Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/177

Rh the least incivility; on the contrary, wherever there was dirt or water to pass over they strove who should carry us on their backs. On arriving at the houses of the principal people we were received with a ceremony quite new to us; the people, who generally followed us, rushed into the houses before us, leaving, however, a lane sufficiently wide for us to pass through. When we came in, we found them ranged on either side of a long mat spread upon the ground, at the farther end of which sat one or more very young women or children, neatly dressed, who, without stirring, expected us to come up to them and make them presents, which we did with no small pleasure, for prettier or better dressed children we had nowhere seen. One of these Tettuas, as they were called, was about six years old, her apron or gown was red, and round her head was wound a large quantity of tamou (plaited hair), an ornament they value more than anything they have; she sat at the farthest end of a mat thirty feet long, on which no one of the spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the crowd. She was leaning upon the arm of a well-looking, well-dressed woman of about thirty, possibly her nurse. We walked up to her, and as soon as we approached she stretched out her hand to receive the beads we were to give. Had she been a princess-royal of England giving her hand to be kissed, no instructions could have taught her to do it with a better grace; so much is untaught nature superior to art, that I have seen no sight of the kind that has struck me half so much.

Grateful possibly for the presents we had made to these girls, the people on our return tried every method to oblige us, particularly in one house where the master ordered one of his people to dance for our amusement, which he did thus. He put upon his head a large cylindrical basket about four feet long and eight inches in diameter, on the front of which was fastened a facing of feathers bending forwards at the top and edged round with sharks' teeth and the tail feathers of tropic birds. With this on he danced, moving slowly, and often turning his head round, sometimes swiftly throwing