Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/190

156 chored here, but we refused it on account of its insipidity.

After proceeding some way to the eastward, we stopped, to examine two little huts, erected in an enclosure of small extent, and shadowed by some fine shaddock trees, loaded with fruit, and several casuarina trees. Some natives informed us, that the remains of two chiefs of Toobou's family had been deposited in them. We lifted up the mat, which closed the entrance of the larger. The surface of the ground within was covered with sand, and toward the middle we observed an oblong square, formed of small pebbles of different colours. None of the natives who were with us, would gather any of the shaddocks, no doubt from respect to the dead, though we desired to buy some of them. They said that they could not sell them to us.

In a short time we returned to the house of Toobou, to whom we made a complaint against the stealer of the pincers. He promised to return them to us the next day; and he kept his word. This chief pressed us to spend the night in his habitation; but we would not accept his offer, left our absence should occasion any uneasiness on board.

These people are accustomed to geld their pigs,