The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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The feast day was set for Wednesday, and the previous Sunday a chief
issued the invitations from the Farehau, a house resembling an enormous
bird-cage in the centre of the village, from which all the news was read
aloud to the people once a week.

A feast of such size necessitated much preparation.

"The chief, who was our guide in the matter," wrote Mrs. Stevenson,
"found four large fat hogs, which Louis bought, and four cases of ship's
biscuit were sent over from the Casco, which is lying at Papeete for
repairs.... Our hogs were killed in the morning, washed in the sea, and
roasted whole in a pit with hot stones. When done they were laid on
their stomachs in neat open coffins of green basket work, each hog with
his case of biscuits beside him. Early in the morning the entire
population began bathing, a bath being the preliminary to everything.
At about three o'clock--four was the hour set--there was a general
movement toward our premises, so that I had to hurry Louis into his