1()8 REiMARKS AND OPINIOI^^S. 



Radack with religious ideas, and cannot be undev- 

 taken without certain divine tokens.* The persons 

 who desire to be tattooed pass the night in a house, 

 on which the chief; who is to perform the operation, 

 invokes the god ; an audible tone, or whistle, is said 

 to give his consent. If tlie token does not appear, 

 the operation is not performed. Hence some per- 

 sons never undergo it. If they were to transgress 

 in this respect, the sea would inundate the island, 

 and all the land be destroyed. The sea alone 

 threatens these islands, and religious faith often 

 suspends this rod over man. Against this, however, 

 conjurations prevail. Kadu saw the sea rising at 

 Radack, as far as the feet of the cocoa-trees, but 

 it was conjured in time, and retired within its own 

 limits. He named to us two men and one woman, 

 at Radack, who understood this conjuration. 



The desert island-group of Bygar has its peculiar 

 god. The god of Bygar is blind, he has two young 

 sons, of the name of Rigabuil, and the people who 

 visit Bygar call each other, as long as they stay 

 there, Rigabuil, that the blind god may take them 

 for his sons, and do good to them. Ajiis must not 

 be called upon in Bygar, the god would punish 



* Our friends always refused, on various pretences, to confer 

 this ornament on us. They often represented to us the serious 

 consequences, the swelhng of tlie linils, the severe illness. A 

 chief of Aur once appointed one of us to pass the night at his 

 house, that he might tattoo him the following morning ; but 

 when the morning came, he repeatedly evaded the importunity 

 of hir- ;^uefct. 



