518 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
they expected, in the world of spirits, any difference in 
the treatment of a kind, generous, peaceful man, and 
that of a cruel, parsimonious, quarrelsome one. I am, 
however, inclined to think, from the great anxiety about 
a future state, which some have evinced when near death, 
that natural conscience, which I believe pronounced a 
verdict on the moral character of every action throughout 
their lives, is not always inactive in the solemn hour of 
dissolution, although its salutary effects were neutralized 
by the strength of superstition. i 
As soon as an individual was dead, the tahua tutera 
was employed, for the purpose of discovering the cause 
of the deceased person’s death. In order to effect this, the 
priest took his canoe, and paddled slowly along on the 
sea, near the house in which the body was lying, to watch 
the passage of the spirit; which they supposed would 
fly upon him, with the emblem of the cause for which the 
person had died. If he had been cursed by the gods, 
the spirit would appear with a flame, fire being the 
agent employed in the incantation of the sorcerers; if 
pifaod^ or killed, by the bribery of some enemy, given to 
the gods, the spirit would appear with a red feather, the 
emblem or sign of evil spirits having entered his food. 
After a short time, the tahua, or priest, returned to the 
house of the deceased, and told the survivors the cause 
of his death, and received his fee, the amount of which 
was regulated by the circumstances of the parties. 
The taata faatere, or faatubua, was then employed, to 
avert the destruction of the surviving members of the 
family. A number of ceremonies were performed and 
prayers offered, according to the cause of the death 
that had taken place; and when these were concluded, 
the priest, informing the family that he had been sue- 
