398 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
idea of a person’s condition in a future state being 
connected with his disposition and general conduct 
in this; but I never could learn that they ex¬ 
pected, 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 con¬ 
science, 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. 
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 through which the 
person died. If he had been cursed by the gods, 
the spirit would appear with aflame, fire being the 
agent employed in the incantation of the sorcerers; 
if pifaod , or killed, by the bribe 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 em¬ 
ployed, to avert the destruction of the surviving 
members of the family. A number of ceremonies 
