The next day, a party of us dined with our former ship-mate, Oedidee, on fish and pork.  The hog weighed about thirty pounds; and it may be worth mentioning, that it was alive, dressed, and brought upon the table within the hour.  We had but just dined, when Otoo came and asked me if my belly was full.  On my answering in the affirmative, he said, “Then, come along with me.”  I accordingly went with him to his father’s, where I found some people employed in dressing two girls with a prodigious quantity of fine cloth, after a very singular fashion:  The one end of each piece of cloth, of which there were a good many, was held up over the heads of the girls, while the remainder was wrapped round their bodies, under the arm-pits; then the upper ends were let fall, and hung down in folds to the ground, over the other, so as to bear some resemblance to a circular hoop-petticoat.  Afterward, round the outside of all, were wrapped several pieces of differently-coloured cloth, which considerably increased the size; so that it was not less than five or six yards in circuit, and the weight of this singular attire was as much as the poor girls could support.  To each were hang two taames, or breast-plates, by way of enriching the whole, and giving it a picturesque appearance.  Thus equipped, they were conducted on board the ship, together with several hogs, and a quantity of fruit, which, with the cloth, was a present to me from Otoo’s father.  Persons of either sex, dressed in this manner, are called atee; but, I believe, it is never practised, except when large presents of cloth are to be made.  At least, I never saw it practised upon any other occasion; nor, indeed, had I ever such a present before; but both Captain Clerke and I had cloth given to us afterward, thus wrapped round the bearers.  The next day, I had a present of five hogs and some fruit from Otoo; and one hog and some fruit from each of his sisters.  Nor were other provisions wanting.  For two or three days, great quantities of mackerel had been caught by the natives, within the reef, in seines; some of which they brought to the ships and tents and sold.

Otoo was not more attentive to supply our wants, by a succession of presents, than he was to contribute to our amusement, by a succession of diversions.  A party of us having gone down to Oparre on the 10th, he treated us with what may be called a play.  His three sisters were the actresses; and the dresses that they appeared in were new and elegant; that is, more so than we had usually met with at any of these islands.  But the principal object I had in view, this day, in going to Oparre, was to take a view of an embalmed corpse, which some of our gentlemen had happened to meet with at that place, near the residence of Otoo.  On enquiry, I found it to be the remains of Tee, a chief well known to me when I was at this island during my last voyage.  It was lying in a toopapaoo, more elegantly constructed than