June. 1769. body was depofited upon fuch a frame as has before been described: it was covered with fine cloth, and near it was placed bread-fruit, fish, and other provifions: we fupposed that the food was placed there for the spirit of the deceased, and confequently, that these Indians had fome confufed notion of a separate state; but upon our applying for further information to Tubourai Tamaide, he told us, that the food was placed there as an offering to their gods. They do not, however, fuppofe, that the gods eat, any more than the Jews fuppofed that Jehovah could dwell in a house: the offering is made here upon the fame principle as the Temple was built at Jerufalem, as an expreffion of reverence and gratitude, and a folicitation of the more immediate presence of the Deity. In the front of the area was a kind of ftile, where the relations of the deceafed ftood to pay the tribute of their forrow; and under the awning were innumerable fmall pieces of cloth, on which the tears and blood of the mourners had been fhed; for in their paroxyfms of grief it is a univerfal custom to wound themselves with the fhark's tooth. Within a few yards two occafional houses were fet up, in one of which fome relations of the deceased conftantly refided, and in the other the chief mourner, who is always a man, and who keeps there a very fingular drefs, in which a ceremony is performed that will be defcribed in its turn. Near the place where the dead are thus fet up to rot, the bones are afterwards buried. What can have introduced among these people the cuftom of expofing their dead above ground, till the flesh is confumed by putrefaction, and then burying the bones, it is perhaps impoffible to guess; but it is remarkable, that Elian and Apollonius Rhodius impute a fimilar practice to the ancient inhabitants of Colchis, a country near Pontus in Afia, now called Mingrelia; except that among them this manner of difpofing of the dead did not extend to both fexes; the women they buried; but the men they wrapped in a hide, and hung up in the air by a chain. This practice among the Colchians is referred to a religious caufe. The principal objects of their worthip were the Earth and the Air; and it is fuppofed that, in confe quence quence of fome fuperftitious notion, they devoted their dead to both. Whether the natives of Otaheite had, any notion of the fame kind, we were never able certainly to determine; but we foon discovered, that the repofitories of their dead were alfo places of worfhip. Upon this occafion it may be observed, that nothing can be more abfurd than the notion that the happiness or misery of a future life depends, in any degree, upon the difpofition of the body when the state of probation is paft; yet that nothing is more general than a folicitude about it. However cheap we may hold any funeral rites which cuftom has not familiarized, or fuperstition rendered facred, most men gravely deliberate how to prevent their body from being broken by the mattock and devoured by the worm, when it is no longer capable of fenfation; and purchase a place for it in holy ground, when they believe the lot of its future existence to be irrevocably determined. So ftrong is the affociation of pleafing or painful ideas with certain opinions and actions which affect us while we live, that we involuntarily act as if it was equally certain that they would affect us in the fame manner when we are dead, though this is an opinion that nobody will maintain. Thus it happens, that the defire of preferving from reproach even the name that we leave behind us, or of procuring it honour, is one of the most powerful principles of action, among the inhabitants of the most speculative and enlightened nations. Posthumous reputation, upon every principle, must be acknowledged to have no influence upon the dead; yet the defire of obtaining and fecuring it, no force of reafon, no habits of thinking, can fubdue, except in those whom habitual baseness and guilt have rendered indifferent to honour and shame while they lived. This indeed seems to be among the happy imperfections of our nature, upon which the general good of fociety in a certain measure depends; for as some crimes are fupposed to be prevented by hanging the body of the criminal in chains after he is dead, fo in confequence of the fame affociation of ideas, much good is procured to fociety, and much evil prevented, by a defire of preventing disgrace or procuring honour to a name, when nothing but a name remains. Perhaps B 2 1769 June. 1769. June. Saturd. 10. Perhaps no better use can be made of reading an account of manners altogether new, by which the follies and abfurdities of mankind are taken out of that particular connection in which habit has reconciled them to us, than to confider in how many instances they are effentially the fame. When an honest devotee of the Church of Rome reads, that there are Indians on the banks of the Ganges, who believe that they shall fecure the happiness of a future ftate by dying with a cow's tail in their hands, he laughs at their folly and fuperftition; and if thefe Indians were to be told, that there are people upon the continent of Europe, who imagine that they fhall derive the fame advantage from dying with the flipper of St. Francis upon their foot, they would laugh in their turn. But if, when the Indian heard the account of the Catholic, and the Catholic that of the Indian, each was to reflect, that there was no difference between the abfurdity of the flipper and of the tail; but that the veil of prejudice