142 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SOUTH SEA ISLANDS cu. v1 
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: Hatua, 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 
Wwe 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, 
