the palm-tree, tied by their
foot-stalks across two poles, and hanging down to the ground. Here we
were met by the women and children, who, likewise, all went through
the ceremony of shaking hands with us, after which the head-woman, who
was very good-looking, and was dressed in a cherry-coloured calico
gown, with two long plaits of black hair hanging down her back, spread
a mat for me to sit upon just outside the hut. By this time there was
quite a little crowd of people assembled round, amongst whom I noticed
one woman with a baby, who had her hair sticking straight out all
round her head, and another who held a portion of her dress constantly
before her face. After the gentlemen had walked away she removed the
cloth, and I then saw that her nose had been cut off. Most of the
women were good-looking, with dark complexions and quantities of
well-greased, neatly-plaited black hair, but we did not see a single
young girl, though there were plenty of children and babies, and lots
of boys, the latter of whom, like some of the older women, had only a
piece of palm matting round their loins. We therefore came to the
conclusion that the girls must have been sent away intentionally when
the approach of the yacht was observed.

[Illustration: Our First Landing in the South Pacific, Hao or Bow
Island.]

As soon as I was seated, the head-woman told one of the men to knock
down some cocoa-nuts from the trees close by, and after cutting off
the ends she offered us a drink of the fresh cool milk, which was all
the sweeter and better for the fact that the nuts were not nearly
ripe. While this was going on, the natives brought piles of
cocoa-nuts, fish, and fowls, and laid them at our feet as a present.
Some of the fish were of a dark brown colour, like bream, others were
long and thin, with a pipe-like nose and four fins, somewhat
resembling the wings of a flying-fish.

Seeing smoke in the distance, rising from under some high palm-trees,
we thought we should like to go and see whence it proceeded, and
accordingly set off to walk through a sort of bush, over sharp coral
that cut one's boots terribly, the sun blazing down upon us fiercely
all the time, until we reached a little settlement, consisting of
several huts, the inhabitants of which were absent. Fine plaited mats
for beds, cocoa-nut shells for cups, mother-of-pearl shells for
plates, and coral, of various kinds and shapes, for dishes and cooking
utensils, formed their on