436 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
who might themselves be devoured by other 
sharks. Cannibalism, though some deny its hav¬ 
ing been practised among themselves, is supposed 
to have existed in one of the islands at least, and 
is known, and universally acknowledged to prevail 
among those by which they are surrounded; and 
it is not considered by them improbable that some 
of their own countrymen have been eaten by the 
islanders among whom they have, from stress of 
weather, been cast. The men who had eaten their 
fellow-men, might have been, and perhaps often 
were, (as many of the cannibals inhabit the low 
coralline islands, and live by fishing,) eaten by 
sharks, which would sometimes be caught and 
eaten by the inhabitants of distant islands. 
After urging these and corresponding inquiries, 
which had exercised their minds, they would ask, 
After all these processes of new combination, will 
the original parts of every human body be re¬ 
united at the resurrection ? &c. On such occa¬ 
sions, the truth of the doctrine of the resurrection 
was exhibited, as demonstrated by the resurrection 
of Lazarus and of Christ; the identity of our 
Lord’s body, by his subsequent intercourse with 
the disciples, especially with Thomas; and the 
certainty of the general resurrection presented, as 
deduced from the numerous and explicit declara¬ 
tions of scripture, and the reasoning of the in¬ 
spired writers. The identity of the body was 
stated as being consistent with the character and 
moral government of God, which appeared to re¬ 
quire that the same body which had suffered for 
or in his cause on earth, should be glorified in 
heaven ; and that the same body which in union 
with the soul had been employed in rebellion and 
vice, should suffer the just consequences in a 
