As we advanced, these various parties ceased their buzzing, and in
explanation of our appearance among them, listened to a few
cabalistic words from our guide.
The whole scene was a strange one; but what most excited our surprise
was the incongruous assemblage of the most costly objects from all
quarters of the globe. Cheek by jowl, they lay beside the rudest
native articles, without the slightest attempt at order. Superb
writing-desks of rosewood, inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl;
decanters and goblets of cut glass; embossed volumes of plates; gilded
candelabra; sets of globes and mathematical instruments; the finest
porcelain; richly-mounted sabres and fowling-pieces; laced hats and
sumptuous garments of all sorts, with numerous other matters of
European manufacture, were strewn about among greasy calabashes
half-filled with "poee," rolls of old tappa and matting, paddles and
fish-spears, and the ordinary furniture of a Tahitian dwelling.
All the articles first mentioned were, doubtless, presents from
foreign powers. They were more or less injured: the fowling-pieces
and swords were rusted; the finest woods were scratched; and a folio
volume of Hogarth lay open, with a cocoa-nut shell of some musty
preparation capsized among the miscellaneous furniture of the Rake's
apartment, where that inconsiderate young gentleman is being measured
for a coat.
While we were amusing ourselves in this museum of curiosities, our
conductor plucked us by the sleeve, and whispered, "Pomaree! Pomaree!
armai kow kow."
"She is coming to sup, then," said the doctor, staring in the
direction indicated. "What say you, Paul, suppose we step up?" Just
then a curtain near by lifted, and from a private building a few
yards distant the queen entered, unattended.
She wore a loose gown of blue silk, with two rich shawls, one red and
the other yellow, tied about her neck. Her royal majesty was
barefooted.
She was about the ordinary size, rather matronly; her features not
very handsome; her mouth, voluptuous; but there was a care-worn
expression in her face, probably attributable to her late
misfortunes. From her appearance, one would judge her about forty;
but she is not so old.
As the queen approached one of the recesses, her attendants hurried
up, escorted her in, and smoothed the mats on which she at last
reclined. Two girls soon appeared, carrying their mistress' repast;
and then, surrounded by cut-glass and porcelain, and jars of
sweetmeats and confections, Pomaree Vahinee I., the titular Queen of
Tahiti, ate fish and "poee" out of her native calabashes, disdaining
either knife or spoon.
"Come on," whispered Long Ghost, "let's have an audience at once;" and
he was on the point of introducing himself, when our guide, quite
alarmed, held him back and implored silence. The other natives also
interfered, and, as he was pressing forward, raised such an outcry
that Pomaree lifted her eyes and saw us for the first.
