142 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS CH. vn 



means allow the same liberty, but would esteem their 

 victuals polluted if we touched them ; in some instances I 

 have seen them throw them away when we had inadvert- 

 ently defiled them by handling the vessels which contained 

 them. 



What can be the motive for so unsocial a custom I 

 cannot in any shape guess, especially as they are a people 

 in every other instance fond of society, and very much so of 

 their women. I have often asked them the reason, but they 

 have as often evaded the question, or answered merely that 

 they did it because it was right, and expressed much disgust 

 when I told them that in England men and women ate to- 

 gether, and the same victuals. They, however, constantly 

 affirm that it does not proceed from any superstitious 

 motive : Eatua, they say, has nothing to do with it. What- 

 ever the motive may be, it certainly affects their outward 

 manners more than their principles ; in the tents, for 

 example, we never saw an instance of the women partaking 

 of our victuals at our table, but we have several times seen 

 five or six of them go together into the servants' apartment 

 and there eat very heartily of whatever they could find. 

 Nor were they at all disturbed if we came in while they 

 were doing so, though we had before used all the entreaties 

 we were masters of to invite them to partake with us. 

 When a woman was alone with us, she would often eat 

 even in our company, but always extorted a strong promise 

 that we should not let her country-people know what she 

 had done. 



After their meals, and in the heat of the day, they often 

 sleep ; middle-aged people especially, the better sort of 

 whom seem to spend most of their time in eating or sleeping. 

 The young boys and girls are uncommonly lively and active, 

 and the old people generally more so than the middle-aged, 

 which perhaps is owing to their excessively dissolute 

 manners. 



Diversions they have but few : shooting with the bow is 

 the most usual I have seen at Otahite. It is confined 

 almost entirely to the chiefs ; they shoot for distance only, 



