ll£ Porter's Voyage 



to some they are greatly superior, and after their death they rank 

 with the chief divinity. Besides the gods at the burying-place, 

 or morai, for so it is called by them, they have their household 

 gods, as well as small gods, which are hung round their necks, 

 generally made of human bones. Others are carved on the 

 handles of their fans, on their stilts, their canes, and more parti- 

 cularly on their war clubs. But these gods are not held in any 

 estimation ; they are sold, exchanged, and given away with the 

 same indifference as any other object, and indeed the most pre- 

 cious relic, the skulls and other bones of their relations, are dis- 

 posed of with equal indifference. 



In religion these people are mere children ; their morais are 

 their baby-houses, and their gods are their dolls. I have seen 

 Gattanewa with all his sons, and many others, sitting for hours 

 together clapping their hands and singing before a number of 

 little wooden gods laid out in small houses erected for the occa- 

 sion, and ornamented with strips of cloth. They were such 

 houses as a child would have made, of about two feet long and 

 eighteen inches high, and no less than ten or twelve of them in a 

 cluster, like a small village. By the side of these were several 

 canoes, furnished with their paddles, seines, harpoons, and other 

 fishing apparatus, and round the whole a line was drawn to show 

 that the place was tabooed. Within this line was Gattanewa and 

 others, like overgrown babies, singing and clapping their hands, 

 sometimes laughing and talking, and appearing to give their cere- 

 mony no attention. 



It remains for me now to say something of their domestic eco- 

 nomy, their furniture, utensils, and implements. I have already 

 described their houses, from which it will be seen that their apart- 

 ments are few, and that however numerous may be the family, 

 they have but one common sleeping place. This is covered with 

 dry grass, on which mats are spread for the chief persons ; the 

 servants and others sleep on the grass alone, or on mats if they 

 have them. It has been represented by former voyagers, that 

 the women of this great nation distributed among the South Sea 

 Islands, are not permitted to sit at meals with the men, or allowed 

 to eat pork on any occasion. Those people are an exception ; 

 men, women, and children eat together, although each have their 

 messes in separate dishes, and the women are not prohibited from 

 eating pork, except during the existence of taboos. Even then 

 they eat it, if the men are not present, or if they will only have 

 the complaisance to turn away their faces, and not seem to notice 

 them ; which they generally do. 



Among tribes not tabooed I have seen men and women eating 

 pork together, which was the case at Lewis's Bay, as I before 

 mentioned. The men and women are both remarkably fond of 



