Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/181

 cakes, pies, and puddings which I ever ate elsewhere. I have eaten suet and minute puddings, English plum duffs, Jennie’s kisses, "my Mary Ann’s cookies," angel  cakes, Satan’s best cakes, charlotte russes, pies of all  kinds, and many other dishes with euphonious names,  but the Fiji okalolos, or fruit puddings, leave all of  them far "astern."

While here, we visited the chief Tui Levuka. One day, while at his house, I walked on my hands, turned  several hand-springs and two or three somersets, that I  learned while attached to the circus. The old chief and Tanoa the king, who was a guest of the chief, were  greatly surprised, and always afterwards pointed to me  as a spirit.

One afternoon we were invited to the mabure, or priest’s house. These houses were about twelve to fifteen feet square, with the roof about thirty feet. They are built on a mound or a pile of stones. It is here they hold their councils and entertain strangers.

On our arrival we were assigned seats in front of the mabure, on some stones. Presently a big, muscular native made his appearance from behind a high rock,  with something under his arm which resembled a short  hog-trough, which he dropped on the ground. A group of one hundred young Fiji women, whose heads were  profusely adorned with orange blossoms, were seated  upon the ground. When the native arrived in front of the group he commenced beating on the trough,  or Fiji drum, with a small war-club. It produced a loud, hollow sound, anything but musical. Then the orchestra, consisting of a group of maidens, commenced