POLYNESIAN RESEAECHES. 
45 
and women eat separately^ cannibalism prevails^ and 
they are much addicted to gaming. War is determined, 
and its results predicted, by observing the entrails of the 
animals offered in sacrifice | these all prevail in the isles 
of the Pacific. 
The principal portion of the marriage ceremony, 
in some of these islands, consists in the bride¬ 
groom throwing a piece of cloth over the bride, 
or the friends throwing it over both. This is also 
practised among the Tahitians. The bodies of the 
dead are kept by the inhabitants" of the Caroline 
Islands, in a manner resembling the tupapaus of 
Tahiti 3 and, in the Ladrones, they feast round the 
tomb, and offer food, &c. to the departed. This 
practice also prevailed extensively in the South Sea 
Islands. 
In the former also, according to the accounts of 
the Jesuit Missionaries, a licentious society existed, 
called by the people Uritoy^ strikingly analogous, in 
all its distinguishing features, to that institution in 
the South Seas called the Areoi society. Their im¬ 
plements of war are alike. Dr. Buchanan states, 
that in Pulo Panang he saw a chief of the Malay 
tribe, who had a staff, the head of which was orna¬ 
mented with a bushy lock of human hair, which the chief 
had cut from the head of his enemy when he lay dead at 
his feet. This exactly accords with the conduct of the 
Marquesans ; many of whose clubs, and even walking- 
sticks, I have seen decorated with locks of human hair 
taken from those slain in battle. 
Between the canoes and the language, of these islands 
and the southern groups, there is a more close re¬ 
semblance. Their language has a remarkably close afii- 
