238 cook's first voyage 17^9. 



But though the priesthood has laid the people un- 

 der no tax for a nuptial benediction, there are two 

 operations which it has appropriated, and from which 

 it derives considerable advantages. One is tattowing, 

 and the other circumcision, though neither of them 

 have any connection with religion. The tattowing 

 has been described already. Circumcision has been 

 adopted merely from motives of cleanliness ; it can- 

 not indeed properly be called circumcision, because 

 the prepuce is not mutilated by a circular wound, 

 but only slit through the upper part to prevent its 

 contracting over the glans. As neither of these can 

 be performed by any but a priest, and as to be with- 

 out either is the greatest disgrace, they may be con- 

 sidered as a claim to surplice fees like our marriages 

 and christenings, which are cheerfully and liberally 

 paid, not according to any settled stipend, but the 

 rank and abilities of the parties or their friends. 



The Morai, as has already been observed, is at 

 once a burying-ground and a place of worship, and 

 in this particular our churches too much resemble it. 

 The Indian, however, approaches his Morai with a 

 reverence and humility that disgraces the Christian, 

 not because he holds any thing sacred that is there, 

 but because he there worships an invisible divinity, 

 for whom, though he neither hopes for reward, nor 

 fears punishment at his hand, he always expresses 

 the profoundest homage and most humble adoration. 

 I have already given a very particular description 

 both of the Morais and the altars that are placed near 

 them. When an Indian is about to worship at the 

 Morai, or brings his offering to the altar, he always 

 uncovers his body to the waist, and his looks and at- 

 titude are such as sufficiently express a correspond- 

 ing disposition of mind. 



It did not appear to us that these people are, in 

 any instance, guilty of idolatry ; at least they do not 

 worship any thing that is the work of their hands, 

 nor any visible part of the creation. This island, in- 



