TAIRI, THE WAR-GOD. 119 
further on, was another heiau, called Hale o Tain 
(house of Tairi.) It was built by Tamehameha 
soon after he had assumed the government of the 
island. Only one mutilated image was now stand 
ing, though it is evident that, but a few years ago, 
there had been many. The natives were very 
desirous to shew us the place where the image of 
Tairi the war-god stood, and told us, that fre¬ 
quently in the evening he used to be seen flying 
about in the neighbourhood, in the form of a lumi¬ 
nous substance like a flame, or like the tail of a 
comet. We told them that the luminous appear¬ 
ance which they saw was an occurrence common 
to other countries, and produced by natural 
causes; that the natives of the Society Islands 
formerly, whenever they observed such a pheno¬ 
menon, supposed it to be Tane , one of their gods, 
taking his flight from one marae to another, or 
passing through the district seeking whom he 
might destroy, and were consequently filled with 
terror; but now, they wondered how they could 
ever have given way to such fears, from so inof¬ 
fensive a circumstance. We asked them if they 
did not see the same appearances now, though the 
god had been destroyed, and his worship discon¬ 
tinued ? They said, “ No; it has not been seen 
$ince the abolition of idolatry.” We assured them 
it did not proceed from the power of the god Tairi, 
but that it was a luminous vapour, under the con¬ 
trol of Jehovah, the creator and governor of all 
things which they beheld. 
We walked on to Pahoehoe, where we entered 
a large house, in which many workmen were em¬ 
ployed in making canoes. About fifty people 
soon after assembled around us. We asked them 
if they were willing to hear about the true God, 
