I Put up in a
different hut, the "Buli" apologizing for his hut being crowded with
the influx of visitors.
I watched a "meke-meke" or native dance that evening in which about a
dozen girls covered with oil took part. There was a sound of revelry
the rest of the night, for there was feasting and dancing in several
huts, and discordant chanting and the hum of many voices followed
me into my dreams. The next morning I went out shooting pigeons in
some thick pathless woods about two miles away, and I also shot some
flying foxes which I gave to my companions, as the Fijians consider
them a great delicacy, as do many Europeans. These woods were full of
pineapples, which in places barred our way. Many of them were ripe,
and I found they possessed a fine flavour.
In the afternoon the ceremonies were continued, the "Buli" sending
for me to sit by him in the doorway of his hut to watch them. First
about forty women with "tapa" cloth wound around their bodies went
through various evolutions, swaying their arms about and chanting in
their usual discordant manner. They then unwound the "tapa" from their
bodies and threw it in a heap on the ground, following this by more
manoeuvres. About twenty men came into the square, some with their
faces blacked and their bodies stained red with some pigment, and
wearing only aprons of coconut strings, with bracelets of leaves on
their arms and carved pigs' tusks hanging from their necks.
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