In some villages the people brought very curious bowls, clubs, and spears for sale, and I have greatly enlarged my collection. Some of the wood-carving is so fine that it fills me with wonder, when I remember that hitherto the only implements of these artists have been stone-axes, and rats’ or sharks’ teeth to do the finer work. Imagine the patience and contrivance which every carved spear-head represents. I bought several very tall carved walking-sticks, used by the old men, which I think some of you will like to adopt as alpenstocks, though you can never hope to look as picturesque as the fine old men who brought them to me. They generally ask for large strong knives, or so many fathoms of very wide strong white calico, in preference to money, and are very discriminating as to quality, having learnt by sad experience how worthless are the cheap Manchester fabrics sent to these isles for trade with natives—mere whitened shams, made up with dressing, and useless when washed. Each night we slept at a different native house, and became quite expert at rigging up our mosquito-curtains to the rafters, and constructing little rooms of matting, to give us each a corner to ourselves, always planned so as, if possible, to include an open door, to secure fresh air, for these people are as careful to exclude the night air as any old woman in Scotland. When our sleeping quarters are arranged, then comes the curious evening meal, followed by family prayers, with reading and singing, at which are present a troop of villagers, who have previously assembled to see the strange white people eat the food presented by themselves—happily with the addition of tea and sugar, and white bread, which Mrs Langham (notable housekeeper) succeeds in baking, on every possible occasion, in a small portable oven. All the houses, whether of chief or vassal, are alike built on a foundation of stones several feet high. Thus the house is raised above the damp ground. Sometimes you enter by steps, rudely hewn from one log; and a wooden bowl of water invites the visitor to wash his feet before entering. We invariably take off our boots to avoid dirtying the nice clean mats. Every house consists of only one room, varying, of course, in size; but the largest must be limited to the length of one piece of timber, which is the ridge-pole, and with two other roughly hewn trees, laid lengthwise, supports the frame-work of rafters, whereon rests the heavy thatched roof, the whole sustained by upright trees, notched at the top, and all bound together with strongly knotted stems of some forest vine. The sides are supported, and doorways formed, by black pillars, about ten feet in height, made of the stems of beautiful tree-ferns, which here grow in such abundance that they are commonly used for making fences, also for edging graves.