i?7^- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 151 



on account of the Moral adjoining ; which they are 

 prohibited, at all times, and in all the islands of those 

 seas, from approaching. Mention hath been already 

 made, that women are always tabooed, or forbidden 

 to eat certain kind of meats. We also frequently saw 

 several at their meals, who had the meat put into 

 their mouths by others ; and, on our asking the reason 

 of this singularity, were told that they were tabooed or 

 forbidden to feed themselves. This prohibition, we un- 

 derstood, was always laid on them, after they had assist- 

 ed at any funeral, or touched a dead body, and also on 

 other occasions. It is necessary to observe, that, on 

 these occasions, they apply the word taboo indiffer- 

 ently both to persons and things. Thus they say, 

 the natives were tabooed, or the bay was tabooed, and 

 so of the rest. This word is also used to express any 

 thing sacred, or eminent, or devoted. Thus the king 

 of Owhyhee was called Eree-taboo ; a human victim 

 tangata-taboo ; and, in the same manner, among the 

 Friendly Islanders, Tonga, the island where the king 

 resides, is named Tonga-taboo. 



Concerning their manages, I can afford the reader 

 little farther satisfaction than informing him that 

 such a relation or compact exists amongst them. I 

 have already had occasion to mention, that at the 

 time Terreeoboo had left his queen Rora-rora at 

 Mowee, he was attended by another woman, by 

 whom he ;had children, and to whom he was very 

 much attached; but how far polygamy, properly 

 speaking, is allowed, or how far it is mixed with con- 

 cubinage, either with respect to the king, the chiefs, 

 or among the inferior orders, too few facts came to 

 our knowledge to justify any conclusions. It hath 

 also been observed, that, except Kainee Kabareea, 

 and the wife of the Orono, with three women whom 

 I shall have occasion hereafter to mention, we never 

 saw any female of high rank. 



From what I had an opportunity of observing of 

 the domestic concerns of the lowest class, the house 



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