THIRD VOYAGE 285 



company him. To this he readily consented ; and we 

 immediately set out in my boat with my old friend Potatou, 

 Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Webber ; Omai following in a canoe. 



" As soon as we landed as Attahooroo, which was about 

 two o'clock in the afternoon, Otoo expressed his desire 

 that the seamen might be ordered to remain in the boat, 

 and that Mr. Anderson, Mr. Webber, and myself, might 

 take off our hats as soon as we should come to the morai, 

 to which we immediately proceeded, attended by a great 

 many men and some boys, but not one woman. We found 

 four priests and their attendants or assistants waiting for 

 us. 



" The ceremonies now began. One of the priest's atten- 

 dants brought a young plantain tree and laid it down before 

 Otoo. One of the priests seated at the morai now began 

 a long prayer. During this prayer a man who stood by 

 the officiating priest held in his hand two bundles, seemingly 

 of cloth. In one of them, as we afterwards found, was 

 the royal maro ; and the other, if I may be allowed the 

 expression, was the ark of the Eatooa. As soon as the 

 prayer was ended, the priests at the morai, with their 

 attendants, went and sat down by those upon the beach, 

 carrying with them the two bundles. Here they renewed 

 their prayers. The dead body was now taken out of a 

 canoe and laid upon the beach, with the feet to the sea. 

 The priests placed themselves around it, some sitting and 

 others standing, and one or more of them repeated sentences 

 for about ten minutes. It was now laid in a parallel 

 direction with the sea-shore. One of the priests then 

 standing at the feet of it pronounced a long prayer, in 

 which he was at times joined by the others, each holding 

 in his hand a tuft of red feathers. In the course of this 

 prayer some hair was pulled off the head of the sacrifice, 

 and the left eye taken out, both of which were presented to 

 to Otoo wrapped up in a green leaf. He did not, however, 

 touch it, but gave to the man who presented it the tuft of 

 feathers which he had received from Towha. This, with 

 the hair and eye, was carried back to the priests* During 

 some part of this last ceremony, a king-fisher making a 

 noise in the trees, Otoo turned to me, saying, ' That is the 

 Eatooa I and seemed to look upon it to be a good omen. 



" The body was then carried a little way with its head 

 toward the morai and laid under a tree, near which were 

 fixed three broad thin pieces of wood, differently but rudely 

 carved. The bundles of cloth were laid on a part of the 

 morai, and the tufts or red feathers were placed at the feet 

 of the sacrifice, round which the priests took their stations, 

 and we were now allowed to go as near as we pleased. He 



