312 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
which the benevolent in those countries by which 
they had been injured, were now to impart; that 
intoxication was wholly forbidden by Jehovah, the 
God of Christians, who had declared that no 
drunkard should enter the kingdom of heaven. I 
then said, I was sorry to see her so deceived, and 
attempting to deceive others; told her she knew 
her pretensions were false, and recommended her 
to consider the consequences of idolatry, and 
cease to practise her deceptions; to recollect that 
she would one day die; that God had given her 
an opportunity of hearing of his love to sinners in 
the gift of his Son ; and that if she applied to him 
for mercy, although now an idolatrous priestess, 
she might be saved; but if she did not, a fearful 
doom awaited her. “ I shall not die/ 7 she ex¬ 
claimed, “ but ora no” (live spontaneously.) 
After replying to this, I retired ; but the spectators, 
who had manifested by their countenances that 
they were not uninterested in the discussion, con¬ 
tinued in earnest conversation for some time. The 
name of the priestess, we afterwards learned, was 
Oani. She resided in a neighbouring village, and 
had that morning arrived at Waiakea, on a visit 
to Maaro. 
When the national idolatry was publicly abolish¬ 
ed in the year 1819, several priests of Pel6 
denounced the most awful threatenings, of earth¬ 
quakes, eruptions, &c. from the gods of the vol¬ 
canoes, in revenge for the insult and neglect then 
shewn by the king and chiefs. But no fires 
afterwards appearing in any of the extinguished 
volcanoes, no fresh ones having broken out, and 
those then in action having since that period re¬ 
mained in a state of comparative quiescence, some 
of the people have been led to conclude, that the 
