1769. they know how to tune two drums of different

notes into concord. They have also an expedient to bring the flutes that play together into unifon, which is to roll up a leaf fo as to flip over the end of the fhorteft, like our fliding tubes for telescopes, which they move up or down till the purpose is anfwered, of which they seem to judge by their ear with great nicety.

To thefe inftruments they fing; and, as I have obferved before, their fongs are often extempore: they call every two verses or couplet a fong, Pebay; they are generally, though not always, in rhime; and when pronounced by the natives, we could discover that they were metre. Mr. Banks took great pains to write down fome of them which were made upon our arrival, as nearly as he could express their founds by combinations of our letters; but when we read them, not having their accent, we could fcarcely make them either metre or rhime. The reader will eafily perceive that they are of very different structure.

Of thefe verfes our knowledge of the language 1769. is too imperfect to attempt a tranflation. They frequently amuse themselves by finging fuch couplets as thefe when they are alone, or with their families, efpecially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not without the comfort of artificial light between funfet and bed-time. Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the fecond, at the fame time confuming that part of the fkewer which goes through it; the second taking fire burns in the fame manner down to the third, and fo of the reft: fome of thefe candles will burn a confiderable time, and they give a very tolerable light. They do not often fit up above an hour after it is dark; but when they have strangers who fleep in the house, they generally keep a light burning all night, poffibly as a check upon fuch of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours.

Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been faid already; especially as I fhall have occafion, more particularly, to mention them when I relate our adventures upon an"other island.

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are fuppofed to be wholly ignorant of what

1769. what others upon fome occafions may appear to know; and their conduct and conversation are confequently restrained within narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever relates to a connexion with the other fex: but here, it is juft contrary. Among other diverfions, there is a dance, called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, confifting of motions and geftures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were poffible, would more explicitly convey the fame ideas. In thefe dances they keep time with an exactness which is fcarcely excelled by the best performers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin, is prohibited to the woman from the moment that he has put thefe hopeful leffons in practice, and realized the fymbols of the dance.

It cannot be fuppofed that, among these people, chastity is held in much eftimation. It might be expected that fifters and daughters would be offered to ftrangers, either as a cour tefy, or for reward; and that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, fhould not be otherwise punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a flight beating, as indeed is the cafe: but there is a scale in diffolute fenfuality, which

thefe

these people have afcended, wholly unknown to every other nation whofe manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the prefent hour, and which no imagination could poffibly conceive.

A very confiderable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both fexes, have formed themselves into a fociety, in which every woman is common to every man; thus fecuring a perpetual variety as often as their inclination prompts them to feek it, which is fo frequent, that the same man and woman feldom cohabit together more than two or three days.

These focieties are diftinguished by the name of Arreoy; and the members have meetings, at which no other is prefent, where the men amufe themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occafional connexion with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude, as an incitement to defires which it is faid are frequently gratified upon the fpot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If any of the women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens lefs frequently than if they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor infant is fmothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her diabolical proftitution. It fometimes indeed happens, that the paffion which prompts a woman to VOL. III.

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enter into this fociety, is furmounted when she becomes a mother, by that inftinctive affection which Nature has given to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring; but even in this cafe, fhe is not permitted to fpare the life of her infant, except she can find a man who will patronife it as his child: if this can be done, the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman, being deemed by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of the Arreoy for the future; the woman from that time being diftinguished by the term Whannownow," bearer of children," which is here a term of reproach; though none can be more honourable in the eftimation of wisdom and humanity, of right reafon, and every paffion that diftinguishes the man from the brute.

It is not fit that a practice fo horrid and fo strange should be imputed to human beings up. on flight evidence, but I have such as abundant. ly justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are fo far from concealing. their connexion with fuch a fociety as a dif grace, that they boast of it as a privilege; and both myself and Mr. Banks, when particular perfons have been pointed out to us as members of the Arreoy, have queftioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. They have acknowledged,

that