PORTER'S JOURNAL. 
119 
were given up immediately, although they had belonged to his 
father, brother, or some neat* relation. Next day several appear¬ 
ed at the village with skulls to traffic for harpoons. A very old 
man came to the village as a representative from one of the tribes, 
and wishing to make me a present, and having nothing else to give 
me, took from his neck a string of bones cut in the form of their 
gods, and assured me they were the bones of his grandmother. 
In religion these people are mere children; their morals are 
their baby-houses, and their gods are their dolls. I have seen 
Gattanewa with all his sons, and many others sitting for hours to¬ 
gether clapping their hands and singing before a number of little 
wooden gods laid out in small houses erected for the occasion, 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 this were several canoes, furnished with 
their paddles, sienes, harpoons, and other fishing apparatus, and 
round the whole a line was drawn to show that the place was ta¬ 
booed; within this line was Gattanewa and others, like overgrown 
babies, singing and clapping their hands, sometimes laughing and 
talking, and appeared to give their ceremony no attention; he 
asked me if the place was not very fine; and it was on this occa¬ 
sion that he tabooed me, in order to give me an opportunity of 
approaching the gods and examining them more closely. The 
whole ceremony of tabooing me consisted in taking a piece of 
white cloth from the hole through his ear, and tying it around my 
hat as a band: I wore this badge for several days, and, simple as 
it was, every one I passed would call out taboo, and avoid touch¬ 
ing me. I inquired the cause of this ceremony of Gattanewa, 
and he told me he was going to catch tortoise for the gods, and that 
he should have to pray to them several days and nights for suc¬ 
cess, during which time he should be tabooed and dare not enter 
a house frequented by women. 
White among those people is considered sacred: a white flag 
is an emblem of peace, and a white flag marks out their taboo¬ 
ed and most sacred places; they have also a method of designa¬ 
ting the places which are tabooed by bundles of long sticks about, 
half the size of the wrist, with the bark stripped off and placed 
