for to act as the figurehead of
a canoe was indeed a comical, if an unpleasant situation.

When they reached the boats, the boys saw that their suspicions
were correct, and that the natives were preparing to lash them to
the lofty prows; which rose, some twelve feet above the water, in a
sweep inwards.

"This will never do," Tom said. "If we are fastened like that, our
weight will cut us horribly. Let us show them how to do it."

Whereupon, with great gravity he took a large piece of flat wood,
and motioned to the savages to lash this in front of the bow of one
of the boats, at a height of three feet above the water, so as to
afford a little platform upon which he could stand. The natives at
once perceived the drift of what he was doing, and were delighted
that their new deities should evince such readiness to fall in with
their plans. The additions were made at once to the four canoes;
but while this was being done, some of the leading chiefs, with
every mark of deference, approached the boys with colored paints;
and motioned, to them, that they would permit them to deck them in
this way.

Again the boys indulged in a hearty laugh and, stripping off their
upper garments, to the immense admiration of the natives. They
themselves applied paint in rings, zigzags, and other forms to
their white shirts; painted a large saucer-like circle round the
eyes with vermilion, so as to give themselves something the
appearance of the great idols; and having thus transmogrified
themselves, each gravely took his place upon his perch; where,
leaning back against the prow behind them, they were by no means
uncomfortable.

"If these fellows are going, as I expect, upon a war expedition,"
Ned shouted to his friends, as the boats, keeping regularly
abreast, rowed off from the island; amidst a perfect chaos of
sounds, of yells, beatings of rough drums made of skins stretched
across hollow trunks of trees, and of the blowing of conch shells;
"our position will be an unpleasant one. But we must trust to
circumstances to do the best. At any rate, we must wish that our
friends conquer; for the next party, if we fall into their hands,
might take it into their heads that we are devils instead of gods,
and it might fare worse with us."

It was manifest, as soon as they started, that the object of the
expedition was not the island upon which they had been captured,
but one lying away to the south. It was a row of several hours
before they