894 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
must grunt, no cock must crow,—or the tabu would be 
broken, and fail to accomplish the object designed. 
On these occasions they tied up the mouths of the 
dogs and pigs, and put the fowls under a calabash, or 
fastened a piece of cloth over their eyes. All the 
common people prostrated themselves, with their faces 
touching the ground, before the sacred chiefs, when 
they walked out, particularly during tabu; and neither 
the king nor the priests were allowed to touch any 
thing,—even their food was put into their mouths by 
another person. 
The tabu was imposed either by proclamation, when 
the crier or herald of the priests went round, 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 prepared, having had previous warning; 
though this was not always the case. Sometimes it 
was laid on by fixing certain marks called unu unit, 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 de¬ 
voted to the gods, had a piece of cinet woven through a 
perforation in one of their ears. 
The prohibitions and requsitions 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 
