44 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. human flefh themfelves. And, yet, we have great reafon 
^September. there was a time when they were cannibals. 
We were told (and indeed partly faw it), that it is a necef- 
fary ceremony, when a poor wretch is facrificed, for the 
prieft to take out the left eye. This he prefents to the king, 
holding it to his mouth, which he defires him to open; but, 
infiead of putting it in, immediately withdraws it. This 
they call “ eating the man,” or “ food for the Chief and, 
perhaps, we may obferve here fome traces of former times, 
when the dead body was really feafted upon. 
But not to infiff upon this : it is certain, that human fa- 
crifices are not the only barbarous cuftom we find ftill pre¬ 
vailing amongft this benevolent, humane people. For, be- 
fides cutting out the jaw-bones of their enemies fiain in 
battle, which they carry about as trophies, they, in fome 
meafure, offer their bodies as a facrifice to the Eatooa. Soon 
after a battle, in which they have been vidtors, they col¬ 
lect all the dead that have fallen into their hands, and 
bring them to the morale where, with a great deal of cere¬ 
mony, they dig a hole, and bury them all in it, as fo many 
offerings to the gods ; but their fculls are never after taken 
up. 
Their own great Chiefs, that fall in battle, are treated in 
a different manner. We were informed, that their late 
king Tootaha, Tubourai-tamaide, and another Chief, who 
fell with them in the battle fought with thofe of Tiaraboo, 
were brought to this moral , at Attahooroo. There their 
bowels were cut out by the priefts, before the great altar; 
and the bodies afterward buried in three different places, 
which were pointed out to us, in the great pile of ffones, 
that compofe the moft confpicuous part of this moral . And 
their common men, who alfo fell in this battle, were all 
buried 
