fresh-cut poles, stripped of their
bark, and decorated at the end with a floating pennon of white tappa, the
whole being fenced about with a little picket of canes. For what purpose
these singular ornaments were intended, I in vain endeavoured to discover.

Another most striking feature of the performance was exhibited by a score
of old men, who sat cross-legged in the little pulpits, which encircled
the trunks of the immense trees growing in the middle of the enclosure.
These venerable gentlemen, who I presume were the priests, kept up an
uninterrupted monotonous chant, which was nearly drowned in the roar of
drums. In the right hand they held a finely-woven grass fan, with a heavy
black wooden handle, curiously chased: these fans they kept in continual
motion.

But no attention whatever seemed to be paid to the drummers or to the old
priests, the individuals who composed the vast crowd present being
entirely taken up in chatting and laughing with one another, smoking,
drinking arva, and eating. For all the observation it attracted, or the
good it achieved, the whole savage orchestra might, with great advantage
to its own members and the company in general, have ceased the prodigious
uproar they were making.

In vain I questioned Kory-Kory and others of the natives, as to the
meaning of the strange things that were going on; all their explanations
were conveyed in such a mass of outlandish gibberish and gesticulation
that I gave up the attempt in despair. All that day the drums resounded,
the priests chanted, and the multitude feasted and roared till sunset,
when the throng dispersed, and the Taboo Groves were again abandoned to
quiet and repose. The next day the same scene was repeated until night,
when this singular festival terminated.

CHAPTER XXIII

Ideas suggested by the Feast of Calabashes--Effigy of a dead
warrior--A singular superstition--The priest Kolory and the god Moa
Artua--Amazing religious observance--A dilapidated shrine--Kory-Kory
and the idol--An inference.

Although I had been baffled in my attempts to learn the origin of the
Feast of Calabashes, yet it seemed very plain to me that it was
principally, if not wholly, of a religious character.

Yet, notwithstanding all I observed on this occasion, I am free to confess
my almost entire inability to gratify any curiosity that may be felt with
regard to the theology