Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/164

 the level of the sea. The inhabitants were warlike; and war councils, speech-making, and drinking ava constituted the chief business of their lives.

While we were here two parties, called the Christians and the "Devils," were at war. Our commodore strove earnestly to restore the blessings of peace. The head chiefs of each party, with fifty of their followers, were  invited on board to a peace council. They came the next day in two large canoes and several small ones,  the Christians taking the starboard side, and the  "Devils" the larboard side. All had their faces profusely adorned with war paint. Some were painted white; some black, with vermilion circles around their  eyes, and their noses of the same bright hue; some with  jet-black faces, vermilion around their eyes, and with  white or yellow noses; others with yellow, red, black  and white stripes crossing their faces in all directions;  some half red, black, or white; and others completely  covered with small dots of red, white, yellow, and black. Besides the small piece of tapa worn around the waist, they had orange and straw-colored ribbons, made of the  pandanus leaves, tied around their legs and arms, above  and below their knees and elbows. Some wore them around their necks, and others over the left or right  shoulder, or both. The bands were three inches wide and very pliable. The Christians wore turbans, called sala, adorned with beautiful flowers. The "Devils" had their hair tied in a large knot on one side of the head. They were armed cap-a-pie with spears and war-clubs. Only the big chiefs — there were over a hundred of them — were allowed on board.