36 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
\ 
confined to the Windward Islands; and so general 
was its prevalence, that Pomare one day said to 
Mr. Nott, “ If this had been a fatal or killing 
disease, like that from Vancouver’s ship, no indi¬ 
vidual would have survived.” 
As it began to subside, a canoe, called Hare - 
aino , arrived from the Leeward Islands, and after 
remaining a week or two at Tahiti, returned to 
Huahine. Shortly after this, the people who had 
been in the canoe were attacked, and the disease 
ultimately spread as completely through this 
group, as it had through that at which the foreign 
vessel touched. Within the last two years, a 
disorder, in many respects similar to that left by 
the crew of Vancouver’s vessel, has again swept 
through the islands, and carried off numbers of the 
people. 
The diseases formerly prevailing among the 
South Sea Islanders were comparatiyely few; 
those from which they now suffer are principally 
pulmonary, intermittent, and cutaneous. The 
most fatal are, according to their account, of 
recent origin. While idolaters, they were accus¬ 
tomed to consider every bodily affliction as the 
result of the anger of their gods; and the priest 
was a more important personage, in time of sick¬ 
ness, than the physician. Native practitioners, 
who were almost invariably priests or sorcerers, 
were accustomed to apply such healing remedies 
as the islands afforded ; and an invocation to some 
spirit or god attended the administration of every 
medicine. Tama, Taaroatuihono, Eteate, and 
Rearea, were the principal gods of physic and sur¬ 
gery. The former, in particular, was invoked for 
the cure of fractures and bruises. 
From the gods the priests pretended to have 
