apparel than a _maro_ wound around the loins, and a
necklace of straggling, snow-white hairs hanging on his meagre breast;
it was the honored beard of his ancestors, which was, I suppose,
retained merely to swear by, as it did not appear either valuable or
ornamental. He was a remarkable and venerable Goblin, and he informed us
that his existence comprised nine hundred moons. This would have made
him somewhere verging on eighty years; but he appeared as aged as
Saturn.

He was tatooed all over the body and limbs, face alone exempted. It must
have occupied as much time to delineate him as it did Rafael to fresco
the galleries of the Vatican! But his hide was so ancient and
worm-eaten, that many fine touches were almost illegible. Around his
knees were playing two little dusky imps, scarcely a year old! God knows
where they came from--may have been a present, as it is all the fashion
among the Marquesas. Nevertheless, he regarded them with the most
affectionate interest, and watched their every movement, even to sucking
his mouldering toes and pulling his grizzly top-knot, with the tenderest
solicitude. Presently they crawled in front of the dwelling, and
actually toddled into the pool. I instantly started up to fish them out,
but the old Goblin only chuckled, and the little elfs kept bobbing about
the surface of the water with the buoyancy of corks--like junk bottles
in a lea-way--crowing and smiling bravely. I never was more amazed, and
taking a dip myself afterwards, found the basin up to my neck.

Native attendants soon produced clusters of cocoanuts, with the crowns
of their heads knocked off, ready for consumption. We made cocoanut-milk
punch--every man his own punch-bowl; with a sprinkle of lime-juice, and
syrup of powdered sugar-cane--gently agitated within the milky
shells--which made as delicious a beverage as ever a regent brewed: it
is worth a trip to Polynesia alone to enjoy it. Then exploring the
resources of the baskets, we discovered a case of sardines, bread,
bananas, and oranges; made luncheon, and fed the children on the crumbs.

Pipes were filled, and a native boy quickly brought forth two sticks,
and cutting the hardest to a point, and holding the other firmly fixed
against a stone, began to wear a groove with the pointed stick in the
softest by a measured movement along the surface. Presently a fine dust
was deposited at the lower end; the white wood turned dark; quicker and
quicker, stronger and s