1 777 THE pacific ocean. 157 



that the other would soon recover. His credulity 

 was such, that he swallowed the bait, and shared the 

 fate of the first. The natives then cut them in pieces, 

 which they buried ; and conferred the government 

 of the island on the brothers, as a reward for de- 

 livering them from such monsters. Their residence 

 was in the district called Whapaeenoo ; and, to this 

 day, there remains a bread-fruit tree, once the pro- 

 perty of the Taheeais, They had also a woman, who 

 lived with them, and had two teeth of a prodigious 

 size. After they were killed, she lived at the island 

 Otaha, and, when dead, was ranked amongst their 

 deities. She did not eat human flesh, as the men ; 

 but, from the size of her teeth, the natives still call 

 any animal that has a fierce appearance, or is repre- 

 sented with large tusks, Talieeai. 



Every one must allow, that this story is just as na- 

 tural as that of Hercules destroying the Hydra, or 

 the more modern one of Jack the giant-killer. But 

 I do not find, that there is any moral couched under 

 it, any more than under most old fables of the 

 same kind, which have been received as truths only 

 during the prevalence of the same ignorance that 

 marked the character of the ages in which they were 

 invented. It, however, has not been improperly in- 

 troduced, as serving to express the horror and detes- 

 tation entertained here against those who feed upon 

 human flesh. And yet, from some circumstances, I 

 have been led to think, that the natives of these isles 

 were formerly cannibals. Upon asking Omai, he 

 denied it stoutly ; yet mentioned a fact, within his 

 own knowledge, which almost confirms such an opi- 

 nion. When the people of Bolabola, one time, de- 

 feated those of Huaheine, a great number of his 

 kinsmen were slain. But one of his relations had, 

 afterward, an opportunity of revenging himself; when 

 the Bolabola men were worsted in their turn, and 

 cutting a piece out of the thigh of one of his enemies, 

 he broiled and eat it. I have also frequently con- 



