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MISSIONARY TOUR 
boxing and wrestling were instituted to his honour. 
As soon as Captain Cook arrived, it was supposed, and 
reported, that the god Rono was returned; the priests 
clothed him with the sacred cloth worn only by the 
god, conducted him to their temples, sacrificed animals 
to propitiate his favour, and hence the people pros¬ 
trated themselves before him as he walked through the 
villages. But when, in the attack made upon him, they 
saw his blood running, and heard his groans, they said, 
“No, this is not Rono.” Some, however, after his 
death, still supposed him to be Rono, and expected he 
would appear again. Some of his bones, his ribs, and 
breastbone,* were considered sacred, as part of Rono, 
and deposited in a heiau (temple) dedicated to Rono, 
on the opposite side of the island. There religious 
homage was paid to them, and from thence they were 
annually carried in procession to several other heiaus, 
or borne by the priests round the island, to collect the 
offerings of the people, for the support of the worship 
of the god Rono. The bones were preserved in a small 
basket of wicker-work, completely covered over with 
red feathers; which in those days were considered to 
* Captain King was led to suppose that the bones of the trunk 
were burnt with the flesh. Part of them probably were so dis 
posed of, but not the whole. It appears that none of them were 
returned; for, describing those brought to Captain Clarke, which 
were all they received, he says, “ When we arrived at the beach, 
Eappo came into the pinnace, and delivered to the captain the 
bones wrapped up in a large quantity of fine new cloth, and 
covered with a spotted cloak of black and white feathers. We 
found in it both the hands of Captain Cook entire, which were 
well known, from a remarkable scar on one of them, that divided 
the thumb from the forefinger, the whole length of the metacar¬ 
pal bone; the skull, but with the scalp separated from it, and 
the bones that form the face wanting; the scalp, with the hair 
upon it cut short, and the ears adhering to it; the bones of both 
