THE TABU. 
389 
generally in the evening, requiring every light to 
be extinguished, the path by the sea to be left for 
the king, the paths inland to be left for the gods, 
&c. The people, however, were generally pre¬ 
pared, having had previous warning; though this 
was not always the case. Sometimes it was laid 
on by fixing certain marks called unu unu , the 
purport of which was well understood, on the 
places or things tabued. When the fish of a certain 
part are tabued, a small pole is fixed in the rocks 
on the coast, in the centre of the place, to which 
is tied a bunch of bamboo leaves, or a piece of 
white cloth. A cocoa-nut leaf is tied to the stem 
of a tree, when the fruit is tabued. The hogs 
which were tabu, having been devoted to the gods, 
had a piece of cinet woven through a perforation 
in one of their ears. 
The prohibitions and requisitions of the tabu 
were strictly enforced, and every breach of them 
punished with death, unless the delinquents had 
some very powerful friends who were either priests 
or chiefs. They were generally offered in sacrifice, 
strangled, or despatched with a club or a stone 
within the precincts of the heiau, or they were 
burnt, as stated by Miomioi. 
An institution so universal in its influence, and 
so inflexible in its demands, contributed very 
materially to the bondage and oppression of the 
natives in general. The king, sacred chiefs, and 
priests, appear to have been the only persons to 
whom its application was easy; the great mass of 
the people were at no period of their existence 
exempt from its influence, and no circumstance in 
life could excuse their obedience to its demands. 
The females, in particular, felt all its humiliating 
