1777- large war canoe from Eimeo. I enquired i f he had k illed :
Septem er.^ . pe0 p]e be lon gin g to her j and was told, that there was
no m an in her when Hie was captured.
W e left Tettaha, about ten or eleven o’clock, and landed;
clofe to the moral o f Attahooroo, a little after noon. There“
la y three canoes, hauled upon the beach, oppoike the morai,
w ith three hogs expofed in each : their iheds, or awnings,
had fomething under them winch I could not difcern. We
expected the folemnity to be performed the fame afternoon ;
bu t as neither T ow h a nor Potatou had joined us, nothing
was done.
. A C h ie f from Eimeo: came w ith a fmall pig, and’a plan-
tain-tree, and placed them at Otoo’s feet. T h e y talked fome
time toge ther; ^nd the Eimeo C h ie f often repeating the
words, Warry, •warry, falfe ,” I fuppofed that Otoo was rela
tin g to him what he had heard, and that the other de-
.nied it.
T h e next day (Wednefday) Towha, and Potatou, with-
about eight large canoes, arrived, and landed near the moraiv.
Many plantain-trees were brought, on the part o f different
Chiefs, to Otoo. T ow h a did not ftir from his canoe. T h e cere-
•mony began by the principal prieft b rin gin g out the maro,
wrapped u p ; and a bundle, lhaped like a large fugar-loaf.
T h e fe were placed at the head o f what I underftood to b n a
grave. T h en three p r ie fts c am e , and fat down oppofite,
that is, at the other end o f the g r a v e ; brin gin g with them a
plantain-tree, the branch o f fome other tree, and the fheath
o f the flower o f the cocoa-nut tree.
T h e priefts, with thefe things in their hands, feparately
repeated fentences; and, at intervals, two, and fometimes
all three fun g a melancholy ditty,, little attended to by the
people. This praying and finging continued for an hour.
T h en , a fte r a fhort prayer, the principal prieft uncovered
1 ' ' 'the
t lie . maro : and Otoo rofe up, and wrapped it about him, _ '777;-
• .September.
holding, at the fame time, in his hand, a cap or bonnet, ■ ■
compofed o f the red feathers o f the tail o f the tropic bird;
mixed w ith other feathers o f a dark colour. He flood in
th e middle fpace, fa c in g the three priefts, who continued
their prayers fo r about ten minutes ; when a man, ftarting
from the crowd, faid fomething w h ich ended with the
word heiva! and the crowd echoed back to him, three times,
Earee! This, as I had been told before, was the principal part
o f the folemnity.
T h e company now moved to the oppofite fide o f the great
pile o f ftones, where is, what • they call, the k in g :s morai;
w hich is not u n lik e a: large grave. Here the fame ceremony
was performed over again, and ended in three cheers. T he
maro. was now wrapped up, and encreafed in its fplendor. by
the addition o f a fmall piece o f red feathers, w h ich one o f
the priefts gave Otoo when he had it on, and w hich he
ftu ck into it.
From this place, th e people went to a large hut, clofe b y
th e morai, where they feated themfelves in much greater order
than is ufua l among them. A:man of. Tiaraboo, then
made on oration, w h ich lafted about ten m in u te s ., He was
followed by an Attahooroo man ; afterward Potatou fpoke
w ith much greater fluency and grace: than any. o f them ;-
for, in general, they fpoke in fhort, broken fentences, with a
motion o f the hand that was rather awkiward. Tooteo, Otoo’s ;
orator, fpoke next ; and, after him, a man from Eimeo. Two
or three more fpeeches were made ; but not much attended
to. Omai told me, that the; fpeeches declared,, that they
fhould not fight, but all be friends. As many o f the fpeakers
exp 1 ciled themfelves with warmth, poflibly there were fome
K 2 recrimi