THROUGH HAWAII. 
395 
despatched with a club or a stone within the pre¬ 
cincts 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 gene¬ 
ral. 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 
it's demands. The females in particular felt all its 
humiliating and degrading force. From its birth, the 
child, if a female, was not allowed to be fed with a par¬ 
ticle of food that had been kept in the father’s dish, or 
cooked at his fire; and the little boy, after being weaned, 
was fed with his father’s food, and, as soon as he was 
able, sat down to meals with his father, while his mother 
was not only obliged to take her’s in an outhouse, but 
was interdicted from tasting the kind of which he ate. 
It is not surprising that the abolition of the tabu, 
effecting for them an emancipation so complete, and an 
amelioration so important, should be a subject of con¬ 
stant gratulation; and that every circumstance tending- 
in the smallest degree to revive the former tabu should 
be viewed with the most distressing apprehensions. 
The only tabu they now have is the Sabbath, which 
they call the La tabu, (day sacred,) and to its exten¬ 
sion and perpetuity those who understand it seem to 
have no objection. Philanthropy will rejoice that their 
fears respecting the former are not likely to be realized, 
for should Christianity not be embraced by some, and 
only nominally professed by others, so sensible are the 
