U4 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
tain Cook, or represented in the plates which accompany his voy¬ 
age. In a large and handsome grove formed by bread-fruit, co¬ 
coa-nut and toa trees, (the tree of which the spears and war clubs 
are made) and a variety of other trees with which I am not ac¬ 
quainted, situated at the foot of a steep mountain by the side of a 
rivulet, and on a platform made after the usual manner, is a deity 
formed of hard stone, about the common height of a man, but 
larger proportioned every other way: it is in a squatting posture and 
is not badly executed; his ears and eyes are large, his mouth wide, 
his arms and legs short and small, and, on the whole is such a 
figure as a person would expect to meet among a people where 
the art of sculpture is in its infancy. Arranged on each side of 
him, as well as in the rear and front, are several others, of nearly 
equal size, formed of the wood of the bread-fruit tree; they are no 
more perfect in their proportions than the other, and appear to be 
made on the same model; probably they are copies, and the stone 
god may serve as the model of perfection for all the sculptures of 
the Island, as their household gods, their ornaments for the han¬ 
dles of their fans, their stilts, and, in fact, every representation of 
the figure of a man is made on the same plan. To the right and 
left of those gods are two obelisks, formed very fancifully and 
neatly of bamboos and the leaves of the palm and cocoa-nut trees 
interwoven, and the whole handsomely decorated with streamers 
©f white cloth, which give them a picturesque and elegant appear¬ 
ance; the obelisks are about thirty-five feet in height, and about 
the base of them were hung the heads of hogs and tortoises, as I 
was informed, as offerings to their sgods. On the right of this 
grove, distant only a few paces, were four splendid war canoes, 
furnished with their outriggers and decorated with ornaments of 
human hair, coral shells, &c. with an abundance of white stream¬ 
ers; their heads were placed toward the mountain, and in the stem 
©f each was a figure of a man with a paddle steering, in full dress, 
ornamented with plumes, earings made to represent those form¬ 
ed of whales’ teeth, and every other ornament of the fashion of 
the country. One of the canoes was more splendid than the 
others, and was situated nearer the grove. I inquired who the 
dignified personage might be who was seated in her stern, and 
was informed that this was the priest who had been killed, not 
