f fanciful calico,
swathed about the loins, were nearly all I saw.

Indeed, throughout the valley, there were few things of any kind to
be seen of European origin. All I ever saw, besides the articles just
alluded to, were the six muskets preserved in the Ti, and three or four
similar implements of warfare hung up in other houses; some small
canvas bags, partly filled with bullets and powder, and half a dozen old
hatchet-heads, with the edges blunted and battered to such a degree
as to render them utterly useless. These last seemed to be regarded as
nearly worthless by the natives; and several times they held up, one
of them before me, and throwing it aside with a gesture of disgust,
manifested their contempt for anything that could so soon become
unserviceable.

But the muskets, the powder, and the bullets were held in most
extravagant esteem. The former, from their great age and the
peculiarities they exhibited, were well worthy a place in any
antiquarian's armoury. I remember in particular one that hung in the
Ti, and which Mehevi--supposing as a matter of course that I was able to
repair it--had put into my hands for that purpose. It was one of those
clumsy, old-fashioned, English pieces known generally as Tower Hill
muskets, and, for aught I know, might have been left on the island by
Wallace, Carteret, Cook, or Vancouver. The stock was half rotten and
worm-eaten; the lock was as rusty and about as well adapted to its
ostensible purpose as an old door-hinge; the threading of the screws
about the trigger was completely worn away; while the barrel shook in
the wood. Such was the weapon the chief desired me to restore to its
original condition. As I did not possess the accomplishments of a
gunsmith, and was likewise destitute of the necessary tools, I was
reluctantly obliged to signify my inability to perform the task. At this
unexpected communication Mehevi regarded me, for a moment, as if he half
suspected I was some inferior sort of white man, who after all did not
know much more than a Typee. However, after a most laboured explanation
of the matter, I succeeded in making him understand the extreme
difficulty of the task. Scarcely satisfied with my apologies, however,
he marched off with the superannuated musket in something of a huff, as
if he would no longer expose it to the indignity of being manipulated by
such unskilful fingers.

During the festival I had not failed to remark the simplicity of manner,
the