er dead bodies were beaten as drums, to make a
hideous music to this horrible dance.

Other brutalities were practised upon the slain, which were of such a
nature that decency forbids our doing more than merely alluding to them
here. In order to show that many of the savages of the South Seas were
as bad, only a few years ago, as they were in former times, we give the
following account of a scene which is published and vouched for in a
recent work, named the _Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the
Western Pacific_, by Captain Erskine of the Royal Navy.

About twenty years ago Bonavidongo, one of the chiefs of the Feejee
Islands, paid a visit to another chief named Tuithakau, for the purpose
of asking his assistance in quelling a disturbance that had arisen in a
neighbouring island. The latter agreed; all the warriors of the island
and the surrounding district were gathered together, and an army of two
thousand men finally set forth on this expedition in forty war-canoes.

Among the people was an English sailor named Jackson. He was of a
roving disposition; had been kidnapped at one of the islands, from which
he escaped, and afterwards wandered for two years among the South-Sea
Islands--learned the language of the natives, and wrote an account of
his adventures, which Captain Erskine added to his volume in the form of
an appendix.

Not being able to carry provisions for so large a body of men for any
length of time, the Feejeeans made a short stay at a place called Rambe,
for the purpose of refreshing the people. Here they procured immense
quantities of yams and crabs, with which, after eating and drinking to
their hearts' content, they loaded the canoes and continued the voyage.
From Rambe, as well as from other places along the route, they were
joined by additional canoes and warriors, so that their numbers rapidly
increased. Frequently they were obliged to sleep in the canoes instead
of on shore, on which occasions they were jammed up in such a manner
from want of space as to be actually lying in layers on the top of each
other!

At one place where they called they could not obtain a sufficient supply
of provisions for the whole party on account of its being small and
containing but few inhabitants, so they made up the deficiency with
dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, and the large white grubs with black heads
that are found in decayed wood. The dogs and cats they knocked on the
head, more for the purpose