There, together with nine other beauties, she was being garlanded, robed in a gown made of cloth from the tapa tree, and perfumed in readiness for a ceremony—the launching of a new canoe. She was delighted to see him, and with signs and gestures introduced him to her mother, her aunt, and her sisters, who were attending to her. When it was time for the ceremony Casca went with them to the beach. Once again the whole village seemed to be present. The canoe was a splendid vessel, dug out of a forest giant from high on the mountain. Many months, the greater part of a year, had been needed to sled the canoe down the mountainside, the craftsmen hollowing it as they moved it day by day. At last, completed and elaborately carved, they had hauled it to the beach. A glance told Casca that the huge vessel could not possibly be moved by the few men who could get a handhold on it, nor could it be sledded across the soft sand to the water, and rollers of logs would merely be pushed into the sand by the canoe's great weight.
