THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 
169 
cover. His credulity was fach, that he fwallowed the bait, 
and fhared the fate of the firft. The natives then cut them 
in pieces, which they buried; and conferred the govern¬ 
ment of the ifland on the brothers, as a reward for deliver¬ 
ing them from fuch monfters. Their refidence was in the 
diftricft called Whapaeenoo; and, to this day, there remains 
a bread-fruit tree, once the property of the Taheeais. They 
had alfo a woman, who lived with them, and had two teeth 
of a prodigious fize. After they were killed, fhe lived at 
the illand Otaha, and, when dead, was ranked amongft 
their deities. She did not eat human fiefti, as the men; 
but, from the fize of her teeth, the natives ftill call any 
animal that has a fierce appearance, or is reprefented with 
large tufks, c I'aheeaL 
Every one muff allow, that this ftory is juft as natural as 
that of Hercules deftroying the Hydra, or the more modem 
one of Jack the giant-killer. But I do not find, that there 
is any moral couched under it, any more than under moft 
old fables of the fame kind, which have been received as 
truths only during the prevalence of the fame ignorance 
that marked the charafter of the ages in which they were 
invented. It, however, has not been improperly introduced, 
as ferving to exprefs the horror and deteftation entertained 
here, againft thofe who feed upon human flefh. And yet, 
from fome circumftances, I have been led to think, that the 
natives of thefe ifles were formerly cannibals. Upon alking 
Omai, he denied it ftoutly; yet mentioned a facft, within his 
own knowledge, which almoft confirms fuch an opinion. 
When the people of Bolabola, one time, defeated thofe of 
Huaheine, a great number of his kinfmen were flain. But 
one of his relations had, afterward, an opportunity of re¬ 
venging himfelf, when the Bolabola men were worfted in 
Vol. IL Z their 
1777* 
December. 
