decisive, his person tall, his face rugged, astute, formidable, and

with a certain similarity to Mr. Gladstone's--only for the

brownness of the skin, and the high-chief's tattooing, all one side

and much of the other being of an even blue. Further acquaintance

increased our opinion of his sense. He viewed the Casco in a

manner then quite new to us, examining her lines and the running of

the gear; to a piece of knitting on which one of the party was

engaged, he must have devoted ten minutes' patient study; nor did

he desist before he had divined the principles; and he was

interested even to excitement by a type-writer, which he learned to

work. When he departed he carried away with him a list of his

family, with his own name printed by his own hand at the bottom. I

should add that he was plainly much of a humorist, and not a little

of a humbug. He told us, for instance, that he was a person of

exact sobriety; such being the obligation of his high estate: the

commons might be sots, but the chief could not stoop so low. And

not many days after he was to be observed in a state of smiling and

lop-sided imbecility, the Casco ribbon upside down on his

dishonoured hat.

But his business that morning in Anaho is what concerns us here.

The devil-fish, it seems, were growing scarce upon the reef; it was

judged fit to interpose what we should call a close season; for

that end, in Polynesia, a tapu (vulgarly spelt 'taboo') has to be

declared, and who was to declare it? Taipi might; he ought; it was

a chief part of his duty; but would any one regard the inhibition

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