216 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
number of men^ with ropes round their necks, have been 
also led to the temple^ and presented before the idol. 
The prayers of the priests have often been interrupted 
by the ejaculatory addresses of the nien^ calling by name^ 
and exclaiming not angry^ or let thy wrath be 
appeased; here we are: look on us^ and be satisfied^'"* &c. 
It does not appear that these men were actually sacri¬ 
ficed^ but probably they appeared in this humiliating 
manner^ with ropes about their necks^ to propitiate the 
deity, and to shew their readiness to die, if it should be 
required. 
While these ceremonies were observed, the progress of 
the disease was marked, by the friends of the afflicted, 
with intense anxiety. If recovery followed, it was attri¬ 
buted to the pacification of the deities; but if the disease 
increased, or terminated fatally, the god was regarded as 
inexorable, and was usually banished from the temple, 
and his image destroyed. 
Religious rites were connected with almost every act 
of their lives. An uhu or prayer was offered before they 
ate their food, when they tilled their ground, planted 
their gardens, built their houses, launched their canoes, 
cast their nets, and commenced or concluded a journey. 
Numerous ceremonies were performed at the birth of 
any child of rank, at marriages, and interments. The first 
fish taken periodically on their shores, together with a 
number of kinds regarded as sacred, were conveyed to 
the altar. The first-fruits of their orchards and gardens 
were also taumaha, or offered, with a portion of their 
live-stock, which consisted of pigs, dogs, and fowls, as 
it was supposed death would be inflicted on the owner 
or the occupant of the land, from which the god should 
not receive such acknowledgment. 
