pronounce my real name, and then, with the
most praiseworthy intentions, intimated that I was known as "Tom." But I
could not have made a worse selection; the chief could not master it:
"Tommo," "Tomma," "Tommee," everything but plain "Tom." As he persisted in
garnishing the word with an additional syllable, I compromised the matter
with him at the word "Tommo"; and by that name I went during the entire
period of my stay in the valley. The same proceeding was gone through with
Toby, whose mellifluous appellation was more easily caught.

An exchange of names is equivalent to a ratification of good-will and
amity among these simple people; and as we were aware of this fact, we
were delighted that it had taken place on the present occasion.

Reclining upon our mats, we now held a kind of levee, giving audience to
successive troops of the natives, who introduced themselves to us by
pronouncing their respective names, and retired in high good humour on
receiving ours in return. During the ceremony the greatest merriment
prevailed, nearly every announcement on the part of the islanders being
followed by a fresh sally of gaiety, which induced me to believe that some
of them at least were innocently diverting the company at our expense, by
bestowing upon themselves a string of absurd titles, of the honour of
which we were, of course, entirely ignorant.

All this occupied about an hour, when the throng having a little
diminished, I turned to Mehevi, and gave him to understand that we were in
need of food and sleep. Immediately the attentive chief addressed a few
words to one of the crowd, who disappeared, and returned in a few moments
with a calabash of "poee-poee," and two or three young cocoa-nuts stripped
of their husks, and with their shells partly broken. We both of us
forthwith placed one of those natural goblets to our lips, and drained it
in a moment of the refreshing draught it contained. The poee-poee was then
placed before us, and even famished as I was, I paused to consider in what
manner to convey it to my mouth.

This staple article of food among the Marquese islanders is manufactured
from the produce of the bread-fruit tree. It somewhat resembles in its
plastic nature our bookbinders' paste, is of a yellow colour, and somewhat
tart to the taste.

Such was the dish, the merits of which I was now eager to discuss. I eyed
it wistfully for a moment, and then, unable any longer to stand on
ceremony, plunged my han