Rai-ah-tay-ah, Aitutake as Ai-too-tah-kay, Idia as E-dee-ah, Teriitaria as Tay-ree-tah-ree-ah, and so forth.

After some thousands of words had been collected, a missionary sadly recorded his belief that thousands yet remained undiscovered, and ten years later one of them who had paid the greatest attention to the subject confessed that he had only just ascertained the precise meaning of a certain word in frequent use. Nor was it enough to have mastered the names of things, or even their attributes: the mystery of collocation had yet to be solved. The Tahitians, it is said, were fortunately great talkers, and never grew weary of answering as well as asking questions. They even took pains to assist the strangers in acquiring a correct knowledge of their language, and though much given to ridiculing mistakes made by one another, seldom so much as smiled at the blunders of the missionaries.

No long time elapsed, however, before it became painfully apparent that beneath the plausible demeanour of the Tahitians there lurked the most savage ferocity, the most revolting profligacy. Pomare had readily acknowledged the wickedness of human sacrifices, and had promised to use his utmost influence to bring about the abolition of the hateful practice. And yet, only a few days after the final departure of the Duff, the high priest, Haamanemane, informed the missionaries that he had been summoned by Pomare to offer up the sacrifice of a human being at a forthcoming convocation of the chiefs. He dared not, he said, refuse obedience, but it was probable that Pomare would desist from his purpose if some of the Europeans were present on the occasion. Two of them accordingly accompanied Haamanemane, and their

presence appears to have prevented the fulfilment of the odious rite.

Only a few months later, however, Pomare dreamed that his god stood before him and demanded a human life. Impressed by this imaginary vision, Pomare put to death the first person he met after leaving his house that he judged suitable for such a purpose. Human sacrifices were invariably offered preparatory to the declaration of war. Like Moloch

Oro, the war-god of the South Sea Islanders, could only be conciliated by human, blood. If a treaty were violated, the offenders sought to appease the anger of the gods by the death of a victim. Another life was taken when war was decided upon; and if the threatened hostilities were likely to be of a serious character, as many bodies as possible, reddened with their own blood, were laid out at the foot of the hideous idol. An eye was generally taken out; placed upon a leaf, and presented to the king, who made as though he would eat it. The idea seems to have been that the gods devoured the spirits of the slain, and also entered the birds that preyed upon the dead bodies exposed on the altar. Some portion of each human sacrifice was eaten by the priests. When victims were wanted, the king sent round messengers to different chiefs to inquire if they had at hand a "broken calabash," or a "rotten cocoa-nut." If an individual happened to be present in any way obnoxious to the chief, the latter would indicate him by a movement of the head or hand. Then, watching their opportunity, the messengers would

get behind their victim, and holding a small, round stone in the hollow of their hand, would strike him a violent blow on the back of the head. The poor wretch, falling helpless to the ground, was speedily despatched, his body wrapped in broad leaves, and carried off with song and shout to the shrine of the god.

At other times the fatal attack would be made openly, and in a peculiarly horrible manner. The king's messengers, armed with spears, would gather round the house of their victim, and prod him through the interstices between the poles, until, exhausted and bleeding, he would throw his cloth around him and sink down on the floor, until some one entered and put an end to his agony. A victim's whole family was marked for slaughter, with the exception of the women, whose very touch was held to render a dead body unfit for presentation as a sacrifice. Mr Williams had at one time a servant, the last of his family, every other male member having been sacrificed, and he, too, had been eight times hunted on the mountains with dogs.

In the account of his third voyage, Captain Cook describes at some length the ceremonies connected with the offering of the dead victim in the marae, and particularly mentions that some hair was pulled off the head, and the left eye taken out, both of which were wrapped in a green leaf, and presented to the king, who did not touch them, but handed a tuft of red feathers to the priest. On this occasion the body was buried beneath some earth and stones, after which a lean, half-starved dog was killed by twisting its neck. "The hair was then singed off, and the entrails being taken out, were thrown into the fire, where they were left to be consumed. But the kidney, heart, and liver were only roasted by being put on hot stones; and the

Cook's Error of Judgment.

29

carcass of the dog, after being rubbed over with the blood, was, with the liver, &c., laid down before the priests, who were seated round the grave praying. They for some time uttered ejaculations over the dog, while two men at intervals beat very loud on two drums, and a boy screamed, in a loud shrill voice, three times. This, they said, was to invite the Eatooa [Atua] to feast on the banquet that they had provided for him. When the priests had finished their prayers, the body, heart, liver, &c., of the dog were placed on a whatta, or scaffold, about six feet in height, on which lay the remains of two other dogs, and of two pigs which had been lately sacrificed. The priests and attendants now gave a kind of shout, .which put an end to the ceremonies for the present."

The object of these ghastly rites was to secure, on behalf of the Tahitians, the aid of the god of war in a projected invasion of the neighbouring island of Aimeo. It might have been thought that if Captain Cook did not feel himself justified in preventing the immolation of his fellow-menthough it is not easy to understand how such a naturally humane man could have abstained from intervention-he would at least have refused to sanction, by his presence, such a detestable ceremony. But not satisfied with the revolting spectacle they had already witnessed, he and his companions, on learning that "the religious rites were to be renewed the next morning," resolved that "they would not quit the place while anything remained to be seen." Their curiosity was, in the first instance, gratified by witnessing the slaughter of two hogs, one of which was placed on the scaffold above-mentioned, while the other was cut open, and its quivering entrails carefully inspected by a priest. Much foolish mummery was also enacted,

and four double canoes were fitted up in honour of the god, to accompany the fleet that was about to sail against their kinsmen of Aimeo.

"The unfortunate victim offered on this occasion," the great navigator calmly remarks, "was, to appearance, a middle-aged man, and was one of the lowest class of the people. But it did not appear that they had fixed upon him on account of his having committed any particular crime that deserved death. It is certain, however, that they usually select such guilty persons for their sacrifices, or else vagabonds who have no visible way of procuring an honest livelihood. Our gentlemen having examined the appearance of the body of the unhappy sufferer now offered up to the object of these peoples' worship, observed that it was bloody about the head and face, and much bruised upon the right temple, which denoted the manner in which he had been killed. And they were informed that he had been knocked on the head with a stone. The wretches who are destined to suffer on these occasions are never previously apprised of their fate. Whenever any one of the principal chiefs deems a human sacrifice necessary on any great emergency, he fixes upon the victim, and then despatches some of his trusty servants, who fall upon him suddenly, and either stone him to death, or beat out his brains with a club."

The marae in which these sacrifices were offered was the burial-place of the royal family, and of the most powerful chieftains of the island. Except that it was somewhat larger, it did not materially differ from the generality of maraes. An oblong pile of stones, about thirteen feet in height, and narrowing from the base upwards, stood between four quadrangular areas, loosely paved with