e net a species of diminutive shell-fish, of
which these people are extravagantly fond. Sometimes a chattering group
would be seated upon the edge of a low rock in the midst of the brook,
busily engaged in thinning and polishing the shells of cocoa-nuts, by
rubbing them briskly with a small stone in the water, an operation which
soon converts them into a light and elegant drinking-vessel, somewhat
resembling goblets made of tortoise-shell.

But the tranquillizing influences of beautiful scenery, and the exhibition
of human life under so novel and charming an aspect, were not my only
sources of consolation.

Every evening the girls of the house gathered about me on the mats, and,
after chasing away Kory-Kory from my side--who, nevertheless, retired only
to a little distance, and watched their proceedings with the most jealous
attention--would anoint my body with a fragrant oil, squeezed from a yellow
root, previously pounded between a couple of stones, and which in their
language is denominated "aka." I used to hail with delight the daily
recurrence of this luxurious operation, in which I forgot all my troubles,
and buried for the time every feeling of sorrow.

Sometimes, in the cool of the evening, my devoted servitor would lead me
out upon the pi-pi in front of the house, and, seating me near its edge,
protect my body from the annoyance of the insects which occasionally
hovered in the air, by wrapping me round with a large roll of tappa. He
then bustled about, and employed himself at least twenty minutes in
adjusting everything to secure my personal comfort.

Having perfected his arrangements, he would get my pipe, and, lighting it,
would hand it to me. Often he was obliged to strike a light for the
occasion; and as the mode he adopted was entirely different from what I
had ever seen or heard of before, I will describe it.

A straight, dry, and partly-decayed stick of the Habiscus, about six feet
in length, and half as many inches in diameter, with a smaller bit of
wood, not more than a foot long, and scarcely an inch wide, is as
invariably to be met with in every house in Typee, as a box of lucifer
matches in the corner of a kitchen-cupboard at home.

The islander, placing the larger stick obliquely against some object, with
one end elevated at an angle of forty-five degrees, mounts astride of it,
like an urchin about to gallop off upon a cane, and then, grasping the
smaller one firmly in both hands, he rubs its