The young girls were a vision of grace and beauty, the armlets and necklaces of white shells and bright corals making a lovely contrast to their rounded arms and shapely throats, glistening like bronze, their faces aglow with animation and delight, their lithe limbs, firm, rounded and supple, their every movement grace. The ceremonies began by the young men showing their strength and agility, by throwing high in the air the heavy spears they carried and catching them as they descended. After these feats of prowess had been completed, amidst the wildest excitement, there came a strange stillness over all the participants and on-lookers, but in a moment the strains of music, played in softest tones, seemed to descend from the very heavens, so sweet was it. One after another the maidens joined their fresh voices to the strain until it seemed to fill ones very soul with ecstasy. The chant grew louder and the girls began to beat the air gently, with long feather wands, which they carried in their hands; soon their bodies began to sway in an undulating motion, keeping time to the chant. Then, waving their hands above their heads, they would advance toward the young men and then retrace their steps, each girlish form meanwhile waving to and fro like a young tree bent in the wind. The music grew faster and more intense, the girls no longer sang; a languorous expression filled their eyes which spoke only of love. A voluptuous smile was on each lip, the hips moving gently to and fro, with a peculiar motion, set every little fringe of grass in their short skirts to quivering. Now and then some quicker movement would float the light skirts high in the air, revealing to the rapt eyes of the beholders glimpses of rounded limbs above the knee. The wands were now placed on the mats, unbinding from about their waist’s the strips of cloth, and; holding it in both hands, they continued the dance, waving the scarfs of bright-hued cloth, first high above their heads, then passing it beneath their feet, keeping up that peculiar serpent-like motion, swaying, twisting and twirling in a hundred ways. When this dance was finished the girls took up their wands and each one advancing toward the line of young men, touching lightly the young man of her choice. Maula being the maiden of highest rank was the first to advance, with unbound waist, carrying her scarf on her arm. She touched Allen softly with her wand, looking at him with loving eyes the while. He stepped forward as one bound by some strange sweet spell. She quickly bound about his loins the strip of bright yellow cloth that had lately encircled her own waist, in token that he now belonged to her, and as a warning to other maidens to choose elsewhere. He also tied on her arm, high above the elbow, a band of woven sea grass, on which was strung two small conch shells in token that she was his. This, with the unbound waist, being the distinguishing mark of the unmarried woman.