is extraordinary what a dread all these half-naked people have of
the wet. It happened to commence raining a little, when they sprang
like so many rope-dancers over every little puddle, and hastened to
their huts and houses for shelter. Those who were travelling and
obliged to continue their journey, held, instead of umbrellas, the
leaves of the great fan-palm (Corypha umbraculifera) over their
heads. These leaves are about four feet broad, and can be easily
held, like fans. One of them is large enough for two persons.

But if the natives dread the rain, they have no fear of the heat.
It is said that they run no risk from the rays of the sun, being
protected by the thickness of their skulls and the fat beneath.

I was much struck by the peculiarity of some of the waggons, which
consisted of wooden two-wheeled cars, roofed with palm leaves
stretching out about four feet, before and behind, beyond the body
of the car. These projections serve to protect the driver from the
rain and the rays of the sun, whichever way they may chance to fall.
The oxen, of which there was always only a pair, were yoked at such
a distance from the waggon, that the driver could walk very
conveniently in the intervening space.

I profited by the half-hour allowed for breakfast to proceed to the
sea-shore, whence I observed a number of men busily employed on the
dangerous rock in the middle of the most violent breakers. Some of
them loosened, by the aid of long poles, oysters, mussels, etc.,
from the rocks, while others dived down to the bottom to fetch them
up. I concluded that there must be pearls contained inside, for I
could not suppose that human beings would encounter such risks for
the sake of the fish alone; and yet this was the case, for I found,
later, that though the same means are employed in fishing for
pearls, it is on the eastern coast and only during the months of
February and March.

The boats employed by these individuals were of two kinds. The
larger ones, which contained about forty persons, were very broad,
and composed of boards joined together and fastened with the fibres
of the cocoa-tree; the smaller ones were exactly like those I saw in
Tahiti, save that they appeared still more dangerous. The bottom
was formed of the trunk of an extremely narrow tree, slightly
hollowed out, and the sides of the planks are kept in their places
by side and cross supports. These craft rose hardly a foot and a
half out of the