1?77^ THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 63 



" The next day (Wednesday), Towha and Potatou, 

 with about eight large canoes, arrived, and landed 

 near the moral. Many plantain-trees were brought, 

 on the part of different chiefs, to Otoo. Towha did 

 not stir from his canoe. The ceremony began by the 

 principal priest bringing out the maro, wrapped up, 

 and a bundle shaped like a large sugar-loaf. These 

 were placed at the head of what I understood to be a 

 grave. Then three priests came and sat down opposite, 

 that is, at the other end of the grave ; bringing with 

 them a plantain-tree, the branch of some other tree, 

 and the sheath of the flower of the cocoa-nut tree. 



" The priests, with these things in their hands, se- 

 parately repeated sentences ; and, at intervals, two, 

 and sometimes all three, sung a melancholy ditty, 

 little attended to by the people. This praying and 

 singing continued for an hour. Then, after a short 

 prayer, the principal priest uncoverd the maro ; and 

 Otoo rose up, and wrapped it about him, holding, at 

 thesame time, in his hand, a cap or bonnet, composed 

 of the red feathers of the tail of the tropic bird, mixed 

 with other feathers of a dark colour. He stood in 

 the middle space, facing the three priests, who con- 

 tinued their prayers for about ten minutes ; when a 

 man, starting from the crowd, said something which 

 ended with the word heiva ! and the crowd echoed 

 back to him, three times, Earee! This, as I had been 

 told before, was the principal part of the solemnity. 



" The company now moved to the opposite side of 

 the great pile of stones, where is what they call the 

 king's moral; which is not unlike a large grave. 

 Here the same ceremony was performed over again, 

 and ended in three cheers. The maro was now wrap- 

 ped up, and encreased in its splendour by the addition 

 of a small piece of red feathers, which one of the 

 priests gave Otoo when he had it on, and which he 

 stuck into it. 



" From this place the people went to a large hut, 

 close by the moral, where they seated themselves 

 in much greater order than is usual among them. A 



