wonder that they , join to this many fuperftitious opinions
about its operations. Accordingly, they believe that h id den
deaths, ajid. all other accidents, are effected by the im mediate
adiion o f fome divinity. I f a man only ftumble
agamft a ftone, and hu rt his toe, they impute it to an Ea-
tooa-, fo that they may be literally faid, agreeably to their
fyftem, to tread enchanted ground. T h e y are ftartled, in
the night, on approaching a, toopapaoo, where the dead are
expofed, in the fame manner that many o f our ignorant
and fuperftitious people are with the apprehenfions o f
ghofts, and at the fight o f a church yard ; and they have
an equal confidence in dreams, w hich they fuppofe to be
communications either from their God, or from the fpirits
o f their departed friends, enabling thofe favoured with
them to foretell future»events but this kin d o f knowledge
is confined to particular people. Omai pretended to have
this gift. He told us, that the foul o f his father had intimated
to him in a dream, on the 26th o f July 1776, that he
feould go on ftiore, at Tome place, within three da ys; but
he was unfortunate in this firft attempt to perfuade us, that
he was a p ro p h e t; for it was the if t .o f A ugu ft before we go t
into Teneriffe. | Amongft them, ,however, the dreamers pof-
fefs a reputation little inferior to that o f their infpired
priefts and prieftefles, whofe predictions they implicitly be lieve,
and are determined by them in all undertakings o f
° confequence. T he prieftefs who perfuaded Opoony to in vade
Ulietea, is much refpefted b y h im ; and he never goes
to war, without confulting her. T h e y a lfo , in fome degree,
maintain our old doftrine o f planetary influence ; at leaft,
they.are fometimes regulated, in their public counfels, by
certain appearances o f the moon ; particularly, when ly in g
horizontally, or much inclined on' the convex part, on its
firft
firft appearance after , the change, they areu encouraged to >77?•
engage, in war , .with confidence p f fuccefs. . Member..
I h e y have traditions concerning th&creation, which, as
migh t be expedcd, are complex, and clouded w ith obfcu-
rity. T h e y fay, that a goddefs, having' a lump or mafs
o f earth fufpended - in a cord, gave it a fwing, and fcat-
tered about pieces o f land, thus conftituting Otaheite and
the neighbouring iflands, w hich were all peopled by a man
and woman orig ina lly fixed at Otaheite. T his, however,,
only refpefts their own immediate creation ; for they have
notions o f an univerfal one before this j and o f lands, o f
w hich they have now no other kn owledge than what is
mentioned in the tradition. T h e ir moil remote account
reaches to Tatooma and Tapuppa, male and female ftones
or rocks, w ho fupport the congeries o f land and water, or
our globe underneath. Thefe produced Totorro, who was-
killed, and divided into la n d ; and, after him, Otaia and .
O ro ow e re begotten, w ho were afterward married, and produced,
firft land, and then a race o f gods. Otaia is -k illed ,.
an dO ro o marries a god, he r fon, called Teorraha, whon)
fe e orders to create more land, the animals, and all forts o f
food found upon the earth; as alfo the ik y , w hich is fup-
ported b y men called Teeferei. The fpots obferved in the
moon, are fuppofed to be groves o f a fort o f trees which
once g rew in Otaheite, and, being deftroyed by fome accident,
their feeds were carried up thither by doves, w here they,
now flourife.
T h e y have alfo many legends, both religious and hifto-
rical ; one o f w h ich latter, relative to the practice o f eating
human flefe, I feaU giv e the fubftance of, as a fpecimen o f
sheir method. A long time fince, there lived in Otaheite
two