TAIRI, THE WAR-GOD. 119 
further on, was another heiau, called Hale o Tain 
(house of Tairi.) It was built by Tamehameha 
soon after he had assumed the government of the 
island. Only one mutilated image was now stand¬ 
ing, though it is evident that, but a few years ago, 
there had been many. The natives were very 
desirous to shew us the place where the image of 
Tairi the war-god stood, and told us, that fre¬ 
quently in the evening he used to be seen flying 
about in the neighbourhood, in the form of a lumi¬ 
nous substance like a flame, or like the tail of a 
comet. We told them that the luminous appear¬ 
ance which they saw was an occurrence common 
to other countries, and produced by natural 
causes; that the natives of the Society Islands 
formerly, whenever they observed such a pheno¬ 
menon, supposed it to be Tane , one of their gods, 
taking his flight from one marae to another, or 
passing through the district seeking whom he 
might destroy, and were consequently filled with 
terror; but now, they wondered how they could 
ever have given way to such fears, from so inof¬ 
fensive a circumstance. We asked them if they 
did not see the same appearances now, though the 
god had been destroyed, and his worship discon¬ 
tinued ? They said, “ No; it has not been seen 
since the abolition of idolatry.” We assured them 
it did not proceed from the power of the god Tairi, 
but that it was a luminous vapour, under the con¬ 
trol of Jehovah, the creator and governor of all 
things which they beheld. 
We walked on to Pahoehoe, where we entered 
a large house, in which many workmen were em¬ 
ployed in making canoes. About fifty people 
soon after assembled around us. We asked them 
if they were willing to hear about the true God, 
