188 cook's voyage to jan t . 



guide immediately informed us, that in the one was 

 buried a man who had been sacrificed ; a Taata 

 (Tanata or Tangata, in this country) taboo (tqfoo, as 

 here pronounced); and in the other a hog, which had 

 also been made an offering to the divinity. At a little 

 distance from these, near the middle of the ??iorai, were 

 three more of these square inclosed places, with two 

 pieces of carved wood at each, and upon them a 

 heap of fern. These, we were told, were the graves 

 of three chiefs ; and before them was an oblong in- 

 closed space, to which our conductor also gave the 

 name of Tangata-taboo ; telling us, so explicitly, that 

 we could not mistake his meaning, that three human 

 sacrifices had been buried there ; that is, one at the 

 funeral of each chief. It was with most sincere con- 

 cern, that I could trace on such undoubted evidence, 

 the prevalence of these bloody rites throughout this 

 immense ocean, amongst people disjoined by such a 

 distance, and even ignorant of each other's existence, 

 though so strongly marked as originally of the same 

 nation. It was no small addition to this concern to 

 reflect that every appearance led us to believe 

 that the barbarous practice was very general here. 

 The island seemed to abound with such places of 

 sacrifice as this which we were now visiting, and 

 which appeared to be one of the most inconsiderable 

 of them ; being far less conspicuous than several others 

 which we had seen as we sailed along the coast, and 

 particularly than that on the opposite side of the 

 water in this valley ; the white henananoo, or pyramid, 

 of which we were now almost sure, derived its colour 

 only from pieces of the consecrated cloth laid over it. 

 In several parts within the inclosure of this burying- 

 ground, were planted trees of the cordia sebestina, 

 some of the morinda citrifolia, and several plants of 

 the etee, or jejee of Tongataboo, with the leaves of 

 which the hemanaa was thatched ; and as I observed 

 that this plant was not made use of in thatching their 

 dwelling-houses, probably it is reserved entirely for 

 religious purposes. 



