2 9 4
a ' gui' t . ranges of {tones, like fteps, each about three feet and a
half in height, and covered with grafies, ferns, and fmall
Ihrubs. Towards the country, at fome diftance from the
building, there was an oblong enclofure round it made of
ftone, about three feet high, within which two or three
folitary coco-palms and fome young cafuarinas, with their
weeping branches, gave an air of folemnity and pleafing
melancholy to the fcene. At a little diftance from the
marai", furrounded by a thick fhrubbery, we faw an in-
confiderable hut or ftied, (tupapow,) where, on a kind of
ftage about breaft high, a corpfe was placed, covered with
a white piece of cloth, which hung down in various folds.
Young coco-trees and bananas were fpringing up, and
dragon-trees bloffonaing around it. Near this we faw
another hut, where a quantity of eatables lay for the divi»
nity, (eat-ua,) and a pole was ftuck in the ground, on which
we faw a dead bird wrapped in a piece of a mat. In this
laft hut, which flood on a fmall eminence, we obferved a
woman fitting in a penfive attitude, who got up at our
approach, and would not fuffer us. to come near her. We
offered her a fmall prefent, but fire refufed to touch it.
We underftood from the natives who were with us, that
fhe belonged to the marai, and that the dead corfe was alfo
a woman’s, .whofe obfequies the . firft perhaps was performing.
After
After Mr. Hodges had made feveral drawings we returned
from this place, which had really fomething grand
in its appearance, and feemed calculated to favour religious
meditation. In our return we kept along the fea-fhore,
till we came to a fpacious houfe, very pleafantly fituated
amidft a grove of low coco-palms, loaded with fruit. Two
or three fried little fifties, which one of the natives fold us
for a few beads, were here fhared among us, to flay our
appetite, grown very keen again finee our breakfaft. Several
of our company likewife bathed in the fea, as a farther
refrefhment in this warm- climate, and having afterwards
bought fome pieces of cloth, fahow’s') of the country
fabrick, drefled in them, after the Taheitee fafliion, to the
infinite pleafure of the natives. Our walk continued along
the fliore beyond another marai, much like the firft, to a neat
houfe, where a very fat man, who feemed to ba a chief
of the diftridt, was lolling on his wooden pillow. Before
him two fervants were preparing his defert, by beating up
with water fome bread-fruit and bananas, in a large wooden;
bowl, and mixing with it a quantity of the fermented Tour;
pafte of bread-fruit, (called mahet) The confiftetace of this,
mixture was fuch, that it could properly be called a drink,
and the inftrument with which they made it, was a peftle
of a black polifhed ftone, which appeared to be a kind of.;
bafaltes * While this was doing, a woman who fat dowa,
near
*773«
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