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REMARKS 



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THE 



HELicroN. xarved human head on the top. 



The old man who lived in the 



above houfe, intimated to me by figns, that it was his burying 

 place, but as we were then in queft of Heebai the Captain's friend, 

 in order to prefent him with a boar and a little fow, I had not time 

 to inquire more particularly, efpeciailly as it was the laft day befom 



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our departure, and I was defirous of colleding fome birds and 

 plants which I had feen, and which were not eafily to be obtained. 

 Thefe fepulcres with the carved figure of a human head, feem to 

 intimate that the natives of thi^ illand had almoft the fame manner 

 of burying the dead, and of fixing a human figure or a Teehce 

 near it, as the inhabitants of Taheitee- 



The whole account of the religion, worfhip, and various rites in ufe 

 among the inhabitants of the iflands in the South Sea, fhewthat it is 

 the leafl exceptionable fyiliem of polytheifiB. It has the flamp of all 

 the inventions and v^rks of mankind in its imperfecftion and error j 

 but it is in my opinion lefs cruel, and not fo much clogged with 

 Xuperflition as many others, which were or ftill are in ufe among 

 nations who are reputed to be more civilized and more improved. 

 Their religion requires of its votaries a kind of worfhip, it teaches 



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them to look upon the deity as the giver of all good gifts, as the 

 being who hears their prayers, and is willing to affifl mankind 

 when invoked, and to reward the good: and thefe doctrines 



afford the only origin of all honefly, faith, and juftice^ or in a 



word 



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