ABSTRACT
After the service we went into the banqueting hall. The tables were laid in fact in the open air, under awnings of foliage, among the coco-palms. Five or six hundred persons were accommodated; the table-cloths were covered with lace-like leaves and amaranth-flowers. There were great decorative erections contrived by the Chinese out of banana stems and various singular plants. Side by side with European dishes there was an abundance of native messes: pastes of dried fruit, little pigs baked whole, and shrimps fermented in milk. Sauces were served in canoes, which the bearers had no small difficulty in carrying round. The chiefs, men and women alike, took it in turn to harangue the queen at the top of their voices, so loud, and with such vehemence, that they might have been taken for possessed creatures. Those who could not find room at the tables, ate standing, resting their plates on the shoulders of those who were seated;—the hubbub and confusion defy description.
