234 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
by that church to the heathen, and who has been 
the minister of the church in Sir Charles Sanders’ 
Island, an indefatigable, upright, intelligent, and 
useful man, as a Christian Missionary in the South 
Sea Islands, was the principal Areoi of Raiatea. 
He was the Taramanini of that island, until he 
embraced Christianity. 
They were a sort of strolling players, and privi¬ 
leged libertines, who spent their days in travelling 
from island to island, and from one district to 
another, exhibiting their pantomimes, and spread¬ 
ing a moral contagion throughout society. Great 
preparation was necessary before the mareva , or 
company, set out. Numbers of pigs were killed, 
and presented to Oro; large quantities of plantains 
and bananas, with other fruits, were also offered 
upon his altars. Several weeks were necessary to 
complete the preliminary ceremonies. The con¬ 
cluding parts of these consisted in erecting, .on 
board their canoes, two temporary maraes, or tem¬ 
ples, for the worship of Orotetefa and his brother, 
the tutelar deities of the society. This was merely 
a symbol of the presence of the gods; and con¬ 
sisted principally in a stone for each, from Oro’s 
marae, and a few red feathers from the inside of 
the sacred image. Into these symbols the gods 
were supposed to enter when the priest pronounced 
a short ubu , or prayer, immediately before the sail¬ 
ing of the fleet. The numbers connected with this 
fraternity, and the magnitude of some of their 
expeditions, will appear from the fact of Cook’s 
witnessing, on one occasion, in Huahine, the de¬ 
parture of seventy canoes filled with Areois. 
On landing at the place of destination, they pro¬ 
ceeded to the residence of the king or chief, and 
presented their marotai , or present; a similar 
