dances, in which Poulaho himself took a part. Capt. Cook dined on shore that day, to see the whole exhibition; and had at his table a lady of high rank, sister to the grave Areekee, Latooliboula; and Poulaho could neither eat nor drink in her presence, but did obeisance to her as his superior, while her attendants did obeisance to him. She and her brother, with another sister, were children of the elder sister of Poulaho's father, by a Feejee chief.
A little before their departure, our navigators had an opportunity of witnessing a grand solemnity called natche, performed in honour of the King's son, a boy about twelve years old, on occasion of his being admitted for the first time to the privilege of eating with his father. The ceremonies, which lasted two days, began at a kind of palace, called a malaee (or marly, as Mariner writes it), being a great house with an extensive grass-plot before it. Here a crowd assembled, some armed, and others bearing yams, &c.; solemn sentences were recited, or chanted; the King and prince having arrived, seated themselves in the area, with several friends, while the bearers of the yams, and others, to the number of 250, made a procession to a fiatooka (or morai), of one house standing upon a mount; and after depositing part of their load, proceeded to another fiatooka of three houses. At these places of worship and of burial, belonging to the royal family, various ceremonies were performed, and some orations, or prayers, were uttered. At one of them, a shed was erected for the prince, and his father sat near him: and after some females had wrapped narrow pieces of white cloth round him, and other honours done him, a grand procession
