roof of a thatched house in England, taken off the walls and placed on the ground.  Some were open at both ends, others partly closed with reeds, and all were covered with palm thatch.  A few of them were thirty or forty feet long, and fourteen or sixteen broad.  Besides these, they have other mean hovels, which, I conceived, were only to sleep in.  Some of these stood in a plantation, and I was given to understand, that in one of them lay a dead corpse.  They made signs that described sleep, or death; and circumstances pointed out the latter.  Curious to see all I could, I prevailed on an elderly man to go with me to the hut, which was separated from the others by a reed fence, built quite round it at the distance of four or five feet.  The entrance was by a space in the fence, made so low as to admit one to step over.  The two sides and one end of the hut were closed or built up in the same manner, and with the same materials, as the roof.  The other end had been open, but was now well closed with mats, which I could not prevail on the man to remove, or suffer me to do it.  There hung at this end of the hut a matted bag or basket, in which was a piece of roasted yam, and some sort of leaves, all quite fresh.  I had a strong desire to see the inside of the hut but the man was peremptory in refusing this, and even shewed an unwillingness to permit me to look into the basket.  He wore round his neck, fastened to a string, two or three locks of human hair; and a woman present had several about her neck.  I offered something in exchange for them, but they gave me to understand they could not part with them, as it was the hair of the person who lay in the hut.  Thus I was led to believe that these people dispose of their dead in a manner similar to that of Otaheite.  The same custom of wearing the hair is observed by the people of that island, and also by the New Zealanders.  The former make tamau of the hair of their deceased friends, and the latter make ear-rings and necklaces of their teeth.

Near most of their large houses were fixed, upright in the ground, the stems of four cocoa-nut trees, in a square position, about three feet from each other.  Some of our gentlemen who first saw them, were inclined to believe they were thus placed on a religious account; but I was now satisfied that it was for no other purpose but to hang cocoa-nuts on to dry.  For when I asked, as well as I could, the use of them, a man took me to one, loaded with cocoa-nuts from the bottom to the top; and no words could have informed me better.  Their situation is well chosen for this use, as most of their large houses are built in an open airy place, or where the wind has a free passage, from whatever direction it blows.  Near most, if not all of them, is a large tree or two, whose spreading branches afford an agreeable retreat from the scorching sun.  This part of the island was well cultivated, open and airy; the plantations were laid out by line, abounding wilh plantains, sugar-canes, yams and other roots, and stocked with fruit-trees.  In our walk we met with our old friend Paowang, who, with some others, accompanied us to the water side, and brought with them, as a present, a few yams and cocoa-nuts.