Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/194

160 very low, we easily passed over the shoals, which connect the islets with the principal island. We stopped about half way at a hut, where we were witnesses of the manner, in which a woman was eating her meal, that appeared to us laughable enough. Sitting near a post, and motionless as a statue, she opened her mouth from time to time, to receive morsels of bread-fruit, which another woman put into it. We were informed, that it was not allowable for her to to touch any kind of food with her own hands, because a few days before she had washed the body of a deceased chief.

When we arrived at Pangaïmotoo, Queen Tiné, sitting under a shed covered with cocoa-leaves, and erected under the shade of several fine bread-fruit trees, was giving an entertainment to General Dentrecasteaux. She first ordered some young persons of her attendants to dance, which they did with infinite gracefulness, singing at the same time, while Futtafaihe, who was standing, directed their movements, and animated them by his voice and gestures. (See Plate XXVII.)

After this we had a grand concert, which differed little from that the King had given us a few days before, only on the present occasion the expression of joy was much more lively.

The Queen was surrounded by women, while a great number of men kept at a little distance