POLYNESIANS AND ASIATICS. 117 
Varuna and Vahni are among the gods of the 
Hindoos ; the latter, among the eight guardian 
deities of the world, appears to have been the 
Neptune of the Bramins, as we learn from the 
following lines in Sir W. Jones’s beautiful trans¬ 
lation of the hymn to Indra ; “ Green Varuna, 
whom foaming waves obey:” and also, “ Vahni 
flaming like the lamp of day.” Both the terms in 
the South Sea language for spirit, or spiritual 
being, bear a strong resemblance to these names ; 
the one being varua , in which the n only is omit¬ 
ted; and in many words, as they are used among 
the other islanders, some of their consonants are 
omitted by the Tahitians. Vaiti is also another 
apparently more ancient term for spirit used by 
them, which somewhat resembles the Vahni of 
the Hindoos. Bishop Heber, the most recent 
Writer on the usages and appearance of the Hin¬ 
doos, informs us, in his admirable Journal, that 
many things which he saw among the inhabitants 
of India, especially of Ceylon, reminded him of the 
plates in Cook’s voyages. 
The points of resemblance between the Polyne¬ 
sians and the Malayan inhabitants of Java, Suma¬ 
tra, and Borneo, and the Ladrone, Caroline, and 
Philippine Islands, are still greater. In some parts 
the word for god or spirit is dew a. Among the 
Battas of Sumatra, men and women eat separately, 
cannibalism prevails, and they are much addicted 
to gaming. War is determined, and its results 
predicted, by observing the entrails, and the 
appearance, 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 bridegroom 
throwing a piece of cloth over the bride, or the 
