he fuel on the fire, and on
the braziers, was of dry cedar and sandal-wood, the perfume, though
heavy, was not unpleasant. The room was partly illuminated by the fire
itself, partly by braziers full of blazing branches of trees; but, what
was most remarkable, there were rows of metal images of young men (naked,
I am sorry to say), with burning torches in their hands, ranged all along
the side walls.

A good deal of taste, in one sense, had been expended in making these
images, and money had clearly been no object. I might have been somewhat
dazzled by the general effect, had I not reflected that, in my own
country, gas is within reach of the poorest purse, while the electric
light itself may be enjoyed by the very beggar in the street. Here, on
the contrary, the dripping of the wax from the torches, the black smoke
on the roof, the noisy crackling of the sandal-wood in the braziers, all
combined to prove that these natives, though ingenious enough in their
way, were far indeed below the level of modern civilization. The
abominable ceremony of the afternoon would have proved as much, and now
the absence of true _comfort_, even in the dwelling of a chief, made me
think once more of the hardships of a missionary's career.

But I must endeavour to complete the picture of domestic life in the
island, which I now witnessed for the first time, and which will never be
seen again by Europeans. The walls themselves were of some dark but
glittering metal, on which designs in lighter metal were inlaid. There
were views of the chief going to the chase, his bow in his hand; of the
chief sacrificing to idols; of men and young women engaged in the soul-
destroying practice of promiscuous dancing; there were wild beasts, lions
among others; rivers, with fish in them; mountains, trees, the sun and
moon, and stars, all not by any means ill designed, for the work of
natives. The pictures, indeed, reminded me a good deal of the ugly
Assyrian curiosities in the British Museum, as I have seen them when
conducting the children of the Bungletonian Band of Hope through the
rooms devoted to the remains of Bible peoples, such as the Egyptians,
Hittites, and others.

Red or blue curtains, strangely embroidered, hung over the doors, and
trophies of swords, shields, and spears, not of steel, but of some darker
metal, were fixed on the tall pillars that helped to prop the roof. At
the top of the wall, just beneath the open unglazed spaces, w