their dogs, pigs, and poultry. The earth floor was carpeted with long grass that was seldom, if ever, removed, even when reeking with decayed animal and vegetable matter, and swarming with vermin. Whenever the surface became utterly filthy, a fresh layer of grass was strewn over the fermenting heap of decomposition, upon which the members of the family and their friends sat down in circles, whether to converse or to take their meals. Next to the outer walls, which were usually nothing more than bamboocanes driven into the earth as close to one another as possible, but with frequent interstices that let in light and air, the sleeping-mats were laid down at night-being rolled up during the day.

As there were no screens or partitions of any kind, men, women, and children slept together, destitute of shame and regardless of decency. In large buildings as many as two hundred human beings would lie down to rest, oftentimes without any covering at all, and never with anything more than a piece of native cloth thrown loosely over the sleeper. The chief and his wife would sleep at one end of the barn-like hovel, with their family next to them, and then their friends and attendants. The rich used softer mats than the poor, and would spread out four or five, one over the other, and sometimes these were placed on a low wooden bedstead a few inches high, resembling a berth in a steamship. The reason assigned for this unwholesome and demoralising custom was the fear of evil spirits, which hesitated to enter a crowded apartment, though always ready to seize upon and strangle a solitary sleeper.

It is needless to remark that such a practice would have been impossible had any respect been entertained

for women. Not only, however, was polygamy sanctioned in the Georgian group, but concubinage on the most extensive scale was practised by the chiefs. Marriage, indeed, was attended with many ostentatious ceremonies; but we are assured on the highest authority that neither party felt bound to the other any longer than the arrangement might be mutually convenient and agreeable. "When the rank of the parties," says Mr Ellis, "was equal, they often separated-the husband took other wives, and the wife other husbands; and if the rank of the wife was in any degree superior to that of her husband, she was at liberty to take as many other husbands as she pleased, although still nominally regarded as the wife of the individual to whom she had been first married." Female morality in these islands was at the lowest possible point, and women were treated as in all respects an unclean and inferior order of beings.

Tahiti, indeed, might have suggested the poet's "Hill of Hörsel," where

The lustful queen, waiting damnation, holds
Her lustial revels. The Queen of Beauty once,
A goddess called and worshipped in the days
When men their own infirmities adored,
Deeming divine who in themselves summed up
The full-blown passions of humanity.

Large fame and lavish service had she then,
Venus yclept, of all the Olympian crew

Least continent of spirits, and most fair.

In the hope of imparting a sense of self-respect, the missionaries early turned their attention to the improvement of the native dwellings, and especially to the introduction of separate sleeping apartments. Their success at first was slow and partial, but by degrees the chiefs were

induced to set the example of plastering the walls, of partitioning off bedrooms, of using windows, shutters, and doors, and of making clean, solid floors, with mortar. After a little while houses were built of two stories, and even with glazed windows.

When Captain Gambier visited Huahine in the first month of 1822, he was struck with the English-like appearance of the village of Tare. "The chiefs," he remarks, "take a pride in building their own houses, which are now all after the European manner, and think meanly of themselves if they do not excel the lower classes in the arts necessary for the construction. Their wives also surpass their inferiors in making cloth. The queen and her daughter-in-law, dressed in the English fashion, received us in their neat little cottage. The furniture of her house," he continues, "was all made on the island, and by the natives, with a little instruction originally from the missionaries. It consisted of sofas with backs and arms, with (cinet) bottoms, really very well constructed, tables and bedsteads by the same artificers. There were curtains to the windows made of white cloth, with dark leaves stained upon it for a border, which gave a cheerful and comfortable air to the rooms. The bedrooms were up-stairs, and were perfectly clean and neat. These comforts they prize exceedingly; and such is the desire for them, that a great many cottages, after the same plan, are rising up everywhere in the village."

CHAPTER VII.

Hervey's Island-Mangaia-Brutal conduct of the islanders-Their subsequent conversion-Partiality for rats-A providential disappointment-Aitutake-Step by step-Abolition of idolatry -Degradation of the idols-Atiu-Castaways-Roma-tane converted by Isaiah-Forbids self-mutilation.

BETWEEN five and six hundred miles to the westward of Tahiti lies a group of islets named by their discoverer, Captain Cook, after Captain Hervey, R.N., one of the Lords of the Admiralty, subsequently created Earl of Bristol. The Hervey, or, as they are sometimes called, Cook's Islands, are seven in number-Mauke, Mitiaro, Atiu, Mangaia, Rarotonga, Hervey's Island, and Aitutake. Hervey's Island consists in reality of two islets connected by a coral-reef. The two component parts together measure about six leagues in circumference, and when first discovered in 1773, were so completely covered with wood that they were over-hastily supposed to be uninhabited. The second time he came in sight of Hervey's Island, in 1777, the great navigator was surprised to observe six or seven double canoes put off from the shore, with from three to six men in each.

These natives are described as exhibiting a different type of countenance to that represented in the other islands of the same group. Their complexion was of a darker hue, their hair long and black, and their aspect as fierce and savage as that of the New Zealanders.