and custom, which covered it in their own cafe, was withdrawn in the other, they would turn their knowledge to a profitable purpose. Having obferved that bread-fruit had for fome days been brought in lefs quantities than ufual, we enquired the reafon; and were told, that there being a great fhew of fruit upon the trees, they had been thinned all at once, in order to make a kind of four paste, which the natives call Mahie, and which, in confequence of having undergone a fermentation, will keep a confiderable time, and supply them with food when no ripe fruit is to be had. On the 10th, the ceremony was to be performed, in honour of the old woman whofe fepulchral taber. nacle has just been defcribed, by the chief mourner; and Mr. Banks had fo great a curiofity to fee all the myfteries of the folemnity, that he determined to take a part in it, being told, that he could be prefent upon no other condition. In the evening, therefore, he repaired to the place where the body lay, and was received by the daughter of the deceafed, and feveral other perfons, among whom was a boy about fourteen years old, who were to aflift in the ceremony. Tubourai Tamaide was to be the principal mourner; and and his dress was extremely fantastical, though not 1769. unbecoming. Mr. Banks was ftripped of his European, June. clothes, and a fmall piece of cloth being tied round his middle, his body was fmeared with charcoal and water, as low as the shoulders, till it was as black as that of a negroe; the fame operation was performed upon several others, among whom were fome women, who were reduced to a state as near to nakedness as himself; the boy was blacked all over, and then the proceffion fet forward. Tubourai Tamaide uttered fomething, which was fuppofed to be a prayer, near the body, and did the fame when he came up to his own houfe: When this was done, the proceffion was continued towards the fort, permiffion having been obtained to approach it upon this occafion. It is the cuftom of the Indians to fly from thefe proceffions with the utmost precipitation, fo that as foon as those who were about the fort faw it at a distance, they hid themselves in the woods. It proceeded from the fort along the fhore, and put to flight another body of Indians, confifting of more than an hundred, every one hiding himself under the first fhelter that he could find; it then croffed the river, and entered the woods, paffing feveral houses, all which were deferted, and not a fingle Indian could be seen during the rest of the proceffion, which continued more than half an hour. The office that Mr. Banks performed was called that of the Nineveh, of which there were two befides himself; and the natives having all disappeared, they came to the chief mourner, and faid imatata, there are no people; after which the company was difmiffed to wash themselves in the river, and put on their customary apparel. On the 12th, complaint being made to me, by Mond. 12. fome of the natives, that two of the feamen had taken from them several bows and arrows, and fome ftrings of plaited hair; I examined the matter, and finding the charge well fupported, I punished each of the criminals with two dozen lashes. Their bows and arrows have not been mentioned before, nor were they often brought down to the fort. This day, however, Tubourai Tamaide brought down his, in confequence of a challenge which he had received from Mr. Gore. The Chief fuppofed it was 1769. June. Wednef, 14. to try who could fend the arrow fartheft; Mr. Gore, who beft could hit a mark: and as Mr. Gore did not value himself upon fhooting to a great distance, nor the Chief upon hitting a mark, there was no trial of skill between them. Tubourai Tamaide, however, to shew us what he could do, drew his bow, and sent an arrow, none of which are feathered, two hundred and feventy-four yards, which is something more than a feventh, and fomething less than a fixth part of a mile. Their manner of fhooting is fomewhat fingular; they kneel down, and the moment the arrow is discharged drop the bow. Mr. Banks, in his morning walk this day, met a number of the natives, whom, upon inquiry, he found to be travelling musicians; and having learned where they were to be at night, we all repaired to the place. The band confifted of two flutes and three drums, and we found a great number of people affembled upon the occafion. The drummers accompanied the mufick with their voices, and, to our great furprize, we discovered that we were generally the subject of the fong. We did not expect to have found among the uncivilized inhabitants of this fequeftered spot, a character which has been the subject of fuch praise and veneration, where genius and knowledge have been moft confpicuous; yet these were the bards or minstrels of Otaheite. Their fong was unpremeditated, and accompanied with mufick; they were continually going about from place to place, and they were rewarded by the mafter of the house, and the audience, with such things as one wanted, and the other could fpare. On the 14th, we were brought into new difficulties and inconvenience, by another robbery at the fort. In the middle of the night one of the natives contrived to steal an iron coal-rake, that was made ufe of for the oven. It happened to be fet up against the infide of the wall, fo that the top of the handle was vifible from without; and we were informed that the thief, who had been seen lurking there in the evening, came fecretly about three o'clock in the morning, and, watching his opportunity when the centinel's back was |