mysterious movements, one mass far in advance of the rest
attracted my attention. In its centre was something I could take
for nothing else than a cocoanut, but which I certainly
considered one of the most extraordinary specimens of the fruit I
had ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing about among the rest
in the most singular manner, and as it drew nearer I thought it
bore a remarkable resemblance to the brown shaven skull of one of
the savages. Presently it betrayed a pair of eyes, and soon I
became aware that what I had supposed to have been one of the
fruit was nothing else than the head of an islander, who had
adopted this singular method of bringing his produce to market.
The cocoanuts were all attached to one another by strips of the
husk, partly torn from the shell and rudely fastened together.
Their proprietor inserting his head into the midst of them,
impelled his necklace of cocoanuts through the water by striking
out beneath the surface with his feet.

I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of
natives that surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen.
At that time I was ignorant of the fact that by the operation of
the 'taboo' the use of canoes in all parts of the island is
rigorously prohibited to the entire sex, for whom it is death
even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; consequently,
whenever a Marquesan lady voyages by water, she puts in
requisition the paddles of her own fair body.

We had approached within a mile and a half perhaps of this foot
of the bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had
managed to scramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their
canoes, directed our attention to a singular commotion in the