marshalling a kind of guard of honour to escort us on our return
to the house of Marheyo.

The procession was led off by two venerable-looking savages, each
provided with a spear, from the end of which streamed a pennon of
milk-white tappa. After them went several youths, bearing aloft
calabashes of poee-poee, and followed in their turn by four
stalwart fellows, sustaining long bamboos, from the tops of which
hung suspended, at least twenty feet from the ground, large
baskets of green bread-fruits. Then came a troop of boys,
carrying bunches of ripe bananas, and baskets made of the woven
leaflets of cocoanut boughs, filled with the young fruit of the
tree, the naked shells stripped of their husks peeping forth from
the verdant wicker-work that surrounded them. Last of all came a
burly islander, holding over his head a wooden trencher, in which
lay disposed the remnants of our midnight feast, hidden from
view, however, by a covering of bread-fruit leaves.

Astonished as I was at this exhibition, I could not avoid smiling
at its grotesque appearance, and the associations it naturally
called up. Mehevi, it seemed, was bent on replenishing old
Marheyo's larder, fearful perhaps that without this precaution
his guests might not fare as well as they could desire.

As soon as I descended from the pi-pi, the procession formed
anew, enclosing us in its centre; where I remained part of the
time, carried by Kory-Kory, and occasionally relieving him from
his burden by limping along with spear. When we moved off in
this order, the natives struck up a musical recitative, which
with various alternations, they continued until we arrived at the