jackson's story. 
579 
having drank too much, he went into the bush, laid down 
amongst the trees and fell asleep,, and so soundly, that when 
his companions called him he did not awake, neither could 
they find him : having called and searched for some time, 
they left and returned to the ship. 
When he awoke, he got up and searched for the boat, but 
found to his dismay it had gone, he looked about, and saw 
two natives on a small island, only separated from the one he 
was on by a deep narrow channel; he fled and concealed 
himself. Afterwards four men landed from a canoe on his 
island ; they sat down with their backs turned towards him ; 
he approached without noise, crawling on his hands and knees : 
when he reached them, which he did unseen, he stood up. 
The natives were so much alarmed at the sudden apparition 
of a white man, that they fell down flat on the ground, as 
though they were dead ; afterwards they arose, and sang a 
song to him, most probably it was a karakia, as they would 
take him for a god, for most black tribes think the gods and 
spirits of ancestors are white. 
After some time, they beckoned him to follow them, which 
he did ; he was led inland about ten miles ; as they went, 
they crossed a brook ; he was going to drink, when they 
pulled him back, fearing, perhaps, if he did so, that the 
water would be tapu, and they could not afterwards drink 
of it without dying ; but one of them offered him some 
urine in a clam shell to drink ; The New Zealand natives 
think that the inhabitants of the fteinga or Hades feed on 
human excrement and drink urine, and this appears to have 
a reference to a similar idea ; they might further suppose, if 
permitted to partake of earthly food, he would not be able to 
return to Purutu, or Paradise, as the Tonga natives report was 
the case with their first ancestors. After passing through 
beautiful cultivations, bordered with fences of reed, and 
intersected by narrow roads, they came to a village ; he was 
taken to a large court surrounded with cocoa-nut trees, and 
placed by the side of a Chief, whose wife was sitting on the 
other side of him. 
They then offered him a raw taro, which he refused, and 
p p 2 
