392 , 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
This appears to be the legitimate meaning of the 
word tabu, though the natives, when talking with 
foreigners, use it more extensively, applying it to every 
thing prohibited or improper. This, however, is only 
to accommodate the latter, as they use kaukau (a word 
of Chinese origin) instead of the native word for eat, 
and pikaninny , for small, supposing they are thereby 
better understood. 
The tabu separating whatever it was applied to 
from common use, and devoting it to the above pur¬ 
poses, was one of the most remarkable institutions 
among the South Sea Islanders ; and though it pre¬ 
vailed, with slight variations, in the different groups of 
the Pacific, it has not been met with in any other part 
of the world. Although employed for civil as well as 
sacred purposes, the tabu was entirely a religious cere¬ 
mony, and could be imposed only by the priests. A 
religious motive was always assigned for laying it 
on, though it was often done at the instance of the 
civil authorities ; and persons called Jciaimoku, (island 
keepers,) a kind of police officers, were always ap¬ 
pointed by the king to see that the tabu was strictly 
observed. 
The antiquity of the tabu was equal to the other 
branches of that superstition of which it formed so 
component a part, and its application was both general 
and particular, occasional and permanent. The idols, 
temples, persons, and names of the king, and members 
of the reigning family; the persons of the priests ; canoes 
belonging to the gods; houses, clothes, and mats of the 
king and priests; and the heads of men who were the 
devotees of any particular idol,—were always tabu, or 
sacred. The flesh of hogs, fowls, turtle, and several 
