136 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
place where they were first taken ; in both cases they 
appear to have endeavoured to preserve the body 
entire, or mangled as little as possible. The victims 
were generally despatched by a blow on the head with 
a elub or stone; sometimes, however, they were stab¬ 
bed. The number offered at a time varied according 
to circumstances, two, four, or seven, or ten, or even 
twenty, we have been informed, have been offered at 
once. When carried into the temple, every article of 
clothing they might have on was taken off, and they 
were laid in a row with their faces downwards, on the 
altar immediately before the idol. The priest then, in 
a kind of prayer, offered them to the gods ; and if any 
offerings of hogs were presented at the same time, they 
were afterwards piled upon them, lying at right angles 
across the human bodies, where the whole were left to 
rot and putrefy together. 
War was seldom declared without the approbation of 
the gods, obtained through the medium of the priests, 
though it is probable the answer of the diviners was 
given with due regard to the previously known views 
of the king and chiefs. 
Sometimes the question of war or peace was deli¬ 
berated in a public meeting of chiefs and warriors, and 
these popular assemblies furnished occasion for the 
most powerful displays of native eloquence, which, 
though never present at one of these councils, we 
should think, from the specimens we have heard re¬ 
peated, was, like that of their neighbours of the south¬ 
ern isles, at once bold in sentiment, beautiful in 
imagery, and powerful in effect. I never was more 
deeply affected than by the parting address of a war¬ 
rior in the South Sea Islands, when he was taking 
