i66 AVOYAGETO 



'777- wonder that they join to this many fuperftitious opinions 

 about its operations. Accordingly, they believe that fud- 

 den deaths, and all other accidents, are efFected by the im- 

 mediate action of fome divinity. If a man only flumble 

 againft a done, and hurt his toe, they impute it to an Ea- 

 tooa ; fo that they may be literally faid, agreeably to their 

 fyflem, to tread enchanted ground. They are ftartled, in 

 the night, on approaching a toopapaoo, where the dead are 

 expofed, in the fame manner that many of our ignorant 

 and fuperftitious people are with the apprehenfions of 

 ghofts, and at the fight of a church-yard ; and they have 

 an equal confidence in dreams, which they fuppofe to be 

 communications either from their God, or from the fpirits 

 of their departed friends, enabling thofe favoured with 

 them to foretell future events ; but this kind of knowledge 

 is confined to particular people. Omai pretended to have 

 this gift. He told us, that the foul of his father had inti- 

 mated to him in a dream, on the 26th of July 1776, that he 

 fliould go on fliore, at fome place, within three days ; but 

 he was unfortunate in this firfl attempt to perfuade us, that 

 he was a prophet ; for it was the ill of Auguil before we got 

 into Teneriffe. Amongft them, however, the dreamers pof- 

 fefs a reputation little inferior to that of their infpired 

 priefts and prieftcfles, whofc predicflions they implicitly be- 

 lieve, and arc determined by them in all undertakings of 

 confequence. The prieftefs who peifuaded Opoony to in- 

 vade Ulictea, is much refpccfled by him ; and he never goes 

 to war, without confuhing her. Theyalfo, in fome degree, 

 maintain our old doiftrine of planetary influence ; at lead, 

 they are fometimes regulated, in their public counfcls, by 

 certain appearances of the moon ; particularly, when lying 

 horizontally, or much inclined on the convex part, on its 



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