230 cook's VOYAGE TO FEB. 



which we are not as yet sufficiently acquainted, to be 

 decisive about ; and I shall only just observe, to show 

 the similitude in other matters connected with reli- 

 gion, that the priests, or tahounas, here, are as nu- 

 merous as at the other islands, if we may judge from 

 our being able, during our stay, to distinguish several 

 saying their poore, or prayer. 



But whatever resemblance we might discover, in 

 the general manners of the people of Atooi to those 

 of Otaheite, these of course were less striking than 

 the coincidence of language. Indeed, the languages 

 of both places may be said to be almost word for word 

 the same. It is true, that we sometimes remarked 

 particular words to be pronounced exactly as we had 

 found at New Zealand and the Friendly Islands ; 

 but though all the four dialects are indisputably the 

 same, these people in general have neither the strong 

 guttural pronunciation of the former, nor a less de- 

 gree of it, which also distinguishes the latter ; and 

 they have not only adopted the soft mode of the 

 Otaheiteans in avoiding harsh sounds, but the whole 

 idiom of their language, using not only the same 

 affixes and suffixes to their words, but the same 

 measure and cadence in their songs, though in a 

 manner somewhat less agreeable. There seems, in- 

 deed, at first hearing, some disagreement to the ear 

 of a stranger, but it ought to be considered, that the 

 people of Otaheite, from their frequent connections 

 with the English, had learnt, in some measure, to 

 adapt themselves to our scanty knowledge of their 

 language, by using not only the most common, but 

 even corrupted, expressions in conversation with us ; 

 whereas, when they conversed among themselves 

 and used the several parts necessary to propriety of 

 speech, they were scarcely at all understood by those 

 amongst us, who had made the greatest proficiency in 

 their vocabulary. A catalogue of words was col- 

 lected at Atooi by Mr. Anderson, who lost no oppor- 

 tunity of making our voyage useful to those who 



