302 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
and revengeful beings. The flag of one of the 
first vessels hanging from the ship into the water, 
a native approached, and took a piece of it away; 
this being perceived, he was fired at, and wounded, 
as they all supposed, by the thunder. 
When we consider this, we shall not be sur¬ 
prised at their ideas of the source of motion in the 
ball. The opinion of its being blown from the 
mouth of the musketeer, has long been corrected ; 
still the name is retained, and a cannon is called 
pupuhi fenna , to blow land, or country, from its 
contents spreading over a wide tract of country ; 
the musket they call pupuhi roa, long gun; the 
blunderbuss vaharahi, wide or great mouth; the pis¬ 
tol pupuhi teuumu; a swivel, pupuhi tioi , turning 
gun; the bullets or balls they call ofai , or stones. 
Arms, ammunition, and ardent spirits, were form¬ 
erly the principal articles in demand by all classes; 
and being the most valuable kinds of barter, they 
maintained a high price. Ten or twelve hogs, 
worth at least from one to two pounds a head, was, 
for a long time, the regular price of a musket; and 
one hundred pigs have been paid for a cannon. I 
have seen upwards of seventy tied up on the beach, 
at Fa-re, as the price of a single old cannon, which 
had been preserved from the wreck of an English 
vessel, at another island. These articles have, 
however, long ceased to be in demand among the 
Tahitians. 
It does not appear that their wars were more 
sanguinary and cruel when they fought at a dis¬ 
tance with muskets, than when they grappled hand 
to hand with club and spear. The numbers killed 
might be greater, but fewer were wounded. 
Although familiar with the musket during their 
last wars, they are by no means expert marksmen: 
