tion to separate from each other. We meet
the chief, who looks taller and fiercer than ever. His black hair is
frizzled out in the most extraordinary manner, and on the top he wears
twisted round it a piece of smoke-coloured native cloth like a turban.
He has rings round his arms and legs, and a small piece of cloth round
his loins, but otherwise this great king, as he believes himself, is
entirely naked. He carries in his hand a richly carved black club--so
heavy, that to strike with it is to kill. He receives us in the same
haughty manner as before, as if he wished to impress us with his
importance. As he strides along, the people fly on either side, or bow
down before him, though he does not in the slightest degree heed them.
He is on his way to witness the launching a large new war-canoe, and
which, now decked with streamers, we see at some distance from the
beach. Conch-shells are sounding, and there is much shouting and
dancing. As we draw near, a band of prisoners, with downcast looks of
horror, are driven along towards the canoe. Men stand ready with long
ropes to drag her to the water. Before she is moved, the captives,
bound hand and foot, are cast down before her; then loud shouts arise--
the men haul at the ropes--the canoe moves, and is dragged over the
bodies of the slaves, crushing them to death. No one pities them. This
night the cannibal chiefs will feast on their bodies. Even now the
ovens in the great square are heating to cook them. It strikes me that
these people take a pride in showing to us the enormities they dare to
commit.

As later in the day we are passing through the town, we see two people,
a man and woman, wrangling. The man grows more and more angry. A young
child is near them; it runs to its mother's arms, but the man seizes it,
and in an instant he has killed the poor little creature, and with a
fierce gesture thrown the yet panting body on the ground. He gazes for
a few seconds moodily at the dead child. The mother does not attempt to
touch it; then he orders her to bring a spade. He digs a hole in the
floor; the still warm body is thrust in; the earth is thrown back; both
stamp it down, and then return to their seats as if nothing had
happened.

We see another day a young man buried alive by his own parents. Taro
says he had grown weary of life, and they did it to please him. We see
very few old people, and we hear that when people get weak and ill from
age, thei