21 
SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
<5 
9. Having instituted games * to commemorate her death, 
he embarked in a triangular boat [piama lau], and sailed to 
a foreign land. 
10. Ere he departed he prophesied, “ I will return in 
after times, on an island bearing coconut-trees, and swine, 
and dogsj\” 
There is nothing so flattering to the pride of intel¬ 
lect as the supposed power of foreseeing coming events: 
confined within its just limits, it is merely the result of 
judgment comparing various events, and arguing from a 
number of cases on the probabilities of the future. Hence 
the aged are in all states of society called on to counsel; 
and, as society advances, any set of men, not necessarily en¬ 
gaged in ordinary labour, and devoting themselves to the 
study of nature and the service of the gods, may be sup¬ 
posed to have had leisure to observe the actions and the 
fate of men, and thence calculate more surely on what is to 
happen ; they therefore also become counsellors. But from 
* The annual games called Makahiti were celebrated in honour of Rono. 
They consisted of wrestling, boxing, and other athletic exercises. 
-f* It was the promise or prophecy of Rono in this last verse that induced 
the natives to believe, on seeing Captain Cook’s ships, which they called motus 
or islands, that the Etuah Rono had returned to them, and to pay him divine 
honours. 
