of Lord North’s Island. 225 
small vegetable somewhat like the yam; but they were unsuc- 
cessful in cultivating it during the stay of the Americans. With 
these slender supplies, they are barely kept from actual death by 
famine, but are continually on the verge of starving; and when 
any one of them begins to fail for want of food, so that his death 
is pretty certain, they turn him off from among them, to starve to 
death. 
They are not without some religious notions; and they have a 
rudely built hut, about fifty feet long and thirty feet wide, which 
is their place of public worship. In the centre of this, there is 
suspended a sort of altar, into which they suppose their deity 
comes to hold communication with their priests; and a brief ac- 
count of one of their religious ceremonies, as described by the 
seamen, will not be uninteresting. 
At the beginning of the ceremony the priest walks round the 
altar just described, and takes from it a mat, appropriated to the 
purpose, and lays it upon the ground. He then seats himself 
upon it, and begins to make a hooting noise, at the same time 
throwing himself into a variety of attitudes, for the purpose, as is 
supposed, of calling down the divinity into the altar. At inter- 
vals the congregation sing, but instantly stop when the priest 
breaks out in his devotions. By the side of the altar is always 
placed a large bowl and six cocoa-nuts. After this kind of in- 
cantation is gone through, and the divinity is supposed to be 
present, the bowl is turned up and four of the nuts are broken 
and put into it, two being reserved for the exclusive use of the 
priest, who, as well as their divinity, is called by the name of 
Yarris. As soon as the nuts are broken, one of the company 
begins to shout, and, rushing to the centre, seizes the bowl and 
drinks of the milk of the nut, generally spilling a considerable part 
