X783. When it cleared up they returned to Ra a K ook and thex
o B'E
Rupacks, \yho had al-fo'flickered themfelves from the weather.
The evening advancing, and proving tempeftuous,,
- they coul.djU.ot return to Pe l ew .— Mr. Share and his companion,
with fame o f the Rupacks, llept at the- General’s,
houfe; the remainder of-the company were provided for in:
' other contiguous buildings«
Previous- to. their departure, the next morning, for the
King’s ifiand, Ra a . K ook took Mr. SAarp and the.boatfwain
to a hp.ufe7not' far diftant from the place where his Ton had
.been interred the preceding; evening-; there was- only .an
old woman in the houfe when they went in,, who,, on receiving
fome order from th e General, immediately difap-*
peared, and, foon after returned with two. old cocoa-nuts,,
and a bundl&of beetle-nut with the leaves; file alfo broughtr
fome red ochre.— He took up one of the cocoa-nuts, crollirig;;
it .with th e ochre tranfyerfely; then placed, it on the ground
by his fide.— After fitting very penfive, he repeated, fome-
thing to himfelf,. which our people conceived, was a kind off
prayer, as he appeared a good deal agitated ;; he then did the-
fame thing by the feeond cocoa-nut, and afterwards croffed
- -the bunch o f beetle-nut, and fat penfively over i t ; this dope.
he called the old woman and delivered, her the- two nuts,,
and the bundle o f beetle-nut, accompanied, with, feme directions.—
Mr. Share- and his I companion-, pbfcrving her go>
towards the young man’s grave,, their curiofity would have.-
induced.
induced them to follow her., in order to have'..obferved
eonclufion o f this, ceremony'; but peculiarly.circumftanced
as the diftreffed father then was, they felt an unwillingriefs
to trefpafs on his feelings, by 1 1 u 1 1 any defire after .further
information. .
A t their return tov Pelew, their countrymen much
wondered what had occasioned their ab fence,. o f which
being informed, they in return related that they had alfo
been witneffes- o f the funeral o f another young man, who
had fallen in the daft battle.— But this we need not notice
here, referring it to that part o f the work which will de-
fcribe the manners and cuftoms o f Pe lew .
The General conduced Mr. Siiar i> to the King,, who-
was ...then- feated in the fquare, and who defined to fee
the inftruments*Which he had brought with him, in the
kind intention- to- have affifted his deceafed nephew; oUr
Surgeon fent for them to Ra a K ook’s houfe, in whofe care
they had been depofited; they were foon produced, and Mr..
Sharp, by the interpreter, explained, to him feparately the-
ufe o f every inftrument. The furprize and pleafiire the!
fight afforded A bba T hulle was fo great, that he begged!
Mr. Sharp would go with him, juft b y , to where feveral
Rupacks. were lodged (who were come to pafs a few days
with him on account o f his late fuccefs1) that they might
alfo be indulged with a view o f tliefe inftrum'ents. A full
explanation o f the different p.urpo'fes- to which they wereapplicable*,
,C ;t OBfijR*