SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
11 
to Hawaii, to whom sacrifices were made of the domestic 
animals, and offerings of fruits and votive gifts of ornaments, 
and particularly of the hair of their worshippers were dedi¬ 
cated. Of these the most remarkable was the goddess Peli, 
who was served by a peculiar priesthood, among which it 
appears that women were often enrolled, and it was not 
uncommon for them, and others of her more zealous votaries, 
to cause their bones, after death, to be thrown into some of 
the fiery fissures of the mountain where she is supposed to 
hold her court. 
Some of the traditions of Hawaii relate that its first in¬ 
habitants arrived in canoes, and brought with them hogs and 
dogs, the palm-tree and the bread-fruit: that, on landing, 
they were met by the fire-gods, and that it was some time 
before they were permitted to settle on the land; at length, 
however, having sacrificed a part of all they had to these 
deities, they were allowed to inhabit the island, the gods 
retiring to their dwellings in Kirauea, the crater on the 
flank of Mown a Roa*. 
The year of the Sandwich Islanders consists of thirteen 
months; it is regulated by the rising of the moon at a 
particular point of the heavens, and that event was formerly 
* It is to be hoped that the missionaries, whose acquaintance with the lan¬ 
guage, and intimacy with the people, afford them the means, will obtain a 
correct knowledge of the creed and ti’aditions of the Islanders, 
c 2 
