e stood to arms passively, and there seemed
to be a continuous circulation inside and out. The captain came to meet
us; our boy, who had been sent ahead was there to take the horses; and
we passed inside the court which was full of food, and rang continuously
to the voice of the caller of gifts; I had to blush a little later when
my own present came, and I heard my one pig and eight miserable
pine-apples being counted out like guineas. In the four corners of the
yard and along one wall, there are make-shift, dwarfish, Samoan houses
or huts, which have been run up since Captain Wurmbrand came to
accommodate the chiefs. Before that they were all crammed into the six
cells, and locked in for the night, some of them with dysentery. They
are wretched constructions enough, but sanctified by the presence of
chiefs. We heard a man corrected loudly to-day for saying "_Fale_" of
one of them; "_Maota_," roared the highest chief present--"palace."
About eighteen chiefs, gorgeously arrayed, stood up to greet us, and led
us into one of these _maotas_, where you may be sure we had to crouch,
almost to kneel, to enter, and where a row of pretty girls occupied one
side to make the ava (kava). The highest chief present was a magnificent
man, as high chiefs usually are; I find I cannot describe him; his face
is full of shrewdness and authority; his figure like Ajax; his name
Auilua. He took the head of the building and put Belle on his right
hand. Fanny was called first for the ava (kava). Our names were called
in English style, the high-chief wife of Mr. St--(an unpronounceable
something); Mrs. Straw, and the like. And when we went into the other
house to eat, we found we were seated alternately with chiefs about
the--table, I was about to say, but rather floor. Everything was to be
done European style with a vengeance! We were the only whites present,
except Wurmbrand, and still I had no suspicion of the truth. They began
to take off their ulas (necklaces of scarlet seeds) and hang them about
our necks; we politely resisted, and were told that the king (who had
stopped off their _siva_) had sent down to the prison a message to the
effect that he was to give a dinner to-morrow, and wished their
second-hand ulas for it. Some of them were content; others not. There
was a ring of anger in the boy's voice, as he told us we were to wear
them past the king's house. Dinner over, I must say they are moderate
eaters at a feast, we returned to the a