But in the matter of servants, the chief difficulty is to get a cook who knows anything at all. The very unsatisfactory person known as an English “plain cook” would here be a household treasure, compared with the English or Chinese wretches who by turns experiment on your unfortunate digestion, at not less than £1 per week. I cannot tell how many changes Mrs Havelock, Mrs Macgregor, Mrs de Ricci, Lady Hackett, and Mrs Abbey, have already had in their respective households; but anyhow, it would be a long list. Mrs Abbey and her husband have already done wonders towards getting Nasova made habitable, and have also started a farmyard and a garden; so, eventually, we shall have poultry and vegetables secured. A room has been found for Lady Gordon—very noisy and uncomfortable, however; and the children are for the present living in a pretty little house close by, belonging to the Thurstons, who will scarcely care to give it up for long; so the work at the new rooms is being pushed on in earnest. Good-bye for the present. * * * * * _September 29, 1875._ ... You may tell the boys that at last I really have seen the King of the Cannibal Islands, and a fine stately old fellow he is, with a bright intelligent countenance, and very chief-like, commanding carriage. I am told he was born about 1815, but he certainly appears older; his grey hair looks so strange round the brown face. He and several other high chiefs from various parts of the group have been staying at Driemba, a village of native houses just beyond Nasova, where they have been exchanging counsel on affairs of the State. I am told that he never appears so dignified as when he is addressing his brother chiefs on disputed questions. This afternoon they all came to Nasova for a farewell meeting with Sir Arthur ere returning to their respective dominions. Of course they had a solemn drinking of yangona, and one chief was appointed Roko of his district (_i.e._, chief officer in charge); after which there was a very pretty _méké_,[6] when a number of the people assembled to dance and sing, dressed in native cloth, gracefully worn as drapery, with kilts and fringes of black water-weed, long reedy grass-coloured leaves or climbing ferns thrown over one shoulder and round the waist, also round the arms and below the knee. They danced a circular dance, turning sunwise, with many varied figures, and with immense action, while the non-dancers stood in the middle, making vocal music and beating time on a drum. The words of these songs are very old, and never alter from the dialect in which they were at first composed, so they are not understood by the singers themselves. It was a very interesting scene.