Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/172

140 ance of the greatest surprise. They uttered the same exclamation, when we unrolled a few pieces of ribbon, in which red was the predominant colour. The General then presented a she-goat with kid, a he-goat, and a couple of rabbits, one a buck, the other a doe, of which the king promised to take the greatest care, and to let them breed and multiply in the island.

Omialaï, who, Toobou told us, was his son, also received some presents from the General, as did several other chiefs.

On our right, toward the north-east, were thirteen musicians, seated under the shade of a bread-fruit tree, which was loaded with a prodigious quantity of fruit. They sung together in different parts. Four of them held in their hands a bamboo of a yard, or a yard and a half long, with which they beat time on the ground; the longest of these bamboos sometimes serving to mark the measure. The sounds these instruments gave approached tolerably near those of the tambourin, and the following were their proportions to each other. Two bamboos of the middle length were in unison, the longest was a note and a half below them, and the shortest was two notes and a half above. The musician, that sung the counter-tenor, made his voice be heard much above the rest, though it was a little hoarse; and