1/77* THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 3 J 



of which the sacrifices had been ottered. After being 

 exposed for some time, that those who chose might 

 examine their appearances, the entrails were carried 

 to the priests and laid down before them. While one 

 of their number prayed, another inspected the en- 

 trails more narrowly and kept turning them gently with 

 a stick. When they had been sufficiently examined, 

 they were thrown into the fire and left to consume. 

 The sacrificed pig, and its liver, &c. were now put 

 upon the whatta, where the dog had been deposited 

 the day before ; and then all the feathers, except the 

 ostrich-plume, were inclosed with the Eatooa in the 

 ark ; and the solemnity finally closed. 



Four double canoes lay upon the beach, before the 

 place of sacrifice, all the morning. On the fore-part 

 of each of these was fixed a small platform covered 

 with palm-leaves tied in mysterious knots; and this 

 also is called a moral. Some cocoa-nuts, plantains, 

 pieces of bread-fruit, fish, and other things, lay upon 

 each of these naval morals. We were told that they 

 belonged to the Eaiooa, and that they were to attend 

 the fleet designed to go against Eimeo. 



The unhappy victim offered to the object of 

 their worship upon this occasion, seemed to be a 

 middle-aged man, and, as we were told, was a 

 towtow, that is, one of the lowest class of the people. 

 But, after all my inquiries, I could not learn that he 

 had been pitched upon on account of any particular 

 crime committed by him meriting death. It is cer- 

 tain, however, that they generally make choice of 

 such guilty persons for their sacrifice, or else of com- 

 mon low fellows, who stroll about from place to place 

 and from island to island, without having any fixed 

 abode, or any visible way of getting an honest liveli- 

 hood, of which description of men enough are to be 

 met with at these islands. Having had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining the appearance of the body of the 

 poor sufferer now offered up, I could observe that it 

 was bloody about the head and face, and a good deal 



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