THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
13 
I fhall now return to our tranfaclions on fhore at the 1779. 
obfervatory, wnere we had not been long fettled before y 
we difcovered, in our neighbourhood, the habitations of a 
fociety of priefts, whofe regular attendance at the Moral 
had excited our curiolity. Their huts flood round a pond 
of water, and were furrounded by a grove of cocoa-nut 
trees, which feparated them from the beach and the reft 
of the village, and gave the place an air of religious retire¬ 
ment. On my acquainting Captain Cook with thefe cir- 
cumflances, he refolved to pay them a vifit; and, as he ex¬ 
pected to be received in the fame manner as before, he 
brought Mr. Webber with him to make a drawing of the 
ceremony 
On his arrival at the beach, he was conducted to a facred 
building called Harre-no-Orono , or the houfe of Orono , and 
feated before the entrance, at the foot of a wooden idol, of 
the fame kind with thofe on the Moral. I was here again 
made to fupport one of his arms; and, after wrapping him 
in red cloth, Kaireekeea, accompanied by twelve priefts, 
made an offering of a pig with the ufual folemnities. The 
pig was then ftrangled, and a fire being kindled, it was 
thrown into the embers, and after the hair was finged off, 
it was again prefented, with a repetition of the chanting, 
maica with the beef ferved by the vi&ualling office to the fhips, but not with the fame 
fuccefs, which he attributes to the want of the neceffary precautions in killing and hand¬ 
ling the beafts ; to their being hung up and opened before they had fufficient time to 
bleed, by which means the blood-veffels were expofed to the air, and the blood condenfed 
before it had time to empty itfelf; and to their being hard driven and bruifed. He adds, 
that having himfelf attended to the killing of an ox, which was carefully taken on board 
the Martin ., he falted a part of it, which at the end of the week was found to have taken 
the fait completely, and he has no doubt would have kept for any length of time $ but 
the experiment was not tried. 
* See Plate, Numb. LX. 
in 
