298

CASE OF SICKNESS.

guidance and "walked a mile and a half or two milesinland. The valley is watered in its whole lengthby a pure and lively stream, and every where ex-hibits the same richness of soil and heavy growthseen on the beach. Judging from the number ofdwellings, it must contain a large population, thoughfrom the ship it appears very contracted in itsboundaries. I saw two houses only that seemed ofa religious character, one a burial place with theshrines and bier of the dead, adjoining a buildingcontaining, as usual, three idols, and the other atabu house of some person of distinction, on an ele-vated platform, at the corners of which were twoimages of stone, green with the moss which time hadspread over them.

The Tahua, or dancing ground, about a mile fromthe shore, is as regular and well built as that in theupper valley of the Hapas, and one of the dwelling-houses near is the largest, most neatly built, and or-namented, of any seen, either at Taiohae or Taioa.I stopped to take a drawing of it, much to the amaze-ment of the people around, and to their seeming ad-miration when, on showing it to them, they recog-nized the sketch, and probably understood, in somedegree, the design in taking it.

An old woman was lying sick in one corner. Iattempted to sympathize with her, and ascertain thenature of her illness, but she seemed rather surly,and the most I could get from her was “ mai iau ”,“ I am sick ”. It is the first instance I have met ofconfinement by sickness, and from all I can learn,their diseases are few and not very frequent. Be-

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