The general name for the Deity is Eatooa ; and a great variety of gods are worshipped under that designation. There are three, whom they consider as supreme, hut whom they think it presumptuous to address in worship except in cases of great exigency and importance. Every island has its special divinity ; and every family its guardian spirit, which was the soul of one of their deceased relatives, supposed to have been exalted to the condition of an Eatooa. They believe in the future existence of the soul, but have no idea Of punishment in that state, and admit only of dif ferent degrees of felicity, according as they have pleased the Eatooa. The worship paid to the deities consists of prayers, offerings of all sorts of provisions, and sometimes of human sacrifices. At every feast, a portion is presented to the Eatooa, before any one begins to partake ; and the more formal offerings are brought to the place of worship. It is on the occasion of a new king, or the commencement of a hostile expedition, or on similar public occasions, that human sacrifices are offered. The victim is said to be generally some offender deserving of death, whom the chiefs fix upon in secret council, and who is dispatched on a sudden, without being aware of his fate. On seine great solemnities, every chief is required to bring a human vic tim, and in such cases the innocent may often suffer from their ill will. But if any of the chiefs declare that no one deserving of death is to be found in their district, a hog may be substituted ; and, on the other hand, those who may feel themselves in danger of being sacrificed on these oc casions, can secure an asylum by fleeing to the places of worship. The places of worship are called morals; and are used also as buryingplaces, where the dead are deposited, till the flesh fall from the bones, which are then removed, and buried. These places are approached with the greatest reverence by the natives ; and some of the greater morais are used as places of meeting on solemn public occasions. There are a numerous body of priests, who, besides offi ciating in offering prayers at the morals, are called in on the occasion of births, deaths, festivals, sickness, and simi lar occurrences. They profess to know the mind of the Eatooa, and to foretell, from various omens, the issue of any undertaking. They affect to have great power with the gods, for inflicting and removing evils. They act also as physicians, in the cure of diseases, but employ no other means of health than superstitious practices. Most of the principal chiefs act occasionally as priests, and thus hold the people in subjection by pretending to bring calamities upon them from the Eatooa. Every disease or calamity is regarded as a punishment from the gods for some of fence ; and they employ only prayers and other rites of worship for its removal.
The natives of Otabeite are of an olive colour, inclining to a copper hue, but those who are most exposed to the weather are still darker ; while the women, who carefully clothe themselves, and avoid the sun beams, are only a shade darker than a European brunette. The men are rather above the middle size, particularly the chiefs, who are of a larger race, and seldom under six feet in height. The women are finely formed, particularly in the limbs and arms, but have large and masculine figures. They have black, lively eyes, white and regular teeth, delicate soft Skin ; but, by the custom of distending the mouth, flat tening the nose and forehead, and altogether widening the shape of the fact, they have no pretension to beauty of feature. But the expression of their countenance is sweet and pleasing ; their tempers mild and cheerful, their car riage easy and graceful ; their manners affable and engag ing. The dress of both sexes is nearly alike. A square piece of cloth doubled, and long enough to pass once and a half round the waist, hangs down to the knees of the men, and nearly to the ankles of the women. An oblong piece, not above a yard wide, with a hole in the middle to admit the head, hangs loosely down before and behind, as far as the knees, with the sides open, so as to leave the arms uncovered. The men also wear a narrow slip of cloth
under all, which goes round the waist, and passing be tween the thighs, is tucked up before; while the women, again, often wear above all a square, oblong, folded piece of fine white cloth, tastily thrown round them, by way of cloak, besides a small wrapper undermost, in the place of a petticoat. The women wear also bonnets, or green shades, made in a minute, by plaiting or weaving the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree ; and both sexes put on garlands of flowers and feathers. There is also a head-dress made of the hair of deceased relatives, wrapped round the head like a turban, which the women use on great solemnities. All are tattooed in various forms, and the process, which occasions great pain, usually occupies a year, at different intervals, but none are esteemed men and women till it be completed.
Their houses are commonly of an oblong form, eighteen feet along the ridge, and rounded at the ends. There are no partitions, but posts erected for hanging up the bas kets, or different kinds, which contain their provisions. The furniture consists of a few wooden trays and stools, wooden pillows, a large wooden chest, matting and cloth spread on the floor as bedding. There is a separate build ing, where the women eat their meals, and where the ser vants of the family usually sleep. l'art of the household frequently sleep in their canoe houses, in which they could not stand upright; and many of them, in fine weather, sleep in the open air. They do not appear to have regular hours for meals ; but they usually eat as soon as they rise from bed, about day-break. They often eat voraciously, espe cially the chiefs, who lead a very luxurious, idle, and dis sipated life, seldom failing to take a daily dose of yava. This beverage is prepared by the women, who masticate the root of the shrub of that name, and spit the juice into a bowl, mixing it with water, or cocoa nut liquor, when it quickly ferments, and is strained off for use. A gill of this liquor is sufficient to intoxicate a man ; and, while under its influence, they lie down to sleep off its effects ; the women, in the mean time, chafing their limbs with their hands. A whitish scurf covers the skin of those who are habitually addicted to the use of this liquor, which many regard as a badge of nobility, as the common people can not procure such an indulgence. The natives in general, however, live without toil, and are more frequently engag ed in amusement than labour. Besides the culture of the soil, which does not employ much time, their principal occupation consists in the manufacture of cloth, the mak ing of canoes, arms, and various domestic utensils. The cloth is made from the bark of various trees, reduced to a kind of paste, by steeping it in water, and beating it out on smooth beams, with grooved beetles. This cloth they dye of various colours, and sometimes paste together pieces of different colours in curious forms. The men provide the bark, but the women make the cloth, with the assist ance of their feminine male attendants. Their canoes are of different sizes. always narrow, but frequently doubled, by lashing two of them together. The war canoes are always double, each about three feet wide, six deep, and from sixty to ninety long. These are joined together, with a space of four or six feet between them, over which a stage is erected for the warriors, with a breastwork of plank in front, about four feet high. The bows are high, and covered with carved images ; and the sterns are carri ed up tapering, sometimes to the height of twenty four feet, with similar carved work on the top. Many of these are capable of carrying 300 persons ; and, besides the great ness of the work, are carved and finished in a manner that the best European wor kman could not exceed, with no better instruments than stone adzes and chisels, gouges and gimlets made of the arm or leg bones of a man. Their bows, arrows, and javelins, their cloth beetles, and fishing implements, their mourning dresses, war head-pieces, and breastplates, are all executed with great taste and nicety of workmanship.