and a repast set on
the table by servants, as I then took them to be, who brought it in from
an adjoining arbor; but I found afterwards that they were members of the
family, and that the relation of servant and master was not known among
the inhabitants of the island. When these new members of the family
first came to the arbor in which I and my two captors, as they
considered themselves, were sitting, they started back, terrified at my
appearance; and it was with great difficulty that my captors prevailed
upon them to enter. This further encouraged me in the faith that they
were a timid and inoffensive people. Their noonday meal, of which they
gave me a part, (although they did not in